🏀 KuBuckets Archive

TCU's Trent Johnson made the smartest move he's made since he got to TCU. He has copied Bill Self's BAD BALL. And in fairness to Trent, Bill's BAD BALL incorporates some of what TCU has done the last couple seasons.

Today was the first example of two teams PLAYING A FULL 40 MINUTES OF BAD BALL.

The skill level of the teams was asymmetrically in favor of KU.

But when KU plays BAD BALL, it neutralizes not only the superior athleticism of other opponents, but now we know it beats BAD BALL when the opponent has less skill and greater muscle in a half court game.

We already knew it could beat a less skilled opponent (WVU) that played a full court game.

The huge tests of BAD BALL are still to come, when we get Perry back for the Big Dance after this stupid conference tourney.

The next big test is going to be a hot shooting trey balling mid major.

The next step after that will be a Nike stack that is playing well. Beating apparent Nike Stack Texas was not really a conclusive test, because they just aren't glued together as a team.

But its clear that the second Texas game really juiced Self up, because BAD BALL dispatched an apparent NIKE STACK that wasn't playing very well'; that was a great stepping stone.

To beat an apparent NIKE STACK that is playing well, we have to be able to slow the pace to 60 possessions or less, get five plus FGAs, win a protection stat, and win a strip stat, while getting 30+FTAs to the apparent NIKE STACK's 20 FTAs. If we can get 40 FTAs we are in the clover.

We won't get any blocks against an apparent NIKE STACK, so it doesn't matter that our guys can't block. Blocking is their stat that we cannot deny them. Instead we have to turn the blocks into our second shots. We cannot rebound with the footers, except off blocks. But when we drive and shoot, it makes if very difficult for the footers to figure out where the ball is coming off.

If we can do the above, no matter how many shots of ours they block, we will be in the game at the end.

And the team that is most used to playing BAD BALL at the end in a close game has the ONLY edge possible against a 10 OAD/TAD apparent NIKE STACK.

Self knows this team cannot advance far without Perry and more continuity of offense.

But he also knows that the more KU puts their heads down and drives it, the more defenses are going to tighten it up and the more KU's offense can achieve some continuity.

This is a nip and tuck kind of offense; this BAD BALL.

But the key to making it really hard to guard is the stretch 4.

Switching between perimeter guys driving it and playing through the stretch four for periods of time can stress any kind of an opponent.

BAD IS BEAUTIFUL from here on.

And when our TREY ballers find the range again, and they will if we can just keep surviving and advancing, we can play this kind of game against anybody and keep it close till the end.

BAD BALL HUNTS.

It even worked for Trent and his Horned Frogs.

If they had had just a bit more skill, they could have clipped KU today, because KU was playing a make shift lineup most of the game.

Good for Trent. Embracing BAD BALL could save Trent's job.

@jaybate-1.0 Bad Ball, I swear you need to patent that and sell it to Div 1 teams who come up short in recruiting. Basically everyone cept UK and Dook and AZ.

Glad our boys won today, survive and advance! Can we beat Baylor a 3rd time?
I like our chances but wont be surprised if the Bears beat us. The only guys we have that can keep their big PF off the glass and body up to him are Landen and...Landen. Maybe Mickelson.

@Lulufulu well we have done it twice!

@Crimsonorblue22 You are right, we have. And, Self > Drew. We all know that. But, if Perry is still out, Im wondering if our chances against Baylor will be negative.

@Lulufulu remember these same guys w/out BG, should have beat OU at OU!

@Crimsonorblue22 Truth.

@Lulufulu

I would be brimming with confidence if we had not lost Perry and were not so uncertain about what he will and won't be able to do if we get him back at all.

But let's face it, this team IS the basketball Merrill's Marauders. They are trying to do something no one else has tried to do before them. No one else has tried to fight this way before. There is only one general that even really grasps the principles of this new kind of hardwood warfare. And he's our guy.

I recently read about what made Merrill's Marauders so different from other jungle fighting forces before them.

Before Merrill's Marauders, jungle fighters relied on trails to maneuver for battle in the jungle. They moved on trails and they ambushed the enemy on trails. They relied on camouflage and ambush. They did not rely on any complicated timed maneuvers through the dense jungle. They stayed in large groups and moved in large groups until they deployed into a position for ambush.

Brigadier General Frank Merrill decided to do it differently. The Marauders abandoned movement on trails when there was any risk of enemy ambush. Each man carried a compass and was given a set of individual timed maneuvers to carry out. Each man moved through the jungle separately at a considerable distance to ensure the survivability of the unit in ambush conditions. Each individual soldier was mapped through an area with a set of written instructions. Follow this compass bearing for so many minutes at such and such a pace. The instructions caused the Marauders to grow increasingly dispersed and to reconverge at a destination miles away. What I took away from this was that Merrill had discovered the concept of a network and of moving men like information packets around an internet to maximize the survivability of his force AND to ensure concentration of his force at a point of attack that the enemy would not be able to anticipate. The brilliance of this innovation is hard to gauge in our net centric world paradigmn. Now we take net centric solutions to ensure survivability for granted. But back in those days, really only the Navies of the world thought even in a rudimentary way in these terms. In essense, Merrill was turning his Marauders, a small military force, into a jungle convoy zigging and zagging, breaking into different elements and recombining and breaking and recombining so that the Marauders were nearly impossible to ambush decisively, and yet prone to converge force when attack was deemed advantageous. Through 1100 miles of jungle they moved this way. At first the men were sure it would not work. They feared operating independently as individuals in dense jungle. Afraid of becoming lost. Desperate for the reassurance of the group. But over time and over endless repetitions, they Marauders learned to move this way reliably and confidently. They realized it made them hard to kill. Hard to ambush. Hard to destroy the group It made the realize that each one of them could be found if they just stayed on course and waited at an obstacle, or a point of injury, simply by a few of those in the converged group ahead back tracking the trail their buddy was supposed to have walked, but for some reason did not complete.

To move through the jungle this way was not pretty. There was no marching together in cadence and singing songs. There was for considerable periods no one to complain and bitch to. But it kept the unit alive. And a dangerous fighting force. it worked.

Time and again young men in jungle warfare for the first times in their lives went up against seasoned, hardened, tested, Japanese jungle fighters and prevailed in small skirmish after small skirmish. 1100 miles through mountainous jungle!!!!

Nothing is written.

Petition that henceforth we refer to Bill Self as Bad Bill.

@jaybate-1.0 Fascinating stuff about WWII tactics of the Marauders. I wish I knew more about Perry's knee. But, he was out there in warm up sweats, thats better than street clothes right? Maybe the Docs will clear him to play by next week. Maybe Coach held him out of the TCU game, just as insurance. Give him a solid knee brace and I bet he can play. He might not be as effective off the bounce but he could play. Of course playing injured gives a greater chance of getting injured more seriously.
Coach Self has to piece together his line ups and play Bad Ball with an injured team. "We're just kind of make-shifting," Self said. "Today was a good game for us in this regard because we had to play a way we haven't practiced very much at all."
Our guys are tough as nails, they wont lay down for anyone. An injured animal is more dangerous backed into a corner, and our Jayhawks are dangerous.

Nothing is written

**[bolded text](

@approxinfinity Bad Bad Bill's Bad Bad BALL!