Kansas Crimson

In recent years, Self’s patented two-game offense has become a play, fist has become the primary offense and a narrative has changed. Once labeled as a big-man school under Self, Kansas has put a point guard on consecutive All-American teams, including Frank Mason, who was the National Player of the Year in 2017.

“Guard U,” Howard says with a grin.

Self has since recruited some big-time pro prospects on the perimeter: Xavier Henry, Ben McLemore, Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre, but they all lacked one quality. “They were more shooters and scorers than playmakers,” Self says.

Williams was a playmaker, and in June 2016, Self found the guy to answer the question of what it would have been like had Williams run fist at Illinois. He called Howard.

“Quentin Grimes,” Self said from his seat at a tournament in Dallas. “He reminds me of D-Will, but he will be better.”

[...]

Grimes is learning to always be on the move when Lawson has the ball, and at a recent practice, the big man found Grimes cutting to the basket. He cocked the ball back as if he was going to dunk it until Silvio De Sousa met him at the rim. Instead of trying to dunk on De Sousa, Grimes adjusted in mid-air, going underneath De Sousa’s left arm and dropped the ball over the rim with a finger roll.

“I was like, ‘woo, that was crazy,’” De Sousa says.

“If that was me or anyone else,” sophomore Chris Teahan says, “they’re flat on their back because Silvio knocks them over.”

That’s where Grimes is just different from most freshmen — and similar to Deron Williams. Defenders bounce off of him.

“It’s definitely hard to guard him and keep him in front, especially if he hits you in the chest, it knocks you back a little bit and he can get separation and knock it down,” Teahan says. “He has certain moves in his body that are hitchy, and he’ll get you moving a half step one way and get enough room to knock it down in your face.”

“Quentin is so ingrained in terms of doing what’s best for the team that he would always try to make the play getting the ball to the open man, because he has great floor vision and he’s a great passer,” McNeely says. “I think he had to learn sometimes he had to be a little bit more selfish.”

At the end of the high school season, he had just one scholarship offer, from Rice, and wasn’t that highly regarded in the Houston area. “It was a no-brainer for us to try to get involved,” says Rice coach Scott Pera, who coached James Harden in high school and wasn’t scared away by Grimes’ lack of aggression. Harden wasn’t assertive in his early high school days either and was content spotting up in the corner.

[...]

“I think sometimes because he’s so unselfish, he gets off the ball and lets other guys try to make plays, and for us, we always thought, if you have the highest IQ and the most talent, you should be the one making the plays,” Basketball University program director Rhossi Carron says. “Part of the evolution was him was playing a little more selfishly. I don’t know if that’s the right term to use when talking about a lot of basketball players, but he was just too unselfish and we wanted him to try to make every play, and every possession to try to put pressure on the defense.”

[...]

After pausing to let that sink in, Self barked a command: “That’s how you need to start playing!”

Grimes has been playing too passively to Self’s liking, and the latter’s point was he recruited the former to Kansas to be a star in an offense that frees guards to be aggressive. “I wish he had more of that assassin attack mode that I think that he will get as he gets more confident,” Self said in a recent rant comparing Grimes with Wiggins, another player who Self begged to be more alpha. “We believe he’s got it inside of him already, but I just don’t think that he’s quite confident yet to really display that.”

These are the same type of frustrations Grimes’ high school coaches experienced. “It’s his nature,” Wheeler says. “He’s a sharer.”

pdub wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:08 pm I'm not nervous about our senior guard Lagerald Vick.

pdub wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:08 pm I'm not nervous about our senior guard Lagerald Vick.

IllinoisJayhawk wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:29 pm but he's going to be without a national player of the year PG for the first time

Headcase wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 6:03 pm serious question... is he 1 and done? Hoping he's a 2 year guy

6. Quentin Grimes, SG, Kansas

247Sports composite recruiting ranking: No. 10.
The skinny: No worries about the reigning player of the year for the state of Texas. He'll produce heartily in year one for Bill Self. Grimes is a fantastic guard with terrific length, B-plus athleticism and doesn't shy on confidence. Kansas has been good just about every year since the Eisenhower administration, but under Self the best KU teams have had guards who attack like starving cheetahs. Grimes fits that mold. We'll be watching him score between 13 and 16 per game this season as he does it from all three ranges on the floor: at the rim, from the elbow/soft mid-range, from beyond the arc. Plus, he embraces rebounding. All of this led to Grimes earning MVP at the 2018 FIBA U18s (where he was coached by Self). Grimes also won a 6A title in Texas and averaged 30/9/5 while doing so. Trust me, he is the goods.