🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@ralster Just a gangbuster post. Thx. Your compare and contrast gives graphic relief and focus to Perry's game in a way I have only struggled toward.

You shined informing light on the issue of how deeply players minds are instituted by their long years of childhood play. It made me recall my own fake right drive left that got me through kiddie leagues and junior high and sophomore years only to not be enough once defense began to be well taught. I was a long legged lefty and I learned it unconsciously as the only way to get around my older brother on the backyard court. I was so quick with that move. I could drive on anyone with it because I could move their feet and then the split second they weighted to their left and I saw their right foot unweight I drove "at" the unweighted foot. Tall, short, fast slow, strong or weak, hops or not, if I got them to unweight that right foot then with my long first step and good left hand, I was gone! I could probably still do it now. It carried me for years; then boom the coaches taught balanced sliding, keeping the trailing foot weighted and hedging the strong hand and I had to look for a new trick! And it was hard to give up my old trick.

Hence, your "breaking out of your personality" resonated deeply as an extension of breaking out of a single move! In one's adult non basketball life,one has to break out of one's personality about ever ten years or so, as these are the phases of a life one must get beyond. So: now that I have thought about it, it that certain strongly constituted aspects of learned play and broader personality in basketball could/would trigger the need for basketball personality breakouts too. Anyway you seem to have caught that aspect of Perry.

It will be interesting to see if Perry's issue is more about personality break out, or fast twitch muscle tissue. My hypothesis would lean to personality.

I will try to add some characterizing nicknames if I can about the players u mention, but I probably already would have if I could have.

Rock Chalk!

@HighEliteMajor NotoriousBigLL "looks" very good to me. But I just haven't seen enough yet. It's such a huge step from looking good to starting in carefully selected trials and taking on all comers and winning titles. I wasn't even sure about Cole A after his disrupting PSYCHO-T. I wasn't sure about Joel even after I had said after watching his high school feeds he could be one of the great ones. So much of being a champion depends on being able to get better AFTER the opposing coaches expose your weaknesses that I just rarely am "sure" about such things.

One of the things about Wigs is that for all his stunning abilities, he has had some learning to do about how to get better in real time. He had just been so damned good he hadn't had to learn how to get better when exposed by opposing coaches before the next game. It's a knack like everything else. Self's players become superb at it in time, but some take awhile to learn how to get better. You have to get to the point you view every flaw as just something else to get better at, not as something you might not be able to master. The great ones become masters of mastering things.

I have to see more of Landen, before I can say. But he "looks" good.

@REHawk

There you go again, coach, being sensible and challenging assumptions.😉

A little voice has whispered from the beginning, "if Wigs and family were so certain about him being an OAD ready for the L now, why go to a coach and a school known for 2AD and 3AD development arcs; i.e., one that would put andrew on a rounded, long term, development strategy with a bunch of 3-4 year guys he were apt to pal up with?"

If they were sure Wigs were ready, maybe slam bam thank you Cal might have been the choice.

Maybe it wasn't just the father of all basketball programs thing, or the ten titles and one ring thing, or what have you. Maybe they really knew and loved their son and wanted the "college" option for him if appropriate.

Remember, Father and Mother Wigs went to four years of college. They get the pros and cons of college.

Maybe they understood there was some slim chance their son might need a couple years. Not a huge chance, but some chance. Maybe Mr. Wigs goes out and plays a little 1on1 just to just to keep tabs with how strong his son is...and with how happy he is, with how much toll the hype has taken on his soul.

If I had a son and knew a lot about the profession he were entering, I would walk a tight rope urging him to work hard and purposefully, but also know the signs of readiness to enter the working world. If I thought he possibly weren't ready, I would come and have a look for myself. I would blow my son's horn, but also be ready to take the pressure of choice off him if I thought he were not ready, or were struggling. And I sure as hell would make my judgement tempered by what Mother Wiggins believed about her baby. Lastly, I would have my older son watch his games a few times over the year and listen to his take. And I would already have had him at a school where the option pre-existed to let him develop more slowly on and off the court. And then I would talk to my own closest friend, say a prayer, and tell my son what I thought was best, but then let him decide.

That's what I would do, but I never played in the L, or in D1. :-)

Not sayin' he's stayin', just sayin' always give the coach a listen, cuz he's looked at ball from both sides now, from up and down and all around...

@HighEliteMajor

A great QOT question.

And I think Embiid bolting and Alexander having some kind of problems are not out of the question.

