🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Self subs Mason for Tharpe, but the lead does not narrow significantly.

Inference: Tharpe, despite his defensive limitations, was not the real problem.

The problem was not enough help from Wiggins and Selden. Both the freshmen wings were overwhelmed the first half by playing against guys as fast as they were and by having to defend without Embiid being healthy enough to cover THEIR defensive limitations.

If Self sticks with a limited Embiid, then the 4 has to take on a much greater defensive load of covering the freshman wings' mistakes and failures to help.

A healthy Embiid covered a multitude of deficiencies, but even Embiid could not cover up the defensive weaknesses of the freshmen wings against the LSAs of Florida and SDSU, much less when injured against Texas.

The gaping holes in this team's defense against the LSA teams are Wiggins and Ellis.

Ellis can usually guard his man, but he can't give help,or defensive rebound against these teams.

Wiggins often guards his perimeter man very well with and without the ball, too, and most games gives help on the perimeter, but having to give help inside exposes his softness. He doesn't know how to guard the blue meanies inside, and so doesn't give effective help there unless they are short, no talents.

Self defense requires a 3 fast enough to give perimeter help and feisty enough to help with the blue meanies inside. Brady and Selby at 6-3 or less could do it most of the time. But it took the talent of Rush and Releford to get it done against the most talented teams. Rush was tough enough to do it as a freshman. Releford needed 2.5 development years to master it.

Wiggins appears not able to do it for whatever reason.

Perry could be this kind of 3, but being more than a finesse 4 this season seems beyond him.

Until Embiid and Black get a lot better, or Traylor makes a nonlinear leap this problem is apt to surface against the LSA teams.

One logical step is to shift the 3 defensive role to Selden and have Wiggins play 2 and we saw some of that vs Texas the second half. It's a huge burden for Selden, but Self basically turned the offense over to Selden the second half and Selden responded well. Now Self must do the same with the defensive role, even though Wiggins ought to be more suited to it. Selden has the toughness now to play with the blue meanies. Wiggins appears not to. Wiggins could flourish outside and not be "scared" as the Texas player described Wiggins.

Moving Wiggins outside on both ends forces opponents to take ONE their of their LSAs away from helping in the paint, or Wiggins will run wild outside.

Go for it Bill.

@ralster When Self was putting the heels of his palms on his forehead down the stretch, he did not appear to be letting them lose one.

The team came out a step slower than UT and stayed that way the entire game. Perry had a spurt of hard play the first 5-6 minutes of the second half. Selden weirdly waited 6-8 minutes into the second half before starting to play really hard. The interesting thing was that when Perry and Selden played harder for the stretches that they did, they scored a lot of points in a hurry. Maybe there is a take away point for these guys from this. :-)

But why did Perry go hard for about 5-6 minutes the second half and then not carry through to the end? Same with Selden. Why did Selden wait a bunch of minutes into the second half before turning it on?

And in the bigger picture, why did Wiggins, and Naadir, and Mason, for that matter, never turn it on? It was bizarre to watch the energy levels of everyone but Embiid and Traylor.

The most logical and probable answer is that the guys have run out of gas; that none of them have ever had to carry the mail this consistently for this long of a stretch in their careers and they simply burned out.

I have been commenting for awhile now that KU's rush into the conference lead may be attributable to Self going with the soft and slow start in order to avoid burning the team out in the much longer season this season. By this I have meant that KU players have probably not been as burned out as the opponents, who's coaches probably stuck to a more conventional routine.

But the advantage of that soft and slow start has probably been only to defer the midseason freshman burnout, not avoid it.

It seems reasonable that the combination of the fading advantage of the soft and slow start plus the fact that injuries have begun to seriously deplete the team converged during the Texas game and Texas hammered KU.

The injuries plaguing the team are being sharply underestimated by many IMHO.

Embiid appears about 75% of what he was before the injury.

Black just played a handful of minutes.

Those two are the first and second string centers right there and remember that this team got good, when it decided to play through its big men. What made KU so tough the last several games before Black and Embiid got his knee "fine," was that Self started two good bigs, and followed with Black and Traylor, who were becoming very good together in relief.

Now, one of the two starting bigs is hampered and Texas did not really have to double Joel as much as he has been in the past. In turn, that means Perry becomes the focus to shut down. But the team's injury problem does not end with the bigs.

Conner Frankamp is flat not playing.

At first, losing Frankamp seemed a tolerable loss. But his loss is having a significant ripple effect I did not foresee and here is how. Self can't stay small anymore, if he wants to. Before Frankamp's injury, if Self wanted to stay small, he could buy Tharpe and Mason breathers the first half with Frankamp, so that Tharpe and Mason were fresh. He could also pull Tharpe, or Mason and go with Frankamp, when Tharpe, or Mason, were not clicking. Frankamp seemed inconsequential, but in fact his absence significantly hampers what Self can do. Self goes with Greene more now, but Greene doesn't keep them small. And Self has seemed more comfortable putting Frankamp in pressure situations than he has Greene, even though it is apparent that Self has been working harder to develop Greene than Frankamp.

AW3 is starting to get Frankamp's minutes. He got 4 against Texas. That's good, but AW3 keeps Self long.

Another worrisome issue on the injury front is historically, whenever a KU starter suddenly becomes sharply less productive, within a few games we learn he has been injured for awhile.

Tharpe had 3 points in 26 minutes.

Perry had 11 points in 29 minutes, which is a bit off for him, but more concerning is he only had 2 reebs, no steals and no blocks.

AWigs played 30 and had 7 points, 1 defensive rebound, and 0 blocks. As with Perry, the low scoring can be blamed on an off night. But 1 rebound and 0 blocks for one of the high jumping OADs, the Number One draft choice, in D1? That is a rather sharp reversal from recent performances--one not entirely related to vissisitudes of shooting.

So: while KU and Wigs were do for a bad game, after 6-7 good ones, I cannot help but look at the sudden, sharp downturns by Tharpe, Perry and Wiggins and wonder if we may not learn in a few games that one, two, or three of them were "nicked up," or someone in their families has gotten sick, or what have you.

Self apparently had nothing negative to say about Wiggins game afterwards, which is kind of remarkable to me, when an opposing team player says UT's bigs had Wiggins scared. But Wigs has been on a role, so maybe Self is giving him a pass.

What Self did focus on were the bigs, two of which played injured. Self said their bigs played bigger than our bigs. Their speed offset our length. And our bigs were soft.

Playing on a braced knee and coming out of a boot are apparently not excuses.

In Embiid's case, Self made a point the day before the game of saying it was going to be interesting to see how Joel responded to playing someone nearly as tall and much heavier and stronger than him; i.e., someone he could not just stand flat footed and block and alter on. Though I agree with everyone that Joel got the short end of the stick on foul calls, and that Joel fought hard, the bottom line was that he could not meet the challenge (and the muscle) they meted out.

However, Joel should not get the blame for it entirely. Of course his knee limited him. But the big worry is that none of Joel's teammates came to his assistance when he was getting the shizz beaten out of him. EVER!

Perry seemed to run away from the brawling and that is very concerning. Perry seemed to want no part of protecting his fellow post man. Perry seemed not to want to dish anything out in pay back for what was done to Joel.

The days of Thomas Robinson forearm smashing rebounders that gave the Morrii, or Jeff Withey trouble, smashing them hard across the face seem an ancient memory.

Joel seems as naked and undefended by his teammates out on the floor as Jeff Withey did that first half season his junior year, before Jeff got his lip split open and kept coming and earned Thomas and Tyshawn's admission into the inner circle. Joel is not yet in the inner circle of this team, because it increasingly appears that this team has no inner circle--no hardened TRob and TT.

Guys will run around the floor and huff and puff at opponents for roughing up one of their own, but that is not how it is done in D1. In D1, you have to do the payback during the next few plays, and you have to do it in a way that you get away with it. Most of TRob's forearm smashes were so beautifully delivered within the rebounding action that the refs never called them. Hurt a Morrii, or Jeff the next season, and something wicked this way came in very short order.

Who is going to dish out pain among what HEM has rightfully called the Finesse Family? Who?

It has to be a big man. Selden can hurt a guard or two, but the guards are not who need hurting in a game like Texas. In that game, someone had to pay for Embiid's treatment and no one did, and so it continued.

