Cool. That will increase the drive ball!
Hope they lower the clock to 24 the next season, so our guys are on a level playing field in foreign play and when they get to the NBA.
As far as Diallo's first season being better than TRob's last, that's some serious amount of better.
I will have to see that to believe it!!!
But it would mean a ring I reckon, so....
ROCK CHALK!!!!
Re Diallo, a motor has never been enough for Self...ever.
TRob had an awesome motor as a freshman. He was terrible.
Kevin Young had a great motor, and arrived more mature, but he had to learn to drive first.
Motors are only useful AFTER you know how to drive.
The driver is everything.
As the Beatles sang:
"I don't have a car, but you can be my driver...
Baby, you can drive my car..."
same size as far as I recall, but they may have changed the semi circle around the hoop. Can Anyone else answer lulu's q on change in lane size?
Regarding the 30 second clock, Watching the 24 second clock has change my expectation. 30 may be too long to have much effect. It will take special defenses---pressing full court and falling back into matchup zones to make the 30 second much of a strategic factor. KU's players are going to think 30 is forever, after 24.
Hunter looks good in the spread out international game.
But D1 on a 30 second clock is likely to stay congested.
It remains to be seen if he can do it in D1.
And D1 Prison bodies will definitely punk Hunter, so Landen will get his minutes. He is in the toughening box right now. Those big rebound numbers of his will matter. Self is tempering his steel.
P.S.: Hunter is benefitting a lot from how spread out international ball is played. Not sure he can do this when dense packing of D1 resumes.
La Gerald Can LaPlay--some this year; a star next. Vick = TAD.
What Offense Are We Running?--same Hi-Low, just spread waaaaay out. Not much third side ball reversal around perimeter. Lots of drive'N Kick. Lots of Perry outside. Lots of starting formation variation. Lots of reliance on Mason on top and 4 on baseline. Lots of shift into four corner formation (1-2-2) fitted to the trey line. A little pick and roll, but it doesn't work well.
Less Chop--slow to develop and too much time spent not threatening the three. The new philosophy seems to be: Always be a threat at the trey stripe, and always keep the middle stretched for driving.
Tandem Bigs Run Long Diagonal Action--this is the secret so far; this is why there is so much room inside; this is why opposing bigs are out of synch. They are not used to guarding so much big man motion on long 45 degree angles.
Traylor Plays Because He Guards the Post Best Despite Being Short--and he has a 12 foot j and can make FTs. He also gets down the floor quick. Still not much feel for game flow. Too on-off on driving and passing decisions. Needs a sports psychologist to develop "mental flexibility."
Mason a Great FT Shooter--it makes the four corners work. He is becoming great.
We Are Really going to Miss Nic, If Devonte Can't Come Back Strong--Nic is Mr. X-axis basketball. Though he is struggling some with international refs, I love his defensive footwork! He is a clinic in how to cut off what point guards can do.
Wayne Has Been Put Under Hypnosis--he just gets the big picture.
If Hunter Played Post Defense the Way He Played Offense, or The Way Jamari Guards the Post, He Would Be All Conference--he just hasn't figured out how "guard" a post. But he is close to getting it. Hunter has learned a great skill on both ends though: keep the ball alive tipping it and never stop disrupting with motion. Some one seems to have wised up and given him some red head tapes of Kevin Young (honorary), Dave Cowens and Bill Walton. Be tireless. Be constantly in motion. Keep the ball alive even when you can't grab it. Bat it. Tip it. And follow every shot taken by your team and you are sure to get 3-4 baskets per game off slop. I love this kind of play, but he has to learn to guard a post...and hedge, or Diallo/Lucas/Traylor will take over when the B12 L&As have to be dealt with.
Wayne has certainly ramped up.
Maturity and good health help.
But another thing is the shift to the three. In WUG, it means slower guys on him--guys he can dribble on and out quick. No more guarding guys 2-3" shorter that dribble better and cut faster. Now Wayne is the faster one.
Lastly, the short shot clock forces more trips and shorter bursts of guarding, less third side passing, and fewer chop plays. These all mean less sustained action and more bursts of play, all of which seems to reduce Wayne's running out of concentration.
The Serbs sure didn't.
They looked bigger and better.
They appeared to have more guys that could shoot the ball.
Bill Self seemed to be letting his team "labor."
KU shot very poorly for a long stretch of the game.
Landen Lucas disappeared completely, which often is another way of saying "unreported injury."
Nic Moore got in foul trouble.
And on a day when KU's starters could not hit the trey, Bill mysteriously decided to save Vick the Stick till the end to make one that would inspire Wayne the Brick to turn into Wayne the Drain with a few seconds to go.
Yet again, and maybe more so than any other WUG game so far, Self is approaching coaching not as a craft, but as an art.
Oh, c'mon!
Not even an art.
Its more like magic.
KU's victories are increasingly the illusions of a magician--not the work of a coach.
Not a wizard.
An every day, illusion constructing magician.
Lucas? I don't need no stinking Lucas. He doesn't even need to be on the floor. What I need is Traylor endlessly making misplays, Ellis having an off day, and Hunter Mickelson doing everything wrong on post defense and getting torched by his man; that's what I need to win this game.
Bragg? I don't need no stinking Bragg. All Bragg needs to do is provide me with the illusion of a nose that is not broken. All he needs to do is NOT wear his mask. He doesn't need to play competently. He doesn't need to stay with his man on defense. He doesn't need to be a factor at all. He just needs to be the illusion of a factor. He just needs to walk around looking like a player even though he isn't one yet. Iago has nothing on me. Appearance well managed IS reality. Othello, baby, watch me, watch me. The illusion of Desdemona loving me comes next, baby.
