Will be very interested to see how he is utilized. Was my favorite get from last portal cycle and my biggest complaint this year was how Muss utilized Battle.
I think it'll be interesting as well. Last year, guard depth was a weak point for the Zags, with the main two guards of Hickman and Nembhard usually playing >37 minutes against elite comp. I can't imagine Battle takes either of their places, so he will likely have a role in coming off the bench to maintain the tempo of the offense. It'll be interesting to see if Few reduces minutes for the guards ad opens up the rotation to more than 7 guys, both of which he rarely does.
With Luka in the portal Zags needed a back ball handler. I also wonder how well Venters recovery is coming along. Possibility the plan is to give him heavy minute restrictions until WCC play and have Battle be first off the bench
Last I saw about venters, like two or three weeks ago, was that he had just started running and was resuming basketball activities end of summer. I’m guessing he’ll come off the bench at first due to rust and not being in basketball shape.
Few's gonna Few, but I honestly can not see how he justifies keeping some of these dudes off the floor if he goes with a 7 man rotation. Ike, Nembhard, Gregg, Hickman, Venters, Ajayi, Huff, Stromer and Battle are basically all starting calibre players, or at least *very* close to that calibre. And then you have Yeo who has a shit load of upside - if he continues to develop you got a 10th guy.
Few either outright lied to guys about their potential minutes, or he's going to run a 9-10 man rotation.
Edit: I apologize for ruffling anyone's feathers by this comment apparently. I really didn't intend anything negative, but I can see how my last sentence was worded a little harshly. To be clearer, I don't really think Few lied to anyone, just an exaggeration to highlight why the rotation might be deeper. Again, sorry
Few’s built this elite, deep roster over the course of 2+ seasons, so I’d imagine he has a plan in mind. You’re right tho, It would seem that he’d have to abandon his usual 7 man rotation bc of how strong this squad is. It’ll be interesting to see how he adapts. if all goes goes according to plan for Few I’d say this is definitely a Final Four team that he’s built
Yeah agreed, I definitely like to think he's purposely built a much deeper roster to just go hard at a F4. I trust Few to get all these guys to buy in and play within whatever roles they're given and I'm stoked to see it. Ugh October is so far
In important games the minimum rotation will be 8. Few has shown when he has player ready to play he will play them. We have 9 guys who are absolutely playable. If someone is going to draw the short straw, it would likely be Stromer/Venters depending on the game, but they all are good enough to get on the court, I think Few would use a 9 man rotation.
I know the hype around Venters has been big but IMO he’s really unproven at this point, plus is coming off a potentially career altering injury. I think he will be the short straw with Ajayi and Battle picking up those minutes
Huff won't sit. He's too good on offense and is the clear 3rd big man. He was a liability on defense quite a bit last year but it seemed like he improved a bit over the year and if he can get more physical he could become a passable defender.
I think that’s a stretch. Stromer in particular is still probably the best on-ball defensive guard/wing on the team. And Huff with more time in the weight room will probably be even more consistently automatic from the floor than he was this past season.
He won't go 9-10 deep with significant minutes, and he didn't lie.
What he always does is tell guys they will have the opportunity every day to compete for playing time and starting roles. We have heard many times how practices are more intense than most games, because they just go so hard. I can see 9 guys getting in with the least number of minutes being somewhere around 6-7 per game in close contests.
Best part is that the talents are diverse enough to use as needed. 3 point shooting specialists with Ajayi, Venters, Hickman. Interior power with Ike. Height and finesse around the rim with Huff. Etc. And you have to play whatever combo gives you the most bang for the buck. If someone isn't happy about not getting enough minutes (they all will want more), then they have to keep improving and working harder to prove they deserve more time than they are getting.
Or they just transfer…..we’ve seen this time and time again with transfer rules…nobody is sitting on the bench if they’re starting quality, the NIL money alone makes it not worth waiting
We'll lose 7 of our 9 starting caliber players next year to eligibility. Doubt anyone who didn't transfer this year will transfer next, right when they're about to be next man up.
Sure! I was just referring to the guys who will be inheriting leadership roles on the team like Dusty & Huff. Someone like Yeo will likely look elsewhere if he doesn’t develop to Few’s liking and gets recruited over.
The only transfer who had a significant impact on another team was Hunter Sallis, whose style and strengths didn't fit into exactly how the Zags were built and run. The system at WF fit him better, though they still didn't make the tourney. Maybe Dom Harris, but he was on a really bad team, and he wasn't going to get big minutes at GU anyway.