Embiid has done a pretty good job of dishing out the punishment on behalf of the other guys, but when Joels hour of need arises, when he is playing a wide load sign in tennis shoes with a bunch of head hunting prison bodies for friends, suddenly Joel has no one in his corner. NO ONE!

Of course everyone knows where this is leading.

Black's in a boot, so it isn't going to be him for awhile, anyway.

And when joel is in, Perry usually is too, and Wiggins.

Sure, Self can bring Jam Tray and Landen and tell them to dish some out, but when they are on the bench, who is going to turn into a blue meanie?

Perry Ellis, or Andrew Wiggins?

This is like choosing between Mr. Rogers in his neighborhood, and Big Bird from Sesame Street to dish out pain. Unless, someone at the CIA can turn an MK-ULTRA mind control device on either one, it doesn't seem like either guy has forearm smash in him.

But here is the thing: Perry and Andrew Wiggins were humiliated out on the floor against Texas. The Texas guys beat up their crippled brother and both guys did nothing. The guy guarding Wiggins said Wiggins was SCARED of Ridley and Prince. Perry came out after half time and ran really hard...around the perimeter.

Just between you and me, the guys from Texas appeared to be laughing harder at Perry and Andrew than paid laughers on a laugh track.

And here is the thing again: Texas was not a bunch of 23 year olds like SDSU. Texas was as young as our guys. It was striking to watch. I haven't seen that kind of blatant humiliation and derision since my play ground days.

Don't get me wrong, Butcher Barnes has his Horns schooled not to really rub it in our players' faces, because we were going to have to play again. But my god! Wiggins and Perry were running away from the Texas players so fast it was often hard for the Texas players to catch them and punk them.

So: who was Self referring to when he was saying the bigs were soft? We know it couldn't be Joel, because he was in a brace and getting gang banged. And we know it couldn't be Wiggins and Perry because we know they really ARE SOFT!

Self must have been referring to Landen and Jamari. Landen got 6 minutes and Jamari got 14. So: it looks like Self was sending out an SOS to Jamari. Jam Tray, start dishing it out and you get to be a 20 minute man from here on out.

Landen? Landen did a little bump and shove when he first came in with Ridley, but after that Landen was pretty much a non entity-himself getting backed around like a U-Haul trailer by Texas bigs.

I have never forgotten when Xavier was here. NBA body. OAD. Good gun. Ooozing talent. Looked like the strongest prison body on our team. Actually shaved, unlike Wiggins. But leaving aside entirely whether or not Xavier played his hardest, or not, does anyone ever recall a situation where you thought Xavier was going to dish out pain? Where he was going to lift a finger in a melee? Where he was going to forearm smash in the aerial ballet? I don't. I just never saw him do anything remotely aggressive that way. Anytning aggressive on that team had to come from Cole, Marcus, or Sherron. Tyshawn was not yet out of Camp Finesse yet. He was still falling away on lay ups. Well, Brady would trip and run. But if any business had to be taken care of, it came down to Cole and Marcus on the inside. The X man? Didn't see it.

I mention Xavier merely to say hoping for Wiggins to mix it up is like wishing for a house cat to chase a buffalo.

Ain't gonna happen.

The Designer seems to still be getting his mail in Camp Finesse, so, again, probably ain't gonna happen.

So: I see Jamari, or Landen, getting more minutes, based on who decides to add taking care of business to his resume, at least until Tarick gets a working wheel.

Yes, as HEM says, this team is always going to be The Finesse Family.

But even The Finesse Family as to keep one baseball bat in the house, don't they?

(Note: I am not advocating injury threatening violence, just the kind of pay back that has gone on in the game, since at least the1930s when my father played.)

@FarSideHawk You raise a very interesting point.

Here is my hunch about what Self must have been thinking. When you are so far down, and are not very good at getting stops and stripping, even if you get hot shooting quick treys down the stretch, the opponent is just going to get the ball back and hold it for 35 seconds and then take it inside and cram it down your throat, which he can likely do with Embiid out. The math is like this: in the best case you hit every trey you take within 8 seconds of inbounding it, the clock never stops, and the opponent takes it down slowly, holds it for 30 seconds, and gets an uncontested two, or a shooting foul and maybe 2 or 3 point play. You just cannot close the gap that way even best case. You are playing the clock at the end, no matter whether you are on offense, or defense--ahead or behind.

So: what is left?

When you are down a lot of points, and the opponent has been told to contest the trey stripe, and not foul anywhere but at the rim (and not there if at all possible), the only possible way to get back in it is to score as many points as possible while the clock is stopped. FTs are the only way to do that. The only way to get FTs at that time of a game is by driving to iron and trying to draw some egregious one fouls and maybe some three point plays, then go to the other end and hope for strips, stops or missed foul shots.

Self was choosing between no chance and a very slim chance of a comeback.

It was ugly to watch, because it did not work and looked like more of the same that we had been watching.

Had KU closed the gap, I am confident at some point you would have seen the treys start flying.

All in all though, I think he was making the smart choice, among two undesirable options left him by KU getting itself in that situation in the first place.

Rock Chalk!

@Crimsonorblue22 Bad moods are good if you use them to make you think NEXT. Rock Chalk!

As some of you probably realize, I am not partial to continuing to think in the box when the box is getting the shizz beaten out of you.

Well, if Self and Company cannot yet figure out how to beat long, strong and athletic opponents (LSAs) like Florida, SDSU, and Texas, let the Greek Chorus of KUBuckets.com become a hot bed of strategic and tactical thinking outside the box, if only to create a karma of problem solving that might free Self and Company to find their own path outside the box.

There are three dimensions in which to play the game: end to end, side to side, and up and down. Each dimension has a spectrum of play within in it. End to end can be walked, run, or anywhere in between. Side to side can be played from zero to 90 degrees off horizontal. Up and down can be played from staying on the floor to jumping as high as one can. The object of strategy and tactics is to find a means to play in each of these dimensions that optimizes one's advantage versus an opponent that likes to play a certain way in each of these dimensions and their ranges of play within each dimension.

Fear not, dear board rats, I am not going to go dimension by dimension and spectrum by spectrum, though that would be the systematic way, if one were being paid for such things, to find an optimal strategic and tactical path through the thicket of how to beat LSAs. Instead, I will cut straight to some distillations.

A general rule (that should probably be thought of as a law) of strategy and tactics is never attack a strength. In order to honor this rule, one must decide what the strength of an LSA opponent actually is.

Another general rule is always use their strength against them, when ever they do try to deploy it, despite your best efforts to play away from it.

A final general rule is friction (and related fatigue) is the enemy of all execution of strategy and tactics in competitive environments. Clauswitz gets the lions's share of the credit for articulating this one, though most great general's have understood at least since Sun Tzu.

So keeping these basic rules in mind, let us turn to defining the LSA opponent.

What does an LSA do that is different than other teams? What is its essential strength?

Answer 1: Rim protect, i.e., deny you access to the rim from 8 feet and inwards scoring by first muscling you on the way to the basket and then skying and blocking your shots around the rim (Exhibit A: pracitcally every close shot KU took). The muscling is not so bad as the skying and blocking and altering of shots that ensues from the skying and blocking and altering drive FG% to the 30s and eventually trigger so much friction in execution that the offensive players lose first their confidence to shoot, and then their will to compete.

Answer 2: Run and jump trey protect; i.e., as the ball reverses to the back side, or is kicked out same side, the LSA wing runs three steps and leaps and blocks the shot (Exhibit A: 6-7 Brannen Greene with good hops getting his high arched J crammed into his grille because an LSA was given a running start. Though few actual blocks of treys occur from the running start and jump there is an altering effect almost every time and friction inducing memory of what is about to come that makes cowards out of normally fearless trifectates).

What exactly do LSA opponents need to rim protect and trey protect for 20 minutes per half with a half time rest in between?

Answer 1: They need to NOT have to expend their leg strength on other forms of guarding, so they have enough leg strength to lift their length and muscle mass above the rim.

Answer 2: They need 2 to 3 steps to maximize their jump.

Answer 3: They need to not be fouled up.

Answer 4: They need you to be intimidated by them blocking your shots and stealing your rebounds.

In short, LSAs need an energy budget devoted to skying, they need some approach space to transfer horizontal energy to vertical explosion, few fouls, and an opponent that views itself as an LSA that can sky and block, so that when it is outskied, and outblocked, it cowers.