I am the Amazing Billnac, Coaching Seer from the East. Guards taller than a yard stick? Don't need'em. Freshman wings with legs thicker than mylar? Don't need'em. A experienced stretch 4 playing like my best player? REALLY? Like who needs that. That would be too easy.
All I, the Amazing Billnac, need is some hair plugs, and an opponent that wants to try to set tempo and define how we will play. With that, I will conjure up a win at, or near, the buzzer and leave yet another opponent completely bum-fuzzled about how it lost.
One day, it seems, Self may just make an opponent completely disappear and then reappear before our eyes just for the heck of it.
We sucked.
We didn't even play good defense as we had previous games.
Defense?
Who needs it?
We won with illusion.
All hail the Amazing Billnac.
Hiiiii-yo!!!
@approxinfinity said:
so this talent bunching can continue.
Danged well said. How 'bout some sow belly and some of granny's moonshine?
@JayHawkFanToo and @HighEliteMajor
I think you both make interesting and though provoking remarks.
Any individual game can be very situational in terms of how much PT a player gets.
Against good opponents, Self may play Player A more because he is a good player, and less against weak opponents, because he is developing lesser players against weak opponents.
Or it can be match-up driven. Player A plays more because he holds MUA, or less because he does not, and a back up does.
Or it can be a case of lighting a fire under the ass of an older player, as appeared to occur in the first Canada exhibition regarding the Jam Tray.
Or it can be a player being in the bottom third of his performance distribution and stinking up the floor a time when Self can not afford to let him work through the funk.
Or it can be Self penalizing a player for practicing poorly.
Or Self may have had an argument with an unhappy parent and proving a point to them about who runs the team.
Or Self may have had a fight with Cin and decided to phone one in by relying on his old reliables and forgetting about trying to develop the problem guys that game.
And so on.
On the other hand, whether a player gets 8 minutes, 18 minutes, or 38 minutes, his per minute production can reasonably be commented upon under most if not all of the situational conditions above.
Also, when one observes low numbers in a players line score that are similar to a couple of seasons of his past performances, these situational numbers support a historical pattern and are rightly noted.
All data means something.
Its up to us understand their contexts and conditions shaping their manifestation.
The above noted, one place where I and others have not been rigorous enough is analyzing Jamari's on ball defense and help defense. I am usually pretty good about keeping an eye out for the kind of defensive play that doesn't show in the box score, but I confess I have failed to analyse Jamari in this regard, since I have been half asleep and focusing on the new players.
Perhaps you two and others will weigh in on what you have noted in Jamari's on ball and help defense. Is he contributing a lot there that may make up for his somewhat volatile line score game to game so far?
Alright, I will take off my KU Crimson colored glasses.
STILL NO.
No.
Well, let me qualify that.
NO!
Not under any conditions.
:-)
Bill Self came to the WUG at an apparent disadvantage.
No inside game.
Some of his best players not allowed to play.
And then injuries robbed him of still more talent.
But Bill held one ace up his sleeve.
The world's coaches had never coached against a guy that lets the other team set tempo.
They had never come up against the Tumbleweed Buddhist from sub-tropical Edmond, Oklahoma.
They had never watched their teams appear to win until the last ten minutes and then watch them lose looking as if they had dominated their opponent.
They had not yet seen what happens, when one comes up against the son of Oklahoma public school educators tutored by Paul Hansen, lectured to on core strategy by Hank Iba, allowed to watch Lawrence Brown draw up plays on the spot and teach the Carolina Passing Offense, shown the basketball world through the eyes of one of the early African American coaches---Leonard Hamilton-- in D1, and initiated into the 70-point take-what-they-give-us priesthood of Father Edward Sutton.
They had not seen their manly drives to dominate opponents lead them into being out-maneuvered and beaten.
They had not walked off the court muttering, "How did he DO that!!!!"
Don't feel bad, WUG coaches.
It happens .82 percent of the time in NCAA Division 1 College Basketball.
It happens whether he has the best players, or not.
Again and again it happens.
They enter confident in knowing what they are supposed to do.
They know they have a game plan to execute, a tempo to impose.
They expect their opponent to try to stop them from running their game plan.
But instead are confronted by a team willing to play it any way they want.
Willing to play at any tempo they set.
And after their own game plan and tempo are mirrored and they find themselves unable to win by playing the way they had planned, they find they coach loosing his confidence and 'adjusting" their game plan, telling them to do something other than that which he had promised them would work. And that is the beginning of the end.
They exit doubting themselves, because they have just played at exactly the tempo they like and set--a tempo they usually win at when they oppose it.
They exit having just lost.
And they really haven't a clue how it happened.
Go, Bill, go!!!
First, I am out of my league so to speak speculating on the NBA. Others follow it more closely than I do, so I am told.
So; all I can do as a Jethro Bodine-grade D1 fan, laymane and an NBA rube chewing straw by the cement pond is offer up some uninformed hypothetical speculation. To wit...
Hypothetically speaking, how could the NBA resist Nike, if the NCAA apparently struggles to?
Oh, well, maybe there is some way. Maybe appearances of the NCAA are not realities;that's always a possibility.
So: let me put it hypothetically another way, as I root around in Granny's kitchen for some sow belly.
I recall there are reputedly some more Nike contracted NBA players than adidas contracted players (Note: I don't know spit about whether these contracts require one to endorse shoes and/or endorse apparel). I also don't recall if it were as asymmetric as the shoe contracting with colleges in D1, or in the pre-college summer game reputedly is, but I recall it was reputedly a significant edge.