But if Embiid and Alexander were not here, I would think the odds were very high that Myles would sign with KU.

But of course you are not asking that. You are asking about Lucas' readiness.

Lucas seems to have a lot in common with Jamari Traylor in a certain regard.

Both guys look good just standing around and look even better on the move.

But as we have learned with Jamari, there is a lot of difference between looking like TRob (massive shoulders) and playing like him.

And I suspect there would be a lot of difference between Lucas and Embiid.

You have often rightfully raised the point that a broad consensus among many recruiting services is rarely wrong about what a recruit can become in D1.

Self has gotten to coach quite a chain of highly rated bigs: Darrell Arthur, Cole, the Morrii, Withey, and now Joel. Some of these guys developed faster and some developed slower, but all were rather dominant once they got their bearings and got beyond injuries.

I kind of doubt Jam Tray and Lucas have the kind of chops needed to be starters that can dominate other teams and enable KU to win another conference title, even though they "look" darned good at times.

It takes draft choice scale bigs to win as much as KU has been winning for quite awhile now. And draft choice scale bigs tend to have been highly ranked by recruiting gurus. And neither Jam Tray, nor Lucas, were highly ranked.

That being said...

Nothing is written. :-)

@HighEliteMajor

Leaving aside whether we should, or shouldn't, sign Lyle, your point is well taken that Lyle decommited to Slick D'Ville reputedly because of PT. And Lyle would be facing similar PT scarcity at KU, too.

I confess I am confused why Lyle would be willing to take the crimson and blue pill, but not the cardinal pill, given the comparable PT scarcity issues.

Do you have any ideas about what goes on here? Is Lyle driving this, or is Self? By Self, I mean is Lyle some higher ranked version of Mason that Self thinks is a lot better than his rank and so really wants him? Or is Self just kind of stringing Lyle along on the slim chance that Selden jumps?

Signed,
Confused in the Recruiting Cloud :-)

@HawkInMizery Thx, it feels like KUBuckets is ramping up for the stretch run!

@ajvan Glad to hear it, AJ. I'm always glad when I can give someone a little humor here. And I've enjoyed reading your takes and hope you continue to contribute to the Jayhawk chorus. Rock Chalk!

@nuleafjhawk On the record...I like fishing. :-)

Facts can be interpreted a lot of ways.

It is a fact that WSU has won every game it has played.

But it is also a fact that WSU has not played even remotely the number of good teams that KU has played.

It is also a fact that Villanova that has played a tough schedule has two double digit losses; that tells me that the tougher the competition you play the more likely you are to show up on an off night and get the crap knocked out of you, regardless of how good you may be on most nights.

WSU, by playing a weak schedule, apparently does not risk being upset on its off nights the way Villanova does. Or KU. Or any of the other top teams playing tough competition.

I come out on this debate this way.

In my anecdotal recollection, teams that play tough schedules and play in tough conferences tend to be upset, because they cannot stay on a high enough emotional edge all the time not to get knocked off. The only exception to this rule is a few very rare teams like '76 Indiana and several of Wooden's teams that were just fabulously better than even the other top teams, and had an unfair advantage in strategy (the Hazzard/Goodrich 2-2-1 zone press team), or talent (the Walton and Jabbar teams).

WSU does not have an unfair advantage in strategy, or talent. Their unfair advantage is playing weak teams; that is why they are undefeated.

Don't get me wrong, I think WSU is very good. They got to the Final Four last season and could again, just as Butler did twice, when it had a sharp, inspiring coach and a highly experienced cast. But there seems a statistically insignificant possibility that WSU would be undefeated now playing the schedule KU has played.

And I think the assertion that WSU would have fewer losses than KU playing the same KU schedule requires some clarification after making it. I suspect WSU might have a better early record than KU, because WSU started this season a seasoned team and KU started it as a bunch of talented recruits that had not played together before. So: maybe for the first half of the season, WSU would have done better than KU. But from January on, once KU had some experience, and once KU started playing in what has been a pretty tough Big 12, I would argue that WSU would have had more losses in the Big 12 than KU has had. Why? Because KU has waaaaaay more talent and waaaaay more depth and those are the two things you need to weather a tough conference round robbin. KU has been able to compensate for injuries to several rotation guys this season and go 13-2 in conference.

