This KU Win Over Duke and the Refs Ought to Be Dedicated to All the Teams that Have Appeared to Have Had to Play Duke AND the Refs
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Nice post @jaybate-1-0 I think DG set the tone early by dropping a 3 from way deep like he has this year. He is indisputedly in my mind anyways, the leader of this team. Sure sometimes we question his decision making, but we’ve screamed virtually at Svi, Newmann, Vick and all the rest this year too for boneheadedness.
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I nearly pooped my trow when Malik’s drive ended with a foul on Carter.
The look on K’s face was priceless… you know what he was thinking, “how did they call that against ME!?”
Our guys got beat up in this game, and Duke should have been in extreme foul trouble all game. But it only takes one call not going their way and they are in trouble.
The refs are enablers for Duke. So they count on the calls… and it only takes one call to send Duke home. Malik received that call… and so it’s bye-bye Duke!
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I was there up close and personal. I can tell you with 100% certainty that the officiating was very much pro Duke. The whole building knew it. That 5th foul on Carter was probably the wrong call. But it was definitely needed after the multiple wrong and noncalls all game. Its just a great example of a team not letting the calls change their demeanor or how hard the fought. There’s always more you could have done to win the game even in those situations and these Jayhawks did that very thing. It was beautiful. We win that game by 15 if called evenly.
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Newman has been playing marvelously. His scoring and rebounding from his position have been exactly what our team has needed from game to game. He hasn’t taken over when he hasn’t needed to. He has stayed a part of the flow and scored within it until the team has needed a lift and he has given it to the team. Several of his plays yesterday were entering into that physical realm of how did he do that sort of stuff.
But so has Devonte. He just hit so many big shots the first 35 minutes of the game, when the rest of the team was finding a way to win the thing. These were shots that kept the game from getting out of hand in Duke’s favor. Devonte has played through what appeared a concussion a few games back. He hasn’t been as sharp, but the guy still plays 35-40 mpg and keeps being the bar tender that keeps tasting and stirring the drink to find the right mix. What was so unbelievably impressive about Devonte yesterday was that Duke was switching zones almost every possession, some times during a possession, and out of each zone Duke was doing some morphing (match-up) according to KU’s offensive sets. Remember, this was the second of 2 games in three days. KU had one day to prepare for 1-3-1, 2-1-2, 3-2, 2-3, 3-2 junk, and probably some stuff I missed. It was the MOST complex and difficult to recognize (i.e., best masked) multiple defense I have ever watched. This was a classic example of what the attack philosophy of the Marine Corp is about that Self has borrowed and adapted to basketball over the years. KU was coming ashore without time to prepare for every variation of zone Duke had waiting for them. KU only knew whatever it drew up to do against the multiple zone defense in anticipation would not turn out to be what it finally would win with. It knew it would go ashore with a strategy that would soon break down and turn into a kind of improvisational search for what might work as the minutes and circumstances of the game unfolded. Tactics became strategy. Tactics became strategy. Tactics became strategy. It was fitful. Devonte spent much of the game trying this and then trying that, and then trying the next thing. Frankly, I have never seen a point guard have to probe and reset, and probe and reset, and have one thing work awhile and then Coach K adjusted and Devonte had walk into the buzz saw and pull back with as little damage as possible and then start trying the next thing Self was asking for. It got to a point where even Self went dry at times on the attack tactics, though as @HighEliteMajor noted yesterday, Self’s defensive schemes were as brilliant as Coach K’s, but actually more bottomless in their flexibility and maneuver. It was at the moments, when nothing was working, when Devonte couldn’t tell who could “find a way” to get a basket, that Devonte’s steadiness was the difference. And steadiness has been a learned skill for Devonte. Last season when he was often the one Frank Mason would turn to to go off for a stretch, while Frank was finding a way, Devonte could go off like a Roman Candle the same way Malik did yesterday against Duke. This season early on Devonte went of for as many points as Malik did yesterday 2 or 3 times. These incredibly gifted athletes are great at going off. The next level, however, the one that Michael Jordan used to talk about and demonstrate, is finding the way for the team, finding a way to make the teammates more productive until the weakness in the opponents armor has finally been found and the time to strike a decisive blow is right. What Devonte did yesterday was keep everyone in the action for 35 minutes. What Devonte did yesterday was correctly identify and “find a way” through the bewildering defenses and no-call physical attacks on his team, while on offense, and then after a lot of trial and error, and retrial and re-error, and vulnerabilities found and vulnerabilities closed by Coach K, Devonte found the right time and the right way to get Malik, who was already cooking, to turn the burner all the way up and boil without burning the team soup. The number of correct decisions, both about what Self was trying that wasn’t working and about what Self was sending in that was working (both players and plays) was truly astounding. Devonte played the point guard position in what I would argue was one of the toughest tactical circumstances a point guard could face. At some points he was being fed new tactics by his Hall of Fame coach on nearly every possession and having to try to make them work, while trying to simultaneously recognize what the winningest college basketball coach in history was countering with in real time. This was a serious competition between coaches, not just players. Both men seemed to understand what each was up against. Both seemed to understand that to get by the other would deliver either to a point where the other coaches were not likely to be more skillful than the man each was facing in the KU-Duke game. In short, each man seemed to understand that a likely ring down the road hung in the balance yesterday. And each man was juiced about trying to get the better of his opponent as a professional test also. Rarely do we get to see such greatness meet when so much was on the line. It would have been more dramatic in the finals, but the competitive fury of both coaches could not have risen higher than it was yesterday.
