🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Faith.

We hear the word every day. What does it mean?

Two definitions to choose from:

1) Confidence or trust in a person or thing.

Or

2) A belief that is not based in proof.

You are left with a choice. Choose faith, and you see a bright light at the end of the tunnel – your March life has a purpose. Choose logic, and you stare into the dark chasm of March damnation.

Ah, but is the choice so stark? I see the two definitions of faith, actually, as being a bit contradictory.

If we have confidence or trust in a person or thing, that confidence or trust can be a belief that is actually based in proof, can’t it? Can you not have confidence or trust based upon history and achievement – based on logic?

Faith, therefore, does not necessarily have to lack proof. Right now, there is only one logical recipient of our faith – it is a coach that knows how to win. A coach that has shown the uncanny ability to get teams and players to play to at a high level, regardless of conditions or circumstances. We saw a starting five with no OADs, an unranked transfer, and two walk-ons come to within a few points of a national championship in 2012. One of the most spectacular coaching performances in decades. Self deserves our faith.

So, with the news of the loss of Joel Embiid, the one player in the nation that offers something different than any other player – our X factor -- we have every reason to mope. We can feel sorry for ourselves. We can rationally point to all of the reasons why we won’t win the national title. We can correctly focus on all of the flaws. And that analysis will be completely logical.

There is every reason to say that we “can’t”; and very few reasons to say that we “can.” The weight of the evidence for “can’t” is overwhelming right now.

But then, for some unexplained reason, you might experience an unrestrained flow of positivity. Your mind might create scenarios of success. Not “make believe, no way that can happen” scenarios; but real scenarios where KU wins the national championship. Faith has now overwhelmed “can’t.” It seems perfectly logical. Why? Because we have a coach that is a proven winner. It is the crimson and blue thread that connects faith and logic.

The better path, of course, is to have faith. Faith offers hope. Faith offers comfort. Faith offers direction. Faith is the true precursor to spectacular achievement. Without faith, we are empty. And tourney time is certainly not the time to be empty.

We are at a point in the season when faith offers us so much more than anything else can. It is March, my friends, so please don’t tell me that this team can’t win 6 in a row to conclude the season. It cannot be comprehended, because KU can win it all. KU will win it all. Our destiny awaits. History is defined by incredible achievements that defy logic. Each such achievement, of course, had something in common – faith. All we need is a little faith.

Rock Chalk!

:-) For now, my glass is half full.

@HighEliteMajor Great post HEM!!

Thanks for not being negative.

Right now, the team just has to think "win two games".

They have to have their absolute best focus for two games in order to get Joel back. They need to focus on winning and not be all negative like most posters over on KU Sports. Pretty pathetic over there.

@HighEliteMajor oh man, this is not good news. Sorry guys, I don't have many good feelings at the moment. Joel has a lower back stress fracture. I am an RN. I have taken care of people with lower back probs such as this. Granted they aren't atheletes, but recovery time takes longer than 4 weeks. Full recovery. No more pain, stiffness and much less risk for reinjury. In Joels case, he should heal faster but his risk for reinjury is high. Without our prized big guy we won't make it far this year. Round one of our tourney, round one of the ncaa's. I don't want to see this happen but I fear greatly that it will. The real question becomes, will Joel decide to recover and come back next year, go pro or quit bball all together. I think he should listen to what the specialist Ortho Doc says. Which I would think will be full recovery time and no more ball so as not to risk greater injury. That could mean us finishing 23 and 10. This is absolutely worst case scenario. BUT we have to plan for exactly that in these types of situations.
We may have to look to next years team to hang our hopes on.
All this doom and gloom aside, I love our team, I love KU. Ive been a fan since 88 and I always will be. Im just looking at the stark reality of the situation and it does not look good.

Run the stuff.

Keep Black on the floor.

Don't bench Tharpe for most of the game.

Conserve TOs normally.

Tell Wigs to dish every fourth drive.

Guard.

Repeat.

We will win one b12 tourney game and two Madnees games and then Joel will play with stress fx heeled at about 80 % efficiency. That gets us to the elite 8.

Beyond that Self has to get clever.

@jaybate 1.0 I hope you are right man. From where I am looking, its not good.