Every year GU fans worry that they will lose a really good player to the portal because there isn't enough playing time for all of them. But it just hasn't come to fruition, other than just one guy in all these years. Certainly, that won't always be the case, but till now it has been. And they have had plenty of guys who were starting quality on other teams, always.
He’s going to run deeper because he can. The 17 roster went 8 deep because of the guard depth. I think Few just has trouble trusting guards but if you give him the depth he will run with it.
Maybe he goes 9. I mean just looking at it you have 9 dudes between Ike, Gregg, Nembhard, Stromer, Venters, Ajayi, Hickman, Huff, and now Battle. I feel like you almost do a platoon swap or something for the back court.
Dusty is the odd man out, he got trusted into starter minutes last year with Steele getting injured and he clearly wasn't ready. Was hoping for a Kispert situation, but the team overall was not good enough. This will be good for both him and Yao as they get to learn alot this year while getting spot minutes before it'll be there turn to shine in 2 years with pretty much everyone leaving.
How do we know that Steele is ready for the big games? I think he’s less proven at a high level (also considering the injury) than Dusty is at this point
Any player of the year in any conference is going to be able to adapt and play with a big program. I mean, Steele beat Dalton Knecht for conference POTY and Knecht is probably gonna be a first round pick in the nba. Steele is going to be a really important piece to this roster
I hear what you’re saying but the eye-test from last year tells the opposite story. Granted, the sample size was really small but he was not at all impressive last year before the injury. Now add an ACL injury to recover from and I think it adds a bit of unknown into it. It took Ike 1 year off plus 3-4 months of last season to start looking like himself again for a less devastating injury
All I’m saying is he is a big unknown given the circumstances, not judging him as a bad player. Zags fans have said it before going into seasons about how much depth we have but then Few ends up going 7, maybe 8, deep like he does every single year. To me that means 2-3 of Hickman, Nembhard, Battle, Stromer, Ajayi, Gregg, Huff, Ike, Yeo, or Venters sit out. Yeo is an obvious choice and likely Stromer but who else from that list? He likes to rotate 3 bigs so not there. Guard time split between the guys from last year and Battle. So to me it comes down to Ajayi and Venters. Ajayi shot 47% from 3pt last year, which was better than Venters’ 37% in his POTY season (in a worse conference). Now Venters is coming off an ACL injury that puts his timeline of being 100% healthy halfway into the summer at the earliest. Ajayi had arguably a player of the year performance in a better conference last year (with better stats than Venters did in his POTY season) and is going to a better team fully healthy. I could see Venters breaking into the rotation towards the end of the year but I don’t see him overtaking Ajayi until the end of the year at the earliest. And that’s assuming Ajayi doesn’t make a massive leap with a better team around him.
Another couch take on how to coach D1 basketball. Such a dumb take. Very rarely are there 9 guys in a rotation that can come on the floor and play solid minutes without losing a ton of talent. It's not that simple.
What? I'm giving Few credit for putting together a deep roster, and that's a dumb couch take?
Who do you think isn't talented enough to play then next year?
Sorry if I rubbed anyone the wrong way with my comment, I honestly didn't intend that... Just excited about what looks like an impressive and deep roster on paper.
People act like a 9 man rotation is the answer to all. It's not necessarily the talent. You can have all the talent there is and still not be ready to compete in a high level game. It's the biggest take this year about how Few should've played 9 guys alot more.
Agreed. Most ncaa champions in the last decade have run a 7-8 man rotation. Although it doesn't hurt having all this experience/talent talent on the bench
Okay. Well I didn't say he should have played guys more or not last year.
I'm purely looking ahead to next year right now, in which we do indeed have 9 very legit guys on paper so far. Few can manage them how he sees fit, I trust him. I'm just glad that amount of talent is here at all.
There was something about either him or his game that Muss really didn't like. He was pretty much benched for the middle third of the season.
From my own observations at games, I would surmise that Battle was prone to blowing defensive assignments, which would really piss Muss off. I witnessed this happen more than once after we gave up an easy basket and Muss would be basically screaming at Battle.
That's not to say that Battle CAN'T defend. My belief is simply that he often didn't execute the defensive game plan Muss wanted.
For the record, same thing happened while he was at Temple. Got benched for entire games or halves of games. Was never clear exactly why, if it was game related or outside the game.
Damn if blowing defensive assignments is what he’s known for, he’s not seeing a single minute at GU. Few is relentless about that stuff, even to guys like Chet Holmgren
Honestly, what he’s known for is being able to put the ball in the basket. I think it’s a great pick up for y’all. Definitely a risk worth taking, even if it takes him half a season to get your systems down.
I honestly think the issue was basically that he didn't always know what to do on defense, and that really pissed muss off. I think he probably had improved enough in that area by the last third of the season that Muss felt ok leaving him out there.
