Suddenly... Strategy Counts And Points To A National Championship!
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Over the past 13 seasons, we have been able to take a kind of “elitist” attitude to Kansas basketball.
Who can argue with the results during conference play? 13 consecutive conference titles sits atop the NCAA record book!
But this year has been a different kind of year. In the past, a typical conference season starts off with a hot Kansas team, getting out of the blocks quickly and forcing the rest of our league to catch up. We didn’t pull away this year. In a typical year, we don’t lose a home game, or in the most, we lose one home game. So far this year, we have already dropped 2 conference games at home and we will continue to be tested at home.
In this atypical year, perhaps we need to adjust our strategy moving forward.
In those past “elite years” we carried an attitude that we were the team to beat in the league and were superior to the rest of the conference. So our strategy was to focus all our attention on our own game and not focus on the teams we played and how they could challenge us. This meant a limited focus on scouting our opponents and then putting energy into unique strategies to practice on in preparation to the games to be played.
I believe in those past 13 seasons we also took our “elite attitude” into March. Just look at how we have been beat in March, often by clearly inferior opponents who specifically came at us with a customized game plan on how to win.
I’m not trying to make this an attack on Coach Self’s approach to the game. He’s a HOF’r and well-deserving of this accolade! I’m just bringing a topic we can discuss that seems to be the best time to talk about it because of the uniqueness of our team.
I still see this team through a half-full glass. We are stocked with talent, and in some areas, there isn’t another team in America with more talent (when considering our experience)!
Our biggest weakness appears to be the lack of depth in post players. Granted. But a “glass half full” perspective must see that we are easily one of the best teams in guard strength! The 4-1 offense is the right approach, not only because of the weak post depth but also because of the strength of our guards!
We have opportunities with this team that NO OTHER TEAM in America has! Our biggest strength on this team must surely be “team handles” and “team speed” and “team passing”… three areas where we have not taken advantage of in most games.
Our game with WVU this Saturday is the perfect opportunity to use a completely different strategy than we have run against them in past years. In the past, we always had a preparation strategy of trying to survive their press. So we went into the practice gym and ran our guys against 7-man presses in order to learn to deal with the pressure.
This year, why don’t we focus on the STRENGTHS of this team? It is doubtful we will ever have a better team to battle WVU. We shouldn’t just be “surviving” their pressure. We should be “attacking” their pressure! We should instantly show our superior handling, passing and speed by aggressively building a huge lead that not only helps us win this game, but puts WVU back on their heels, forcing them to try something else… something that is not where their strength exists.
Amazingly… our biggest undeveloped potential is in the area of “secondary break” offense. We have done a poor job with this all year. Our SB offense execution has shown us all that we do not put enough focus and energy on this in practice. Instead… we just focus on our half-court motion offense. We see how our half-court offense is largely based on a dribble-drive motion offense where our guards often take a one-on-one approach of driving on their defender, into the paint, and either finishing at the rim or feeding out to an open trey shooter. These same skills are often needed to execute a very successful SB offense. But when we do get into the open court on offense, we usually pull the ball out instead of attack the rim. This is one of the main reasons why we rarely make it to the FT line.
If we focus on SB offense, this Saturday, we should blow out WVU by 30+ points! And the really great news is… we will finally start taking advantage of the real strengths with this team!
As we sit today, we live off the trey line. We do get some offensive help from Doke… big time… but we can’t count on Doke’s offense to rescue us, largely because of potential foul trouble. We all know what this leads to in March. It only takes one game where our treys aren’t dropping but our opponent’s treys are.
If we add in the most-effective SB offense in the nation to our toolbox, we will have another tool that can help us win and help us from strictly relying on trey shooting.
There is NO REASON why we can’t become the most-effective SB offense in the nation as this season closes in on March!
Let’s treat this Saturday home game with WVU as an opportunity. Let’s realize that we are not superior to any team in America if we don’t apply a strategy unique to our opponents. Focusing on SB offense is a definite strategy we can apply on WVU, and we can continue to develop it for the rest of the season… finally taking advantage of the STRENGTHS of our team!
Rock Chalk!
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really good post.
Secondary Break isn’t something we’ve talked a lot about this season . Honestly I’m not sure this team has the personnel or depth to execute the Secondary Break that well.