Further, I recall there are also reputedly more Nike contracted superstars than adidas contracted superstars in the NBA. Again, I don't recall the exact degree of assymetry, but I recall it was reputedly significant. But I won't swear to any of this, because I am an NBA functional illiterate. (And ah am igggorant, tew.)
Finally, the reigning super endorser--Lebron--is reputedly contracted with Nike, isn't he?
So: at least hypothetically speaking, it appears that if the NBA were to tell Nike to go fly a kite that it at least appears that Nike might hypothetically persuade its contracted players, plus perhaps some others that it might pursue, out of the NBA in a few short years and into a start-up competing league. After all, there are plenty of channels and networks that would like to have a new league's soap-pedalling content, especially if that new league were to have a significantly favorable asymmetric share of the best players. And there appears never to be a shortage of deep pocketed investors seeking to own a major professional sports franchise in a major media market in a league with the majority of the top players and desirable shoe endorsers, right?
In turn, it appears this notion that the NBA clothing endorsement doen't matter much is at least apparently contradicted by some corner dwelling gorillas.
Didn't adidas reputedly spend something like $400M in the not so distant past for the clothing endorsement?
And didn't Nike reputedly spend something like $1B for the clothing endorsement for the privilege of replacing adidas?
Those appear rather large corner dwelling gorillas to dismiss, even to someone like me who is relatively stupid...to say nothing of knowing less than a thimble full about the vaunted National Basketball Association.
Someone above has proposed that the clothing endorsement just isn't worth holding onto without the shoe contracts.
Hmmmm.
That doesn't quite cypher up right to me, but again I am the Jethro Bodine equivalent of NBA analysts, so naught may, contrary to my cyphering, go into naught and Uncle Jed may correctly go, "Ooooooooohweeeeeee, boy, they are right and you are wrong."
But over time, it at least appears to I, Jethro, that there may be more money to be made in globalizing markets in petro-apparel than in petro-shoes, though I don't know if Mr. Drysdale and Miss Jane would agree with me.
If I put myself in the position of a city slicker marketer at, say, adidas, I would really like to have the clothing endorsement contract with, say, Lebron, whether or not he was in Nike shoes. A uniform stands out on camera rather more than a pair of shoes, does it not? In fact, Lebron contracted with Nike shoes might make me want him to be contracted with adidas clothes even more, if such were to continue to be feasible. Wouldn't it be something of a marketing coup to have Lebron in one commercial praising his treads, and then countering that with Lebron praising some chic aididas petri-sports apparel, if either Nike, or adidas were willing to let it continue further?
On the other hand, if I were Nike and I were wanting a larger share of the global petro-sports apparel market, then it might not be enough for me to just have Lebron (or the NBA) in my shoes and being countered by adidas petro-apparel ads. I would want them in my petro-apparel too.
So: to me it seems like both adidas and Nike have strong incentives to try to get as many NBA players and the NBA itself committed to both petro-shoes and petr0-apparel, at least as many as their marketing budgets can afford to persuade.
Again hypothetically speaking, it at least seems vaguely possible to follow that either: a.) adidas just did not have deep enough pockets because of hard times to pay as much as Nike for the NBA petro-apparel contracts; or b.) adidas decided it could compete more effectively with Nike at the D1 level, so it decided to concentrate its forces and resources on D1.
I suppose it could be some of both, too.
I just don't know.
And I ain't right smart enough yet to say if adidas believes it has pull with off shore players in the amateur ranks that give it some kind of strategic edge in player-endorser procurement over time. But I reckon Granny and Ellie would want me to at least cypher on that some time, after ah git done cleaning Granny's still.
But to the uninitiated and unsophisticated laymen Jethro Bodine-grade D1 fans like me (you know, the ones that some board rats ask, "do you even watch the NBA? :-)), giving the NBA $1B to make sure NBA teams wear Nike petro-uniforms seems like there must be a lot of petro-apparel to be sold through such an association with the NBA.
And since adidas already paid the NBA a ton before, it must have helped them move a few petro-shirts, too. Or else I just don't understand endorsement worth a spit. Why spend that kind of money if'n that kind of money spent won't move at least a few shirts, eh?
But, as I said, I am just a layman, Jethro Bodine-grade D1 fan and an NBA ignoramus that don't even appear to watch the NBA.
So: Uncle Jed, what do I know that cain't be balanced on the pointy end of a skinny stick at the fancy eatin' table, right?
And thar ain't no consarned uh conspiracy theorizin' goin' on here, neeeether.
'Up through the ground come a bubblin' crude..."
Exactly my point.
When they were in and doing a decent job handling the ball, the machine ran beautifully.
When they weren't and we had two ball handlers the machine was limping along through jungles off the Burma Road just struggling to stay alive.
Two guard hypothesis: put a fork in it.
It is not inclusive enough of the data points.
I liked it for awhile though.
Bravo. Great find. Thanks for posting it.
I was losing my faith for awhile there.
I wasn't sure Self was going after this with everything he 's got.
But jumping out to a quick 2-0 and then reading this quote pumps me up.
Go, Bill, go!!!!!!!
Not wanting to quibble here. I think you are raising a good issue and so I am trying to "help". Not saying I am right. Just trying to open up the scope of analysis here.
Selden, Oubre and Perry were barely adequate at putting it on the deck by seasons end for different reasons.
Selden just flat out stunk as a ball handler last season apparently because of some kind of incomplete neural net connections due to age. There were several "series of games" when Wayne could not dribble anywhere but on his foot. It was one of the most embarrassing spectacles put on by a player that was clearly destined to become an exceptional player I have ever witnessed. It was Leonard Pynthe Garnell bad. Just awful. So, I would estimate fully half the games last season, KU did not have a sound basketball player at that wing, much less a sound ball handler.