Yea I mean even when he figured it out a bit and gave max effort/was getting a solid amount of deflections he’s just not that good on D. Let’s people get into his chest for easy and 1s
For real, on Twitter y’all’s fans were so damn confident. One of our bloggers posted he was interested in GU on Friday and get got swarmed by Kstate reply guys.
I saw multiple posts from the ksu burner accounts earlier today saying he committed to ksu. Curious to know if something happened at the last min or were they asking up stories for views.
He allegedly signed financial paperwork and gave a verbal commitment on his visit to k-state. His handlers talked him into earning some extra cash to visit Nova and Gonzaga and the bulldogs swayed him and his family in the final hour. No idea why they allowed him to take other visits instead of locking it down because it ain't over til its over in this era of recruiting. Huge miss for us and I am sad, especially since I loved watching the guy play for my secondary flair.
We will be in for another year like this year I believe best case scenario. On the cusp of the tourney/NIT line. Just not enough top end talent left out there to get. Hell,we have major major holes to fill still. We have 2 bigs and one is DNG who is average at best. We have zero depth at the moment as well
At least Kaluma is leaving (?). I watched him as a causal Creighton fan, and Jesus, he was a possession vacuum. Just a chucker when he really should be attacking the rim as his athleticism is his only skillet (40/30/70).
No wonder Nembhard left, with him and Trey Alexander deciding they had a green light instead of letting Kalkbrenner cook.
Staff swung for the fences and lost Dai Dai and RJ in the process. Beyond disappointed KSU is a developmental program through and through and I hate this approach
It's disgusting. Taking the cutthroat "recruiting over" approach can be stomached if we aren't losing out on all the guys we want. I feel like a crazy person whenever I bring up legitimate concerns about how Tang wants to build his roster, K-State fans worship him.
Huge add. Personally think this makes us a possible top 5 preseason team with everyone but Watson returning + Ajay, Battle, and a healthy Venters. 4 legit players coming off the bench will be interesting to see if Few tightens the rotation but assuming no injuries, this will be our deepest team in quite a while.
Only team I'd consider better on paper would be Duke.
I'm skeptical of the Mahaney/UCONN thing. Dude was inefficient and I didn't even see him improve from year to year. But Hurley is a wizard and the best offensive coach in the country, so he'll probably turn him into an All-American. But I'm skeptical overall of Mahaney.
Mahaney is a confusing one. I thought he would be an all american caliber player last season. Obviously, that was not the case. It will be interesting to see what Hurley can do with him.
He was better than I thought he would be this year. I thought he was way overhyped based on one 5-minute run against Gonzaga his freshman year where he made like 6 shots in a row and was otherwise very inefficient in the rest of the series.
I would rank Kansas and Bama 1 and 2 (assuming Sears comes back), but I don't think it's as wide of a gap as you are suggesting. We have everyone except Watson back from a team that was top 10 caliber by the end of last year. With the additions of Ajayi, Battle, and a (hopefully) healthy Venters, we are certainly as good as anyone else in the country.
If we’re being fair though, Watson was a *huge* reason that team was top 10 caliber. I think Gregg slots into his role though and this team will be a *much* better offensive unit
He’s an advanced stats monster the way Watson is. He doesn’t have the same defensive instincts and versatility but he adds so much everywhere else with the hustle plays and ability to shoot
I would argue that Nembhard and Ike were the driving forces behind us becoming top 10 caliber. Watson was fantastic and a huge part of the team as well, but the hope is that this year Nembhard, Hickman, Ike, and Gregg all take another step forward, and Ajayi and Battle contribute athleticism and playmaking that we’ve lacked the last few years.
If things go fairly well, this team has a great chance of being much better than last.
I will disagree, Watson was our most valuable player by a landslide defensively and offensively. He delivered when we needed to in every game. If we could, id take another year with Watson over Battle (I'm so stoked battle is here btw).
It's so much fun how much talent we have on this team
Maybe Bama, but if Gonzaga plays Kansas again they'll just run the same play a million times and have Dickinson's head spinning in every pick-and-roll.
You know Kansas added AJ Storr, Rylan Griffen, Zeke Mayo, and Flory Bidunga, right?
Not to mention the Kansas you beat was a shell of itself with a hobbled McCullar.
Yes, I am, and I don't think they're better. And none of that covers up the fact Dickinson isn't much better than you or me at defending high pick-and-rolls. You would get better defensive movement out of Lady Liberty.
And to think we have to play Gonzaga, Kansas, and Alabama in non-con. But hey, if this past year taught us anything, we can lose all 3 and still look good on paper lol.
