🏀 KuBuckets Archive

@wrwlumpy said:

Also, did you ever notice that if you are a top recruit at the Three position that you will start at Kansas as a Freshman.

Position is a crucial driver on when high ceilinged players can quickly learn to perform at a D1 level and when they cannot.

Either front court position in a high low means an OAD not only has to have strength, and basketball skills, to go with high ceilinged athleticism, but also requires a player be able to deal with enforcers using intimidation and cheap shotting that can be XTRemely dangerous to a young person physically and/or mentally that is not savvy enough and mean enough to protect themselves.

In the High Low, Self can, if he has a strong front court, scope the role of 2, or 3, to limit how much a 2, or 3, has to go up against the blue meanies. Sometimes he protects them, as he did with Xavier, and sometimes the players handlers appear to limit the amount of risk the player is willing to take, as appeared the case with Andrew Wiggins. Other times, as with Josh Selby, Self appears to say this guy is ready to go to the rim almost from the first tip.

In the High Low, there is no protecting a 4, or a 5, from the blue meanies. They are there in the paint and guarding Self's freshman 4s and freshman 5s seeming more and more frequently and more and more aggressively as the season progresses. It has been a VERY, VERY tough game in the paint during the Self tenure. Self's philosophy of play it any way they want means Self really cannot protect 4s and 5s on the floor from opponents that choose to play in a highly aggressive and physical way. Self's 4s and 5s, be they freshmen, or fifth year seniors, have to play man 2 man defense and have to knock blue meanies off spots on defense, and on offense they have to fight for spots and fight to stay on them. Absolutely crushing forearm smashes, and face punches, and throws to the floor, and so on occur at a level of intensity and degree of aggressiveness that todays OADs that have not grown up in play ground ball have even a clue about how to both protect themselves from, and skillfully counter attack, and on occasion preemptively attack. Anyone that watches the game for awhile in the paint knows that it frankly takes guys with almost a football level of aggressiveness to play front court in D1. To send green bean poles like Carlton Bragg and Cheick Diallo on to the floor against 3rd, 4th and 5th year blue meanies that being sent out to intimidate them, because they ARE green, and then to actually hurt them, if they prove that they can handle the intimidation..."is a sin, Mr. Finch. Its a sin to kill a mocking bird, that's what it is." And sending green OADs, especially those with high ceilings, that didn't grow up tough on the play grounds to play against 3rd, 4th and 5th year guys that often did grow up on the playgrounds, and are playing not because they are so talented, but because they know how to break up an opposing team's rhythm with physical play; that's a sin in my book.

Self is a coach. A coach is a teacher. Teachers are not supposed to teach quantum mechanics to 17 year olds that have not even had a solid calculus course, regardless of how high the kid's IQ is. Kids need some foundation courses to do well in higher level courses, even if they are smart. Basketball is the same, only more so, because the blue meanies don't just laugh at you for not being able to hold a spot. They start going through you. And if you go down to the other end and use your athleticism to score a basket over them, as guys with high ceilings, like Diallo, often can do, them the forearm smashes and stiff screens follow. And if you are really good like Joel Embiid, pretty soon you are up ended and floored on your most vulnerable regions. Joel Embiid did not know how to protect himself from the blue meanies, because he had not grown up on a playground playing the game that way. It doesn't make any difference how high one's ceiling is, or even how high one's foundation is, if you don't know how to keep your nose from being pushed out the back of your head, or don't know how to shield yourself from a forearm smash to the wind pipe, or how to strike preemptively in a way that makes the blue meanie say, "Okay, that's it for the rough stuff from me," then you are just a medical red shirt waiting to happen, or worse.

Out at the 3, or 2, or 1, you can get hurt driving, and you can catch a stiff screen, and the guys that sharpen their finger nails and scratch corneas for fun, they can get you out there, too, but its not an every play risk. And its easier for point guards and wings to run away from trouble, because the position rarely devolves to a muscling contest the way it does in front court.

To me it makes sense that point guards and wings can more often step in and be 20-30 mpg types. And mostly not get stunted. But does anyone remember how Tyshawn ran from contact his freshman and sophomore seasons on back side drives? It took forever for him to work up the courage and strength to go inside where the blue meanies where.

This is one helluva tough game--D1 college basketball--and it gets a lot tougher in the NBA.

And there are some guys that are ready to rock and roll from the very beginning. You remember some of these guys from your high school. They looked 25 years old when they were 18. But mostly guys that were 18 looked like they were 17 and often had about as much moxie as 16 year olds.

If I were Carlton Bragg's and Cheick Diallo's parents, I would almost be kissing Bill Self's hand right now for keeping these two pipe cleaners out of harms way as much as he has been.

Think about it a second.

The averages @HighEliteMajor gave us don't tell us a thing about any one specific case's abilities to start and play 20-30 mpg as freshmen.

