And he will.
I believe.
jaybate 1.0
10346 posts
I am undecided about both of us.
No one attends.
But he's still trying to get better than .821. 😇
11
.821.
Some memories of Memphis die hard.
As director/janitor of the BIA, It is my duty to inform you that you have been in the BIA and not been being paid more than anyone else will not pay you without your knowledge for longer than I am at liberty to divulge at this time.
The HAARP array in Gakona, AK is constantly directing long wave radiation off the ionosphere at you and making you use the Jethro avatar and be a DOUBLE NAUGHT SPY for the BIA. @VailHawk knows all about this but is presently on assignment at a girls Dormitory at Wellesly. The @VailHawk alias you experience here today is actually a virtual doppelgänger.
This is all part of Operation Goodland being run by Miss Jane, the real brains behind the Office of Gross Assessment, which is the real outfit behind the legends of the Office of Net Assessment and BATF.
All for now.
They couldn't be sure it was cold.
They could only reasonably expect that UK with Skal and its roster and KU with Diallo and its roster might go deep, and given both had competed hard for Diallo, and given some apparent big shoe tension between the programs, and given some residual tension about Memphis' defrocking after Bill and Cal met, one side might pay to rat the other out if there were any skeletons in Diallo's closet all the way back to his bassinet!
Re 1: UK ran Gillispie in 3 and forced Tubby out with a ring.
Re 2: Consonants would have been long gone without the last two rings.
Re 3: See Bill Gutheridge and Matt Doherty quick hooks without rings at UNC.
The MSU loss was entirely my fault. It is also @VailHAwk's fault for using a variation on my avatar. All adversity in the universe sooner or later can be tracked to me and @VailHawk.
To be fair to the NCAA, put yourself in their shoes. You know a lot of folks are wanting to take the NCAA down.
KU is reputedly a high probability for a Final Four.
What if KU were to win it all and some booster paid some bucks and found out Diallo never went to the grade and high schools he claimed. Imagine the NCAA Having to face critics regarding a recent champion with an ineligible player the NCAA didn't fully investigate? The NCAA is fighting for its life. It can't chances on likely tourney teams.
Odds, I dunno.
But when the Edmond Kid is beaten, he usually bounces back hard.
You read it here first: KU to win the tourney in the land of Rayon shirts!
If I were the NCAA and anticipating I might be sued sometime regarding Diallo's long clearance process, I would want to be able to tell a court I had let a kid go to paradise with his teammates.
Would Cal still be at UK without his lone ring?
Coach K was being eased out between 05-08? Would he still be at Duke without his last two rings?
Would Roy be at UNC still without his two rings there?
Some light at last.
I will say a prayer for Cheick.
Won't hurt to put in a good word for Bill and the team, too.
Self is clearly still willing to work Cheick in this season.
I had a feeling once public opinion grew critical of the NCAA, they would some how find the time to move ahead.
I just didn't think it would.
Selden and Graham both played so poorly it hardly matters which played worse. Judge it as you wish.
Regarding Self's predictability, he predictably wins at such a high rate that he is about the most emulated coach in the game in his early 50s, other than Coach K.
Note: they don't emulate Cal, because there is apparently only one WWW.
Self is so good that he can keep winning titles without great talent.
Put Calipari in Lawrence at KU with adidas and Cal would probably never get above .600.
Put Roy back in Lawrence with adidas and he wouldn't break .600. Roy had to have the Nike/Dean/Michael/Sonny thing to recruit to KU.
Self's predictability has risen, as his player talent has declined. The less talent and experience you have, the less you ask it to do. Less talent can do fewer thins well. Good coaches tailor what their team does to what it can do that a team needs to do to win. You don't ask chorus girls to dance ballet. You try to help them be the best chorus line dancers they can be. This team can't win games against ranked teams on a 20% night from Trey by shooting treys. It has to find ways to win, when the treys aren't there, and it is rather limited in what it can do outside of Trey balling. Drive ball is about it.
You can't win big without top tier talent. Every coach says so. Self is optimizing what he has. When he had top talent, he won a ring. When he had near top talent, he nearly won a ring. Now he has nowhere near top talent and he is winning not very near the top.
But the real driver of disatisfaction is famiarity, which breeds contempt, without a recent ring.
LB and others have said that 10 years is the life expectancy of most coaching jobs. Unless a coach is a Machiavelli that can take over the athletic department and turn it into his own fiefdom, then his welcome wears out. Those that hired him and so are invested in covering his back depart. His best assistants move on to be head coaches. He is no longer the hot new thing, or even the master that knows how to run a program and that everyone emulates. He becomes the guy who can't change with the times--the guy with no more new ideas--the guy who is too predictable--the guy we've all seen do it this way before. LB always recommended leaving before that happened, as soon as the getting was good. And LB's earnings as a coach make clear he understood the business of coaching well.
I believe Self intended to leave before now, but decided he had more than enough money and wanted to spend these years with his son on the team. I also suspect he wanted to get one more ring. They are apparently addictive. And he wanted to keep his assistants employed as long as he could.