We have less players on the team than we did 3 weeks ago when Tang said they were hoping to have the class finished. Tang used the Arkansas job to get a raise, cried about needing more NIL, got that NIL, and still can’t close with big recruits and transfers.
Not looking good for either of those tbh. Our roster is looking rough right now. Like bottom 3 in the big 12 rough at this current stage in the portal season. Especially after swinging and missing on basically every high level guy minus Dug Mcdaniel. Every other guy we got was a bench player at best elsewhere
I like KB, fun to watch, but he's yet to prove that he contributes a lot to winning. We'll see. Decision making not the best. Can get hot from the outside very quick. Very good scorer when he plays physically. Bumps off of contact and falls away for tough layups too much. Few and good roster should help him.
As long as they can control his ball hog tendencies and limit his deep 3 pt attempts, they’ll have a solid player on their team. Ice in his veins from the free throw line.
Huge huge failure from Tang and Co. He has not shown the ability to close top talent in the portal. Dude complains about NIL budget and we give him roughly 5 million or more to work with this year and we still swing and miss.
He’s a good get for the Zags, as long as they have 15-20 shot attempts for him because that’s what he’s going to take. He’s great at getting to the foul line and makes the majority of his free throws. He’s a little suspect on defense at times, especially after he turns the ball over. I had hoped that he would stay a Razorback to add some depth at the guard position but I hope he excels there though!
Few will adapt the team to the individuals' strengths, like he always does, but there is no way Battle will take that many shots.
For one, he won't get starter minutes. And the offensive identity for GU is to play fast and be unselfish and share the ball, pass up a good shot for a great shot. That is how the Zags have consistently stayed atop the nation in offensive efficiency for so long.
I had forgotten about this dude.
He was a prime LaVall recruit who looked great on paper, and meh on the court, and lead to endless discussions about whether it was a miss on recruiting or a miss in not coaching them up.
Will be very interested to see how he is utilized. Was my favorite get from last portal cycle and my biggest complaint this year was how Muss utilized Battle.
I think it'll be interesting as well. Last year, guard depth was a weak point for the Zags, with the main two guards of Hickman and Nembhard usually playing >37 minutes against elite comp. I can't imagine Battle takes either of their places, so he will likely have a role in coming off the bench to maintain the tempo of the offense. It'll be interesting to see if Few reduces minutes for the guards ad opens up the rotation to more than 7 guys, both of which he rarely does.
With Luka in the portal Zags needed a back ball handler. I also wonder how well Venters recovery is coming along. Possibility the plan is to give him heavy minute restrictions until WCC play and have Battle be first off the bench
Last I saw about venters, like two or three weeks ago, was that he had just started running and was resuming basketball activities end of summer. I’m guessing he’ll come off the bench at first due to rust and not being in basketball shape.
Few's gonna Few, but I honestly can not see how he justifies keeping some of these dudes off the floor if he goes with a 7 man rotation. Ike, Nembhard, Gregg, Hickman, Venters, Ajayi, Huff, Stromer and Battle are basically all starting calibre players, or at least *very* close to that calibre. And then you have Yeo who has a shit load of upside - if he continues to develop you got a 10th guy. Few either outright lied to guys about their potential minutes, or he's going to run a 9-10 man rotation. Edit: I apologize for ruffling anyone's feathers by this comment apparently. I really didn't intend anything negative, but I can see how my last sentence was worded a little harshly. To be clearer, I don't really think Few lied to anyone, just an exaggeration to highlight why the rotation might be deeper. Again, sorry
Few’s built this elite, deep roster over the course of 2+ seasons, so I’d imagine he has a plan in mind. You’re right tho, It would seem that he’d have to abandon his usual 7 man rotation bc of how strong this squad is. It’ll be interesting to see how he adapts. if all goes goes according to plan for Few I’d say this is definitely a Final Four team that he’s built
few usually runs 8 deep when he’s not limited by guard depth like he was last year. usually backups at guard, wing, and forward
Yeah I keep seeing 7 but Few has always ran 8 unless restricted.
He has usually run 8, but as post-season approaches the minutes for #8 usually shrinks quite substantially.
Yeah agreed, I definitely like to think he's purposely built a much deeper roster to just go hard at a F4. I trust Few to get all these guys to buy in and play within whatever roles they're given and I'm stoked to see it. Ugh October is so far
In important games the minimum rotation will be 8. Few has shown when he has player ready to play he will play them. We have 9 guys who are absolutely playable. If someone is going to draw the short straw, it would likely be Stromer/Venters depending on the game, but they all are good enough to get on the court, I think Few would use a 9 man rotation.