The averages are by definition composed of the guys that can and the guys that cannot. The averages include the guys that are playing because their coaches have no one as good, or no alternative at all, and the guys that actually would play even if the coach had some alternatives. The averages include everything.

The average tells us that out of all these guys, there is strong probability that your guy could be one of the guys that can do it, and a lesser probability that he is one of those that cannot.

This is the point where the coach's judgement has to be trusted, or the coach needs to be fired and replaced.

Since Self has started and played several OADs, while limiting and protecting the minutes of others, I have to think that Self has no bias against starting OADs that are ready.

And looking at the way Bragg and Diallo play so far, and given that they play in the front court, I'm thinking maybe these two guys really aren't ready to be 20-30 mpg players and that Self, the players and we are lucky we have some older guys that can keep Self from having to do to Bragg and Diallo, what he felt he had to do with Perry Ellis. OMG! Think of the difference between Perry Ellis as a senior and Perry Ellis as a freshman. The guy started some and played a ton of minutes, but there was no amount of minutes Perry could have played as a freshman that would have "developed" him into the player he is this season.

This was a major happy new year in a number of ways I won't bore folks with. I stayed home and got to be with my loved ones. I never felt so lucky. I burned a 4 pound prime rib and a few tators. Had my favorite bottled water, Badoit, and a little champagne. No stupid parties with strangers finally. It took to my 60s but I finally got one right.

My dog has followed me up to bed, where my love awaits.

Happy New Year!

@pa_grape

Two thoughts:

1.) Go to a sports shoe store and test all the brands and find a size of what you like; then

2.) go to thrift stores in affluent areas and buy a pair you like for $5.

Most adults don't really need the latest model brand new.

This also works especially well for dress shoes.

You have to pop by a few stores five times, but if you can afford the time, why buy new?

I am a thrift store shopper and proudly so, even though I don't have to. It recycles stuff which is good for the environment. It also helps poor folks with employment in the stores. And a percentage price gets to poor folks in need.

I even buy choice old bikes at garage sales for a few bucks, tune them up and drop them off at thrift stores, or just give them away. It's a fun kind of philanthropy.

Of course I buy used cars too, and I know this is not for everyone. I can afford new cars, but I got tired of paying new prices for prestigious cars expensive to fix and unnecessarily unreliable. I went through my Benz phase and now drive used Camrys and Avalons and 370z's for what it used to cost to repair my Benz. And every time I get the itch for a Benz, or Audi again, I take a trip to Europe instead.

The older you get the more eccentric you get to be without any one caring.

You're 40. It's old enough to live a little. Quit buying new. Five trips to the thrift stores and you'll have scored a decent pair of tennies AND a really top notch pair of walking shoes--all for $10. Spend the other $30 on some barbecue!

Rock Chalk!

@pa_grape

It all depends on expectations and feedback, whether experience is hurtful to children. If it's just playing and no one gets down on them for just playing, then I think letting everyone play equal minutes for fun is great. But when performance and winning enter the equation, and coaches get demanding, fans boo, and parents weigh in severely during and after games, then readiness to perform at levels of competition ought to start being weighed carefully in the interest of the child.

Self's apparent willingness to limit the exposure of his players to being out of their depths developmentally has always been among his most admirable qualities to me.

But as always, I'm only a fan, not an expert. The best book I have read on these issues lately is "Just Let'em Play: Guiding Parents, Coaches, and Athletes Through Youth Sports" by Dr. Andrew Jacobs, Jeff Montgomery, and Peter D. Malone published recently by Ascend Books. I know one of the authors, but otherwise I have no involvement with the book.

@HighEliteMajor,

Bang up job.

I come down between you and Keegs on PT.

Obviously experience has consequences. Good experience is something to build on. Bad experience creates an obstacle to be overcome.

What my experience of child rearing, managing at work and coaching kids for fun suggests follows.

PT can get someone already able to play at D1 level up to speed and violence standards.

PT does nothing or actual harm for those that are not ready.

To wit, playing Wiggins got him comfortable enough to do what he already could do. What little actual development we saw probably happened in practice. The week of getting better calls attention to how instrumental practice repetitions truly are to development.

Conversely, PT has done little and maybe done harm for Svi and Jamari. Jamari just keeps not getting better, no matter how much PT he gets.

Diallo's continued PT has done little for Diallo and is probably on the verge of hurting him. He just has so little foundation that can be gotten comfortable he doesn't seem to learn much from PT.

But Diallo has so much athleticism it is worth risking harming him by giving him PT in favorable match up situations, because he can goose C5 productivity a few points and REEBS over not playing him at all. In a just and compassionate world Diallo would be a red shirt and be a star next season. But this basketball world isn't either right now.

If Bragg were stronger physically, he seems to have enough foundation to benefit from PT, but he hasn't shown much of an up trend line yet from the PT he has gotten, so he just may not be strong enough to do what he has skills to do against D1 grade defenders.