Ok, Institute for Strategic Basketball Studies (ISBS), what are the obvious counter measures?

a. get them to expend their energy budget on things other than bumping and jumping with a one, or two step run; this means create a horizontal game; this means make them guard and guard all over the floor; this means stretching the floor to run them and then compacting the floor to run offense so that they dont have any two step jumps; this means no more driving at opponents in the paint and going airborne before they do; this means no more leaving the floor before the opponent does; this means lots of pump faking and feigned threats at the basket (i.e., wasted jumps); this means 2-2-1 zone pressing them to make them expend their energy budget on parts of the floor where there is no pay back for them and that leaves them with less energy budget for bump and jump; this means burning their energy budget and over time sapping their jump.

b. do not give them an alley to approach (no 2 or 3 step jumps).

c. make the LSA pay for running out to block the trey by pump faking and passing it back inside immediately.

d. shove the LSAs sideways, whenever they jump; LSAs do not like the sensation of being shoved sideways while jumping; it is an attack on their favorite fun thing to do; it angers and annoys them no end.

e. every teammate must from tip off run under EVERY LSA that leaves the floor in the paint; each opposing LSA must realize instantly that the moment he jumps there will be a KU player sliding under him to make him pay for leaving the floor defensively (note: backup bigs can be employed extensively for this duty early to take any fouls called on the KU players for doing this).

f. all outside shots come off pump fakes or curl screens, until the LSA opponent has stopped leaping.

g. make the LSAs slide more and more.

It is always wrong to blame one's soldiers, or players, for failing in frontal assaults on an opponents strength. It is a sure sign of a general, or a head coach, out of his strategic and tactical depth. Note: I am writing this expressly to supplement my post last night about the players needing to compete. It is never enough to tell players to compete harder. The head coach must given them the means that puts them in a position where they CAN compete harder. No matter how "hard " you tell a little dog to fight a big dog, it has no chance unless it is given a means that can win.

Always, always, always shape the battle field to play away from strength and attack weakness with maneuver and strength.

Reestablish and reward competitive will in carrying out the plan as throughly and effectively as possible.

Armies and teams that adapt win.

Those that don't, don't.

Travis Releford, and LSA if ever there were one at the 3, learned to play an old man's game that turned him into one of the toughest, most consistent defenders KU has ever had. He could pick his spots to explode with hops. And when he ran into the occasional opponent with greater length, strength and athleticism than he, his defensive footwork and positioning, his recognition and his anticipation, made him able to handle almost all of them.

Bulletin board slogan: Deny them their two step jumps. Make them pay for leaving the floor. Lock them down when they don't.

Rock Chalk!

I suspect you have done this already somewhere, but I cannot recall it, and I suspect some others are having some trouble with this too.

So: Please add post and story linking instructions to "How this web site works" and a reference to the same link on each "Our Daily Threads" Page and "Daily News Digest" page, when you get some spare time. This regards how to link one's post,or a good story offsite to the appropriate Our Daily Threads and Daily News Digest pages. Once this is done, me thinks your work load will dwindle considerably. At the very least, you won't have to do mine. :-)

Thanks in advance, Approx. The site is evolving nicely.

Embiid played only 25 minutes against long and strongs in a big game and had only two blocks. Fouled up? Some. But all that awesome quickness and footwork, plus all that fluid speed was gone and except for a couple plays he wasn't clearing the floor by more than a few inches. He is game and a great competitor, but much of athleticism is compromised.

Black? He only played a few minutes against matchups we needed him for.

Inference: these two guys are significantly limited by injury.

@drgnslayr Nicely understated.

I find books on strategy and tactics from other fields help one think about strategy and tactics of basketball.

These are two military histories-one about Civil War generalship, and one about generalship from WWII to present. One completely rearranges your thinking about Robert E. Lee. Another rearranges your thinking about many generals of the post WWII Era. Both do so within the framework of assessing the great troubles generals have identifying effective strategy and tactics. Not much pussy footing around in these histories. About the only knock against them is that they both to some extent make the great mistake of most military histories not written by career military men--they largely overlook, or understate, the logistics that underpinned both the bungling and the astute strategies and tactics examined.

"How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors that Led to Confederate Defeat," by Bevin Alexander, Crown Publishers, 2007. Military historian Alexander fills 337 pages with endless examples of Robert E. Lee's screw ups that, had they been avoided, would likely have lead to Confederate victory. Note his focus on Stonewall Jackson's evolution of winning tactics against new rifles and artillery that Lee could not embrace under pressure, where as Northern General Sherman could. Inference: watch out for the little guys, if they ever put a good general in charge, like, say, Stonewall Jackson,or George Washington, they can win wars, not just win battles.

"The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today," Thomas E. Ricks, The Penguin Press, 2012. 556 pages of screw ups, where in America moves from an Army that wins wars with politically/strategically astute generals that can be fired to an Army that bungles wars with tactically excellent, but politically/strategically disconnected generals that are never fired. Sobering if true and not just another neocon attempt to cover the trail of their own complicity and so shift blame off them and onto generals in the allegedly bungled regime change wars.

@DinarHawk, I am glad you are not letting this game get you down. I am not either. The big picture here is this: KU played 6-7 good games to bolt out into a very big conference lead. They were due for an off game. They have gotten some important road wins. They have beaten most of the good teams they have faced. They have trouble with a particular kind of team that SDSU and Texas are models of. I actually think they have grown beyond the problems Villanova caused them; i.e., I think they could clock Villanova now. But our bigs (and I include Wiggins in this because like Brandon Rush before him we need him all over the court, not just on the wing) have not yet figured out how to get up on a competitive edge to beat long and strongs that can get up in their faces and block shots. But I too believe they will learn competitiveness.

It is not surprising that our freshman and sophomores are having some trouble with competitiveness, despite how talented they are. Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris were not great competitors when they were freshmen (though Marcus got the hang of it down the stretch his freshman season). Thomas Robinson was often a basket case as a freshman. Kevin Young was, in his own words, hoisting and missing threes at Loyola Marymount when he was a freshman, thinking he was going to be a shooting forward.

Our freshman and sophomores are playing exceptionally well for how young they are. Exceptionally well. But they are not playing on that competitive edge that Self's experienced teams have been so exceptional at doing--the level that even near greatness requires.

John Wooden's pyramid of success put competitive greatness as the very top block--directly under the cap stones of patience and faith. All the talent, all the training, all the mastery of technique, all the patience, all the Sam Gilberts, all the strategy and tactics, all the referee baiting, everything was for naught, if when the moment to perform came, you could not compete at a peak level. The block reads: "Perform at your best when your best is required. Your best is required each day."

These young players now have a second experience with the SDSU/TEXAS Model that challenges their competitiveness and makes them lose their will to compete. Before they played these two teams, this KU team did not know what it did not know. After it played SDSU, it probably believed it had a bad game; one of the 1/3 bad games Self conditions them to prepare for. But after the Texas game there is no escaping the similarities between SDSU and Texas. There is no escaping that it was not just KU having a bad game. Now they know what they do not know. The question now is: can the coaches help them discover what they know they do not know; that they are lacking in competitive greatness at the moment; and do so without making them lose their confidence?

There is a brutally honest quote by Bob Knight in Joan Mellen's remarkable 1988 book "Bob Knight--His Own Man." It goes like this:

"If you were to ask me to boil this whole thing down to the simplest form, it might be this: in order to be any good, you have got to know what you're bad at, and so you play to your strengths and play away from your weaknesses. But somebody's got to tell you what the hell your weaknesses are and somebody's got to tell you the mistakes you're making. If they don't do that, you have no chance."--Bob Knight (p.188)

@konkeyDong, yes Selden started scoring and playing harder, but in 33 minutes of play...

Defensive Rebounds 1
Offensive Rebounds 1
Steals 0
Assists 0

The point of my post is that there is a difference between playing hard (hustling) and competing. Competing is taking things away from people. Beating people that are bigger and stronger, or shorter and quicker, to balls because you want it more. It is taking rebounds away from people that already have their hands on the ball. It is ferocity in the face of disadvantage. It is being willing to run harder than anyone in an arc to the ball to beat people running in a straight line to get the ball.

And my post was aimed especially at Perry Ellis and Landen Lucas and Andrew Wiggins.

