Amazing stat! And glad you got better!
jaybate 1.0
10346 posts
--make silage soufflé for KSU buffet.
--mold into gnocchi balls for cattle in the Piemonte.
--make silage mâché figurines of interim head coach Bruce Weber.
--bulldoze into silage moguls for KSU style skiing.
--feed to KSU coeds.
(Note: all fiction. No malice.)
No, that comes next season. 😸
K.I.S.S. Principle--long bench first game of 3 in 6.
Modified KISS--add Lucas played well and was a good matchup for Russian Karviar Shepherd.
Double Modified KISS--add "play OADs least, because of their sickness and injury."
Svengali KISS--add "reduce minutes to motivate for KSU and ISU and wake up Cliff to FT block out goof.."
Zimmerman Not Coming KISS--add "develop Landen as much as possible because Cliff is jumping and Zimmerman isn't signing, nor is any other big."
Self Getting Early On-Set Alzheimer's KISS--add "Bill just forgets who he has on the bench sometimes."
🙌
I do believe he would say that...same as I do believe he would not report Selden's knee all last season! 😄
Yes, I am leeeeeetle satisfied, but not too. 😇
But what I AM hand wringing about is Oubre's bug spreading to the rest of the team! And hitting Saturday or Monday!!
My guys need their health to win out! 😎
The circumstances for comparison are actually pretty ideal, because Self's and Cal's baseline years were both in the earlier period that you note, and both their most recent numbers are for this year--the newer era. So: this comparison of ratios is just ideal for capturing the relative progression of both coaches from the old system to the new, and it highlights just how astonishingly anomalous Cal's proportional increase in OADs is.
Ya know, he had DRose at Memphis that could be considered an OAD. That was a grand total of 1. I don't recall him having any TADs at Memphis. That's zero.
Hmmm. Call it 1 OAD/TAD at Memphis in his best recruiting season at Memphis.
At UK he has 10 OAD/TADs.
That is a 10:1 ratio.
Let's see.
Bill Self had not OAD/TADs at Tulsa.
Bill had three exceptional players at Illinois, but I don't think any of them were OADs, or TADs, were they?
But let's be generous and say that Bill had 1 OAD/TAD at Illinois in his best season. And let's forget Tulsa. Let's just compare Bill's OAD/TAD ratio between Illinois and KU. Let's say that Bill's best situation is this year's 3 OAD/TADs even though we know that Wayne is struggling and may turn into a 3AD. Let's be generous and say that Bill really does have 3 OAD/TADs.
So: the ratio is;
Cal = 10:1
Bill = 3:1
Hmmmmm.
That's quite a difference in ratio improvement.
I am having trouble attributing playing the SEC over the B12, or playing in the EST vs the CST to being the drivers of this extraordinary improvement in ratios.
Hmmm, I believe we are not yet quite at a hypothesis that fittingly and adequately explains how Cal got 10 OAD/TADs on one roster.
And I know some argue that Cal just tells players whatever they want to hear, but that does not explain why all the other unscrupulous coaches that tell kids whatever they want to hear (and there have to be at least 10 or so other utterly unscrupulous coaches out of 300+ D1 schools, and surely five or so of them must be a D1 majors and surely 1 or 2 must be a good programs. But none of them have 10 OAD/TADs on their rosters.
This continues to be a vexing issue to me.
Perhaps some summer game coaches, agents, and agent runners that Rick Pitino reputedly referred to in a couple of recent articles would like to explain how this sort of thing happens.
As usual, I am assuming nothing illegal is going on.
I am simply looking for the technique that is crucial to the phenomenon so that KU can have 10 OAD/TADs on our roster the legal way.
Rock Chalk!
~Sod busters like sod, so show them some of the better kept yards around town, then tell them they are much greener in the spring.
~Sod busters are fascinated by new technology, so show them some a ZTR lawn mower.
~Sod busters tend to be grub worm afficianados, so offer to play Grub Worm Trivial Pursuit with them and then pose the first question: how many different species of grub worms are there? knowing that there are over 100 types.
~Sod busters endlessly like to discuss composting, so strike up a conversation by asking, "Say, did you know that the Red Wiggler eats the most of any worm used for composting?" knowing that it does.
~Sod busters really like sod houses, so tell them that your great grand father built sod house out of buffalo chips and then graciously let them correct you that buffalo chips are not sod, by saying, "Well, silly me, of course you WOULD know that."
~Sod busters do not find puns playing off of sodomy funny, so no jokes about Bonobo monkeys.
(Note: all fiction. No malice.)
Only KSU and Manhattan could put a big tank up behind the Manhattan across the hillside. How flipping low rent is that?
Imagine KU putting a big tank up behind the Campanile?
Sodbusters'R Us.
One more add: that is a flipping great storm shot over the KSU stadium, whether real or Photoshopped. Congrats.
Self can kvetch and complain all he wants.
He got exactly what he wanted.
A low scoring game where he rested everyone but Mason and basically reduced this horrible 3 in 6 scheme to something they may survive.
Bitching about mistakes at the end when an opposing team is basically playing like strong safeties in football on defense against your guys is just the old woman in him coming out.
Perfectionists all have this old woman streak in them. Once they get what they want, then they complain about something...anything.
Self should be walking on air. He pulled it off.
He sent his team out flat and played everyone but the walk ons big minutes.
I mean, he played two OADs 10 and 15 minutes.
Howling!
Bill, you're just trying make sure your green guys stay purposeful.
I am so glad you posted the picture of Tex Winter.
Winter, though he was a USC Sam Cunningham and Jack Gardiner disciple, not an Okie Baller, is actually the coach that Bill Self has always most resembled to me.
Tex Winter could coach'em up, and he was creative, and he could be cool, and he could get hot, and he could get the best out of a lot of different kinds of players.
Winter came to be very tightly identified with what he called the Triple Post at KSU, but later The Triangle, when he was Jackson's offensive brains behind the Bulls and Lakers.
Winter was not quite as good of a button pusher of players at Self, but he was still pretty good.
Winter really got tired of all the player management issues and walked away from the pro game rated an unsuccessful pro coach and folks had forgotten the incredible stuff he had done at KSU.
Phil Jackson fortunately understood what a genius Winter was. Sometimes it takes one to know one.
The rest is history.
Way to get it down on pixels.
Not saying I totally agree with you hear, but it is a thoughtful take and I probably come down somewhere between you and @drgnslayr, probably close to @drgnslayr. But your take is thought provoking and it made me think a little harder about what I think goes on.