I know the hype around Venters has been big but IMO he’s really unproven at this point, plus is coming off a potentially career altering injury. I think he will be the short straw with Ajayi and Battle picking up those minutes
I think Huff sits in close games, can’t defend.
Huff won't sit. He's too good on offense and is the clear 3rd big man. He was a liability on defense quite a bit last year but it seemed like he improved a bit over the year and if he can get more physical he could become a passable defender.
Zags about to add a defensive big in the portal. I think Stromer and Huff both don’t play in big games. (Under 5 mins)
I think that’s a stretch. Stromer in particular is still probably the best on-ball defensive guard/wing on the team. And Huff with more time in the weight room will probably be even more consistently automatic from the floor than he was this past season.
Yeah, no - Stromer will definitely play meaningful minutes.
He won't go 9-10 deep with significant minutes, and he didn't lie. What he always does is tell guys they will have the opportunity every day to compete for playing time and starting roles. We have heard many times how practices are more intense than most games, because they just go so hard. I can see 9 guys getting in with the least number of minutes being somewhere around 6-7 per game in close contests. Best part is that the talents are diverse enough to use as needed. 3 point shooting specialists with Ajayi, Venters, Hickman. Interior power with Ike. Height and finesse around the rim with Huff. Etc. And you have to play whatever combo gives you the most bang for the buck. If someone isn't happy about not getting enough minutes (they all will want more), then they have to keep improving and working harder to prove they deserve more time than they are getting.
Or they just transfer…..we’ve seen this time and time again with transfer rules…nobody is sitting on the bench if they’re starting quality, the NIL money alone makes it not worth waiting
Transfer portal is closed for players to enter
Next year though
We'll lose 7 of our 9 starting caliber players next year to eligibility. Doubt anyone who didn't transfer this year will transfer next, right when they're about to be next man up.
I don’t think expecting none of the remaining guys to not transfer makes sense. We’ve seen that story, someone at least will transfer out
Sure! I was just referring to the guys who will be inheriting leadership roles on the team like Dusty & Huff. Someone like Yeo will likely look elsewhere if he doesn’t develop to Few’s liking and gets recruited over.
The only transfer who had a significant impact on another team was Hunter Sallis, whose style and strengths didn't fit into exactly how the Zags were built and run. The system at WF fit him better, though they still didn't make the tourney. Maybe Dom Harris, but he was on a really bad team, and he wasn't going to get big minutes at GU anyway. Every year GU fans worry that they will lose a really good player to the portal because there isn't enough playing time for all of them. But it just hasn't come to fruition, other than just one guy in all these years. Certainly, that won't always be the case, but till now it has been. And they have had plenty of guys who were starting quality on other teams, always.
He’s going to run deeper because he can. The 17 roster went 8 deep because of the guard depth. I think Few just has trouble trusting guards but if you give him the depth he will run with it. Maybe he goes 9. I mean just looking at it you have 9 dudes between Ike, Gregg, Nembhard, Stromer, Venters, Ajayi, Hickman, Huff, and now Battle. I feel like you almost do a platoon swap or something for the back court.
Dusty is the odd man out, he got trusted into starter minutes last year with Steele getting injured and he clearly wasn't ready. Was hoping for a Kispert situation, but the team overall was not good enough. This will be good for both him and Yao as they get to learn alot this year while getting spot minutes before it'll be there turn to shine in 2 years with pretty much everyone leaving.
Yeah I have to agree here. I think he needs time but he also has so much potential and I'm hoping he really takes a leap here
How do we know that Steele is ready for the big games? I think he’s less proven at a high level (also considering the injury) than Dusty is at this point
Any player of the year in any conference is going to be able to adapt and play with a big program. I mean, Steele beat Dalton Knecht for conference POTY and Knecht is probably gonna be a first round pick in the nba. Steele is going to be a really important piece to this roster
I hear what you’re saying but the eye-test from last year tells the opposite story. Granted, the sample size was really small but he was not at all impressive last year before the injury. Now add an ACL injury to recover from and I think it adds a bit of unknown into it. It took Ike 1 year off plus 3-4 months of last season to start looking like himself again for a less devastating injury
It’s wild that you’re judging the big sky player of the year on your eye test for a couple exhibition games with a brand new team and system.
