Front Page bump for KU_Lew.  Great use of the fanpost opportunity here at RCT!

KU fans all have at least a general awareness of how KU has dominated the Big 12 conference in men's basketball over the last 7 years.  But simply comparing KU's Big 12 win/loss record over that 7-year span to the win/loss records of all the other Big 12 schools probably doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know or suspect. 

So I set out to review KU's Big 12 road record during this 7-year period and see how that compares to the home records of the other Big 12 schools over that time.  In doing so, my efforts yielded a few other miscellaneous tidbits worth sharing.

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You all might find this little nugget from today's Kansas City Star interesting:

"Self and Texas coach Rick Barnes both said they have had informal discussions about adding a second KU-Texas game to the schedule that would be considered a nonconference meeting.  They are interested in bringing more attention to the league's premier matchup.  They said the nonconference game would take place in Dallas when the league game was at KU and in Kansas City when the league game was at Texas."

No idea how soon this would begin, if it ever does, but I think that would be great for both schools.  You know that nonconference game would be nationally televised. 

Random thoughts/observations from yesterday's open practice, particulary the scrimmage portion.  I'll probably repeat some of my comments made on the Slant so for those of you that are Slant members my apologies for being redundant.

• New field turf looked great.  I really like the blue end zones.  Jayhawk at middle of the field is bigger but not excessively bigger.  It did look like parts of the field had too much crumb rubber which kind of gave the field a "muddy" look in places.
• First team defense looked like this: DL - Onyegbule, Patrick Dorsey, Richard Johnson, and Laptad. LB - Drew Dudley and Arist Wright.  CB - Anthony Davis, Patterson.  S - Stuckey, Thornton.  Nickel - Chris Harris.
• First team offense - OL - Hawkinson, Spikes (tackles), Capra, Thorson (guards), and Hatch (center).  TE - Biere.  WR - Briscoe, Meier, Wilson.  RB - Sharp.  QB - Reesing.
• Freshmen WRs - McDougald looks like the real deal.  When KU's first team offense went to 4 WR's, McDougald was the 4th WR.  He looked very good in the 1 on 1 drills where he put some great moves on Stuckey.  While he got several reps with the 1st team offense during the scrimmage, he did not get many balls thrown his way.  McDougald played the slot receiver (looks like he's taking over Dexton Fields' spot).  Omigie got some reps with 2nd team offense and made a great catch along the sidelines.  It did not look like McGriff got many reps with the 2nd team.  Both Omigie and McGriff are as tall as advertised.  To me, both appear a bit stiff when running their routes - not nearly as fluid as McDougald.  It would probably be good if both Omigie and McGriff redshirted.
• LB rotation - KU rotated the LBs a lot during the scrimmage portion of practice so it was hard for me to make a lot of sense of pecking order there.  I asked others about this on the Slant and they seemed to have as tough of a time as I did trying to figure out the depth chart at LB.  Here's how it appeared to me.  When KU went with the "1 Nickel" package (i.e. first team nickel defense) the LBs were Dudley and Wright.  Looked like they would also rotate Vernon Brooks in for Dudley.  2nd team LBs looked like Steven Johnson and Huldon Tharp with Springer also getting some reps.  From what I saw, Quigley got no reps with 1st team defense and very limited reps with the 2nd team.
• DLine rotation - Again, starters were Onyegbule and Laptad at DE with Dorsey and Johnson Jr. at DT.  Others getting a lot of reps were Woods and Wheeler at DE and Travis Stephens at DT.  Jamal Greene was in uniform but did not get any reps.  He might be dinged up as someone on the Slant noted that he did not run with the team at the end of practice.  Zlatnik did not play many snaps.  There were several plays where the DL consisted of Onyegbule and Stephen Foster on the outside with Wheeler and Laptad inside (strange) - basically no true DT's on the field.  Woods had a diving interception on a batted pass (it was a zone blitz play where Woods dropped back into coverage).  I did not notice freshmen Sellers and Young getting much, if any, reps during the scrimmage.
• Toben Opurum saw several snaps with the 1st team offense both in a few 2 back sets with Sharp and as the sole RB.  Does not look like he will redshirt.  From what I saw, Rell Lewis only saw snaps with the 2nd team offense. Opurum also saw snaps with the 2nd team offense.
• Briscoe was...well....Briscoe.  Spectacular as usual with 1 handed catches and a catch where he outfought the dback for a ball, tapped it in the air, and then caught it as he was falling down.  In the 1 on 1 drills he toyed with several DB's, particularly freshman Tyler Patmon.
• OLine - Have to admit I didn't pay a lot of attention to the Oline though that was not the case with Coach Mangino.  He spent the bulk of practice watching (and coaching) the Oline and Dline.  Hawkinson looked fine but nothing spectacular. 
• Kale Pick - Needs to improve his accuracy.  He definitely has good wheels.  Had nice deep TD pass to Raimond Pendleton (who beat Ryan Murphy on the play).  Meier continues to get QB reps with both 1st and 2nd team offense.  I did not think Meier threw the ball very well yesterday - several wobbly passes.    The freshmen QBs (Webb and Matthews) did not get any reps during the scrimmage.
• Good to see WR Rod Harris on the field.  He had a brace on his knee but it looked like he was going full speed.  Looked pretty good to me in the 1 on 1 drills.  Would be nice if guys like Harris, Ingram, and Pendleton can contribute this year and allow both Omigie and McGriff to redshirt.
• CB Calvin Rubles on the 2nd team defense looked pretty good to me.  At 6'3" he's clearly taller than your average CB. 
• Freshman S Prinz Kande - Did not get many, if any, snaps during the scrimmage.  2nd team safeties were Lubbock Smith and Phillip Strozier.  Won't be surprised if Kande redshirts.

