Recruiting advantage

[OldPony]

KU's top recruit- a Dallas kid- CJ Miles is going to attend a practice this week. They are expecting a sold out field house. That is what you call a recruiting advantage.

[No Cal Pony]

I'm sure when the kid makes the trip to Chapel Hill, he won't be any less swayed than his visit to kansas. Hanging out at the Dean Center can be quite a sway factor. Just wish we could get the kid.

Go Ponies!

[Stampede]

OP....nobody can have practice this week. Official team practices do not start until Oct. 15. 12:00 A.M. to be exact. Don't think they will have any kind of great showing for individual workouts.

That is why they call it "midnight madness". To which, it sounds as though SMU will be having a "Midnight Madness" this year (for the first itme in nine years) and it should be a great time. Oct. 15 falls on Friday this year and plans are underway to showcase both men and women teams.

Get ready!!

[PK]

OP....nobody can have practice this week. Official team practices do not start until Oct. 15. 12:00 A.M. to be exact. Don't think they will have any kind of great showing for individual workouts.

That's interesting...DMN "College Briefs" noted today that Tubb's first practice this week concentrated on defense.

[jtstang]

OP....nobody can have practice this week. Official team practices do not start until Oct. 15. 12:00 A.M. to be exact. Don't think they will have any kind of great showing for individual workouts.

That's interesting...DMN "College Briefs" noted today that Tubb's first practice this week concentrated on defense.

I saw that too. Good thing for this team, working on defense. Especially the parts where you contest perimeter shots and block out to eliminate offensive boards.

[OldPony]

I think the early practice may have to do with the Canadian tour like the Ponies took last year but i'm not sure. Maybe someone knows how that works?

[The XtC]

Ok, if a team is doing an exhibition tour such as the one SMU took to Canada last year, they are allowed 10 days of practice prior to their trip. Kansas is beginning a Canadian trip of their own the first week of September, so they are allowed to practice now. For most teams the officiial first team that the whole team can practice together is October 15th. Until then, the coaches are allowed to hold "Individual" workouts, consisting of no more than 4 players and 2 coaches together at one time. Thats what the Morning News note was referring to. The whole team can come together for conditioning workouts, and for pickup games, but these sessions cant be directly supervised by the basketball coaches, just the conditioning staff (Faucette, or his assistants.)

Kansas doesnt routinely draw capacity crowds to watch their practices. Roy Williams wouldnt even let media sit too close to the court during practice, when he was there. They are, however, holding a public scrimmage prior to a Volleyball game this weekend, and that may be the event they are expecting a crowd for. Its not going to be played in the Fieldhouse, iIts at a different gym, the capacity of which is only 1,300. Apparently after the first 1,300 people no one else will be admitted.

[OldPony]

Thanks for the explanation. If KU told their fans they wanted them to show support by being out for a practice game to help recruit, they could sell out Allen too. All other sports at KU benefit if they can tie in a game with basketball in any form. Bill Self is a master at gaining the support of the other coaches by lending his support to them. He is Mark Mangino's new best friend for helping him sell tickets.
The point I was making though was that a packed house of any size helps recruiting hugely and is one of the biggest hurdles Tubbs has to overcome. I dream of the day we can sell out Moody for Midnight Madness or any game that is not against a team that brings more fans to the game than we do.

[Buddha]

... Kansas doesnt routinely draw capacity crowds to watch their practices. Roy Williams wouldnt even let media sit too close to the court during practice, when he was there....

That's because he's an uptight, paranoid egomaniac.
Who still hasn't won a title, and never will. Most overrated coach in the business. That title used to belong to Jim Boeheim, but at least he's won a ring.

[Waz]

Just curious Buddha, how are two of the winningest coaches, by percentage and wins/losses, defined by you as 'over rated'? What are your parameters and expectations?

[OldPony]

Let's see. Williams took over a team that won the national championship the year before he arrived. One of the top 3 or 4 programs in the USA. The only coach who didn't have a winning percentage at KU was Naismith. Yes- he's a very good coach but in that kind of program you expect a title within 15 years especially when you twice had 2 top 10 draft picks on the same teams. Bill Self will do just as well if not better. Many coaches could succeed in the 2 schools that Williams has coached. Williams will go down as a great coach because he never had to build anything and his % will b e outstandfing but he never really had a challenge. Give him SMU, Vandy, Tulane etc and then we would see how good he really is.

[SWC2010]

I have a hard time taking Williams seriously-- he reminds me of an old "Tim Conway" lookalike...

[FloridaMustang]

Dean Smith sure seems to like him.

[OldPony]

Dean Smith? Is he one of 3 KU coaches to have arenas named after him? Allen and Rupp being the others? Would you trust Dean Smith after his "support" of Doherty? Sometimes people don't know when to leave the spotlight and Dean is one of them. Crying Roy is only the 3rd coach since Dean retired but he hired them all. Yeah- Dean's cool and a great judge of coaching abilities.

[OldPony]

Just a follow up on the KU scrimmage. The hall only held about 1300 so fans started lining up to watch the practice at about 6:30 am for a noon game. When Miles walked into the arena, the fans started shouting CJ-Come to Kansas. That is how students and fans help a coach. I hope that Tubbs gets that kind of help someday.