And everyone needs to keep in mind that the intensity, speed and violence ramp up in conference play. So: if players aren't getting better against pre conference talent, it's going to get even harder to get get better in conference play. Yes, there are exceptions and grey areas, but this seems the tendency.

@JayHawkFanToo

What is interesting along the lines you correctly outline is how the NBA would use Big Russ, Wilt, Jabbar, Willis Reed, David Robinson, Manute Bol Pat Ewing, and Olajuwan, now, if they had them?

Wouldn't it be wild seeing none of them playing in the paint--all of them running all over the court not being nearly as big of scoring threats as they could be.

What weird alternative universe our big men of today are inhabiting.

@curmudgeonjhwk

Well, it could be, but every simple premise in basketball yields a new rush of emerging complexities that keep it from being boring to watch, or so it seems to me over the years.

Starting every possession with a quick trey would place a new emphasis on both long offensive and defensive rebounding. This would encourage recruiting of quick, mobile rebounders. It would also place a greater emphasis on scoring off offensive rebounding. New offensive actions would be developed around the longer offensive rebound itself. It would not just always result in a straight stick-back at the rim. Think of a floor full of Franks, Devontes, and Waynes vacuuming up long boards and spinning in mid air to dish to players cutting to the iron from all sides. There would evolve what amounted to a kind of secondary break from big men and perimeter players crashing the boards for the rebound, and others crashing for the dish from the rebounders. The high frequency of the long rebound would justify some coaches actually picking to free players for cuts to the basket off the misses rebounded and dished. And in turn new kinds of long passes to the corners and kick outs to the front would ensue also, because hter would be so many good trey ballers in the lineups all over the floor. I envision a D1 full of teams with a trey balling profile like this year's KU team. Recruiting will tilt to signing athletic, ball handling trey ballers of many sizes. And amidst all this spacing of the floor, then cutting around post men subsequent to the initial trey can happen.

Really, the game could reset to something much more in the vision that Phog Allen had for the game. Much more long cutting. Much more skilled athleticism, rather than muscular athleticism. Much more emphasis on speed and athleticism and much less on muscling for spots.

The shot clock and lane widening have show what just a mild opening up of the front court can do to the game. It has had a much greater and different effect than I anticipated, as often occurs with small, but fundamental rules changes.

And I believe the ripple effect is NOT over.

Having a five player rotation at the 5 did not used to seem an advantage. It seemed like a weakness. It might still prove to be. But right now what we are seeing is that with the way fouls are called, and the greater spacing resulting form lane changes and shot clock, big men have to run more and move more to defend more kinds of movement. Help is more complicated and taxing. Now, it seems, there is real pay back to using 5 big men with fresh legs to make two or three big men wear out, or get fouled up.

There are more unforeseen consequences to come.

It could all be very exciting.

@MoonwalkMafia

Exactly, how many Top 50-100 players are expected to go in the top 15 of the draft, after their first season of D1? Heck, how many Top 50-100 players are expected to start instantly and be a 30 mpg guy for an elite major? Not many I reckon. The cupboard really has to be bare at the elite major and the Top 50-10 player has to be something of a surprise in how developed he was.

Embiid was ranked so high, because despite being sushi from over seas, he was a real footer who could run the floor, even though he didn't have much of a skill set. He was the definition of a high ceilinged project, as I recall it.

Embiid had played behind a player his junior year of high school that WAS a projected OAD and supposedly NOT a project. If I recall correctly, he was Dakari Johnson. He went to UK I recall and apparently got lost in the dump trucks apparently tipping there. But that is another story about the unreliability of the Top 100 rankings and the fall out from apparent recruiting asymmetries.

Back to Joel, who was reputedly in Florida in high school.

Embiid reputedly transferred to get to a high school, where he would not be stuck behind Dakari.

Roberts, while assisting at Florida, reputedly connected with Joel early, and then reputedly brought that contact with him when Roberts rejoined Self's staff. Ouch!!!! Sorry, Billy.

Self reputedly saw Joel's wheels once, and said he had rare footwork for a big and thought he could be a great one.

Still, Joel was reputedly considered a project that needed to be "coached up" and that was part of the attraction of Self to Joel. Self had worked with Sasha Kaun, a foreign big man who had high schooled in Florida, too. Self was then recognized as a guy that had taken several raw big men, like Thomas Robinson, and Jeff Withey, and coached them up to being NBA draft choices and players. Joel found that appealing.

Note: this leaves out all of the petroshoeco-agency complex dynamics that never really became transparent. All that can be said with confidence on that count is that Joel chose a coach and a school contracted with adidas and reputedly signed with adidas after being drafted.

@wrwlumpy

Based on Dubya getting admitted to Yale u-grad and Harvard bidness grad school, and graduating from both, I have had to come to view admissions and matriculation in private universities, as significantly discretionary.

Notre Dame was famous/infamous for reputedly building major periods of its football dynasty on discretionary admissions reputedly further bolstered by a feeder system of Catholic high schools reputedly willing and able to practice discretionary academics, during periods, when the almighty weighed in decisively as a football fan.

