(Note: for Mrs @drgnslayr)
It is with regret that I have to inform Jayhawk nation that the 2014-15 Jayhawk Expeditionary Force affectionately nicknamed by me this arduous season as Basketball’s Merrill’s Marauders were repelled today at the Battle of Omaha on their long slog to reach Myitkyina.
The team fought through 36 games of unparalleled adversity and appeared to have found a way to play and win in the face of the most difficult condititions a team might be expected to face.
Their long slog through the metaphorical Burma jungle ended at an arena in Omaha on 22 March 2015.
It was a tale of two games.
There was the game from tipoff to the moment in the first half when talented, experienced, savvy, hard nosed, and apparently win at nearly any cost, Fred Van Vleet drove the ball beautifully into KU’s jumping Perry Ellis and then apparently opted to use his elbow as a weapon to strike Perry Ellis in the face hard enough to not only bloody Ellis’ nose, but also to appear to leave Ellis dazed and confused for a time, and to never thereafter appear to recover full clarity of athletic state of mind the rest of the game.
And then there was the game after that moment in which KU chose not to retaliate for the egregiously unnecessary foul of Ellis by Van Vleet.
In the first game, we saw a business like KU team playing its now patented brand of BAD BALL and methodically pulling away from a clearly less physically talented WSU team.
After the apparent punking of Perry Ellis, we saw a KU team appear to grow tentative, then intimidated, and then finally fall briefly apart the last minute before the end of the first half.
After the half, we saw the second of the two games continue with KU still not retaliating against WSU, or getting any more physical in a non-retaliatory way, and we saw a flurry of high energy, high contact horizontal basketball played by WSU help WSU begin to steadily pull away from KU until the middle of the second half, when the tentative and intimidated Jayhawks found themselves fully abandoning BAD BALL and retreating into long passing at angles that the exceptional WSU lane jumping defenders could make make strips in. Still the game was not out of reach, given the time remaining in the second half, if stops could be had, and offensive flow restored even partially.
But then WSU began a series of BAD BALL possessions in which the WSU version of BAD BALL was played perfectly and KU began to collapse from the overwhelming physical beating it was being administered inside and outside.
Boys that thought themselves men, because of the terrible rigors they had overcome this long season, soon found themselves to be boys still. Scared boys. Increasingly frightened boys. And finally as whipped currs, as granny jaybate 1.0 once said of little jaybate 1.0 coming home whining about a bully having punched his lights out and being sent back out to get the bully, or not come home to granny’s house. They grew some grannies pretty tough in those days still.
This was a point when the team was ten down with some six or so minutes remaining, if I recall correctly, and had the KU team been able to regain its fortitude, and composure, defended cohesively and generally found its cojones, it could have surely made a game of it, even then.
But instead, WSU played exactly the way KU has played BAD BALL down the stretch, and exactly as ISU played it down the stretch on KU and in the end, today, KU’s players finally broke and beat themselves, the same way other teams have beaten themselves for KU. Jamari Traylor on one leg could not keep up with the ferociously motivated, much stronger inside players of WSU. Landen Lucas could not play 40 minutes and take the pounding that was dished out by the WSU players and stay effective. Perry Ellis did not ever appear to regain normal consciousness looking a bit foggy in the eyes and a bit slow in the reactions. Frank Mason’s right leg, reinjured some time in the first and second half jousting administered to him by Fred VanVleet, when VanVLeet was not busy punking Perry Ellis, finally went dead and became an appendage mostly good for dragging around behind him the final ten minutes. Kelly Oubre learned that he doesn’t really weigh enough yet, nor carry enough muscle mass to bang with anyone that he cannot out jump, or outrun and he could do neither to those that guarded him today. Devonte Graham hung in and continued to scrap on defense, but could not finally cope on offense with the constant contact and lane jumping that the entire WSU defensive team employed more and more brilliantly as the game went on. Brannen Greene, who seemed to have found the range versus NMSU, lost it as swiftly as he had found it. The basket became a chimera from three point range for him and the rest of his increasingly weak kneed and demoralized Marauders, who finally ran out of weapons to fight with at a village called Omaha.
But even I, a devotee of the trey, doubt that this game would have been won by good three point shooting, or more 3ptas. KU shot 21 and made 29%. WSU shot only 20, while making 50%. Making half our treys would have made it close for sure, probably would have reduced it to a tie game and we are good at those kinds of games. But something else would have been necessary. Shooting more treys probably would surely have have been a dead end today with the amount of body contact WSU was putting on every shot all over the floor and getting away with.