I'm probably forgetting to mention several things but that's all for now.

Those of you that like to keep (or buy) recordings of KU basketball and football games are probably well aware of NCAA OnDemand.  The pickings are slim as far as KU football goes.  Sadly I was hoping to find last year's Insight Bowl but I didn't see it.  Anyone know if that game is commercially available on DVD? 

Anyway, while I didn't find the Insight Bowl DVD I did find (and purchase) a great DVD made by ESPN and available at NCAA OnDemand.  It's called "Kansas Basketball: Greatest Games" although ESPN should have called it "Greatest Games that aired on our family of networks" as all the games were either on ABC or ESPN.  There are 6 games on 3 DVDs.

Disc 1:

KU at NC State from December 1987.  Aired on ABC Sports.  Announcers are Keith Jackson and Dick Vitale (who we have to hear drool over fellow Italian-Americans Jim Valvano, Vinnie Del Negro, and Chris Corchiani) .  Interesting thing about this game is you see the starting 5 Larry Brown originally hoped he would have that season.  The starting 5 was Otis Livingston, Manning, Pritchard, Marvin Branch, and Archie Marshall.  Piper and Newton were backup players.  As we all know, Livingston, Branch,Marshall, and reseve Mike Massuci would all be injured or off the team before the great run to the championship.  Other intesting thing about this game is NC State's court.  At the time they had a rubberlike tartan court instead of a wood floor.  I suppose some out there are probably too young to remember that.

KU at K-State from February 1988.  Aired on ESPN.  Announcers were Roger Twibell and Larry Conley.  This is the famous game where Willie the Wildcat on his roller skates ran into Roger Twibell while he and Conley were on the court giving their preview of the game.  This happened live.  This was the last year of Ahearn Fieldhouse so watching this game recently marked the first time I had rewatched a game played in Ahearn Fieldhouse since basketball moved to Bramlage.  I have to say it was kind of cool watching a game played in Ahearn again.  I'd forgotten what it was like.  For those who don't kow, think of Ahearn as a slightly smaller prototype of Allen Fieldhouse.  While I was a already diehard KU fan back then, I was also a KSU fan (had to be since most of my family went there) and their 1988 team was a good one.  That team had my all-time favorite KSU basketball player (assuming it's possible for a KU grad to have a favorite anything from KSU).  You're probably thinking Mitch Richmond.  Wrong.  It was Steve Henson.  Loved how that guy played.

Disc 2:

Georgia Tech at KU from New Year's Day 2005.  Aired on ESPN.  Announcers were Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale.  Everyone probably remembers the story here.  This game was played the year after GTech eliminated Bill Self's inaugural KU team in the Elite 8.  This game was played without an injured Wayne Simien (it was the thumb this time).  KU trailed by 16 at one point before coming back to force OT where Langford hit a last second shot to win the game.   Jarrett Jack once again lit up KU.  CJ Giles started in place of Simien and fouled out in like 10 seconds.  Galindo and Moulaye Niang also played several minutes in this game.  KU's frontcourt that day was Giles, Moody, Niang, and Galindo (when KU went small) with a little bit of Kaun and Jackson.  I can't believe we won that game.

Big 12 Tournament Championship:  KU vs Texas in 2006 in Dallas.  Aired on ESPN.  Announcers were Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla.  KU avenges the beatdown UT put on the baby Jayhawks in Austin.  That was a stacked Longhorn team too with LaMarcus Aldridge, PJ Tucker, Daniel Gibson, Royal Ivey, Brian Boddicker, and freshman AJ Abrams.

Disc 3:

KU vs #1 Florida in Las Vegas in November 2006 (same day we lost to Mizzou in football in Columbia).  Aired on ESPN2.  Announcers were Shulman and Vitale.  If there's one game of the 6 included in this DVD set that folks probably already have a copy of I would guess it's this one.  Not much need to summarize this game.  It's probably relatively fresh in everyone's mind.  Julian Wright put on a show.

Big 12 Tournament Championship:  KU vs Texas in 2007 in Oklahoma City.  Aired on ESPN.  Announcers are Franklin and Fraschilla.  This game saw Durant go nuts on KU (again) to the tune of 37 points.  And once again it wasn't enough as KU stormed back from an early hole (this time the deficit was 32-10) to win.

