Cold vs. Colder: Cold Won!!!
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What do you do when your pre season AA PG candidate goes Pillsbury for 5 poptarts, your OAD 4 sits for car issues (?), your great perimeter shooters join The Icecapades, and UK sushi goes +8 in blocks?
Simple: guard, protect, and have everyone get on the glass, so that your footer that likes to grab not more 8-9 rpg doesn’t have to vary his routine. Oh, and play 5 guys 35-49 minutes each, cut Marcus Garrett to a bit part and give LIGHTFOOT a nano role. Bench? We don’t need no stinking bench!
It was vintage Self. Cal went back to the motel not quite sure how Self had beaten him. Oh he knew the basics: his UK players were so young they were up past their bedtimes. They think jump’n’block is team defense. They couldn’t hit spit. And so on.
But that only explains how Cal’s team of athletic foetuses lost. Not how KU won.
Short Answer: KU Self resorted to Self’s now ledendary little-of-this-pinch-of-that offense chipping away at a pyramid, which to the unfamiliar looks like magic, but to the familiar looks like Self patiently playing take-what-they-give-us-with-what-the cat dragged-in-and-didn’t-have-too-many-off -court-issues-to-play.
Defense. Defense. Defense. Even with no fouls to give.
The guy flat thrives on coaching through adversity. No Preston? No Problem! Five guys and Marcus-not-ready-for-prime-time Garrett. It was a chance for Azuibuke to learn to drag his wide load up and down the wood for 30 plus minutes. Really! This was probably the most dazzling accomplishment of any. Did Azuibuke ever play that many minutes in a serious game in his life? Doubtful. It was like watching a Sumo wrestler finish a marathon!
Self said he was proud of his guys.
Yup, sure should be.
And they of him.
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Turned out to be one of Self’s “grind games.” He loved it!
He also put Doke to the test, and Doke was pretty successful. Not so much on the glass, like he needs to be, but that will come over time as he learns how to seal the glass… something he never had to really do in high school.
But Doke showed us all that his conditioning is coming along well (thank you, Andrea!). I don’t think I can remember a player transforming his body as quickly as Doke has. Black made a fast transition, but not on this level. Withey took years.
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Doke has soft hands. He made some great catches on lobs over the top and converted (albeit with some extra steps a couple of times) them into easy buckets. If you could create a stat (shots at the rim has been created I think) that shows how close the basket the scorer is he probably set a team record Tuesday night.
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Too often we forget about catching the ball being a skill and the gift. Thanks for reminding us.
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KU Shooting highlights
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@jaybate-1.0 Carlton Bragg couldn’t catch the clap Thailand
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That pic earns you permanent induction into the PHOF!!!
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Wow! Two flipping PHOF’s in a row in one thread!!!
Way to go, chasing lump’s PHOF with another, Uncle Milty.