There are very, very few college basketball point guards that could have processed and then executed all the tactical maneuvering going on by both coaches. Coach K for much of the game was simply maneuvering his team in real time at light speed, while Self tried as usual to wait to the second half to show his hand. But with about 8 to go in the first half, Self began pulling the wrinkles out right and left to try to keep the game from getting away from KU. He sensed a crack in the door where KU might separate a little too. It set in motion a coaching competition for the ages that I believe Self was not totally up to winning, as he so often can easily do against lesser coaches. Self is usually the one that injects the wrinkle that the other coach has no clue about. But every thing Self tried almost by the next possession Coach K had called in something from the sideline that countered and closed off what Self had tried. It was flipping amazing to watch. Coach K, loath him though I do, is GOOD, REALLY GOOD.
We were not watching Malik taking over this team and making it his yesterday.
We were watching something like The Lord of the Rings play out on hard wood. Self was Gandalf, the good sorcerer caught up in having to lead an unlikely alliance of players and talents into a battle with a head coach and program that often appear like the Dark Lord Sauron and the dragon that hides in ill-gotten gold and resists it being taken with the most horrific behaviors. The war between the forces of light and dark is often harrowing. The dark side routinely breaks all the rules it insists others play by and falsely claims to play by itself. But in the end such battles are not determined by Gandalf, or Lord Sauron, or even by one of the great warriors on the side of light, but by the forces of light learning to work together despite their differences and by their Gandalf recognizing an everyman hero among them that has the most unique quality of all among his followers–the ability to lead generously and without being overwhelmed by momentary failure and seeming hopelessness. Gandalf must find his Frodo. The great sorcerer must find his hero among those that actually live in Middle Earth. The everyman hero is often overlooked, or mistaken for not being up to the task. But the Gandalf, the good sorcerer, sees the potential and is both courageous enough to take the risk, and wily enough to by the time for Frodo to find that which was within him all along. Devonte fooled us all for awhile, because after last season when he went off like a roman candle so many times, we began to see him as something more dazzling than a Frodo. But Self saw through to the heart of Devonte. He saw the little everyman that would never give up, never cease finding a way, never hesitate to either take over himself when that was best, nor lack the generosity of spirit to set the stage for the one among them that could most effectively take over. Frodo in The Lord of the Rings is the embodiment of the everyman that must “be” a hero himself for all the other forces of sorcerers and great warriors to achieve what they might–to topple dark empires–to preserve what good remains in Middle Earth that has to be defended, no matter the cost. The first secret of the Frodos of the world, whether they really are little hobbits, or whether they really are great athletes as Devonte Graham is, is that inside they can find-the-way under the greatest adversity. The second secret of the Frodos of the world is that they know what their Gandalf’s know without knowing they know it in the beginning. And by the end, when they know they know the magic, also, they have a kind of supreme humility that allows them to return to normalcy until the next great conflict that requires them to find a way in order to preserve their Middle Earth. This is the rarest of rare qualities. It is so rare and precious that even Gandalf is in awe of them, because Gandalf the sorcerer understands deepest of all that victory is impossible without a Frodo willing to do what only must be done.
Malik played one of the greatest games I can recall. He scored the points and grabbed the rebounds that KU could not have won without and that down the stretch it seemed at times only he had the physical abilities and skills and daring to accomplish.
But the truth is all 32 points and seven rebounds would not have been enough, if all the other team members had combined for five points less than THEY did. It is a ultimately and indivisibly a team game. Malik’s great performance, without any of his teammates point productions large and small, would have ended in an L. All points, whether few, or many, are VITAL to win. ALL. ARE. VITAL. FOR. VICTORY.