Further, after having watched the Big Ten teams beat each other up for 20 years when that conference was loaded with talent, and the same with the ACC when it was so loaded with talent, and then having watched them enter the Madness with more losses than other schools from lesser conferences and tend to go farther in the Madness than schools that fattened up on lesser competition, I've got to say that KU's tough schedule makes KU likely to go farther in the tournament than WSU.

What WSU is is a very good TEAM--the way KU was a very good TEAM with TT and TRob. The pieces fit together very well for WSU. Their coach is far enough along to not be outmaneuvered by very many older coaches.

But here is the bottom line: WSU has not had to learn how to beat consistently beat good teams, while KU has.

WSU went far in the tournament last year under similar circumstances. It hasn't played a ton of good competition and it got on a roll that took it to the Final Four. But it fell short to teams with more talent, and more experience at playing better teams. Its probably going to happen to them again. While its true this WSU team has another year of experience, and it has been to the big dance last season, both of which add to its goodness, it still has never had to learn how to play against top competition and win six tough games. All the other top teams that have played the top ten toughest schedules have ALREADY have learned how to do that, or at least had the experience of trying to do so. For this reason, one of these teams will upset WSU sooner or later. They have more talent and some have more depth, and they have already had to learn how to keep winning playing six very good teams in short order.

There is no substitute for experience. If WSU had played the schedule KU has played, and done as well, or better than KU, and if WSU had the kind of trans-seasonal experience it in fact has, then I would say it would beat the pants off KU and would deserve to be seeded higher.

But that is not the case.

Frankly, this hugely talented KU team has a hard time staying up on an edge and that makes it a suspect tournament team independent of WSU.

But do I think KU is better than WSU and would KU beat WSU, if they were to meet?

Does god make little green apples?

Of course KU would beat them.

They don't have anyone that can guard Wiggins.

They don't have anyone that can stop Embiid.

If Selden came to play, they wouldn't have anyone that could contain him.

They may be able to keep Perry off the glass, because so many can, and they may be able to drive on Naa for the same reason. But KU has a 3 player edge, plus a deep bench.

KU would beat them soundly if they both played their A games.

And never bet against KU in game where both teams are playing bad.

That leaves KU playing a bad game and WSU playing its A game.

Okay, WSU could beat KU under that scenario.

But not otherwise.

Next.

@justanotherfan Great to have you back at the keyboard. Hadn't seen your stuff for a week or two. All hands on deck from here on out.

"I am not a one dimensional person, but if I were, basketball would be that one dimension."

jaybate

"I could be happy practicing most any religion, but preferring football to basketball is unthinkable."

jaybate

"Basketball is not a distraction from life. Life is a distraction from basketball."

jaybate

"Persons that don't like basketball either haven't seen it, or should be viewed as having character flaws."

jaybate

If Self lands Myles and Lyle, we must nickname Lyle with "Lyles", so we can shout "Myles and Lyles" when they combine for a posterization on someone.

@wissoxfan83

I fear Wisconsin Cheddar aged less than 5 years and 7 is better.

And, yes, Bo is one of those guys you don't want to have go through to a ring. Beating him often destroys your own army.

@drgnslayr Anytime, slayr, anytime. :-)

@drgnslayr "I don't think most fans realize how hard it is to improve drastically while playing D1 ball. It is hard enough to just keep up with the game... let alone, make big leaps in improvement."--slayr

Great, great take!! This is so crucial for fans to keep in mind when discussing players, even when the players are sucking. This is a level of intensity of athletic competition that is beyond most of our grasps. And until the players have already played a year in the rotation, it isn't something they grasp EITHER. They are hanging on for dear life. Wiggins has said he didn't realize how tough it was going to be. Wiggins is a once in a decade type. Selden comes off the floor and tells Self that that guy on OU was way faster than he realized. Selden is a draft choice. It is fierce out there on the sacred wood.

For much of the season, Naa has been like a jet trainer going up against latest generation fighters. He has had to learn a lot of throttle tricks just to stay alive, while he slowly gets his jet trainer refitted with all the right armament.

And to translate what you said into this metaphor, what Naa has been trying to do is a little like trying to hang new wing rockets on his jet trainer WHILE HE FLYING IN AERIAL COMBAT!!!!

Frankly, if Naa survives this crucible in tact, he would be tougher to get out of the starting line up than getting crab grass out of a yard with a toenail clipper.

Naa has already had three XTRemely good performances at clutch time recently. These three performances are, quite frankly, are things that some other KU point guards never did (though they did other superb things in their defenses).

