@HighEliteMajor
I asked, because I really can’t see how this will work—how Self can compensate with scheming. The only things I see Lightfoot having going for him are fundies, want to, and work ethic. Otherwise he looked indistinguishable to me from the bigs on Pin Oak U. Not talking about eye tests, or star counts, here. Talking about actual observable ability to defend and offend vs. typical Big 12 bigs. He had a solid 24 minutes vs. Pin Oak U, but...
What we saw with Doke vs. Pin Oak U is going to be a tendency in many if not most games. Doke gets a foul in the first 3 minutes and Self sits him, as long as possible, to save him for the second half. Playing Doke 35 minutes as happened against UK’s saplings at start of season won’t work by January, much less March.
Further, by then, If Doke gets a foul the first 3 minutes of the second half, then Doke will likely sit till ten to go. This season is like 2012, but with a foul prone Withey replacement, no TRob, no back up, but lots of perimeter scorers. With this year’s bigs, I don’t see how this hunts, unless Self:
a.) hat rabbits another big;
b.) schemes something like the small Wooden teams—a place he seems unwilling to go; or
c.) devise something heretofore unseen among college ball elites—at least since the 1960s.
I know many seem to think Mitch can become a 5th year senior his second season, because we need him, or because Self can nip and tuck the way he did with Jamari, but even Jamari was explosive and played in 3-5 man paint rotations.
This seems like a really sticky wicket going forward that turns to super glue with injury to Doke, or Mitch.
But Self does amazing things in these sorts of situations.
If I were Self, right now I would be practicing a lot of 5-0 with a set some one hasn’t seen for a long, LONG time, unless he were sure of a hat rabbit in the paint in January. Self absolutely needs a Geico big.
P.S.: I don’t want to beat on Mitch here either. You go with what you have and you make the best of it. But two bigs with Doke likely a 20-25 minute man most nights to protect him for the last 10 minutes and to hold down wear and tear, and Mitch with situational substitute abilities forced into 15-20 minutes most games seems a tough row to hoe. But Mitch may be an ordinary man forced into heroic circumstances and may enter the gallant hours. Until it’s clear there is no hat rabbit coming, that we will all have to BELIEVE and impart the psi of Jayhawk nation to Mitch, I choose to focus on the problem rather than default to faith. One senses this team’s very own private Battle of Midway looms in the mists shortly. Admiral Self’s four deadly attack carriers steaming on his perimeter have survived the fates. His battlewagons in the paint are thinned to 1 dreadnought and 1 light cruiser, both still being shaken down. The USS Preston sits half submerged back at Pearl with unknown prospects for rejoining the fleet. Can Self stay with battle wagon concept in what increasingly looks like a carrier group? Can he stay 4-1, when 5-0 seems who we will be reduced to against top opponents for at least a third to 3/4s of big games, especially against experienced elites?
Go, Bill, go!!!!
This is why you get the big adidas bucks that seem to put us in this situation.
