I don't think we (fans) give Self enough credit for sticking it out at Kansas. Coaches get the 7-yr itch just like grooms do. Fortunately, the administration has shown their thanks with a hefty contract....
drgnslayr
11251 posts
"I like how KU used Perry in this game. Stepping him out away from the basket not only helps him because he isn't worried about getting his shot blocked, but it also opens up the driving lanes for our guards."
Me, too! And it has opened up the drive for BamBam! Suddenly, he has found his scoring, and his motion post moves (post slasher) will not only continue to be effective, how the heck is an opponent supposed to scout and prep for that?
Perry has the same skill, but teams aren't respecting BamBam to hit the long ball, so they don't have to go get him. Self has figured that out by using BamBam more on high screens. Smart!
So working BamBam on high screens should help open scoring opportunities for Perry to become a post slasher because the post defender guarding BamBam has to go out and make the switch on the high ball screen.
Perry should start utilizing more motion in the post and face the goal. He's not good at back to the basket.
Love the flop art! Bravo!
Was it just me, or did others notice that our guys looked like they were having more fun in this game than any other this year?
I even noticed Perry cracking a smile!
I have also noticed that Devonte sure brings a lot of positive energy with him. I think I'd bunk him up with Perry to see if he can keep Perry smiling the rest of the season.
Uncanny that you discovered the resemblance.... haha.... YES, I see it!
Another one of your monumental observations! Thanks for always bringing quality to this blog!
Self has changed.
We do still feed the post, but in a different way.
We seem to be abandoning the "back to the basket" feeds, and instead look for different ways to feed the post which offers more advantage to the strengths of our post players.
Here are our post player strengths:
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Cliff - lob... lob... and more lobs... Whether it comes off of backdoor screens, or he is just hanging out by the rim. Lob the ball to Cliff and let him slam it down. It seems, even against some lengthy teams, we can expect to get 3-5 easy baskets this way every game. It also energizes the entire team, and definitely lifts the step of Cliff!
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Perry - give him the ball in midrange. Giving Perry the ball in midrange (just not so low in the post) gives Perry room to negotiate his moves. And Perry does have the discipline to throw the ball out to the perimeter when he doesn't feel he has the advantage to score.
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BamBam - JamTray seems to have adapted the best to Bill's new philosophy of feeding the post to their best advantage. He is given the ball usually in midrange while facing the basket or at an angle. Often times, he is in motion when receiving the pass. Jamari knows he scores best off of movement, because his foot speed is his advantage in the post... and his body size gives him a natural buffer for scoring space. He just has to keep his body between the defender and the ball, and use the backboard when scoring on either side of the rim.
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Landen - Landen represents our only real back to the basket scorer. His effectiveness is marginal, but he still can play some of Bill's traditional hi/lo offense.
Perry can also score every bit as well as BamBam in motion. He is slower to pick this up than BamBam. Probably because he has a lifetime of repetitions working in other ways. Perry has to work in 1000s if not millions of reps before he feels comfortable with a move. Still... I think between now and March, Perry will take on some of the lessons BamBam is handing out on how to score in the lane and then we'll have two post slashers!
I like that.... "POST SLASHERS!" When was the last time we used that term when talking about Kansas basketball?
"Texas has a 7 foot star that isn't pinned to the post and their offense is a mish mosh mess right now with everyone out of sync."
I mentioned long ago that Myles may not have helped us. Sort of depends on his mindset. His real desire is to be a big 3 at the next level. His goal is to be a bigger version of Kevin Durant, his long-time idle.
He's a long ways from having the skill set of Kevin Durant. But I've been amazed at how much body size he has put on in a short time. He's starting to look more like a post player all the time, whether he wants to or not.
I don't think people in here realize how important it is for Perry to hit some 3s. Every time Perry hits a 3 he makes a statement for the Kansas recruitment of big men... especially those who think they have guard-like skills. Come to Kansas and we'll give you the outside if you can handle it!
I continue to wonder what our team would be like with Myles as a Jayhawk. Just because Texas' offense is a big mess doesn't mean it would be that way at Kansas had he chosen to come here.
