🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@JayHawkFanToo

You raise an interesting point about the expectations of Petro-ShoeCos.

You wrote: "If I would be paying some institution millions of dollars I most certainly would require them to mention/push/promote my product at every opportunity."

Do you think it is a clear line where those expectations stop? Does your contribution being expensed, or otherwise deductible, make a difference?

Is there any reason why fans should expect that in reality they limit their expectations to the wearing of the uniforms the Petro-ShoeCos hope to pedal, as you express would be a bare minimum of your expectations?

The limits of monetary influence in D1 basketball, of where it stops and starts, are always an interesting subject to explore.

Please continue.

Alas, Chuckie W be in deep do-do.

@approxinfinity

Yep, it is inspired madness. Last winter or early spring was my first viewing of it. It was pandemic at the time. :-)

@KUSTEVE

Thx 4 the memory augmentation.

@approxinfinity

To quote Paul Charles Dzosa from fading memory:

"Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest..."

😄

@KUSTEVE

Devonte's leadership showing is good to hear.

If he could be THE point guard, it would solve a lot of lot of problems early.

But I seem to recall Self praising AWIII about boot camp leadership last season.

Still it's some good news on DG.

@HighEliteMajor
@HighEliteMajor

I suspect Self thinks there is a significant chance that either FM or CF will not meet minimum standards, or that the team will have to play with only one short guard in the rotation for defensive reasons. In either case, he will be looking at a 7 instead of 8 man rotation, or alternatively an 8 instead of 9 man rotation. It would mean one of either FM or CF has gotten the nod and the other likely will not be viewed as part of the future of KU BALL this year, or after. That spells transfer.

Why 7?

Without both short guards cutting it, I doubt there are 8 guys or more on this team that can play at a high D1 level this season; that is, without serious drop off in team efficiency, when subbed. And Self shows again and again that he would rather go 7 than 8, or 8 than 9, rather than tolerate a big drop off in team efficiency.

Count up who should reasonably be expected to rotate without major fall off in efficiency by late in the season.

Inside: Perry, Traylor, Mickelson, Alexander.

Outside: Oubre, Selden

That is 6 if alexander can adjust.

On bubble: Mason, Conner, Graham, Greene

Mason has the athleticism but skills are in question and size limits him to PG. If he can't make the easy plays his second year his shelf life is short.

Conner has skill but athleticism is in question and size limits him to PG. If he can't get his 3pt % up and guard his second season, his shelf life is short.

Graham has size and athleticism are pluses, but no experience and shooting skill is in question. But he has the length that makes developing him two seasons worth it.

Greene--Self hates wild hairs. Greene was one. Wild hairs often aren't ready till junior season. EJ wasn't. Travis needed 3 seasons. Odds are Greene won't be ready for March, but I think he will have to rotate awhile, because Oubre is green. But as Oubre matures, Self can sit Greene, or if Oubre fails to adapt, greene might with slim probability marginalize Oubre.

So if Green comes around, that's 7, and then you really only need one of the two short guards for 35 mpg and that's 8. And who does Self develop with the 5 mpg? I think it would be Devonte, if he equals the others, because he offers more years and size.

But a significant possibility is this:

Green is still too wild.

One of the two short guards can't cut it.

That's 7 with Devonte backing up 5 mpg.

P.S.: Landen just maybe a victim of numbers and see his time the next year.

@JayHawkFanToo

Let us first dispense with the misrepresentation that politics are being discussed by anyone other than perhaps you.

Next, let us refocus on your appeal to authority in Rummie and introduction of strategic Rummie think to the thread.

My points are these:

1.) appeals to authority whether logically flawed, or not, are undermined if the authority has not had much success; and

2.) analyzing KU BASKETBALL through the logic of strategic Rummie think risks analytic outcomes that might be the strategic basketball equivalent of Afghanistan and Iraq, not the political equivalents.

Regarding number 2, I don't want KU basketball viewed through the lens of strategic Rummie think, because I don't want KU BASKETBALL having resulting analyses equivalent to those that precipitated Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is NOT POLITICAL discourse.

This is strategic discourse.

Rock Chalk!

@JRyman

Solid joke about Jo-el!!!!

Did Wigs warm up a bunch off camera to protect the merchandise? 😃

All real learning involves repetition. 😄

@HighEliteMajor

This quote ought to be put on the quotes thread, because you are right: it captures the essential Self.

