I gave my son one of the posters that I created for the Kansan in the 90s and told him to take it to the game for good luck..

@stoptheflop Tre and Melvin are the 3rd scorer by committee. I love the way Tre is a foul-seeking missile at the end of the shot clock. And Melvin is a bit like a lighthouse -- blinding bright, but sometimes goes dark... Together they are great.

Peterson is once in a decade talent. I remember watching Durant and thinking.. man, why can't we get a dude like that on our team?

We got one.

Ugly game.

Heroic effort to tie the game. Truly. We should pause on that and give credit where credit is due.

Then, a Crimson & Blue gift-wrapped win for St.John's to undermine the heroic comeback. Wow.

Why on Earth Self swapped Rosario for ElMarko I can only speculate... Rosario's contributions in the comeback were undeniable.

It was a bizarre ending for a bizarre year. I'm sorry that Council and Tre weren't able to have more post-season success. I will miss them both.

Flory is really good, but should be interesting to see if he gets any bites.

DP was an interesting experiment.

Apparently not much to say here.

Well, I bought tickets at the last moment to the regional finals in San Jose and watched Purdue and Arizona go after each other.

I was mostly neutral on them; it was really just a college basketball fan deciding to go get a taste of that elite eight energy.

It did not disappoint. Crowd was maybe 65-35 for Arizona, but the arena got extremely loud as Arizona pulled away in the second half. Kudos to Arizona fans -- Attendance was listed at just over 14,000, but they got the place rockin' where it reminded me of AFH.

I've been to other NCAA tourney games, but there's usually a split between the various fan bases such that it can't get that loud.

Anyway... now there's one post here.... And its neither about Badgers or likable teams... lol

It's been said, but probably worth saying again: FLORY. This was a defensive game. And we had the better defense and the BEST defensive player.

Flory has to be defensive player of the week in the B12 and should get some recognition nationally.

Despite not sleeping well, I'm more sanguine (or at least neutral) about all of this. The ball bounces your way sometimes and bounces the other team's way sometimes.

I recall those FF years and the 2 championship runs and there was always a place where you can find moment in the game where you can say-- if that call goes the other way or the ball didn't drop at that moment... Self's legacy looks markedly different. We have never had a team that was so dominant that we didn't need a little luck to get to the FF or NC.

Also, we've been a juggernaut: In the tournament EVERY year and a historic run of B12 championships.

The consistent success made it seem like we should have even more success in the tourney. Easy to forget how difficult and rare it is to get a National Championship. (...I will be grateful, not spoiled...)

Only nine schools have won the title since 2004.

UConn (2004, 2011, 2014, 2023, 2024)
Florida (2006, 2007, 2025)
North Carolina (2005, 2009, 2017)
Kansas (2008, 2022)
Villanova (2016, 2018)
Duke (2010, 2015)
Kentucky (2012)
Louisville (2013)*
Baylor (2021)
Virginia (2019)

We all want more, but there are schools that have had a lot of success in the last 20+ years not on that list (Purdue, Gonzaga...)

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On the PAY FOR PLAY topic, I'll just say that it was necessary and appropriate to pay players. It was also predictable that it would be bumpy, especially with the NCAA's track record of poorly establishing governance that drives the right behavior and also poor track record of consistent oversight and enforcement.

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Final point: Performance & Payment.

As a fan, focused on the 40 minutes that we watch on TV, it's hard to remember that player performance goes beyond what we see on court — beyond the stats.

We already know that there are aspects to the game that are beyond analytics, despite trying to count EVERYTHING.

But performance includes many things that we don't see and cannot be captured by analytics. These contributions to a program and to a team should still go into compensation consideration.

For instance, did the player show up to all the workouts? All the practices? Were they engaged in community services with the team and good stewards of the university? Did they do something stupid to damage the program's reputation? Were they disruptive or disrespectful?

When they do all the 'invisible' things right, we tend to ignore them as though they didn't count. But, those expectations are certainly there. And these 'employees' are mostly between the age of 18-23.

I'm disappointed by the loss but I am trying to keep things in perspective.

It was a good group of guys and a good coach. Coach probably did a phenomenal job this year in unique and tough circumstances with DP's situation/injuries.

It was a bad way to lose but the comeback (which shouldn't have been necessary) was still pretty heroic.

I think it's a bad year to be looking for a coach. I also look a Pitino (dinosaur?) who left the NCAA for several years under some dark clouds that were embarrassing and was able to revise his game outside of the spotlight (oversees, then to Iona). Izzo hasn't won a championship since 2000, but has great character and is admired.

Personally, I think Self is admired and needs to be give more time to adjust. It's very different and difficult to do it under the microscope of a legendary program like KU.

That said, none of the objective points above are invalid at all. It's worrisome and uncomfortable right now. Learning often feels that way... and we are all collectively on for the ride.

I hear you all.. but the main thing that was wrong the other night was that our best player (or most expensive asset, if you look at it cynically) was not on the floor.

