FIGHT THE RIGHT BATTLE: LET JOSH HAVE A BRAND BUILDER IN LEXINGTON AND FUGGEDABOUT UK
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Self has always shown the wisdom not to get suckered into winning a noncon game that won’t change a thing in post season seeding.
He is smart about this.
A victory over U.K. that contributes to RPI probably will be devalued at the end by seeding committee discretion.
Board rats are being naive about the effects of time zone bias, bet balancing dynamics and television audience drivers, if they think a quixotic, long odds, noncon win over U.K. is going off set finishing second or third in the B12.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
Self should go to Lexington, start the starters for three minutes, attack, then pull them for ten minutes, play zone, walk it every trip, use the full clock EVERY possession by running the chop every possession, sit everyone hurt, the n put starters in 3 minutes, then pull them another ten mutes, repeat to the buzzer , and get the hell home with a low possession loss by 15-20.
Always live to fight the right battle another day.
NEVER FIGHT THE WRONG BATTLE.
The South would have lasted another 5 years, and found a deal with Britain, France, Spain, or Germany, who would have assassinated Lincoln for them, if Robert E. Lee had not lost his mind and fought at Gettysburg. STUPIDEST military move of all American history.
It is ALWAYS okay to lose a tactical battle not crucial to strategy. ALWAYS.
NEVER FIGHT THE WRONG BATTLE JUST BECAUSE IT IS A TEST AT HAND.
Churchill was correct to parry and retreat from 1936 until he could get the USA ON HIS SIDE in 1941.
Retreat is an appropriate tactic in any situation where your strategic interests are aided by retreat.
Those on this thread advocating retreat during conference instead of retreat in Lexington just are not thinking clearly on how seeding appears to work. Winning conference LOCKS IN more than winning a TV revenue builder in Lexington. Period.
Winning in Lexington leads into the great discretion of seeding committees.
Winning the conference leads away from the discretion of the seeding committee. Win conference and you are a lock.
Win in Lexington and the seeding committee can find a million reasons to slight KU in seeding come the March Carney.
If KU got mail at an EST zip code, then there would be more incentive to beat U.K. now. But KU is in CST. Period.
NEVER FIGHT THE WRONG BATTLE.
George Washington is how you lead, when force structure is decisively not on your side.
You fight a guerilla war. You fight and retreat, and repeat, not to win a tactical battle at all costs, but to buy time to amass force and prepare for a winnable strategic battle.
Self is a genius. He sees opportunities to win that escape many of us. He might see a way to win in Lexington, but I doubt it.
I believe he will try to set a tempo and a game plan to minimizes scale of losss and try to rest his key remaining players as much as possible, except for Josh. If Josh is not injured, Josh will be given the green light to have a brand builder and not worry about winning. I look for Josh to score 35-40 in a loss by 15-20.
It’s good TV.
It gets us another OAD.
It rests our injured players.
We live to fight the real battle: the B12 title.
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@jaybate-1.0 Sounds sane and good to me. This Bragg fiasco changes the landscape. I hope to see Frank get his 21 points, Josh tally a bundle. I don’t envision a KU victory.
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Nobody gave KU a chance in ‘88 either…at most of the rounds, particularly in the Finals. KU came running off the gate and punched OU in the mouth and kept punching and now we have National Banner hanging at AFH. Vegas opened with UK a 5 point favorite and it is now 5-1/2; they don’t seem to think it will be a blowout and they are seldom wrong. Never underestimate the motivation of the underdog. Just sayin’…
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I like the JJ part, not the losing part.
This is also a brand builder for coach Self, too.
Down to 6 rotation guys, hostile environment, blue blood opposition, prime time.
This game will say a lot about our team. For those predicting defeat, I feel oddly good about the game. Think about it. What game this season could provide coach Self more positives than winning this game? Might spice up the recruiting trail a bit.
Maybe we get Mitch Lightfoot with 20 points, 8 boards – if there’s a time for @JayHawkFanToo’s break-out guy to break-out, how 'bout tomorrow?
I’d love to see Frank solidify his POY resume, too.
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A break out like Perry’s at the Big 12 Tournament…I like it…
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@jaybate-1.0 JB…you remember what Wigs did against WVU in Morgantown? You definitely remember the result of that game, and his 40+ wasn’t enough.
Unfortunately in the B12, we need more than one OAD to go for 40+ points. The entire team will have to contribute. We all know this is way easier said than done right now.
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@HighEliteMajor Frank has definitely earned it too. It’s not hype or even a KU brand thing either. It has been hard work by Frank.
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If Mason wants to win POY this will be a big factor. Idk that JJ has it in him to score 40 points maybe if his 3 ball stays hot. We need score a ton in this game, I don’t care who actually does it but we wont win again only scoring 69 points.
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Don’t be fooled by others reasoning literally and fallaciously from examples with incongruent premises. It’s one of the oldest mistakes, or tricks, in the book. There is NOTHING analogous, even metaphorically speaking, about playing for a national championship in the NCAA and playing a television revenue builder non conference game. One you can afford to lose and so should treat it that way. The other is win or go home and so you have to try to win it however you can within the rules.
Anyone has a chance to beat anyone in the far tail of a normal distribution in any kind of game; that’s just mastering the obvious and being disputatious to build an argument on it.
When one uses comparison, especially metaphorical comparison, one is obligated to do so from similar premises. Use of dissimilar premises breaks the logical connection.
My use of war as a metaphor for basketball only has relevance, if it dramatizes some analogous strategic predicament found in war under metaphorically similar conditions, that can be used to illuminate the situation in basketball.
Comparing this U.K. -KU game to a 1988 NCAA tourney victory has no analogous context. One is a largely meaningless noncon game, while the NCAA TOURNEY OF 1988 was the time when a team is supposed to leave it all on the floor. There are no more battles to live to fight another day in the NCAA.
The crucial issue here is under the circumstances of a noncon game, what is the best way to play the game to maximize our chances of winning our conference?
That we have a chance to beat U.K. Similar to a chance we had when we won the 1988 NCAA is reflexive A=A thinking that is irrelevant to the crucial issue.
Rock Chalk!!!
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Agree, gotta play Self ball in conference to be in it to win it!
But the noncon games with U.K. that mean nothing but bragging rights appear created just to be branding games for OADs.
Obviously, if we had a full quiver of arrows, then we would play to win. But it’s really just an expensive scrimmage in our current condition.
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I just got home, havent read any headlines anywhere. I have to preemptively ask…What the Eff happened to Bragg???
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No one at this site appears to know so far.
I’m sure rumors are flying on other more heavily trafficked web sites.
Most here are focused on how Self might, or should, approach the UK game.
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@jaybate-1.0 JB, some were saying that Self wasn’t too worried about the WVU loss. However, I would think any conference win is important. The non-cons mean little to nothing. Also, there is a risk of injury too and it appears there were some non-con disagreements among the coaches, ie. Huggy mentioned they weren’t happy with the non-con games.
