Texas Tech Win: The Death Of Feed The Post
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For sure. I think opponents have no clue what KU’s tendencies are right now, so they are scheming for what Self did the last game, and self is changing game to game.
Against UNLV KU shot treys. Against Baylor the bigs attacked. Against Tech Perry shot treys and other bigs attacked.
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@jaybate-1.0 It’s like a box of chocolates= you never know what you’re gonna get. Momma always said " Shoot the trey, Jayhawks"…
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@jaybate-1.0 Do you know if there is software existing today that can monitor body movement on a basketball court and translate it into useful data?
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Nice Post HEM–Though I agree with the post, I found it interesting that Self brought Mickelson & Lucas in to get some ‘work’ in. Maybe that was his way of being courteous to Tubby without telling the team to slow down.
What I was most impressed with about yesterdays game was that the team stepped on the pedal and continued to step on their throat. As far as I can recall, it has been a while that Kansas built an early advantage and didn’t let off and play to the opponent in the second half. That is a great character trait for a team to have if they can build on it.
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@Blown said:
@jaybate-1.0 Do you know if there is software existing today that can monitor body movement on a basketball court and translate it into useful data?
http://www.mavs.com/nba-introduces-next-level-analytics-with-sportvu/
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@twocoach said:
http://www.mavs.com/nba-introduces-next-level-analytics-with-sportvu/
Thanks, as it were, I’m decades behind an invention. One of these days I’ll be on the front end of one!!
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Even though this victory WAS against perhaps the weakest team in our league, the Jayhawk Nation celebrates joyfully at the manner in which Self allowed his squad to play. Rightly so, as this change-up has been a long time coming. Just imagine the relief and joy felt by the likes of Perry Ellis who has so often been throttled by opponents who have figured how to stop his post moves as the season progresses, a season deplete of a talented tall post player to work alongside him. The criticism heaped upon him recently should more justly be shared by the coaching staff. I figure that we might be premature in claiming that Self’s customary “feed the post” approach is dead and buried. The Guy has built an amazing career and record, holding true and steadfast to what has worked so effectively well over 80% of gametimes while at KU. Man, is he ever pulling at his deeprooted molars this season!!! Looping them with 200 pound test monofilament tied to a Mac truck! Now it is obvious that he is capable of pitching some major change-ups depending upon time, place, action. Perhaps we will see a less predictable Bill Self when the mid-majors arrive to throw their practiced curve balls in late March. This was a fun win for most everyone concerned with Jayhawk Basketball. Here’s hoping the Guy was able to sleep well…
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@Blown said:
@twocoach said:
http://www.mavs.com/nba-introduces-next-level-analytics-with-sportvu/
Thanks, as it were, I’m decades behind an invention. One of these days I’ll be on the front end of one!!
I only know of it because I happened to catch a recap of an interview with Mark Cuban on the radio driving to the KU game yesterday. XM Radio is a glorious thing when it’s a three hour drive to the game!
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@Crimsonorblue22 It will be a completely different feel with Marcus Smart and Markel Brown gone. They are a 2 man team. Forte and Nash. Both guys can score a lot of points but I think it will be hard as they are both going to be the entire focus of the KU defense. I am not brimming with confidence because we beat Texas Tech…I just don’t think OSU is very good. They don’t play great D and if Nash or Forte get in foul trouble it is going to be a very long day for them. I see KU winning this game by 15.
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Congratulations Christian Garrett nice bucket! Long time coming. I am pretty sure about what he dreamed about last night and for years to come!
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Thx. Very amazing.
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Return of the lob! Love that Self is adapting. I mean, if the strategy he had working was doing him wonders for 10 years +, I understand why it would be hard to change his game plan. We have some pretty darn athletic dudes with great basketball instincts, but the first half of the season they didn’t show that basketball IQ. Guys are looking more comfortable, you could see it when they starting running the ball more. Why is it KU looks so uncomfortable in half court offense sometimes (and has for years, not just this year).
Was great to see us give another team a thomping, going to appreciate these games so much more now that they’re not as regular.
PS- Maybe we should try pack line defense a la UVA?
(Shameless, but I live in Charlottesville…)
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Great win, great to see Garrett get his first points and the reaction on the bench was priceless. Now its time to get ready for a real game which should be a good test for us to get to 3-0.
A few notes from the game yesterday.
Graham is the missing link. I didn’t think we would see him do that well in his first game but I think most of us have to be pleased how well he did. He makes this team that much better having him available. Just totally changed the dynamic of this team. I’m excited to see what he can do going forward.
Ellis Ellis Ellis. What are you doing near the hoop. Remember the play in the first half wide open slip to the basket off a screen, what does he do panic go up half halfheartedly and missed badly. No foul drawn, no points, nothing. At the least, he should have gone up strong and gotten 2 FT’s. He’s scared in their its almost like a 6’4 guard the way he is shying away from even trying to play tuff down low. If he’s going to hit perimeter shots that’s fine, but he’s proven to be inconsistent this year in doing that. It also has him 15-20 feet away from the basket with no offensive rebounder so its feast or famine. I’ll believe this “fools gold” outside shooting from him if he does this against Oklahoma St.