I really like Rick Barnes as a person. He's probably the nicest coach in the Big 12. But I feel the same as many feel, that he doesn't maximize the talent he is blessed with.
Even though we always want to beat Texas... it is better for Kansas if the Big 12 starts producing winners besides Kansas (in March). So I support all the Big 12 teams except when they play us.
I recall a long time ago, when Josh attracted a lot of attention for being a young D1 coach. I supported his efforts to come in after Calipari left Memphis in a state of chaos.
I like to see quality basketball everywhere. I think young athletes deserve quality coaching because they are committing their young pathways to basketball.
I'm not as excited about Josh today. He seems more of a "middle of the road" type coach.
"You said, "Last night's game illustrates how this entire conference season should go." ------ it will be a slugfest."
No doubt... it will be a slugfest. But we KNOW HOW TO WIN! Essentially, that is what matters. We just have to bring fight to games and we'll do fine.
Isaiah is the motivational leader of Baylor. He was definitely giving them a shot in the arm. And Baylor did hang in there. I recall other games where they just collapse at the end. They didn't seem to have the esteem to finish on a high note. Kudos to Isaiah for trying. The guy is a definite inspiration for anyone who knows his story.
Scott Drew is a mystery. How can a guy coach that bad? I really think he must have a mental tick... something is obviously wrong. You see his eyes and mannerisms at the end, and he seems nervous and pacing. His eyes look like "deer in the headlights." He is giddy like a freshman coach... but he is far from being a freshman now. Something is up with that.
I really don't get it why he didn't draw up a safe in-bounds with 10 seconds left on the clock? In the least you work a safety outlet.
I hope we recruit CAREFULLY!
More is not always better. If we oversign at one position and have weaknesses at another, we are bound to reduce our chances in March.
I really want Zim!
If we just land him, I'd say we had a great recruiting year... and that is regardless who we lose early.
That doesn't mean I would have a problem landing a couple more players. I'd just be careful not to lose some of the talent we have.
It isn't always a great thing to recruit potential at the loss of experience.
I'm kind of tired of being one of the youngest teams in America, AGAIN!
We need a balance. Some OAD-quality players mixed in with experienced quality players.
I am starting to see the possibility of losing Kelly. If that is the case, we have guys that can slip into the 3.... but we won't have that star swing 3. I wouldn't mind landing one of those!
Part of it is about who will be available. I know Self wants Thon Maker. Does anyone know if he got his reclassification?
Where does that guy play? 7-foot PG? I can't really see him pinned into the low post. The guy has freakish talent, but does landing him just mean another media circus and everyone having to placate their own ambitions for the star recruit?
I looked back at the stats... you are right. Go, Frank!
We only had 8 TOs in the away game to Baylor. That's huge!
We don't have the rebounding edge this year. We were 10 fewer than Baylor. We can't afford to have a bunch of TOs and give up the rebound margin.
Imagine had we rebounded better in this game?
Thanks for the game link.
I wonder what Pearl was carrying on about after the game? He was pacing around and shouting.
What's with the Tech fans hand gesturing the "losing L" sign?
Pretty impressed with the crowd energy for a team predicted to finish at the bottom of the B12. Seems they were more into this game than Baylor fans in our game.
What a regal building...
"Oubre is making the loss of Wiggins much easier."
I have to admit... I'm relieved we have Oubre this year instead of Wiggins.
The media circus is gone.
Kelly is just another option in our offense, not our entire offense.
All the guys still realize they must contribute. When Andrew received the ball, all our guys munched popcorn and watched the show from the best view in the arenas.
Kelly's numbers are rising. And, most likely, they will continue to rise. I bet he'll end up with a higher FG% than Andrew had because Kelly isn't forcing his shots.
Kelly has better instincts, especially on steals. The guy has a knack for getting to the ball.
I said three weeks ago that this would be the player that would improve most from the extra practices at Christmas... and, luckily, he is proving me right!
On the bad side... for the first time I'm starting to feel like he could be OAD. I hope we can keep him for one more year!