Next, Oubre didn't even play much the first month of the season (likely because of an unreported knee injury.) Then he played a month trying to get adjusted to D1 speeds. His ball handling was shaky during this stretch. Next, Oubre had a month, or maybe just a few weeks, of scintillating play where he seemed the full package. Next, the cotton candy began to grow on his knee like a high fructose corn syrup cancer and his ball handling and every other part of his game began to deteriorate. Down the butt end of the season Oubre was mostly a decoy. So: KU had Oubre the ball handling threat to score on the drive, at most a quarter of the season.
Next, you mention Perry. Perry took fully half the season to get accustomed to the idea that he could withstand contact from the blue meanies. January he started coming around a wee bit, but then he had to START to learn to drive it for Self and early on it was not pretty to watch him put it on the deck. It was that February stretch where the Designer found that yes he could drive it and make treys even as the blue meanies were head hunting him. Alas, he was shortly injured and out. So that too is a very short stretch of time in which we can arguably assert KU had a ball handling 4.
Summary: last year's team was an example for only a few brief stretches of 4 ball handlers that could drive and shoot the trey. Those brief stretches seem to support my notion that four make the machine run sweetly. And two guards are just increasingly necessary, mostly when you've got no one else that can both drive it and be a trey threat.
I believe Ku is running some pick and roll, but then Self has always run it--some times more and some times less.
Last season we saw it very little, but he did show it.
Historically, Self has used the pick and roll in a different way than the NBA was once famed for.
The NBA gravitated to it because of the short shot clock, and because of super centers like Wilt, etc., that could own about 60 degrees of a 10 foot radius around the ball side of the basket and 5 feet radius on the backside 40 degrees. Also, pick and roll action can happen fast, even at the end of a shot clock. And it often triggered a miss match from switching that the great athletes and highly skilled players in the NBA could readily exploit pre-zone era. It minimized turnovers due to low risk passing. And it let you keep a safety back for transition insurance, while crashing two backside rebounders for offensive carom pursuit on every shot. And you really only needed two great offensive players--one ball handling perimeter player, one stretch 4--and a top notch backside outside shooter, plus an enforcer type, or a rim protector, at the 5. Its basically a clear out for two on two basketball with your other three guys doing what I have described above.
To master the obvious for old guys like me, Stockton and Malone of Utah became over a decade of game practice the definitive pick and roll craftsmen. Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, descended from the Weber State hard scrabble Dick Motta, rightly understood that in a division with the Lakers, he would never have five, or even four, guys better than the Lakers would have, so he reduced the game as much as possible to two on two at the positions where his team held MUA, or where they were at least even--the one and the four spots.
Stockton was hard for the Laker's great guards to handle, as he was for most guards in the NBA. Malone was simply to0 good at the four for everyone. The Mailman was as wide as Thomas Robinson at the shoulders, and just as wide as his shoulders all the way down to his shoelaces. Karl Malone did not need Andrea Hudy. He had the farm. He had hay bales. He had wood to cut. He dug fence post holes, perhaps without a post hole digger. He cleaned and jerked feed bags. He probably lifted a building corner, or two, so one of his brothers could insert another concrete block to get things level. But let's face it, Karl would have been big as a full sistern, even if he had grown up on Central Park in NYC.
Karl Malone was IMHO the greatest athletic freak of all time at the 4. Big as he was he could run like a gazelle. If his career had not spanned both the show time Lakers and the Shaquille Lakers he would have been casting shadows instead of living in them. Karl was Larry Bird with a good back and 35 additional pounds, and the same ornery, backwoods disposition. Summer field and French Lick were only separated by some latitude.
Karl was insanely good. Let's put this in perspective, even though they played different positions, Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan would have had Karl "helping" on defense with Lebron, and to put it politely, Karl would have HURT Lebron until Lebron agreed to just take his threes from outside like a good city slicker, and leave the paint to Country Karl.
Karl hurt a lot of people in the NBA. Karl played through the hey day of the gangstah hoopahs without hardly noticing. Karl treated the baddest inner city prison bodies the same way he treated country crackuhs with pillow cases. He was polite and went about his basketball business pretty much like farm chores till they crossed him; then he hurt them. Hurt some of them bad, too. And didn't regret doing it a lick either. Didn't care much what color you were. Might have been a little nicer to you if you were from a small town with a sweat stained, scrunch brimmed straw cowboy hat, but otherwise you were just someone that could help with the chores, or someone that had to be hurt for slowing down the chores. Forget the mail. The Mailman delivered pain--Hurtberry RFD.
Karl grew up in Summerfield, Louisiana; not the bayou town in Grant's Parrish, elevation 110 feet, but the one in Claiborne Parrish up north on the Arkansas border, where Eddie Sutton, then at UArk, drooled over him for three state championship high school years, before losing Karl to Andy Russo at Louisiana Tech, so Karl could be closer to the farm chores. He worked from a young age on a farm. He was one of nine children. His daddy lived with another woman on another patch of ground and raised children with "the other woman" before killing "hisself."
This is the Summerfield legacy Karl grew up in, according to its wiki page.
"Summerfield was founded in 1868 by W. R. Kennedy. It soon had four general merchandise and plantation supply stores, drug stores, a sawmill, and a gristmill. After its founding, with a population of 120, there were four churches, including Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Protestant, Missionary Baptist, and Primitive Baptist. The community was known for its school, good drinking water, and land, often available for as little as $5 per acre."
Today, Summerfield is described this way by its Wiki page.