So: because all points are vital, what matters most is enabling all to get all the points that are necessary to be gotten; this is why the point guard is such a vital position. He keeps the team from trying to score with the wrong man and keeps the team trying to score with the right one. He keeps the team trying to find the right way to win, while the opposing HOF coach and his gifted team trying to keep closing off paths of successful attack and draw him and his team down paths of deception. He has to become used to trusting that doors not yet visible will keep being found when all, even at times himself, are clueless about where any doors may be and how the ones known about can be opened…
UNTIL. THEY. FIND. A. WAY.
This win was a team thing if ever their were one.
Every player gave this team whatever it needed as soon as Self and Devonte could figure out where another door was and try it. Every player on the team backed off from what stopped working and followed Devonte’s lead to keep finding what would work. Every player.
A team is everyone that joins it and gives everything to it.
There is no making this Malik’s team now. Or anyone else’s that goes off in one of the next two games.
This is not Self’s team any more than the forces of light in middle earth were Gandolf’s team. This is not Devonte’s team anymore than the forces of light in Middle Earth were Bilbo’s team. This is EVERYONE’S TEAM!
And this is where greatness resides and does great things routinely in order to defeat the forces of darkness and the Dark Lord Sauron.
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drgnslayr said:
Our guys got beat up in this game, and Duke should have been in extreme foul trouble all game. But it only takes one call not going their way and they are in trouble.
The refs are enablers for Duke. So they count on the calls… and it only takes one call to send Duke home. Malik received that call… and so it’s bye-bye Duke!
PHOF
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@cragarhawk was self on them about the calls?
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The cameras limit what we can know and in a game when no-calling in favor of Duke appeared so prevalent it would not be surprising for the cameras to minimize the protesting responses to the no-calling; that seemed to be the case yesterday. I didn’t feel I saw as much of Self yesterday as I saw of Coach K.
But more likely I suspect, is that Self probably made a decision about not protesting before the game even started. Anything we can see, Self can see and see more deeply, because its his full time job to do so. Self it appears would be aware of the kind of no-call refereeing that occurs in games Coach K coaches. No amount of protesting and shaming has appeared ever to have diminished this apparently appallingly asymmetric refereeing in the past, so perhaps Self decided: why waste time and resources to protest and shame, when it doesn’t equalize the calls downstream? Why not just accept it and focus entirely on maneuvers and tactics?
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@jaybate-1-0 So does 36.1% count as our trough? We were fortunate Duke had back to back troughs mostly due to Allen and Trent. Villanova troughed HARD against Tech. Pretty sure the next one (like all the ones before it) comes down to 3pt shooting again. The team that shoots 40% or above wins unless the other shoots 50! I wonder if Mitch will get more play vs. Nova. Not sooooo big big men that can stretch it might fit his game a little better than the last couple. Also, with guards that do some posting, Mitch could be big with the help side blocks.
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@stoptheflop Svi played by far the best defense and hit the boards more than I have ever seen from him. I think his shooting was a little below par just from having tired legs (evidenced by being short on several) dealing with a much bigger player in Bagley, but he got the most important shot down.
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@jaybate-1.0 You are absolutely correct. TEAM win! Everyone contributed. Every contribution was critical to the win. Malik’s 32 points. Silvio’s hustle. Vick’s timely shots. Devonte’s poise and calming influence. However, my MVP for this game is Svi. 10 boards!? And that defense against a bigger and more athletic Bagley!? Tremendous effort. Svi played a man’s game yesterday and it was a pleasure to watch.
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@Crimsonorblue22 he did get in the refs ear a couple times. But for the most part he was just a smooth operator… Like he knew in his heart he had outschemed coach K and was gonna be happy with any ending that came about. Execution by the team was huge. Scheme all ya want of ya can’t get guys to believe and execute it will never work. Incredible job by the Coach and team. What an unbelievably fun game to be at.
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I seem to recall that Tait tweeted that Coach Self was laughing at the refs???
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@jaybate-1-0 Referring to your morphing zone comments, at one point it looked like they were playing a box and one where Allen was simply chasing the ball. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Hard to say whether the freshmen were out of position and he was just trying to cover for them or if that was the actual plan. It seemed somewhat planned as he slipped into the middle to take away the soft spot at the free throw line. But then he would just chase the ball for a while, which against KU is an ambitious task.
Totally agree about this being a TEAM now led by Self and Graham. Seemed like Vick had a lot of responsibility in trying to find those soft spots that were ALWAYS in different spots every time down the floor.
However, I did see a tweet from Quincy Acy about how he’d seen that play after the break that freed Silvio for the easy layup for four years vs. KU. He laughed that it was Tyshaun to T Rob for 4 years against the Waco zone! Rus Rob was also a great follow during the game. Awesome to see the passion for his old team mixed with the insider knowledge he has of Self and his systems.