Tactics become strategy when strategy cannot be executed.
Self enters every game with a strategy (a recipe of tactics aimed at achieving a strategic goal) for beating another team.
But the future is NOT 100% predictable, so the short-fall variances from expected strategic outcomes have be addressed by changing tactics.
If short fall variances from expected are central to the strategy, then tactics become strategy.
You junk the strategy and begin iterating through a series of tactics fitting a stream of situations until you get something going.
No matter what the recent trends are, you still have to play to your greatest MUAs offense to defense.
Every opponent's personnel varies considerably.
You have to find where you match up with that best and attack their to begin with.
Self sometimes attacks places that at times don't make sense.
Early on he was attacking inside simply to give our guys practice attacking inside, not because it was necessarily the best place to attack. He had to restore their confidence in their abilities to attack inside after what UK did to them. He played inside out even when it looked bad doing it.
He did something similar for a few games to get the team used to winning outside in. It looked much better, because the team has a lot of good shooters and they got hot.
But once he believes his players understand how to play both inside out and outside in, then he goes to work on the spread game, and against TCU, he finally unveiled the REAL Perry Ellis stretch 4. The REAL Perry Ellis stretch 4 is the 3 I have been telling every one Perry truly was, since he first arrived.
Against TCU, Perry was frankly showing more driving speed from wings and high post crossing drives, than the incredible Kelly Oubre does. Perry Ellis' was dribbling beautifully with his left hand. The guy is as natural of a long 3 as I have EVER seen. To be honest, we don't have to replace Oubre next season, if Oubre jumps. We can just put Perry in at 3 and play one of our bigs at 4, or recruit an OAD 4. Of course, the chances are we will recruit an OAD 3 instead, and Perry will have play stretch 4 again. But regardless, he really cut loose and showed what he could do putting it on the deck vs. TCU.
Why did Self choose to reveal Perry vs. TCU? They were thick and a bit slow, so it was a good opponent for a coming out party for Perry. Further, it adds to the difficulty of preparing for KU, and Self wants Weber and Fred to have a lot to think about.
The thing for fans to get juiced about regarding this show of Perry's MBMAP effectiveness is this: when Parry puts it on the deck on a 45 angle from outside, either from the wing, or from the high post floated out toward the ring, this is really going to make the defense collapse to stop his penetration. And what will the Designer do when stopped? Kick it back out to KU's wide open trifectates. It is an ingenious way to start to use Perry. Basically, it uses very good driving ability to clear out the wing behind him, where one of KU's actual wings will fill for the open look trey. Its like a drag play with a wide receiver running into the center of zone coverage and a slot back running into the open space. Great stuff.
But here I have gotten geeked up about Perry and gotten away from my main point here.
Self certainly plays the averages.
But I think what he is really trying to do distill rather simply (and elegantly) to building leads, or keeping it close and then building leads, and then defending leads. I wrote at length about building leads and defending leads late last week and it was a little too lugubrious for many to wade through.
But the key is that some first halves, usually against weaker teams in a 2 in 3 format, it is more important to play lots of bodies than it is to build leads that first half. You are trying to save up your guys energy for the second game. When he plays lots of bodies the first half, he is just hoping to keep it close the first half. The second half he comes out and at some point early or late tries to build a lead. Once the lead is built, then he goes into lead-defending mode. Lead defending mode is reducing the number of remaining possessions in the game. It involves running the stuff, or stretching it into four corners, to get drives to iron and fouls with FTs.
Sometimes against the good teams, if he thinks he has an advantage outside, or an advantage inside, he will concentrate attack where he thinks he holds advantage, and try to build the lead ASAP. If he thinks he can keep snowballing the lead, he does, up to 15-20, then goes into defend-the-lead mode. If he feels the momentum wear off after only 10 points, he chooses to defend the lead down to 5, then crank it up again, or other times he chooses to keep trying to widen the lead.
This set of menu options is why Self is so tough for other coaches to anticipate and so outmaneuver. You just don't know what he is liable to do, and even if you guess right, he may change up on you.
Build a lead.
If you can't build a lead, then keep it close for a while till you get to some time in the game when they are fouled up and you can build a lead.
Then Defend a lead.
It is Self's strategic way.
You can do whatever you damned please, if he gets to build his lead, and then defend it.
Copy and paste RedRooster. :+1:
I have a hunch that you are going to get all of the Cliff Alexander show you want against ISU.
Against Gipson on KSU, Self faces a decision. Landen bulk and Jamari's explosiveness might be able to hold Cliffs minutes to 20-25 minute against KSU, which would mean Self could unleash Cliff BTWs for the full 40 of ISU. On the other hand, it would suck losing to KSU on Saturday and facing ISU's bunch of trey bombers, if ISU were to happen to show up hot.
My hunch is that Self will try to rotate Landen, Jam Tray and Cliff on Gipson to wear him down, and hold down the KU player's minutes, then, as I said, come full on with Cliff versus ISU.
Why all this time management related to Cliff, who is obviously so good?
Self is increasingly asking his centers to run baseline to baseline and get to both ends BEFORE the enemy bigs, be they short or long. That takes a lot of juice for a big fella.
Also, Cliff still doesn't have a super BTB game, so his great strength is not going down and setting up on the spots for an entire game. What Cliff is so great at is running the floor and getting there BEFORE the enemy and bringing serious upper body force when he gets there. We don't want Cliff, with his slender lower body, wasting his battery charge doing a lot of below the waist bodying. We want his awesome long stride, hops, and big shoulders as an MBMAP (mobile big man attack platform) dedicated to early arrivals in the paint on both ends, where he is most formidable.
Clearly, the SEC wants to limit its PR embarrassment that comes with public spankings.
@wrwlumpy
I bet Self smiled at Norm back at the hotel and said, "Normie, some snafus,but it worked sweet!"
The guy is just GOOD!
All those summer game coaches out there reputedly trying to divert talent away from Bill--you are going to wind up outside looking in!!!! 😄
I believe Frank should not even have been shooting due to being shaken up; that's why he missed the FTs.
I keep telling board rats, the object is how to win 3 in 6 against an ISU team that only has to win 3 in 9.
People hand wringing, because KU "only" won by 3 in Fort Worth are not seeing the the oil refiner's oligopoly for the oilcos, or the Fed owners for the oil refiner's oligopoly they own and finance.
Self coached this game about as brilliantly as you can coach a game in a 3 in 6 campaign, where the first game is a against a cellar dweller being turned around by a decent butcher ball coach in Trent Johnson.