"Summerfield is a very rural community with limited cell phone service and no high speed internet providers."
Once they didn't like revenuers. Now they don't like geeks bearing dishes and hot spots.
Its a place where 91F is said to feel like 106F by the weather bureau.
Get the picture?
Karl Malone was so powerful he could drive and dunk on anyone, but Shaquille O'Neale and Karl just stepped back and banged treys over 310 pound Shaq. Karl was after all, only a svelte 265 at his thinnest. Karl wasn't born a good dribbler or shooter. He didn't even come into the NBA being either. Karl BECAME a great trey shooter while doing his defense and rebounding chores in the NBA, because, well, that was what the basketball chores required in the big city. And he held his own rebounding with Shaq just fine. And he mopped up everyone else on the glass, as if they were a bunch of effeminate, Lou Reed girlie men prattling on about taking a walk on the wild side, while the colored girls went do, da-do, da-do, da-do. Karl never plucked his eye brows and said he was a she. Down in Summerfield, they still think the colored girls sing gospel. And they do. And they don't call themselves colored girls either. They call themselves Baptists, or Primitive Baptists, or saints, or sinners. None of this do, da-do, da-do stuff in Summerfield, where Karl grew up then, or now, I hear. But I digress on the Great Malone.
The point is the pick and roll to be done right takes a pretty good guard and a pretty good stretch 4 that don't scare easy and play as dirty as the opponent requires. The pick and roll is not about finesse. Its not about muscle either. Its about dilemmas. It is about repeatedly confronting an opponent with a dilemma. You recall a dilemma. That is a choice between two bad options. Switch and have to guard Stockton off a pick with a guard that couldn't stay with Stockton even without a pick, or switch and guard Stockton with a center Stockton can go around as if the center weren't even there. That's one dilemma. The other dilemma is switch and guard Malone with guard that Malone will plough deep into the ground as he goes to iron, or don't switch and guard Malone with a four that Malone will step out and shoot a trey over, drive by as if he weren't even there.
Every damned time down the floor: DILEMMAS. First one side, then the other side. And when they overshift and help, boom! Whip it cross court to the backside wing that can drain the open look for three!!!!
But as I said, Self has never played the pick and roll the way god intended it to be played.
Until now, Self never had a short shot clock to worry about. And he rarely wanted his post men shooting treys. Even Kieff took relatively few good as he was at the long art. Historically, Self's bigs pick, and they roll, but they don't get passed to and they take treys about as often as often as Karl Malone ate quiche instead of spare ribs at a barbecue.
For Self, the pick and roll was just a low-risk technique of drawing an opponents big away from the basket ever so slightly to create some driving lanes and some rebounding angles. For example, Self played a lot of pick and roll with Cole Aldrich even though Cole of the funky jumper was hardly a trey ball threat. Cole could hit a 10-15 footer though. So even though Cole set the pick and rolled, and was rarely ever looked at to pass to by Sherron, Cole was drawing his man away from the rim and keeping him from helping as much.
But this short shot clock is forcing the defensive maestro to look for something different to do on offense--forcing him to at least explore what Poppa is doing down in old San Antone.
But we all know how Minister of Defense for Edmon Oklahoma operates.
He looks at offenses that use action instead of passing to create impact space and he hears voices. The voices belong to Dean, Larry, Eddie, and Hank. The voices form a Greek Chorus with a distinct midwestern twang and that half drawl/half hick up that gets thicker as you move south from harshly continental-climated Nebraska into transitionally continental-climated Kansas and then into the barely subtropical-climated Oklahoma.
Action congests.
Absolute action congests absolutely.
Beware the ides of action for they congest the impact space.
The voices don't stop here either.
The voices say, "Yay, you walked through the valley of the shadow of Bad Ball last season. And you feared no evil. But you went out early because you did not listen to us about your transgression. You shrank the impact space with the drive, which was not technically a violation of our ten commandments we have handed down to you, but it trespassed on the spirit of those commandments. And so you paid for it. And if you rely solely on the pick and roll, or on any other action, your basketball soul will roast in the fires of basketball hades for all the seasons of your career."
Self tried to have it both ways last season. He avoided action to appease the voices, but he used driving to shrink the impact space which no doubt made them shake their heads and wag fingers down at him.
In any accent, the action of the pick and roll is unstoppable and suitable for your core offense, if and only if the following conditions are met.
You have a good perimeter ball handler that can make the trey, or drive it to iron. Think Frank Mason.
You have a stretch 4 that can make the trey, or drive it to iron. Think Perry Ellis.
You have a back side wing that can make the open look trey, if the defense overshifts to stop the pick and roll, or a matchup goes south. Think Wayne Selden, or Vick, or Greene.
Pick and roll heaven would be having two such wings and two such stretch fours able to play pick and role on both sides at the same time. Add Nic from SMU and Bragg.
Pick and roll nirvana would be having not just four, but four backups that could do it also; this would ensure being able to pick and roll non-stop for 40 minutes, or at least the portion of 40 minutes the offense would have the ball. Dream on.
Nirvana has never been achieved in basketball that I can recall.
I cannot even recall pick and roll heaven being achieved in college basketball, though someone with higher functioning cortex likely will.
Regardless, you can be damned hard to guard with just one Stockton, one Malone, and one Jeff Hornacek on the back side. You can get away with journeyman types at the 5. And if you find a big shot blocker like Ostertagg to play half the minutes at the 5, you can be a real head ache. This is the model.
The closer you come to it the wiser it is to play pick and roll often.
The farther you are from it the more foolish it is play pick and roll, especially with a short shock clock.
Frank Mason and Perry Ellis could make a nice watered down college version of Stockton/Malone.
