No. I want you to compose five rhyming poems of six quatrains each. Three with perfect rhymes. Two with off rhymes.
Now hurry. :-) :-(
jaybate 1.0
10346 posts
(Roll credits over a bunch of weird Jeff Koons kitsch art figurines of basketball coaches, and players and cheerleaders. @jaybate 1.o productions presents: The Transition Zone.)
Voice Over Narration: There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to coaches. It is a dimension as vast as a field house the size of Saturn and as timeless as a game with an infinite number of over times. It is the middle ground between offense and defense, between playing up tempo and grinding it out, and it lies between the pit of a coach's fears and the summit of his knowledge of Xs and Os. This is the dimension of basketball imagination. It is an area which we call the Transition Zone."
(Break for a PetroShoeCo Commercial.)
Voice over narration: Mr. John Beilein is a 61 year old head basketball coach of a major midwestern university still looking for that brass ring of coaching--a national championship. Having coached in such backwater places as Nazareth, Le Moyne, Canisius, and Richmond, and then at such majors as West Virginia and now Michigan, he believes he has seen pretty much every topsy turvy, unpredictable situation possible in college basketball. He believes he has learned to cope with almost anything and has become skillful enough to seriously pursue his dream of winning a national championship late in his career.
Slightly over a week ago, everything was going well for Coach Beilein and his young Michigan team. They had just beaten a ranked Syracuse Orangemen team coached by a sleep walker named James Boeheim. and faced two impending cup cake games before a tough road game against highly ranked Nike-stack University of Arizona.
But then something went dreadfully, unexpectedly wrong for Coach Beilein. His young team played inconsequential New Jersey Institute of Technology--a school most Division I majors and most sports reporters had never heard of before. They lost in the biggest upset of the young season. Beilein maintained his composure and said all of the right coach speak things.
But then another thing went dreadfully, unexpectedly wrong. Beilein's young Wolverines lost to Eastern Michigan U's 2-3 zone defense that was not sharply different from Syracuse University's 2-3 zone.
Now, Coach Beilein has lost two straight games to cupcakes, and must travel to Tucson to be beaten down by the deeply talented Arizona Wildcats.
This is life in the transition zone.
No, I can never help myself where you are concerned.
I am too busy helping you.
I love you.
Howling!
Oh, my, GOD!!! Yes, Kelser. Thx for the assist.
Thx sooooo very much.
Just wanted to say you are now the master of the concise post game quick analysis. My litmus test for this sort of writing is can I read and drive on the freeway without endangering myself or others? I try never to do this, because I try always to be watching the game, but tonight I got sideways at the last second and could not watch. Thought the game was tomorrow and had a critical birthday party for a very important person in my life that had to stay at the top of the what am I most obligated to do cue. After the birthday I got a bit of tough news about someone else that was making me drive home questioning the meaning of life and the worth of continuing to live it when certain things afflict certain of those that are among the most virtuous that one knows and respects and prizes. Just wanted you to know that you commitment to excellence in basketball posting noticeably illuminated and shortened one of my funks. Thank you. See? What we do here can make a difference every now and then.
Way to go! You are awesome!
Not to worry about predicting a 7-8 point win and the spread being +5. It happens to the best of them.
But I have to say I'm feeling pretty sanguine about my prediction.
Remember how I predicted KU -10 and then revised it shortly after to KU +5 if KU shot well, and KU -5 if KU shot poorly?
I think KU shot it pretty well with Greene going 5-5 from trey, don't you?
Dang its sweet! :-)
Rock Chalk!!!
Anywhere to watch this on replay? Only caught a few minutes and then had to exit.
The box is best lived outside of.
Wooden played a m2m and a 3/4 court 2-2-1 zone press and won more rings than any two coaches that have believed that pressing was not the best way to play.
Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
Ideology is the hobgoblin of the brain dead.
The best players in the best fitting system always beat the best players in an ill-fitting system.
Michigan State coached by Jud Heathcote and starting Magic Johnson at point guard and Clark Kellogg at power forward played a 1-3-1 zone and won a ring.