Stanford has reputedly long practiced discretionary admissions in between paroxysms of public claims of admissions rigidity.

Rigidly high standards of admissions at times seems a cover--a kind of propaganda almost--to obscure the exceptions made under the stuffy, typically self-serving rubric of life not being fair. 😄

The sordid history of university admissions--public and private--appears that many, if not all, will do almost whatever it takes to achieve their "development" objectives; I.e., they will engage in screening out, or screening in, whatever they feel most net beneficial at given times. This discretionary trait enabled them, among other things, to spin off athletic departments into 501.c3s with straight faces, I suppose. And to contract with some petroshoecos and not others, and apparently subordinate to the NBA.

Also, Board rats appear sometimes to forget that universities did not just deny Black athletes access for a few centuries. They denied black students access for a few centuries. And now they are complicit in turning students they do admit into debt slaves. Oh my.

Why would Duke, a school with a carcinogenic based endowment, Dick Nixon as a shining alumnus, located in a region with a chattel slavery legacy preference, and a continuing rigorous devotion to local autonomy, whilst pursuing access to the Federal hog trough, and apparently serviced by dump trucks of late, be expected to be a paragon
of rigidity in Academic admissions for athletes over time?

@jayhawk-007

Not when recruited. The consensus was he was a project that had to change high schools to get playing time.

Embiid was one of the rare nonlinear developing 5s.

It's really only because of Embiid's freakishly fast and unexpected development that Skal and Diallo were hyped into being projected 30 mpg OADs instead of sushis in the first place.

The lesson of OADs increasingly should be:

THEY DON'T DEVELOP IN D1 IN ONE SEASON NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY PLAY,

NO CORRELATION BETWEEN PT AND DEVELOPMENT.

None.

They can either perform at a D1 level, or not.

WHAT DETERMINES THE MPG OF AN OAD IS IF HIS ROLE CAN BE NARROWLY ENOUGH SCOPED THAT HE DOESNT HAVE TO IMPROVE.

Wiggins definitely did not improve. Self finally took the team saddle off him, which he wasn't ready for, for whatever reason, put it on the anomaly of Embiid and let Wigs do what he could, or was willing, to do.

This defines all the successful OAD that UK and Duke have had. NArrow scoping roles with 2ADs to go in and do what they could not do. Okafor was almost two dimensional in his role: score and rebound against weak inside teams. Guard the post only against strong teams inside.

Strangely, with few exceptions, OADs are really a kind of glamorous, but narrowly scoped role player in D1.

They are needed for flexible MUA, when extra athleticism, or some particular array of skill they
Possess without development is needed.

But even the best ones are only rarely cornerstones.

Remember: Anthony Davis went 1-10 against junior Jeff Withey, and Okafor completely disappeared the second half against UW's footer.

OADs are necessary role players to go deep regularly, but only intermittently essential to winning it all.

It's kind of counter intuitive, but nonetheless how it has shaken out.

@HighEliteMajor

Been in the tent. Just had to clarify on the distinctions in sequences of injuries and Bad Ball innovation. Without Bad Ball to resort to, Self would not be able to justify/offset the risks in his mind of quick trigger Trey offense.

As you know, I am an advocate of every possession Trey balling-- not just long Trey and defend a lead with short treys and deuces (I.e., 16-17 3ptas getting and defending leads and 20-25 3ptas playing from behind).

Self can only default to defending leads with passing offense and short treys and twos, because other teams coaches are caught in the way back machine of 2s and short treys.

Once coaches go every possession treys, Self will have no choice but to shoot treys every possession also...no defending leads by short shooting. It will still be smart to burn clock with the passing offense and use BAD BALL on the cold nights, but when the shot is finally taken it will be a long Trey. Without rule changes, this drift is inevitable.

But I am comfortable to wait for Self and coaches to play through this interim dynamic a few seasons. Self may be too old to change over already. But he is fulfilling his Moses myth by taking the game to the banks of the River Trey; I.e., building a lead with several quick trigger Trey possessions, then defending with short treys and deuces.

But some young coach is out there right now waiting his time to jump shift to quick Trey every possession to end the advantage of what Self has just wrought.

Long Trey followed by defend a lead with short treys comes to market with a sell by date.

I can hardly wait for every possession Trey ball. (Don't worry there will still be stick backs.) The greater risk and volatility will trigger another round of defensive innovation and greater variations in tempo.

One more thing. During this current interim phase, we are likely to see post cuts return especially with teams with centers that have passing skill.

The great passing center could be a huge strategic advantage now that contact in the paint has been lessened. Self seems unlikely to be the guy to do it, because of his philosophical bias against action to create impact space, but it's increasingly apparent that there is now room for post cutters with a long center to work again. Mark Few's Euro center last year on Zaga proved the behind the back post pass could come back again.