Remember: the goal is a low scoring game, with a minimum of running, and playing as much of your bench as humanly possible, so that this game depletes your energy budget as little as possible. You know you could win this game by 20-30, if you shorten your bench to 7 and put in some wrinkles. You are sending them out flat as pancakes. You don't dare wasting emotions on this game, when you will need two amped performances for 2 in 4. You also don't dare creating special offense or defense for this game, because you want your green team to focus on learning schemes for KSU and ISU. You want all high percentage shots inside, where you can get some whistles on the road against this team you are more athletic than. You know you won't get an even whistle on the road, but you want the ball inside, where any TOs are less likely to turn into easy transition baskets. You are also hoping to play the first half only on the defensive end and expend almost no energy on offense, then the second half you are hoping to play the first 10 minutes expending some energy on the front 10 and then closing out the game on the back 10 playing full tilt for about 5 minutes, and then milking a lead the last 5 minutes by shooting FTs. That is the ideal script going into the game. If the game plays out this way, even if you win by only one it is a great victory, and if you happen to lose, well, its a road loss, and you will still have your tank full to win in Lawrence against serious challengers in KSU and ISU.
Self achieved almost all of the above. The partially expected fly in the ointment was TOs. KU made 14, which, when one is playing a butcher baller on the road and getting the asymmetric whistle, is about par for the course for a young team. TCU studied the Temple feeds, and muscled us without the talent.
The partially expected compensation for the partially expected high TOs? KU got 12 blocks!!!!! Plus a bunch of alters that didn't show.
The real problem for KU was TCU's impressive offensive rebounding, where they were an outrageously unacceptable +14 on us. That offensive reeb edge, plus the high TOs, plus the asymmetric whistle, turned it into a squeaker, where TCU had 72 posessions to our 52!!!!!
So: why did the offensive rebounding edge occur, when KU is usually a strong rebounding team? Easy. Self obviously told his defenders to focus on guarding tight, and going for blocks constantly. And to guard them all over the floor. Self was going for a low defensive field goal percentage and sacrificing rebounding. He realized his guys were the better jumpers. TCU were all thick and not great leapers. They weren't good scorers either. Self made an interesting gamble. He could have laid off of them and rebounded, but he decided to surprise Trent and have his guys trap and pressure. Clearly Trent was expecting less pressure in a game where Self would be trying to conserve energy. The result was pretty much what one would expect. TCU shot 30.6% FGA and 16.7% 3PT. They also only shot 51% from the line, which explains why Self decided to sacrifice offensive rebounding for shot blocking. Putting TCU on the FT line was NOT going to hurt us that bad.
Let's go down the check list.
Amp Level: Flat. Check.
Low Possession Game: He keeps the game down in the low 60s. Check.
Long bench: 11 guys played in a close game. 9 played 10 minutes or more. Check.
First half: muddy-up defensive effort. Check.
First ten of second half: muddy-up defensive effort plus a little lead achieved. Check.
Last ten of second half: build a lead first five, then milk it second five. Check.
Like clock work.
Cliff, who we have to have fresh as a daisy for KSU and ISU played 15 minutes.
Kelly, who we have to have fresh for KSU and ISU, and who Vail told me was sick, played a piddling 10 minutes.
Frank was the only guy that played big minutes and, well, Frank has to. But notice how the slow pace allowed Frank to only play with occasional bursts of energy. Lots of times he was walking the ball. And Frank is our iron man, who played another stellar offensive game.
The play I want to call everyone's attention to, though was at the end of the game. Trent Johnson probably told his players to unload on whom ever they fouled with a few seconds to go. The TCU guy hit Frank on the inbounds like a strong safety coming up to fill on a running back coming through a hole. The TCU guy hit Frank at full speed, when Frank was stopped to receive the in bounds pass. It was the most blatant flagrant foul I have seen in a long time, and it was apparently intended to make it so Frank would have a great deal of trouble making the FT. The referees better start calling this foul a flagrant foul, or it will become a tool in every team's defense at the end of games. This play hurt Frank. He is very stoic. But he had the wind completely knocked out of him. And it is the kind of impact that could easily have shaken his brain and given him a mild concussion even though the head was not impacted. This is a very wrong and dangerous way to let teams play basketball and IMHO Trent Johnson needs to be called out as a cheap shot artist for having his players play that way. And the refs need to be called out for not calling it what it was. Every coach that studies that feed of that play, will now insert it into his teams repertoire of cheap shots at the end of close games when down a couple. Tom Izzo, er, Ratso Izzo, will see that feed and probably think something like, oh, thank you god, the refs are going to let it get dirty again and now maybe I will have a chance to get back in the hunt for a ring.
But back to the game. The game went according to script, except for the high KU TOs. High TOs are always a worry, but when you play the game so on your heels, and off the edge, and without offensive wrinkles, you are predictable and when you are predictable, you have to expect some TOs.
But bottom line, Objective 1 of 3 in 6 was taken. Ft. Worth is ours, sir, the Jayhawk Jarheads can tell their coach. And Self played so many players and practically played his OADs not at all, and wound up with a W on the road.
Great effort Jayhawk Jarheads. Not all great efforts can be measured by the scoring spread, when your opponent is the schedule in a 3 in 6 campaign.
And Bill Self?
Bill Self = genius.
As usual.
Win out, boys, win out!!!!!!!!
Texture on the sole is very interesting, if you enlarge the image on your screen.
The shoes look like canvas with perhaps leather trim where the eyelets are for the laces. The soles were probably real rubber from rubber trees at that point. But Brooks may know better than me on this. I didn't realize Keds were made then.
Beats me. I've never seen Converse like that.
Wouldn't they be cool to see adidas recycle with some upto date materials.
I WANT A PAIR OF THOSE SHOES ASAP!
THOSE WOULD BE A BEYOND COOL RETRO LOOK!!!!!
I am not sure if you mean to oversimplify, or if you are just using shorthand because you are familiar with business, but for those not familiar with business probably you are, regardless. It was NOT enough for Wiggins father to have played in the NBA, or his mother to have been an athlete. What was crucial was that one, or both of them, understood the business of basketball.
I have never read well documented percentages, but I suspect a significant percentage of NBA professionals, even in this high paid era, wind up getting fleeced out of their monies, and having short careers, significantly due to their lack of training in how to build a basketball business.
Someone above posted a quote above by Lebron indicating that he recognized the day he joined the NBA he was in business. That signals insight on his part. But insight is not necessarily enough. One has to commit to the mastery of technique of business to capitalize on that insight.
