We controlled the game till the end.
Then Costello returned and quietly sealed the inside off, while Valentine hung 19 of his 29 the second half.
We shot 20% from trey.
We shot in the 30s overall.
We shot back to our average, as I dry washed about the day before the game.
We also showed that our inside game is somewhat improved (Perry can actually score b2b some without spinning, and the Traylor/Lucas tandem got 14 reebs and 7 points, rather than zip/zip like last season, but it appeared not enough to go up against a Costello. And Costello won't be the best we will face this season.
Had we shot even slightly better, we would have won. Shoot our average and we would have walked away with it.
Tom Izzo is a damned good coach.
He beat us fair and square. He didn't bring out the tire irons. It was Izzo's statement to Bill that not only can I beat you with tire irons, but I can beat you playing within the rules. Self knew he had been schooled at the end. Self looked just as baffled by Izzo, as most of the other coaches look when beaten by Self. Izzo is still better than Self at coaching this game. Self gets to go back to work and keep getting better.
Obviously, I don't view this game the way most did. It was a bitter loss alright, but it seems hardly a disgrace to lose by 4-5 to a nationally ranked team coached by one of this generations great coaches on what will be one of our worst shooting nights of the season.
We WOULD have beaten them on an average shooting night. Period.
How Izzo manage to out maneuver Self down the stretch should go in a coaching clinic video, not because Izzo did it, but because Izzo did it without resorting to his usual tire irons. He seemed to surprise Self and the team with playing it straight. Self had pulled in his horns and shifted into Bad Ball for the last 8 minutes expecting the onslaught of thug ball. Clearly Self figured to win it at the line down the stretch. But, as I suggested, Izzo just closed down the paint, both to scoring and to rebounding, to KU with Costello, and let Valentine play drive ball on the other end.
KU lost its composure on offense. The danger of playing three guards on the perimeter was exposed by the master coach that Izzo is. He pressured the ball out of Mason's hands and into Devonte and Wayne's hands, by applying serious pressure on Mason, who when he wasn't driving, shifted it to Devonte And Wayne to become quarterbacks. This did not work at all, because Devonte had never had to produce at closing time against a really tough defensive team like Izzo's teams are. KU's perimeter was exposed for how small it really is. KU's perimeter defenders, after getting stuffed repeated on the offensive end, then ceased playing up and under defense on the larger, stronger Spartans. And that was the end of it. No stops. And really bad shot selection by Selden and Graham. REALLY BAD!
That our bigs could not be productive when Costello came back in was no surprise. Costello is a real, brawny, if not too tall, big man. He owns his space the way a post man should. He played poorly and fouled up the first half, but when he came back he was all blue collar and lunch pail and getter her done focus. Nothing fancy. Just seal, and seal, and seal some more.
The bright spot in the game was Perry Ellis who really played superbly without significant step up from anyone on the team. Traylor and Lucas played to their abilities, which was not bad, but they simply lack the tools to be a decisive force. That we knew going in. No matter who plays in the paint for KU this season, the paint is going to be a place where the most we can hope for is a wash. We can never beat a ranked team in the paint even if Diallo and Bragg were given the starting spots and Perry moved to the 3, which will surely happen sooner or later if Diallo clears. But until then, last night was WYSIWYG for awhile.
Frankly, Self played the game exactly as I expected after I blended @REHawk's take with my own insights.
Quick possessions the first half.
Bad Ball the second half.
Cold shooting and atrocious play by Wayne shot the team in the foot.
Devonte's poor play then put it out of its misery.
But I told everyone Bad Ball was part of the plan.
Please prepare yourselves, because with this front court, it will remain so, no matter who he plays in the front court.