Next season, if the schedule lightens a little, and Naa's wing man, Selden, comes back with a year's experience, and some of the other guys get back with a year's experience, whew! Mr. Short Legs could look REALLY good. Next year, some of the guys will actually know how to play help defense.

I often wonder what previous KU point guards would have looked like, if they too had had to play with a club that didn't know help defense from tapioca pudding for most of a season?

Naa could come out this Saturday and suck as bad as he ever has, but no one can take those great performances of his away from him, nor that share of the league title that HE lead this team to.

Go, Naa, go!!!!!!

I do not want Jaquan Lyle fodder. I want Jaquan Lyle. :-)

Doubts about Lyle puzzle me.

Since when doesn't KU want a 6-4 combo to match up with long guards?

Heck, if the NCAA would permit it, I would like him to join the team for the rest of this season. :-)

I also don't think this needs to be framed as Lyle to replace Naa. Naa has had three superb games in the last 5 or 6 played. Naa has limitations, but its important to remember that no other point guard in the country has had to face as consistently high of a level of competition as Naa has faced. Part of Naa's biggest problem has been having to learn on the job against the toughest schedule any team has played in the last ten years, or so.

Put Naa on Syracuse, or Arizona, any of the other highly ranked teams that have played much easier schedules, and Naa would look much, much, MUCH better.

And remember, this is coming from a board rat that said from the first time I saw him play in a KU uniform that Naa was going to struggle defensively, because of short legs.

Every new starter has a great deal of trouble staying dialed in February. T. S. Eliot said "April is the cruelest month," only because he never played college basketball. February is the cruelest month. That's about the time you are so fatigued that you have no idea how you are going to keep limping to the end.

So: back to Lyle. Lyle could play 10 mpg behind Naa and 10 mpg behind Selden, and maybe even 10 behind Oubre; that's 30 mpg and 30 is all anyone needs. Lyle could easily eat into the current backups mpg rather than Naa. Or he could just come and sit out a year to get his grades sorted out and then weigh in afterwards.

But here is the real bottom line: Self loves defense. Self never wants to be this weak defensively ever again. Self has got too have a lock down defender at the 1, or 2, even if he doesn't start all the time as a freshman. Self can never live through another defensive year like this. If he thinks Lyle can lock down either his first, or second, year at KU, then he will snap him up.

Offense starts with defense.

A year without lock down defense is a like a year without sex.

Of course it can be endured, but who would want to, if they could avoid it?

Fear of Frequent Posting

I fear that frequent posting will be soon classified as a syndrome predisposing one's favorite team not to win the national championship.

Fear of Tying

I fear that the entire KU team will simultaneously manifest laceaphobia and be unable to put on their adidas for the national championship game.

Fear on the Half Shell

Bill Self, fearing a midlife potency crisis, overdoses on Oysters Rockefeller the night before the national championship, only to discover researchers have correlated oysters with ED.

Fear at the Microphone

ESPN pairs Brent Mussberger with new color man Don Rickles for the National Championship game and Rickles does stale insults piped to the arena loudspeakers until fans experience a collective psychotic break and begin group self immolation.

Fear Antes Up

Before the next OSU-KU game, T. Boone Pickens offers each referee $10M worth of shares in a new start up called Windmills'r'Us to ensure a favorable outcome. Each referee wears a little windmill pin on his lapel during the game.

Fear Beams Up

Men without faces show up in the KU locker room during half time of the national championship game and their leaders says, "Beam us up," and "The Mysterious Disappearance of the KU Basketall Team" joins "Mystery at Roswell" and "The Lost Squadron in the Bermuda Triangle" as staples of the UFO Channel.

Fear Fouls Out

All five starters foul out without making a basket, because all of the SI Swimsuit Models are seated behind the KU bench in the National Championship Game in see throughs.

Fear and Fear Again

Jay Bilas sues KU for beating Dook in a 4 overtime national championship game.

@Crimsonorblue22 I'm sorry, but when I saw the feed of Snacks dancing after the OU win, I DO FEAR IT!!!!! :-)

The coaches and Hudy have to have an intervention before we lose him to high fructose corn syrup!!!

Fear of the Day Daily Double:

Snacks dances nude in the locker room after KU wins the NC.

Fear for the Day:

Bob Knight trims his eye brows on national TV.

I think it is arguable whether Joe Lunardi ever found it in the first place.

I have decided to have a new fear each day regarding the Tourney.

Yesterday it was fear of scheduling myself in the air during a big game in the Tourney.