Just as a few combine great natural ability in basketball with a commitment to mastering the technique of the game, some few are also born with great natural ability for business, but they too must commit to mastery of business technique,
Great business men build enduring relationships that are productive and let go of those that are destructive.
Wiggins father having been in the NBA could have meant that he was another chump with no business sense that got exploited by the business of basketball.
But so far, it appears more likely that Mr. Wiggins, and/or his wife, committed to the mastery of the basketball business once they understood their son's extraordinary abilities and Andrew has benefitted substantially so far. But eventually, the business is going to be Andrew's, and I believe behind his polite public disposition is a young man learning the business as fast as he can.
Regarding your comment that many players, if not most, do not grow up around such parents as Andrew did: that is essentially the point of my post; that because they do not, these young men need to be taught/mentored by coaches, returning players, and trustworthy alums that the reason to stay on at KU as long as maybe required is to learn what relationships need building, and how to build them, to be ready to be a business.
I am not picking on basketball in particulary here. It is a phenomenon of most professional fields that require a high degree of ability and commitment to mastery of technique that our university programs do not prepare them much, if at all, for the business of their professions.
The greatest irony of all, in fact, is that business schools, especially graduate business schools where a high technical education usually occurs, are particularly bad at preparing their students for the "business of business."
Regarding Kelly Oubre, he was just injured early and when he got well he got on a little hot streak from three that obscured his deficiencies until the other coaches saw that he could not reliable hit FTs, or the trey, and now we are seeing what his shortcomings are. Of course he needs to stay another year, or two, to become a proficient player, but here again, basketball proficiency is actually probably easier to develop in the pros than basketball business proficiency is.
The worst case scenario for any D1 player going pro early is being deficient both in his game and in his basketball business abilities. It ear marks him for a sucker to be exploited. If one lacks the insight to know one's game is incomplete, and the insight to have built a basketball business apparatus in preparation for going pro, the sharpies will figure that one lacks the insight for knowing the difference between hustlers and serious professionals he will need for his basketball business.
B12 = not as good as hype = a bunch of short teams without OADs/TADs + Texas.
Texas = only B12 TEAM other than KU team that should get sharply better, because of its youth with high ceilings.
KU = title = win out, or 1 loss, unless injuries.
UK + Duke + Virginia + UL + UA + UNC = Best Teams Late in season
UK + Duke + UL + UA = Beaten by Running Centers, defense, Perimeter height, protection, trifectation
Running Centers, etc. = KU+ UV + UNC
UV + UNC = toughest outs for KU, because their centers can run
KU + UV = too physical for UNC
KU = UV
KU EDGE = Self + 3pt shooting
UV EDGE = conference
Conclusion: too close to call so far.
P.S.: why was B12 overhyped? Hypothesis--media-gaming complex perhaps had some trouble balancing betting lines during pre-conference.
Trial lawyers like Gerry Spense have shown much memory is a palimpsest.--jaybate 1.0
History is in fact written by winners and losers, but it is the winners that mostly decide which versions are taught in schools and published widely.--jaybate 1.0
He who controls the past controls the future. And he who controls the present controls the past.--George Orwell
Young to me exemplifies a basic misunderstanding about what it takes to make it in basketball.
Josh Selby also exemplifies it.
Players and fans think playing basketball is solely about how talented, skilled and competitive one is.
But basketball is a business. It has always been a business at the NBA level. Now it is a business at the college level, and at the summer game level.
Most fans say basketball is a business but they don't seem to really uderstand what that really means.
In the business world, every thing is about building relationships that get you access to opportunities to perform, to do what you do.
In business, being talented and skilled is kind of ante to the game.
One has to have enough talent and skill to make those in the business see some career benefit in relating with you--in associating with you.
In business, everything is a deal built upon an association, which is a constellation of relationships.
Basketball is just like any other business in this regard.
You have to be a talented and skilled player to make it into the basketball business.
But to stay their you have to be very skilled at building relationships and insightful enough to know that you need to work hard at building and maintaining those relationships.
Many young players and young coaches think that all you have to be is talented and skilled at either profession.
Young players especially think, well, if I can play with these pros in a work out, or at a camp, or what have you, that they are ready for the pros.
That is not enough.
A basketball player is a business man. He has to have a broad web of relationships to sustain his business. He has to build, or have, relationships with management, with coaches, with players, with media, and he has to have an effective business of his own that includes lawyers, agents, public relations, accountants, weight trainers, dieticians, investment advisors in securities, investment advisors in real estate, and so on. It is not enough for a player to go out and hire these types of professionals, he has to have the savvy to hire the right ones and to build strong, enduring relationships with them. If he doesn't they will exploit him and steal from him, or compromise his best interests. Playing basketball at a high level is very difficult and demanding, but being a good business man while doing it is even more difficult. Building all of these relationships and knowing when hire more, fire some, or stand pat takes alot of skill. And no one just does this for players unless they literally take over the player and run him, and invariably, unless the player is a once in a generation player, they use him up and move on.
I am not expert enough on what it takes to play in the NBA from a basketball standpoint to know how many of the guys fail, because they just can't play the game well enough. But I feel knowledgeable enough of business to say that probably most of the young basketball players that go to the NBA aren't very good business men and really have to work hard at learning how to be. One of the ways to learn how to do that is to hang around a D1 program for serveral years and pick the brains of the former players in the NBA that return in the summer time, and the coach, if he is as savvy as Self, and the alum lawyers and business men that hang around the basketball players, and getting an education, and and so on.
Just like a person can learn a lot about how to play basketball in 4-5 years at a D1 program, a player can also learn a lot about how to be a basketball business man around a D1 program.
Frankly, Wiggins could have used serveral years at KU to get better at basketball, but he didn't need to be at KU at all for basketball business, because his father had that all ironed out back in Ontario. He had long since schooled Andrew on how to be a basketball business man and build his business relationships and his father was acting as his partner. His father knew what he was doing every step of the way.
Joel Embiid's father clearly did not. That is not a knock on his father. How could he? He was a security officer in Cameroon where they don't even play ball. Joel's advisors got him part way. They were smart enough to matriculate him to USA and to summer league and a basketball factory, and then to KU. But once the injury hit, they apparently convinced Joel to take the money and run, before Joel had a full array of business relationships built. This is apparently why Joel is having trouble during his injury rehab season. Joel has not been able to build and maintain good relationships with those he needs to have good relationships. None of this is about his basketball. Its about his business relationships. It appeared to me that Self implied that he felt some what outmaneuvered by Joel and his advisors. Not smart business on Joel's part. Really good businessmen build such good relationships that even if they are screwing somone one the person getting screwed sees some advantage in not implying they have been screwed.