This was a Bad Ball versus XTReme Bad Ball—a contest that would never have let either side decide the game with three point shooting except maybe on the last possession. One team was going to have the hotter hand; that was all, and one team was going to be shooting from intimidation; that was all. This kind of game has to be won another way.
This was BAD BALL without the punking and win at any cost cheapshotting (KU) versus XTReme BAD BALL with the punking and win at any cost cheap shotting. (WSU)
In this tale of two games, KU faced a choice after the punking little Fred Van Vleet gave big Perry Ellis. Get down in the mud with Fred. Or not.
It was a decisive moment.
Play it anyway they want, or don’t.
On the playground there is not even a moment’s hesitation.
Among my father’s generation, those that played in the 1930s, there was no hesitation at any level of the organized game. You ran under, or flipped the guy the next time he left the floor. And if he wouldn’t leave the floor you found their most important player.
It was a kind of moment that a coach like Coach K probably would not have flinched at unleashing a torrent of counter cheap shotting at, as he appeared to do in a national title game against Butler a few years back.
It was a kind of moment that Bill Self at times has even appeared to resort to Cheap Shotting lite as a counter, and at times has not.
We will never know what yard stick Coach Self used to make the decision of whether or not to retaliate, because such retaliation is never discussed publicly by any coach that I recall.
I suspect he may use a rule of thumb that goes something like this: if we intend to foul them up, then you don’t retaliate in hopes of getting the refs on your side and getting a bunch more calls to go your way. If you intend to win a grind game and fouls be damned, then you retaliate shortly.
In today’s second game, the referees were not won over by our peaceful turning of the other cheek, and our players, not surprisingly grew first tentative, then intimidated, and then cracked completely.
Self’s decision was a calculated risk. He had seen how tough his team had grown in recent weeks. He had seen them overcome incredible adversity. He bet that they could stand up to the inevitable ground swell of intimidation that ensues when a bully is allowed to get away with an egregious play.
He bet wrong.
His young men, my beloved Basketball’s Merrill’s Marauders, were not up to just playing ball and standing up under the attacks to follow.
The Marauders had a metaphorical rabid pitbull down in the first game.
Their lack of retaliation, combined with the referees’ apparent refusal to right the wrong themselves, appeared to let a rabid pitbull get off the leash in the second game.
And the rabid pit bull finally chewed the KU team to pieces.
I have a hunch that Coach Self is very shortly going to get a lot chances to avenge this loss.
I have a hunch that Greg Marshall may shortly be the head coach of the University of Texas.
He would be my choice, if I were the University of Texas, if I were to have grown tired of Coach Barnes.
But if/when Greg Marshall gets hold of a major program allied with the Nike brand, that has already had one season's talent stacking and could get another very quickly, and were it to play the kind of XTReme BAD BALL that Marshall’s Wheat Shockers displayed today, unless Coach Self joins the 9-10 draft choice talent stacking club, I am not sure if Coach Self will capitalize on many of those opportunities to avenge the loss.
That failure to retaliate, however much I respect Coach Self for not doing so, and so not risking the safety and reputation of one of his players, and even though I might have been tempted not to be so principled, may turn out to have been a tipping point in his KU coaching tenure. But that is grist for the off season mills.
In this tale of two games, there remains one thread of the story obviously dangling and unaddressed.
Wayne Selden, Jr.
Wayne was a no show, as he has been intermittently all season.
It was an odd thing to watch.
I don’t know if anyone on the team—Coaches, players, or Wayne--will offer an explanation or not. He has played very well of late. Not today.
I don’t know if there is an explanation for this was not so much an off day, or a poor performance, as a non-day.
I have not yet read the stories, or watched the press conferences. Maybe an injury, a death in the family, or a broken heart will surface. Such things happen in the course of a long season.
But for now, sans any extenuating circumstances, Wayne was a guy that ought to have been able to play well, or at least hard, in this kind of a game.
But he disappeared…completely. He played so poorly that at crunch time he was not put in. A 17 year old bench warmer from the Ukraine was.
Perhaps a sports psychologist can help Wayne.
Good players are not supposed to disappear in big games. They may have off shooting games. Or they make mistakes. But they are not supposed to dematerialize.
When one goes down the box score, it could be said that Frank and Van Vleet played to a wash. For the record Frank got 16 points.