Marcus Morris, Thomas Robinson, and Kevin Young were each very different kinds of 4s with very different levels of talent and very different arrays of skills. Marcus Morris was probably a 3 playing a 4 the way Perry is. Thomas Robinson had the body of Superman. And Kevin Young was a 6-8 180 pound string bean. But everyone of these guys got after the ball like there was no tomorrow, like hyenas that hadn't eaten in a week going after an impala carcus. Marcus appeared very smooth, strong and efficient, but when he clamped on the ball, whether someone else got to it first or not, Marcus in a very controlled, purposeful manner ripped it out of the air and it was his. Thomas Robinson was a freak of nature. He was so strong they had to box him out with two or three men and still he ripped the ball out of the air. There were pictures of Thomas being hit from three sides at once and still fighting to get to the ball. Kevin Young literally climbed on peoples backs and ripped the ball out of their hands time after time after time. Marcus from time to time came up against guys as long and good as he was, but he usually wanted it more. Thomas rarely came up against a single guy as good as he was, but he routinely had to fight through two guys trying to box him out. He fought through. Kevin faced guys as good as he was, or better, almost every game he played and just wanted it more than they did.

This is the legacy of the 4 position at KU. Their teams did not win 30 games plus by conceding the ball to other, bigger players because they were bigger, stronger, or greater in number.

At a certain point in basketball, things always come down to who is the most ferocious competitor. It is not kill, or be kill. It is beat the other hyenas to the carcus. It is get there quicker and fight harder to keep it. Playing hard and smart only help get you to opportunity to compete at greatest advantage. But ultimately James Naismith created a game with 10 persons, but only one ball.

Rock Chalk!

Nobody. Wanted. To. Compete.

That was for slayr, who said before the game he still had some doubts about this teams desire to compete.

Competing means fighting for what is needed to survive amidst scarcity, against long odds, when there is no help coming.

Salmon compete to make it from the ocean back up the river through the rapids pushing them back in order to breed.

A dozen hungry hyenas compete for chunks of flesh from the carcus of a dead impala.

Ten basketball players compete for one ball on each missed shot.

If they cannot make shots on the offensive end, then they compete for offensive rebounds.

If their opponent cannot make a shot, then they compete for a defensive rebound.

No matter how many shots you miss, no matter how many shot they miss, no matter how many times you turn it over, no matter how injured you are, no matter how tired, no matter how green, no matter what the odds makers say, no matter what floor the game is played on, you can compete for a rebound.

Rebounding finally is a truer test of competitive character than man to man defense.

Man to man defense is just one man trying to deny one man, and helping a second man.

Rebounding is ten men fighting for one ball.

Rebounding is one man fighting 9 for one ball.

The odds are against you getting the rebound every time it comes off the glass.

You don't rebound, because you want to. You don't ebound because your coach tells you. You don't rebound because it would help the team.

You rebound because you are animal looking for a morsel of food.

You rebound for the same reason that hyenas compete for the carcus of the impala, because its there and because you are possessed by a deep instinctive need to beat other things to it in order to survive.

You rebound because there is only one ball and something in you says get it before they do, get it no matter what, get it at any cost.

KU was out rebounded today 44-37.

And for most of the game KU was -10 or -11 on rebounding.

This was not about a team too green to know how to block out a D1 opponent. This KU team has played the toughest schedule in the country. This team knows how to block out.

This was about a team that did not want to compete against guys its own size for the ball. They didn't want it more.

Perry Ellis was a five star recruit. Perry Ellis is supposedly 6-8 and he is a good jumper. Perry Ellis is smart and plays hard.

Perry Ellis got two rebounds in 29 minutes.

Two rebounds.

2.

Take away Joel Embiid who grabbed 10 rebounds in 25 minutes on a knee with a brace, and Jamari Traylor, who got 6 rebounds in 14 minutes, and there were no other competitors on the KU team.

There was great talent.

There were NBA draft choices.

There were hard workers.

But there were no other competitors.

There were just guys running the stuff, trying hard, and shooting poorly.

But there were no other guys out there saying if its them or me, its me.

KU got selected out in evolutionary terms.

No competitors.

Next.

@Crimsonorblue22 Was Tarick wearing a boot because of the match ups?

@Crimsonorblue22 I hope you are right and my fingers are dutifully crossed.

@ParisHawk, tactically, yes, UT has some big horses and that is plausibly a reason for a story about how big UT is: maybe it creates a rationale in fans minds for playing Joel with a brace again, though he may not by game time have restored to 100% function.

The story makes it sound as if Black may be being brought back into play, too, though the story does not appear to suggest that Black is very near 100%.

Playing either player with injuries at the very least suggests Self prefers an injured Joel and Tarick, to a healthy Jamari Traylor, Landen Lucas, and Justin Wesley to carry the mail against UT's bunch of Freshman. Too bad. I thought maybe our bench was a little stronger than that.

But there is also a strategic issue here, isn't there? Is it better to risk wasting Joel, or Black, by reinjury in order to widen a conference lead, or trust in their recoveries and strong play down the stretch to ice the current big lead with a title a little later and so have these players 100% for the Madness?

Since the strategic approach seems best for a strong run in the Madness, plus offering a reasonable chance at a title, it seems possible that one opts for tactical advantage now, because one doubts that the injuries will heal sufficiently this season to attain the strategic benefit mentioned.

I keep coming back to Self's historical tendency either to: appear not to disclose some injuries immediately, or appear to understate them for extended periods.

If Joel's injury were in fact relatively minor, and he were in fact 100% capable despite being "sore," it hardly seems like Self would mention Joel's injury at all. Further, it seems Joel would not need a brace with 100% function restored, right?

Players have worn knee braces and wraps and quilts, etc., since at least when I played back in the dark ages. I don't recall a single player wearing those things and having his knee restore to 100% function. Nor do I recall anyone wearing such things when their knees were 100% functional. I know my sample is anecdotal, so maybe I have missed some.

So: I still wonder what is up?

I wonder if Joel is joining this list: Kaun, EJ, Tyrel? :-)

“I think he’ll be fine. He’ll practice (Friday), although he’s sore. But he should be full go.”--Bill Self quoted by JNew

Inference: the knee is apparently injured to the extent of soreness and loss of stability requiring a brace, the knee apparently did not get better in the ISU game, the knee apparently probably will not get better in the Texas game, and he is apparently probably going to keep playing on it with a brace.

Ugh!

@Crimsonorblue22 Good shoes until you wear a pair of Aldens once. If I recall correctly, you once indicated you were a woman. Not sure if they make them for women, but you might give their site a look. Spendy, but superb and can be reconditioned at the factory a couple of times for the price of ordinary shoes, and so the considerable extra cost gets spread out over the life time of the shoes, which is long. Not for everyone. Pretty conservative styles, but if they have something you like I doubt you would regret them. Being the penny pincher I am, I don't buy them new. I look for them in thrift stores for $10 and send them in to be reconditioned for $150, or so. I do the same with Mephistos, too. In our disposable society, great shoes don't have to cost a wise shopper an arm and a leg. I hope other young men and young women read and heed what I am writing here. It took an old wise man telling me, before I got the idea ten years ago. I am passing it on.

@Crimsonorblue22, actually, yes, but my spell checkers in my various devices cap it for some reason. I've changed it manually in some, but it keeps coming back. So: I finally gave up and went with it. Kind of like KU's uniforms. :-)

P.S.: And, yes, jaybate is never capitalized either, but I do believe adidas (there I manually overrode the spell checker just for fun) beat me to it by a few decades, or perhaps half a century. :-)

P.P.S.: Alden, however, the finest pair of shoes I have ever put on my feet, is ALWAYS capitalized.

UNICAST Forecast Update Updated...

KU players will be wearing a new Adidas model that Adidas has contracted with Alden of New England to hand make. It is a black, high topped, wing tip Alden upper and an Adidas sole. Coaches will be comped matching classic Alden wing tips.

(Note: all fiction. No malice.)

UNICAST Forecast Update...

The Kansas Jayhawks will be wearing signature Tom Ford warm ups. The warm up top will be a KU Blue leather, one button blazer with narrow crimson lapels, plus grey tight leg pants.

UNICAST, formerly known as Basketball Uniform Forecasts, Inc., of Netherland Antilles, now of Lichtenstein, has announced its expectation for the uniforms KU will likely wear in Austin, Texas, against the University of Texas Longhorns.

Vilmos Schmegmalian, Senior Forecaster for Unicast, predicts that KU will wear a red and blue paisley pattern uniform with Frank Gehry designed lettering and Zaha Hadid designed numerals. Schmegmalian indicates that KU coaches will coordinate with the uniforms by wearing matching paisley ties.