Good business men give good relationship.
Even the ones that can be jerks to so many are very savvy about knowing who they HAVE to have good relationships with.
Basketball players staying a year in college is arbitrary.
How long they should stay has less to do with how good they are as basketball players than it does with how good they are as basketball business men when they decide to go pro.
At least that's my opinion from the outside looking in.
I saw him play once on a televised McDonalds AA game, and thought he would be very good, but I am not a very good judge of players based on what they do in that sort of game.
Not yet, but I would still like to. What about it grabbed you so deeply?
Yep, I was telling a bit of a stretcher there coach and I'm going to add on it in a moment.
But first, honest, I'm with you on splendor AND splinters AND EVEN a Splendid Splinter.
But embalmin' Landon was nothin, Coach!
I used to have to ride a J.C. Higgins balloon tired bike 40 years into the future and try to figure out which Kansas summer game coaches were rumored to be helping Self and which ones were rumored to be channeling players away from him and why? It was one helluva a long ride and no one would even try to explain it to me, and so I would have to ride back 40 years and begin reading all kinds of muck raking books about college basketball that Bobby Knight appeared to have been some kind of a force behind the scenes regarding. And then try to extrapolate them forwards for their never having been a clean up. And if I were late either way, I would lose my supper!!!! :-)
I wanted him to stay.
I thought he could play.
But from what I've seen
Of Frank, Devonte and Greene
It was right for him to go
And better booze than blow.
But better it would have been
For him to just say no.
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind..
.
--William Wordsworth
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Now is the time that KU fans ought walk the talk--
Once a Jayhawk always a Jayhawk
Rock Chalk, Conner, Rock Chalk!
PHOF!
Love to hear from those with experience in the trenches.
Hadrian had a pair.
And I can recall a teacher that had given me a remarkable opportunity one time being rather disappointed when I threw it away moping about a girl that dumped me.
Were it not for hearts, we would likely be nearly perfect, but I would not trade an hour of the passion of love for another year of life, even at this late date.
Viva the glory in the flower and the splendor in the grass.
Only a 50 miles?
Shoot, I once rode a century through a mine field for practicing mine sweepers out at Fort Riley to get a Snickers and a milk at my aunt's house, then rode back through practice artillery gunning, and then had to dodge practice strafing runs by A-4 Skyhawks over from Forbes practicing on my ass to make it home for dinner, and then I had go over and help my Dad embalm Alf Landon. :-)
Can't you hear them slapping virtually? :-)
I said they would either win out, or get one loss the rest of the way. That's a fact, coach.
But for you today, I reduced it to win out. :-)
No equivocating.
I even explained how he could get the third win on Monday night leaving the amp for Saturday and KSU: long bench inside--use all five bigs including Hunter--running the asses off the ISU bigs every trip end to end both directions, and long bench perimeter--running two of our four perimeter trey ballers==the ones playing whenever ISU's only two good trey ballers are, then bring in our other two trey ballers to walk it and micro-burst the trey balls on their rested legs. Game. Set. Match. :-)
Rock Chalk!
Yes, and it was Zhukov that innovated it.
Because each team will give us its best shot in such a short time is why we might lose one and the last one seems the most risky because we will have to shoot treys well to beat a good trey shooting ISU team, and shooting treys well requires rested legs.
But this circumstance is also why you tailor your two controllable variables to fit each opponent. Our two controllable variables are bench length in front court and bench length on there perimeter. It is assumed that the amping against KSU cannot likely be repeated only two days later.
TCU is the first opponent, and the weakest opponent, so one as a coach has to decide if one's team is a capable of beating TCU with a sub part effort. If the answer is yes, you send the players out flat, you as much of your bench as possible, and give the team just enough wrinkles to eek out a win against a weak team that you could have beaten handily with a short bench and an amped effort.
KSU is the strongest team inside, the team with the stingiest defense, and team with the biggest emotional charge of the three because of the rivalry. KSU also is the team that could tie us by beating us. So: you amp for KSU and shorten your bench in the front court, and try if possible to lengthen your bench on the perimeter. Why? Because a short front court bench ensures you can handle KSU inside, and you gamble your back court depth can hang with KSU's short bench front court. By doing this, if the lead permits, you then maximize your likely hood of you perimeter trey ballers having enough legs to make treys against ISU's better rested trey ballers. But if the score forces you into short benching the perimeter to win against KSU, then you do it. And figure you can afford a loss to ISU if you win against KSU.
ISU has to be dealt with by playing an exceptional inside game in addition to taking and making a lot of treys. I really think the key to beating ISU is the big men running and the trey ballers making treys. It will be tough for the big men to run after the KSU effort, so the logical thing is to lengthen the front court bench vs. ISU and use all five KU bigs to run the floor both ways non stop. Doing this will minimize iSU's cherry picking and other easy transition baskets, while at the same time buy KU some easy baskets in transition. The running of the big men can occur whether our perimeter players fast or slow. Our best case is that our perimeter depth can hang with ISU and we run our perimeter players to try to run the legs off ISU's perimeter shooters. ISU only has two good perimeter trey ballers. KU has potentially four. If we can play all four of our perimeter players big minutes, then we should run with two and to wear down ISU's two good perimeter shooters, and walk and shoot treys with our other two perimeter trey ballers.
We can win this third game, even after a peak effort against ISU, if we run our bigs, and run two of our four perimeter shooters, and walk and shoot our other two in alternation.
Any other scenario favors ISU.
First, we agree that the first order of business is to help Texas slaughter ISU tonight. We have already done what we can do by beating Texas, and thus instilling in them the desire to restore their dignities with a vengeance. This gamblers and line setters tend to expect to occur--a good team tends to rebound after a pasting.
Second, we agree that you have to play them one game at a time, but I do believe you will see Self use as long of a bench as he possibly can against TCU, even if it means a close game, that might not otherwise occur, in order to make sure he will have strong legs vs. KSU. Note: I know my take that Self modulates level of performance to fit the intensity level required to beat different opponents in short time spans is questioned by many. All I can say is that I read the games of the past seasons as fitting my hypothesis. And I am open to other hypotheses that fit better. But so far no one has produced one that fits better.
