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Since @jaybate-1.0 touched on “.82”, which can lead to a discussion of Self and his successes and fails as well, it is worth mentioning that, in my opinion, when you have a tough competitor, like Sherron or Mason or Self as a coach…sometimes you just give them the ball & let them ‘run’ the situation, as they obviously are good at it. In the case of Coach Self and his early exits, I look at it a bit abstractly: he’s a fiery competitor, we all know it. This is his baby. He’s almost always got it figured out, and its up to him and his players to solve (any) issues holding the team back, within the framework of what is possible with a given season’s roster limitations.
Fiery, competitive guys HATE to lose, and that usually works to their team’s favor.
Stated another way: Man, I’m not losing any sleep over the Kansas Jayhawks, even if they get bounced out of March Madness. Lose a game, meh… But lose our coach to the NBA or something, then its uh-oh!..(very hard to replace .82…).