Today, it is that Dick Vitale will commentate a crucial KU game while frontally nude.

Oh, I just noticed an additional reason Myles could be considering KU. Alexander's high school in Chi is in some hot water about eligibility of player. One rumor is that Alexander has been cleared of any involvement. But that is a rumor. If Alexander were a doubtful, then reopening recruitment of Myles would make sense, whether or not Joel is jumping, or staying.

@konkeyDong Since there have ceased to be stories floated about Embiid's parents being affluent enough for him to consider staying another year, and Myles visit has been announced after KU and he separated earlier, I only see two ways to read it.

1. Embiid looked down the barrel of the injury gun and realized some money is better than no money.

2. Myles advisors and Self have convinced Myles that like Embiid, Myles needs two years to mature and muscle up to make the transition to the L.

Either one could be reality. I have an intuition it might be the latter, however. Joel Embiid is 7-0 and 250. And all the high school bigs have to have been watching what has been done to Joel this season by opposing defenses. Myles isn't supposedly nearly as substantial as Joel. One site has him at 6-11 and 225. And the picture of him suggests a very skinny guy. Consider that 250 pound Joel has been manhandled, thrown on the floor, eye gouged, and generally beaten up so bad that he had to sit out a week without any injury even of an operable nature, according to the talking points. If you are a skinny big watching Joel every game on WatchESPN this season, you've got to consider that college has to be a 2-3 year gig for a big man in order for his strength and weight to develop. I mean look at Perry Ellis. He has to be a lot stronger than Myles and he is simply getting run off the boards in lots of games. I know Kevin Young was skinny Doberman, but there aren't many of those around.

A fact is something that can be known while misunderstanding persists.

jaybate

"In the synthetic reality of watching a game on a computer with the televised game remotely simulated in pixels of one virtual window and the alias dialogue of a live blog simulated in the pixels of a another, simultaneous virtual window, reality itself becomes a meta-simulacrum."

jaybate simulating the sign Jean Baudrillard after the banal shock of the Neo-New wore off

The great person is ahead of their time, the smart make something out of it, and the blockhead, sets themselves against it.

Jean Baudrillard

@bskeet

"This is bat country."
--HST

@nuleafjhawk

I fear myself. :-)

I scheduled myself onto flights during two recent KU basketball games, simply because I forgot to consult the KU basketball schedule. One had no internet service. The other I had no lap top for connecting to available internet service.

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."
--T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?"
--T. S. Eliot, Gerontion

For...

"In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing
The soul's sap quivers."

Ah, but...

"Here, the intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere. Never and always."

Strike England.

Add Allen Field House.

"There are flood and drouth

Over the eyes and in the mouth,

Dead water and dead sand

Contending for the upper hand.

The parched eviscerate soil

Gapes at the vanity of toil,

Laughs without mirth.

This is the death of earth.

Water and fire succeed

The town, the pasture and the weed.

Water and fire deride

The sacrifice that we denied.

Water and fire shall rot

The marred foundations we forgot,

Of sanctuary and choir.

This is the death of water and fire."

But mercifully, or savagely...

"If you came this way,

Taking the route you would be likely to take

From the place you would be likely to come from..."

You too would see that...

"All manner of thing shall be well

By the purification of the motive

In the ground of our beseeching."

And know that...

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."

Despite our woeful schedule reading

and misreading that leaves us pleading

for an internet connection

"When the tongues of flames are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire..."

Breaks me down into a frayed rope of hope...

"And the fire and the rose are one."

(Note: all unattributed quotes are from T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding.)

Rock Chalk!

@HighEliteMajor

Body morphology, beyond height, strength and hops, is something often overlooked by fans. And often misinterpreted by those, like me, that do consider its contribution to shaping a player's performance envelope. But I do still think that Perry's body morphology may be contributing to an uphill battle for him.

That being said, I am also a strong believer in the competitive mind's ability to compensate in certain ways for what the body seems to constrain, and also in the capacity of one's mind at times to become its own obstacle. For this reason I suspect ralster maybe onto something with Perry. But again, his conception of breaking out of one's mind/personality type is a bit more global than I have ever applied the notion in basketball, so I have to think on it some more.