Does this mean we should keep him?
No, not just for his goals.
Yes, for our goals.
We have invested deeply in him.
With a load of talent, he is a slot machine ready to pay off.
Like Roy was when Hemenway appeared to squeeze him out and Roy took over Dougherty's loaded UNC roster, a roster he couldn't pull in at KU, and won a ring.
Instead of holding Self in contempt, because of familiarity and too little talent, KU should be finding a way out of this adidas cul de sac.
Rock Chalk!
I'm going to come down and throw u in the ceeeeement pond, if you don't start posting again.
No, I thought not. 😄
I don't mean clinically insane, just kind of stressed out, bat feces over optimistic expecting Self to beat IZZO with 20% Trey balling and 35% overall after a scorching hot previous game?
Just kidding!
@TexasHawk-10 is sane.
BILL SELF IS INSANELY GOOD!!!
WE RAN THE WUG 4 OUT 1 IN OFFENCE FIRST HALF AND BAD BALL OFFENCE THE LAST 8-10 minutes of the second half. We almost beat IZZO without Diallo and shooting 20% from Trey!!!!!
No other coach is even close against IZZO under those conditions.
What other coach could dominate IZZO for 32 minutes without his OAD recruit and with 20 % Trey balling and 35% overall? No one. He is a flipping genius.
If he is insane, pleAse basketball God, make me insane, too!
He is beyond insanely good.
It is a divine madness level of good.
It's the apparent embargo.
Self is doing superbly well with what he has had, since stacking dried the well.
Which coach in the B12 could have won a title with what he had, especially after the injuries took Selden, Ellis, Traylor, Greene, and Lucas? Hoiberg? He couldn't even win one outright with KU crippled. Barnes? No. Drew? No. Kruger? Not!
Most coaches that have tried to salvage even .500 seasons with that many injuries would probably say it was the greatest coaching job of his career.
Are you saying pro journo/public figures you toxic dump here are off-limits to satirize and critique?
Yup. Went to a bar cause I had to be away from the nest for other things and didn't want to watch on my phone.
Worked out good. Good singer at the bar.
This entity Chris Stone (heretofore aka Chris Stonehead for yucks) appears not to know much about the game.
He masters the obvious mentioning KU's good shooters and KU's big men struggling with back to basket scoring this season and last, then reveals how clueless he is with a comically bumptious (dare I say stone-headed) proposed solution. To wit...
"By spacing the floor with shooters and operating more out of the pick-and-roll, Kansas would be in position to create one of the best offensive attacks in the country."--Chris Stone aka The Stonehead
http://rushthecourt.net/2015/11/18/kansas-jayhawks-michigan-state-spartans-champions-classic-offense-bill-self/#sthash.pW9g7bsA.dpuf ↗
Eh, Chrisseroony, are you the poster child for sports-challenged key ticklers, or what?
First, Bill Self is already running the 4 out 1 in formation that "spaces" out the shooters and so does exactly what The Stonehead proposes about half the time so far. Kinda missed that, didn't you, Chris Stonehead?
Second, The Stonehead proposes running pick and roll, which Self ran for years, when he had good quality bigs that enabled the pick and roll to work. Kinda missed that one, too, didn't you, Chris Stonehead?
Bulletin to The Stonehead: the pick and roll requires bigs that are a threat to score off the pick and roll, either with an outside shot (Kieff) off a high roll, or rolling baseline low for a post feed and thereby scoring, drum roll please, back to basket, or crashing to iron (e.g. Cole, Marcus, Thomas, etc.). They don't have to score, but they have to be a threat to score.
Chris Stonehead (may I just call you The Stonehead, Chirsseroony?) is doing one good thing. He is apparently shamelessly copying Jesse Newell's and some others' approaches to sports journalism (i.e., including QA and related graphics) albeit without the apparent understanding of the game needed to do more than master the obvious, as he appears to do in this case.
Hey, Chrisseroony, here's a formalization for you, you XTReme QAbeast.
CS ≅ WC|B, where
CS = Chris Stonehead
≅ = is congruent to
AWC = Apparent Water Carrier
| = on the condition of
B = Big Shoe-Big Agency-Big Media-Big Gaming Complex.
And here is another formalization for the QAbeast that is apparently Chris Stonehead, which, it occurs to me, just coincidentally rhymes perfectly with bone head.
S ≅ AHJ, where
S = story
AHJ = apparent hatchet job
Why does it not surprise me that the alias @KUinLA brought this story and Chris Stonehead to this community's attention? :-)
Next.
Goes in spurts. When everyone else is in a lot of pain, I try to kick a little extra to get us to next. I used to really be able to crank it all the time, but I got sick a couple years ago and now I have to pace myself.
Ordered a new one. Playing Wii till it arrives.😄
BASKETBALL SEASON....GOD HELP ME, I DO LOVE IT SO!!!
REAL PAIN. REAL DRAMA. BOARD RATS DEALING WITH THE INTRACTABLE REALITIES OF LIFE ON THE SACRED WOOD.
YEEEEEE HAWWWWW!!!!!!