Watching Mamadou's finger roll off a pivot drove the point home to me. Uci's wasting it's bigs clearing out to let them make b2b post moves open to help defense. The way to stop post help is post cutters followed by either a hand odd, a behind the back bounce pass or a turn and finger roll. UCI WOULD HAVE BEATEN KU HANDILY WITH POST CUTTER ACTION. It would have assured scores and offense starts for KU with stops on defense.

The game is so simple. But most coaches struggle with flexible thinking. It's one of the paradoxes of the game. It's simple flexibility of attack triggers complexity, and rigid thinkers that simplify through reduction are attracted and often succeed. But it's being simply, fundamentally flexible that really pays the biggest dividends. All the greatest coaches distill to essence AND get flexible.

@HighEliteMajor

But our guys aren't getting benched like Skal.

I'm getting a t-shirt made:

Don't go to Kentucky!

Cal will bench your ass!!!

@ParisHawk

Yes, and exceptions can prove rules. Self only got him when UTenn imploded. Sloppy seconds don't really count.

I am not saying he should shorten C5, but it finally occurred to me why he may want to.

Self is doing some pretty clever substituting to get these double doubles.

Maybe he doubts he can keep this up.

Maybe Self figures the top opposing coaches are going to figure out his substitution pattern and figure out how to counter substitute.

Maybe the magician knows the vulnerability of the C5 trick best.

Whatever, it's been a damned good trick so far.

Double doubles every game.

Self has a team soon to be ranked first that lacks an OAD draft choice PG, or center.

Self has 5 4s staffing the 5.

He has never been able to sign such OAD draft choice players at 1'and 5 in his KU tenure.

Early on it may have been because he was a young coach without a ring.

But why now? Winningest coach for five years. .820 for 11 years. A ring. 11 straight conference titles. Lots of guys coached up to draft choices. Even Andrew at 3 on his resume.

But no OAD point guards or centers.

Why?

Imagine how many more games and rings he would win with such players.

Duke and UK SEEM TO SIGN THEM FREQUENTLY.

WHY?

What are they doing?

@Crimsonorblue22 said:

agent magic💰💰

LOL

@justanotherfan

Yup.

And this is why resolving apparent recruiting asymmetry appears paramount.

If Self were paid to win rings, he would have to sign his share of the draft choice PGs and 5s, since those are so crucial to winning rings.

Thus, recruiting asymmetry, if unresolved, increasingly appears a de facto tactic for regime change.

@pa_grape

Welcome.

I have been impressed with both guys shooting and scoring skills. Diallo particularly has a nice b2b baseline turnaround j. I would feed him low block more but he hasn't yet mastered getting and holding that spot. Brag gets the spot but struggles holding it. But offense isn't what limits their minutes.

For both players: more help defense drills and hypnosis.

Self Defense funnels guys to the middle for help. This frees KU wings to deny baseline. Apparently lots of bigs learn to play defenses where defenders are taught to funnel baseline. This means young KU BIGS haVe to stop expecting baseline drives and start expecting play being funneled to the middle, where they are already guarding a post.

I think simple hypnosis to help them break the habit of thinking help baseline first would help.

Then lots of virtual reality reps on Occulus Rift gaming the choice of when and where to help middle. USing VR software could greatly accelerate the reps of the help choice. Same with the hedge defense choice high. With high VR reps real practice time would be about executing, not breaking bad habits with negative correction.

The quickest way on the floor is better D.

@wrwlumpy et al,

I'm not sure I see what you see, but on the chance you are right, I want to take a moment to speak in favor of @HighEliteMajor. Some years back I put more elbow grease into what I wrote on basketball. I tried to raise board rats' awareness of how important the KU Legacy was and what an extraordinary opportunity technology had presented us to become a little "d" democratic Greek chorus of advocacy, analysis and opining. I did what I thought was my duty to The Legacy for many years, until I saw the level of discourse rise significantly in part apparently from being challenged to do so. To my considerable satisfaction, many board rats rose to the challenge and first met and then exceeded what I was bringing. I used to be the only one that went long, short and in between.. Now I can find anyone of these lengths practically any day here now.

In time my voice could return to the choir and not be missed. It was lucky for shortly after the rise in discourse I took sick and lost something off my fastball. But well before I lost my pop, I recognized @HighEliteMajor was striving for the same higher level of discourse I was and that our disagreements were not only a price of that increase, but a necessary and desirable and fun ingredient of it. I also realized I was passing the baton to someone that could take it farther than I had. And he has already brought more to the discourse than I have. And some are already ascending and getting ready to take the baton from him, when he has had enough. So: if anyone outside this forum is taking a shot at him from outside this forum, they are indirectly taking a shot at me and us, too, and they ought to man up and come in this forum and do it on this turf. Pro journos are not only welcome here, they are treated with admiration, enthusiasm, and curtesy, even when being flatly disagreed with (note: something I suspect many pro journos are not used to in real time). For what it's worth, I bear only good will to other KU basketball fora and local pro journos. I welcome anyone that can bring some additional elevation to the discourse here, as @HighEliteMajor always does. We are a small Greek chorus, of consequence mostly only to us. But we are one, whether others wish it or not. If others wish to discuss beyond our forum what points of view and issues we traverse, that is up to them. I wish they would join us, for they could enrich our discourse, but we have neither a recruiting budget, nor a parent corporation, nor a petroshoeco contract. 😄 We just have @approxinfinity 's generosity of web site and spirit. Amazingly, I have grown to view its relative simplicity as elegance, and it's contributors as remarkably informative observers and commentators. I learn more and get more of what I want to know about KU basketball here than anywhere else. But I am old and hardly representative of any cohort worth tracking now. All of which is my usually long winded way of saying: yo, @HighEliteMajor, keep transitioning. Rock Chalk!