It's got me to thinking that we have been quite fortunate on the injury front over the years. BRush lost a season which was a blessing in disguise as it helped us win a NC.
We might have won it all had Simien not had his shoulder hurt in 03, Graves was OK, but he was no Wayne Simien.

Who am I missing? I can't think of any other major injury losses going all the way back to Archie Marshall. I'm not thinking of guys lost for a few games during the regular season either. I'm trying to think of guys whose injury disallowed them to play in the dance.

Didn't Hinrich get injured in the first round one year, and wasn't expected to play the second game? Then he did come in and got a huge ovation, and a huge sigh of relief from KU nation.
Not exactly the same, as he only lost parts of 2 games, but the potential of losing him during the tournament felt huge.

Negative crap. Pessimistic bitching. Angry loud noises. Grunt. Sigh. Aaaarrghh.

The fact that Tharpe is completely worn down...I mean the dude is toast, cooked, and overcooked some more. Way past fatigued. Waaaay past Eljiah Johnsoned...that is the reason this team will not make it out of the first weekend. Not Embiids absence. This team can advance without Embiid, but it cannot navigate the tourney when the HEAD IS CUT OFF. Sorry, but my observation and intuition indicates to me that our head is cut off and won't be mended in time.

Not only is Tharpe worn down, so are Embiid & Selden. Of Course, Wiggins only went about 70% all year so he has plenty of gas left in the tank.

None of these kids were ready, nor could be ready for the physical grinds of a season at a division I school, let a lone the added pressures that come with playing at the top program in the World. Our fandom constantly ridiculing and peering upon them. Having to be on 'point' the way they do. It is not a surprise to me they have lost physical strength and sharp mental focus.

PS. Hey, Myles Turner--come on down. Our coach will push you through injury by questioning your manhood and toughness. If you are lucky, instead of dealing with the problem, maybe he will compound it for you.

This was edited from the previous version, but golly gee do I feel better now :)

@Blown I don't think Tharpe is down for the count. He still has some solid games left in him. He just can't do it consistently, certainly not for 6 games in a row. Probably not even 3 in a row. But I'm going to have faith!

@tundrahok Hey, I know I'm all sour grapes right now. I am not questioning Tharpes want to or will, or any of the players (except maybe Andrews for a part of the season) I just think he's tired. I know he's tired. I see him enough to see it all over him. I just hope he has good couple of tourney games.

@Blown-He may be banged up too. He's smacked a hand & wrist pretty hard a couple of times. We all know how Self keep's his injury info close to the vest.

Great post. I had the displeasure of reading the comments on KUSports this morning, and several of them are ready to pack it in and call it a season. I still have a trophy on my mind.

The only mentality that will harm the team right now is thinking "we just need to survive this first weekend, then Embiid will save us." The guys have to operate under the assumption that Embiid either doesn't come back, or doesn't come back the same. They need to believe they can win a championship without him. If they do that, and play like it, Embiid coming back healthy will just be gravy, and he'll be plugged into a group that's already poised to grab the title. If that happens, look out!

@Virgil_Caine It's disappointing to see so many over on KU Sports.com just giving up on them. Like I said earlier, this team is good enough and talented enough to get to the final four without Embiid. The problem is that they lack the consistent intensity level. If they can somehow get that solved, they have as good of a chance as anyone to get there.

Here is our opportunity to grab a chip and put it on our shoulders. Louisville did it last year when they lost Ware.

This "chip" thing is something I've tried to sell in here ever since I started posting, long ago on KUSports... and few people understand it, because Kansas is always a favorite.

To realize just how far off many Kansas people are from understanding it, read Keegan's article today... he refers to it as "spin."

The term "spin" is a negative... and there is no "faith" in "spin."

It takes faith to develop a chip.

I know people are tired of references to WSU. But they made the FF last year (and should have won that game)... and they did it on faith and the development of a chip. They had 2 starting players that were walk-ons! 2 starting players (including their PG) that were walk-ons on a mid-major. They had no 5 or 4 star recruits... I doubt they even had a 3-star recruit on that team.

I know it bruises some egos to think of our team as not being favorites and that we are underdogs... instead of denying reality, start excepting it. It also means we have the opportunity to advance beyond our expectations, and actually develop some true appreciation for our guys... instead of only criticism if we don't win another expected national championship.