Frank IS the QB.
And if Frank can't do it, then bring in Devonte.
But Frank can do it.
I believe in him.
I trust him.
I just think Self needs to get him out of habitual drive mode and get him back to shooting some treys and dishing it to Brannen and Perry.
Frank is an Alpha male being asked to do male bonding and sharing with Devonte and Wayne. He thinks its stupid. I can see it in his eyes and body language. He is thinking: coach, just give me the team and forget about all this touchy feely stuff you and Cin talk about at home about how Frank, Devonte and Wayne could share the reins. Life and Ball ain't that way coach. There's one head coach. There's one point guard. The only thing anyone needs two of are balls!
I liked Hunter/Bragg at 4/5 until I saw Bragg and Hunter play a bit this early season. I am afraid coaches would just bring out the tire irons and be done with both of them in a couple of minutes, and then we would be stuck with Lucas and Traylor just the same.
You've got to have one scorer and one guy with some chops for combat in if you move Perry to the 3.
I am afraid Hunter and Bragg would just live in a state of perpetually being Van Vleeted.
I know it seems fantastic, but its what he did last night the first half. The first half was Korean Ball against a team that could keep up, unlike the WUG teams. But it played well. All Self has to do is play Korean ball for two halves and give the ball to Perry overtime he has a lead. He might need medical marijuana the first few games, but that's okay. Its legal now in a lot of states. I'm sure his doctor could fix him up. :-)
enigma--
Full Definition of ENIGMA
1
: an obscure speech or writing
2
: something hard to understand or explain
3
: an inscrutable or mysterious person
Jamari Traylor is an enigmatic person.
What was he doing sleeping in those cars for those years? Why not a shelter? Or a card board box? Or why not hop a box car and travel Big Rock Candy Mountain country and back, staying in hobo camps? They still exist.
Why does he run the speed he does, when he could so easily rip down the court and position either for a score, or to rip down a rebound, or front a guy and never let him catch the ball on a spot?
Why does he jump out of the arena sometimes and other times not?
Why does he show some offensive moves and then not?
Why can he grab a rebound high off the glass and then not even make a move to one you or I could grab?
Traylor is an enigma.
He has a lot of potential.
But it is intermittently obstructed totally by his mind.
Self never dreamed he would be unable to recruit another footer to replace Embiid by now.
He never dreamed the apparent embargo would not only not crack, but expand. (How's that for a triple negative?)
Self took a flyer on Traylor, because he promised to be that guy that he could go small with, when his footer had a small big he could not chase; that was all Jam Tray was ever meant to be.
But now Traylor is half of the committee of the 5, at least until Self can find a way to fit Bragg in without six TOs for 30 minutes.
It is a scary place to be...starting Jamari Traylor for 35-40 games.
Self has to wake up in cold sweats.
Cin has to say, Bill, it was only a bad dream, you didn't have to just coach a game against Cal with only Jamari.
Bragg going to come around some, baby, I just gotta believe, he says.
But inside he knows Cole Aldrich could barely start as a sophomore the first two months of the season.
Inside he knows how bad Kieff was that freshman season.
Inside he knows he could well be looking at 20-25 minutes of Jamari all season long.
Its not up to me, baby, its up to strange, wild eyed Hunter and a freshman with the body morphology of mylar.
Yes, Bill, honey, its all very stressful.
Self is stuck playing an enigma at least some, even if he is willing to eat the freshman TOs of Bragg and the kamikaze jags of Hunter on the floor.
Big Landen is NOT a 30 minute man.
Self plays who he plays for reasons.
We may not agree with them all the time, but invariably , when he finally puts the guys in we have been kvetching for him to put in, then that guy shows why Self has been waiting so long. The guy invariably does some of the good things we said he would do, but then he does the mistakes, too. And then the net benefit calculus comes and it is not so clear that the guy we have been kvetching for is way the better choice. Often it is just a wash with more risk.
Wayne has been blessed with weak players, or undeveloped players behind him since he got here.
Wayne would have become the invisible man had Self signed any number of the OADs he has tried to sign since Wayne got here.
Jaylen Brown?
Wayne might be wearing a red shirt if Jaylen Brown had not fallen in love with the Nike logo and Harry's and Cuonzo's shiny heads.
Wayne plays because there is no one credible behind him.
Look at Devonte. Everyone thought Devonte was better than Wayne at the 2. But when Devonte gets into a big game against a tough team, he blows up like a birthday balloon with too much helium. Wayne played terrible and even he played just an eye lash better than Devonte.
There is no question that the team has to migrate to Perry at the 3. Wayne can't play 3 any better than he played 2, which is to say he is better than anyone behind him, but not good enough when the competition is tough, to get it done. And it is now past time to analyze what keeps him from getting it done. It is multifactorial. He will be good enough to start all season, because of what is behind him, unless you put Perry behind him for one game and then Perry will leave him in the dust as a 3.
Between Devonte and Wayne at the two, so far its a toss up. Wayne could guard a little more and handle taller guys better. But Devonte at least could get better with experience. We know Wayne's game now.
