@VailHawk
I don't know. If the guys were afraid of something, would Brannen and Svi have even taken those shots? If Cliff were afraid, would he have just been sitting there calmly in his warm up the entire second half?
I am not sure feared, or scared is it.
What I saw was guys that seemed to have gone a little past their breaking point from the stresses and strains of a long season and 2 in 3 days no longer really with the will to go on down this strange path of playing that has won 20 games and put them in first place, but that they just couldn't quite leave it all on the floor for tonight. One of the posters commented insightfully about Perry carrying us much of the second half, but then at the end finally just seemingly not being able to make his exhausted body do it just one more time and stay infront of some player at what seemed a crucial moment. And he just couldnt' ask his body to any more and finish that cherry pick, even after the herculean effort of breaking free to receive the desperation pass. Jamari Traylor just walked around the court for much of the game as if he were one of Merrell's Marauders that just hasn't got anything left to give.
Maybe what the fear and scared-ness you noticed was what happens when a fighting unit finally has given all it has to give at a point in a campaign and they are too good of soldiers in to desperate a situation to stop fighting, but they just don't have anything left to fight with,
I keep remembering how fun it is to do things you are better than the other guy at in basketball, but how incredibly hard and unfun it is to have play guys that are bigger and/or better than you all the time. For a while you take it as a challenge, but then over time the struggle, which you seem to learn how to do, begins to wear you down, and, finally, some time, in some situation, you realize you just can't do it again, you can't play at a disadvantage again, you just aren't resilient enough to respond to peril and turn tactics on the spur of the moment into winning strategy, and you finally just get the milliion mile stare and keep going through what you know by rote, but not with the level of intensity it would require to win.
Maybe these jarhead jayhawks have just been in the jungle too long, been in one too many fire fights recently, and found themselves in hostile surroundings where the bigger guys were just leaning on them too much and the refs were giving the other guys just too many calls, and the unit just finally cracked.
Maybe they need a short break, or the acknowledgement of their leader that maybe they did break, and maybe he pushed them to hard, but after a short break, he is going to stand them back up, put helmets back on their heads, and rifles back on their shoulders and they are going back into action, because this IS what its all about. Pushing through breaking. Going further than they or anyone else thinks they can go. They don't have more talent than other teams. Sooner or later they were going to have break and go beyond breaking, if they are to be something special. Bad as this feels, as demoralized as they became, this night in mountains of Morgantown, is just another mountain range to cross on the way to yet another battle, on the way to a Myitkyina no one thinks they can reach, a place they no longer no how they can reach. Now they are beyond the known. It came sooner than anyone hoped. But everyone knew in the backs of their minds this moment was coming for the team with no back to the basket game, with no no enforcers, with no ability to score inside, with nothing but courage, will and a devotion to each other to survive and keep on going to their own kind of Myitkyina--a place they have never been to, never seen, never made the trek to before, a place they only have a map to and a leader telling them the way to, and driving them all harder than they have ever been driven before.
Eggs are going to get broken on this trek.
They got broken tonight.
The Jarhead Jayhawks broke, as an effective fighting force for a time, and yet they never quit. To the last second Perry was breaking a way and trying with whatever remained in him to steal a win in Morgantown.
Frankly, maybe this team needed to know what it feels like to break.
Maybe that was the only way for them to take the next step.
It was brutal to watch. Almost too painful.
It is never pretty watching units break.
But now that they HAVE broken, they now know what to expect the next time they get near that point.
And so the long march goes on.
Saturday, TCU. Monday, Bramlage.
Then Texas, West Virginia again, and Oklahoma.
The mission is Myitkyina.
If you want to go there, there is no short cut.
Its not whether the unit breaks.
Its whether you put it back together and keep going.
Anyone can win a title with rim protectors and rebounders and back to the basket game.
Our mission is to get to Myitkyina without those things.
Those other titles were child's play.
This is the greatest challenge a Bill Self team has ever faced.
Period.
Win a title without the pieces you need.
Win a title turning tactics into strategy again and again as you go.
This team is special for coming as far as it has.
It doesn't have the pieces.
All it has is the mission.
And young men willing to sacrifice to go there.
And someone to lead them.
And many to cheer them on.
Put the helmets back on.
We're going to Myitkyina.
And we haven't seen the most harrowing parts yet.