"I wonder which is easier to take market share from: Nike or Under Armor?"
UA just represents "anti-Nike"... so UA players can float into UA or Adidas without a problem.
It's like a general election. It's kind of like the tea party tends to vote republican. Tea party and republicans are "anti-democrat" so the flow stays between themselves.
Next season, flip to Comcast.
Pay for it through a Paypal account.
Fund your Paypal account with an Internet Bank #2.
Fund Internet Bank #2 with Internet Bank #3.
Continue this process until you get to around 10 accounts or so.
The last account you should fund with $5.
So by the time the snit hits the fan, and these banks work backwards into collapsing your accounts, the season will be over and it only set you back $5!
PS: You might want to invent an alias as step 1!
a 2% improvement is usually hard to see. In the biz world, if you don't improve yourself more than that every year then you'll be eaten alive.
This has been completely thought out. Noticing 2% of anything reaches more into imagination than anything else. This is why it works, especially as a motivational tool. It has to be believed in the mind, then it needs to be reinforced with acknowledgment.
What makes 2% a huge amount is the repeating frequency of it happening. If we can all improve 2% per day, or per practice... before you know it you are on top of the world.
In the situation I mentioned above... we were constantly pushed harder to improve every practice. Coach wouldn't let off the gas until we got there. When we got there, we were rewarded with acknowledgement and practice was over.
We all left practice feeling like we gave everything in our soul to improve 2% in that session.
This is a system that rewards drive. We weren't allowed to fail. On a few slower days he just continued to push it and maybe practice went a little be longer. But the reward was there, and I still believe (to this day) that we improved 2% in every practice session.
I still have a hard to believing we went from horrible to good within one basketball season.
I know these athletes have been pushed and motivated... but we've all seen games (Temple) where the guys weren't ready to play.
Think of this as a system. A system giving players a method for becoming consistently motivated every time they walk on a floor.
I was truly blessed to be coached by some of the real greats. It wasn't in D1... but I'd put those coaches up against anyone.
One of the best motivational speeches/techniques I ever received happened in my high school days. Here it is... judge it for how you may.
The 2% Law
This is a simple one.
Our coach asked us to lift our performance by 2%.
That meant 2% more hustle, 2% more focus, 2% more dedication to the game.
2% doesn't sound like much, it isn't. But it is a psychological factor that works. Why does it work?
FIrst, it's simple to understand. Players react better when things are simple.
Second, it's only a small bit extra. Players react better when the goals are close by and easily obtainable.
We were monitored closely. Every single player was pushed to reach his 2%. We went at it (practice and scrimmage) until coach felt like everyone reached their 2%.
After we finished practice, coach congratulated every single one of us, individually, in front of the entire team.
We were then told that we were expected to follow the 2% law in our next practice, and our next game.
So 2% ends up being a whole lot more. When you are asked every practice to raise your performance 2% more than the last practice (or in a game), the improvements are huge in a very short period of time.
@jaybate-1.0 , please stick this one in your notes besides Wooden's name. It wasn't one of his, but it fits his style of coaching (teaching).
This law can be applied to everything you do. Improve your looks by working on your face, hair, body and tweaking 2% improvements at a time. Improve your job performance by thinking of small improvements every single day and implementing them. Stop bad habits by formulating a structural 2% decline of those habits over time.
This was the basis of motivation for increasing our focus and effort... taking a team with a losing record and converting us into a league winner.
It totally worked, and it converted a bunch of unmotivated, unfocused players into a killing machine. It took no time before we murdered our competition.
Right on! I was worried that Brannen was going to be thrown in the scrap pile for another season of watching KU basketball from the bench... but later we found Brannen had a tweaked neck. Obviously, he must be feeling better!
He hit some tough shots last night. He hit a 3 with a guy breathing down his neck and the shot clock expiring. And his runner off the backboard was insane. You just don't see those kinds of shots made in college basketball. Both of the shots I described are NBA all the way.
Imagine if we keep Cliff another year?
And let's add in Zim.
Now we have a super tough interior again!
