You sir coined the name, but I'm asking if we can rename them? After to nights performance they need a cool name.
Maybe?
Herculean Five
The Gang of Five
Take your lunch Five
The Big Five
The Mob Squad
Paint Monsters
The super 5 (ok kind of corny)
But What do you say @jaybate-1.0 ? How a bout a new title for our fable 5
@jaybate-1.0 Strange and effective is right! So long as we can keep winning I think Bill Self will enjoy the task of mixing and matching this season. Lose two in a row, however, and the C5 had best brace up for lotsa C2 or C3.
Teammates
Carbon fiber 5. Strong. Good at what they do and light weight.
The Flummox 5
Go the Bob Dylan route "Obviosly five believers" OFB for short?
“And Carlton (Bragg, two points, six minutes) gave us some good things. Cheick (Diallo, four points first half) made two big baskets in the first half. Landen (Lucas, two minutes) didn’t play a lot. I thought Hunter (Mickelson two points, eight minutes), even though he starts, he’s sort of a bench guy. They all play the same. If you add that position together we got some good production,” Self said.
I would normally credit BS but @jaybate-1.0 said it first.
It will be interesting to see which Big 12 coach figures out how to stop C5.
If it were me, I would run a high post offense with a postman that can make the Trey. It solves everything, especially if you have good boarding 4 that can score inside. But no team this season has this....yet.
Bringing it!!!
Lunch Pail 5
How about "Inglourious Basterds?"
They've got a tough job to do, and when they do it, their competitors are surely cussing...
Wait.. that name has been taken...
How about...
"The Pentagon"
"Department of Defense"
"The Bang Gangers"
"The Pain Gang"
"The Rim Gems"
....
I kind of like "The Rim Gems"
Play the best player.
@drgnslayr said:
“Inglourious Basterds?”
I like it, but it may not spread to on air usage.
Screw it. I'll go with it.
"Play the Best Player" beasts for another double double. :-)
The Expendables.
The Interchangeables.
The Swiss Army Knife of Basketball.
The One size does not fit all.
The Anonymous Five.
The Five Amigos
The Anything you want..we got it gang.
@JayHawkFanToo For now, I'm happy with C5. Or C-5. Or C/5.
However, I could handle 5bc (by committee).
Play the best player.
What if the best player is having a bad night? Why not go to the bench? Why not use the depth KU has? Why not keep cycling our bigs in so they are always game ready. Why not send a message to future recruits KU is about winning conference, conference tournament, and national championships? Why not send a message to future recruits that KU is a team?
Besides if KU is going to push the pace we need bodies and not just bodies but bodies that can do something. I always hate and never understood why coaches with a deep team always want shorten the lineup. Then when a game goes the wrong way and bodies are needed? Then coach goes to the bench expecting no drop off in performance even though the kids haven't played all year.
For the rest of KUBuckets
I'm kind of liking the "Inglourious Bastereds" too.
Maybe we should take a vote?
@DoubleDD You asked the following, with my responses.
What if the best player is having a bad night? Play him. Your best player will, over time, give you the best results. If you try to time the market, so to speak, you'll miss much of the time. We just don't know when a player will implode or explode. We have no idea what Bragg would have done last night, for example, in minutes 8-18 if he would have gotten 10 more minutes of PT. It just worked out in this game -- the micro. From a macro standpoint, you play the best player. That gives you the most reliable result.
Why not go to the bench? Maybe, for a breather. But speculating on whether an inferior player will perform better than the better player is just that, speculation.
Why not use the depth KU has? Every team, generally, has 10 or more available scholarship players. First, the depth has to be good depth. some of ours over the long term is marginal. Second, if you fall back on depth, you risk significantly removing the better players before they have their good stretch of minutes. Third, as coach Self has said, shortening a rotation is a must so roles are defined.
Why not keep cycling our bigs in so they are always game ready. Because some have significantly lower ceilings, and we're trying to win a national title. The best players need the game minutes to gain experience, to be at their peak come March.
Why not send a message to future recruits KU is about winning conference, conference tournament, and national championships? That's fine, but future recruits (rightly or wrongly) want playing time. But you are right. Not a bad message. It's a team game. But we also have to recognize that other schools value those things too, perhaps with the NC being the first priority, and still play the higher ceiling guys more. In fact, a great majority do it that way.
Why not send a message to future recruits that KU is a team? Can't argue there. The issue becomes whether recruits want to risk sitting behind low ceiling experience. It's the age we live in.
We are seeing crazy things these days? Who would of thought that Coach would say we need to take more threes or jump shots? In years past you be spot on. Yet this is that magical season. All the tried and true thoughts are going to the way side.
I'm for playing the top talent. Damn near got run off KUbuckets for my stance on that. Yet I'm also a believer in playing to your strengths.
If your strength is a deeeeeeep bench then why not use it? In fact I'll probably get banned from KUBuckets for this statement. Yet I believe what I believe. There is no reason Graham and Mason should be playing the minutes they are..
Maybe I'm wrong but I believe that KU is the best when they tap into that deep bench. Traylor played a great game. Not sure we win with out him?
Also think about it like this. If Coach plays his bench Bragg and Diallo don't get into foul trouble. Meaning as they progress and get better. If a tournament game comes down to the wire. Bragg and Diallo can be on the floor.
Maybe I'm wrong, just my two cents.
The way I read Bill Self's decision to go with Jamari and Brannen for so many minutes at San Diego: currently, they are the two team members whose mental/emotional well being needed a boost. Of course, Brannen might not have gotten such an opportunity if Wayne hadn't fallen into foul trouble two and a half minutes into the game. The second half flow was running smoothly with Jamari, so Self chose to ride with it. Will lack of game minutes slow the development of rising superstars Bragg and Diallo? Probably. On the flipside, maybe they will concentrate more in practice sessions, determined to correct errors which their coach saw in limited game minutes.
I will side with the thought that Coach knows best how to advance team play while risking less chance of a pre-Christmas loss. After all, the Aztecs went on a Denzel Valentine- type tear, closing the gap to 4 points before getting hammered. Self's the guy earning big bucks to keep his thumb on the pulse of a 13 year Jayhawk run with an 82% winning record. Gotta hope that Bragg and Diallo stay hungry and determined to advance. Perhaps, at this stage of the season, BIll Self is protecting them from the dismal headlines and criticism recently earned by the likes of John Calipari's struggling Labissiere.