Third, we agree that you bring your best as a teacher, and let the students do the best they can with it, but...I argue your best as a teacher might involve tuning your students up incrementally for the final debate, by keeping them from using some of they best rhetorical devices, and losing their edge in surprise in future debates and in so doing, keeping things a bit edgier and thereby keeping them from getting overconfident for the big debate.
Finally, about Hadrian...
He was a wall builder.
Walls have their places tactics, and do have to be erected one stone at a time. Walls are very useful at keeping folks in.
But if you want to keep folks out...they are, even when well manned, lacking on their own, except when used as temporary means of delaying rate of attack, and channelling place of attack.
A great Russian general proved that while a single wall, or trench line, could never stop a concerted effort to overwhelm it, a constellation of walls, or trenches, could be designed to shape a battle field into channels of attack and kill zones around those channels that an enemy could become so depleted within that counter attack became not only feasible but almost certain of victory, because of: a.) depletion; and b.) the use of the remaining unconquered walls and trenches still behind the enemy's foremost advance, as means of ensnaring his retreat between the hammer of the counter attack and the anvil of the unconquered positions in the rear of the retreat.
So: walls are not necessarily so stupid as George Patton's famous epigram would have us believe in some ways.
''Fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity."--George Patton
But the more mobility one can bring to bear on a walled fortification, or even a carefully contrived constellation of them, the more vulnerable and ineffectual they become.
We want to be high mobility wall flankers, and when expedient, wall breachers, tunnelers under, and flyers over.
Rock Chalk!
Good to see you back, but you don't seem your usual expansive self.
What gives?
Where were you?
Did you join @VailHawk undercover doing covert basketball opps for the BIA in Austin to soften up the Longhorns for the KU games?
This extended absence during the start of a conference season is most unlike you.
Health? Business? or a Woman? :-)
@KUSTEVE said:
We're 1,200 lbs of screaming steel, and sex appeal.
When you put it that way, well, I have to back up my position to Coach.
WE WIN OUT!!!!!
See post above to Zig about the perils of trey balling after 3-6 and a BTW effort against Hair Helmet Weber.
I have been shamed into defending my winning out prediction by @REHawk!
In fairness to me, I did say we would win out, or lose 1 more after OU.
And the team went to Texas and did me right.
And when I say the team might lose one more it would be against ISU on a Monday after 3 in 6 and KSU on Saturday.
After that it would be a win out!!!!!
Ah, it feels good to be outside the box!
Again!
The only real worry I have is that we are an outside shooting team playing an outside shooting team on Monday night.
Our legs are going to get tired before theirs, because of our scheduled 3 in 6 and the BTWs (balls to walls) effort that will be required Saturday vs. Interim Head Coach Weber's only big game of the season, since they won't make the Madness. :-)
But, you are right, we have pluses too.
But when the legs go, so does the trey balling.
And games with ISU sooner or later get reduced to who shoots the most and best percentage of trey balls.
That's why I ran a warning flag up the mast.
Now, it wasn't a white flag! :-)
It was just a damned warning flag.
Alright, coach, you're right about me getting a little weak in the knees about Monday night of the 3 in 6. :-)
Hell, yeah, we get all three.
AND WE WIN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gauntlet down!
KU has triumphed over a very tough set of road opponents early.
But now KU faces another kind of challenge.
It is the dreaded Wednesday, Saturday, Monday set of games culminating against a good opponent you have to beat to get a split that will have played a Monday, Saturday, Monday set of games.
Iowa State has an unfair advantage because the accrued fatigue factor is going to be much greater on KU than ISU.
In an identical schedule situation, KU would almost certainly beat ISU. But its not.
So: KU is really playing the schedule the next three games, not the opponents.
ISU wouldn't have to win in Lawrence, because it won in Ames, and and so all ISU would be needing to do was try to steal a win in AFH. But these are not normal circumstances, because ISU dug a little hole for itself by losing to TTech.
So: ISU has a lot of pressure on to win in AFH just to get back into the race.
Alas, KU is going to come into that ISU game on Monday night in AFH having played TCU in Fort Worth, Wednesday, a in-state rivalry game with KSU at AFH at 1pm Saturday.
There are a lot things suck about that scheduling and they all have to do with KU being a young team and ISU being more experienced.
First, there is the timing within the season. KU is a young team and young teams are already finding this time of the season beyond their high school envelopes.
Second, there is the fact that young teams have less experience at pacing themselves for these clumpy scheduled stretches.
Third, there is the fact that young teams are not as used to having a bunch of game plans stacked on them early on to get them ready for three games in short succession.
Fourth, KU really needs to win the ISU game to because its a home game against a team it lost to on the road, and, as I said, ISU is going to be highly motivated to win it to get back into the race.
Fifth, playing a must win game, like ISU, on the heels of a rivalry game, is a very tall order for a young team.
So, how is Self likely to manage this three game set?
All three are must win games. TCU is one of the road wins you figure you have to win. KSU is a home game against a rival breathing down your throat in second place, so you have to have it. ISU is a team you lots to on the road so you have to have it at home.
You sure cannot amp three straight games Wednesday, Saturday, Monday.
You are coming off a peak performance versus Texas, so you have to expect a psychological let down with a young team. That means it is going to come on the road against a bottom tier team in TCU, which is good and bad. Its good because of the three, TCU should be the best team to have to win one in the bottom third of your performance distribution. It is bad, because its on the road and Trent Green likes to rough teams up.
Self has almost no choice but to send them out flat, and substitute like hell, to try to save legs the entire game, even if it means getting upset. If TCU were to upset us, then we could correct the loss on the back nine.
The big question then is who to amp for: KSU, or ISU?
Its scary, but I think you've got to amp for KSU, even if it means getting swept by ISU on Monday night.
Why?
The worst case scenario is losing to KSU on Saturday, then ISU on Monday.
You know ISU is going to leave it all on the floor Monday night to try to get back in the running regardless.
KSU is likely going to leave it all on the floor Saturday to try to steal one on the road from the league leader.
What you are hoping is that Texas bounces back from its defeat to KU and destroys ISU in Ames tomorrow night. This means ISU is on the ropes for the rest of the conference chase.
So you amp for KSU to nail down a home win against your conference rival and closest team on your heels, because ISU has lost to Texas.
Then you try to grind out a win against ISU on your home floor, even though your legs are not going to favor you.
Thus you have assured a 2-1 record and possibly with some luck a grinder and 3-0 versus ISU.
At that point, you have a week off before going to Gallagher-Iba for an OSU game you amp for because you follow with a Tuesday game against TTech you ought to win.