Those players could be hard to guard, but could they guard anyone? Definitive.

Also, regarding Conner, I believe he WILL be in the 8 man rotation if he can make his treys, but either Frank, or Conner will sit in a 7 man rotation. I believe Devonte was brought in in case Self has to go to a 7 man rotation in January instead of March. If one of the two had to sit in January it would mean they would not be good enough to cut it and would transfer AWIII style in summer.

@jaybate-1.0 said:

It was perhaps unfortunate you introduced what seemed an appeal to authority, especially using a discredited, strategically fairly unsuccessful Rummie. For what it's worth, he has no political significance whatever to me. He was a bureaucrat as you introduced him and as I responded. Frankly there would be no way for me to discuss him politically in this or any other forum, because he was a bureaucrat, not a politician. The only other things I know about Rummie beyond his strategic and administrative shortcomings as a SecDef is that he reputedly advocated since the Nixon-Ford era to get the FEMA COG parallel government instituted and implemented, and reputedly supported its continuous function since 9-11, and he reputedly signed PNAC. But FEMA COG and PNAC are really strategic rather than political in purpose, though PNAC was used to gain political support for it strategic agenda, if I understand them correctly, so here again I don't see a political angle. So: politically I just don't see that YOU or I could introduce anything about Rummie that was political. . You introduced him as a strategic authority and I responded accordingly. You applied his war think to hoops and I responded to the doubtful validity of doing so. He proved significantly flawed as a military and occupation strategist, as his record in Iraq and Afghanistan made clear to many. He reputedly had other less publicized problems with career military folks over policy. It would never have occurred to me to discuss him politically. I was just trying to save the merit of your post by divorcing it from the Rummie petard you erected. what ever, this seems a minor issue. Strategy is always a topic open to discussion here as basketball is a game with strategy and the military have contributed as much as any to its study, development and application in many fields. You introduced military strategy to the discussion. I recognize your tactical retreat here from what you introduced, but am hardly persuaded by it. DoD and the U.S. military have produced so many brilliant thinkers and actors regarding strategy that It seems something of a disrespect to them and our country to cite the unsuccessful anomaly of Rummie. And of course you could not be disagreeing with what I said of the remarkable Churchill for he did lead one of the most epic and skillful global retreats in the early years of the war one can recall and it is described well by war and strategy historian Liddell Hart--a decent though hardly flawless analyst. So that leaves you defending Rummie the strategist and that in the end appears an act of political loyalty, not objective assessment and reason, if means and results were reasonably weighed. So let's leave Rummie to the history of SecDefs who tried but werent very successful in our appeals to his authority regarding administration and strategy.

@JayHawkFanToo

You are too easily sickened regarding HEM's take.. 😄

And regarding Wooden, as persons claiming what you do force me to analyze it, it was probably tougher to do in Wooden's time what he did. His first two ring teams were vastly less stacked with talent than the top teams of those years. When was the last time a less talented team with no one over 6-5 won a ring in the modern era? Fouls were called in those days. The rules were enforced. The dunk was outlawed, when he had his only two great centers. Gambling scandals of the 50s and 60s mean more games were being decided by something other than talent than today, when many (not me) believe Big Gaming no longer tampers with outcomes. And only 5-6 of his ten ring teams could be argued to have had sharply better talent than other top teams. So he won 4 rings without being stacked Nike style like the way Cal and UK HAVE BEEN ALL CAL's UK SEASONS. Frankly, talent is way more asymmetrically distributed now every season than it was during Wooden's first two ring seasons without any super players. Further it was much tougher to get in the tournament in those days. And population for recruiting was much more concentrated in the east in those days. You have to win 6 instead of 4 now, but the first two today are way easier than the first two then. There were only 2 cupcakes pre conference, not 6 like today. Same number of tough preconference opponents. You had to win your conference to get into the tournament, not finish second, third, or fourth. And so on.