Developing...

@HighEliteMajor...

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

@globaljaybird No question that Naa has survived the crucible and found a comfort zone. He is playing about as I expected in offensive floor game, but his scoring is way more efficient than I expected. His defense still seems suspect, but it appears to be Goodnuf with the wings and post man he has backing him up. He is one of the most pleasant surprises on this team.

Self started the season with a shorter boot camp and less heavy workload. He said he did this to compensate for the longer season. Is KU's use current uptick due to the fact that many other teams did not do what self did, and so are hitting the midseason wall sooner than KU? Will KU miss the wall, or just hit it a few weeks later?

@VailHawk you should do it and we'll get Kuhl to sponsor!

@oldhwkfan No, it has to be a coach!! 😃

@justanotherfan Terrific analysis. One of your keys--getting 20 FTAs--perhaps explains Self's choice not to apply so much pressure in a season when refs are calling the game closer. In the XTReme Muscle era, going for an edge in strips and blocks was the MO, since the refs didn't call nany fouls for doing so. But in the Low Touch Era, holding down fouls to keep the opponent off the line is a preferred trade off.

@Lulufulu85, a lot of our past expectations are tending to put Self in a box.

If the team were to try to defend the way the past teams have, when XTReme Muscle Ball was allowed, the entire rotation would probably be fouled out by the ten minute mark of the first half. We would not like that. :-)

On the other hand, if Self adjusts his defensive play to fit the foul calling, we say they are not defending as well as they used to.

I suspect Self has, as usual, made a pretty good trade-off between offense and defense, given the way the game is now called.

I know KU is not as high in the KENPOM rankings defensively as some teams are, but it is so far hard to argue with Self's approach, given his initially green team, and his W&L statement in the conference.

KU's KENPOP ratings would like be significantly higher, if he were simply to sand bag for 30 mpg and play his starters 40 mpg, as he has done much of his last two lean depth seasons.

But Self is playing his bench, especially his bigs, to keep the fouls off his starters and keep them fresh, for the second half, when opposing teams' bigs are tending to be fouled up, and/or gassed.

I believe the defense is probably better than it looks right now. One of the things that makes Self Defense look special is when Self tells them to turn on the high pressure defense. Self has not been telling them to do that since one or two of the pre conference games, apparently, because the competition has not been of a sufficiently high quality to force him to do so. He has been able to win by trying to keep the defensive pressure within the envelope of the developing green wood and relying mostly on numbers to gain late game advantage in fouling and energy budget among his bigs.

But there will come an opponent, sooner or later, that will be good enough to provoke Self into surprising that opponent with KU turning on the hyper pressure. They haven't shown it much, so opponents don't have much tape to study. It will be a big surprise when they uncork it.

@JayhawkRock78 fingers crossed.

@JayhawkRock78: Hell yes, if we can get this thing off the ground.

Whenever conventional wisdom reaches consensus that a team is a powerhouse that cannot be beaten, I always have to laugh.

1. Frank McGuire knew KU could be beaten in the National Finals, if he could just keep his team close enough to Wilt's Jayhawks, so that the inexperienced Dick Harp would eventually outthink himself. All it took was letting Wilt have his points, shutting down the rest of the KU starters, and waiting for Harp to try to use indirection, when it was unnecessary. Harp called a play for a lesser player rather than Wilt with seconds to go. Because UNC was guarding the other players so tightly, the first-year coach's indirection was exactly the wrong move.

2. Guy Lewis knew UCLA could be beaten in the Astrodome, when Lew Alcindor had a scratched cornea, even though most doubted it. Unprecedented shooting back ground, plus denial defense with Elvin Hayes geared to force action to Alcindor's half blind side, plus defensive specialist 6-4 Don Chaney smothering 5-10 Mike Warren and 6-2 Lucious Allen on ball handling switches, and forcing play to plus Alcindor's half blind side, plus a UCLA offense grown too dependent on Jabbar's sky hook, equalled upset.

3. Digger Phelps knew UCLA could be beaten when Walton and UCLA had gotten too dependent on Walton's long passes off rebounds to create transition baskets. Rough up Walton and Wilkes, deny the long outlet pass, let UCLA's 2-2-1 zone reduce total trips (not increase TOs) and constantly isolate ND's superior impact player on the perimeter, Adrian Dantley (or was it Carr?). Upset.

4. Self knew KU could beat favorite UNC in the National Semifinals, if he could turn it from a skill and finesse game, which favored UNC, to a game of length, muscle and athleticism, where he knew he held advantage. Few else could see how he could do it; i.e., how the refs would let him do it against Roy and his Media Darling Heels. Self gambled huge. He ordered his entire team to over play and jump into the passing lanes with maximum effort from tip off. Overwhelming disruption resulted that essentially shut off UNC's transition game AND largely prevented the ball from ever getting to a constantly bodied Psycho T in a scoring position. Self used a leave it all on the floor the first half, and a disruption defense to take away and strip UNC's passing lanes and rely on his more athletic bigs to deny the rim to an offense geared to ball movement to get Hansborough open. KU jumped to a large lead, when Roy unwisely waited to half time to adjust and overrun an exhausted KU in the second half. Self immediately went on energy budget conservation the second half, slowed his offensive pace to a walk, ran weaves to make UNC guard, fouled as little as possible to keep the clock running (and so gave up many uncontested baskets) and generally managed a steady dwindle of the lead to coincide with UNC running out of steam at the very end. UNC almost came back and won. But KU had a little more gas in the tank at the end, after resting for 16 minutes, and turned his more traditional helping pressure defense back on to close out the win.

Two D1 coaches in history are arguably the masters of the upset of Number 1 ranked teams in regular season, because each upset 7 number one teams. Digger Phelps and Gary Williams are the coaches. Both coached an extremely physical brand of ball and relied on one, or two, MUA impact players on the perimeter and lugs inside.

Digger in particular specialized in the 2-4 point upset. Lesser teams do not blow out Number 1s except out in XTReme Right Tail episodes.

Digger, as much as I loath his phone-it-in, hold the upper midwest eyeballs, broadcast strategy (sound though it may be from a personal career standpoint), knew how to upset hugely talented D1 teams with his teams composed of much less depth and talent (though he often had one terrific player in his quiver). The son of the undertaker understood the crucial rules of strategy and tactics against a more talented opponent.

Keep it close. Get the enemy out of its comfort zone, Keep it close. Find the dependence/weakness of an overpowering opponent and keep picking at it. Keep it close. Try NEVER to attack or defend its strengths. Attack weakness on offense: on defense, channel play away from strength. Keep it close. Assume occasional failures, and stick to the plan. Keep it close. Maneuver constantly to avoid attacking, or defending the opponent's strengths. Stay between your opponent and its objectives: comfort level and a sizable lead. Keep it close. Resort to surprise. Keep it close. Use any means to keep it close. Keep it close. Adapt first. Keep it close. Never be drawn into attacking, or defending the opponent's strength even when falling behind. Keep it close. Keep the focus on winning, not short term results of tactics, or strategy. Keep it close. Never, never, never, never, think for a second a win can be gotten early, or at any other time but at the buzzer. Keep it close. An early lead, or a lead any other time, just makes it easier to keep it close at the end. Keep it close. A deficit anytime just makes it harder, not impossible, to keep it close at the end. Less powerful teams always beat more powerful teams at the end, never any other time. Keep it close.

So: how do you beat KU once? and why do I specify once?

Last question first. Self understands the principle of how you do it. Keep it close while attacking his weaknesses, and avoiding his strengths. In the bromide "there is more than one way to skin a cat," the preceding amounts to the cat. But it is the more ways than one part where Self is human and cannot always foresee in advance the skinning method to be anticipated.

Here it is.

First, consider these are the givens.

1. KU is highly productive on offense and tends to outscore its opponents.

2. Neither KU's starters, nor bench, are exceptional defenders capable of exerting much disruption...yet.

3. KU's starters are hugely more talented than its bench, but Self insists on playing his bench in any games where there is a follow up game coming within a few days.

4. KU's length and athleticism is happiest mixing easy transition baskets with high percentage half court ball movement created shots.