This lineup would remind me of that magic team WSU had when they had Carr and Levingston... the bookend duo. With 6'11" Jones in the center. Carlton would be Carr.... capable of playing outside the box. Some ball skills and midrange to outside shooting capabilities.
It would be something to return the 3 spot to being a real forward, instead of just a big guard. I'm having a hard time thinking back to a KU team running that.
Doesn't mean we don't also have a power guard, 3 swing man. It would be nice to have Kelly another year.
Doing a little math, this would cut some of our current guys out of much rotational minutes.
If we kept all our guys from this year, and just add Zim to this mix... we'd be one tough team to beat in March!
And we remain one of the youngest teams in college basketball.
Read this about how our defensive dominance has declined the past two years. The biggest reason has to be our youth. It may not take players 4 years to learn how to better defend as individuals... but to learn team defense, hedge defense based on scouting reports, etc... it takes time.
Column: Kansas defense hardly feared ↗
What I'm trying to say is look at how much upside this team has (even for the remaining season)?
We almost have to improve... and we should make gigantic improvements.
Look at our freshmen, Kelly and Cliff.
Kelly is starting to get it, and he made the key defensive play that helped us ice the game against Baylor. Cliff has a ways to go, but you know he'll make big improvements between now and April.
What we really need is Perry and Wayne to become more physical and be better plugged into games.
I really don't know how we've won so many games and we clearly haven't come together as a team yet.
We have individual pieces that aren't plugged in.
I give a lot of the credit to Frank. He's a bulldog that has ice in his veins and just keeps pushing.
Kelly... wow... 4 steals! When was the last time we had a Jayhawk get 4 steals?!
Here's a good watch.
Bragg vs Lyles
Lyles gets the better of him, but Lyles was a senior, Bragg a junior. If Bragg had some simple coaching help on hedge defense, he would have owned Lyles on this night.
@jaybate-1.0 pay close attention at the 3-minute mark and you'll be in for a shock!
[link text](
The clock was running down to zero and it looked like Kansas' conference opening game winning streak was about to end.
My wife kept saying, "they're blowing it, they're blowing it!"
I commented, "yes, they are, but fortunately for us, Scott Drew will blow it last!"
And sure enough... sure as the sun always rises in the East, Drew blew it again. We can blame it on an errand in-bounds pass, but truth be told, they should have structured a safe in-bounds pass with that much time left on the clock because they had time to work the ball around for the right shot. That was another Drew debacle, and can be piled on his "choke pile" and filed under "knuckle-headed coaches."
And though we should have smacked down Baylor with some authority, there were some nice takeaways from this game.
Bam-Bam needs to refrain from some bad decisions, but you have to love his heart. And it was his heart teaming up with his motor, that turned Kansas onto the right path out of the second-half gate.
Frank continues his string of clutch baskets when we need them most.
Wayne.... do you always have to break out of a slump in such dramatic fashion? Well... we'll take it.
Kelly? This guy is proving he is a gamer... big time.
What really caught my eye was Brannen.
He not only came up with some key baskets in the clutch seconds of the shot clock, he also solidified his position as "clutch FT shooter" when we need it down the stretch. This is huge. He's 100% for the year, and I bet he hasn't even put up a FT that has grazed the rim yet.
How much of an impact will this have in the future? I'd say it is huge. And with Frank also being a good FT shooter, we have a definite advantage in close games down the wire. I'm thinking the fact that we have Brannen and Frank on the floor in the last seconds gave Self the initiative to foul Baylor and not let them have a shot at a 3. It worked. Even with Frank missing his front end of the 1-and-1. And it will work again... in conference and in March. Having two guards that the sum of their FT shooting averages (put together) is over 90% definitely should persuade a coach to give the foul in this situations.
I can easily see Brannen's FT shooting ability win us 3 or 4 ballgames this year. He's already won his first, and it was a big one in conference play!
Last night's game illustrates how this entire conference season should go.
Even though we were only firing on a few cylinders... if we just keep on fighting, we'll win it because no other team in this league knows how to win!