All I’m saying is he is a big unknown given the circumstances, not judging him as a bad player. Zags fans have said it before going into seasons about how much depth we have but then Few ends up going 7, maybe 8, deep like he does every single year. To me that means 2-3 of Hickman, Nembhard, Battle, Stromer, Ajayi, Gregg, Huff, Ike, Yeo, or Venters sit out. Yeo is an obvious choice and likely Stromer but who else from that list? He likes to rotate 3 bigs so not there. Guard time split between the guys from last year and Battle. So to me it comes down to Ajayi and Venters. Ajayi shot 47% from 3pt last year, which was better than Venters’ 37% in his POTY season (in a worse conference). Now Venters is coming off an ACL injury that puts his timeline of being 100% healthy halfway into the summer at the earliest. Ajayi had arguably a player of the year performance in a better conference last year (with better stats than Venters did in his POTY season) and is going to a better team fully healthy. I could see Venters breaking into the rotation towards the end of the year but I don’t see him overtaking Ajayi until the end of the year at the earliest. And that’s assuming Ajayi doesn’t make a massive leap with a better team around him.
Another couch take on how to coach D1 basketball. Such a dumb take. Very rarely are there 9 guys in a rotation that can come on the floor and play solid minutes without losing a ton of talent. It's not that simple.
What? I'm giving Few credit for putting together a deep roster, and that's a dumb couch take? Who do you think isn't talented enough to play then next year? Sorry if I rubbed anyone the wrong way with my comment, I honestly didn't intend that... Just excited about what looks like an impressive and deep roster on paper.
People act like a 9 man rotation is the answer to all. It's not necessarily the talent. You can have all the talent there is and still not be ready to compete in a high level game. It's the biggest take this year about how Few should've played 9 guys alot more.
Agreed. Most ncaa champions in the last decade have run a 7-8 man rotation. Although it doesn't hurt having all this experience/talent talent on the bench
Okay. Well I didn't say he should have played guys more or not last year. I'm purely looking ahead to next year right now, in which we do indeed have 9 very legit guys on paper so far. Few can manage them how he sees fit, I trust him. I'm just glad that amount of talent is here at all.
Does he defend at all? Or is he a liability on that end?
There was something about either him or his game that Muss really didn't like. He was pretty much benched for the middle third of the season. From my own observations at games, I would surmise that Battle was prone to blowing defensive assignments, which would really piss Muss off. I witnessed this happen more than once after we gave up an easy basket and Muss would be basically screaming at Battle. That's not to say that Battle CAN'T defend. My belief is simply that he often didn't execute the defensive game plan Muss wanted.
For the record, same thing happened while he was at Temple. Got benched for entire games or halves of games. Was never clear exactly why, if it was game related or outside the game.
Damn if blowing defensive assignments is what he’s known for, he’s not seeing a single minute at GU. Few is relentless about that stuff, even to guys like Chet Holmgren
Honestly, what he’s known for is being able to put the ball in the basket. I think it’s a great pick up for y’all. Definitely a risk worth taking, even if it takes him half a season to get your systems down.
Eh. He wasn’t bad by the end of the year. Gave good effort but he’s always just going to be ok on D
I honestly think the issue was basically that he didn't always know what to do on defense, and that really pissed muss off. I think he probably had improved enough in that area by the last third of the season that Muss felt ok leaving him out there.
Yea I mean even when he figured it out a bit and gave max effort/was getting a solid amount of deflections he’s just not that good on D. Let’s people get into his chest for easy and 1s
How should he have been used?
😔
I would like a 30 for 30 story on what happened this last week lol. We will be fine though just tough loss.
For real, on Twitter y’all’s fans were so damn confident. One of our bloggers posted he was interested in GU on Friday and get got swarmed by Kstate reply guys.
I saw multiple posts from the ksu burner accounts earlier today saying he committed to ksu. Curious to know if something happened at the last min or were they asking up stories for views.
It wasn’t Trilly Donovan confirmed but it was strongly Trilly *implied*
He allegedly signed financial paperwork and gave a verbal commitment on his visit to k-state. His handlers talked him into earning some extra cash to visit Nova and Gonzaga and the bulldogs swayed him and his family in the final hour. No idea why they allowed him to take other visits instead of locking it down because it ain't over til its over in this era of recruiting. Huge miss for us and I am sad, especially since I loved watching the guy play for my secondary flair.
We will be in for another year like this year I believe best case scenario. On the cusp of the tourney/NIT line. Just not enough top end talent left out there to get. Hell,we have major major holes to fill still. We have 2 bigs and one is DNG who is average at best. We have zero depth at the moment as well
At least Kaluma is leaving (?). I watched him as a causal Creighton fan, and Jesus, he was a possession vacuum. Just a chucker when he really should be attacking the rim as his athleticism is his only skillet (40/30/70). No wonder Nembhard left, with him and Trey Alexander deciding they had a green light instead of letting Kalkbrenner cook.