What the givens imply.

a) You want a low possession game against KU's starters BUT you want a high possession game against its bench.

b) You want its bench on the floor as much as possible.

c) You want to eliminate transition basketball against the starters and enable it against the bench.

d) Guard the trey stripe and don't foul the bigs against the starters, but guard the trey stripe, encourage the post pass, and foul the bigs off the bench every chance you get (but before the shot, or so that the shot cannot go in).

Essentially, what you do is try to slow the game down whenever the KU starters are in by using up the entires shot clock on offense, every possession, while making the KU starters slide as much as possible on defense.

On defense you use a 2-2-1 and alternate a half court zone and m2m not to disrupt, but to lengthen KU's starting team possessions as much as possible.

Again, NO FOULING the KU starters. Keep the clock running. Don't give KU starters a single point while the clock is stopped EVER.

To do this without tipping your hand. You start your starters, but sub them after a minute. Keep your subs in as long as possible without letting the KU lead get beyond ten.

The minute Self subs at his usual 5 minute juncture (which he will do until he has seen this once) , you bring your starters.

Your starters play a transition game with KU's bench.

The minute Self counters with his starters, you counter with your bench and go into long possession ball until the lead gets to ten, then bring your starters. About that time, Self will bring his subs again.

Go back to transition.

Repeat.

After half, start your starters again, then stay counter to whatever Self does with his starters.

Long possessions against KU starters, short possession against KU's bench. Get as many trips and as many clock stopped scoring opps against his bench as possible.

So what scheme would I run to accomplish this?

2-2-1 coupled with a stretched Princeton system with my subs. Long cuts. Long passes. Lots of ball movement.

Then whatever offense and defenses optimizes your starters and enables them to get in and stay in transition against KU's bench.

Since Self hasn't seen this approach before, he would never adapt to it until half time. So you have bought one close half and likely as not a lead.

The second half would see you countering his counters, but never veering from the basic strategy: long possessions when KU's starters are in. Short possessions when KU's bench is in.

KU's starters are still not used to having to play 30-40 mpg.

Travis Ford revealed that the 2-2-1 and lengthening KU's possessions was very effective in keeping a game close with KU. But then Travis did not take the tactic and fit it into a larger strategy of slowing trips against starters and shortening trips against the KU bench.

All offense and defense is about creating net benefit with deployment of resources.

Most Big Eight teams could get more net benefit out of playing a fast possession game with their starters against KU's bench than they can playing any kind of game against KU's starters.

Using your bench, even if it is vastly less skilled than the KU starters, to lengthen those possessions is the BEST way to get the most net benefit out of that bench.

It would be better for the lesser string to give the superior team fewer trips. Then use the better string to get more trips against the opponent's lesser string.

Keep it close.

Then go for the win the last 3 minutes. Either KU's starters will have had to play the whole game to counter this strategy and be gassed at the end. Or your starters will have scored so much on KU's second string, and KU's starters will have had very few trips to score regardless of how efficiently they score, and so it will be close and you try to win it at 3 minutes.

And If Self freezes in the headlights of the previously unseen as everyone does occasionally, then the lesser team is very likely to have a comfortable lead to milk down the stretch.

The mantra: longer possessions and no FTAs allowed the KU starting team, short possessions and lots of FTAs allowed the KU second string.

Protect under both approaches and, voila, KU, which does not like to win with defense, will be forced to do just that. And it probably won't be able to.

Now, Ethan (or Mr. Phelps, if you are older), this post will self-destruct within 5 seconds. And as always, if you, or any member, of your Impossible Mission Force were discovered, jaybate will disavow any knowledge of your existence.

(Cue the Mission Impossible theme)

@KirkIsMyHinrich, Not sure what you are referring to. I don't recall trying to cramp your style about anything. I enjoy your stuff.

Goodness is contagious.

Keep it up.

This is a great insight well expressed. The writing moves the way the ball you describe does. Pop. Pop. Pop. Each sentence moves to the next.

Bravo,bravo!

The game is a model for so much.

@Lulufulu85, other things equal, scoring probably has to tend to go up when the number of fouls called goes up. FT points are made without clock movement. If there is the same amount of time to take and make shots, and there is more unclocked time to make FTs, total scoring should rise.

Damn, that is such great photo of Wiggins showing his best form on his J (something he does not always do by the way), I am going to repost it.

!13040651_0.jpg ↗

Andrew, this is the correct way to shoot a basketball, whether it went in or not. Hard wire it. True, Wooden would have benched you for not squaring up to the basket, but its good enough for me.

@wissoxfan83: As the learned Yogi Berra might have said, it takes real intelligence to call yourself stupid. All the greatest wise men of history finally agree on one thing: no one really knows very much, including each of the greatest wise men. :-)

So is Christian Brothers-is aged in Oak barrels, but not during daytime hours!

@globaljaybird, in my younger days, I might have responded with: well, its always night time some where in the world! :-)

But as I have become largely a non drinker in order to prolong having the minimum number of neurons needed to connect the net upstairs, I will just say: right you are, Global, right you are.

A few minutes ago I was writing to slayr about what a good selection Perry Ellis was for slayr's Floor Burn Award this week. At the end, I commented that Perry seemed to me to have moved beyond trying to be aggressive and finally became aggressive. He went from acting a role to being a role. This reminded me of the Actor's Studio TV show hosted by former Actor's Studio Dean James Lipton, in which he interviews former students agh the Actor's Studio that have gone on to fine careers.

Then it hit me.

KU needs to start doing a TV show hosted by some former KU coach (HC,or Assistant) with some serious chops about the game that can interview KU players that have gone out into the world to have estimable professional careers (in basketball, or other fields). The audience around the interviewer and the interviewed could even be the current KU team members. Awesome, just awesome. Imagine the Q&A at the end of the half hour interview in which, say, Andrew Wiggins asks Paul Pierce what it was like to jump from KU to the NBA and follows up with does he have any advice for any guys coming out early?

The Legacy needs this sort of taped interview documentation. There are still guys alive and clicking from the 52 team. We missed Wilt, but there is still Jo Jo and Danny. But its not just the superstars that should be interviewed. Its any of the players that went on to estimable careers in the game, or other professions.

The show could air once a week on some channel in Kansas, and then the interviews could be racked on a web site. The interviews could be viewed on the net thereafter. This would be such a great thing for KU basketball.

Whoever can get the attention of CBernie, SheaZeng, and Self, try to get them to get behind this concept.

The Player's Studio: Interviews with KU Basketball Players and Coaches

The host should be a former coach, or a former player that went on to become a coach at KU, or elsewhere. The host has to really know the game.

Oh, yes, and there's probably money to be made with it somehow. The concept can be franchised and done at all the blue blood programs. Cha-ching!

Rock Chalk!!!

@drgnslayr: Total agreement on this award. I really think this may have been a turning point game for Perry. For the first time ever in his career, he seemed to be thinking much less and playing much more. Its not just that he shouted and complained a time or two. He has been doing that by rote for the last month. But he has been like an actor playing a role, instead of a method actor becoming the role for the performance. Perry's body language and facial expression seemed to change last night. He no longer seemed to be trying to be aggressive. He WAS aggressive. It may take him a few more games to dial it in consistently, but he now clearly knows what it feels like to become the role for the game. The Designer thus joins a long line of Self's Method Players trained at the Player's Studio located at 1651 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045.

@ParisHawk, besides being a potentially award winning photograph, this photo documents one way that defenses are finding to foul under the new rules. Notice that neither player is making any apparent effort to get the ball. All defenders' hands are grasping to strip the offender's right arm off the ball. It kind of infuriates me that this shizz goes on.

@ParisHawk, copy and paste. Nick Krug. What a stand out talent!

@KansasComet: when your positive outlook and the team's performance converge, you just do hit the sweet spot about as well as anyone in the posting game. Rock Chalk!

86 of 92 points from Jayhawks starters.

@KirkIsMyHinrich: great stat! Much more positivist way to point out what happened than saying the bench only got 6 points as I was belaboring over on JNewBlog during game. You emphasize what did happen, rather than what did not happen. You simultaneously point out how well the starters played, and leave the obvious inference that the bench was not productive. Cap tip to your writing.

Now, I want to take a stab at why the bench, which played quite a few minutes the first half, produced six points.

(note: I am trying to approach a negative subject with some positive spirit and humor.)

Mason was going up against some big, strong guards that his usual aggressiveness was not quite enough to compensate for. He played okay, but those ISU guards made life difficult. And when guys bigger than you have seen you just a few weeks before, a smart coach like Hoi can give his defenders a few tells to key on.

