Yes!
I got sideways with scheduling and completely blew it. I am as bummed I missed it as the game. Did @Jesse-Newell unveil any new wrinkles?
jaybate 1.0
10346 posts
(Note: All of the jaybate 1.0 posts in this thread above are supposed to be taken as satire. No malice. Good night already.)
False Commentary: +6 rebounding edge over D-II Washburn inspires confidence that this will be a great rebounding KU team.
False Rumor: Self pleased with Ellis' one rebound.
False Rumor: Self to work with team on free throw shooting.
False Rumor: Mangino and Weiss to co-write diet book.
False Rumor: Indiana Hoosier program charged with running an illegal, but drug free demolition derby on public streets of Bloomington.
False Rumor: Refs whistled for inappropriate accessing of confidential information about referees unable to respond because of swallowed whistles.
Rumor: Michigan looking for an AD, KU fans unable to watch early basketball games recommend Zenger.
False Rumor: Pearl gets back surgery: no truth to rumor he injured it lifting Charles at a barbecue.
Mis-Edited News Item: Nike 1 and 2 in AP poll, er, no, Kentucky 1, Arizona 2 in AP poll . :-)
Sound familiar?
I'm still not sure what to think.
I worry someone is out to get control of UNCAD revenues and Roy is in the cross fire.
At the same time I just don't quite understand how he could not have known his players were taking these problematic classes for so many years.
Oh, well, the process grinds on.
False Rumor: Bill Raftery not only reputedly filed trademarks to "Onions" and "With a Kiss," but also reputedly to "I am a drunken moron," and "Circus geeks know more about basketball than I do."
(Note: Just kidding. All Satiric Fiction. No malice. I happen to believe Bill is NOT a drunken moron.)
False Rumor: Frankamp transferred due to inability to grow the Oubre Do. Quartlebaum has also offered to resigned, but Self has flatly denied his request.
Rumor: Ken Pomeroy stumped how to quantify Oubre's new do!
Rumor: Kurtis has promised to wear Tom Ford if this team wins 30.
Was Jerrance sitting on two chairs last night?
When Piper interviews Fred Quartelbaum be sure to wear your welding masks to avoid retinal burn.
So: who is SNACK's bringing from Chi next? Clifford aka "THE BIG RED DOG*turns out to have been quite a get. Dear Training Table Chef: make sure THE BIG RED DOG keeps getting his Chicago style 'Za.
Suggested slogan during Oubre's inevitable stint in the toughening box.
OUBRE LIBRE!!
Norm, Kurtis, Jerrance too! Fred gets a pass!
The Marine Corp is a tribe and so is KU basketball, so it is time for the chief to shave the sides, grow the top, and do The Fury thing !!!
Seems like he could be the wing point hub of the team by end of next season, barring injury and his shot coming to full bloom. I don't know if that makes him a super star, or the top scorer, or just the hub of our team that things run through. But he seems to have a little something extra.
I meant to say he might be having issues, because he was wearing knee wraps. I have no insider knowledge, nor have I read anywhere that he is injured.
About the other players, good eye and thanks for alerting me to them. I haven't looked at any still photos of the players and that is one of the best ways to find out this sort of thing. Assessing the injury status of a team, when they are trying to conceal such, is one of the fun things to try to do as a fan, at least it is for me. Checking the still photos after the game, plus keeping your eye peeled for players favoring limbs obviously, but less obviously NOT doing things that they usually do, or should be capable of doing, in the videos of the games, often reveals quite a lot that is not being reported.
I tend to think the more wraps you see, then the more guys are probably battling injuries; that the wraps are supposed to manage injuries. I know a lot of folks make the argument that players wear these wraps preventatively, and I suspect a few that have had prior problems do just that. But wraps to me are also often a tell that guys are actively battling some kind of leg problems. And I recall reading somewhere that players with one leg injured often wear two wraps to help camouflage which is the injured leg.
My hypothesis is that there are costs to playing "tougher" and practicing "harder" and playing more "physically." The cost logically should be increased wear and tear. And wear and tear involves, among other things, actual injuries. And a bunch of players wearing wraps this early in the season tells me one of two things:
a.) practice intensity in terms of speed, length, contact, and loose ball drills is ramped up and wear and tear and injuries are spiking; or
b.) players are not injured, but are trying to minimize the expected wear and tear occurring from the tougher practices.
Of course, I can't recall how many guys on last year's team were wearing knee wraps in the first exhibition game, so maybe its the same number or less this year. This is where QA comes it. QA lets one support, or refute hypotheses like I am proposing.
