Get Out Your Ka-Bars, Men
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(Note: a Ka-Bar is a combat knife carried by US Marines starting back in WWII. My father carried one. He claimed to have had the handle replaced with wind shield glass from a downed Japanese Zero after his small portion of Bougainville was secured. He carried that Ka-Bar with him the rest of the war and lived to show it to his son.)
There is nothing like a coach picking on a struggling player, when he is down, to make teammates rally to him.
There is nothing like a player taking a risk of further injury to help them all turn the tide to make his teammates rally to him.
There is nothing like a leader telling his besieged followers I will get you what you need soon , but it’s up to us now—we ARE the cavalry, to make a group get serious about finding a way to win.
Self is telling his troops replacements are coming, but it’s up to them to hang on now.
But, just among us virtual swab jockeys, it looks more like he is buying his troops time and belief they need to figure out how to win by themselves on the rock they are stuck on, , than that two new aircraft carriers—the USS Preston and USS DeSouza—are really steaming out of the ship yards back home and coming to the rescue.
Look at what Self has scrounged up so far for the sake of morale: a.) a 6-7 260 football player named Sosinski he says cryptic things about and then cryo-ices; and b.) a a transfer that would be exactly the depth outside needed if he were capable that gets 2 minutes and shows nothing.
And except for wanting to believe in Santa Claus, who has ever heard of a college basketball reputedly found by police to have car he and his family did not buy that the NCAA ever said: “sure, you’ve set out a few games, go play now”?
DeSousa?
Outside of some tweets under alias, who knows if DeSousa even exists? Self could have made him up out of thin air based on some guy he read about on a scout sheet Bob Hill gave him last summer about Eurasian players!
Who has taken a college admissions test that thinks they could dramatically improve on in a retake shortly after without taking one of the long preparatory courses?
And even if DeSousa exists, as someone that wants to come, improves his score sufficiently, and joins the team, how long would it take for a newbie from Catalon, or wherever, to do more than take up more cryo-ice?
Admiral William “Bull” Self seems to be buying time for his beleaguered Marines to find a way themselves.
Get out the Ka-Bars, men; this could get hand-to-hand!
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@jaybate-1.0 Bad ball is back. The hi-lo is back. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Newman, rub some dirt on it. “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you somebody whose had a lot of practice at it. We want tough hombres that will go out and win”. I’m not sure who said that, but when I was a much younger man, I worked in a trophy shop, and that was engraved on the wall.
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Self - “To be candid, Doke didn’t like me much this week, but he was great tonight.”
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@KUSTEVE To be honest, it’s times like these that I am glad we have Coach to play bad ball. With the concussion , The McDonald’s All American car, the Transfer starter that can’t get on the court, the next Dennis Rodman on the boards - who needs to retake a test to play, a 6’5" walk on playing major minutes at the Post, a 6’8" skinny backup Center and a great defense-no offense Freshman…
I can’t think of another Coach I’d rather have right now than Bill Self and his Ugly Ball.
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ka-bars indeed !!
Gotta love the analogy. Just watched the game on replay. Once again, as what happens to a blue blood program like us all the time, teams get up big against us especially when we are on the road… beating us is a lifetime event for many programs remember?? Nebraska played a REALLY good game in all phases- defense, shooting rebounding. They would have given pretty much ANY good team a real fight this night. Right now, unless we can get open and bury threes in a hurry to build a big lead fast, this team of ours is going to be in dogfights going forward. Azibuke is CLEARLY improving and not fouling out - much was earlier talked about on this site about this subject. This is a GOOD THING!. Defensively I thought we played pretty well considering Nebraska played a more committed effort on d. Will this team get better on D ? We can only assume yes knowing who our coach is.
And until we can get more bodies to throw into the fight, a) do NOT panic and b) grab your Ka-bar
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@wrwlumpy Remember 2012? We made winning by a nose an artform. He’s teaching them to be tough, and last night they were.
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wrwlumpy said:
Self - “To be candid, Doke didn’t like me much this week, but he was great tonight.”
Thanks for posting this!
It points to Doke “buying in” to the Self system. All players have to earn there way into this process. Self isn’t just going to give a player a free pass through his system without being pushed to his limits. That always brings friction from the players.
In order for players to improve at the highest clip, they have to be taken out of their “comfort zone” of play. That comes from being pushed… pushed hard! Players THINK they are putting “full effort” into play, and then our coaches continue to push them to higher plateaus.
Ask any Jayhawk ballplayer who has graduated through the Self system. They will talk about the level in which they improved their game. Most of those gains didn’t come easy.
Doke was a beast yesterday. If you can, replay many of his finishes yesterday and then have a split screen showing old youtube videos of Doke in high school. He is not the player he was two years ago, or even close. He is on his way to becoming a future quality NBA player. Contrary to what everyone thinks, just because he has his size doesn’t guarantee him a contract in the league.
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@drgnslayr He showed moves last night that were so far ahead of what he had done earlier in the year, it didn’t even seem like it was him. Also, his body is losing the baby fat. He looks a lot leaner, and healthier. He had a real nice put back, and is finally learning how to shoot that baby hook.
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The beast just got poked. He’s hungry too.
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Doke was great. Difference in the game for us on offense.
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I thought Doke’s presence of mind to heave the ball down the court with a handful of seconds remaining was also impressive, even while Graham was calling for the ball. Doke likely didn’t want to be fouled either. Vick sprinted and time ran out…game over.
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For sure! And he is developing a super soft touch. I just hope he can figure out how to shoot a respectable % from the FT line.
Also… notice his footwork. His footwork is improving dramatically!
I can’t recall EVER seeing a player improve so dramatically in such a short time. He went from being an overweight soft bodied big to being built rock solid. His aerobic conditioning is something he will battle with for a while. Few people can make a huge impact with that but it seems like he is capable of doing anything!
If I’m a coach at KU then I am recording every little advancement by Doke. You think you can recruit on that? Ha…
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@drgnslayr sounds like it was a really rough week for doke!
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Doke’s main problem is getting himself in potion to receive the pass or rebound. Jesse Newell (I think) had an article with side by side video of Lucas and Doke that showed how much better Lucas was at getting himself in position to receive a pass or to rebound.
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Good point.
Remember when Lucas would “set” himself in the post? He did so much better when he learned he was a much more dangerous target while in motion.
But Doke is a different breed. He has already surpassed Lucas in low post weaponry, even when catching the ball flat-footed.
It won’t be long before Doke surpasses other areas that Landen mastered. Doke is starting to look like a future NBA player. I just hope he will see he needs one more year before departing.
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Here is the link, I also posted it in another thread.
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Thanks for the link. Really enjoyed the split window showing Lucas vs Doke and how Lucas cleared more space early. Doke has a lot to learn.
At this point, he can make huge gains by just learning more fundamentals. Lucas was the master of fundamentals. I can’t really recall a better KU center strictly at fundamentals. Lucas made his “living” with it.
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Lucas was as technically sound as Tim Duncan. I think Landon would make an excellent big man coach with his solid technique and even keel personality.