Losing Embiid is a great opportunity for this team. If you understand how this CAN work, and if you truly have FAITH, you will realize this as an opportunity. We have lost our cushion. We have lost our enabler. The rest of the team can no longer play on cruise control. They'll have to fight for their lives if they want to go somewhere in the tournament. Now the reality may sink in. That is the opportunity we have... that reality may sink in because I find it highly unlikely we were going to win out with a healthy Embiid. We counted on him too much. Our guards don't play defense... at all!

Now the eyes need to look around at our players... who (on this team) is ready to stand up and fight? We need this entire team to stand up and fight because that is the requirement in March ALWAYS! We didn't have a team standing up and fighting at West Virginia. Wiggins was ready... alone.

We should be able to make it to the FF starting 2 walk-ons. Instead... we've lost our premiere big man and only have a team full of McDs all americans. And we look at our season like it is over. Truth be... it already was.

The light bulb should come on now. We need FAITH and we need to be driven by a CHIP! Anything less means failure. It is the same formula... if you start 2 walk-ons, or a team of all americans with a beasty 7-footer in the paint. It is the formula for everyone and every circumstance... just ask any of the players from that old Houston "Phi Slama Jama" or that OU team "Danny and the Miracles" beat down!

@drgnslayr Thanks for explaining it.

One of the first things I thought of when I heard the news was about Louisville last year with Ware.

Embiid provided so much rim protection that the guards, and most everyone else, didn't really bother to try to stop their man because he was back.

This is an opportunity to play with a chip and to play with pride. Lets hope they use it as such.

@DinarHawk

I like our chances better now than if we had a healthy Embiid. Winning in March is about playing inspired basketball. Teams needs something to drive them. We were not playing inspired basketball (except for a couple of games).

I'm not saying we are going to win a national championship now. I am saying we have an opportunity to find a higher level of existence. WE CAN be this year's Louisville.

Of all people, Naadir needs to recognize the situation and lead this team. If he can't find the motivation now... forget about him coming through next year, too, because he'll never find a better situation to dig deep and become motivated. This is it for Naadir... here is his chance!

Let's look at it like this, we were all happy and thinkning this team could go far in the tourney before the season started and that was before we knew how much improvement Jo would make. We knew he would be special eventually, but lets be realistic. Did anyone see it hapening this quickly? Probably not. Now that we don't happen a lot of people over on the other site want to jump ship. That's not what real Jayhawks do. This team can go as far as Tarik, Tharpe, and Wiggs want to take them. We know Andrew has the ability to take a game over. We just witnessed that, 96 hours ago. We witness what Tarik can do on Senior night. We saw that Tharpe can guard against UT and we saw he can close a game out against OU two nights later. This team can still win. If we get Jo back, fine that's all well and good but we can still make a deep run without him. This team needs to find that inner will or testicular fortitude if you will. They have to. There is no other option.

@drgnslayr I agree with what you're saying and I've been thinking the same thing all season long. I'm flabbergasted that these boys (I'll call them men when they start playing like men) have to be prodded into putting forth maximum effort on every possession - be it on offense or defense.

It's sad to me that the play of the WHOLE YEAR that sticks out in my mind is the play where Joel, Andrew and Wayne all went diving after a loose ball and Selden wound up over the scorer's table. I literally jumped off my couch (as I'm sure some of you did too!) as it was, in my opinion, the first time all year that we looked like we really cared.

There have been many times over the years where I felt that we needed to find and latch onto that "chip", but holy smokes, with the talent we have, they SHOULD just be able to go out and play ball. But I guess they don't have that mindset so by all means, find a chip.

A BIG CHIP.

Everyone who isn't a Jayhawk thinks it is easy to be a Jayhawk fan, player and coach.

It isn't easy.

Our expectations and twisted view on reality makes it very hard to be satisfied as a Jayhawk.

Our expectations are huge... and our winning record stands behind us, more as a hurdle in front of us. We are expected to win. We have nothing to build "underdog" on!

This is our year! This is our opportunity to take misfortune and turn it into fortune! This is our year when people will start discounting our potential now.

This is a massive opportunity! ...especially for us, because we are always the target at the top.