On a slight tangent, recall that the new six camera technology with proprietary software some pro teams are using allow them to track an incredible array of basketball statistical categories. I wonder if this technology would also allow a pattern recognition software designed to isolate and recognize a percentage probability of opposing players being injured in various ways and extents, so that you as a coach could then scheme to exploit those injuries? What a huge edge it might give.
Rock Chalk!!!
Chipman played for Hartman, who was no sissy.
And Chip is in the elite 700 club.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Self asked for him to have his guys give KU a little business just to get KU ready for UCSB and UK.
Professional curtesy between Okie Ballers. :-)
Acute, chronic pain is a huge problem with a huge membership.
I hope you are reaching out to those with it and helping with it.
Don't go it alone.
Everywhere a yip, yip.
There a yip...
Here a yip...
And a yip, yip there.
And yip, yip, here. :-)
And here.
Backfill here.
yip, yip, yip!
Devonte seemed to take a shot in the eye, but held the back of his head. What actually happened? Could you tell?
As someone who had two in one month, and 3 over six years of kiddie league and high school football, I concrue, er, comply, er, what's that word, uh, uhm, concur. :-)
And the real neg is that even if you come out with a sound mind in a few weeks time, when you hit your 50s and later the old short term concussion can come back to bite you with strokes and accelerated memory loss.
If I were counseling Brannen Greene, I would tell him to hang up the shoes right now and go become a male model, and take up dance. There is always huge demand in the arts for a tall, handsome guy that can move like he can. And he could kiss future concussions good bye.
But I am speaking as an old man and it is a language young men do not speak. :-)
Greene's bell ringer reminds that transfer decisions always have blow back for both sides.
If Greene were out for the season with this concussion, which he probably should be, but probably won't be, Self could really use Conner about right now. Yes, Self can fast track Svi, or increase the minutes guys are already getting, but Conner gives him experience and a legendary gun.
And Conner's decision to go be a bigger part of a smaller program by giving up a big hunk of his playing days at KU really looks dumb.
Given how "tough" Self wants this team to try to play, and how small this team actually is, it is a good bet that there are going to be a lot of injuries this season and Conner, who Self said would be in the rotation regardless, would have gotten a lot more PT than he expected.
Howling!
What Svi brings this year is "THE WING POINT" that Self often resorts to by moving his point to the wing. He did this occasionally with Sherron, Tyshawn, Elijah, and Tharpe.
With Svi, he can leave his speed demons out front, put Svi on a wing, and have his cake and eat it, too.
Avi could wind up playing a lot of back up at the 2 and 3, depending on which wing Self wants to wing point attack from in any given situation.
And as I said to @HighEliteMajor above, putting Svi on one with with both his trifecta AND his wing point ability, and putting Brannen Greene at the other wing, absolutely stretches the spandex to its breaking point--always a good thing in Self Ball, but especially good when the opponent has a rim protector and this KU team does not.
If this were to come down to a choice between Svi and Greene, it might threaten Greene.
But I don't think it is going to come down to that choice.
What I saw last night was a glimmer of what might be the team KU uses frequently against really big inside teams.
I think Svi on one wing and Greene on the other wing, stretch hell out of an opposing defense.
I think when you don't have a legitimate big down low either to score, or to rim protect, against a big inside team, then the only counter is to be tall and good shooting on the wings.
The key here is not just that they are good shots, but that they are both so tall!
Opposing teams will have to double Svi and Greene standing on the trey stripe to stop them from taking the minimum distance trey, which either player could conceivably ding at a 40-45% rate, if the rest of their games' permit them to settle down and shoot confidently.
So: when the opposing team doubles outside to stop the short, high percentage trey, Svi and Greene float back a step and the double has to make a snap decision. To really shut off the long Svi and Greene, the double has to follow out. But to follow out means Svi, a terrific passer, especially, is going to pass it to cutter into the weakened middle, which is going to force the rim protector to commit quickly which will allow a dish by the cutter to a wide open man.
This is really the way for this KU team to play UK, too: Svi and Greene on the wings, if both player's defenses were good enough.
They may not be good enough defenders early in the season, but I suspect they can get their by early February.
Its not a starting pair of wings. Its a first substitution pair of wings, as the opponent resorts to shorter, less athletic backups of its starting wings. Capice? Or caprice? :-)
The combination of the-will-to-efficiency scheme of play and Self practicing them into the ground (they looked like they had had a full practice the day of the Washburn game), plus all of the wraps this early the season, explains the step-slow appearance of Selden and of all of the guys.