So what's missing from this compilation of games?  Obviously, any classic game that did not air on ABC or an ESPN channel.  Other than that, I do find it odd that there are no games from the Roy Williams era.  I would have thought the KU vs Indiana game in 1993 (the one where Vaughn hit that last second 3-pointer in OT to win) would have been on here.  I'm pretty sure that game was on ESPN but maybe I'm mistaken.

Sorry to sound like an infomercial for ESPN, but if you'd like a pleasant stroll down memory lane this is a nice DVD set to have.  I especially like it because it's hard to find old regular season games available commercially.  Most of what's available at NCAA OnDemand are just NCAA tournament games.              

A relatively interesting (at least to me) discussion topic across the blogosphere and newspapers over the past couple of days has been the athletic department revenue data released by the US government's Office of Postsecondary Education.  Of course, the more glamorous data is the revenue information but the government's site also provided information on Expenses as well.  Seeing that I'm actually nerdy enough to spend some time sifting through the data, I thought I'd share some of that information with everyone as it pertains to KU and the Big 12.  Here we go.  All data is from the 2007 - 2008 academic year (i.e. Fall 2007/Spring 2008 semesters).

Nice overview here bumped to the front page.  After the jump a listing of revenue and expenses broken down by sport and school. - JQ

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Coach Self was asked about the possibility of any players redshirting next season.  While he basically wouldn’t talk about it right now, he didn’t exactly rule out the possibility either.  Let's face it folks.  Next year's KU basketball roster is loaded.  Beyond the obvious starters, there's going to be a heck of a battle for minutes.  It would come as no big surprise if someone was to redshirt next year.  Supposing someone does redshirt next year, who are the likely candidates?

As a reminder, here's the complete roster of scholarship players for next year.

Collins (Sr.)

Little (Sr.)

Aldrich (Jr.)

Morningstar (Jr.)

Reed (Jr.)

Taylor (So.)

McMorris (So.)

MkMorris (So.)

Releford (So.)

Withey (Fr.)

Henry (Fr.)

Robinson (Fr.)

Johnson (Fr.)

Frontcourt (4 and 5 positions): Aldrich, Withey, Morris twins, Robinson.  I don't see any of these guys redshirting.  Note that I'm assuming Little predominantly plays at his natural position (the 3) next season.  Withey is not a redshirt candidate since he burned his redshirt while sitting out the transfer year.  The Morris twins are joined at the hip so I don't see either of them redshirting.  In addition to being a high profile recruit, Robinson's rebounding skills are believed to be superior to the Morris twins.  Can't see Self redshirting a player who could potentially be his 2nd best rebounder (behind Aldrich).

Small Forward (the 3 position):  Henry, Morningstar, Little, Releford.  Obviously Henry won't be redshirting.  Morningstar has already redshirted.  That leaves Little and Releford.  To me, an obvious candidate to redshirt is Releford.  Of the 4 players I mentioned for the SF position, Releford would be the 4th option in my opinion.  I suppose Little could redshirt, but it's not likely.  You don't see many players redshirt their Sr. year unless it’s due to injury.

Backcourt (1 and 2 positions):  Collins, Taylor, Johnson, Reed, and possibly Morningstar.  With Taylor as the likely starter at the 2, he won’t be redshirting.  Johnson is simply too talented to redshirt.  That leaves Reed as a potential redshirt candidate.  I could see a scenario where Reed could redshirt, Morningstar would be a backup at the 2 position, and Releford would be the 3rd option at the 3.  That said, I think it might be tough to redshirt Reed.  He has shown on multiple occasions the ability to hit 3’s at crucial points in the game.  You would like to have him available on the bench when KU needs 3-point shooting and the starters are cold from beyond the arc. 

Note that I haven’t even mentioned CJ Henry.  While I’m skeptical that he will, it’s possible he could crack the backcourt rotation.  If that were to be the case coming out of the exhibition games, then I could see Reed redshirting.  Again, I’m not expecting that to be the case.  Momma Henry said she thinks CJ is only about 85% healed from his injury.  That, along with the rust he probably needs to shake off, lessens the chances that CJ will be ready to challenge for a spot in the guard rotation by the time the season starts.     

So in a longwinded, roundabout way I am suggesting that Releford consider redshirting next season with Reed as another possibility if CJ Henry is good enough to contribute right away.

Now that the 2008/2009 college basketball season is officially over, the predictions are starting to come in for next year.  We all understand that some recruiting drama needs to play itself out and the draft status of Aldrich and Collins remains to be determined, but it looks like the national media likes KU next year.

KU tops the Chicago Tribune's top 10 list for next year.  I like how they matter-of-factly assert Collins will be back.  The NY Times' Quad blog also has KU in its top 10 for next year. 

KU also tops next season's projected top 25 on MSNBC's Beyond the Arc blog.  Again, another national media outlet assuming Cole and Sherron will be back.  I'm liking all these assumptions. 

Anyone seen other projections out there for next year?  I'm sure there's a bunch more.