Brannen, who I had gone out on a limb and predicted a break out, HTR kind of game (WRONG!), performed about as usual, which is to say he got a triplicate, but then didn't really connect beyond that and played a so-so floor game. Really thought Brannen might feast on their two guard, during doubles on Joel, but Joel seemed to have been coached to look for Wiggins on the opposite wing and throw over the top of the zone (a clever solution to doubling by the way) And then when the ISU zoning began second half, and the score was close, Self stuck with his starters.

Traylor's performance puzzled me. It was the second straight game where he seems to have backslid into his old offensive uncertainties. His line suggests he was asked to get on the glass and did. But with Black sitting, I expected a bit more offense from him. But here again, when Self decides to go 30 with Joel even in a new brace, and Perry is having a good game, second half minutes are scarcer than Congressmen's sons in regime change wars.

Lucas did no harm, but did nothing exceptional. It takes a young center awhile to get to where he can hedge defend AND get on the glass. Even Embiid had to take awhile to get it down. Its like the air gets thinner around 20-23 feet out for long centers chasing short ones and their ability to keep track of the run-up to shots away from the man they are covering and their anticipation on when to break for the glass is a bit off. But Landen will likely have a few games to get the hang of it with Black in Bootville.

Frankamp, of course, joined the "Sore Knee Team," before the game and sat out. It is a fascinating, if unfortunate, correlation that since the rising emphasis on body sacrifices for 50/50 balls that injuries seemingly unrelated to sacrificing for 50/50 balls have risen. Is it random coincidence, or might the locality assumption be giving way at the realm of D1 basketball and that there may be some kind of quantum entanglement linking diving for 50/50s and getting hurt while moving normally around the floor normally. :-) Just kidding.

The good news is that the bench has of late seemed to alternate productive and unproductive games. Soooo: we might see a productive bench this next game, which would be great timing after all.

Rock Chalk!

@JayHawkFanToo: Thanks for the last word.

I thought you were an authentic believer in static analysis for awhile.

But you lost my trust, when you resorted to the C-word.

JayHawkFanToo AND CONSPIRACY...

forever linked together in my mind. :-)

Not only do I agree to disagree with you, how about we agree never to discuss things again, or refer to each other in our posts? How about it? :-)

@nuleafjhawk, way to bring the facts. That IS amazing about Forte.

@HighEliteMajor, this was a big league piece of writing that should be kept. I don't hand out this kind of compliment every day. Writing has to be sound, elegant, moving and just a little uncomfortable before I do. Rock Chalk!

@JayHawkFanToo, sorry but you are sticking to static thinking all the way. Aliases that do this are endlessly surprised by the latest contract that reflects the latest negotiated agreement regarding the present worth of future net benefits, because they are assuming things stay the same, when they tend not to. Yours is a common mistake, but that does not mean you should try to make a virtue of it. The existing numbers, are the past numbers. They mean something only as a point of trending toward an estimate of the coming change. I don't make the rules of buyer and seller bargaining behavior regarding the present worth of expected future net benefits, I just recognize and take a crack at forecasting them. You will be right only if nothing changes. If nothing were going to change, I would not have even commented and the next superstar would get exactly what Lebron got and that would be that. But it rarely goes that way.😄

Until you are willing to anticipate the future effects of rising standards of living around the world, plus evolving regionalization and globalization markets plus changes in capital mArkets driving the regime change coming to the producer market of sports shoes and apparel, you are not even talking about even the most basic dynamics that will shape the future of the business that will determine negotiations over the present worth of future benefits. So: as usual, your assertion that I am living in a fantasy world is just the usual projection of one who really is living in a fantasy that the future will be like the past; that the basic dynamics of the past have not changed and that if one buries one's head deeply enough, one can plow ahead without having to think at all. Sorry, but that doesn't play with me. In the world I live in businessmen anticipate the present worth of future net benefits and they anticipate what they will be before they do, especially when their market sizes are likely to sky rocket. But if anticipating the past works for you, be my guest and no hard feelings. 😃

@JayHawkFanToo, nice argument, but it has some basic problems with it.

First, I am not assuming anything about Wiggins relationship with Adidas. I am simply using them as an example, so you were imputing that, not me. Wigs was reputedly once a Nike lean, who then chose to play D1 for a coach and school contracted with Nike. I can certainly see why one might suspect that signals some shift in his leanings, but it doesn't signal anything definite and I don't know why anyone would say for certain that it does. Maybe other's have you thinking about certainties, but not me.

Next, your analysis seems too static. It assumes that there will be no shift away from knock offs in foreign markets and that kind of static assumption has historically tended to be a mistake. As developing societies and markets integrate into the global trading system and become more and more indoctrinated to branding through media, and as contract law slowly, inexorably makes itself increasingly felt in these regions, originals slowly make inroads into the knock off business. So that static assumption will probably not hold water over the next 10-20 years of Andrew's endorsing life, if he infact becomes a charismatic star capable of pitching products successfully.

Next, you remark on Andrew being introverted, as if that were a done deal. Again, you are looking at things from a static point of view. Michael Jordan was reputedly very introverted and almost monomaniacally focused on basketball in college and very early in his career. It was apparently not until Jordan and his brain trust began to realize there was much more money in branding Michael Jordan the endorser than in playing basketball, that Jordan began to recast himself and devote a lot of hard work to becoming not just Michael Jordan the basketball player, but Michael Jordan, the brand. Andrew Wiggins appears to me to have every bit as much personality as Michael Jordan had at a similar stage. Probably more than some and less than other recent great athletes at the same age. But almost every great athlete I can think of that reaches a level at which becoming a mega endorser becomes a feasible career path to pursue does a ton of work and developing his skills at acting in an endorsement capacity, so, here again, I find your take a victim of its own static assumptions.

Next, you look at the pie chart of where the sales come from and again make a static assumption of percentages by region not changing (or at least not discussing that change) that I think completely mistakes the future trends of sports shoes and apparel sales and market shares and penetrations. Each of the areas that you site as small pie slices-Latin America and Asia--are forecasted to explode the next 10-20 years of Andrew's potential endorsement career and IMHO potentially exceed Europe and USA combined. So: here again you are thinking statically and in a Western-centric way that appears to prevent you from seeing the drivers that are going to make regional and global market endorsers such incredibly valuable (and rich) individuals down the road. And contracts tend to be a reconciliation of both signatories expectations of the present worth of future net benefits, modified for competitive pressures altering those expectations down stream.

Next, IMHO you completely ignore one of Andrew's potentially biggest advantages as an endorser. Unlike American athletes, Andrew is a Canadian citizen and so a citizen of the Common Weath of Great Britain, which is a preferred trading block of states with a population of around 1.5 billion persons, if I recall correctly. To my knowledge, Andrew is the first such citizen of that trading block to emerge as a potential basketball superstar capable of being a indigenous conduit to market directly to that trading block. And in an era of regional and global trade being decisive to creating desired economies of scale, being able to appeal to the first or second or third largest economic entity in the world with an endorser that can look in the camera and smile and say, "For the good of the Commonwealth chaps, I think you could do worse than lacing up a pair of these "FILL IN THE BRAND YOU THINK ANDREW WILL SIGN WITH." [Cut to him slamming on baskets in front of land marks representing as many common wealth members as possible followed by, oh, I dunno, you pick someone, like the Queen, or Prince Harry, or some other legendary athletes from the Common Wealth saying...] "Good show, Andrew, way to posterize it, sir."

Now, I'm being heavy handed here to make the point. Highly skilled PR and ad agencies would probably do it with way more sophistication and it would be done with a systematic, 10-20 marketing strategy in mind.

The one point I do utterly agree with you on is that the firm/firms that contract with Andrew and hire those that craft this global marketing campaign are NOT going to give him one red cent sooner than they have to. But that is typical of all business dealings. And here is the thing about even that. The global market over the next 10-20 years is going to be so incomprehensibly vast, probably exceeding my POV by an order of magnitude, that individual shoeco brands we recognize are really just small fry front men in the biz now that could be gobbled up, plus other players will likely enter, as global capital investment competes to dress the planet in petroleum.