I hope we drop a big turd on this B12 tourney. Kick us down more. Then all the hateful critics will pop up to shoot us down. That is exactly what we need... to be shot down! Then there is the crowd that "piles on."

It didn't take long... here comes the pile on:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/03/11/bracket-briefing-why-kansas-could-suffer-an-early-ncaa-tourney-exit/6283857/ ↗

Let's get it all out. Let's absorb everyone's punch. Bring it.

Then, let's pick ourselves off the ground and kick some ass!

I remember when we lost Archie Marshall. It was the end for us that year, too!

@drgnslayr Keep the doubters comin'!

BTW, I don't want to hear another word about Myles Turner till the season is over. We have capable players now, so accept what you have.

@drgnslayr Well said Slayr!. I turned on ESPN this morning and thier headline was Hopes of a title dashed? With a picure of Wiggs. Keep on doubting us. Build that chip up

@HawkInMizery This has been exactly what I have been talking about.

They need motivation. They need someone telling them that they cant do it.

"While they were saying among themselves it can not be done, it was done." - Helen Keller

@DinarHawk Qoute of the day! They should put that Helen Keller quote up in the locker room. Everyone has been telling them how good they are and deservedly so. Had them on the one line with 7 losses and some places still do with 8. Has anyone seen the video of Wiggs going off when those kids chanted overrated, they need someone telling them that.

@drgnslayr You lost me at WSU. WSU won games over Ohio State and Gonzaga because they shot 50% and 40% from the three in those two games.

I haven't given up on this season, but I don't foresee us getting hot from three like that.

@MoonwalkMafia

How did they shoot that hot unless they could play motivated basketball? So players like Aaron Craft, Big 10 Defender of the Year, couldn't stop a lowly walk-on PG from a mid-major? Just a bunch of luck, I guess?

@Virgil_Caine Very astute observation Virgil. And ballz on right too. When I watched Joel go down this last time, my assumption going forward was that he's gone for the year...& he likely will & should be. This team has the tools & the one guy (or more) that can light up the scoreboard. In 88' they just outran & outscored OU-it very well can be done. History can be repeated.

@globaljaybird

"When I watched Joel go down this last time, my assumption going forward was that he's gone for the year...& he likely will & should be."

I'm totally with you on that. We shouldn't take any chances with his future. I'm like many others that wonder if we've already seen the last of JoJo in a Jayhawk uniform. Though... situations like this often bring a player back because of the question mark it puts on him in the draft. I'm not going to speculate or even think about that stuff. I just want JoJo to recover fully and do the best thing for JoJo.

Wow. I can't believe the negative comments on the other site. Taking the extreme view on either end of the spectrum is just not right. We are not doomed to lose the first game (or the 2nd) nor are we a shoo in to go to the final four. Man, there is some middle ground. Oak, on the other site, predicted 2 wins in St. Louis and a loss in the sweet 16. That is a logical prediction. That said, anything can and does happen in the Madness as we have seen first hand on both ends of the spectrum.

Great post by HEM.

On paper, we should still be the favorite vs. the forecasted 6 and 7 seeds (and similar teams) which is the type of team we will see in our 2nd game (yes, we could lose the first game, but you can't in any rationale way predict that).
If Joel doesn't come back at all, or is not close to 100%, the next game is a risk. But...it always is at that point.
We can still go to the final four without Joel. I don't expect that to happen, but I can still hope for it and I don't feel like it is a pipe dream.
I do find it interesting that it appears that additional information was unearthed, or a different diagnosis was obtained, when Joel went to LA. At least based on Self's comments before he left and when he returned.
I don't think Self or anyone else will take chances with Joel's future.
I also don't think that just because he plays it means that his future is being compromised.
All that said, given the way the trend has been it would not surprise me if he is done at KU. Hope not, but we have to prepare for that possibility.

@Blown How can you feel better after that tidal wave of negativity? Made me want to go wash my hands. I go on boards with fans from teams all over the country, and I've never read a nastier analysis of our program and coach. How dare our coach play a kid that his trainers and medical staff told him could play? How dare the fans all put pressure on Naadir, and make him ...mentally tired!?! Why, our fan base cheering at sold out AFH is actually hurting the poor little cherubs, and it's making poor little Naadir watch his man fly by him. Are you serious? When did you go from being a fan to whatever you are now? Because I wouldn't call you a fan on any level. The fact that tripe makes you "feel better" says it all. Get a grip - this isn't World War 3 - this is college basketball.