Selden can be the back side Hornacek that can either shoot the trey or drive it, when the defense overshifts to stop the pick and roll action.
But the voices!
Self will keep hearing the voices.
Action congests.
Absolute action congests absolutely.
Beware the ides of action.
Rock Chalk!
Who will be the first coach to design an offense to use every second of a shortened shot clock?
THE GENIUS, OF COURSE.
Until Self is confident he can cornerstone on Diallo and his reputed rebounding prowess, I suspect we will see KU running the shot clock down EVERYTIME under a 30 second clock.
Rule: with good shooters and weak rebounding, the fewest possessions possible, regardless of shot clock, is tends to be the best strategy statistically, if the other team has better rebounders.
Minimizing possessions--even if it deteriorates into ball sticking--is the coin of the realm, despite the shortened shot clock, until Self is sure Diallo is an offensive rebounding stud capable of playing at D1 speeds on both ends of the floor.
If you are not a great offensive rebounding team, regardless of shot clock length, you don't want to shoot early and create a rebound you likely won't get.
Uh-oh, I am perseverating.
:-)
Not me. :smile:
The two ball handler hypothesis persuaded me for awhile.
But I am increasingly persuaded that Self's offense is best with 4-5 starters that can score from their spots, or put it on the deck.
Dean's best teams had this.
Same for Roy's.
Larry's best teams at UCLA and KU had this.
Bill's best teams have had this.
Four threats to score seem a powerful dynamic indeed.
If Mason keeps it up on the glass, he is crowding into Bill Bridges country in the inch for inch category of rebounders. An amazing ability.
Another Hunter Hypothesis:
I have favored the hypothesis that tie goes to the player from the biggest recruiting market, but in the interest of furthering sports science, here is another hypothesis.
Hypothesis: Hunter violated one of Self's basic codes of conduct regarding team behavior and was given a year at the end of the bench a la Russell Robinson to reflect on his transgression.
Hunter has a boyish face, but he is a young man at the age when such mistakes are not infrequent. Hunter has now done his time and is trying to prove himself as opportunities arise.
"Change makes us be more of who we are...our better and our worse."--jaybate 1.0
Self is a "defense starts offence" coach by his own description.
It was inevitable that KU would become the best 24 second shot clock defensive team. It's what he does. It's who he is. It's all he is. And he absolutely will not stop until he has stopped the latest new situation.
He is DEFENSINATOR!
Absense may make the heart grow fonder, but change makes us more of who we already were.
24 second shot clock offense starts with 24 second shot clock defense.
Let us now praise famous BAD BALL.
We are witnessing a genius back into an offense yet again.
Self is being Holmes on offense again.
After he rejects everything offensively what is left, however improbable, must be the only real gold.
The man still has no credible front court, back to basket offense. None. Zero. Zip.
This is last year with less time not to be able to score inside.
The man has Trey ballers and drivers.
Treys made on the first and second sides are fools gold to the genius.
With only 24 seconds, against presses, the team can rarely set up and get to the third side for a REAL CAROLINA PASSING OFFENSE, open look Trey.
Yet you don't want a quick shot that gives them more possessions, since your super defense holds most advantage in lowest possession games.
So the smart play is: let it stick in your best impact players hands, or one pass away, hold it till 8 on the shot clock, and create.
It's the NBA without the talent.
It looks ugly even to a genius backing into it.
And too many of the treys are fools gold.
More backing is required.
BAD BALL WITH KICK OUTS TO THE OPEN THREE--that dog will hunt. No iron pyrite.
But don't be obvious.
Call it something new.
Drive'n Kick.
It's the defense, stupids.
You win with defense.
No matter what!
Remember, there are no conspiracies in D1. It is all legal and out in the open. There just some things some board rats call conspiracies that are not.
All of my posts are conspiracy free.
I am an anti-conspiracy advocate.
Conspiracies are for suckers.
The only things we have to fear are fear and asymmetric legality!!!!
Rock Chalk!
H-U-N-T-E-R M-I-C-K-E-L-S-O-N !!!!!!!!!!!!
Poor Wayne Selden.
Intermittent Wayne of 2014-15 becomes Constant Selden and burns the nets for numbers that we all expected last season and his freshman season, and looks like a sure first rounder this season, but...
Hunter in 2014-15 was the poster boy for Cryogenic Preservation.
He has come so much farther.
He has sailed a course from the icy, nether regions of KU hoops.
Hunter was on life support systems like Neo laying in the pod in The Matrix. Self and his players were like the mad machines living off poor Hunter's energy and coolant-suspended determination. Each time Hunter was thawed he was like Neo exploding out of the pod, pale, wet, awe-eyed, awkward, like an ice hatchling. And he would mad stork it up and down the floor and it appeared that, while his timing was that of a wooly mammoth defrosted from a receding arctic glacier, there was an explosiveness and an anger in his sun-starved dermis that hinted that a playuh from small town Arkansas had something to give, but that all ties went to the guys that by playing them (instead of Hunter) could keep AAU coaches and big city high school coaches, and meat market basketball academy coaches continuing to feed the voracious KU program the steady stream of players needed to stay at a .82 W&L statement and keep the conference title string alive. There just wasn't a steady stream of prospects coming out of Hunter's home town. Playing Hunter stroked no feeder system. It greased no conveyor belt. The talent of one player was not the criterion of who played and who got iced. It was the talent of one player and all the future recruits that could follow him that was the criterion for who played.
How do we know this?