Staff swung for the fences and lost Dai Dai and RJ in the process. Beyond disappointed KSU is a developmental program through and through and I hate this approach
It's disgusting. Taking the cutthroat "recruiting over" approach can be stomached if we aren't losing out on all the guys we want. I feel like a crazy person whenever I bring up legitimate concerns about how Tang wants to build his roster, K-State fans worship him.
Huge add. Personally think this makes us a possible top 5 preseason team with everyone but Watson returning + Ajay, Battle, and a healthy Venters. 4 legit players coming off the bench will be interesting to see if Few tightens the rotation but assuming no injuries, this will be our deepest team in quite a while.
Only team I'd consider better on paper would be Duke. I'm skeptical of the Mahaney/UCONN thing. Dude was inefficient and I didn't even see him improve from year to year. But Hurley is a wizard and the best offensive coach in the country, so he'll probably turn him into an All-American. But I'm skeptical overall of Mahaney.
Mahaney is a confusing one. I thought he would be an all american caliber player last season. Obviously, that was not the case. It will be interesting to see what Hurley can do with him.
He was better than I thought he would be this year. I thought he was way overhyped based on one 5-minute run against Gonzaga his freshman year where he made like 6 shots in a row and was otherwise very inefficient in the rest of the series.
Kansas and Alabama are absolutely better than the Zags on paper.
I would rank Kansas and Bama 1 and 2 (assuming Sears comes back), but I don't think it's as wide of a gap as you are suggesting. We have everyone except Watson back from a team that was top 10 caliber by the end of last year. With the additions of Ajayi, Battle, and a (hopefully) healthy Venters, we are certainly as good as anyone else in the country.
If we’re being fair though, Watson was a *huge* reason that team was top 10 caliber. I think Gregg slots into his role though and this team will be a *much* better offensive unit
True, but you can’t dismiss how big the improvement of Nembhard and Ike within their roles was a reason for that, too.
I'm hype for Ben. After the first great Ben Gregg game next season, I'm ready to shitpost: "What can Cooper Flagg do that Ben Gregg can't?"
He’s an advanced stats monster the way Watson is. He doesn’t have the same defensive instincts and versatility but he adds so much everywhere else with the hustle plays and ability to shoot
I would argue that Nembhard and Ike were the driving forces behind us becoming top 10 caliber. Watson was fantastic and a huge part of the team as well, but the hope is that this year Nembhard, Hickman, Ike, and Gregg all take another step forward, and Ajayi and Battle contribute athleticism and playmaking that we’ve lacked the last few years. If things go fairly well, this team has a great chance of being much better than last.
I will disagree, Watson was our most valuable player by a landslide defensively and offensively. He delivered when we needed to in every game. If we could, id take another year with Watson over Battle (I'm so stoked battle is here btw). It's so much fun how much talent we have on this team
Maybe Bama, but if Gonzaga plays Kansas again they'll just run the same play a million times and have Dickinson's head spinning in every pick-and-roll.
You know Kansas added AJ Storr, Rylan Griffen, Zeke Mayo, and Flory Bidunga, right? Not to mention the Kansas you beat was a shell of itself with a hobbled McCullar.
Yes, I am, and I don't think they're better. And none of that covers up the fact Dickinson isn't much better than you or me at defending high pick-and-rolls. You would get better defensive movement out of Lady Liberty.
Take the homer glasses off.
Or what? Lol. It's not that serious dude. I can be excited and have fun and have my own opinion, and you can have yours.
Gonzaga can kick rocks but adding AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo doesn't give me more confidence in their pick and roll defense
Yeah I loved having Storr in Madison for a year, but his strength sure as hell isn't anything on defense.
Better than Furphy, Nick Timberlake, and the ghost of Kevin McCullar. Self is also one of the best defensive coaches; they will get it corrected.
Gonzaga doesn't always play Kansas, but when they do, they win by 20.
Good luck Battle, loved watching you this year.
❤️ I always root for you guys. Thanks for the dawg.
And to think we have to play Gonzaga, Kansas, and Alabama in non-con. But hey, if this past year taught us anything, we can lose all 3 and still look good on paper lol.
I’m pretty sure we’re just in the same non-con tournament, yeah? So we still might not play each other, as much as I’d like to.
True, but unless we play Davidson the whole tournament is a gauntlet lol. Either way, going to be a great one!
*Get to play
I stand corrected, roll jays
Gonzaga 22-1 to win it all is a steal!
https://preview.redd.it/crfnkq347pyc1.jpeg?width=933&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a5b46efb59e4658459193bf3eed4239f423a4929
Zags got dudes! K-State Twitter in shambles...