The only thing worse than fixed fortifications is fixed thinking. :-) :-(
But I really do love you, @JayHawkFanToo.
Really. :-) :-(
Your outta your depth. You'll have to trust me on this. :-) :-(
Consult your notes. :-) :-(
Howling!
I agree. And toilet paper too. :-)
Maybe @approxinfinity could work that into the wall paper for the site.
It reminds me of the champagne bubble lead in to the old Lawrence Welk show.
Could it be?
@JayHawkFanToo is Lawrence Welk! :-)
Holy cow, Lump, C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-!!!!!!!!!
It is now your official duty to spoil the child and return to the parents, whenever it is no longer fun to spoil the child.
Hope springs eternal. :-)
Mack Brown's quote appears to make clear there is no illegal conspiracy involved; that this stuff goes on above board and quite legally, whether fair or not. Slavery wasn't fair. But it wasn't a conspiracy. It was immorally legal.
Illegal conspiracy rarely explains anything truly widespread.
This just how teams are picked. Sometimes who you are matters without a conspiracy. It ain't fair, and maybe it ought to be changed. But change is scary for those benefitting from the unfairness.
This is why everyone has to get away from the notion of illegal conspiracies as explainations of wide spread phenomena. It deters us from truth and action..
Illegal conspiracies just aren't relevant to explain most of this sports phenomena that board rats do not like.
Illegal conspiracies are for smearing anyone that calls attention to the inequities of a regime of order.
Illegal conspiracies are for suckers. Ask Richard Nixon.
Conspiracy specialist smear specialists back fill here. 😀
@jaybate-1.0 = warm and fuzzy good humor.
@jaybate 1.0 = love of game.
Is @JayHawkFanToo a conspiracy specialist smear artist?
Or is @JayHawkFanToo a conspiracy specialist smear specialist?
Repeat after me: @jaybate 1.0 says conspiracies and conspiracy smear specialists are for suckers.
It would depend, would it not?.
LOL!
I think you are onto something, as usual. :-)
But this tempo thing has always been really tough for me to unsnag, because there can be a lot of circularity in logic triggered by the feeding loop back and forth between offensive and defensive tempo assumptions and assumptions about their cascading effects.
So, as important as I think what you are getting at is, I cannot yet articulate a sound set of rules about how to set and vary tempo. But I will work on it. :-)
Where I always get tripped up in thinking about this issue may seem kind of arcane, but it is at the foundation of all choices one makes about tempo.
The issue may be layed out this way.
If you are poor shooting team, do you want a low, or high possession game?
And if you are a good shooting team, do you want a low, or high possession game?
Let us assume for the sake of analysis that both teams are equally good defensive teams.
The underlying crux is this: as number of possessions decline, the percentage contribution of each score to total score increases.
As the number of possessions increases, the percentage contribution of each score on each possession decreases relative to total score.
If you shoot a low percentage and your opponent shoots a high percentage, then the more trips there are the more opportunities for the superior shooting team to score more points than the inferior shooting team.
On the other hand, as you lower possessions, each possession is in a sense more valuable and so a superior shooting team ought to see its advantage magnified in a low possession game, also.
The conventional wisdom is that better shooting teams ought to speed it up into higher possession games, while poorer shooting teams ought to slow games down into lower possession, grind it out games.
But the simplified logic I have just outlined contradicts that conventional wisdom.
The logic I have articulated suggests that long, or short possession games will not decisively help or hurt either team.
Other things equal, the better shooting team will hold distinct advantage in low AND high possession games.
Therefore, coaches should not be altering tempo, at least to achieve high, or low, possession games, according to good, or bad shooting nights.
One should be altering tempo based on the comparative athleticism skills of the two teams.
If one team is long and massive and relatively slow, then it needs to keep the game a low possession game so as not to be undermined by its own limitations. It ought to want to battle for spots and avoid playing for control of lines.
If one team is lithe, long and athletic, or short and quick, or some combination of both, it ought to be wanting to play that way as much of the time as possible to avoid its own limitations in a slow down and battle for spots game. It ought to want to turn the game into a game of lines both in half court and in transition.