Because when Bragg gets a busted sniffer and the increasingly customary freshman concussion KU bigs appear to get, er, excuse me, I meant the busted sniffer and the nicking up that they appear to get, and when this season's token (and only) OAD, Cheick Diallo, is home honing skills and moving free iron for the Hudy Lama of Basketball Tibet, and Perry has returned to limping, and Lucas and the Jam Tray need a blow, enter not so much the Mad Stork, but the Albino Albatross that follows Bill Self like the big winged bird followed the rhyming ancient mariner of hop-headed Sam Coleridge's fevered opium dreams that became "the poem."
Hunter "The Albatross" Mickelson tags along the Jayhawk ship of Captain Bill Self and keeps saving it from the bad luck that can sink the ships of unlucky captains.
Remember, Captain Self, take good care of the Albino Albatross with the read head feathers.
Under no circumstances go on this voyage without him, or take him and club him with an oar.
Do not put him back in the deep freeze.
Another season there might end him.
And then the ancient mariner Self will stand with...
"Instead of the cross, the Albatross..."
And about his neck it will hang.
Rock Chalk, Albatross, rock chalk!!!!!
I am sooooo happy I started this thread in the first place and tickled to life so many got some laughs!! 😅
Their situation is hard to understand.
They have been reported as you say.
But reporting is sometimes intentionally misleading, when stakes are very high.
The more sports becomes "entertainment," the more it is like Hollywood. I decided long ago not to believe any controversial stories that come from Hollywomod--not the bad or the good. It appears a dream factory, where fiction prevails over fact on screen and in real life. One never knows the truth about Hollywood, because the PR firms and the industry people and police and courts and media don't get paid for defending the truth, or for trading in it, quite as much as elsewhere. There is no bottom line in Hollywood. Accounting and contracts are often bigger fictions there than screenplays. Every story has to be angled and sold to satisfy certain agendas that long outlast any particular story. It is not entirely different from the rest of the world in these regards, only vastly more so.
I suspect we can never know the truth of what happened in Phoenix. Truth and the Twins appear lost in the squid ink of a Phoenix culture saving itself from appearances as much as realities. The triggering events have become eclipsed by an orgy of scapegoating and justification that leads us all to a sound and fury of CYA and nothing more.
The Twins could be bad apples, but they could also be set up, or they could be in between; I.e., flawed as we all are but caught in a big money media whirl wind and being overwhelmed by all the dynamics of deep pocketed organizations trying to save themselves by scapegoating the Twins.
I would have to learn a lot more about them specifically before I could judge them harshly. And those spinning and framing the story, and those paying to have it spun and framed, and those trying to CYA themselves at the twins expense appear no Angels.
Rock Chalk!
jSPN stringers in Kansas City have just learned that soon to retire Jack Harry has committed to a sex change.
Reportedly Jack will convert from a woman to a man and take the name Jaclyn for reasons not yet entirely clear.
The Institute for Transgender Integrity in Broadcasting (ITIB) is reportedly seeking a court order to stop Jack Harry from becoming Jaclyn Harry on grounds that Jack/Jaclyn Harry would set the transgender cause back half a century.
Developing....
(Note: all fiction. No malice.)
Hope they are shipping both Twins; that would be nice to see them in motor city togs.
In Detroit, the brothers would both be allowed to fire bee-bee guns at will!!!!!!
Seriously, the bigger deal here that the busted schnozola is the neck on Carlton.
Carlton was a pencil necked geek last basketball season based on the feeds showing him doing great things with the ball.
Look a the Hudy-neck on the that big fellah now!!!!
They may have broken his sniffer, but that neck can bow up and it suggests he soon will be able to deliver a world of hurt.
Go, Carlton, go!!!
I will keep trying.
jSPN stringers in Athens Greece consulted with Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth, and learned that KU's harvest of recruits is over for this season.
Demeter said, "There will be talk of more recruits, but what's done is done. It was sketchy harvest. No footers. Only one OAD. Not enough domestic varieties to compete in the WUG without bringing in some players from other teams. And also not enough domestic varieties to help KU bridge through injuries, er, bridge through being nicked up, as they say in Edmond, OK. On the other hand, a game bunch of recruits were landed that will fight hard against the long and short stacks come the D1 scene. And certainly Persephone, Despoina, and the rest of my off spring are very excited at what I have delivered and intend to whoop it up big time at the next Big Shoe Thesmophoria and McDyonisus All Star game."
jSPN stringers confirm that Demeter is a recruiting goddess extraordinaire that wants to focus on the hoopahs she delivered and has laid down the law about leaving the Eleusinian Mysteries about why KU did not land a short, or a long stack, to her problematic daughter, Persephone.
Demeter says: Rock Chalk, baby!
Dateline: The Coach Speak Zone
Slug: I Didn't Bring Enough Big Men, So Bail My Ass Out!
What was first reported as a savagely broken nose that looked like Carlton Bragg was given a love tap with a ball peen hammer in transition was rediagnosed today by Dr. I. M. Amedicalwhore, as a "minor contusion of the proboscis."
Said Dr. Amedicalwhore, "Carlton is very fortunate. A centimeter either direction and he might have had an operable nose break. Instead, it is a minor contusion of the proboscis that really effects his ability to play and take more ball peen hammer shots, er, uh, more finger slaps without endangering his brain function. Fans should be very relieved."
Developing....
(Note All fiction. No malice.)
Jake Heaps rhymes with Ryan Leaf!
What is it about them Pacific Northwesterners anyway?
Maybe the country is just too beautiful to leave?
Maybe the fishing just can't be replaced elsewhere?
Or maybe, just maybe, Jake decided taking shots in the head and early onset Alzheimer were not a good way stay among the human beings.
