Bill Self is a determined man. When he finds a path that works and promises to make a team the best it can be, he does not give up the path just because of a little adversity.
It is Self's willingness to persevere against seemingly long odds that triggers the most doubt and criticism of Mr. 600--the nominated Hall of Famer. Self clearly comes from the "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" school. Detractors get their diplomas from "path of least resistance" high. Some times, Self shifts paths to the delight of those that like to do the "obviously logical thing." This essentially involves changing "the way we play." Exhibit A would be shifting from inside out to outside in. More often Self stays the course and things can get pretty ugly--on the floor, an among fans--before the team learns to adapt, so it can keep being "who we set out to be."
The season ending injury to Udoka Azuibuke appears to have delivered Self and fans to one of those moments.
The path of least resisters already think the choice is clear: the loss of a key big means go from a mix of 4-1 and 3-2 to a mix of 4-1 and 5-0. It's elementary to them. There aren't enough qualified bigs to stay the course and rely on a committee of 4 post players swinging between 1 and 2 bigs in the rotation.
But Self's quotes so far signal that, while he does not rule that course change out, he thinks the smart move is to continue down the 4-1 and 3-2 path to max out the potential of this roster..
So get ready for a bumpy stretch. Self made it clear he isn't changing course on "how we play." And he doesn't usually misinform on this issue.
In turn, Self made clear that Lightfoot, or Coleby, now "have to come through" for us.
Which brings me to the candidate most likely expected to "come through": Coleby.
That 1 minute of PT in an easy UNLV road game for Coleby combined with the epic butt chewing Coleby got, means Coleby with the bailing wire knee is about to find out about what "toughening" and sacrifice for team means.
Self was clearly sending Coleby an instant text message in one of the last games Self could afford such messaging.
The message read something like: "Rehab over. Stop. Team and season in dire emergency. Stop. Report to duty NOW. Stop. Play and play effectively even if you have to crawl. Stop."
In short, Self made clear to Coleby it his time to sacrifice for team--to discover the difficult comes easy and the impossible takes a little longer.
And Self put the team on notice that Self is going to put Coleby in the toughening box until they close ranks around Coleby and help him discover the Mario Little meaning of team--the Tyrell Reed meaning of team--the play operable meaning of team.
I got a new range/oven for our kitchen recently. It's one of those models with different sized burners. The salesman called the big, honking burner in front the "hyper burner." Coleby is now on it.
Lightfoot is next, if Coleby is unable to stand the heat.
Self sees a path to a title and a ring--to being the best we can be--swinging between 4-1 and 3-2. He sees something less swinging 4-1 and 5-0.
In this mind set, Coleby and/or Lightfoot have to "come through."