Theme for 2014-2015 Big 12 Conference season: "Kansas... because we know how to win!"
They are now serving cake and punch to the Kansas faithful in attendance.
The Kentucky folks will be served crow... or is it Jayhawk?
I heard about that. Recruits turned up late because Pearl didn't gift them the right Rolex with a self-wind mechanism. ;-)
"Perry is back, Mari is back. If Cliff comes back this will be a pretty deep frontcourt."
If that happens, who sits on the pine?
I would have loved to hear him say that he didn't want to play in a platoon. That would have been the ultimate blow to UK. It would be a comment that could easily catch with other recruits.
It would be great to see UK pay an "ultimate price" by having future recruits turn away because of the platoon.
Would have really rubbed in the salt had he come out in a Kentucky jersey before announcing. Then when questioned, he could just say that he wanted to spread the love with the losing school.
Thanks, Cliff!
Carlton spoke with Cliff, and Cliff just told him to "go with his gut" and that ended up being important because Carlton took his comment as legit.
Hey.... did you hear that?
A small cheer from the Adidas corporation.
Welcome aboard, Carlton!
I play my own devil's advocate constantly. I'm like a cat that chases it's tail!
I believe we will win #11.... for no other reason than we know Self knows how to do it. Who else in our conference has won in the past decade? Right... none!
I see some talented players in our league and I see some teams capable of playing good team ball. But I still don't believe another school has the complete package to win more games in our league than us.
I just think we'll be doing it a different way this year. The formula Self used in the past will not work exactly the same way, but he will tweak it to work with what he has.
We don't have a shot blocker so we'll fight harder on the perimeter to keep driving guards out of the post, and contest the long ball. We should definitely have more steals than we've had in a long, long time. That helps us with the battle for possessions... something that could be challenged if we don't have our usual rebound margin.
Actually, I think this can be a very good rebounding team. Since rebounding responsibilities will be shared this year, everyone will have to go after them.
On offense... we should be a better long ball shooting team this year. And we just have to learn how to score from within the 3-pt line to help our shooting percentages remain constant. We know Perry and Jamari have to stay in motion. Those guys can score when they are moving through the lane. And Perry can learn to nail a high percentage of 3s. Our freshmen, Kelly and Cliff are improving on offense and starting to contribute.
I think we will see constant improvement from here on out. At some point Svi is bound to find some minutes, too, and he offers a completely different style of play than the rest have.
And let's not forget our rock, Frank Mason! I don't see a tougher PG in the league. He has ice water running through his veins and wants the rock at crunch time. We are in good hands!
"I think KU could beat UK. In fact, I think we have great personnel to do it."
Of course we have the personnel to beat them. We just have to be ready, with a solid plan, execute, and most of all BELIEVE! In our blow out loss we were not prepared and we lost FAITH. Then the wheel came off.
The chink in Kentucky's armor is the fact that they play in a dud conference. The SEC is a big dud conference, especially this year with Florida being down.
I can't believe top recruits want to go play in a dud conference. Wow... beating Ole Miss at Rupp in OT is a real accomplishment!
What a laugh! If only Kentucky had more depth... at least 10 McDonald's AAs surely would have helped them out!
:-)
I watched that ISU-OSU game last night and I wasn't impressed with either team. It looked like ISU was trying to gift the game to OSU, but OSU was too polite to accept.
You are right about the game with us being their "holy grail." The place will be packed and amped. Our players will probably face some verbal assaults. It's a tough environment there when they are all psyched up for a game.
There is no reason why we shouldn't kick their butts. We are young, but we have several players on this team that have been there before.
I really thought we'd see some tears by Fred and company last night. Almost happened.
The key for us to win the B12 this year is to get out strong, and then just play hard basketball throughout the year. These pretenders will fade from the screen.
I think a few of these teams could win a couple of games in March. I don't really see any March contenders in this bunch. They are lacking experience But you never know...
We just have to come ready to play every game. If we do that, we will win #11....
"Calipari can actually coach; Scott Drew? not so much. Baylor played best when Drew was suspended and the assistants coached the team."