Or so it seems.
As I said, I am not at all resolved on this yet.
What I will say now is this.
You want to play as few possessions as possible against their high percentage offense; i.e., when they have both Smith-Rivera and Smith in together,energized and unfouled up. So early in the game you want a long possession game both directions. But you want to hurry Smith up the floor every time before you run a long possession aimed at getting him fouled up; that means driving into him. Once he is out, you still want short possessions on both ends. Why? KU appears the better shooting team from outside, and about equal inside, so the more possessions KU gets against a poor shooting team the greater our scoring advantage will grow.
It is the reverse for GU. Since they are best when shooting inside, they want as many possessions as possible early when the combination of Smith Rivera and Smith are most potent; i.e., at the beginning of each half. Then without them, they want the fewest possessions possible to minimize the scoring efficiency advantage of our overall better shooting will yield.
Both these strategies, of course, will unfold and be altered in efficacy of effect by which team is having an off night, or an on night shooting the ball.
When neither team is shooting the ball well, a question arises: do we slow it down as much as possible and muddy it up, or do we try to get out and go to try to get some easy transition baskets we can make even on a bad shooting night.
The answers will likely differ for each team. depending on how they are shooting early in each half.
If GU can't buy a basket early even with Smith-Rivera and Smith in, then they may with their likely rebounding advantage decide to squirt out for some transition baskets, while leaving Smith behind as a safety. If GU stays cold after sitting Smith, then they may decide to muddy it up on both ends, run their stuff, and keep KU from getting out on the break.
If KU can't buy a basket early, it should not only hurry it up, but actually try to squirt out in transition since its trying to wind Smith anyway. But if KU were hot from trey early, then it wants keep hurrying and get more possessions by shooting more quickly.
Frankly, I think the reason Self is such an aficionado of pressure defense is that most of the time pressure defense is an equally effective cnwhen you are trying to muddy it up, and when you are trying to get out and go, and any where in between.
:-)
A lot hinges on Perry Ellis.
His points are very hard to replace.
He Houdini'ed the first of Florida, but came back and contributed the second half.
He doesn't have to get 17 every game, but he does need stay in double figures.
As for the rest of the bigs, first objective will simply be to avoid becoming enveloped by Georgetown Jabba. If you get in too close on him he will just ooze around you while you are suffocating and dunk on you. :-)
Thx
NOT!
But now that I have your undivided attentions, Self has to decide if he wants to play a low possession game of the kind GU likes, i.e., play it anyway they want, or does he want to hurry it up.
Who we are is a weak inside rebounding, half court team that likes low possessions, because we don't want to give an opposing strong rebounding team a lot of chances at stick backs on the offensive glass, which a high possession game enables.
On the other hand, KU is a much better shooting team than GU, so more trips equal more opps for that superior shooting percentage to tip scoring in our favor.
What to do, if you are Bill Self?
It will be interesting if Self decides to keep it slow and pack it inside to shut off their inside game and see if they can make any treys. If neither team is hitting from the outside, we could conceivably see a bang-ball game, where both teams end in the high 40s to low 50s.
But I think Self will tell his players at least to hurry it up the floor with long sideline passes to make GU hurry up the floor right along with KU, and then run the stuff and make them guard awhile. This will do more to get Smith into foul trouble than anything. KU has not done this yet this season and this is a good game to break this old tactic of Self's out of the incase of emergency break glass case.
Graham will give up a lot of muscle to all three starting combos on GU, but Graham showed well against Florida on the defense, and so I reckon he will fare ok against Smith-Riviera, but have a few issues inside with the 6-5 guys that greatly out reach and outweigh him.
Frankly, my biggest concern is GU's ability to take away our perimeter rebounding that we have relied on significantly in some games recently. I don't think GU will be easy for us to rebound inside against even when Smith sits to rest his girth, or as others have pointed out, to sit from fouls.
But here's the thing: KU has lots of good scorers and GU does not.
If we can defend them some, and rebound some, our scoring ought to carry the day.
