🏀 KuBuckets Archive

1. No direct translation for butt chewing in Ukrainian.

2. Donovan clearly schemed to run ball screens on him no matter who he was guarding on the perimeter. Translation: Donovan found the flaw in Svi's armor. Drive on him and scrape him off on a ball screen. Svi tried hard, but at 17, he just wasn't up to the challenge without preparation. Between now and Georgetown Svi and the coaches will be practicing him nonstop on how to handle a ball screen.

Two is a perfect example of what I have been saying about Greene and other players. As video builds up of a young player, each succeeding coach has a chance to find weaknesses and scheme to exploit them. It then takes a couple of weeks or month for a player to develop that weak link in his armor and begin getting better overall again. Self was trying to make sure Svi's confidence did not get wrecked by exposure to something he had not been specifically prepared to handle. Good for Self for sitting Svi. And Devonte was apparently suitably well adapted to handle what they were doing. Now, coaches will find a chink in Devonte's armor and go after it next game. Its the nature of getting better. This is why experienced teams so often fair better than inexperienced ones, even if they have a wee bit less talent. They have fewer chinks to scheme against.

@jaybate-1.0 That makes perfect sense. You're on fire today...

@jaybate-1.0

I think you are on to something. Svi needs to get strong... fight through screens. And he needs to work on his team defense. He seemed lost on switches.

Everyone showed failures in that first half. Seemed that all our guys were playing "between" players. Seemed that every Gator was open, and they just passed it around and the one that felt like shooting, shot. It looked like all our guys were running with ball and chains... stuck about 10 feet away from the guy with the ball.

@drgnslayr

Yes, I noticed what you are describing. Donovan is a good defensive coach, and could apparently recognize and scheme against some rules that KU's defense has been apparently relying on for help. Donovan seemed to position his players on the floor in seams of uncertainty regarding Self's defensive rules. Self then faced a choice: adjust during the first half and give Donovan something to adjust to at half time, or limp into half and make the adjustments during half time, so Donovan would not know what they would be to start the second half. It was a big risk to wait till half time considering how far down we were, but Self has often been an all or nothing gambler when he is finally forced to gamble. By waiting to adjust how they handled ball screens at half time, Self bought his team the best possible chance of getting out of the blocks fast and regaining some self respect...AFTER A BUTT CHEWING. :-)

I have seen Self make this choice a number of times. In the heat of the moment, I sometimes forget that that is what he does. If we went back and looked at the UK game, I suspect he suffered the first half in order to conceal the adjustments he intended to make, also. But UK was just to experienced and too talented for the adjustments to be executable for his guys. Or Cal guessed right on the adjustments Self would make and reschemed the second half and so just completely blew KU out of the water. Self probably understood there was no hope for going into the huddle with a demoralized young team and trying to get them to change tactics a second time in the second half and just decided to slow things down, and keep the score of the blow out as low and unspectacular as possible. It was bad, but it could easily have turned into 120 to 50 had KU tried to up the pace, and change defensive schemes in a huddle, when his young team barely even knew how to do what he had already asked them to do.

I sometimes think Cal is underrated in certain ways. Cal is not as sophisticated a tactician as Self IMHO, but I do think he learned from the same old fox--LB--about how to counter what others do, or will do, and when. Donovan learned his game from Pitino, not LB, and while Rick Pitino is brilliant in his own ways, I just don't think there is another fox quite as clever as LB, who learned his stuff from Frank McGuire, who outmaneuvered Wilt Chamberlain for a ring, and Dean, who outmaneuvered an entire university bureaucracy to build an informal fiefdom we might call Carolina Basketball INC.

Fruit doesn't fall far from a tree, as the saying goes.

@jaybate-1.0 Im gonna have to go watch the game on replay. Specifically to watch how Svi had troubles getting pinned on screens. They list his weight at 195 but Wiggs at 200 had more muscle tone than Svi does. I dont but that Svi is 195. I do get that he needs more help fighting over screens. Hudy and the great KU coaches will get him there.
I like point number 1. Its honest and true and kind of funny. Im sure that Svi still hasnt mastered all the Okie state slang terms used in Coach Self's half time upbraiding/ ass chewing.