Self and staff must really be bearing down on these guys. He has committed to getting them ready not just for UK, which they probably can't beat unless UK shoots it very poorly, but to try to give this team the best possible shot at beating UCSB, which has a big man and a maturity that is going to give this young, undersized KU team problems IMHO.
Self correctly perceived that this team's only hope is efficient passing constantly trying to get the ball into scoring position, not just into impact position. Frankly, this team appears most closely patterned off some of Bobby Knights lean-talent teams. They reminded me a hole lot of Knight's last 4, or 5, Indiana teams. Strictly business. Told from the beginning that their only prayer is toughness and efficiency. There is not a schred of ebullience and celebrating out there, even though several of these guys were joy juicing smiley face types last season along with joking Joel and easy going Andrew. This season? It is all grim focus on business.
Selden, ironically, is having the most difficulty hitting perfect pitch among the starters. But, again, I think that's because of tired legs and because Self is ramming this team into an efficiency form language starting with Ellis and Mason.
Ellis plays this way naturally, whenever he isn't going against tough defenders that send him into finesse spin mode. Self has clearly told Perry to cut back on the spin moves and cut straight to the score. Self is saying in essence, "Perry, you are my man. If you can't learn to be an extroverted razor edged fanatic on a team of exploding athletic freaks, then I am going to ram earth this team into a form of stoic, methodical, Perry Ellis walls of focus and hard work." To rob from "Chinatown," as I so often have lately, Perry, if we cannot bring the water to LA, we'll bring LA to the water, which is another way of saying if we can't bring Perry to the team, we'll bring the team to Perry. Perry's scoring is the water. Every team needs water. But Perry himself has to be rammed into the wooden team form as well, because Perry tends to stop playing this way, i.e., to his own strength, whenever someone, even some scrawny Ichabods muscling cause him to jump out of the ram earth form Self has rammed him into, and start spinning and finessing. But Perry is doing better at being Perry, something he has never been given a chance to get better at, as Self spent Perry's first two seasons taking him not just out of his comfort zone, but out of Perry's known universe.
And the cool thing is: ram earthing this team of hyper athletic freaks like in no particular order Mason, Oubre, Alexander, Traylor, Selden and Greene, is like connecting a bunch of coil springs together and then compressing them in the a wooden form of a highly efficient team that will, once Self eases up on the practice load, and pulls away some of the forms, be extremely efficiently formed to then begin exploding out of the form. It is a paradoxical approach to crafting a team, only to the extent Self is taking it, but Self is paradox in sneakers, so what else is new. He is the Tumble Weed Buddha. He is the Red River Vishnu restoring the Eddie Ball Order that he got too far away from last season. But frankly he is going beyond Eddie Ball here. He is going beyond Bill Ball here. The ghost of Henry Iba is lurking in this zealous, fundamentalist quest for un-ornamented efficiency.
(Note on the ram earth metaphor in the midst of all the metaphor mixing I am doing and about to take outside the envelope: just got done reading an arcane book on building the old ways with adobe brick and ram earth forms, and so that is where this ram earth form metaphor is bubbling up from for what Self is doing with this retro-team thing. For the uninitiated, ram earth building is setting up a wooden form of a wall space to be filled and packed and filled and packed with a sand/gravel/dirt mixture with about 10-20% clay content, so that when the wood forms are removed you have a strong, long lasting earthen wall that, if covered with a well drained roof with a 2-foot overhang and some stucco surfacing ought to outlast your own time on this mortal coil by quite awhile and meet building codes in some states, anyway.)
So, @KUSTEVE , what we were witnessing last night was a team with only parts of its forms temporarily removed (enough to let the team practice playing a game), so that it could move a bit, while still being held tightly in place. We saw a fully compressed, not yet fully dried team that had has been being driven so hard into its forms that it had no explosion in its legs and looked a step slow, make that two steps slow.
Mason gets what is going on and can do it, because it takes him completely out of his unconscious narcissism of using his awesome speed and afterburners first (the antithesis of being a point guard) and instead focuses him on the wholistic goal of running the team. Once the team cures fully into Self's desired form of maximum efficiency in all things, and Mason's habit of resorting first to his athleticism is permanently broken and reformed, THEN we will see Self have him begin to uncoil when appropriate. And when Mason begins uncoiling, so will the other players follow his lead.
This is particularly good for Alexander, who would foul out immediately, if he were not rammed into the form right now. Alexander is a big talent with a big man presence and attitude that will eventually allow him to be very dominant, but right now it would just foul him up to let him operate form free.