Self has one other possible weapon in his quiver no one has mentioned. Going with the long transept game he had to abandon against Florida. Svi and Green should be tried in tandem at the 5 minute mark, if Svi loses his starting job to Devonte. The two 6-5 Combos that GU starts might be left in at the 5 minute mark. And that could be a good time to come with long wings that can shoot the trey; then tell Frank, or Devonte, or Wayne, which ever is at the point at that time, to drive the paint hard to pressure GU's second string bigs and kick out to our tall wings to gun some treys.
But...
Takes credit for Andrea Hudy's scientific research and responsibility for her good hair days.
Insists that Fred Quartlebaum is not bald, but rather hair challenged.
Argues that Kurtis Townsend has a lousy fashion sense and that neither Norm Roberts, nor Danny Manning, can coach big men a lick.
Insists the Campanile is a Free Mason monument code indicating via geometric ratios where and when the Illuminati will overthrow representative governments around the world.
Claims Putin once played guard for Kentucky.
(Note: still all fiction. Still no malice.)
HOWLING^2!
Insists @JayHawkFanToo is absolutely correct in his anal fixations on post length, bandwidth and battery supply in a world of unlimited cloud storage capacity, massive pipes, and in-car chargers and portable battery backups . :-)
Re-howling! i.e., redementing.
"Ten More Signs the 'Bate Is Getting Senile"
Injects crimson food coloring in the yolk of one sunny side up egg and blue into the other yolk.
Goes to the hair club for men and asks for hair plugs and a weave on his shoulders.
Mistakes Rosy O'Donnell for Olivia Wilde.
Challenges HEM to a game of objectivity.
Challenges 'Slayr to 1 on 1 on the chains at his favorite playground and bets a grand he can take him.
Attempts a citizen's arrest of the Director of Homeland Security for unconstitutional torture AND double parking.
Insists Joe of Joe's Submarines fame was actually Julia Child in drag working as a CIA embed during the fractious Sixties and the Subjugation Seventies.
Buys a USAF surplus A-10 Warthog and starts flying over Olivia Wilde's house hoping to impress her with his loitering ability.
Donates a tidy sum to start a museum collection of stuffed and living Jayhawks thinking the bird is an endangered species rather than just a mythical mascot.
Starts arguing that the Hi-Lo was actually created by George Halas and Gale Sayers over pops one night on a napkin in a bar in Chicago during Sayers rookie season, when he introduced the NFL to a level of elusiveness and greatness that it has not seen since.
Insists on using Preparation H for lip balm.
Perseverates on accusing @wissoxfan83 of dynamite fishing in the bayous of Louisiana, while weighting the sticks of TNT by packing them in cheese curds from Wisconsin Cheeseman.
Swears Roy is at least 6-10, or 6-11.
(Note: All fiction. No malice. Dementia is just increasingly undirected creativity.)
Howling!
But they do have a strong speedy guard named Smith-Rivera and 350 pounds in the post is a lot to back down with.
There weakness is trey shooting, which should let us help a lot.
Their strength is rebounding and FG% inside. Lots of stick backs. If KU can control Smith-Rivera and eliminate the stick backs, then KU can win. But at the ends of both halves, unless KU has done a lot of hurry down court, long passing, and made the packed in lard post run, it will be tough to do both.
Yep. Thinking here is we have no one that can play Smith straight up, or even double him, and keep him from a spot, or from backing down, so go small and force him to chase on defense and wear him out. Make him move his lard. Then double and triple him and dare them to beat us outside.
Key match will be if we can shut off Smith-Riviera. If we can do that and stay even on the boards we can win. Not if not. Also their action and penetration could foul us up.
This morning I feel more like we could win, because they are so one dimensionally defensive. But they are strong where we are strong and strong where we are not.
This should be an outside in game if ever there were one.
Now I'm saying GU by 5, if KU cold, KU by 5 if KU were hot.
Svi and Brannen could have trouble with the action, but we need their guns.
Seven games in and GU is 5-2.