Brannen is who really needs to be at the 2, because of his gun. But he can't be there until and unless Self will play enough zone to mask his weaknesses on D. But you read it here first: Brannen needs to be the starter at the 2. ASAP. We need a shooter there tall enough to get them off no matter who he is up against, not a ball handler.
From here on, Self ought to be using every unranked team and every team that won't put Bragg in the Hospital, to develop the following team with backups in parentheses.
1 Mason (Devonte)
2 Brannen (Wayne)
3 Perry (Svi)
4 Bragg (Hunter)
5 Traylor (Lucas)
You have no idea how much it pains me to type Traylor (Lucas) at the 5.
If Diallo isn't overrated, then he steps into the 5, if cleared. But if the king had ovaries, he'd be queen. Not gonna happen. Diallo is the coulda woulda shoulda chant. Fuggeddabouthim.
If not, playing Bragg and Traylor assures one of them can score. Subbing Hunter and Lucas assures one of them can score.
Putting Perry at the 3 assures that Perry will be able to score 25 any night we need him to. And Perry at the 3 will lessen the likelihood that a 3 will go off offensively against us.
Either way this team has to start playing zone and a lot of it, with switching between zone and m2m.
We've got to get our best guys on the wood to start the game and play as many minutes as possible with as much MUA as possible.
KU is too short and not talented enough playing Mason, Devonte and Wayne on the perimeter. Those three will only look good against weak talent. Never against UK, Duke, UNC, etc. Also, playing those three means the team has too many heads, too many leaders, not enough followers.
The team needs one quarterback--either Mason, or Devonte. NOT TWO. DEFINITELY NOT THREE.
THIS TEAM NEEDS TO STAY WITH THE BASICS.
X-AXIS.
ONE QUARTER BACK.
LIVE AND DIE WITH THE LONG BALL TO GET THE LEAD.
THEN PLAY THROUGH PERRY UNTIL WE LOSE THE LEAD.
THEN BACK TO THE LONG BALL FOR A LEAD.
THEN BACK TO PERRY.
NOW HEAR THIS: NO MORE DRIVE BALL. NO MORE BAD BALL WITH THIS TEAM.
LONG BALL THEN PERRY.
LONG BALL, THEN PERRY.
LONG BALL, THEN PERRY.
Traylor and Lucas are necessary evils. Since they are the weak links, we have to beef up the other links.
Brannen's hip may not permit him to, but if it will, he needs to start and play and become our second option AND PERMANENT LONG BALL THREAT. He tweaked his hip and so he probably cannot ever be relied upon this season, but if he is on a healing path, then i want his gun in the lineup at any cost. It and Perry are the only real unstoppable offensive edges we have. Frank can be clogged up. Izzo and Marshall have proven that. Brannen has to play and shoot. Period. Warts and all. We need to play zone if we have to cover up his defense. Brannen is key to this team being special.
Self knows this is where it has to go. He just can't bring himself to play enough zone to enable it yet. But once the Ls start piling up, he will adapt. Hard headed? Definitely. But a strong survival instinct for sure.
Long ball, then Perry.
Long ball, then Perry.
Here is the problem with the hypothesis that Self is sabotaging himself and KU.
How probable is it really to think that Self would play Traylor, and Lucas, over Mickelson, and Bragg, if he thought that KU would be net better playing Mickelson and Bragg?
Why would Self do this?
Why would he play inferior players for a season, if they really were inferior?
I know he has the FU money to do it. So do Cal and Roy and K. Why is Self the only coach of these four that plays inferior players knowingly?
And if he does it unknowingly, why is he the only one of the four to do it unknowingly?
And why would he have as high of a W&L statement the last several years as any of these other four, and won a ring, as they have won one or two, in the same period, while playing inferior players knowingly, or unknowingly?
It just doesn't add up.
The probable thing is he is playing the guys he is, because the net benefits of each of the players, both those that seem inferior to many fans, and those that seem superior to those same fans, really aren't inferior at the stages of development that they are at; that there is some advantage to playing these guys that everyone thinks are inferior. And in turn, Self is sort of keeping up with the Joneses by doing so. But bottom line, he unfortunately just is not getting OADs and 5-stars that are nearly as good as the ones at Duke, UK and UNC and so on.
I am increasingly convinced that not all OADs are created equal.
Nike's OADs tend to be quite a bit better and more productive sooner than adidas OADs, and they tend to be able to supply any given team they choose with a lot more of them.
Self for the most part is signing inferior OADs and inferior 5-stars to what the other elite programs are signing. These are OADs and 5-stars that can barely cut it their first seasons, if at all, and most often only as part time players.
And all this talk of Self's system being so tough to learn that it takes his OADs and 5-stars years longer than other programs is incorrect.
Coach K's system is every bit as tough as Self's.
Izzo's system is very tough to learn.
Roy's system is definitely as tough as Self's to learn.
The difference is that K, Cal, Izzo, and Roy are getting better OADs and 5-stars to start with. Their guys are just flat better than the ones we sign. Thus they can play sooner and contribute more.
