Grades so far

Mason (A) Typical Mason game. He is clearly one of the best PG's in the country.

Lucas (A) So not flashy but oh so solid. Smart and under control. Missed a bunny so all is right with the world.

Graham (A) Will be the bast player on the team at least 8 games this year. We have to have the best backcourt in the country.

Jackson (C) Clearly a freshman. His upside is the highest and he will have the top 10 highlights on the team this year. But he still needs to get in the flow. He will. And I suspect sooner than later.

Vick ( Not bad minutes. Needs to hit the boards better. Very versatile. He can do it all.

Bragg (D) Clearly not in the flow. He will be. Not sure where his head is. Lost his man more times than I can count. Showed a few flashes but not quite up to speed. I'm not worried.

Azuibuike (B+) Lost count of the dunks. What is the over under on the shots he does not dunk this year? Not high. Did look winded when the pace got high. But that will improve. More under control than last game. He will make some great plays this year.

Mykhailiuk (A+) The best I have seen him play. Still made a few defensive mistakes but overall did well in all phases of the game. Clearly more active and confident this season. Likely the 6th man that gets starters minutes. He could even start but I doubt it. Too valuable off the bench.

Lightfoot ( Mark my word, this young man will finish his career at KU as one of the all-time favorites. He will be a key player by his senior year.

Coleby (C) Work in progress

I'm reluctant to issue grades after 2 expo games, but I'll give it a shot. Rather than work individually, however, I'm going to go with groupings:

1.) Returning starters: A. Mason and Graham have picked up where they left off, and the early-season praise for our backcourt is well-deserved. Lucas hasn't shown much, but since his role is more to be "solid" than "a star", I think he'll deliver. I also would think a major role of his will be to guide the new guys along the path set out by Self.

2.) Returning guys taking on new roles: A-. Guys like Bragg, Vick, and Svi will all be looking to move up in their number of minutes and overall responsibility. Vick has impressed me most in this bunch playing at a much higher energy level and appearing to be "hungry" to earn more time on the floor. Svi is also progressing, but I think the jury is still out to a certain extent with him until he demonstrates that he can do what he did last night against better competition. Bragg looks lost right now, but I see that as a temporary situation. I think it's WAY to early to even entertain the thought that he has in anyway regressed from last year, and if he even plays at the same level as last year, we'll be fine.

3.) New guys: Incomplete. Jackson showed us a couple of glimpses of what he can do last night. The blowby drive/dunk in the 2nd half was impressive and SO smooth, followed by a sweet behind the back dribble move on the next possession. Once he gets comfortable with Self-ball to relax and play using all of his talents, he should be crazy good. Azuibuike is a monster and seems to enjoy dunking. Fun to watch, but doesn't mean much when Emporia's biggest player could live comfortably in one of Azuibuike's sneakers. My prediction is that he'll have typical freshmen moments...lots of fouls early in the season, and probably still not where Self wants him from a conditioning standpoint. Nevertheless, having a 7 foot 280 pound side of beef in the post will come in handy. The fact that he's fairly skilled already will only help. Lots of potential there. As for Lightfoot, I couldn't agree more. Helluva dunk last night, and he seemed to really bring a lot of effort to the garbage minutes he got to play. Right now he looks like Howdy Doody out there, so what I'm REALLY looking forward to is seeing the before/after photos of what Hudy does to him next summer. Right now he looks like a very talented "younger brother" who somehow wondered onto the court with the men. He'll get beat up out there for the next few months, but by next year he'll start making noise on his own. For now, he just needs to be a sponge....a very resilient sponge.

Oh my goodness, here we go.......

I was "watching" the game on my iPad mini.....so needless to say I did not pay total attention to the picture (and perhaps not even to the commentary).....but did anyone else think the Huge One would sort of lurk outside the lane on offense until he knew a lob was coming his way? Seems like he was just standing.....I guess I've not noticed someone just sort of standing -- without HCBS going apoplectic -- and waiting?

It's fun to watch in a totally relaxed mode. I imagine that it is a "thrill" for the Hornets to play in Allen, even tho the result is pretty much a foregone conclusion.....I'd (try to) run my big, OLD self up and down the court during a game IF I had the chance.....

Wheaty, I hope Dok enjoyed his dominance because it will not be a common occurrence. When you are 8 feet tall and 400 pounds or whatever he is playing against an entire team that could hide in his shadow with room left for a small minivan it is not exactly a fertile training ground for conference play. That said, his footwork was not terrible. Over the last couple years there was one absolute guaranteed "oh crap" moment to happen at least once each game. Namely, Jamari Traylor would without fail set one moving screen to which I (and thousands of other KU fans) let out a collective groan. Jamari is gone and I suspect the new guaranteed "oh crap" moment will be Dok effortlessly knocking some wee stick of an opponent on his bony little but going for a rebound. And Dok will protest swearing he didn't even know he hit the guy. It has been pondered whether or not Dok will break a backboard this year. I think a better bet is that he will break some ill-advised skinny opponent who dares to Drive the lane when Dok is lurking about.

Basketball cliché #2467: "You can't teach size"

I'd add to that the fact that he seems to WANT to be aggressive (dunk everything, use his body/size). So in the very worst case (performance vs. Emporia notwithstanding), we've got a guy the size of a semi who wants to go after the ball and go strong to the hoop every time. I totally expect him to get fouls learning to defend properly and going after rebounds. With his aggressive mindset on offense, he'll probably pick up some charges as well.

But back to the cliché: HCBS can teach him how to defend, rebound, and score without fouling. HCBS doesn't need to teach him a thing when it comes to asserting his will physically.

The thing I'm most curious about will be his "Hudy-ization". On one hand, coming in at 300lbs and slimming down to a svelte 280 tells me that if he slimmed up a little more, he'd probably improve his stamina when it comes to trying to play a full 40 minutes (not needed at the moment). On the other hand 280 on a 7 footer isn't particularly heavy, and perhaps the goal will be to convert the current 280 into a more rock-like physique.

Bottom line, there's a lot to work with.