@jaybate-1.0 Svi's shot looks like its going in every time it leaves his hands.

@Lulufulu

I don't think is the size that is bothering Svi; after all he has been playing against grown men in the Euro Leagues and Coach Self has said that much. I think the main problem is speed, since the American game is faster and not as deliberate as the European game.

@Lulufulu

Do you recall playing when you were young and guarding an opponent that could tie your feet up, because he was so quick you had to honor his first move. He could get you going one way with one foot beginning to slide say to your right and then he would drive straight at your trailing leg? Once you start the slide you are very vulnerable to someone driving hard off your trailing leg. When Self put Svi on Kasey Hill, he was trying to see if Svi's length could slow Kasy down. But I believe Donovan had studied Svi's footwork and learned that he tends to use his long legs to cut persons off by making a really long first slide with the direction he thinks the opponent is going. Donovan probably just told Kasey Hill, or perhaps Kasey Hill just knew to do it instinctively, to fake or lean right and then drive right to the side of Svi's trailing leg in the slide. I saw Svi get caught in that position four different times. Two with ball screens I believe, and two without. Hill would get him moving and then drive on his trailing leg. Without the ball screen, Svi got tripped up and would turn and burn to try to catch up but Hill was already in position to dish. Svi was long enough that Hill did not attempt to pull up and shoot J's for fear Svi would untangle his feet and swipe from behind with Svi's greater height. But when Hill did this off a ball screen, not only did Svi's feet get tangled, but then Hill scraped him off and took some wide open looks. The problem was not so much Svi's strength, but his footwork. Great defenders like Chalmers, Robinson, Rush, Releford and Selden are so strong and quick that they can short slide the first slide and actually be able to drop step even when it is a fake and the opponent tries to drive on their trailing leg. The minute a perimeter defender relies on a long first slide against a great put-it-on-the-deck perimeter offender, he drives on the trailing leg. Svi just ran into some perimeter guys that were very quick and whose first moves he had to honor. When he honored them with long slides, because of how quick they were, they drove on his trailing leg. It is a move as old as the playgrounds. And as old as Claire Bee. Maybe it goes back to Phog and the farm yards, I don't know. But I know that Svi was falling for it every time, because Kasey Hill was one incredibly quick guard that was so ambidextrous that Svi could not hedge him either way. So: that meant Svi HAD to honor that first fake. And the moment he did, Hill drove on his trailing leg and Svi's feet got tangled up trying to adjust. Really, if Frank Mason could ever get to where he was as ambidextrous on the bounce as Hill, Frank could do the drive on the trailing leg move at will. One day he probably will, but Hill seems one of those guys that came down the birth canal watching the lead leg and driving on the trailing leg.

@jaybate-1.0 Thanks for that teaching moment Jaybate. I never played ball. I just love to watch. So, I dont really have any in game experience to draw from and heavily rely on you guys and the games to gain knowledge of how the game is played. I remember seeing Hill do exactly what you described to Svi. I just rewatched the game. Mason and Devonte didnt get caught by it. Mason got blown by a couple times, I forget who by. But for the most part Mason and Devonte were playing ahead of their man. Especially in the second half.

My next question, Why did Coach Self leave 'Mari in for the last few minutes of the game? Why didnt he leave Cliff in? At this point, Cliff seems to be a better defender and he definitely has shown he is better at the FT line. Dude was money from the line in that game.

Oh yah, another one. I saw Oubre in there and he appeared to be playing the 4 for a couple minutes. Did I see that right?

@Lulufulu

Good questions about Jam vs. Cliff and about Kelly.

In the closing minutes with a lead against a very athletic team and long team, you figure there is going to be some pressing, some fouling and generally an attempted come back. Scoring is a bit less important than trying to get up and down the floor for blocks, alters, and stops. You can afford to miss a FT or two with the size of lead KU had.

