@ralster When Self was putting the heels of his palms on his forehead down the stretch, he did not appear to be letting them lose one.
The team came out a step slower than UT and stayed that way the entire game. Perry had a spurt of hard play the first 5-6 minutes of the second half. Selden weirdly waited 6-8 minutes into the second half before starting to play really hard. The interesting thing was that when Perry and Selden played harder for the stretches that they did, they scored a lot of points in a hurry. Maybe there is a take away point for these guys from this. :-)
But why did Perry go hard for about 5-6 minutes the second half and then not carry through to the end? Same with Selden. Why did Selden wait a bunch of minutes into the second half before turning it on?
And in the bigger picture, why did Wiggins, and Naadir, and Mason, for that matter, never turn it on? It was bizarre to watch the energy levels of everyone but Embiid and Traylor.
The most logical and probable answer is that the guys have run out of gas; that none of them have ever had to carry the mail this consistently for this long of a stretch in their careers and they simply burned out.
I have been commenting for awhile now that KU's rush into the conference lead may be attributable to Self going with the soft and slow start in order to avoid burning the team out in the much longer season this season. By this I have meant that KU players have probably not been as burned out as the opponents, who's coaches probably stuck to a more conventional routine.
But the advantage of that soft and slow start has probably been only to defer the midseason freshman burnout, not avoid it.
It seems reasonable that the combination of the fading advantage of the soft and slow start plus the fact that injuries have begun to seriously deplete the team converged during the Texas game and Texas hammered KU.
The injuries plaguing the team are being sharply underestimated by many IMHO.
Embiid appears about 75% of what he was before the injury.
Black just played a handful of minutes.
Those two are the first and second string centers right there and remember that this team got good, when it decided to play through its big men. What made KU so tough the last several games before Black and Embiid got his knee "fine," was that Self started two good bigs, and followed with Black and Traylor, who were becoming very good together in relief.
Now, one of the two starting bigs is hampered and Texas did not really have to double Joel as much as he has been in the past. In turn, that means Perry becomes the focus to shut down. But the team's injury problem does not end with the bigs.
Conner Frankamp is flat not playing.
At first, losing Frankamp seemed a tolerable loss. But his loss is having a significant ripple effect I did not foresee and here is how. Self can't stay small anymore, if he wants to. Before Frankamp's injury, if Self wanted to stay small, he could buy Tharpe and Mason breathers the first half with Frankamp, so that Tharpe and Mason were fresh. He could also pull Tharpe, or Mason and go with Frankamp, when Tharpe, or Mason, were not clicking. Frankamp seemed inconsequential, but in fact his absence significantly hampers what Self can do. Self goes with Greene more now, but Greene doesn't keep them small. And Self has seemed more comfortable putting Frankamp in pressure situations than he has Greene, even though it is apparent that Self has been working harder to develop Greene than Frankamp.
AW3 is starting to get Frankamp's minutes. He got 4 against Texas. That's good, but AW3 keeps Self long.
Another worrisome issue on the injury front is historically, whenever a KU starter suddenly becomes sharply less productive, within a few games we learn he has been injured for awhile.
Tharpe had 3 points in 26 minutes.
Perry had 11 points in 29 minutes, which is a bit off for him, but more concerning is he only had 2 reebs, no steals and no blocks.
AWigs played 30 and had 7 points, 1 defensive rebound, and 0 blocks. As with Perry, the low scoring can be blamed on an off night. But 1 rebound and 0 blocks for one of the high jumping OADs, the Number One draft choice, in D1? That is a rather sharp reversal from recent performances--one not entirely related to vissisitudes of shooting.
So: while KU and Wigs were do for a bad game, after 6-7 good ones, I cannot help but look at the sudden, sharp downturns by Tharpe, Perry and Wiggins and wonder if we may not learn in a few games that one, two, or three of them were "nicked up," or someone in their families has gotten sick, or what have you.
Self apparently had nothing negative to say about Wiggins game afterwards, which is kind of remarkable to me, when an opposing team player says UT's bigs had Wiggins scared. But Wigs has been on a role, so maybe Self is giving him a pass.
What Self did focus on were the bigs, two of which played injured. Self said their bigs played bigger than our bigs. Their speed offset our length. And our bigs were soft.
Playing on a braced knee and coming out of a boot are apparently not excuses.
In Embiid's case, Self made a point the day before the game of saying it was going to be interesting to see how Joel responded to playing someone nearly as tall and much heavier and stronger than him; i.e., someone he could not just stand flat footed and block and alter on. Though I agree with everyone that Joel got the short end of the stick on foul calls, and that Joel fought hard, the bottom line was that he could not meet the challenge (and the muscle) they meted out.
However, Joel should not get the blame for it entirely. Of course his knee limited him. But the big worry is that none of Joel's teammates came to his assistance when he was getting the shizz beaten out of him. EVER!