Finally, it has occurred to me a time or two of late that Perry's seemingly anomalous pattern of up and down play may also have some kind of injury component to it that remains in the category of "not admitted to yet." I have avoided remarking on it, because his play seems to swing so extremely from impressive games to nothing games; i.e., how could an injury enable him to play great one game and disappear for others? But we have seen various kinds of counter intuitive performance phenomena often track to unadmitted injury, so I cannot totally disregard its possibility in Perry's case either.

Whatever, something, or some combination of things, appears to be triggering anomalous performance swings in Perry. The Designer appears such a stalwart, hard working and talented person in so many ways, I can only say at this point that I do not recall observing anything quite like it before.

Whatever, I still believe in Perry Ellis the basketball player and think we will see more "impactful" games from him.

Puzzlement is not the same as doubt in my case...yet. :-)

Rock Chalk!

@ralster
"...but after seeing EJ's struggles, this may all be a mental battle inside of Ellis to break out of his own personality, which is VERY hard to do)."

This concept of breaking out of one's personality in basketball is very insightful and powerful. I will have to think on it, but suspect you are on to something crucial.

@Crimsonorblue22 to keep things in perspective, you routinely watch the guy sweat a lot more out on the floor that I did at the dance. 😃

@HighEliteMajor You and Self are same page on this, so you're on thick ice. And I am the one walking where it's cracking. 😀 But sometimes you've got to cross some thin stuff to get to where you want to go.

Perry has length and good shooting mechanics. He is fast in open court. His sinewy physique that is thin from waist up and solid from waist down is the classic 3. Of the great 3s you mentioned, only Brandon grew barrel chested and strong shouldered with maturity and Weights. Silk Wilkes was another thin up solid down 3.

To give your logic it's due, Perry hasn't got the smooth athleticism of the 3s you mention...yet. Maybe he never will, but he has more length than most.

And if he had worked on perimeter footwork instead of below the belt muscle and posting and running from low block to top of key for two years, he would have a nice fluid floor game instead of a muscle game from the waist down without enough arm and shoulder strength to play in the paint.

In the post he is a spinner. Great when he can spin, not when not. He is not a good back to the basket jump and muscle guy without his spin move; this is why LSAs are so tough on his game. Spinning is flanking. It is quickly hooking around someone. But LSAs can stop the hook move around them with holding, shouldering and bodying; then he lacks the muscle to bang with them.

It seems clear what is going on with Perry. His only money in the paint is a spin game most LSAs can stop, plus he lacks the arm and shoulder strength to grab the caroms he gets to.

His confidence that is taking a beating at the 4. The last few games he is showing signs of knowing he cannot compete against the good players at his position. And now the lesser players are studying how to stop spin game, as OU did.

Self appears to be keeping Perry at the 4 out of pragmatic need in hopes he will one day bulk up on top with Hudy, but Perry has not bulked up.

To play inside, Perry needs 10 more pounds in the shoulders and 15 pounds in the legs. And it's got to be muscle.

All he has to do is lose ten below the waist and he is a long 3 that needs to work on his feet and limberness sliding and potting the open trey. Dribbling too.

I prefer making hard changes that leave you with big MUA increments rather than small. Perry could bulk up, but he would still be a short four. On the other hand, he could lean up and be a long 3 that could be very tough on defense and develop a nice OpenLook three that almost no one could block.

I know you and self see Perry as being too physically limited to play The three, but I see a lot more flexibility in him for perimeter play.

Doesn't look like my POV it will prevail in this case. Such is life sometimes. 😄

@JRyman If Joe Lunardi had his way, no teams outside the EST would make it past the first weekend.

@nuleafjhawk I used to fret about where they were going to seed us this year. But our schedule is so tough, it doesn't really matter. I know the odds are way against a seed other than a 1, but these guys have played so many good teams so often now, and they have had so many kinds of defenses thrown at them that they could probably be a threat as the 64th team in the tournament.

Rock Chalk!

@drgnslayr Ah, the 8th grade prom date! That year of school I was suddenly a perspiration machine and the girl I asked to the dance was a really sweet young girl who agreed to slum it with me. Man, did she feel good to me when I put my arms around and held her to "slow dance," as we used to call it in those days. But before the first chorus was finished, my arm pits were dripping pools of teen hormone development. She was such a nice girl she never mentioned it to me all night long. In fact, she said she was sweating too. As soon as she said it, we both laughed and began to bugaloo and alligator for the rest of the night like a couple of colts let out into the pasture to run. It was a great night. The kind of night that makes you realize how great women with heart and humor are and how great they can be. She changed the course of my life that night just by being willing to have fun without judging me on the dance floor. Where ever you are, Suzy, I want to thank you, because you made all the difference in my self confidence and gave me the ability to be myself with girls and then women. What a gift you game me! And all we did was kiss! Way, way above average kisses, too!