If KU were to win out against TCU, KSU, and ISU, then pick up another pair against OSU and TTech, KU would be very, very, VERY tough to beat for the title.
But given how young KU is, its very likely to come up with an L against ISU, a team it would kick under almost any other cirucumstance.
"Ninety percent of the coaches in the NBA are guards, and there aren't very many big men people coaching, I happen to be one of them and when I coached, everybody on my team, including the guards, had a hook shot, so that it was their bail out shot."--Tom Heinsohn
D-A-N-N-Y M-A-N-N-I-N-G!
Just imagine if Cliff were to come back next season and add a little jump hook!
Hell, just imagine if every player on the team came back with a little jump hook!!
Then when you attacked the rim against these Four Footer Nike stacks at UK, Duke and UA, you wouldn't always have to go through the ritual the 9-10 block game.
When you penetraded and couldn't pry the footer away from the rim, and couldn't dish it for whatever reason, at least you could fire up a jump hook high enough up the glass that the footers had to goal tend, or our guys could have a chance for a stick back.
Me too. That's why we're posting and not winning NBA championships, or NCAA championships.
Champions in basketball are a very special breed.
Talent and luck are required.
But those guys on the 2008 ring team, and the 1988 ring team, and the 1952 ring team have a level of competitive greatness that are different.
The only non champion KU team I have ever seen that I would put with the champions is that 2012 runner up team. They were champions that just didn't have enough players. Self said of them something like they did't get beat, they ran out of games. That's how I felt about them. They were the greatest "team" I have ever seen based on what they had. They just didn't have quite enough to beat Cal's proto Nike stack.
Read Baldwin.
REALLY read him.
READ ALL OF HIM.
James was the persona he had to craft.
Underneath was the Jimmy.
And to really appreciate him you have to discover both.
So many authors are robbed from us by the esteem machine.
He was so human in addition to being such a good writer.
Cowens was hugely responsible for me really wanting to learn how teams actually win.
I was so sure Boston could not win with him.
And he won TWO NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS.
And the reason he didn't win more was injury and fatigue.
This is what makes Bill Russell's accomplishment tower over all other team accomplishments in the history of the game.
Big Russ was the same size as Cowens. He wasn't even as good of an offensive player as Cowens. Cowens probably had a better release pass off the rebound than Big Russ. They both jumped about the save. They had the same kind of competitive fury.
But Big Russ had the durability to win TEN rings.
Both Cowens and Big Russ are the reasons I wrote this post.
Jabbar was head and shoulder more talented at most aspects of the game than Cowens.
Chamberlain was head and shoulders more talented at most aspects of the game than Big Russ.
But Cowens won TWO rings while Jabbar was in the league!
And Big Russ won TEN rings while Wilt was in the league!
The running center is the most under-recognized, under-utilized, awesome weapon in the game.
I could add Walton at Portland to Cowens and Big Russ, but he as 6-11, and so he was not a tidy analogy for Cliff.
But when you add Big Russ', Cowens', and Walton's rings together that's THIRTEEN championships with running centers!
We can do this.
Cliff and Jamari can run this team to a ring.
I didn't get it for awhile.
But with the quality of the rest of the players being high and rising, this team, if it will buy into this running center concept, it can win a ring.
In fact, if the team really masters the running center game, KU might just be the ONLY team with a good chance of beating Kentucky.
Rock Chalk!
What will it take to keep playing this well? That is the question on board rats minds.
One answer is: nothing. Peak performances cannot come again and again.
But another answer is that certain things must be cemented to be able even to get back to that level from time to time--to be our best when our best is needed.
Lots of things have to be mastered to cement playing as well as the team did versus Texas.
But the cornerstone is the team has to be willing to keep playing this hard and this crisp and this unselfishly.
It is crystal clear to me now what this team's identity is going to become, if it were to reach its full potential. And it is crucially cornerstoned on an aspect of Cliff Alexander that neither I, nor anyone else including board rats and our coaching staff understood sufficiently early on this season.
There is a short champion team from the distant past that our Jayhawks played similar to: the 6-8 1/2 Dave Cowens-led Boston Celtics. They won not one but two championships with Cowens. And they beat Kareem Jabbar and Oscar Robertson for one of the rings. Jabbar averaged 34 points per game one on one with Cowens the first several games of the series, but it did not matter. Boston was winning the rest of the game because Cowens incessant running and outlet passing were creating transition cracks the Celts kept exploiting, either in transition, or half court. And Jabbar was slowly, inexorably wearing down. And in the final game, the Celts switched to a help defense on Jabbar and Cowens kept running. In the end it was Jabbar and an aging Robertson that broke. The great Jabbar, easily one of the three greatest centers of all time, who had broken so many teams with his great conditioning and great sky hook for John Wooden, and would later do the same for the Lakers, finally was broken by another guy willing to run more for more games in a series, a guy with no skyhook, a guy 3.3-4.0 inches shorter.
Cliff, are you listening? Cowens took a beating of 34 ppg for several games, but finally one of the three greatest centers in the history of the game cracked...not the little guy.
And Cowens didn't just win one ring by breaking centers with running the floor. He won two consecutive rings doing it.
Cliff, it can be done.
OK, all you Shermans, Mr. Peabody here, you are going to have to trust me and get in the way-back machine.
Dave Cowens, the not-so-big, but quintessentially tough red head from Florida State, the 6-9 guy who wasn't tall enough, was who defined that great Celtic team. Every other starter was incredibly good and could have started for other teams, playing other ways, but the incomparable Red Auerbach understood that what Cowens could do was something no other great center in the NBA of that time could do. Run for a season. Run for seven games. Run in overtime. Run till no one else wanted to run.
Cowens could run the floor, baseline to baseline, buzzer to buzzer. He could put so much cardiovascular pressure on opposing centers, regardless of what size they were and regardless of whether they were hall of famers or not, and regardless of whether the Celtics pulled up and ran the stuff or scored in transition, that a team built around Cowens relentless baseline to baseline running could be an NBA champion. And they became one...as I said...twice.
Two straight rings in the NBA is proof for all time that a short, running center is a very dangerous weapon.