@KUSTEVE you are a person I want to be around! Thanks for lifting my spirits w/true KU fans!

@KUSTEVE Come on. Don't be that guy. The guy who arbitrarily decides who is and isn't a fan, because they don't experience things the same way you do. Because upon receiving disappointing news about one of our star players they didn't bust out singing the praises of Savior Self. I mean really, all that was missing from your post was to put fan in quotes, like this: "fan".

Personally, I don't think @Blown was out of line. Self has a history of playing guys through injuries. And I 100% agree with him, it's a toughness issue with him. There was a very large contingent of fans on these boards & the kusports boards who, upon seeing Joel torque his knee, thought he should have been sat down immediately. You don't need a medical degree to know the knee isn't designed to bend like that.

I'm not saying it's wrong to be optimistic, but don't begrudge other fans a little time to wallow in what is a blow to this team's success.

Solution is to fly in Tarik's Mom to KC from Memphis so he will have the kind of game he did vs. Tech on Senior Night. Can't hurt can it?

@RockChalkinTexas Certainly couldn't!
What has to happen for us to make a run?
1. Andrew takes over.
2. Tharpe doesn't have one of those awful games.
3. Some decent production from someone else. Ok...maybe 2 if to a lesser extent. Either Perry, Tarik,Wayne.
4. Not everyone disappears. They just have to take turns doing so.

Look, all of that can happen and it is not unrealistic.
One reason we are all so nervous, and what brings out the sky is falling crowd is, frankly, our past tourney disappointments. That is the elephant in the room here.
We have disappointed when expectations were high.
Maybe, as some have suggested, we can surprise when many doubt us.
Just like 2012.
Despite the disappointments, I believe there is a good chance that Self pushes the right buttons.

I don't feel pessimistic. However, watching this team right now, I see a Sweet 16 team without Embiid. Defensively, we just aren't very good without him protecting the rim. Perhaps Black can help with that, but he tends to get into foul trouble, and there is always a game in the tournament where quick whistles send a key big man to the bench.

Without Embiid, Black is our only reliable interior defender - Jamari has nice athleticism, but he doesn't match up well with bigger guys because he's closer to 6-7 than he is to 6-8. Perry just hasn't developed on the defensive end the way I had hoped. Landen doesn't have the lateral quickness to guard ball screens or get out away from the basket. If Black is in foul trouble, we are really vulnerable in the paint. I think this is why Myles Turner's name keeps coming up as a potential recruiting target. Our returning interior defense is not very stout right now, presuming that Embiid has in fact played his last game as a Jayhawk (which I think is the case).

The other question I have is the overall health of Naadir Tharpe. I know he's been battling some nagging injuries for a while now, and it seems like his play has really started to spiral downward. I am wondering, similar to last year with EJ, if his body just can't do it right now because he's banged up? And if so, this would be the second straight year that nagging injuries became an issue. I know Hudy does a great job of building guys up, but this is a concern from a training standpoint. I am not placing blame because I don't know - it could be something as simple as needing to stretch out a little bit better regularly in order to avoid some of the nagging things. It could just be bad luck and coincidence. But it is something to watch.

@Blown I know you were just venting, which is fine. But I'm puzzled you would call out Wiggins for slacking...how do we know that just wasnt him deferring to teammates, trying not to look like a ball hog? Look, even Jabari Parker had a really down stretch the first half of the ACC conf season, and is now playing better.

If Wiggins tried to score 41pts every single night, we'd have no team-concept, and would lose even more games.

I will quote Andrew Wiggins right after the WVU loss, when asked about his 41pts: "...Yeah, but my team lost. I would have rather only scored 5pts if it meant we won the game...". That, sir, tells you what you need to know about Andrew Wiggins. (or that he has a great public relations coach, believe what you want).