@wissoxfan83 said:

FRANK MASON IS NOT ONE OF THE TOP 150 PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY? Are you kidding me?

It's an outrage. He may well become the next Steve Nash in the NBA, when he can play full speed.

There is not only an apparent recruiting embargo, there is apparent systematic under recognition of KU players!

Win the ring and tell the whole petroshoeco-agency complex and their presstitutes to go lubricate themselves!!!

@DoubleDD

Great take. Not sure which way he will go, but he has always had a huge pair in being willing to go all in on what he decides.

This is what makes being a fan of KU under Self so thrilling. Every season his creativity takes us into innovations and places we haven't been, and there is great drama in how he resolves it!

Rock Chalk!

@DinarHawk

Interesting dot to connect. I can't recall that Duke team well, but you seem onto something.

@Lulufulu

Keeping up with Self is like singing with someone with perfect pitch. They are never wrong about pitch, but not all of singing is about pitch and neither he, nor we can the rest with perfect clarity all the time.

Self apparently feels good Okie Ball teams don't rotate 5 bigs. Period. Perhaps It's not who we are; same as good Okie Ball teams don't shoot 25 3ptas/game every game to win. There are certain rules of thumb, if you will.

Perhaps it's a matter of pitch. 5 guys at the 5 is not the right pitch. 25 3ptas are not the right pitch.

At the same time, Self is also a problem solving genius. He goes where ever the answer is and then worries about pitch later. Sometimes the pitch is so grating, say, at 25 3ptas/game, that he seems to snap about needing to be who we are. Other times it's appArently within his range to tolerate.

My guess is a double double in the paint is who we are, even if five guys at the five annoys the ear!!

He probably figured Diallo and Bragg would separate and get him out of the ear pain, but they haven't. So: if he has to live with this ear pain, maybehe is at least going to squeeze them for 2 Ppg more and 2 rpg more.

Figure out why our private oligarchy decided to fund 24/7 UFO history channel investigations INSTEAD OF funding investigations of miracles of God? There is no convincing empirically verifiable evidence of either, but alleged miracles of God make me feel safer and less likely to endorse more oil wars. UFO inquiries leave me feeling insecure and powerless and in need of attacking oil fields. 😇

@REHawk
It comes when it comes, coach. 😄

Last year, Self was succeeding wildly with the Trey, and called it fool's gold.

As @HighEliteMajor and some argued, Self quit what made the team win, and the team sank into another double digit loser, getting badly injured trying to play inside, and forcing him into the invention of Bad Ball, so as to back into a title from a team with nothing left in the tank for the Madness. The injuries made the default to Bad Ball rational, but should he have ever given up Trey balling for drive ball and all the injuries that ensued, simply to get the short 3 scoring he valued so highly? Probably not. With fewer injuries, KU would have stayed a single digit loss team and might have shot through the late slump and might have gone on a tear late.

This year he is roaring at Diallo and Bragg for playing as freshmen, and threatening once again to stop playing them as elements of C5.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

Frank, Devonte, Wayne and Perry are all good, but not great players. Without a double/double post man, they are just another good small team that gets stuffed by good big teams.

C5 IS a double/double post man and Bill knows it more than anyone. He and Igor Roberts created the Frankencenter.

C5 is what makes the team so hard to play, prepare for, and beat.

Self gets it. The light is on in Bill, like it was last season before his reactionary quest to replace long fool's gold with short fool's gold.

Bill can huff and puff about having to play C5, but he created the monster that wins, and if he wants to keep winning big, he has to keep it getting better.

Poorly as Bragg and Diallo play most times, the monster would likely never reach double double without them.

You want the double double, you play all five.

Cut it to three and you might find a way to keep winning mostly, but the long and strongs would wear your low ceilings down and Ls would follow.

Cut it to two and its taps for this season.

Five is the magic number.

Five is what teams haven't seen and struggle with.

But self wants Diallo and Bragg to get better, so he has to threaten them with shortening the bench.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

Every game his high ceilings rest his low ceilings and force opponents to prepare for five guys. Every game his high ceilings make sure the C5 reaches double double.

Calling your bluff Bill.

If you can get constant double doubles with only low ceilings, more power to ya.