@globaljaybird As I mentioned to REHawk above, I did not propose this as a punishment of Perry. The team is about to win its 10 conference title with a bunch of freshman and him and Naa. Perry and Naa should take some pride in having shepherded this flock of yearlings this far. I know Perry is rather heady for a big man, and often appears to be thinking about what he is doing, but I suspect when you are playing hi-lo with a guy who has probably never played it before and has only played hoops three years, it makes a thinking man's player like Perry kind of shake his head sometimes. Like what is this guy going to do next! Lucklily much of Joel does is good, but it sure isn't always predictable for a teammate, if you know what I mean. So: yes, Perry is kind of a tweener, but that is descriptive rather than a negative criticism. And I was just trying to figure out how to get both of them the most minutes possible in match ups most conducive to letting them do their respective things they each do best.

Rock Chalk, as always, Global. And I sure hope your dog is better, or onto the great kennel in the sky, so he (and you) are free from the suffering.

@REHawk During my career, I made my living outside the box, so it is a comfortable place for me. :-)

Also, I've always had the knack for moving chess pieces to optimize, but not always the knack for recognizing at the earliest possible moment why they need to be moved. I nibbled around the edge of this idea a month and a half ago shortly after the first signs of Perry struggling on the glass with a few players surfaced--around the time of SDSU. But he kept bouncing back and playing some great games in between the disappearances, so I just figured sit back and wait for him to get consistent at the 4. I didn't really see the issue clearly then. I was paying too much attention to all of his game. It took me awhile to see that most of his game was already consistent and that it was rebounding against LSAs that was his obstacle and that it occasionally had blow back for the rest of his game, but often not. Perry is one of Self's many talented players playing out of position over the years. He is one of the guys that needs to be on the floor as much as possible. It just doesn't all have to be at the 4 all the time.

So: to reiterate for others (not for you, because you get it), Perry appears to have some rebounding issues against certain types of 4s, so go with the Great Bear at the 4 for those guys maybe half the game (probably about 1 out of 3-4 teams), and, as you said, during certain designated stretches that Tarik can mentally prepare for every game--maybe 4-6 minutes late in the first half, maybe the same from 15 down to 10 minutes to go in the second half. Keep letting Tarick spell Joel 10 minutes a game. Boom Tarik is at 20 mpg regularly and then up to 25-30 (if he doesn't get gassed) against the 4s that can keep Perry off the glass. Perry gets 25 at 4 most games and spells Wigs 5-10 per game, so Perry is at 30-35 most games. I really think Perry and his spin moves could cause a 3 a lot of trouble when ever Perry posted him back side on ball reversal.

The thing that is so fun about coaching basketball is the way you can slide minutes around.

Thanks as always for giving me a listen, coach.

@VailHawk Yes, we'll use JNew as our wire to Wild Bill. Alas, he will say something like, "I don't give a flip about jaybate, Jesse. What does Vail think?" :-)

The highest compliment I can pay Tarik is I wish he had been here as a freshman, so I could have watched him more. He is hard to categorize, but I feel like he has a lot more game in him. I also think he contributes massively to the team. With how far he has come this season, and having played against a great player like Embiid daily, I still think he has more impacts in the stretch. If Self were to start emphasizing Wiggins and Embiid sets, as Slayr has suggested, Black would become the perfect complement at 4 during those minutes. Black rebounding and sticking back off the interplay of Embiid and Wiggins for 10-20 mpg, plus backing Joel up 5 mpg each half would get KU's resident Great Bear optimizing the team. Yes, it would mean cutting Perry's minutes some at 4, but that's okay because Perry's got next year and Perry's rebounding disappears against the guys Tarik could glass vac on. Let Tarik and Perry split the 4; then let Perry spell Wiggins 5 mpg each half outside. We get more Tarik and nearly the same total minutes of Perry, and get Perry ready to swing 3-4 next season, too, when Alexander and Oubre arrive. Swinging 3/4 could help Perry get ready for the pros, where he will be a tweener. And getting Tarik quality rebounding time at the 4 down the stretch could really free up Wiggins and Embiid to focus more on guarding and scoring. A stud rebounder at the 4 would basically let Wiggins, Selden and Tharpe release for the break every possession, too.