Would you call out Ben McLemore last year for slacking? I recall Self wanting him to "drive it" and put pressure on the opponent all season long, and not settle for jump shots. As far as I've seen of Wiggins, I saw an 18yr old kid (just turned 19 a couple of weeks ago) being a driving penetrating attacker. He could finish better, true...but he has earned a TON of trips to the FT line to prove his attacking. Self asked the same of EJ last year, and he couldnt break out of his personality to deliver consistently. Wiggins is the best slasher we've had since Tyshawn, who was the best slasher KU had since Langford. Sherron wasnt too bad, 110% heart, but was height challenged.

@HighEliteMajor Honestly, HEM, you're the last person I would have guessed to post that we have faith. Pretty much any time anyone else has suggested as much to you, you've put them down. Are we truly so desperate, then, or have your edges softened? :p

@wissoxfan83 I see what you are saying about injury, and I felt so bad for Wayne Simien back then. And then to see the insult added to injury by Roy leaving ("I gave my right arm for that man" ). But I dont think we can unceremoniously lay the blame for the '03champ game loss on Jeff Graves. He might have been a bit inconsistent that season, I remember, but he was SOLID in the champ game: 15pts and 16rbds.

No, the reason we lost that NC was because of absolutely unacceptable performance at the FT line. And the 2 guys who let us down (from FT line) were Collison and Langford, not Jeff Graves. Jeff Graves & our whole team played their hearts out, but Roy's 'defensive system' came up short...but even despite the defensive flaws, we had "won" that game in live-action...but lost the game with the clock stopped, no hand in shooter's face, standing on the FT line, shooting a mid50s FT%. Shoot our season average on FTs, and we would have been up by 6pts. Can say similar things about Memphis in 2008. But you cannot take away what 2008 KU did in that game, as they still had to make the shots to force OT, and then go win it outright in OT. Incidentally, KU08Champs went 14-for-15 from FT line, with the only miss being KU very first FT attempt (Rush, went 1 of 2, after getting undercut cheapshot by Antonio Anderson on a fast break dunk att.)

@justanotherfan You touched on an interesting comparison: Regardless of which one is truly 6'8 (Ellis vs Traylor), Traylor is a better defender, mostly because of his help-D. Man, oh man, does that kid hustle! Ellis has issues on on-ball D, as well as team-D. His hops are different than Traylor's hops.

Let's just say by analogy: when Traylor + Black are in the game, we've got 2 MichState-style bigs. Brawn + energy + moderate skill. Perry Ellis, god love him, is a Roy style finesse big. A MickeyD that can score a ton, but only with the right matchup.

Need more out of Lucas, but he will look rusty or "green" since he just hasnt gotten much playing time...but you can bet he is being put thru the gauntlet in practice...right...about...NOW!

Self knows what to do--can our kids execute it? (Same question every damn year, to different degrees, and regarding different weaknesses with each year's Jayhawks). I agree that March isnt the "optimal time" to be replacing a starting 7footer, or worrying about PG play, or worrying about 2 of 5 starter's defensive shortcomings (Naa and PerryEllisOffensivePortfolio), but it is what it is. The guys either figure it out, bring some energy...or they dont. We fans get a Tourney ride every single year, but for the players' sake, I hope we DO figure it out and can get to the Final4...

@ralster

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Graves let us down that game in particular. I was thinking more in terms of he being a greatly skilled player might have changed the perplection of that game. Yes, 14 of 32 made FTs cost us that game plain and simple.

@wissoxfan83 Oh, I see what you meant. Yep, that was a tough, haunting memory...and still is, frankly. I recall for a few years after 03 NC loss, a lot of pickup games where we had to shoot FTs to make a team, if I'd miss, someone would wise-crack about the "KU" shorts I wear always and some razzing about "freethrows"...

@ralster

Excellent point about Graves; he played perhaps the best game of his career and without him, the game is not even close.

@konkeyDong It is a touch out of character, I know .. but at this time of the season, we have think positively, right?

I'm an optimistic skeptic.

@konkeyDong It is a touch out of character, I know .. but at this time of the season, we have think positively, right?

I'm an optimistic skeptic.

@HighEliteMajor I can get behind that. After all, you're better of lucky than good.

@konkeyDong Lefty Gomez circa 1931 said it, "I'd rather be lucky than good."

This time of year that is so true.

Survive and advance - Jim Valvano