Rotation: 9
Defense: positively Selfian numbers. They allow opponents to make only 38% of FGAs and hold them to a paltry 27% from trey.
Rebounding: GU outrebounds opponents +5 per game overall and are grabbing a ton of their own misses.
Offense: lots of inside scoring at a 50% clip. Lots of FTs but only make 67%. They take about 14 treys and only make 35%.
Height and Size Inside: They start a behemoth post and a defensive specialist 4. Joshua Smith, all 6-10 and 350 pounds, starts and averages 22mpg, 12ppg, and 7rpg. Paul White also starts at 6-8 and 228 doesn't rebound much, only scores 7ppg, but is a strong defender, and will step out and take 1 or two treys per game and make 50%. . 6-9 220 Aaron Copeland is the first big off the bench. 6-9 239 Michael Hopkins is the second big off the bench and he can put a hurt on you.
Height and Size Outside: They start 3 big strong lockdown combos on the perimeter. 6-3 214 Smith-Rivera is their leading scorer at 14.4ppg in 30mpg. He is a weak trifectate, but an 89% FT shooter. 6-5 215 Frosh LJ Peak has no trey but can guard and get to the rim. 6-5 220 Jabril Trawick also has no trey.
Summary: GU is smash mouth style, run the modified Princeton, and get it into the super tanker in the middle. John Thompson 2.0 has basically said to hell with good 3pt shooting outside. They take a lot of treys probably because teams have to triple his center. His three combos outside guard well and shoot the trey poorly, but shoot it nonetheless. He is betting on ferocious defense. Reboudning is a strength and offensive rebounding is a long suit. The name of the GU game is body you and wear you down with a 9 man rotation playing tough defense until you just get tired of the beating and go home.
Forecast: The KU perimeter guys are not going to like the Georgetown experience, even though they are way better shooters and likely quicker than the GU combos. Frank and Devonte in particular are going to experience their first real case of smash mouth. Svi also will find it a new experience. And all will have to contend with the frequent screening. Self will likely let them switch some this game. But the game will be decided inside. and on the glass. GU could keep KU off the glass for an entire game unless KU is really amped. And this seems a terrible game for Mickelson to come out of mothballs for, but with Jamari in dry dock, and XTReme Muscle the coin of the realm, there is a good chance that both Cliff and Landen will get in foul trouble soon, which would seem to force Self to go with Oubre at the 4 plus some Mickelson at the five. I thought Florida was too big and strong for KU. I still think they were. Somehow KU beat them. I still haven't figured out how. Even though GU sucks from trey, I don't see how KU can beat GU either. Too much size inside to score on much, or to get many rebounds. And GU guards big enough to keep our short guards off the glass and too quick for our long guards. And yet Self will outcoach John Thompson 2.0 some. If I were Self I would plan on playing Perry at the 5 a lot and have him step out for 5-8 treys. Then I would go long at the wings with Svi and Brannen as worked a few games back. KU probably cannot outbound GU, so it has to try to outshoot them. Given how bad GU is from outside, it could be done. But I see KU going down on the road without Traylor by 10.
Alright, alright, I figured it out. All I had to do was stretch my window the full width of my Cinerama-sized computer screen and the stats were revealed.
I stretched it out a bunch the first time without effect. But finally, I stretched it to the full width of this new computer screen spanning two time zones that my wife got me, and now I find the Hoya Paranoia stats fully visible.
I apologize, Hoyas.
Looks like there was no Tesla Tower.
No FEMA COG mind control conspiracy.
Looks like there was just one, impatient, tech-challenged moron here.
And it was me. :-)
(Note: I left this post up to remind me of my steady decent into dementia. :-))
So: I go to the official web page of Georgetown Hoya Athletics to do some pre-game intelligence on GU.
I click on stats to profile Georgetown by the numbers. I have done this a few hundred times before at the web sites of other schools. The following is the exact link.
http://www.guhoyas.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2014-2015/teamcume.html ↗
I scroll down.
When I get to the list of players and their invidual statistics I find that the right third of the statistics are blocked by side bar of GU headlines.
I look for ways to remove the side bar. No luck.