But I don't see how it can happen against all comers, as it has with C5.

Self is doing it again. He is finding a way to win that is not in the books. He is playing 2 point guards simultaneously, going without a backup for either point guard, playing a 2 at the 3, a 3 at the 4, 5 guys at the 5, taking only 16-17 3 PTAs per game with the best trinitarians in the country, guarding 7-6 guys with 6-7 guys, and getting photographed in brands of clothing he is not contracted with.

It's who he is.

And KU will be Number 1.

The gloves are off on weird here, people.

KU has not just left the program.

It has left the mainframe the program ran in.

Oh, it looks like basketball, alright.

People are running in shorts and sneakers.

Bob Davis' lips are moving.

National media are hyping lousy big market teams.

The cheer leaders are still desirable to old men.

But all other parallels with basketball reality as we once knew it are over.

Aside from the healed blemish of having been beaten by RATSO, the record is perfect.

The team has systematized doing things differently.

They are like magicians with 40 minutes of new tricks.

They show up, do the tricks quickly, and move on before anyone sees through the illusions.

In the kingdom of the blind, Self's bunch of Harry Houdinis keeps making opponents disappear.

We can talk Xs and Os, and Multiple Offense 2.0, and faster tempo, more experience and depth, and so on, but really this is basketball Citizen Kane stuff. Orson Self.

We and other basketball coaches are under the spell of a master illusionist.

No one really knows how the hell he is doing this trick.

Not yet.

Seriously, who called KU Number 1 in January with Bragg and Diallo playing <15 mpg?

@globaljaybird

You're at the crux of it, but only Self knows for sure. Gathers could drive Self back to the Jam Tray. Hard to say. I would go with Hunter for your reasons, but man Landen needs a pat!

Bill Self went all X-axis in the face of so much stifling length on the Y-axis.

Call it Bad Ball Lite. Call it a home whistle. Call it thyroid height with slow feet. Call it whatever you want, but Self turned it into a FT (33 FTAs) and dunking contest (I lost count) and won it grinding away looking for seams in a zone of Lurches from The Adams Family of Irvine.

Oh, and KU outrebounded the Anteaters 35 to 28!

It was enough for the old trench fighter--Bill Self--to get all misty eyed about the beauty of ugliness again.

But this was Ugly Lite.

Frank and Devonte and Wayne and Brannen and Svi and Perry are just too purty now to ever get last season ugly again.

Still, a coach like Self had to have gone home to Cin and said, "Baby, it was almost like the old days. 17 treys was a little high, but did you see the guys getting down and scoring with a pair. Even Perry bowed up a little. But Opie and Luke....aw baby that'sa what I like! Chantilly Lace and a pretty face..."

"Bill!"

Grrrrrrrrrowl!!!!

"We aren't kids anymore, Bill!!!!!"

"I know, I know, but, man, it was sweet, honey."

Clearly a neural net for dunking just grew in tonight!!!!

It took C5 a half to find the way play against height C5 likely will not face again this season, but when Coach Bill Self gave the guys some stuff that worked, C5 proved once again there is no front court he cannot hold his own against. And if Perry Ellis had come to play the first half, C5 likely would have gotten untracked sooner!

Tonight it was Hunter and Landen that bowed up their necks and said we don't care how tall they are, when Bragg and Diallo got the willies in the red woods--the shakes in the sequoias.

Lucas really found his game out there and deserves a start to acknowledge a job well done.

At least 6 inches of Marmadukes height is in his forehead.

One thing I will say in favor of Perry's macho: he doesn't wear any girlie man lingerie!!!!

@HawkInMizery

Yes, why is he still spinning at all at this age?

Perry is like a smore: soft but sweet.

Svi looking good on d

I thought dunking was against Landen's religion.

Now he has new God!!!

If UCI just ran some old Casio Ed cutters by the UCI centers they could be in this game. Just a terrible passing team.

Anteaters hanging around by their tongues, but we separated again.

Marmaduke with a Wilt finger roll

Landen looks like a 2 guard on Marmaduke.

Hunter looks like a point guArd next to Marmaduke

It's nice when coach Self finally decides to give the guys a few things that will work. Just a few. He doesn't want to spoil them.

Buy some land in Southwest Oregon where there are no military bases to be targeted by Russian ICBMs, but not close to where the Trans Pacific fiber optic cable comes ashore, which will be targeted.

Read up on conspiracy theories that turned out to be true.
http://yeah.buzzlie.com/conspiracy-theories-that-are-fact/2/ ↗

Read up on false flag terror attacks admitted to by officials of states.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/false-flag-terror-a-historical-overview/5475591 ↗

Buy a six year supply of Badoit bottled water because it goes better with MREs than Perrier.

Buy insurance against insurance failing to pay off in a nuclear exchange.

Build a solar cell powered electric motor sailor trimaran capable of staying at sea for three years.

Re-memorize all the verses of "Its a Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."