Would Perry have been a red shirt on last year's UK and Duke teams? Perry is our best player.
How about this season, when Duke and UK are supposedly down. Would Perry start on either team? I doubt it.
I am not knocking Perry. He has turned into a very good player his fourth season. We are lucky to have him. He can help us go a long way with the proper mix. But does anyone think Perry is better than Valentine or Costello over the course of a season? Does anyone think Perry is better than the first five, or 7 on UK? How about on Duke?
I just think we are in a recruiting crisis that is increasingly coming home to roost.
KU makes beau coup money for a basketball program. Its combined TV, gate, memorabilia sales, and adidas contract make it more bucks up than its ever been and in the same league with the other elite programs--not bad for basketball program just east of wheat country in the CST in a low population state not endowed massively with oil, booze, or tobacco.
But I'm not talkin'bout money, now, I'm talkin'bout talent.
KU is no longer part of the elite teams.
Or to put it another way, the elite teams have cleaved into super rich and the rich and KU is no where near the super rich and at the bottom of the rich and lives late recruiting season to late recruiting season sliding further and further onto the threshold of sub elite.
MSU, despite its great accomplishments under Tom Izzo (notice I call him Tom now after he beat us fair and square without tire irons) has always been at the low end of the elite in terms talent. Izzo has always been able to have two star quality players in his line up, but rarely if ever more.
KU under Self has often been able to field three such players, and always at least two, so for much of Self's KU tenure Izzo has been beating Self, as he has been beating other coaches of elite programs with less talent.
Now Self finds himself increasingly not equivalent to MSU in talent, but below MSU.
Still, KU and MSU were at least comparable teams last night. Both could play sub-par games, though KU shot quite a bit worse, and play a close, exciting game.
KU had one credible All Conference caliber player capable of staying on the floor with players from nationally ranked teams: Perry Ellis. MSU had two: Valentine and Costello.
Top coaches like Izzo and Self can often hang around more talent with less talent, when they have the same number of impact players; i.e., when they have two or three impact players.
But reduce a top coach to 1 true impact player, like, say, Perry Ellis, and sooner or later the rabbits stop hopping out of the top hats.
This season the hype artists have crooned about KU having a potential Final Four team with great talent and depth and experience.
Experience is the new elixir that dreams are made of among the less talented teams.
Since KU is now out of the super elite for sure and teetering on the bottom edge of elite, experience is the word to hype the KU team to its fans.
And that is what we have been served on a designer platter.
Anyone that saw Kentucky play has to realize that this year's KU team is not remotely in the same category of talent as UK and this is a down year for UK.
This year's KU team could hang around UK on a decent shooting night, and maybe win if UK stumbled badly.
But this is an if hardly worth talking about.
What matters is that KU is so diluted in talent that it has to play its A game to be lesser ranked teams like MSU.
Self no longer has enough developed talent ready to play to resort to grind it out against even lesser ranked teams, when his guys are cold as Ice.
Increasingly, KU has to play near its best to beat any ranked team.
The days of beating Memphis for a ring with KU's B game are long gone.
KU can't even beat a 13th, or 15th ranked MSU team with but two anchor players--Valentine and Costello--with it B-game.
The apparent talent embargo is working.
And until it is broken, KU's talent level is going to keep declining is like to keep settling downward,
Ironically, at the same time, fan expectations are going to keep going up so long as Big Media decides likely for television ratings and Big Gaming benefits to market KU as a top team, because of Self's ability to create imitation silk purses out of at most top grain cowhide, and on the off seasons high great sow's ears.
Reality: Bill Self is starting Jamari Traylor at the 5 and backing him up with Landen Lucas and Hunter Mickelson.
And his top recruit, Carlton Bragg, is a season away from being a player, and so is apprenticing to Perry Ellis at the four.
Self is neither out of touch, as some suggest, nor is he in love with this player, nor down on that player. It wouldn't have mattered which of his bigs he had played more than the ones he played a lot last night versus MSU. He got 7 points and 14 rebounds out of Traylor and Lucas. He might have gotten 14 and 11 out of Bragg, but he also would have gotten 4-6 turnovers and likely some kind of injury from playing against a team with guards that even outweigh him.
Had Self played Mickelson, my preference, until Bragg has gotten half dozen warm up games against some non-Blue Meanies, Self likely would have gotten 12 points and 8 rebounds, a nose out the back of his head, and a bunch of fouls. The point here is that Self would have gained by playing other players in some ways, but he would have lost in others.
Self clearly wanted to play Traylor to help recruiting in Chicago. Had Snacks not gotten busted for weed, he probably would have had Snacks out doing his dance on the sideline for the cameras and shouting: here I come Chicago recruits, get ready for the Snack man. But he did get busted, and so he had to keep a low profile.
Self clearly wanted to protect Bragg from the physical play he expected against MSU, a decision I advocated strongly the day before the game.
To me, it was a huge victory to get out of the MSU game with Bragg breathing normally and with both knees working normally. Bragg in this condition is someone we can now develop against a series of teams and actually improve ourselves in the long run for the season with.