Roy Williams still runs it to a T but we don’t have Roy.
Last years squad was able to run SB because Mason & Jackson were athletic freaks and were assassins driving into the lane.
I think Self has abandoned certain elements of strategy this season because he realizes the limitations of the team. We have one ball handler, one elite’ish level passer on the entire team and zero dependable depth at multiple positions. Everyone else does enough to keep things chuggin’. Pushing secondary break could actually backfire. I see our tempo # has started to drop into the 100’s in D-1. Self is using strategy to maximize his team’s offensive strength while limiting his teams exposure on defense. Launching 3’s, running half-court offense where you can ISO your big that’s #1 in the nation in FG% and letting guys go make a play has largely been the most effective approach for this team. The 4-1 is who we are and it might not even be a 4-1 that you would expect. When you only run 7 out there consistently you just hope you can survive!
I just hope we can sweep West Virginia. The place should be rocking.
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The current situation is not unprecedented. In the 2012-2013 season KU and KSU were tied for first with one game left. KU lost to Baylor and then KSU lost to OSU and the teams ended up tied for 1st; a very close call. Not the only time KU shared the title during the streak.
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We should stomp WVU with this team… especially in AFH.
I screwed up in my main post by not putting in “primary” along with “secondary.” We should have more opportunities with primary finishes because WVU is quick and their defenders are stuck on our guys. I know Konate often waits at the rim to get his blocks. No problem. How about our guys learn to pull up just a few feet out from the rim? Or… take it to Konate and use body between the ball and go into his chest? He is a solid defender, but a good offensive player can always take it to a good defender.
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Take care of the ball, no stupid fouls and no injuries in pregame and we will run away with a W!
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@BeddieKU23 My personal opinion is we have always done a poor job attacking pressure, no matter who we have on the floor. 2008 came closest to being a decent fast break team. It was quite a culture shock for those who loved Roy’s fast break offense when Bill took over.
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@BeddieKU23 We’ve got a one man wrecking crew for the break : Mr. Newman. He is the one guy that is very good taking the ball to the hole. The problem is we don’t space our players right, and we aren’t very good at advancing the ball through passing, so I’m not sure we can get him the ball in the right spots.
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The key is that we finally learn how to finish at the rim when there is a shot blocker waiting. We haven’t shown that skill yet… and in some of these games we give our opposing shot blocker a record-breaking stat night!
I can’t help but think all the way back to a game we had against Kentucky… didn’t they have something like 16 blocked shots? Ridiculous!
I’m pretty sure this game will be decided by the outcome of Konate. If we play it wrong, he will have 10 blocks or so and stay in the entire game. If we play it right, he will spend half of the game on the bench with foul trouble or just not have many blocks because our guys pull up.
This is why I mixed my original post with the idea that we must customize our prep to match the opponents we face.
All our guys today need to get some tips on how to score on a shot blocker. They have to take it to the body of the blocker and use their body to shield the ball. If you really want to foul out the blocker, use one arm to shield the ball, too, so he will have to foul to get to the ball, and then go strong to the rim, preferably with a two-handed slam. You use your arm by putting that arm between the ball and defender. Never two-hand slam aimed “direct on” to the rim.
Another trick is to see the defenders arms and intentionally rake your arms over his. Trae Young did this masterfully in a recent game on a 3-point attempt that earned him 3 FTs.
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KUSTEVE said:
@BeddieKU23 My personal opinion is we have always done a poor job attacking pressure, no matter who we have on the floor. 2008 came closest to being a decent fast break team. It was quite a culture shock for those who loved Roy’s fast break offense when Bill took over.
I agree with that.
KUSTEVE said:
@BeddieKU23 We’ve got a one man wrecking crew for the break : Mr. Newman. He is the one guy that is very good taking the ball to the hole. The problem is we don’t space our players right, and we aren’t very good at advancing the ball through passing, so I’m not sure we can get him the ball in the right spots.
I’ve been impressed with Mr Newman’s driving ability as of late. I think its his biggest strength compared to his outside shot that comes and goes. He has really improved his strength here at KU to absorb contact and finish. It’s important Malik continues to be aggressive for this team
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Difficult to play fast when KU normally “walks” the ball up court to spare wear and tear on Devonte and shorten the game.