There is a strategic center point in Eurasia that stretches north/south from Finland to Iran. France, Germany and Russia have tried to control it. USA and UK have tried to deny them. There is a Rim Thesis stretching east/west from North Africa to the Middle East to South Asia to east Asia and the Southwest Pacific. The USA/UK have tried to control it with sea power. Germany and Russia have tried to break through that rim. Those two grand strategic concepts are all ye need to know to understand the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars and the Regime Change Wars to come. To control these two realms one must control the sea, the air and space. One must control information, digital connection, CBW, nuclear, climate, energy, water and food. China and India have been added to the mix of states with the power (economic and military force) to vie for such control. This is the conflicted human order lurching forward dangerously through the 21st century. First religion, then art, then ideology, then Olympic sport, then popular entertainment, then televised sport, then drugs, then social media were tried to bind us together to see our common humanity. All have fallen dangerously short of the goal. As fantastic as it seems now, basketball may one day become the thing that saves us from our lethal differences. It has saved America from black-white racism by de-rationalizing the prisoner's game of race fear. It has done what soccer and other games have not done. It has made a part of humanity more integrated and tolerant. It is doing for women what it did for men. It is a long shot that it could do the same for the world, but the global sports apparel oligopoly and media seem destined to bring basketball to the world. And so the greatest game ever invented has a chance to work its magic on the world.

It was perhaps unfortunate you introduced what seemed an appeal to authority, especially using a discredited, strategically challenged Rummie. For what it's worth, he has no political significance whatever to me. He was a bureaucrat as you introduced him and as I responded. Frankly there would be no way for me to discuss him politically in this or any other forum, because he was a bureaucrat, not a politician. The only other things I know about Rummie beyond his strategic and administrative shortcomings as a SecDef is that he reputedly worked long and hard since the Nixon-Ford era to get the FEMA COG parallel government instituted and implemented, and put in continuous function since 9-11, and he signed PNAC. But FEMA COG and PNAC are really strategic rather than political in purpose, if I understand them correctly, so here again I don't see a political angle. So: politically I just don't see that YOU or I could introduce anything about Rummie that was political. . You introduced him as a strategic authority and I responded accordingly. He proved significantly flawed as a military and occupation strategist, as his record in Iraq and Afghanistan made clear to many. It would never have occurred to me to discuss him politically. I was just trying to save the merit of your post by divorcing it from the Rummie petard you erected. what ever, this seems a minor issue. Strategy is always a topic open to discussion here as basketball is a game with strategy and the military have contributed as much as any to its study, development and application in many fields. You introduced military strategy to the discussion. I recognize your tactical retreat here from what you introduced, but am hardly persuaded by it. DoD and the U.S. military have produced so many brilliant thinkers and actors regarding strategy that is an insult to them and our country to cite the negative anomaly of Rummie. And of course you could not be disagreeing with what I said of the remarkable Churchill for he did lead one of the most epic and skillful global retreats in the early years of the war one can recall and it is described well by war and strategy historian Liddell Hart--a decent though hardly flawless fellow. So that leaves you defending Rummie and that in the end is an act of loyalty, not reason, if means and results are reasonably weighed. So let leave Rummie to the ash heap of history in our appeals to his authority regarding hoops.

@JayHawkFanToo

IMHO, Rummie became a case study that one does NOT go to war with the army one has.

Premptive warfare with the wrong army is a peculiar form of military absurdity perhaps one day to be called Rummism.

One delays war until one has an army one can win and occupy successfully with, not just win, or alternatively convulse and render useless a country without uniting its fragments into a formidable foe.

And Churchill made clear that if one lacks such an army and cannot delay the war; then one skillfully uses retreat on all fronts to buy the time until one can acquire such an army.

Rummie was apparently the wrong man in the wrong role running the wrong military the wrong way and ignoring those that knew better.

He was an ideologue, backed and lead by ideologues, when a realist was called for.

Therefore, I am not sure he is a useful reference to your otherwise defensible, though perhaps not fully airtight position.

@JayHawkFanToo

I agree that M2M full court presses are stupid; that has been proven time and again.

But Wooden proved ten times in 11 years that a 2-2-1 3/4 court press makes a talented team almost unbeatable. No one would have a prayer against Nike stacks at UK and UA, if Cal and Stumpy had enough sense to pour urine out of a chapeau and press 2-2-1. It extends the advantage of superior athleticism and the element of surprise to every square foot of the court.

@jaybate-1.0 said:

The transition zone of a basketball court is like the ocean between continents. It is cheap to control with a zone press and it has pinch points where access can be suddenly and decisively and surprisingly shut off. Therefore, one is foolish not to take control of it and fight battles against an opponent ill prepared to fight there. Hegemony anywhere on a floor is advantageous. If one cannot control the half court, one should try to control the approach zone, I.e., the transition zone.