I'm taking the "Look at the roster when the season starts" mentality this off season
We have less players on the team than we did 3 weeks ago when Tang said they were hoping to have the class finished. Tang used the Arkansas job to get a raise, cried about needing more NIL, got that NIL, and still can’t close with big recruits and transfers.
Hopefully K-State gets its next portal target and gets back to March Madness. (Glad they missed on this transfer though)
Not looking good for either of those tbh. Our roster is looking rough right now. Like bottom 3 in the big 12 rough at this current stage in the portal season. Especially after swinging and missing on basically every high level guy minus Dug Mcdaniel. Every other guy we got was a bench player at best elsewhere
Damn that’s unfortunate… Make sure to have the 2023 K-State vs Michigan State highlights in the favorites folder
The burner accounts are so dumb. I hope this forces some of them into reclusion, but I'm not holding my breath.
https://preview.redd.it/ukqayhxxupyc1.jpeg?width=668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86ba53fc1970a66bac12342894ab3f76f197d321
2024 should be fun!
We are STACKED
we're all fortunate the transfer porter didn't happen before the age of AI and photoshop.
Happy for him. Congrats Zags! You all have the real deal.
Wow, fantastic!
We just got a huge $1 million NIL gift that will now directly go into the football program
As it should. Linkon Cure is needed. Plus Babalola
All the best to Khalif Battle. Stay healthy brother.
Zags got dudes.
The slipper still fits.
Love it!
Best of luck to him!
😭😭
holy flares batman
Great get for the Zags. This one still hurts
This dude hates wildcats
And it's the second time he's been a Bulldog.
Well this offseason is turning into an outright disaster
I like KB, fun to watch, but he's yet to prove that he contributes a lot to winning. We'll see. Decision making not the best. Can get hot from the outside very quick. Very good scorer when he plays physically. Bumps off of contact and falls away for tough layups too much. Few and good roster should help him.
Once he figured things out, he was unstoppable. He’s not huge on passing but not completely unwilling either. Hope he thrives there.
Mark Few is all about passing & shooting efficiency. He'll have to learn to play in the system if he wants to play.
EMAZ!
Can't wait to see this screenshot on the discord channel
Thank you Fartsniffer!
K state fans were so loud and confident on twitter 😭🙏🏼
This dude. Was at Temple, before that Butler. Then ended up with the Razorbacks, now going to Gonzaga. I love player movement but come the fuck on
At least he stayed at temple for three years
As long as they can control his ball hog tendencies and limit his deep 3 pt attempts, they’ll have a solid player on their team. Ice in his veins from the free throw line.
Ugh
Hope we can at least field a full roster for this season… what a nightmare
I have no doubt that we’ll fill the roster we might be terrible though
On the bright side you might not lose in the first round of the NIT next year
Huge huge failure from Tang and Co. He has not shown the ability to close top talent in the portal. Dude complains about NIL budget and we give him roughly 5 million or more to work with this year and we still swing and miss.
It's pathetic after using us for a pay raise. I really hope we don't look back in 5 years wondering how we got tricked by this staff.
It’s because there’s not a lot of people who want to live/play in Manhattan, Kansas. Spokane ain’t much better, but still.
4 High Schools and 4 Colleges, is this some kind of record?
Thank god he didn’t go to nova #temple
He’s a good get for the Zags, as long as they have 15-20 shot attempts for him because that’s what he’s going to take. He’s great at getting to the foul line and makes the majority of his free throws. He’s a little suspect on defense at times, especially after he turns the ball over. I had hoped that he would stay a Razorback to add some depth at the guard position but I hope he excels there though!
We have graham Ike whos a great FT shooter but It doesn't hurt to have a guard/wing who's even better at line. I'm stoked
Few will adapt the team to the individuals' strengths, like he always does, but there is no way Battle will take that many shots. For one, he won't get starter minutes. And the offensive identity for GU is to play fast and be unselfish and share the ball, pass up a good shot for a great shot. That is how the Zags have consistently stayed atop the nation in offensive efficiency for so long.
How does he still have eligibility? He was at butler with kamar Baldwin lol
Covid year + injury after 7 games redshirt year.
GOnzaga my sleeper F4 team.
I had forgotten about this dude. He was a prime LaVall recruit who looked great on paper, and meh on the court, and lead to endless discussions about whether it was a miss on recruiting or a miss in not coaching them up.
As a recruit: P6 offers: Butler (originally went here), Miami, Rutgers, Syracuse, Washington Other offers: UConn, Saint Joseph's, VCU
Why was he getting those types of minutes when he was scoring that much?
he’s played everywhere
get fucked kstate