I keep telling board rats, the object is how to win 3 in 6 against an ISU team that only has to win 3 in 9.
People hand wringing, because KU "only" won by 3 in Fort Worth are not seeing the the oil refiner's oligopoly for the oilcos, or the Fed owners for the oil refiner's oligopoly they own and finance.
Self coached this game about as brilliantly as you can coach a game in a 3 in 6 campaign, where the first game is a against a cellar dweller being turned around by a decent butcher ball coach in Trent Johnson.
Remember: the goal is a low scoring game, with a minimum of running, and playing as much of your bench as humanly possible, so that this game depletes your energy budget as little as possible. You know you could win this game by 20-30, if you shorten your bench to 7 and put in some wrinkles. You are sending them out flat as pancakes. You don't dare wasting emotions on this game, when you will need two amped performances for 2 in 4. You also don't dare creating special offense or defense for this game, because you want your green team to focus on learning schemes for KSU and ISU. You want all high percentage shots inside, where you can get some whistles on the road against this team you are more athletic than. You know you won't get an even whistle on the road, but you want the ball inside, where any TOs are less likely to turn into easy transition baskets. You are also hoping to play the first half only on the defensive end and expend almost no energy on offense, then the second half you are hoping to play the first 10 minutes expending some energy on the front 10 and then closing out the game on the back 10 playing full tilt for about 5 minutes, and then milking a lead the last 5 minutes by shooting FTs. That is the ideal script going into the game. If the game plays out this way, even if you win by only one it is a great victory, and if you happen to lose, well, its a road loss, and you will still have your tank full to win in Lawrence against serious challengers in KSU and ISU.
Self achieved almost all of the above. The partially expected fly in the ointment was TOs. KU made 14, which, when one is playing a butcher baller on the road and getting the asymmetric whistle, is about par for the course for a young team. TCU studied the Temple feeds, and muscled us without the talent.
The partially expected compensation for the partially expected high TOs? KU got 12 blocks!!!!! Plus a bunch of alters that didn't show.
The real problem for KU was TCU's impressive offensive rebounding, where they were an outrageously unacceptable +14 on us. That offensive reeb edge, plus the high TOs, plus the asymmetric whistle, turned it into a squeaker, where TCU had 72 posessions to our 52!!!!!
So: why did the offensive rebounding edge occur, when KU is usually a strong rebounding team? Easy. Self obviously told his defenders to focus on guarding tight, and going for blocks constantly. And to guard them all over the floor. Self was going for a low defensive field goal percentage and sacrificing rebounding. He realized his guys were the better jumpers. TCU were all thick and not great leapers. They weren't good scorers either. Self made an interesting gamble. He could have laid off of them and rebounded, but he decided to surprise Trent and have his guys trap and pressure. Clearly Trent was expecting less pressure in a game where Self would be trying to conserve energy. The result was pretty much what one would expect. TCU shot 30.6% FGA and 16.7% 3PT. They also only shot 51% from the line, which explains why Self decided to sacrifice offensive rebounding for shot blocking. Putting TCU on the FT line was NOT going to hurt us that bad.
Let's go down the check list.
Amp Level: Flat. Check.
Low Possession Game: He keeps the game down in the low 60s. Check.
Long bench: 11 guys played in a close game. 9 played 10 minutes or more. Check.
First half: muddy-up defensive effort. Check.
First ten of second half: muddy-up defensive effort plus a little lead achieved. Check.
Last ten of second half: build a lead first five, then milk it second five. Check.
Like clock work.
Cliff, who we have to have fresh as a daisy for KSU and ISU played 15 minutes.
Kelly, who we have to have fresh for KSU and ISU, and who Vail told me was sick, played a piddling 10 minutes.
Frank was the only guy that played big minutes and, well, Frank has to. But notice how the slow pace allowed Frank to only play with occasional bursts of energy. Lots of times he was walking the ball. And Frank is our iron man, who played another stellar offensive game.
The play I want to call everyone's attention to, though was at the end of the game. Trent Johnson probably told his players to unload on whom ever they fouled with a few seconds to go. The TCU guy hit Frank on the inbounds like a strong safety coming up to fill on a running back coming through a hole. The TCU guy hit Frank at full speed, when Frank was stopped to receive the in bounds pass. It was the most blatant flagrant foul I have seen in a long time, and it was apparently intended to make it so Frank would have a great deal of trouble making the FT. The referees better start calling this foul a flagrant foul, or it will become a tool in every team's defense at the end of games. This play hurt Frank. He is very stoic. But he had the wind completely knocked out of him. And it is the kind of impact that could easily have shaken his brain and given him a mild concussion even though the head was not impacted. This is a very wrong and dangerous way to let teams play basketball and IMHO Trent Johnson needs to be called out as a cheap shot artist for having his players play that way. And the refs need to be called out for not calling it what it was. Every coach that studies that feed of that play, will now insert it into his teams repertoire of cheap shots at the end of close games when down a couple. Tom Izzo, er, Ratso Izzo, will see that feed and probably think something like, oh, thank you god, the refs are going to let it get dirty again and now maybe I will have a chance to get back in the hunt for a ring.
But back to the game. The game went according to script, except for the high KU TOs. High TOs are always a worry, but when you play the game so on your heels, and off the edge, and without offensive wrinkles, you are predictable and when you are predictable, you have to expect some TOs.
But bottom line, Objective 1 of 3 in 6 was taken. Ft. Worth is ours, sir, the Jayhawk Jarheads can tell their coach. And Self played so many players and practically played his OADs not at all, and wound up with a W on the road.
Great effort Jayhawk Jarheads. Not all great efforts can be measured by the scoring spread, when your opponent is the schedule in a 3 in 6 campaign.
And Bill Self?
Bill Self = genius.
As usual.
Win out, boys, win out!!!!!!!!