The transition zone of a basketball court is like the ocean between continents. It is cheap to control with a zone press and it has pinch points where access can be suddenly and decisively and surprisingly shut off. Therefore, one is foolish not to take control of it and fight battles against an opponent ill prepared to fight there. Hegemony anywhere on a floor is advantageous. If one cannot control the half court, one should try to control the approach zone, I.e., the transition zone.

"Bob Knight says you play the game of basketball, not an opponent. Perhaps, but I have rarely seen the game of basketball cheap shot anyone, when down 10 points."
--jaybate 1.0

"Events invariably take a sharp turn once those reading history cease believing those writing history."
--jaybate 1.0

"Regardless of who wins, history is paid for by those with the most money."
--jaybate 1.0

@jaybate-1.0 said:

@approxinfinity

Heads up: I just updated with latest iPhone update apparently brought out for the new Syrian campaign and now I get notifications from @drgnslayr only to find it is @BeddieKU23. Unless @drgnslayr is bifurcating aliases, Houston, we have a problem! 😄

@approxinfinity

Heads up: I just updated with latest iPhone update apparently brought out for the new Syrian campaign and now I get notifications from @drgnslayr only to find it is @BeddieKU23. Unless @drgnslayr is bifurcation identities, Houston, we have a problem! 😄

"History is the past explained with agents, not principals."
-- jaybate 1.0

"History is a gallery of agents, not principals."
--jaybate 1.0

Now that is funny! I will continue writing this comic series of titles for our games in NYC and other world class tourist destinations and spike our web traffic out through the virtual roof!! 😄

Or maybe not.

I actually think we have been right on, but that it will take awhile for Oubre and Alexander to play into starters. I suspect they will be starters eventually this season and if not starters then 20 mpg guys..

@jaybate-1.0 said:

Guess: Mickelson plays 5, when two short guards are in. Traylor plays 5, when one PG is in. Whenever Mickelson, or Traylor, stumbles, Alexander gets the call.

Guess: Mickelson plays 5, when two short guards are in. Traylor plays 5, when one PG is in.

Enjoyed Self's incomparable management of the Duke-selling, ESPN interviewer. The interviewer apparently wanted Self to say that Konsonants got no unfair advantage. Self appeared just as determined to assert that Konsonants got an advantage, but that everyone tries to exploit such advantages--a very savvy approach to the issue on Self's part The interviewer appeared to instantly realize Self had deftly defied the party line about Konsonants, despite Self having said there was nothing wrong with Konsonants having an advantage. The ESPN interviewer appeared to lose his composure some and try to lower the boom on Self by saying in effect that Konsonants has 4 rings, the big W&L statement, and be the head coach of Duke (all cuts at Self IMHO), and so the advantage should be to Konsonants regardless. Self then appeared to beautifully reassert that Konsonants was getting a big advantage by selling his work with these teams just as Self would sell his coaching an international competition by KU next season. It was absolutely a text book in how to first dilute the ESPN message, then counter spin it more decisively to wind up with a neutral signal. In essence , Self was apparently letting the interviewer know that he, Self, would not be used to promote Konsonants. Finally, the ESPN interviewer, appearing to understand he had been outflanked, turned the interview onto Self, and let Self promote himself and his program, because he apparently knew if he didn't Self was going to keep saying Konsonants was benefitting hugely from his international coaching. As most always, Self appears XTRemely gifted at both coaching and handling the media. And he appears to be deciding at long last that he can often not give ESPN interviewers an even break. They often appear to try to use him to promote his competitors in big markets and Self seems finally to have quit trying to appease them. This interview will probably win him significant respect among the ESPN interviewers. This interview may do more to stop their using him to promote his competitors than any other interview of him that I can recall. Bravo, Bill!

Regarding our team, Bill appeared to get a clear message out.

The following is how it appeared to me.

Frankamp is in the rotation.

Perry and Selden will be the leading scorers.

Traylor is in the rotation for sure.

Alexander and Oubre are going to be groomed for January through April, and will not start at the beginning and are going to have to play extremely well to be starters. There is going to be no putting the team on either freshman's back. Music to my flipping ears!!!!!

Svi is too skinny to play much this season, but he is going to be one of Self's all timers if Svi will play two seasons. More music to my ears!!!!

Also, Bill says he and the staff learned some things about how to protect OADs from media and fans.

This is what he appears to have learned, as I try to read between the lines.