And though Oubre could benefit a lot from getting out of the form right now offensively, the fact is he is wearing the dreaded black knee wraps that signal sore knees in freshman stressed to unprecedented degree by learning Self Grade sliding M2M, after always getting by before with raw athleticism.
And so back to Selden.
Selden has a lackadaisical streak. He is naturally only focused intensely and coiled when he is about to do something and doing it. He has a problem with losing focus the minute what he is trying to do goes wrong. You can see his entire body language turn into an indifferent glide, instead of the intense uncoiling force that he was just a moment ago. Selden frankly needs this ram earth team form as much, if not more than the rest. And like Ellis he showed several times that whenever he comes out of the form and things don't go right, he reverts to losing focus and gliding, just as Ellis reverts to spinning and finessing.
E-F-F-I-C-E-N-C-Y.
E-C-O-N-O-M-Y.
E-N-E-R-G-Y.
E-N-G-A-G-E-M-E-N-T.
These are the 4 E's on the X-Axis this team must master to be able to then E-X-P-L-O-I-T athleticism on the Y-Axis at the D-E-C-I-S-I-V-E moments.
This team has to make efficiency its theme and athleticism its variation.
It aint sexy at AAU meat markets. And Cal will surely use it as a negative in talking to OADs (note: he seems not to have to actually recruit; that seems to be done for him, Cal is just a hostess seating players at his basketball restaurant that appear to have been driven their for him by a Nike bus. But I digress.)
The immediate danger forming a bunch of A-type athletics into a T-type team efficiency mold is that they will reverse the ordering of those two concepts not long after the forms are removed.
Why shouldn't these A-Types rely on athleticism first, last and always?
Because this group lacks the size inside, especially the dominant post man and rim protector, to get into a 40 minute campaign of athleticism vs. athleticism with any of the long and talented teams it will meet intermittently throughout the season. In terms of athleticism, it is a donut with a hole in the middle. It dare not play a style that emphasizes that hole in the middle. Instead, it must become controlled and highly controlling. It must confront teams with collective security, communal efficiency, so as never to expose the hole in the middle. And of course, being a Self team, it must also do so while being willing to play it any tempo the other team gives it.
Yet, fast or slow, or in between, this team must never play reckless, gambling high pressure perimeter defense, even though almost every player is well suited to playing exactly that way. Why not? Because of the hole in the middle. Every step, every pass, every dribble, every defensive position and every defensive slide, must obscure and shield the hole in the middle, while every savvy opponent will be scheme to get exactly there--to the hole in the O in Oz.
The great athleticism of the players must be turned to simultaneously guarding the trey stripe and the passing lanes, while at the same time masking the hole in the middle. Thus, you never want guys running and gambling on steals from over pressuring and over pinching someone far from the basket, unless the opponent has no big man. You want always to divide the great athleticism between stretching out and reaching backwards. This team is really going to play amoeba defense--stretching outward, but never breaking connection and the ability to flow backwards. Devonte Graham's steals were the ideal of this form of Amoeba defense. He was not gambling. He was seizing the opportunity of the amoeba being stretched in the right position to simply step in the lane and steal the pass. He was not at all out of position to recover and flow backwards to protect the hole in the middle.
This is no mean feat to pull off.
To the players credit, they appear to be buying in...so far.
And the guys that can do it best are playing most. Devonte Graham is not starting because he is a good distributor, or ball handler, or a great defender that can fight through D1 ball screens. He is going to have problems with all three of those things at D1 speeds against good D1 defenses. He is starting because the amoeba style of play is something he can do comfortably; that kind of fits his neutrally balanced court personality.
And the guys that struggle the most with amoeba style, Greene and Mickelson, the most either or guys on the team, are bringing up the rear despite their considerable abilities that both showed variously in the exhibition game.
Amoeba style is not for everyone. No style is. Pick a style and there are winners and losers. But everyone can learn to play a new style a little better all the time. It just may take some longer. Greene and Mickelson will get it.
And then there is Selden and Ellis. Both get the amoeba style of play. Selden can play it, whenever he does not get lackadaisical about something going wrong, or the flow of play going elsewhere. Ellis can play it whenever there is no blue meanie.
But things will go wrong, and play will flow away from Selden.
And there will be blue meanies for Ellis.
So: the real key to whether Self and this group can pull this style of play off, is whether Selden and Ellis can break their bad habits during their period of being ram earthed into the early season wooden form Self has erected, and just say no to their bad habits when he takes the wooden forms off and says, start uncoiling when its the decisive moment.
There is never a dull moment with Self and his basketball.
Now Self is going back to the future.
God only knows how he is going to pull this off against really good teams. Everything in my experience tells me it won't work against really good teams; that the team will not be able to execute this way when everyone is longer, stronger, faster, and without a hole in the middle.
