Cole Aldrich: GOON

That is incredible for Forde to say. The play with Damion James 1) James jumped on Cole's back, and no foul was called; 2) Cole did NOTHING wrong by clearing the rebound like he did. If a man pivots with his arms up and elbows out, which Cole did, he is completely entitled to his space. It would have been different if Cole would not have pivoted but instead just flailed around with his elbows flying. There's a difference. For Cole to have gotten a technical was beyond the bounds of common sense for the referees. Just a joke.

With the foul on Dash, he got bumped slightly while fully in the air. It takes very little to cause a person to lose their balance or fall funny when they have no ability to right themselves (i.e. no contact with the ground). Cole barely touched Dash; the hard fall does not mean there was a foul. Either Forde didn't watch either play closely, or he just didn't care and wants to bash KU for no good reason. I'm not sure which is worse.

February 17, 2010 at 1:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Gary Bedore’s Kansas hoops notebook

The 10 second call blew my mind too. It would have been a violation at 25, but it was CLEARLY 24 (and probably closer to 23) when TT got across the line. I was talking to a buddy online who was watching it overseas and made a point to tell him about it; he hadn't noticed it. I started to wonder if I had missed something b/c as actorman points out, all the refs need to do is look at the shot clock. Easiest call in basketball probably, and they completely blew it. I won't complain, but I hope Self points that out to Taylor.

February 1, 2010 at 10:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Manning: Aldrich a true shot blocker

Raven I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about UK printing up tshirts like that. Who gives two sh*ts if you are #1 in January? ESPECIALLY if you are supposed to be a basketball blueblood. How embarrassing. And then to lose within the week to a barely .500 team is just poetic justice.

January 27, 2010 at noon ( permalink | suggest removal )

Baylor meant no disrespect

I have to say, doctor, that questioning Self for leaving an all-American candidate in at the end of a close game seems a bit strange. Cole hasn't looked great a lot of the time this season, but he still has the talent and experience to be a game changer at any point. I'm hoping that now their family isn't in limbo with his grandmother's situation. I don't know if that was his problem, but it surely couldn't have helped. I'm not trying to sound cold about that either; just saying that maybe it will be easier for him and them to move forward and not dwell on her illness.

January 21, 2010 at 11:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Baylor meant no disrespect

Timmay, out of curiosity, have you watched LaceDarius Dunn play KU the past few years? Here's his stats:

2010 reg. season: 8-14 overall shooting, 5-8 three pointers, 27 points
2009 tourney: 9-16 overall, 6-11 three pointers, 24 points
2009 reg. season: 2-6 overall, 2-4 three pointers, 13 points
2008 reg. season: 7-14 overall, 5-10 three pointers, 23 points

Even the one "bad" shooting game he had, he scored 13 points against us. He's averaging 52% from the field overall, and 55% from three. Pretty silly to say he takes bad shots and he can't keep that up. I think you will find he's a very good shooter overall.

Baylor going into the tunnel.......why is that disrespectful? They didn't want to watch the video, and they shouldn't have to. They probably couldn't hear themselves think, let alone talk, so step away from it. Why do you think we show that video right before tipoff, and why do they jack the volume up? It's to pump up our guys and the crowd, and to try to provide a little intimidation to the opponent. Is Baylor supposed to just sit there and take it? Whining about a coach making a smart move right before tipoff is stupid.

January 21, 2010 at 11:06 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Who are the top 10 returning players for the KU football team?

There's nothing wrong with the spread itself, but I could see us getting back to a spread option attack next year, a la 2007, especially if Pick is the guy. We got away from that the last two years, and with Toben and Rell/DeShaun/whoever, we would have a nice one-two punch like with BMac and Sharp. 50/50 run/pass if possible. That takes a lot of pressure off any QB, especially a new starter, like we will have.

December 8, 2009 at 3:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU football players release letter to fans

I never said you were a loser, Phog. I'm just wondering what evidence you or others have to say that this was a "smear campaign". What exactly did Lew et al do to "smear" Mangino? To my knowledge, and I tried to follow everything pretty closely, there were lots of reports and comments in the media from players, former players, parents, staff, etc. etc. but not one of those things came from the AD's office. So how was LEW smearing Mangino? That's my question.

I agree this makes us look pretty bad, and it makes Mangino look bad. Personally, from what I know from people who are involved in the football program, I think Mangino probably did engage in some/most of these behaviors, at least to some extent, so in a way, he did this to himself. Maybe he doesn't see a problem with what he's done, but others did. I'm not any happier about how it came about or what the ultimate resolution was than you are. I'm disappointed Mangino had to go because since I got down here in 1997, I know how our program USED to be, and he did a helluva job changing that. At the same time, I think for a number of reasons it was time to move on. I'm not sure there's a lot of "blame" to be placed for how things were handled, unless I see some evidence of improper actions/comments from Lew or others under his command.

Scoville, I'm guessing the players know a lot more about the situation than you, me, Phog or anyone else on the outside. Maybe this is damage control or a ploy, but I'm going to take the guys at their word.

December 8, 2009 at 2:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU football players release letter to fans

And by "leaking" the meeting with the team, I don't mean Lew's people, I mean out of 100 or so young men who would have been at the meeting, you would be absolutely naive to think that would have remained a secret for more than a few hours, or a day at the most.

December 8, 2009 at 1:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Who are the top 10 returning players for the KU football team?

grandpa, if you note my post at 1:20, I corrected my mistake. Had just been skimming about the Okie St. bowl game prior to my first post.

And "uncatchable", by whose definition? I won't deny that not every pass was right in his hands, as Todd clearly struggled through a number of games. However, I can think of two in the MU game alone that were thrown to Wilson that I would have said were catchable, and he didn't make the grab. They weren't perfect, but they wouldn't have been highlight reel catches or anything. I'd love to see your numbers on the drops for him, and actually I'd love to rewatch the games to see how many passes he did drop.

December 8, 2009 at 1:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

KU football players release letter to fans

So keeping a coach who is unable to adequately perform his job, or worse, may have engaged in inappropriate verbal/physical assaults is the "honorable" thing to do? Would that include potentially opening the athletics department up to being sued?

And who launched the media campaign? Perkins? In what way? Complaining about the contract extension is hindsight. Thanks for whining about it now.

This incident was very unfortunate and the timing sucked. However, explain to me what Lew should have done differently. Ignored allegations of abuse by his football coach? Brilliant. Allowed reports of the meeting with the football team to leak without SOME sort of explanation? Pure genius. I defy you to point out ANY other comments in the media in this "smear campaign" that were made about Mangino by Perkins or anyone else in the athletics department. Good luck with that. Lew was smart enough to shut his mouth during the investigation, and he's been very tight lipped even after the fact.

You don't like that Mangino got fired, fine. But stop crying about how this was a witch hunt or smear campaign. When you are in charge of the athletics department you can show us all how well you handle things. I can't wait.

December 8, 2009 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )