Amazing things happen in this building...
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That should be a new placard hung over the front door.
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@jaybate-1.0 Did you see where Selden goes up to Frank, and basically yells at him excitedly? They showed it several times on ESPN. I’m think Wayne is saying " hold up, shorty…this is MY TEAM !!!"
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I like the banner that used to show up from time to time…
Yes…that just happened!!!
Or words to that effect.
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I don’t recall it, but it sounds terrific.
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It was group of student that would unfurl it after each of KU patented runs. Maybe they have graduated but it sure seemed appropriate at the time…and yesterday…
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Selden was trying to run the show. He was calling or the ball and also getting open so the ball would come to him. These are the two things you have to do at crunch time to be “the guy” on a team. One or the other isn’t enough. If all you do is stand around an call for the ball, you teammates that are trying to keep it moving are saying why don’t you join the team suckah. If all you is try to get open, the ball may, or may not come to you if someone else is trying to get open.
Get open AND call for the ball.
Calling for the ball is not always, or even mostly, shouting for it.
Calling for the ball happens with body language. When you move, you move not just to fill spots at learned spacing, but instead you are moving in for a kill. Your teammates that are not really good enough to create the space to get a shot against whomever they are up against are desperately looking for someone that is moving like they intend to score.
Selden’s problem all season is that he has not been moving in for the kill. He got it in his head that waiting for the game to come to you involved filling spots and not letting the ball stick. But when you are the man on a team, when the team needs a basket, you have move around the floor like a shark looking for the kill, so your teammates are thinking, “Yeah, KUSTEVE IS ON THE PROWL. He wants the ball. The minute he separates I’m getting it to him.” Players familiar with each other can feel when their “go to guy” is on the prowl, when he is moving like it is time for me to do something for the team. Michael Jordan wasn’t a dangerous killer only when he had the ball. I bet if you asked a lot of defenders that guarded him they hated it more when he did not yet have the ball. When he had the ball, at least you knew where he was coming from, even if you did not know which way he was going. But when he was without the ball, he was moving you around like a cat moving a mouse around before he pounces. And you were never sure when the ball would be delivered to him and what angle he would try to attack you at. Selden has not, until the second half of the Florida game, played without the ball like a predator stalking his prey. So: teams have just hung back and jumped into advantageous positions on him, as he started from his heels when the ball came to him. The second half of the Florida game Selden was stalking his opponents without the ball. He was looking for positions he could kill them. When one does this, one starts not on one’s heels, but already in a dangerous direction moving to the kill zone. It makes you very much harder to guard. And the more you play this way the more you can then occasionally step back and get your teammates involved because everyone has begun to watch out for you. Back and forth it goes. Predator after prey, then involve you mates, then back to preying without the ball, then more kills, then involve your mates. Selden was doing none of this before the second half of the Florida game. I have no idea why, except that he may have been unnerved by how much explosiveness he had lost. Frankly, he wasn’t very explosive against Florida that second half. What he was was incredibly strong in his moves. Self even described Selden that way. He said something about Wayne being one of the strongest 2s in basketball. Self has been trying to get Selden to play strong, since his explosiveness has diminished. And in Self’s mind, strength was probably always Selden’s long suit anyway. But Selden has had to change the way he thinks. And that is once of the hardest things for one to do.
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@KUSTEVE Yeah I saw that! Wayne was pumped up big time! I couldn’t read his lips well enough to understand what he said to Frank.
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@jaybate-1.0 Explosiveness. Thats a confusion term to me. I see Selden finding an angle, beating his man off the dribble and slashing to the rim for a bucket, lay up or jam. He did that a few times last night. Is that not explosiveness? Is explosiveness that super quick first step off the dribble that gets you past your man and able to jump eye level with the rim like Wiggins does?
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A lot of these terms fairly recently coined by coaches to capture some new aspect of the game.
They usually sound accurate at first, but then reveal themselves to be pretty fuzzy.
Rim protect. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean blocking, or altering? Or standing in front of the rim and letting no one get right at it? I think it means all three. To do all three is to protect the rim from being scored in.
Explosive gets used a couple of ways too. I use it to describe a player’s ability to go from guarding a spot to guarding beyond it. Good players can guard a spot, or a player on it. But it takes some special strength to explode out of one spot and onto a line, or onto another spot,where the action has shifted suddenly to. Svi is long and can run fast. But he is not yet strong enough to explode off his spot to help another defender, or block the shot of another, or go get a rebound away from the man/spot he is guarding.
Selden started out very explosive last season, but his knee injury reduced his explosiveness. He found it harder to get off his spots and stay with his men. He grew less able to explode out of his position and help stop another player. He lost his ability to explode up off his spot to block shots, and to get up and jam it at the rim.
Jam Tray, despite his limitations in some respects, has always been able, even at only 6-6, to explode out of position and get a block while helping on another much taller player. whe
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My favorite sign shown on tv was the final MU game. “Now you’re Kentucky’s bitch.”
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@jaybate-1.0 I love the predator stalking his prey analogy. Great post and insight as always!
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Thx
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Highlights from last year’s Hoya game.
Last year, Landon, Frank and Wayne had an amazing game, but Jamari will be missed tomorrow night.
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A lot hinges on Perry Ellis.
His points are very hard to replace.
He Houdini’ed the first of Florida, but came back and contributed the second half.
He doesn’t have to get 17 every game, but he does need stay in double figures.
As for the rest of the bigs, first objective will simply be to avoid becoming enveloped by Georgetown Jabba. If you get in too close on him he will just ooze around you while you are suffocating and dunk on you.
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I like your analysis on rim protection, but I would take it a step further.
Rim protection is about protecting the rim and the area around it, the same way that a wall protects a city or an army defends a castle. You’re not just protecting the rim - you’re protecting the area around it.
In the NBA, they have the “restricted area” where you cannot draw a charge. That space represents the most important 3 feet on a basketball court. If you win those three feet, you control the layups, the rebounds and the pace of the game. If you do not control those three feet, well, good luck trying to win.
You have to be able to protect those three feet. The easiest way is with an athletic big along the lines of Patrick Ewing. That makes things really easy because you can protect the rim with one guy.
If you don’t have that, though, you can do so strategically through positioning and sound defensive rotations. This method is harder because if one guy is out of place or late, the rim is left woefully unprotected.