Self is apparently signaling that the players have to mature on the floor and as persons before they will become brands he will let their handlers and the networks exploit/promote for a season at KU. In short, Self learned last season that OADs are a media currency. And after spending Wiggins early and then withdrawing him, Self is now going to withhold/protect his OADs from the media first and share them only when the media promises to use them fairly, and when the OADs have actually become good basketball players and media savvy. No more cart before the horse.

Put another way, Self has apparently learned that you cannot let the OAD's handlers build up a media relationship between the OAD and the networks BEFORE the OAD has achieved the coach's minimum standards for play. I love what I am reading between the lines here, if I am anywhere close to correct. Self is apparently signaling that to talk to the media, an OAD first has to raise his foundation to minimum standards and play at the intensity level Self requires. Until then, Self promotes Perry, Selden, and Traylor. Once the OAD performs at a high level, then Self will interface with the media and valve out the OAD to which ever media person is willing to promote KU the most. Or so that's what I can read in the tea leaves left steeping after this interview.

Self appears to be really wising up. It means Self will not get all of the OADs the other coaches get, but it means the ones he gets are going to be used rather than use the coach.

Performance first, then interviews. Promotion is the currency. Hype is the coin of the realm, so no hype until the performance.

The parents of the players that simply want to use a coach for a season will definitely NOT send their OAD kids to KU.

The Petro-shoecos that just want to use a school for a year to launch a brand will not send their OADs to Self.

Any parents and Petro-shoecos that want to have their players get better for a season will send their OADs to Self.

I think this is a very, very smart approach.

KU is not in a big eastern time zone media market and so is never going to be given most of the OADs by whatever Petro-Shoeco it contracts with.

But there are going to be OADs that want a year of getting better, and Self is going to supplant those with foreign players through his connection with Fratello, whom he put in a plug for in the interview, and probably Bob Hill, too.

If Self can build a stream of two OADs that want to get better for a year, plus one or two top foreign players, that want to get better for two season, then those 3-4 big time talents, plus Self's appeal to 2ADs and 3ADs wanting to prepare to graduate, Self is going to have the best of both worlds. Lots of talent and lots of experience and have both year in and year out. This is a formula that could easily beat Cal's and Stumpy's OAD Nike stacks of 10 Micky Ds with 5 Freshmen and 5 sophomores.

Go, Bill, go!!!!!

(Note: obviously, I am speculating, opining and reading between the lines of what Self actually said in the interview. He played it very close to the vest. But the above is my hypothesis of what he is attempting to do based on what talent he has amassed and what he said about it.)

Delete

@jaybate-1.0 said:

The known unknown (e.g., Frank Mason's RISKY probability of developing into a top D1 PG) can be anticipated and hedged for (e.g., CF can be practiced at PG and Devonte can be added).

We know injuries will happen, but not to who. KNOWN UNKNOWN. Depth is the solution.

Mismatches will happen. Known unknown. Help is the answer.

Slumps will happen. Known unknown. Multiple shooters is the answer.

Teams get the flu. Known unknown. Depth is the answer.

But the unknown unknown is a bitch.

Last year, Naa's selfie of making the beast with two backs went viral.

One season Darrell Arthur asked not to start.

Mario Little decides to go house to house looking for a girl fiend.

TRob loses his adult family and becomes his sisters guardian.

Scalpinggate and realignment gate go on for years.

9/11 happens

An alum buys the Naismith Rules but doesn't display them in Allen Field House ever.

Your starting PG averages 10 TOs per game for part of a season for no apparent reason (Tyshawn), then decides he has more important things than basketball on his mind and wants a few weeks off...during a conference title run.

Your SHOECO, which signed you because of your tradition and brand begins requiring you to wear stupid looking uniforms frequently.

Referees inexplicably begin calling fouls that make no sense for half a season, then start NOT calling obvious fouls for half a season. No explanation given.

The next Lebron plays soft much of the time.

None of these events were eventualities Self could anticipate, and so hedge for in advance.

They were issues that had to be dealt with in real time.

There was no instruction manual for how to deal with them.

Somehow Self won or shared ten conference titles, and one ring, while other coaches in the conference never won one title outright, or a ring.

It took some luck for sure, and endless hard work.

But in the moment, when the chips were down, again and again Self showed amazing strength of character.

Once I studied risk management extensively related to the unknown unknown. I overlooked character as a hedge technique then. Now, after watching Self the past decade, I think character and hard work may be the only controllable hedges against the unknown unknown.

Character is not only the right stuff, but it is resilience of the right stuff. It is sticking with good choices, when everyone else is scrambling for solutions, when they cannot even fathom the problem. It is getting better at what you know, when you cannot yet know more. It is accepting things as they are and working at getting better, rather than deluding yourself into thinking things can be different in the moment.

Character is committing to getting better at what you can do rather than wishing yo could do something else.

Time and again this is Self's great edge: he finds ways to get better at what they already do, when others are wasting time and energy budget on learning to do different things.

This why so many both marvel sat his accomplishments, yet clamor for him to do different things.

Because he tends to focus on getting better at what he has decided any particular team can be best doing, there always are a lot of other things he might be trying instead.

But because he is such a shrewd judge of what his teams can be good at, and keeps them getting better at doing it, while others are asking why aren't you doing this or that too, and while other teams are trying this and that, Self's teams keep getting better at what they do do.

And apparently over the course of a season it makes his teams get very good at what they do, but leaves them vulnerable to teams in the tourney uniquely suited to disrupting what Self's teams have become so good at doing.

And therein lies the seeming paradox of an awesome W&L statement and lots of tournament upsets.

And perhaps the insight needed to adapt.

The known unknown (e.g., Frank Mason's RISKY probability of developing into a top D1 PG) can be anticipated and hedged for (e.g., CF can be practiced at PG and Devonte can be added).

We know injuries will happen, but not to who. KNOWN UNKNOWN. Depth is the solution.

Mismatches will happen. Known unknown. Help is the answer.

Slumps will happen. Known unknown. Multiple shooters is the answer.

Teams get the flu. Known unknown. Depth is the answer.

But the unknown unknown is a bitch.

Last year, Naa's selfie of making the beast with two backs went viral.

One season Darrell Arthur asked not to start.

Mario Little decides to go house to house looking for a girl fiend.

TRob loses his adult family and becomes his sisters guardian.

Scalpinggate and realignment gate go on for years.

9/11 happens

An alum buys the Naismith Rules but doesn't display them in Allen Field House ever.

Your starting PG averages 10 TOs per game for part of a season for no apparent reason (Tyshawn), then decides he has more important things than basketball on his mind and wants a few weeks off...during a conference title run.

Your SHOECO, which signed you because of your tradition and brand begins requiring you to wear stupid looking uniforms frequently.

Referees inexplicably begin calling fouls that make no sense for half a season, then start NOT calling obvious fouls for half a season. No explanation given.

The next Lebron plays soft much of the time.

None of these events were eventualities Self could anticipate, and so hedge for in advance.

They were issues that had to be dealt with in real time.

There was no instruction manual for how to deal with them.

Somehow Self won or shared ten conference titles, and one ring, while other coaches in the conference never won one title outright, or a ring.

It took some luck for sure, and endless hard work.

But in the moment, when the chips were down, again and again Self showed amazing strength of character.

Once I studied risk management extensively related to the unknown unknown. I overlooked character as a hedge technique then. Now, after watching Self the past decade, I think character and hard work may be the only controllable hedges against the unknown unknown.

Character is not only the right stuff, but it is resilience of the right stuff. It is sticking with good choices, when everyone else is scrambling for solutions, when they cannot even fathom the problem. It is getting better at what you know, when you cannot yet know more. It is accepting things as they are and working at getting better, rather than deluding yourself into thinking things can be different in the moment.

Character is committing to getting better at what you can do rather than wishing yo could do something else.

Time and again this is Self's great edge: he finds ways to get better at what they already do, when others are wasting time and energy budget on learning to do different things.

This why so many both marvel sat his accomplishments, yet clamor for him to do different things.

Because he tends to focus on getting better at what he has decided any particular team can be best doing, there always are a lot of other things he might be trying instead.

But because he is such a shrewd judge of what his teams can be good at, and keeps them getting better at doing it, while others are asking why aren't you doing this or that too, and while other teams are trying this and that, Self's teams keep getting better at what they do do.

And apparently over the course of a season it makes his teams get very good at what they do, but leaves them vulnerable to teams in the tourney uniquely suited to disrupting what Self's teams have become so good at doing.

And therein lies the seeming paradox of an awesome W&L statement and lots of tournament upsets.

And perhaps the insight needed to adapt.

Shizz = filter circumventing form of vulgate for feces. 😄

@brooksmd

JFoster makes a beautiful axe. Thx 4 sharing your pal with us. Is the 7th string paired with a string an octave apart, like on a 12 string, or is it it's own 7th string?