Or maybe, as Chief Dan George once said in Little Big Man, "Some days the medicine is strong and some days it is not."
That's why I put the disclaimers on. 😂
The PRC has offered Bill big bucks to turn around the PRC team. PRC to buy Nike and Adidas!!!!!!!
(Note: all fiction. No malice.
They are too busy becoming the richest, most powerful country?
They are too busy building the trans-Eurasian hi speed rail and utility corridor to cut the Anglo-American central bank out of control of Halford MacKinder's Eurasian center point strategy?
Still angry about the opium dumping by Brits and Americans back in TR's gunboat days?
Been there done the hoops thing with Yao Ming?
Don't like the market price for China white FOB old Kelly AFB?
Still sore about Herbert Hoover stealing title to biggest gold mine in China during the Boxer Rebellion?
Can't stand Doogie Godlove?
All of the above?
And if they can dominate Slender Bragg, what will happen on drives and defense to Skinny Vick?
Talk about guys that need to play in zero G!
Let's talk about stopping ALL accidents!
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Let's distract with an impossible straw argument.
Let's ignore the evidence.
Let's focus on improbability.
Shizz haps.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
There are no docs that could treat a nose break in Korea.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Sure!
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Look at his eyes.
Did you fall over?
Did you stay down 5 minutes?
Hey, I was once shot in the face twice with 45 hollow points.. I just shook it off and played through. You know, shizz happens.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Syrexcuse?
On probation?
In disgrace?
Sleepy coach?
Oh, this makes a lot of sense!
Pascal just wants to be close to home.
Howling!
CONCUSSION!
Next.
It doesn't seem like a ring team committee, but Poppa knows best!
Enough rubles.
Bring on the dollars!
Unless the two big fish in Minnesota decide they want a champ before the next generation inherits the oligopoly positions, there seems little chance that Wigs will be in Minnesota after the end of his first contract, so I kinda doubt there is going to be much development time to watch, so enjoy it while you can.
Like Carmelo's opinion counts for something, right? Howling!
Love would do great in LA, or Portland, or Seattle.
Love is a helluva of a player.
But it will take a coach with a brain to get the most out of him and as we learn each season, there are never more than about three or four NBA coaches that can think outside the box enough to use any player that does not fit the mold.
Jackson, Poppa, Kerr and maybe Doc are about it right now.
Riles and Danny Ainge would be a fifth and sixth, but they are trying to do it from the front office.
Bird would be a seventh, but he doesn't want to do it.
Three to five years from now, the Cav's coach should become one, but right now he is learning the ropes.
Wigs was only a disappointment, if you look at the game as if it were pre OAD and pre-stacking era.
In the present, and with the blinders off, Wigs year at KU was a fabulous success!
What other player than Wigs could have started from day 1, coasted 3/4 to half capacity 75% of the time, and still averaged 14.4 ppg, defended the other team's toughest perimeter player effectively, rebounded decently, AND had two marquis games against lesser teams throwing in 30-40 points, so as to MAKE opponents guard him even though he was coasting? NOT ONE that I can think of except maybe Kidd-Gilchrist and he frankly had to play much nearer full capacity to be as good as he was.
Do you remember how Wigs some times didn't even break a sweat?
The guy is an absolutely fabulous player.
He could coast as a freshman at a D1 elite and still be a difference maker.
It is frankly unprecedented in my recollection that a guy could be as dominant as he was coasting.
You've got to take the blinders off about the new rules of D1.
OAD's COAST.
They all do now.
Duke's footer center last season was waaaaaaay better than he was allowed to show. Same with UK's freshman footer.
Once you take off the blinders, you are going to quit missing so much.I know, because I had the blinders on for much of Wigs OAD season at KU. I was actually naive enough to doubt his outside shooting, and some of his other abilities, and even his toughness. Was I flipping naive or what? He goes to the NBA and he is ROY and he still is playing no where near capacity. He certainly appears to be waiting to unleash everything he has AFTER the first contract ends and he starts making what he is really worth. He has to play harder in the NBA, but still he just doesn't appear to be going full bore at all. The plan appears to avoid injury at all cost still and he can get away with doing it, because he is not playing for a contender and really doesn't have to go full bore except occasionally to make it clear that he can beast on NBA players, too. And he is still a baby, really. Four years from now, he is going to be making the NBA say, "Lebron who?"
When you take the blinders off about OAD coasting, you will start not having unfulfilled expectations, too.
No true OAD is EVER going to live up to his hype again in D1, IMHO.
Wiggins and his father figured the game out.
They hit the jack pot doing it, too.
Wigs hasn't got a scratch on him. Wigs is like Cassius Clay, before he laid out, got rusty and heavy, and became Muhammad Ali in the comeback. Wigs is purrrrrrrrty. He is too good for everyone. Clay was so good he could dance around and coast and taunt opponents and pick the round he would put them down. This is what we are dealing with here with Wigs, but without the mouth and bragging.
Wigs and Father Wigs are going to be endlessly emulated by the few true OADs and future NBA stars that pass through D1 each season until this rule is changed.
Now, not only discretion, but coasting, is the better part of valor.
Its is kind of an affront to persons like us that grew up on a value system of college players playing to the best of their abilities all the time, but its really no different than NBA players coasting for an entire NBA regular season, before turning it on for the play offs.
Its how it is when the game gets to be business at the player level, and not just at the D1 coaching level, and at the 501.c3 athletic department level, and at the PetroShoeCo level, and at the Big Media level, and at the Big Gaming level.
And that's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.
Good day.
Of course, all of the above is hypothetical and opining, as usual. I am just a fan looking from the outside in. Who knows what actually goes on, right?