Bill Self - cost us the game?
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@HawkChamp Right. But that’s because his OLD strategy of trying to win every game instead of developing the best players during the season.
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Yes, Self cost KU this game. If you want to keep Doke in until you’re in the bonus, that’s fine. Keeping Doke in after that, not fine, especially on a night like tonight when he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Especially considering the defense isn’t a big drop off to Lightfoot and Lightfoot is an 82% FT shooter on the year. Even with a much smaller sample size, Lightfoot is the far better end game player on offense for KU because of his much superior FT shooting.
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Man O Man, I am usually 98% in favor of Bill Self’s coaching strategy and tactics. But his late gamble in leaving Doke in the game, embarrassing his big man and harnessing the other 4 Jayhawks on the floor…gee whiz, what a miscalculation from a HOF coach! If he pulls another bonehead move like this he is bound to lose the full determination of his squad. Heck, I’m an old retired track coach who knows very little about collegiate basketball; but I saw this debacle unfolding as clear as noontime sunshine. At best, the psychology will push Doke to work on his free throws; at worst, Bill placed the league crown in serious jeopardy. How’s the guy gonna get 4 nights of decent sleep before the next jump ball on Saturday?
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Is it possible Self was trying to light a fire in Udoka to work on these? There is no other explanation…
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@DanR Please share with all of us what you are smoking. If you think teams will not continue to do this from here on, you need to take a few days off. It will not matter whether it is in conference play or in the Dance. And Dok will not get much better shooting FT’s with his form. So I guess Coach can just let him work thru his issues and we can just continue to lose games. Now there is a great scheme going forward. NOT!!!
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Not trying to change Dokes ft mechanics midseason is almost as epic a meltdown as leaving him in the game tonight. Or actually could be a much larger meltdown. I absolutely 100% detest that decision. Maybe the dumbest thing I’ve heard yet. I mean seriously?? Do you think you’re gonna hurt his ft shot so bad that the percentage actually goes down!!! Or say it oh…idk costs us a game!!! He has ZERO mechanics now!!! Gotta be FN kidding me. Teach the kid how to shoot a damn ft…
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Hey @Big-Clyde52 I doubt we’ll see the same scenario again. Was there some reason why Devonte couldn’t take it right to the rim while Doke was planted in the corner on those four possessions? …I think we can exploit the poke-a-doke strategy better than we did tonight.
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@DanR This is different. This is free throw shooting. This is not playing through mistakes. Udoka made no mistakes. Udoka is shooting free throws like a deranged 4th grader who needs to be playing the trombone, solely because the KU staff permits it.
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Bad News: We all agree how and why we lost this game when it was ours for the taking. Good News: We are 6-2 in Big12, at this stage, and that’s probably what most of us thought going into the season. Bad News: In Big12 play, our avg. margin of victory is 4 pts. Our avg. margin on losses, 8 pts.
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@HighEliteMajor Play the best players, man. Everyone has some weaknesses
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@HighEliteMajor exactly. The comparison is laughable at minimum.
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@DanR And just how can we exploit it??? Please tell us. I want to win.
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Situation dictates who the best player is at that moment. Put your team in the best possible position to win, regardless of how that makes the player feel. You bring in Wade Davis to close the game, not pitch the first 8.
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You play the best FT shooters in crunch time when the opposing team’s strategy to get back in it, is fouling Doke.
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@DanR In that situation, Udoka is not the best player. Further, the “weakness” is situationally fatal. And we can see that it just cost us a game. Normally, the play best players is right (heck, nearly all the time). But good grief.
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@hawkmoon2020 EXACTLY! Please explain that to the people that are trying to smooth this loss over with whipped cream. JEESHH!
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@Big-Clyde52 Let him play harder and foul out! Unleash the beast.
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How many timeouts did we have? Could he have switched Mitch and Dok on offense and defense?
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@DanR Another great scheme!!