Buy two dozen sets of back up strings for the old Martin D-body.

Buy and deeply bury 150 filled and sealed propane tanks for the Weber Smoke'n'Grill.

Buy two back up Weber Smoke'n'grills.

Order ten gross of Ex Officio travel underwear for use in a barter economy.

Buy up two shipping container loads of pornographic magazines for use in a barter economy.

Buy a new Stihl Chain Saw, a cutting torch, and a Stihl concrete cutter capable of sawing up building rubble.

Raise and up armor the old F250 power stroke.

Learn how in the hell to make the new Grundig Sattelit all-band radio work run on wood chips and manure pellets.

Get the hell outta Dodge.

(Note: All fiction. No malice.)

Dear Jim,

Why not just have Time Warner give KU all the benefits you describe, plus not black out the 6 games?

I don't follow. Run that by me again.

Why do you have to black out those six games to get the benefits?

Best regards,

jaybate 1.0
Director/janitor.
Basketball Intelligence Agency

@KUSTEVE

Marmaduke...LOL!!

@jayballer54

For sure their sort of size will reveal how many members of Composite 5 like the adversity of playing against much bigger guys. Fight in the dog, if you will. Self needs to know that for conference play.

Interestingly, Jamari is the most used to the struggle, so counter intuitive as it may seem, he might fare better than some of the guys that have never been 6 to 12 inches shorter before.

This is what makes the kinds of games so interesting.

@HighEliteMajor

Lol! Me too. We need a fool's gold game!!!

Size inside and a former NBA assistant coach define a team that returns from making it to the second round of the Madness last season.

The Anteaters also hold opponents to a slightly lower Ppg than Self's D-Hawks.

Self will relish turning this into a defensive struggle!

He might even be sucked into it when he shouldn't.

Beware pride.

The Anteaters have the size to release three to get back on defense each possession and turn this into a grind game.

Unless KU is hitting treys, this could turn into an epic Bad Ball slog!

Getting their bigs fouled up is job 1.

KU will try to hurry, when it can, but can it with three safeties and no rebounds?

The big Q is will UCI give the Trey and reduce KUs inside percentage to the mid .300s or guard the Trey and block and alter us on the drive?

I would Give KU the Trey, hope we are off, and completely shut us off inside.

Time to buckle the chin strap Frank. You are going inside tonight.

!HcknGWE.jpg ↗

@Crimsonorblue22 posted this picture of Joel Embiid getting the Cam Ridley treatment on another thread yesterday and it broke my heart to see it again.

OMG! OMG!

That image communicates, I believe, why Andrew Wiggins never appeared to play to more than 2/3s of his potential at KU.

If a superstar gives it everything in college today, unless he is assured of a favorable whistle that increasingly seems to depend on a lot of things that KU apparently lacks, said superstar is in grave physical danger IMHO.

Joel Embiid was one of two once-in-a-generation players on that same KU team.

It was the greatest pairing of talent since Olajuwon and Drexler, or Walton and Wilkes.

Coaches like Mike K and Rick Pitino both said more or less that Self had hit the mother lode.

Two potential NBA Hall of Famers, if both were allowed to develop over time without serious injury.

Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid.

IMHO, they were the two greatest raw talents ever to appear on the same college team. Period. Because Embiid did not grow up playing the game, Embiid was a year away from doing to college basketball what Big Clyde, Big Russ, Chamberlain, Jabbar, Walton, and Olajuwon had done before. Embiid in a sophomore season could easily have carried KU to 40-0 even without Wiggins.

And this lummox Cam Ridley was permitted without so much as a measly foul to imperil the career of one of the two greatest talents ever paired together: Joel Embiid.

THIS IS WHY THE GAME IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CALLED THE WAY IT IS TODAY.

The asymmetric foul calling is an underreported scandal. It encourages this kind of uncalled fouling.

Wilt Chamberlain, or Jabbar for sure, could easily have had this done to either. Wilt reputedly did leave the college game partly to avoid the risk of this sort of stuff, but the risk was so much less then.

There have been other great players lost to accidents and the game has suffered greatly from those losses, from what might have been but was not.

But those were accidents.

What happened to Embiid was only accidental in the sense that Ridley probably did not intend to injure Embiid as he did.

But it was no accident that Ridley played as he did then. The refereeing of the time permitted it, just as last season it permitted Perry Ellis to use his nose to attack Fred Van Vleet's elbow without a foul being called.

If Joel Embiid does not fully recover his athleticism, those that run college basketball carry the stain of what happened to Joel Embiid on their souls to their graves, even though their denial mechanisms assure them they did nothing at all. If they and I go to hell, or heaven, and Joel Embiid has never recovered his athleticism, I will personally hound them for the rest of eternity for the shit that they did.

Please, basketball god, let Joel Embiid heal all the way. Even after his ankle resolves, if it resolves, there will be the underlying issue of the back from the Texas game. The game needs another great center now more than ever.

Go, Joel, go!!!!!!