I think this is a good, competitive roster, when the whole roster is considered, plus the staff and the ability of the players to grow and improve.

That last point is worth noting: Most of the players have played less than 10 games under Coach Self. Some of these players are incredibly talented and others are very experienced (or both). Coach Self's track record with seasoned players is excellent. I'm bullish on them all improving faster than the competition (if they all get on the court and play together sooner rather than later.)

Pounding Missouri is occupying 100% of the space in my head for basketball right now.

@FarmerJayhawk

Well, that isn't that a kick in the pants since plenty of YUM's revenue come from franchises started in KS.

@approxinfinity said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

@DCHawker Louisville has more money than us.

Is this true? Louisville? An Adidas school in the ACC?

If so, that's really frustrating because I thought we were the flagship Adidas school for MBB. Also, ACC doesn't have the media deals that the B1G and SEC have. ACC and B12 should be relatively equal.

So how is it that Louisville has more $$ pull than Kansas? Not saying it's not true-- just wanting to understand.

@Texas-Hawk-10 said in KU ROSTER 2026-27:

The question is always do you take as many players as possible early, or do you wait for some.guys to withdraw from the draft as those are the higher ceiling players and you still absolutely have to have future NBA talent to win championships in college basketball

The latter is the high-risk, high-reward approach without a safety net.

The staff would probably say 'do both' and try to thread the needle. Not sure how realistic that is.

February: The core team was clicking and seemed to be gelling as DP reintegrated into the lineup. Flory and Bryson were playing like Jayhawks for life. Jamari and ElMarko were contributing and seemed poised to be next year's ambassadors as veterans in Self's system. Meanwhile, Kohl wasn't playing and the word was that he was unhappy, Paul was a project, all but forgotten.

April: it's like we've entered the upside-down. Kohl is the only player planning to return. Everyone else has entered the portal and most seem unlikely to return.

Very disorienting state of the program.

I've watched it. It's well done. I think CBS/Paramount picked these programs to follow based on their likelihood of making a deep run in march.

WRT KU, not a whole lot was new for me, but it was interesting to see some behind the scenes.

The documentary picked a player from each program to shadow and that was Darren P for KU and Yaxle L for Michigan. I felt there was striking contrast between these two players-- Yaxel allowed a great deal of transparency and access to his family, while Darren seemed guarded and less personable, with no reference to his family. There was also some interesting parallels / differences between Self and May. Worth a watch.

Last episode drops April 18. Will feature post-season, which should be a rollicking fun ride for Wolverine fans.

I keep hearing that everyone's "gone."

And, yes, the seniors are "gone." And the NBA lottery guys are "gone."

But, correct me if I'm wrong, when a player puts their name in the portal, they aren't "gone". They are saying that they are open to consider another opportunity. Quite frankly, unless you've got a multi-year NIL deal (do these even exist?), it seems like a prudent thing to do.

Yes, it means the staff has to deal with uncertainty and they have to recruit as though players may leave... but presumably they have a relationship and know guys' motivations and whether guys are getting serious offers.

We would all like loyalty to the program, but that's as bygone as the days when companies didn't do layoffs and eliminate jobs on an annual basis.

Am I misunderstanding the situation?

@BShark said in Bill Self:

Yeah they don't care about football at all. KU finally invested there.

Yep.. I don't think UConn's approach is right for KU. But this does illustrate yet another way the playing field in college sports is uneven.

UConn has been hot and cold this year. But Michigan has blown teams away — very good teams — starting in November and December. If prior performance is any indicator, Michigan should win this game by 12-20 points.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7165839/2026/04/02/uconn-women-men-march-madness-financial-nil-comparison/?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes

Worth a read about how UConn's finances are doled out to men's vs women's basketball and basketball vs football. Less of a surprise that they are in the FF after reading this.

Maybe possible to isolate factors for a formula...

1. Shots that win (the team was behind or tied) the national championship at or near the buzzer (~3 sec or less)
2. Shots that force any OT in the national championship
3. Shots that win the Regional Finals at or near the buzzer
4. Shots that force any OT in the Regional Finals
5. Shots by underdogs that win NCAA Tournament games at or near the buzzer
   etc...

Some context should also be considered to rank within those categories -- For instance,

1. What kind of shot (3pt, 2pt, free throw?) and how far? (logo? beyond midcourt?)
2. Size of the deficit overcome
3. How little time the winning team led in the game.
4. How many lead changes
5. How high was the probability of winning for the losing team during the game and especially at the end of the game.
6. Number of OTs
   etc....

Given that UConn was 19 down, there were only 2 lead changes and they led less than a minute (~50 seconds), made this game all the more sensational.

Duke's probability of winning peaked at 98.7% with about 1:30 left in the first half. It was 95.3% with 5:03 left in the game. And it was 89.6% with 6 seconds left, when the turnover was committed.

While the UConn win was one for the ages, I think fantastic finishes in a National Championship have to be considered greater than fantastic finishes in lesser games.