But back to recruiting talent and Bill Self.
Self came to KU with the label of a guy that could recruit at least some of the best players in the country to KU. And he did.
He was not billed as a guy that could bring you just the 20-50 guys, but a guy so dynamic and connected that he could get more guys than Roy brought and avoid the two greats, two nothings recruiting classes that Roy was so famous for, while recruiting half the country.
Maybe Self was over sold as a recruiter, but until the adidas deal, I thought he brought in enough numbers of good players relative to what the competition did, that KU could stay competitive and hopefully slowly climb wrung by wrung up into the same class as the other elites.
But after he signed Andrew Wiggins, which was supposed to open the flood gates on the 1-20 types three seasons ago (counting this one), Self has not pulled in the required 2-3 top players required to play the OAD game, at least, not the top two or three top players that can actually play immediately.
And Self had terrible luck with his Wiggins, Embiid, Selden class, which was supposed to make it all happen, if I recall correctly. Maybe Selden was a class later, but I recall not.
Wigs protected the merchandize. Embiid super nova-ed, but then went out with a back injury. Selden? Some combination of head and injury yielded a gutty player willing to play through, but one who has largely been a glue type starter and seems destined to be such, except when the competition is weak.
Kelly Oubre last season could play, but again he had a weak knee. Svi? Wildly overrated. Just another potentially good ball player.
Bragg this season: lots of promise. Some of the specific things this team needs--scoring out of the post and some length for rim protection. But skinny as a rail and so unlikely to be able to stay on a spot for 30 minutes till next season, even if Self starts him and plays him 20-30 mpg this season.
Diallo? This was the guy that was supposed to save our bacon. And he can't even get past the censors. And if he does he sounds like raw sushi at everything but rebounding; that means huge TO numbers per minute played.
Where's the BEEF? as the little old lady used to shout.
The top recruits not only don't start for Self, when they get here, they don't look half as talented as the freshman that do start at UK, Duke, UNC, etc. Really, even after Oubre got it together some, he really never looked as good as any of the guys at Duke and UK last season. Had Oubre gone to Duke, or UK, last season, Oubre would have been a TAD for sure. He would most definitely have been second string at both places.
Wigs is the only projected OAD Self has ever signed that could have lived up to his hype, had his handlers let him play at full speed. Wigs could turn it off and on like a light switch. He really was as good as everyone said, but too well managed to take any risk of injury at KU.
So: Self's ability to play this recruiting game. which now no longer apparently hinges on selling tradition, winning smiles, wise cracks and melting mother's hearts, but apparently instead on down stream informal endorsement expectations, agency fee structures and how many pairs of comped shoes and how much players can sell them for, is greatly hampered.
And so he is coaching with less and less, relative to the programs he was hired to compete and beat, regardless of what some recruiting rankings say about him currently having more 20-50, or 30-100 talent than most teams. He isn't getting the horses as they used to call the top players, especially in the paint.
And as the talent in recruiting classes has declined, the W&L statement, which finally does not lie, has trended downward from the 30+ win stratosphere that he maintained for a few seasons before the pernicious effects of the apparent embargo began to take serious effect.
Self has kept finding ways to eek out conference titles by out maneuvering coaches in a conference similarly increasingly unable to sign top talent.
But increasingly when KU plays a ranked team, KU has to play its A-game, or it doesn't win.
Self may have restocked the larder with a lot of 20-50 talent, and it may keep him winning conference titles in the diminished B12, but on the national scene, the effect of the apparent recruiting embargo is now beginning to be felt with its true force.
The next step of decline will be that KU will not beat the ranked teams even when it brings its A-game.
The loss to MSU may be a harbinger of that.
MSU is a a very good team, but not an elite team in terms of talent.
KU would have beaten MSU on a normal shooting night.
But KU just wasn't talented enough to get into a grind with Izzo and walk out with a W.
MSU is of course tough to use as a yard stick of change, because Self has always had some trouble with Izzo, but one can recall a period when he was starting to close the gap with Tommie Tire Irons. But when Self has to play Traylor and Lucas big minutes, something has changed.
Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina, and likely LSU, Virginia, and Cal are at another level than KU now, regardless of how many recruiting points they score with the gurus vis a vis KU. Each those teams have two players that are arguably better than Ellis. And they each have several players better than Traylor, Lucas, and Mickelson (at least so far with Mick).
The apparent embargo has worked.
KU is still a dangerous team, because Self is a dangerous coach and KU has stockpiled a lot of shooters in lieu of being able to sign OAD big men, or OAD point guards, and it still plays pretty sticky defense. On a hot night, KU could beat any of the teams mentioned above, if they don't bring their A-games. But the key is that KU HAS to be HOT, and play its A-game to have a prayer of winning.
But if both teams bring their A-games, well, KU's front court is Jamari Traylor, Landon Lucas and Hunter Mickelson, with Perry Ellis and an apprenticing Carlton Bragg.
There is a difference between KU's front court and the front courts of the other schools mentioned--a distinct difference.
They are sharply more talented.
Unless Bragg develops at the speed of light and Diallo escapes clearance hell things are going to remain this way there rest of the season.