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DanR said:
Hey @Big-Clyde52 I doubt we’ll see the same scenario again. Was there some reason why Devonte couldn’t take it right to the rim while Doke was planted in the corner on those four possessions? …I think we can exploit the poke-a-doke strategy better than we did tonight.
Why wouldn’t opposing teams use the Poke-a-Doke strategy in close games late? OU brought a bench warmer in specifically to foul Doke to put him on the line. They fouled Doke as soon as the ball was brought across half court. This wasn’t a case of OU waiting for Doke to catch the and foul, they were fouling him when he was out on the perimeter doing nothing but standing there.
If I’m A&M’s coach or any other coach and KU has a small lead late, I’m fouling Doke and putting him on the line as much as possible and I’m bringing in a walk on for that specifical purpose.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 There you go. The situation has been exposed for the rest of the season. Every coach in the nation has seen it now.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 should’ve been intentional
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@HighEliteMajor I have disagreed with the strategy in the past of playing the best players. I thought EJ sucked compared to Brady, and was proven right in the end when he choked against Michigan. But, I’m sold now. Let them learn. Lose some games. Shoulder the responsibility of being the teammate that lost the game because you were lazy in practice and didn’t listen to coaching.
Then, improve in practice, and hopefully be ready for March. If not., fire coach Self.
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Big Clyde52 said:
@Texas-Hawk-10 There you go. The situation has been exposed for the rest of the season. Every coach in the nation has seen it now.
I think Bill knows this. We were 2 games up, we still have sole possession. Self probably thought, what the heck, we always win close games, hopefully Dok can come through and get some confidence.
What I HOPE Bill knows is that instead of saying afterwards that he (Self) goofed up, he should be saying that Dok needs to learn to make free throws. Otherwise he’s going back on his vote of confidence.
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@chriz I simply don’t get the “vote of confidence” point. Doke not making FTs is NOT for lack of confidence. It is that he has probably the worst FT shooting “technique” of any college or pro player I’ve ever seen. Definitely worse than Shaq. He can have all the confidence in the world - he ain’t making more than 50% of his attempts shooting them the way he does…
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Listening to Self in the post game interview, it was probably not Doke’s confidence on the line tonight.
Guess you have to see what you’ve got to work with in crunch time at some point.
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The idea that you can’t work on changing his shot at this point in season is just foolish. What’s he gonna do go 0-7? Big deal. From the sound of it the strategy isnt gonna change moving forward…
So… Same strategy, and same mechanics=??? I guess alot more “This is on me, I screwed up”
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So what about Vick, speaking about hurting our game tonight?
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@DanR For sure we can exploit it. Doke never comes out and we feed him the ball til we empty their bench. Lon didn’t out coach Self, Self stopped coaching.How does this weigh on Doke? If Doke starts launching 3’s from half court is Bill going to leave him in? If Doke tries to bring the ball up the court against a press, is that alright?
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@DanR Fair enough. Couldn’t he have seen that at any point up and until this game. If not, how about the first time they poked Doke? The second time? The third time? What, not even after the fifth time?
Stipulated that we need Doke on the floor as much of the game as possible. But in this game, Mitch had about the same slash line in 5 fewer minutes. More importantly, he is 14-17 from the FT line this year. I get you want to have your best players on the floor. But, in obvious fouling situations, a 40% FT shooter is not one of your best players.
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@cragarhawk “The idea that you can’t work on changing his shot at this point in season is just foolish”
I love this statement so much. Because it’s true. In a few months, I’ll be 60. Haven’t played competitive ball in 35 years. Haven’t played HORSE with my kids in the driveway for over 10 years. I’ll bet anyone on here I can go out RIGHT NOW - at 9:41 at night and by 11:00 I will have improved my free throw percentage by 50%.
It’s not that damn hard. You think " OH - I bricked that one, I’ll soften the next shot up a little “. " OH - that was was too soft, too flat, I’ll put a little more ooomph on it and a little more arc” “OH - I need to get my hand square under the ball and bring my elbow in closer”.
