Bill Self
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Won the league by two full games with this roster. This includes throwing a game at OU. This is one of his best coaching jobs. We saw how bad this team can be a few times this year, and Self mostly pushed the right buttons.
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Yeah, he is awesome… but he starts looking almost human when playing OSU.
I’d like to know what our problem was with OSU this year because both losses weren’t even close. I struggle to remember the last time a KU team was so dominated by a league team.
It wasn’t Durant-led Texas and it wasn’t Griffen-led OU. I really can’t think of a time. I think it would be back in the days of Roy… Maybe a Missouri team in the Norm Stewart days or OSU back in the Sutton era?
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I don’t trust HOFHCBS when he plays OSU. I really think he finds a way to get his teams to lose. I’m glad #14 wasn’t based on this game…geesh. I was afraid they would end this way by winning B12 and then losing in Stillwater.
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he has some kind of mental block against them. maybe stat fact check won’t back this up but bet his L W record is worst against them than any other league team.
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Self is a complicated human being, as we all are. Every meeting with Oklahoma state is a new circumstance. Self is always trying to make the team better. Coaches have long believed that a team can get overconfident from success. They can begin to let down, once they see how well they can play. I suspect today’s performance was tied up in self trying to take the team down a notch, and then it got away from him. The previous meeting KU may just have had some developmental problems and got caught on a game when Oklahoma State was playing well. Any coach at Oklahoma state has a pretty strong incentive to try to amp his Team up for a game against Oklahoma State graduate Bill self. You saw how they rushed the floor today. Self also is a coach simultaneously capable of great reason and quantitative analysis, while on the other hand capable of great emotion and psychological insight . He has a strong sense of legacy. When he talks of Allen Fieldhouse, he says amazing things happen in that building. That implies that self believes there are forces at play for beyond just executing and doing your best. Most knives have two edges. AcknowledgIng those dynamics help him with many games that he might but otherwise not win. Perhaps his being attuned to those psycho dynamics and legacyspirits can also work against him in a place like Gallagher-IBa filled with other legacies. Whatever, there is a lot going on under his hat.
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2 things I can promise you as long as coach Self is here, which I hope is a long time. 1, he will struggle against OSU, especially on the road. 2, he will struggle in elite 8 games if we make it that far. Those are two factual statements if you look at the numbers.
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There was a lot of home cooking at key junctures that altered the flow of the game. Bill rarely gets a T and the other coaches were seen laughing at the ridiculousness of multiple calls. It was atad farcical. The best part of the game was Silvio got some good minutes and he was stout on ths glass.
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I had always felt 2008-09 was the best coaching job. But that team had Collins, Aldrich, Morrises. This may in fact be the best. All I know for certainty is that there is not another coach I would rather have. A man of great character as well, which is something we can always be proud of.
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@HighEliteMajor I would agree that was his best job before this year. That 08-09 team had more talent and guys with N.C. experience.
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I still believe the 12’ title run ranks as his best coaching. This year is close right now though
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Question: Self said that OSU is more athletic than we are at 4 positions and about as bad a matchup as we can get. If that is the case with OSU, which beat the B12 best teams, but still lost a lot of games…won’t that be the case in the tourney somewhere? Then…aren’t we in big trouble?
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2012 I would think to be his best coaching job.
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cragarhawk said:
I still believe the 12’ title run ranks as his best coaching. This year is close right now though
Yeah Teahan was the 4th guard on that team which is nuts. That team could have just as easily lost any of those games though. Credit to Self and the team but that run was pretty lucky.
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@BShark very similar margin for error as this team had. Justin Wesley was the 4th big. Just don’t see how that wasn’t his best job as an Xs and Os coach. Of course EJ bailing us out was lucky. But no more than Marion’s triple.
2008 team he basically had a team that shoved their fists down everyone’s throats. 4 NBA level post players. NBA wing. NBA SG and an NBA caliber PG that just got fat. Not including one of the best defensive players to play the game. Had Julian stayed, that team may very well have gone undefeated.
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@Kcmatt7 I think there was a bit of addition by subtraction with Julian.
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If we also make a run to the F4 this year, then I think you have to weight this year higher than 2012 as far as HCBS’s best job. The drama of Preston, the much thinner talent pool, less experience in the post, adding a player mid year. I would see this year as much more challenging and improbable.
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@BShark I don’t consider it lucky it all. It was masterful. I’ll give that it took some luck vs Purdue 2nd round. Cause we just didn’t play that day. I was there. And it wasn’t fun till the last minute. After that. Coach had an amazing game plan. And the team 100% believed in it and themselves. His changing to box and 1/tri and 2 defenses at just the right time coupled with the ever building confidence of a group of kids that just plain scrapped their way to and NCAA title game…
It was a thing of beauty and why I say it’s Coach Self’s best job overall. I felt that team had zero business going that far from a talent standpoint. They gave a damn good fight to maybe one of the most talented college teams ever to play the game and had a legitimate shot of winning in the end. That game needed to be two minutes longer…
I feel much the same about this team and I hope Coach Self and Jayhawks make that incredible run 2nd in my list by seasons end. If not. For all of their limitations I am not disappointed in what this team has accomplished. Everything is icing to me now
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For some reason OSU is a bad matchup for KU. Hopefully KU does not run into a similar team in the NCAA. To make a run in the NCAA you obviously need some talent, favorable matchups, hope you don’t run into a hot team and a good dose of luck.
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I think the first OSU loss was a product of what this team was, and I think the last loss was the most predictable letdown game we could have seen. Hope we get them in the Big 12 tourney. That’s means they beat OU and the idea of OU possibly missing the tourney is very enjoyable.
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OU might miss the tournament but would they leave Trae Young out? Would ESPN allow it? I think Young goes in as a high #5 seed.
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For whatever reason, Self’s KU teams have a psychological issue with OSU in Stillwater. It may relate to Self’s background and maybe Self carries a funky vibe every time we step on their floor, or possibly for some other reason. The rest of the Big 12 has that funky feeling every time they enter AFH.
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Yeah, this is the best I have ever seen by any coach.
Any number of all time greats might have been able to do it, but I don’t recall any that circumstance forced them into doing.
The only thing comparable to this was the guys at NASA under Gene Kranz “turning this into this” to get Apollo 13 back.
I still have no clue how he did it.
I mean he shifted gears and redialed schemes so many times, that his shifting arm and dialing hand has to suffer repetitive stress syndrome.
It was virtuoso coaching in the middle of a fecal storm.
I don’t know how they won that game in Morgantown.
I don’t know how they won several games.
I don’t know how he masked how bad of a free throw shooting team this is.
I don’t know how he got so much scoring out of a post man that can largely only dunk.
I don’t know how he got by with Mitch as a back up.
I don’t know how he backed up all the perimeter positions when he only had Marcus Garret for a backup.
It is simply genius.
There is no other way to explain it.
Coach K, Roy, Calipari, these guys would all be .500 right now.
I’m not even sure Self knows how he did it.
That’s what makes me sure its a large portion genius.
Unless something comes out later indicating the college game is as fixed as it appears to be at times, this is the best coaching job I ever saw in a single season, even if he loses the first round of the NCAA.
If he makes a run for a ring with this team, then they should build him a separate wing at the BHOF.
Go, Bill, go!