Embargos allowed to go on long enough can starve anything, or anyone.
So: to reiterate the title of the post--Its the apparent embargo, stupid. Its life in an age of diminished KU basketball talent, when basketball expectations still soar with national hype.
And then crash when reality is confronted.
KU makes beau coup money for a basketball program. Its combined TV, gate, memorabilia, and adidas contract make it more bucks up than its ever been and in the same league with the other elite programs--not bad for basketball program just east of wheat country in the CST in a low population state not endowed massively with oil, booze, or tobacco.
But I'm not talkin'bout money, now, I'm talkin'bout talent.
KU is no longer part of the elite teams.
Or to put it another way, the elite teams have cleaved into super rich and the rich and KU is no where near the super rich and at the bottom of the rich and lives late recruiting season to late recruiting season sliding further and further onto the threshold of sub elite.
MSU, despite its great accomplishments under Tom Izzo (notice I call him Tom now after he beat us fair and square without tire irons) has always been at the low end of the elite in terms talent. Izzo has always been able to have two star quality players in his line up, but rarely if ever more.
KU under Self has often been able to field three such players, and always at least two, so for much of Self's KU tenure Izzo has been beating Self, as he has been beating other coaches of elite programs with less talent.
Now Self finds himself increasingly not equivalent to MSU in talent, but below MSU.
Still, KU and MSU were at least comparable teams last night. Both could play sub-par games, though KU shot quite a bit worse, and play a close, exciting game.
KU had one credible All Conference caliber player capable of staying on the floor with players from nationally ranked teams: Perry Ellis. MSU had two: Valentine and Costello.
Top coaches like Izzo and Self can often hang around more talent with less talent, when they have the same number of impact players; i.e., when they have two or three impact players.
But reduce a top coach to 1 true impact player, like, say, Perry Ellis, and sooner or later the rabbits stop hopping out of the top hats.
This season the hype artists have crooned about KU having a potential Final Four team with great talent and depth and experience.
Experience is the new elixir that dreams are made of among the less talented teams.
Since KU is now out of the super elite for sure and teetering on the bottom edge of elite, experience is the word to hype the KU team to its fans.
And that is what we have been served on a designer platter.
Anyone that saw Kentucky play has to realize that this year's KU team is not remotely in the same category of talent as UK and this is a down year for UK.
This year's KU team could hang around UK on a decent shooting night, and maybe win if UK stumbled badly.
But this is an if hardly worth talking about.
What matters is that KU is so diluted in talent that it has to play its A game to be lesser ranked teams like MSU.
Self no longer has enough developed talent ready to play to resort to grind it out against even lesser ranked teams, when his guys are cold as Ice.
Increasingly, KU has to play near its best to beat any ranked team.
The days of beating Memphis for a ring with KU's B game are long gone.
KU can't even beat a 13th, or 15th ranked MSU team with but two anchor players--Valentine and Costello--with it B-game.
The apparent talent embargo is working.
And until it is broken, KU's talent level is going to keep declining is like to keep settling downward,
Ironically, at the same time, fan expectations are going to keep going up so long as Big Media decides likely for television ratings and Big Gaming benefits to market KU as a top team, because of Self's ability to create imitation silk purses out of at most top grain cowhide, and on the off seasons high great sow's ears.
Reality: Bill Self is starting Jamari Traylor at the 5 and backing him up with Landen Lucas and Hunter Mickelson.
And his top recruit, Carlton Bragg, is a season away from being a player, and so is apprenticing to Perry Ellis at the four.
Self came to KU with the label of a guy that could recruit at least some of the best players in the country to KU.
He was not billed as a guy that could bring you the 20-50 guys.
Maybe he was over sold as a recruiter.
But early on he raked in a lot of good talent on his teams.
After he signed Andrew Wiggins, which was supposed to open the flood gates on the 1-20 types three seasons ago (counting this one), Self has not pulled in the required 2-3 top players required to play the OAD game, at least, not the top two or three top players that can actually play immediately.
And as the talent has declined, the W&L statement, which finally does not lie, has trended downward.
Self has kept finding ways to eek out conference titles by out maneuvering coaches in a conference similarly increasingly unable to sign top talent.
But increasingly when KU plays a ranked team, KU has to play its A-game, or it doesn't win.
Self may have restocked the larder with a lot of 20-50 talent, and it may keep him winning conference titles in the diminished B12, but on the national scene, the effect of the apparent recruiting embargo is now beginning to be felt in its true force.
The next step of decline will be that KU will not beat the ranked teams even when it brings its A-game.
The loss to MSU may be a harbinger of that.
MSU is a a very good team, but not an elite team in terms of talent.
KU would have beaten MSU on a normal shooting night.
But KU just wasn't talented enough to get into a grind with Izzo and walk out with a W.
Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina, and likely LSU, Virginia, and Cal are at another level than KU.
The embargo has worked.
KU is still a dangerous team, because Self is a dangerous coach and KU has a lot of shooters and it still plays pretty sticky defense. On a hot night, KU could beat any of the teams mentioned above, if they don't bring their A-games.