I look for ways to move the statistics so I can see the right one third of the individual stats. No luck.
I close Safari and try viewing it through Firefox. No luck.
Next to Zenger blacking out games for in state KU fans, this is the dumbest single stunt by a university athletic department I have yet witnessed.
They go to the trouble of compiling and posting statistics and then hide them with headlines!
"Oooh, make me wanna holler!"--Marvin Gaye
And this has not yet been corrected 7 games into Georgetown's season.
What kind of moron does GUAD have running their web site?
Don't Georgetown fans that ever look at their team's web site and stats?
Does Georgetown actually have any fans?
Is the Georgetown arena just filled with thousands of latex love dolls dressed in Hoya shirts?
Does anyone actually attend Georgetown University at all?
Or is it just a paper school?
Does it just give online degrees?
Is there really a John Thompson 2.0?
Was there ever really a John Thompson 1.0?
Or have Georgetown University and Georgetown basketball always just been FEMA Continuity of Government created illusions injected into our minds by some Tesla Tower in New Jersey that mind controls us all into believing in continuity of basketball?
Fix your flipping site, Hoyas, or give better directions about how to shed the side bar, will ya?
Next.
He looks like a sweet little dog that is none the less ready to defend the spirit of Jefferson. And I like that.
Rock Chalk!
Best looking gospel singer I ever saw!
Though I would like KU to get out of football on the principle of head injur avoidance, if one must have the sport, we must build with the goal of attaining the high ground in both of your arguments. The only constraint is that we not let football wa the basketball dog, once we get it on its feet, as it does at every other school it achieves prominence.
You have to lead a moving target, so I agree with @ralster in principle, but as @nuleafjhawk wonders, i wonder if Beaty were a lead?
It comes down to his coaching skill. He is the exact profile of the right KU candidate if he knows how to make the organizational and game calls to go along with his Texas recruiting experience.
The problems are: a.) that there were some mixed early messages about his limited offensive coordinatorator experience; and b.) that Zenger's record so far on judgements has been shaky enough to make one doubt his ability to judge unproven talent.
If Zenger had picked young Roy Williams for basketball coach, I would have been worried.
Zenger is in a job where you are supposed to be able to make good choices most of the time. Maybe he makes lots of good ones we don't see. But the ones we do see have not inspired confidence.
Ask Senators and Congresspersons you meet, “Hey, where’s the Department of Pork?"
Drive out to Maryland and ask the NSA where they keep your junk email?
Climb the Washington monument with suction cups.
Drive over to the Pentagon and ask when they are going to expand to a Hexagon?
Drop a KUBuckets.com T-shirt off at the Oval Office, then put it on the deck against the President.
Rent a Capitol Bike and check how water proof the hub drive is by riding it through the reflection pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Ride from the reflecting pool along the Mall to the Federal Reserve and ask the Fed Chairman what about the private central bank is Federal and what do they keep in reserve?
Ride over to the Jefferson Memorial and read the sentence that most justifies Washington, D.C.: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Ride over to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and read the Four Freedoms etched in stone.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
FREEDOM OF WORSHIP
FREEDOM FROM WANT
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
God, help me, I do love this country so. Beat the Hoyas.
Interesting situation.
Cliff and Lucas will likely clip his minutes, but...
If the Jam Tray were sidelined more than a game, opposing coaches for sure start scheming to put The Big Red Dog in foul trouble ASAP, and any way they could. In short, Clifford would catch a whole lot more XTReme Muscle than previously with Jam Tray on call. Self would not be able to protect Clifford, as he can now. Self could not shorten the games for The Big Red Dog, if the Jam Tray were sidelined.
If Clifford were up to the challenge, all would be well.
But if Clifford were to still need protection, then the job would likely fall to some combination of Lucas (extended minutes), Oubre (swing minutes at 4 forcing Perry into the 5), or taking this season's Untouchable Basketball Hindu aka Hunter Mickelson, out of the lowest basketball caste known.
I sure hope for the Jam Tray's sake that he was just trying to be a helpful citizen and was misunderstood.