Those Celtics played the good team defense this KU team can play. They had the good shooters this KU team has. And they had the big man with greatest motor the NBA has ever seen before or since. And the other four guys could play fast or slow, full court or half court, with anyone opponents could put on the floor. The other four could (and did) hang with anyone. But it was Cowens relentless running of the opposing teams' centers that broke down all the opponents over the course of a game and the course of a season, and the course of a play off and the course of a championship series. Time after time, big brawny, or super long, or super athletic, centers brimming with confidence ran into the running, flailing, jumping, perpetually moving, shooting, dribbling, passing buzz saw that was Dave Cowens, and though they swaggered and scored, eventually, over time, as the minutes accrued and the cardiovascular challenge continued unrelentingly, the big men broke, their eyes ceased to glare confidently and menacingly, the long bodies once erect, and their hands once raised calling for the ball, began to bend at the waste, their hands began to clutch desperately at their shorts, their eyes glanced to their benches to see if they were being substituted for yet, their faces searched the scoreboard for the minutes till the next break, and still the big red head ran like there was no tomorrow, no next period, not next minute.
There is nothing finally in basketball as unnerving as someone that can go harder, run farther, longer, and keep running that way after you realize you will not be able to keep up.
Wooden's UCLA teams endlessly broke teams competitive will with superior conditioning.
Shaka Smart's VCU team broke our superior KU team's competitive will.
It is an awesome thing to watch better players break.
One never forgets it.
And one never forgets being broken.
And one never forgets breaking others.
It is the single most empowering thing in sport to outlast an opponent until he breaks.
BIG MEN DO NOT LIKE TO RUN.
This is the rule that gives the exception such great value.
Big men like to step outside and shoot treys.
They like to rim protect.
They like to cram shots down peoples throats and dunk on their grilles.
BUT BIG MEN DO NOT LIKE TO RUN.
Therefore, when you find a big man that CAN run, and WILL run, buzzer to buzzer, sooner or later, the other team cracks from the inside out.
A running center does not mean a fast breaking team.
A running center is a mano a mano thing: center vs. center.
A running center that can out run an opposing center lets you break another team's strength.
Guards and wings can slow the ball game down all they want, but THEY CANNOT SLOW DOWN A RUNNING CENTER. When your center out runs their center, over time he arrives first to deny easy baskets, he arrives first to get easy baskets, and by the last ten minutes he is playing against a big man that fatigue has made a coward of.
There are a lot of fundamentals and inches that Cliff lacks that make it very difficult for him to play against other big men left in their comfort zones to play the game the way they like to play it.
But put Cliff in motion at the speed that he ran against Texas, and for the length of time that he ran that way, and Cliff is an overwhelming force on a basketball floor the same way Dave Cowens was.
Thomas Robinson had a great motor.
Great motors are fine.
But Cliff is FAST for his size, faster for his size even than TRob was.
Cliff is Dave Cowens fast.
Cliff is only now learning what a great weapon his relentless running with his great speed can be. He has only scratched the surface of what he can do with it, of how disruptive he can be to a bunch of big, slow centers like UK has, or any other centers. Once he breaks a few more centers, and sees how good it feels to break them, Cliff will be out running to class, and running to weight work outs and running to tutoring, and running to girl friends, and running just to run. Once Cliff sees that when he runs baseline to baseline for 40 minutes he is BETTER than all the footers, and all the OADs and all the Okafors, and Turners, because of that running and the ability of that running to put those strong shoulder and good hops into positions that the others cannot get to first, Cliff will learn that he too can become a master of the game.
Cliff is not a power forward playing out of position when he runs, any more than Dave Cowens was.
HE IS A RUNNING CENTER.
Cliff has within his grasp becoming that rarest of all great centers--the running center.
Few coaches understand them.
Self didn't at first.
He had some vague idea of what Cliff could be, but if Self and staff had fully understood what they had on their hands from the beginning, they would have been showing Cliff video of Thomas Robinson and Dave Cowens from the moment he signed with KU.
Cliff Alexander is a rare find, if he has the heart to commit TO getting into condition to run baseline to baseline for 40 minutes.
He is playing with the perfect point guard in Frank Mason to be this kind of center.
He is playing with the perfect complementary players in Selden, Graham, Greene, Oubre and Perry to be this kind of center.
And the cool thing for Cliff is that he has the perfect complementary center in Jamari Traylor to split time with. Alexander and Traylor, or Traylor and Alexander, flat out running opposing centers into the cracks for 40 minutes make this KU team something different, something special, something not only Coach Self could fall in love with, but all KU fans could fall in love with.
But if you read interviews with Auerbach and Cowens and other players that played against and with Cowens, it takes a kind of competitive fury and will that few big men of any era have ever had.
Cliff Alexander can become a good, or journeyman, or may be just a backup tweener in the NBA as a 6-8 4.
But he could become a very, very, very rich man as the next great running center to hit the NBA.
It is something some NBA centers try to do, but few have ever had the fire, or teammates, or coach, required to bring it off.
At this level of running we are talking about something far beyond motors.
We are talking about the fire inside AND the fire next time, as Jimmy Baldwin called it.
Competitive fury.
Maybe even rage.
Force of nature stuff harnessed and directed.
Will breaking.
Ego crushing.
Turning college and then NBA bad boys in to cowards not with muscle and skills but with running.
Cowers could do it at center.
Russell could do it at center.
Dennis Rodman could do it at forward.
Frankly, Jordan's real secret was that he could do it a swing 2/3, plus have the once in a generation gifts he had.
Auerbach used to say that basketball was about running.
Wooden called it being quick, not fast, but Wooden's quick meant getting ever where including end to end before the others could.
Allen advocated running always, but especially when he began to quarrel with Iba, whom he deeply respected up until Iba slowed the game down to a crawl with his perfectionist, deliberate offenses.
But running is not the same as fast breaking.
A running team can fast break, but it can and does do anything. It can play any way, it just gets there to play that way fast.
What we have forming out of the a nebula of this season's frustration is a short, running solar system of a team potentially beginning to orbit around the running of Cliff Alexander's star. Stars only look stationary in comparison to planets orbiting them. Stars are hurtling at phenomenal speeds in an expanding universe. Cliff universe, and our universe, is expanding. And he's got to fly for our planets to orbit him well. and with maximum effect.
KU can play quick, not fast (as Wooden used to say) in half court or in transition, and always have a plus 1 advantage in player count for a couple seconds on either end of the floor, if Cliff (and Jamari) can achieve the level of conditioning that running for 40 minutes requires of a big man that has never played at this level of intensity before. And I think the intent to play this way may be sustaining Self's committing Cliff and Jamari at the 5. Self is not sure either one COULD go that way for 40 minutes, but he is confident that two CAN.
And we're are not even implementing the rapid outlet passing that was another part of Cowen's game.
Go, Cliff, go!!!!!!
Go, Jamari, go!!!!
Go, KU, go!!!!