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@cragarhawk heading south?
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@Crimsonorblue22 geez. I’d love to. But the $$. And can I imagine topping the atmosphere and the game I saw last night live? Idk…
I did promise after 2012 I wasnt missing the next time they make the title. I still blame @kjayhawks that we lost that one cause we didn’t go… And my bag was packed and in the truck…
So I plan to keep my word. If they make the NC game. I can’t break that
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Not to mention the fact that I’m so damn proud of this team. I can’t even describe it really. Really didn’t know if the 2012 lil Jayhawk engine that could would ever be topped in my lifetime. But I have this team right there. Maybe a slight edge. We’ll see how it goes in San Antonio
I should expand on this a lil I guess. It’s a matter of talent vs achievement. I believe the 2012 team to have been more talented than this roster currently overall. Yes minus Teahan. Although he played his part well.
We talk about ceilings all the time and I have this team on the roof right now and you know what. They may damn well be just about to take flight and say to hell with the ceiling and roof and all the rest of it. And if not. It doesn’t matter. Expectations met, surpassed, and then some icing on top to boot.
Self is absolutely correct. All they can do now is add to it
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@cragarhawk @Crimsonorblue22 I was looking at tickets and all I could find were $400 a piece. Yikes. I bought some a few years ago when they were in Dallas for $150 each but had to sell them when we lost in the elite 8. I was too superstitious to buy them again this year! I’m in Austin so it’d be a short drive but man it’s pricey. And we really need a new couch so that might win out on the finances.
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@benshawks08 to heck w/a couch!
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Thanks for focusing on Svi’s rebounding. We outrebounded Duke by a wide margin.
I’m so sick of hearing all the cr@p about it taking massive size (height and girth) to rebound well.
All we really need to do to claim the trophy this year is have everyone hitting those boards!
Svi was fantastic!
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@benshawks08 I believe Duke played a 1-3-1 zone for a few minutes which left Allen covering both wings at the baseline. KU carved it up pretty well and they got out of it after a couple of threes. Moving the ball quickly from side to side makes it impossible for the low man to cover.
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@Barney The time I’m thinking about wasn’t 1-3-1. I watched Allen follow Vick from the top left wing, through the pain to the other side almost all the way to the corner, then chase the ball across the arc as it swung the other way. Maybe he just got way out of position trying to keep the ball out of the lane, but it was the oddest defense I’ve ever seen. KU got the shot they wanted all day because they moved the ball and didn’t rush. Turnovers and missed open looks are the only reason it was close.
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@JayHawkFanToo Tait’s tweet: Self just laughing at the calls now… Seems like the officials do owe #KUbball one or two. Gotta force their hand, though. 57-55, KU, 10:30 to play. 5 replies 27 retweets 74 likes Reply 5 Retweet 27 Like 74
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@benshawks08 My experience when I lived in Baton Rouge in 2012. I couldn’t afford the tickets but I knew someone at the semis. I said if we beat OSU find some sad sack buckeye fan or Louisville fan and offer them 100 bucks. He got me two tickets for a 100 bucks. I would guess most fans will sell through stubhub these days, but generally championship game tickets are relatively affordable. I would think if Loyola beats Michigan there will be even a larger sell off of tickets as Michigan fans travel well. Unfortunately (at least for this week) I don’t live in the south anymore and can’t be tempted to drive over to SA if KU makes the finals! Good luck!
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Boy there was one sequence early in the 2nd half. Duke tried to steal from De Sousa who I think slipped a bit too, and there were about 6 Duke hands in there poking scratching, clawing, grabbing. The play lasted about 10 seconds and the ball finally squirts free to Duke, and I think I saw K give a thumbs up to the referee. OK, I made that last part up.
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@cragarhawk I’ll blame you if the title doesn’t reside in Lawrence this season.
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https://www.primesport.com/d/ncaa-mens-final-four?national-championship
Cheaper than Stubhub currently.
When KU gets thru ‘Nova I’m packing my bags and hauling keister 10 hours south to watch the ‘Ship. I’m not missing another opportunity to be there, even if it’s the cheap seats!
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@drgnslayr I think you nailed it. It’s all about "want to ".
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Yes… and didn’t we prove it in this Duke game? They had us on size and we clearly dominated the boards.
I won’t even go off on my Charles Barkley soap box!
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For anyone interested in knowing, our nosebleed seats in the Superdome weren’t terrible. I thought I might watch the action on the screen, but my eyes were drawn to the court.