Perry seemed to run away from the brawling and that is very concerning. Perry seemed to want no part of protecting his fellow post man. Perry seemed not to want to dish anything out in pay back for what was done to Joel.
The days of Thomas Robinson forearm smashing rebounders that gave the Morrii, or Jeff Withey trouble, smashing them hard across the face seem an ancient memory.
Joel seems as naked and undefended by his teammates out on the floor as Jeff Withey did that first half season his junior year, before Jeff got his lip split open and kept coming and earned Thomas and Tyshawn's admission into the inner circle. Joel is not yet in the inner circle of this team, because it increasingly appears that this team has no inner circle--no hardened TRob and TT.
Guys will run around the floor and huff and puff at opponents for roughing up one of their own, but that is not how it is done in D1. In D1, you have to do the payback during the next few plays, and you have to do it in a way that you get away with it. Most of TRob's forearm smashes were so beautifully delivered within the rebounding action that the refs never called them. Hurt a Morrii, or Jeff the next season, and something wicked this way came in very short order.
Who is going to dish out pain among what HEM has rightfully called the Finesse Family? Who?
It has to be a big man. Selden can hurt a guard or two, but the guards are not who need hurting in a game like Texas. In that game, someone had to pay for Embiid's treatment and no one did, and so it continued.
Embiid has done a pretty good job of dishing out the punishment on behalf of the other guys, but when Joels hour of need arises, when he is playing a wide load sign in tennis shoes with a bunch of head hunting prison bodies for friends, suddenly Joel has no one in his corner. NO ONE!
Of course everyone knows where this is leading.
Black's in a boot, so it isn't going to be him for awhile, anyway.
And when joel is in, Perry usually is too, and Wiggins.
Sure, Self can bring Jam Tray and Landen and tell them to dish some out, but when they are on the bench, who is going to turn into a blue meanie?
Perry Ellis, or Andrew Wiggins?
This is like choosing between Mr. Rogers in his neighborhood, and Big Bird from Sesame Street to dish out pain. Unless, someone at the CIA can turn an MK-ULTRA mind control device on either one, it doesn't seem like either guy has forearm smash in him.
But here is the thing: Perry and Andrew Wiggins were humiliated out on the floor against Texas. The Texas guys beat up their crippled brother and both guys did nothing. The guy guarding Wiggins said Wiggins was SCARED of Ridley and Prince. Perry came out after half time and ran really hard...around the perimeter.
Just between you and me, the guys from Texas appeared to be laughing harder at Perry and Andrew than paid laughers on a laugh track.
And here is the thing again: Texas was not a bunch of 23 year olds like SDSU. Texas was as young as our guys. It was striking to watch. I haven't seen that kind of blatant humiliation and derision since my play ground days.
Don't get me wrong, Butcher Barnes has his Horns schooled not to really rub it in our players' faces, because we were going to have to play again. But my god! Wiggins and Perry were running away from the Texas players so fast it was often hard for the Texas players to catch them and punk them.
So: who was Self referring to when he was saying the bigs were soft? We know it couldn't be Joel, because he was in a brace and getting gang banged. And we know it couldn't be Wiggins and Perry because we know they really ARE SOFT!
Self must have been referring to Landen and Jamari. Landen got 6 minutes and Jamari got 14. So: it looks like Self was sending out an SOS to Jamari. Jam Tray, start dishing it out and you get to be a 20 minute man from here on out.
Landen? Landen did a little bump and shove when he first came in with Ridley, but after that Landen was pretty much a non entity-himself getting backed around like a U-Haul trailer by Texas bigs.
I have never forgotten when Xavier was here. NBA body. OAD. Good gun. Ooozing talent. Looked like the strongest prison body on our team. Actually shaved, unlike Wiggins. But leaving aside entirely whether or not Xavier played his hardest, or not, does anyone ever recall a situation where you thought Xavier was going to dish out pain? Where he was going to lift a finger in a melee? Where he was going to forearm smash in the aerial ballet? I don't. I just never saw him do anything remotely aggressive that way. Anytning aggressive on that team had to come from Cole, Marcus, or Sherron. Tyshawn was not yet out of Camp Finesse yet. He was still falling away on lay ups. Well, Brady would trip and run. But if any business had to be taken care of, it came down to Cole and Marcus on the inside. The X man? Didn't see it.
I mention Xavier merely to say hoping for Wiggins to mix it up is like wishing for a house cat to chase a buffalo.
Ain't gonna happen.
The Designer seems to still be getting his mail in Camp Finesse, so, again, probably ain't gonna happen.
So: I see Jamari, or Landen, getting more minutes, based on who decides to add taking care of business to his resume, at least until Tarick gets a working wheel.
Yes, as HEM says, this team is always going to be The Finesse Family.
But even The Finesse Family as to keep one baseball bat in the house, don't they?
(Note: I am not advocating injury threatening violence, just the kind of pay back that has gone on in the game, since at least the1930s when my father played.)
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