Great games from Cliff, Jamari, & Oubre. Mason as well, without Frank this would be a bad season.
Hard to believe Lucas was starting for us earlier in the year. At the end of the first half he gave some of the worst minutes I’ve seen from a KU player in years. Man I expected him to be better than he is. That missed dunk/layup I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit.
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@jaybate-1.0 Waayyy off topic but it was and is literally frozen rope here in Vermont. a few nights ago it was -15 plus windchill and its still barely in the teens here.
Ok, back to topic @DinarHawk I think @HighEliteMajor is right. They played basically the easiest team in the big 12 and they didnt just pound it inside. I didnt see hardly any hi lo action being run. There were a ton of drives into the post for feeds in the post or kick outs to shooters.
IMHO they were Practicing what they will need to do against the brutal schedule coming up in order to get some big W’s. They are going to need all that practicing. As we have seen so far, Anybody can beat Anybody. No game is a gimme, from here on. TCU and TxTech are still 0 fer but Kstate, who also was 0 fer just beat a very good OU team. And Okie state just beat Texas. As I said, its going to be a dog fight unto the breach of Big 12 play. Now that CS has apparently realized this teams strengths, truly, and seems to be scheming his game plan fluidly, from team to team. They are going to be hard, hard, to beat. Perry NEEDS to keep picking and popping for treys and needs to keep getting his quick post spin moves for And ones. WIth Devonte’ back and Mason being Mason, we are back at the top of the conference race once again. If we can get thru January protecting our home court advantage and steal a couple W’s on the road, I really like our chances to bring home #11. And, I really like our chances to make a longer run in the NCAAs.
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@jaybate-1.0 Coach took a year to get to your idea about Perry- move him to the 3. And, we see the results. Nice call, Nostradamus.
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@HighEliteMajor First offensive set of the game for KU was the double screen back door lob to Kelly—& finish with the flush !! Now THAT’S what I was talking about last week.
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From those highlights, I was fortunate enough to be on hand yesterday to witness Christian Garret’s first official career field goal. Kid’s been in the program for 4 years, originally invited to help attract Deandre Daniels. It was a really nice moment, not just to see a walk on score, but one who’s been waiting so long to make it happen.
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@brooksmd - Yes, that was for you.
@jaybate-1.0 - That is progress. But here’s Self’s quote from yesterday about Perry - “He can be more active. Making threes is good. It’s not what will win us games in tough games on the road. He will have to get a basket down tight. But we know he has the talent to do so. Today was a good step, the lid came off,”
Self wants it. He dreams about it. Throw it inside, get the easy bucket. I’m sure he waxes philosophical about the angles that TRob got back in the day. It may happen from time to time, and it may happen frequently against certain opponents, but getting that basket down tight is the path of most resistance this season.
Self’s quote from yesterday, once again, incorrectly demeans or at least diminishes Ellis’ contributions. He wants more from a guy that can’t give it. I think it is completely unfair to Ellis. Accept the guy, exploit his positives.
I say that, but in reality, this is what has occurred recently (but for Baylor, related to our zone attack). Ellis has been able to exploit his advantages. .
But here’s another thing. Self is dead wrong in his statement. Can Ellis making threes win us tough games on the road? Of course it can. It’s as simple as math. A three from the top is worth more than the easy basket near the hoop. If Ellis is drilling threes, we’re scoring. It stretches the defense, as well.
Self, though, was more likely referring to the reliability of that type of scoring. He’s just saying “Fool’s Gold”, but in a different way. Is he right regarding the reliability that I am assuming? Perhaps. But he continues to reference and wish for something that just isn’t there. When you have a team that makes 65% of its shots at the rim, the math makes sense. We just don’t have that. And we can’t wish it to be true.
Perhaps I should stop worrying so much about Self’s words. Yesterday spoke volumes in my opinion. Self didn’t force the inside-out dogma in the second half. But there is a chance of a reversion to prior form, much like the recurrence of cancer. There’s never a good time for that type of news. That chance is always there.
The most likely timing of the reversion is after a loss or two, where our perimeter scoring slumps (which is certainly likely here and there). I can envision Self making it a big post game issue. How we aren’t scoring inside, and we can’t win the conference on the perimeter. And that the loss in question is the perfect example.
Here’s hoping Self can realize that we will lose, and we will lose a few games because we don’t shoot it well. But that’s not different than prior seasons. The missed shots in question will simply be from a bit further distance than Self’s used to, or comfortable with. Heck, we’ve lost games when Withey, or TRob, or Marcus, or Markieff, or Cole, couldn’t get the ball in the hoop inside.
The reality is that Self has little choice but to play the game he’s uncomfortable with. And Self wants to win. That comforts me that despite any talk, we are down a path of no return. .
My real concern lies now with our stagnant zone offense. Opposing coaches should be scheming to slow KU down like Baylor did.