Good point. Maybe I should have said a "much cheaper" version. Both know how to recruit.
Sometimes it is shocking how Drew manages to lose with the talent he has.
Ha... I only let that post run about 10 seconds before pulling the wink.
I think KENPOM is a great tool. It represents a computational viewpoint of a season, a league, a team, and even a player.
As with all tools, they all fit in the toolbox and get put in use for specific tasks.
Fortunately, basketball has the human side. And human behavior is tougher to diagnose with computational tools. These tools study results, and use past results to build stat lines, rankings and probabilities. But they can never convert predictions into reality. The game must be played.
I always like it when TV personalities say, "that's why we play the game."
JB... you hit on the biggest answer ever recently when you said that Kansas was playing to the point of letting our opponents make their mistakes and lose the game. I believe that will be our B12 conference strategy. We just have to win the games we are supposed to win, and play as tough as we can in all games.
Kansas doesn't play perfect basketball, or anything close. We aren't "striving for perfection" like Calipari is. We just go out there and play basketball. We have our entire league stumped. If they knew how to win the B12 championship (outright) they would have done it some time in the past 10 years. Truth is, they don't know how to!
If, by chance, we do not repeat as champions this year then we will experience another team win it, but I'm sure they will stumble into the championship like a drunk sailor stumbles into a brothel (with his pants on backwards, like Gottlieb).
All we have to do is go play hard basketball. We will win. No one else in this league knows how to win.
If KENPOM was a human, he/she would say the same thing.
I remember one of the times I caught Willie live and he was more dead than live.
He showed up totally wasted. So wasted that he couldn't sing and his hardcore fans started to boo him. They actually took a one-hour pause during the show while Willie straightened out enough to play. He was still a bit rough on his second go, but finished his performance strong and had the crowd on a long ovation at the end.
Scott Drew, a poor man's John Calipari.
Personally, I can't see any "National Coach of the Year" going to purple town. Any coach with that in his title doesn't want to drink grape pop... they'd rather drink fine wine.
KSU should rehire Martin. I miss Desi Arnaz, Jr.. Surely, everyone in purple town has selective memory from all the alcohol one must drink to tolerate that existence.
"You think Liberace would get canned by the Kitties? Who is going to play piano at all the Mildcat functions?"
I love you, man!
What is funny is how we are all totally energized off the Texas loss.
We haven't shown this much enthusiasm all year.
I guess we have overplayed the invincibility of other teams in our league.
Let's not forget... we've won 10 consecutive B12 titles.
Obviously WE deserve a lot of the credit for that, but a lot of credit has to go to the other teams in our league for blowing it!
The B12 has enjoyed a solid RPI for a long time, but where are all the FF appearances from other teams in our league not named Kansas?!
I know we all sometimes feel like Kansas chokes too much... but what do you think the fans from the rest of the B12 herd think?
Texas blows.... again!
"they are slow w/all that girth!"
So if we run the "Self Full-Motion Offense" we will have no problem beating Texas, In AFH or in cowboyland.
"Answer: Oubre. If his knee holds up, he will make us forget Wiggins. "
Bravo! And correct!
Oubre is the blue-collar version of Wiggins. He doesn't have the showboat athleticism of the white-collar talent, so he works harder and makes full use of the great talent he does have. Notice how many hands he gets on the ball on defense? Wiggins, with all his physical attributes, just wasn't the guy to get his hands dirty with steals.
Amazing, isn't it? All that height and girth and they didn't capitalize on it in the post. I guess we aren't the only team capable of playing soft in the post.
We all have to give OU a lot of credit. They should be the toughest team to beat in the league this year.
Lon is a solid coach, and maybe Texas has more famed players but OU has more skilled talent.
I guess Rick Barnes didn't read my post.
The gist of my thread was that conservative, aggressive play wins B12 titles.
Texas shot 21 3-pt shots and only hit 28% of those. They also only shot 8 FTs for the game. Not very aggressive play.