Perry was not sterling, but despite getting his bell run, nose bloodied, and playing on a sore knee, he still showed up and recorded 17 points and nine rebound, about what I had hoped for.
Kelly Oubre had the kind of bad game a good player has sometimes and it cost us. Mr. Draft Choice got 9 points and Tekele Cotton, all 6-3 muscular inches of him torched Kelly for 19. Clearly Kelly was not quick enough to cover Tekele and Kelly’s extra four inches and 7 wing span didn’t help spit.
Landen Lucas could not get in the offensive flow, but he grabbed 10 rebounds and made no TOs. I don’t see Landen as the heart of the problem, though most teams have a center that can at least get 9-10 points.
Jamari Traylor played one of his okay games with 4 points and 5 rebounds in only 17 minutes on one working leg, so on the list of the usual suspects, he can released on his own recognizance.
We even contained Darius Carter okay.
But a lot of this, fully 12 points of this loss, comes down squarely on Wayne Selden, Jr, getting smoked by Ron Baker, who played 37minutes, scored 12 points and shut Wayne down to 0 points in 23 pitifully played minutes by Wayne.
It was easy to see last season against Stanford that Andrew Wiggins appeared to phone one in perhaps to protect the merchandize, after Embiid apparently decided not to come back.
But what was Wayne Selden, Jr.s excuse today?
Is the NBA drafting him on his potential?
It is interesting, if painful to look at the box score and note that KU accomplished much that I thought it needed to do to win this game.
KU was even on TOs and near even on Steals.
Frank held his own with Van Vleet.
KU was +6 on rebounding.
Devonte played a lot of minutes and gave Frank some blows on and off the court, even though Devonte was inefficient shooting (5-13), after Frank’s right leg went dead.
KU played to even on FTAs, which was the kind of wash I kind of expected from two teams that try to get to the FT line and try to keep others off it.
But KU couldn’t get anyone fouled up early, or late; in the first game, or the second one.
KU could not guard WSU in the paint, which it seemed a certainty that our size would allow us to do.
And KU could not score efficiently in the paint (35%).
KU’s bench even outscored WSU 21 to 8. KU hardly ever loses when that happens.
In the end, four things decided the outcome of this game.
Wayne Selden, Jr., folded like Optimus Prime getting his All Spark yanked out of his chest.
Freshman Kelly got torched by sage old Tekele Cotton, which happens sometimes.
Normal offensive and defensive production from those two alone would have made us easy winners, despite the next two items.
Our guys got intimidated after Van Vleet punked Perry and they never regained their manhoods.
WSU’s players were much more fiercely competitive on the 50/50 balls.
What I cannot explain is why items 1, 2, 3, and 4 had to happen today against WSU.
I like WSU’s moxie.
I like WSU’s aggressiveness and willing to win at any cost (well, I don’t really like it, but in a tournament known for whistle swallowing I appreciate the efficacy of playing that way).
i like how tough WSU played.
But bottom line, KU had to play one of its worst games of the season to go down 78-65.
So: I am going to conclude that the loss had much more to do with what KU did not do, what game KU did not bring, what will to stand up to intimidation KU could not muster, rather than what WSU did do.
Beat us at our best, WSU, and you’ve got something to brag about. Beat us at our worst, and punk us to do it, and you’ve got something cheap shot artists that will soon be wearing their asses for hats get to talk trash about for the off season.
WSU could have played that exact same game against KU, if KU had hung on to its cojones, and had Wayne and Kelley come to play, KU would be advancing to the next game.
That was WSU’s best game. Congratulations. That was KU’s worst game. We’ve got some more soul searching to do.
Coach Self and Kelly and Wayne are going to have to look in the mirror together on this one.
Coach Self has to decide how to respond more effectively to a punking of his star stretch 4 and he has to ask himself why he kept Perry at the high post in the middle of the floor clogging up Frank’s driving lanes so much of the game?
6-7 draft choice Kelly has to ask himself how he let 6-3 Tekele Cotton eat him alive, and what real NBA 3s will do to him next season?
And Wayne Seden, Jr. has to ask himself why he appeared not even to try hard in the biggest game of his life? What is it about trying hard that is so elusive? I didn’t notice anyone else on your team not trying hard. Some played ineptly, but they tried, Wayne. I didn’t see anyone on WSU having trouble lighting the candle for this game. You stuck out a bit out there.
And we are all going to have put up with the echoes of Mrs. @dragnslayr using the P-word for the entire off season.