But persons thought the same thing about some past teams with holes in the middle that went on to become terrific teams.
How long can he hide the hole in the middle of the doughnut; that is the question?
Knight pulled it off once.
Wooden pulled it off twice.
What else is there to say, but...
Go, Bill, go!!!!!!
CDC in Atlanta (a private not for profit, not a government organization at all) indicates the viral hair growth is attributable to Louisianan via Lost Vegasian Kelly Oubre introducing the team to java spiked with something called Creole Hyper-Chickory.
CDC informs that it IS NOT, REPEAT IS NOT an Ebola Outbreak!!!
Certain team members were particularly susceptible to the virus carried in the root of Chickory grown in the northern hemisphere (Oubre and Traylor), while others like Mason and Ellis, though less susceptible, must still fight the spread of the XTReme Symptoms with sheep sheer cuts four times a day.
Selden and Svi appear to be succumbing next.
CDC says their interviews with Bill Self indicate the KU coach sees it as a plus, making the team appear taller than it is.
Said Self, "You should have seen us before the outbreak. We looked like a bunch of pygmies in silks."
Developing...
It appears Oubre is battling sore knees. Self seemed to play him as sparingly as he could, while still getting him tuned up a bit for UCSB coming after Emporia State Fighting Emporiums.
jaybate 1.0's replay...ongoing....
Mason has bought into this concept more than anyone. All of the after burner stuff, all of the through the legs and shuffles in place are gone from his game. It is like Mason went to efficiency school over the summer.
EFFICIENNT MOVEMENT.
EFFICIENT PASSING.
EFFICIENT SHOOTING.
ZERO CELEBRATING.
ZERO FRENCH PASTRY.
NO SMILING.
NO GRIMACING.
NO NOTHING BUT MOVEMENT THAT GETS THE JOB DONE.
THIS IS HOW THE MARINES FIGHT A BATTLE.
Perry Ellis is a something of a let down, if one were hoping for him to become an explosive firebrand.
But Perry Ellis has always been efficient. Quiet. Elegant. Economy of motion.
Self has quit trying to change Perry and instead he has built a team of Perry Ellises.
I don't know how this team will play against a bunch of Michigan State thuggers, or against a bunch of leaping, flying gazelles, or against Slick Rick's running, pressing hyper actives, or against Calipari's "long cats."
But I can tell you one thing.
Opposing teams are not going to have seen a team like KU until they play KU.
This kind of controlled, contained, playing within-itself style of basketball went out of style about 25 years ago.
The X-Axis lives again in Lawrence, KS
Buenos noches.
Good night Mrs. Calabash,where ever you are.
jaybate 1.0's replay...ongoing....
After a half of this, it is time for jaybate 1.0 to get his beauty sleep.
Methodical teams that do exactly what the coach schemes without French Pastry, always show well early, especially in exhibition games.
The big question about this team is: can it stay methodical when it runs into the blue meanies that are bigger than this team at most positions?
The team is not only methodical. It is playing an entirely X-axis game even against a team it could completely sky over; this signals that @drgnslayr guessed right about what Self would do this season.
Its a strange team. It already has a personality in its first exhibition game. Last year's team never really did develop a personality.
The strange part is how neutral and business like the team is. Even Snacks is strictly business on the bench. The team has a subdued, purposeful, demeanor.
The guys look like coach has told them we can be the most efficient passing team in the country this season and so that is going to be who we are. Our defense is not going to be splashy. It is going to be sticky. People are going to be able to move the ball, but not in and out. People are going to be able to stop our drives, but not our passes. We are not going to turn it over, and we are going to make each pass count to getting into better scoring position. No more just passing it around the rim.
jaybate 1.0's replay...ongoing....
As the first half ends, Greene looks more comfortable pulling the trigger.
Self does not look happy with a 42-13 lead.
The team has not shown anything but absolute basics. The team's legs are so gone and they are playing so basic, opposing coaches will have to be very afraid of how explosive KU might be with rested legs and a few wrinkles.
jaybate 1.0's replay...ongoing....
Self wearing one of his old suits and ties.
Lucas not only has fx issues down low, but a sore wing.
This team has seriously dead legs.
Looking at all the wraps and bumps and the dead legs and the practices must have been brutal up to this point. Self is definitely not worrying about whether this team peaks early or not.
Avi gets a look a three and a half to go.
Oubre got in the paint, but he had no spring from a sergeant jump. Combine that lack of clearance with a pair of knee wraps and infer the knees are already sore.