What we have to pray for is Texas dropping several early games in the conference. Texas will play much better ball come February. And if they can already pretty much be out of contention for a title, they can do us some favors in February by winning some games from other conference contenders, like OU at OU and ISU.
Rick Barnes never seems to have his guys playing good ball early in league.
That is why we must go out and win those first 3 games in league. Get out ahead of the crowd.
"I agree, but Perry is figuring it out!! Dishing instead of getting blocked, shot faking,and getting boards!"
I saw him use a shot fake twice in the UNLV game after he was getting smoked. He didn't really know how to use the fake, but he did it well enough to freeze the defender.
There is hope!
Thanks everyone, for shining a flashlight in here!
Can we win another B12 Championship?
We've been hearing it for 10 years: "The road to the Big 12 Championship goes through Lawrence."
Well.... it did. It used to.
And it did because Kansas was the only B12 team that knew how to win on the road.
How did Kansas win on the road?
Bill Self focused on two key strategies:
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Tough Defense - Offense comes and goes but a team should always be able to play tough defense. If we play tough defense and our offense fails, we get into what Self calls a "grind game." We've certainly won our share of grind games in the past.
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Hi/lo Offense - We have been fortunate to have a lot of great post players during the Self era. And Self took advantage of that by running our offense through the post. In turn, we always got our share of interior baskets.
Now look at this year's team.
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No shot blocker. We don't have the big shot blocker in the post to erase all the bad defense played by the rest of the team. We don't have the interior defensive presence to keep teams from trying hard to score easy low post baskets.
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No "back to the basket" type post player. We no longer have a player who can easily score with his back to the basket in the low post. Without this player, we can't effectively run a hi/lo.
Think hard about it, and you will see why Bill Self is a great coach, has won 10 consecutive league championships and is a lock down for future HOF.
Playing tough M2M defense and going with an offense that is more conservative is bound to help win road games. It is proven... it is proven for the last 10 years. It is easy for teams to go ice cold from the perimeter, especially away from home when playing on unknown rims in a strange arena packed with fans screaming against us.
This is a strange year. Kansas has plenty of talent, but not the same type we've typically had in the past.
Can we win our conference emphasizing the 3-pt shot?
Can we win our conference without a big shot blocker in the post?
This will be Bill Self's toughest test to date, and he'll have to do it against a much tougher field than he is used to.
KU-UT-ISU-OU-WV-BU-OSU=KSU-TCU-TT
and a partridge in a pear tree...
I'm almost certain that I would have substituted more frequently. I would have run more minutes for Svi and Brannen (if his neck could handle it). I would give Hunter and Landen a bit of clock.
I would try to push the pace, and keep the guys running.
We really had UNLV in the open court. They were very young and undisciplined. I rarely saw a time when we were unable to run open court, be we stopped doing it because our guys were getting tired.
I'd push pace and I would use my bench.
Hard to say if we would have won with my strategy or not. I think we would have been successful in the open court, but I know players like Hunter are a bit behind the rest, so maybe it would be a trade-off.
I always want to win a game, and I'd be careful who I have in the game during the last few minutes. But I wouldn't have lost sleep over a loss to UNLV. I'd rather get my team ready for conference play and March.
Yes.... I see it the same way you guys do. I just wonder about "collateral damage"... meaning... transfers.
I know the stats show that college basketball is suffering with more transfers than in the past. It seems like something that can really hurt us if we continue to sign several OADs every year and then have a transfer or two.
Will we ever have a senior-laden team again?
Seems we have been one of the youngest teams in America the past 2 years.
I also think we need to keep our bench "fresher" for March. We never seem to utilize our depth so we might as well not have it.
True.
How do you feel about the dilemma Self is in about distributing PT?
We have a young team, and I know Self likes to limit PT down to 7 or 8 so they get as much experience playing together as possible. And he feels this is his best shot of winning another B12 championship.
Should we make sacrifices during conference play that could reduce our chances of winning the conference but help us in March? I believe this to be the dilemma.
In my post above, I mention other factors, that by reducing the play down to less we may be opening ourselves up to more transfers. With the loss of transfers we also lose experience.