Now, it would follow that were you to dress the planet in petroleum, then the energy companies would probably become key players sooner or later. Who knows? The energy companies might get into the retail end of it the same way they decide to be in the retail gasoline business through franchises using a shared brand. It is not utterly beyond possibility that you could one day buy a pair of Shell Wiggins shoes, or BP sports apparel. Nothing is written on this. It all depends on many things we cannot now forecast including the extent to which the auto industry shifts to electricity and the heating industry turns to LNG. If both of these industries go that way, then the sunk costs in retailing petroleum could easily dictate using petroleum in ways that largely take over other producer markets (e.g., natural fiber clothing and natural skin shoes could completely be replaced by petroleum shoes and apparel, not just sports shoes and apparel.) In such a world, a product endorser would no longer just be promoting sports shoes and sports apparel, but the really huge global markets of all shoes and clothing for all kinds of wear.

Really, I have no idea if Andrew will probably be the guy that hits the jackpot in this global shoe and apparel endorsement game that is unfolding as surely as you and I are tickling pixels on machines made of materials that largely didn't even exist 20 years ago (nano particles in our keyboards and screen cases that our nose hairs can't even filter, you know).

The world is a very, very, VERY big place that is very, very, VERY dynamic and suddenly nonlinear at times when technology is moving rapidly and institutions of international trade have been rewritten extensively of late to "get on with it, chaps."

Regardless, I am grateful that you took the time to read, and then write about this topic. The game is caught up in this globalization in myriad ways most don't begin to grasp yet. I know I've only thought about this one tiny part of basketball's globalization, and at that only briefly without analytic resources. It is flipping awesome what could be happening to the game 20 years from now.

But to even begin to get a handle on it one has to begin to think in terms of changing trends and changing underlying relationships that will drive the change.

Andrew might be just a hair too soon.

Or he might never become quite good enough as a player to capture the imagination of the globe.

But someone will.

And it might be him.

Or Joel.

Or someone we don't know of yet.

Rock Chalk!

(Note: I apologize if I sounded harsh. I did not mean to be harsh and I do not feel anything but gratitude to you for taking the time to think and write about this issue. It is going to take a lot of aliases thinking and writing a lot even to begin to understand it in a meaningful way. I probably made a mistake discussing it in terms of Andrew. Perhaps it would help you and others to think and write about this issue with a hypothetical potential great player named "John Doe." Either way, the numbers involved are apparently vast and apparently about to expand by orders of magnitude. )

JNew's story about Embiid and doubling has triggered some opining.

How much doubling KU sees depends a lot on whether Embiid is good to go, or a gimp being used as an early decoy.

If Lucas/Black play a lot of 5, ISU is quite likely NOT to double either, until one of them proves a threat in the paint.

Perry often needs doubling, whe he plays against slow wide bodies, or guys his size and strength. It is the stronger guys just a little taller than he is, that give him fits. If I recall correctly, ISU's guys gave Perry some problems without doubling him, but don't hold me to this.

So: let's focus on Joel now. What if Joel can play and play 95% of normal? The double then becomes an every possession experience and the wings--Wayne Selden and Andrew Wiggins--become the guys that most often receive the passes out of the doubles, despite the pass to the 4 being the most desirable pass out of the double, as I will explain later.

After two impressive offensive games a while back, Selden has been muted since. The causes are probably varied. Possible nagging understated injury. Self wanting to develop Embiid rapidly after Selden proved he could do it when called on. Some need to focus on defense against Brown and Smart. Then last game Self trying inflate Wiggins numbers against a chump team for a variety of reasons not crucial to go into here.

But for whatever reason, Selden has been baking pop tarts, even though his 50/50 ball hustle has been inspiring. A big game is needed out of him on both ends. ISU can give KU fits for three reasons. They make our bigs hedge defend away from the hoop. They run L&S (long and strong) guards that stress our reliance on Tharpe, Mason and Frankamp. Clearly both ISU tendencies deny KU strengths and/or exploit weaknesses. And when ISU doubles our bigs on offense, it denies KU its core offensive game...unless KU makes 'em pay, as Self says.

Note Self said, "Certainly the best way to handle it [the double] would be to be able to make passes out of it THEN MAKE THE EXTRA PASS, and knock down shots..."

It is not enough to pass out of the double and shoot, because the defense always over shifts to deny the pass out of the double, the KU player that catches the pass out of the double is usually covered. It is the pass after the pass out of the double that finds an inevitably open man. And that man has to "knock 'em down" in order to "make 'em pay," and so stop doubling.

Selden is often going to be the wing man passed to out of the double. So: Selden has to be ready to muscle and explode away from his defender to receive the pass out of the double, then make the quick, accurate pass to the wide open man. If Selden cannot make this play, either because of green-ness, or nagging injury, Self will quickly have to default to either putting Tharpe, Frankamp, or Greene on the wing for Selden. Putting Tharpe or Frankamp on the wing, means going small against some L&S ISU guards--a recipe for problems. Greene, or White would be the ideal guys for the job, but could either of them deal with the kind of pressure ISU puts on without becoming pop tart factories? I suspect Self, if the lead permits,will go to either Greene, or White early to test that option. If either guy makes a quick mistake, then Self will probably just tough it out the rest of the game milking what minutes he can out of Selden, and depending mostly on Tharpe on the wing. In turn, this means a whole lot of weight could ride on Frank Mason's shoulders tonight.

Selden being physically sound and able to bring his A game means a ton. Selden is strong enough to explode away are receive the pass out. Selden is long enough to "see" the open man. And when he is the open man, when playing well, he is enough of a threat off the catch and shoot, or dribble and drive to "make 'em pay" for doubling inside. But Selden seems a question mark going into the game, because of his muted offense of late, and because of his pop-tarting.

Wiggins on the other wing is needed in much the same way that Wiggins is. I don't dwell on Wiggins, because he has been protecting better lately and finding his make some space and shoot game.

For what its worth, we could definitely see Andrew returning to the low blocks for some stretches, if Lucas gets overwhelmed in the heat of battle. And there is going to be some serious heat in this battle. Bottom line, ISU HAS TO WIN IN LAWRENCE, OR ISU IS A BEST A CONFERENCE RUNNER UP. Thus, The Mayor of Ames will pull out all the stops tonight. His guys will be sky high. He will show lots of wrinkles early and late. There will be forearm and head plays. There might even be some stiff screens and stiff doubles. Players that do not wear cups may wish to consider wearing one tonight.

Now, let's get back to the "other" pass out of the double on the big man.

One of obvious, but largely uncommented on reasons for running the Hi-Lo offense is to keep an opponent from concentrating force on a single post. To master the obvious, there are two posts in the hi-lo. And these two posts, in order to make it worth having two, are supposed to learn to play together so that when ever one is doubled the other is potentially uncovered, or partially covered by someone much shorter. If hi-lo bigs won't play together, if they won't perform together like Fred and Ginger beginning a begun, like Michael and Janet angered in the space ship, like Abbot and Costello doing "who's on first?" (which is to say like a well-oiled twosome) then there really is no point to playing hi-lo at all.

The very best pass out out of the double for a low post man to make, if the other team doubles with their power forward, is to KU's other post man at the high post near the free throw line.

Why? Because it is a quick short pass to someone in credible scoring position. He can jump shoot a FT without a dribble, because he is taller than whomever helps on him. He can dribble and dunk, for the same reason. Or he can a dish immediately to someone wide open.

The next best pass out of a double is also to the high post, but it requires a screen be set on the high post's man. When the high post comes off this screen, whether the high post is starting at the free throw line, or set up on the low block opposite the double, the low post passes to a great athlete breaking to the iron often without a defender on him, and at the very least being trailed by someone to small to get up and stop him.

But sweet as this play is, it can sometimes be harder to make the pass for an inexperienced low post man like Joel.

Cat skinning and countering doubling of post men can be done myriad ways.

But you do need a sharp tool to do it.

Self has said many times that Joel is an amazingly quick learner, a sponge he has said.

My hunch is that if Joel is good to go physically, this could be the game where Joel exhibits his speedy learning and the Mayor of Ames is going to have to find other responses doubling to try to stay in the game with KU.

It is going to be a very, very tough game. KU's players do not yet know quite how tough it is going to be. This is truly their first came against a cornered
D1 animal that knows it will shoot a whole lot better percentage than it did the last time.

But if we handle the doubles in the post, it hits two birds with one stone.

We make 'em pay and so eventually they stop the pressure.

By making the passes to make 'em pay, we avoid the TOs they convert to points.

Point production up.

Shooting percentage up.

TOs down.

As the carny hustler calls, when the ring hangs on the bottle neck: We have a winnuh!