Not - OH - I’ve bricked the last 100 shots I put up, guess I’ll keep doin the same damn thing. OH - I must be doing it right because my dumb ass coaches aren’t telling me to do anything different and they keep me in here at crunch time so I can lose the game for my team and our fans.
I’ve said for YEARS that these prima donna college basketball players need to put in MINIMUM 2 hours practice per day on Free Throws. Good free throw shooting teams win championships. They’re FREE.
FREE POINTS.
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At some point, should the refs call it intentional?
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@HighEliteMajor He is clearly not doing the same routine on each shot (Free throw 101), and what I noticed tonight is he is not even looking at the freaking rim when he releases the ball. I constantly worked with my players to improve their form and routine during the season, and guess what? Most of them improved!
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Doke’s last free throw was at 1:56 and even with the miss KU was up by 1. Point taken about Doke and his free throws but in fairness, a second look at the final 1:56 is also relevant – a missed 3 by Graham, a missed 3 by Svi, and a missed switch on defense that cost us 3…to name a few.
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I see all of the usual Self defenders which is usually me but tonight Self should have pulled Doke. The fans knew it, refs knew it, and the opposing team knew it. Yall are saying keeping him in shows Doke that Self believes in him? Self made him stand in the corner after the time out to keep the other team from fouling him. So you handicap your team when the game is on the line? Might as well develope an inbounds play where you throw it to the other team. Or better yet inbounds lob in the opposing teams basket?
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Statmachine said:
Yall are saying keeping him in shows Doke that Self believes in him?
That’s what Self said in his post game interview
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Subbing offense for defense and vice versa is basic coaching. i did it all the time. It did not hurt the kids confidence. It let them know we were doing all we could to win the damn game!
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That’s bs. He just stood him in the corner so he wouldn’t get fouled. That sends the exact same message.
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cragarhawk said:
The idea that you can’t work on changing his shot at this point in season is just foolish. What’s he gonna do go 0-7? Big deal. From the sound of it the strategy isnt gonna change moving forward…
So… Same strategy, and same mechanics=??? I guess alot more “This is on me, I screwed up”
Sounds like the definition of insanity and the reason we don’t win in March. Self is still stubborn about things and that won’t change.
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DanR said:
Listening to Self in the post game interview, it was probably not Doke’s confidence on the line tonight.
Guess you have to see what you’ve got to work with in crunch time at some point.
Thanks captain obvious. Because none of us were aware that Dok is a horrible shooter (sarcasm).
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Next game I vote for inbounds lob on opposing teams basket! It would be far more entertaining.
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Self knew the risk of leaving Doke in
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We still had the lead, despite the 6 blown freebies
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?
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Victory/Loss
lessons learned… Self BLEW IT.
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Who would agree that Doke should have been called for a foul when he plowed into Young right before TY hit that 25 footer? They seemed to be calling every other touch foul.
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Sad part about it is the rest of the team could shoot from half court blindfolded at a higher percentage than Dokes ft shots tonight.
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@Blown even the announcer said so. The fans boooo’ed the refs until the 3 pointer.
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Young’s really good at making everything looking like he’s fouled
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@Crimsonorblue22 He got nailed on the push off tonight though, which was satisfying considering how often he does it.
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@HighEliteMajor This is what I have been spewing on twitter! What kind of coach(s) allows a kid to ever shoot a free throw like that? Thats the question I want Self to answer. They have had two years almost and this is the form they came up with? If aint broke dont fix it, well it is broke so fix it!
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All right. I’m done for the night. Hyperbole aside, I want Doke to be a guy that can be in the game at crunch time down the road.
Pretty sure Bill Self knows he could have won this one. Hopefully the team is better in the long run. Maybe there was some rope-a-doke going on for future games (what a set up that would be!), or he just gave the kid a chance.