Cliff had been laboring long and hard against bigger players. He looked kind of tired to me. Also, Cliff plays defense a bit stiff legged. When he is guarding in close to the basket, its tolerable because bodying is the coin of the realm, not big time sliding on long passes. I think Self thought Jamari could get up and down the floor a bit better at that point. And he thought Jam tray had a bit more explosion left in his legs for altering shots and going for dunks. And though Cliff seems the better FT shooter, Jam had just made a clutch pair last game and, as I said, Self could afford for Jam Tray to miss one or two. Had he missed some, Self could have come back with Cliff, who would have had a quick blow. I can't recall the Big Red Dog's foul situation, but Self also wanted to make sure he had Cliff for an OT. And finally, Jam has more D1 experience than Clifford.

Next, Oubre. When you're going for stops, rather than scores, compare 6-7 to 6-6 Perry, who often struggles against bigs, with 6-7 Oubre with the 7-2 inch wing span. Oubre is march harder to shoot over and/or to pass around, than Perry. And Oubre's offensive strength is transition and going suborbital on the way to iron. Florida was really long. Had it been a one point game, Self might have stayed with Perry. But the extra points were a cushion. And so if you would have had to take a foul, it would have been better for Kelly to take it rather than Perry, whom you might want as unfouled up as possible for an OT.

Hope that helps.

Any of my discussion only includes my re-watching the second half. I just could not watch the first half over again. Kelly was able to get two big rebounds in the comeback and seems to have a solid passing game on the break. Svi was unable to get in the lane on offense also. The ball doesn't stick with him but he's got to try and take his turn attacking to shoot or dish like his smaller brethren were doing.
Watching Gonzaga and Arizona makes me realize how small KU really is this year.

@wrwlumpy

Glad you saw that game. I did too.

UA is mongo long and deep.

Zaga is just long.

KU is Jack this season.

And there are 4-6 giants up the bean stalk.

@jaybate-1.0 jb, I really enjoyed your analysis today, esp. the Svi thing. I plan to rewatch that game with an eye to Svi and K. Hill. Is amazing that Graham appeared to do a much more effective job. Perhaps by the time Graham got most of his minutes, Florida had just about run out of gas. Topnotch coaches are such masters at plotting and counter-plotting against strengths and weaknesses! If I can squeeze another ten years from these weary old eyes (and continue to read such precise analyses) maybe I will understand the game at least a glimmer before buying the farm.

@jaybate-1.0 "...and Dean, who outmaneuvered an entire university beaurocracy to build an informal fiefdom which we might call Carolina Basketball INC." Ooh, nice!

@REHawk

Coach, I know you know way more than me, so tell me if I read the situation wrong. I never fly under false flags about this stuff. I never played the game at a high level, but I was fortunate to have a father and brother that were pretty good and that taught me what they knew. My Dad wasn't good enough to play for Phog, but he hung around games and practices for a year at KU after having played a year at Washburn hoping to catch on at KU, so he had a pretty good knowledge base. And I had a high school coach that was way ahead of his time in teaching how the game was played. And I've done my best to read books by Phog, Wooden, Dean Smith, Knight, Claire Bee, Red Auerbach, and whatever articles about Ralph Miller, Frank McGuire, Larry Brown, Tex Winter, Sam Cunningham, Jack Gardner, John McClendon, Chuck Daly and Phil Jackson that I could. This is my background knowledge base. It isn't the best, but I've tried hard to become as knowledgeable as I could short of making it a career. Wish I had made it a career. I would never have tired of it as I have other careers. Anyway, what I love so much about this board and the previous board is the opportunity to exchange knowledge about the game. It has been a huge net gain for me. I just try to give back as much as I can in order to justify how much I get. I am often wrong, but I keep working at it.

@jaybate-1.0 yeah, that makes sense. thanks jaybate. Rock Chalk!