JRYMAN = absolute man (for handling chronic head pain)

Long time Journalist and now academic Robert Kaplan wrote a good primer in 2012 on the influence of geography as a shaper of local and regional legacy and future tendency in countries around the world. He is not geographically reductive, rather he restores geography to one of the contextual drivers of analysis in international relations. He shows how pol-Sci, economists, IR pros, some mil-int pros and politicians have tended marginalize geographic influence driving and sometimes undermining policy, strategy and tactics. It is like talking about basketball while ignoring the flat hard rectilinearity of the court the lines are painted on and the players have to run on.

Rock Chalk!

Trifectate--a three point shooter

The origin of the universe?

NMOTP----no more off topic posting

IWPWETFIW--I will post what ever the f$&@"?! I want

😄

Or as Moe used to say: ANACONAPUNAR!

"Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fein, Dr. Howard..."

I have just had a thumb-ectomy.

I am typing with my flipping teeth!

Nothing will keep me from my kubuckets!

😄

IHA--I hate abbreviations (@Crimsonorblue22 ) 😄

@globaljaybird

There are only two things I have ever wanted to "own" purely for the sake of their excellence due to their maker. One was a Lighthouse Bicycle by Tim Neenan of Santa Ynez, CA and I own one. The other was a Mossman Guitar by Stuart Mossman of Winfield, KS. I still haven't got the Mossman. They became too precious after all the recognition they began to get and all the vapid collectors hustling them, to be wasted on my incompetent playing. But your recollection of Martin d bodies and Jim Messina and the great musicians of our youths has rekindled my old yearning for a Mossman. What the hell! Maybe I will look for one and play it badly without apology. We only go around once.

FWIW--for what it's worth (also an oblique reference to Buffalo Springfield)

OAF--one and flush (marginal player brought in to fill out a roster spot until a major talent can be signed the next off season)

Note: I use many others that only I use that do not, therefore, require defining for the community's posterity.

Two points:

1. Hypothesis--Cal did not change the game. George Raveling and Nike changed the game with talent stacking. Cal and Sean Miller just happened to be the guys picked. Likewise, Pitino and Self are not reacting to Raveling and Nike. Adidas is. Pitino and Self just got picked. And Raveling and Nike are not acting in a vacuum. They are reacting to adidas earlier increased push into D1. This is a two player game--Nike and Adidas. All the coaches are trying to do is figure out how to adapt their legacy systems of play to the talent distribution asymmetries being created by a two player producer struggle for branding, endorcers, and market shares.

2. The key to coaching remains unchanged: fit the right pieces together with the most MUAs to beat six opponents in 3 two-game tournaments in March.

Systems are a collection of slots filled by personnel. Pick the right ones and they become greater than the sum of their parts. But even then they have to start with INDIVIDUAL MUA. For this reason, Self has to learn how to work with at least two OADS, maybe 3, OADS simply to get the one every game MUA player needed to play for rings.

Championship Basketball distills to three most game MUAs and two all but a couple MUAs, and one every game MUA. You can win conference titles with the first two levels of MUA, and get deep in the Madness, too. With a lucky draw you can even win a random ring. But to have a strong percentage shot at a ring you've also got to have that one every game MUA. Why? Because stopping him means double teaming and that means your other two most game MUAs win it for you, or they play your every game MUA STRAIGHT UP and he becomes decisive.

Thus, under my heuristic, KU's future depends largely on finding one every game MUA, because they appear to have several of the lesser grade MUA types.

Does KU have on player the best opposing team in the country cannot stop without doubling and/or lots of help?

The only guy might be Selden, if his explosiveness were restored. OAD s or not, all the other players on the team look like guys certain other teams will have answers for sooner or later.

Oubre has an outside chance, if he were to have a 40% trey, but that seems unlikely.

Brannen Greene has the package, but maybe not the discipline.

It looks like all of our bigs, good though they may be, will be neutralized by some pair of bigs down the stretch.

Svi is another possibility, but he does not seem far enough along in development.

So, KU's chance for a "special" season comes down to Selden and his explosiveness.

Otherwise, it's going to require a lot of random luck in draws to go far.

"Many try to prove they are extraordinary. I seek to prove the ordinary can be extraordinary."

--jaybate 1.0

"An epigram is something you could have said with more words but didn't."

jaybate 1.0