But if both teams bring their A-games, well, KU's front court is Jamari Traylor, Landon Lucas and Hunter Mickelson, with Perry Ellis and an apprenticing Carlton Bragg.
There is a difference between that front court and the front courts of the other schools mentioned--a distinct difference.
They are sharply more talented.
Unless Bragg develops at the speed of light and Diallo escapes clearance hell.
Embargos allowed to go on long enough can starve anything, or anyone.
Great minds think alike.
Verbaciously?
Come on, teach, take some pride in the language.
You must not retreat to the low ground of the increasingly, post Black diaspora-misnamed Urban Dictionary just because u r down from a loss!
When are those MOFO's gonna wake up and join the flipping 21st century anyway? It should be the MULTIBURBAN Dictionary. Black folk are back to living and creating language everywhere post diaspora.
Who is on their editorial rim anyway? Some rap grey hair or hip hop Alzheimer's victim from 19 flipping 85?
Verbaciously, your onion!
🤓
We controlled the game till the end.
Then Costello returned and quietly sealed the inside off, while Valentine hung 19 of his 29 the second half.
We shot 20% from trey.
We shot in the 30s overall.
We shot back to our average, as I dry washed about the day before the game.
We also showed that our inside game is somewhat improved (Perry can actually score b2b some without spinning, and the Traylor/Lucas tandem got 14 reebs and 7 points, rather than zip/zip like last season, but it appeared not enough to go up against a Costello. And Costello won't be the best we will face this season.
Had we shot even slightly better, we would have won. Shoot our average and we would have walked away with it.
Tom Izzo is a damned good coach.
He beat us fair and square. He didn't bring out the tire irons. It was Izzo's statement to Bill that not only can I beat you with tire irons, but I can beat you playing within the rules. Self knew he had been schooled at the end. Self looked just as baffled by Izzo, as most of the other coaches look when beaten by Self. Izzo is still better than Self at coaching this game. Self gets to go back to work and keep getting better.
Obviously, I don't view this game the way most did. It was a bitter loss alright, but it seems hardly a disgrace to lose by 4-5 to a nationally ranked team coached by one of this generations great coaches on what will be one of our worst shooting nights of the season.
We WOULD have beaten them on an average shooting night. Period.
How Izzo manage to out maneuver Self down the stretch should go in a coaching clinic video, not because Izzo did it, but because Izzo did it without resorting to his usual tire irons. He seemed to surprise Self and the team with playing it straight. Self had pulled in his horns and shifted into Bad Ball for the last 8 minutes expecting the onslaught of thug ball. Clearly Self figured to win it at the line down the stretch. But, as I suggested, Izzo just closed down the paint, both to scoring and to rebounding, to KU with Costello, and let Valentine play drive ball on the other end.
KU lost its composure on offense. The danger of playing three guards on the perimeter was exposed by the master coach that Izzo is. He pressured the ball out of Mason's hands and into Devonte and Wayne's hands, by applying serious pressure on Mason, who when he wasn't driving, shifted it to Devonte And Wayne to become quarterbacks. This did not work at all, because Devonte had never had to produce at closing time against a really tough defensive team like Izzo's teams are. KU's perimeter was exposed for how small it really is. KU's perimeter defenders, after getting stuffed repeated on the offensive end, then ceased playing up and under defense on the larger, stronger Spartans. And that was the end of it. No stops. And really bad shot selection by Selden and Graham. REALLY BAD!
That our bigs could not be productive when Costello came back in was no surprise. Costello is a real, brawny, if not too tall, big man. He owns his space the way a post man should. He played poorly and fouled up the first half, but when he came back he was all blue collar and lunch pail and getter her done focus. Nothing fancy. Just seal, and seal, and seal some more.
The bright spot in the game was Perry Ellis who really played superbly without significant step up from anyone on the team. Traylor and Lucas played to their abilities, which was not bad, but they simply lack the tools to be a decisive force. That we knew going in. No matter who plays in the paint for KU this season, the paint is going to be a place where the most we can hope for is a wash. We can never beat a ranked team in the paint even if Diallo and Bragg were given the starting spots and Perry moved to the 3, which will surely happen sooner or later if Diallo clears. But until then, last night was WYSIWYG for awhile.
Frankly, Self played the game exactly as I expected after I blended @REHawk's take with my own insights.
Quick possessions the first half.
Bad Ball the second half.
Cold shooting and atrocious play by Wayne shot the team in the foot.
Devonte's poor play then put it out of its misery.
But I told everyone Bad Ball was part of the plan.
Please prepare yourselves, because with this front court, it will remain so, no matter who he plays in the front court.
Svi under control could become lock down
Man outside
Perry defying reality
Devonte is getting a taste of big
Go Carlton but watch for elbows
Bragg is now at risk
But the muscle will come the second half.
REHawk called this one right...lots of fast possessions. Self trying to avoid grind and sell recruits on KU running
The frank of two seasons ago returns
Svi shot himself out
If slow feet chop your feet while waiting for your man to move