Jayhawk Central

I worry about his D. It looks like he is finally becoming the shooter Self has claimed he is, and he appears to able to run an offense the last few weeks. But I have no confidence in him guarding a Marcus Smart, Myck Kabongo, Pierre Jackson, etc. He did well tonight guarding that #2 for American who was his size and had inferior athleticism. But unfortunately most of the opponents the rest of the way will have bigger and more athletic guards.

I told you all I kind of liked his offensive game early on this year. Kid was raw but had some talent. We have enough other defensive talent we can hide him there as well. Second ball handler was by far our biggest need on this team after the first few games. The defense we can cover for by shifting people around. So few teams have 3 high level guards that can score. Many just have one.

I think that was a brilliant motivational ploy by Self.

I think I somehow missed the Young as point guard shenanigans.

On Mason, I worry we're building him up too much. He'll still be a freshman, and a freshman that while "underrated" is still borderline top 100. Tharpe, for all his limits, will have 2 years of D-1 play under his belt.

I think it was between the Oregon State and Colorado games when Self said they were getting so desperate for a backup point guard to be productive at all that they were running Young at the point in practice.

I worry a little that we are giving Mason more run than almost anyone else, but I also think we've backed it up with a lot of eyes who've actually seen him play. Also remember that, while he'll be a freshman, he's playing at a prep school right now, which puts him in the 2012 class agewise (and he originally committed to Towson as part of the 2012 class), so he's the same age as Adams and a year behind Tharpe in that regard.

Finally, I'm really growing tired of the "he's not even top 100" or "he was a top 10 recruit" stuff. Not all classes are the same, and comparing kids across classes based on ranking relative to guys in their class is just silly. The 2012 class was extremely weak, especially but not only at the top. The 2013 class is a monster class, and again, not just at the very top. But for comparison's sake, Ryan and I were chatting last night and basically concluded that at the very least, the Harrison twins, Wiggins, Randle, and Parker are each better than the top if the 2012 class. That doesn't even include Aaron Gordon, James Young, or Kasey Hill (a better player than prospect at this point) any of whom might also have been the top player in the 2012 class, or the fact that Noel reclassified (Wiggins was 2013, switched to 2014, and then switched back to 2013, while Noel was always 2013 until Kentucky convinced him otherwise). Kyle freaking Anderson is a slow, 6-6 forward who can't dunk and was 3rd in 2012. Just remember that when we talk about rankings, comparing 82nd in one class to 82nd in another doesn't mean much.

I think you're undervaluing rankings. Of course 82 v. 83 doesn't matter and 82 one year is different than 82 the next, but when you look at tiers they're quite valuable. Mason could be a smashing success, but to expect him to come in and be a major contributor as a freshman, while it would be great, would be the exception.

Coach will get next year group of guy to play defense

I'm probably just as guilty as anyone of pushing the expectations for Mason, but let's also remember that Tyshawn Taylor was rated in the 80s, entered with a similarly stacked class (though with almost no wings / guards), and joined a team that lost all five starters. Mason doesn't have to be better than the Harrison twins to see a lot of minutes at KU next year - he only has to be better than Adams to be in the rotation (and I'm quite certain he is), and he only has to be better than Tharpe to be in serious contention to start (and until two weeks ago, people were ready to run Tharpe out of the program). All evidence points to Mason exceeding the expectations of a typical 82nd ranked player, just like all evidence pointed to Ellis falling short of the expectations of a typical 25th ranked one.

Yeah, but the reason people were ready to run Tharpe out is that they are generally ill-informed fans who don't take a very long view to things.

The kid was basically playing in his first 10 games ever at KU this year, at least in any meaningful role. A little time to see how he developed was in order I think. What I will never get about KU fans is the players they elect to attack early on and the guys they will defend to the death. It was largely the same way with the Twins as freshman. Back on TFS I was given a ton of crap for saying after their Freshman year that the Morris twins would be better post players than Kaun and Jackson were for us. Then you would have a legion of KU fans who would defend to the death the contribution of Brady Morningstar and Christian Moody. There seems to be a strange dichotomy with KU fans. If a kid does not contribute right away then he is a bust and will transfer/be replaced. On the other side if a guy has a very limited skill set that is utilized from day 1 by the coach they tend to get built up beyond what they really are.

If I have learned anything under Self it is that players develop. It is not Scott Drew on that bench. Generally players with some skills (Tharpe has speed, shooting ability and really pretty good court vision) will get broken down, particularly if the team can make due without them on the floor for a while, to where they look like total crap and then be built back up. I think that on a lot of teams it would have been easy to just turn Tharpe loose and let him run up and down the floor where he would make some plays and look like crap on others. He was forced into a half court game and forced to be the stabilizing influence KU needed before he could get minutes. Now we are just starting to see some of his natural talents surface within the larger system.

The kid has some natural point guard abilities for KU and given the shooters KU will have next year that will be very important.

I do disagree that he won't be able to be shaped into someone who fits within the offense much better. I watch the kid pretty closely and it is apparent that his decision making and shot selection is already changed dramatically from the beginning of the year. In particular there was one play in the latest game where he had a semi-open three that would have gone up a few weeks ago, then he had a fairly open runner he would have taken a few weeks ago. Instead it ended with him making a pass for an easy bucket.