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@Blown That is a great point about the team not letting up in the second half. I also think that Self permitting the guys to keep playing their game was big part of it, too. Players and coach get great credit. .
@globaljaybird The lob was a nice start. I also think it’s really interesting to watch how good we are in out of bounds situations under the hoop. Self makes a point of trying to score in those situations, as opposed to just getting the ball in.
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Another one of your monumental observations! Thanks for always bringing quality to this blog!
Self has changed.
We do still feed the post, but in a different way.
We seem to be abandoning the “back to the basket” feeds, and instead look for different ways to feed the post which offers more advantage to the strengths of our post players.
Here are our post player strengths:
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Cliff - lob… lob… and more lobs… Whether it comes off of backdoor screens, or he is just hanging out by the rim. Lob the ball to Cliff and let him slam it down. It seems, even against some lengthy teams, we can expect to get 3-5 easy baskets this way every game. It also energizes the entire team, and definitely lifts the step of Cliff!
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Perry - give him the ball in midrange. Giving Perry the ball in midrange (just not so low in the post) gives Perry room to negotiate his moves. And Perry does have the discipline to throw the ball out to the perimeter when he doesn’t feel he has the advantage to score.
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BamBam - JamTray seems to have adapted the best to Bill’s new philosophy of feeding the post to their best advantage. He is given the ball usually in midrange while facing the basket or at an angle. Often times, he is in motion when receiving the pass. Jamari knows he scores best off of movement, because his foot speed is his advantage in the post… and his body size gives him a natural buffer for scoring space. He just has to keep his body between the defender and the ball, and use the backboard when scoring on either side of the rim.
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Landen - Landen represents our only real back to the basket scorer. His effectiveness is marginal, but he still can play some of Bill’s traditional hi/lo offense.
Perry can also score every bit as well as BamBam in motion. He is slower to pick this up than BamBam. Probably because he has a lifetime of repetitions working in other ways. Perry has to work in 1000s if not millions of reps before he feels comfortable with a move. Still… I think between now and March, Perry will take on some of the lessons BamBam is handing out on how to score in the lane and then we’ll have two post slashers!
I like that… “POST SLASHERS!” When was the last time we used that term when talking about Kansas basketball?
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@BucknellJayhawk3 There are a helluvalot worse places to live. My bro passed & we laid him to rest just outside Charlottesville a few years back. Exceptionally pretty countryside. He was career Navy, CIA, DOD Pentagon, & final 5 yrs Charlottesville Technology Center. 2 of his kids are UVA grads & one ODU & the other Wm & Mary. One of his son in laws retired early in 2014 from 22 yr career in SEALS. Historically & aesthetically, one of my most fav places in the entire US. Brother Gene & his travels is actually where I took my handle from-globaljaybird. RCJH & HOOYAH !!
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Your bother sounded like an amaing guy…
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@marshhawk My most humble appreciation for your thoughts. He truly was a really neat & funny guy. He enlisted at 17 in 1956 without grad HS. Got GED in Navy & became electronics technician serving on subs in the South Pacific during the cold war. Married an island girl & traveled the world for decades working in surveillance before settling his family in Fredericksburg & Charlottesville. His hobby was restoring grandfather clocks & old pocket watches, & his most fav restoration was his 1939 Ford Woody PU-the year he was born. He had been under contract for several years at the Tech Ctr in Charlottesville & fully retired a month before 9-11 when he got his 1st SS check. Called him that night & he was liquored up & major pissed. Said Joe called his daughter at 11:00am & told her he was deploying at 2:oopm. He lived a very full & fruitful life. We all still miss him a lot. I email his daughter almost daily & her hubby is now safe & sound & retired out of the SEALS. They are in Norfolk & all the others kids are from SC up to DC. That’s somewhat surprising as not one of the four were born stateside.
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@globaljaybird Not too strange. Growing up overseas can make a person long to settle down stateside. Settling in the DC area still provides a taste of the global culture. You run into other people who have traveled the world. You stay abreast of politics by proximity. The greater world still feels like it is not so far away outside your window.
You still have your passport. But you’re home.
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@approxinfinity You got that right. Eighteen years as a Navy brat, my own 20 years with the AF and people question why travel doesn’t excite me. We bought our current house in 2004 and it’s the longest I’ve ever lived under one roof and the last one I intend to live under.
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My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.
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Thx. Once in a blue moon I get something right.
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I can’t think of any other weekend in college basketball with so many ranked teams getting beat. Duke, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Louisville, Ohio State, ODU.
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@jaybate-1.0 Really? Sure sounds like old ET Conley to me…goes like, “I Can Be Had But I Can’t Be Bought !!”
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@jaybate-1.0 …“And I can be bad if I don’t get caught”…
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I like how KU used Perry in this game. Stepping him out away from the basket not only helps him because he isn’t worried about getting his shot blocked, but it also opens up the driving lanes for our guards. I think that really opened the offense up because we essentially always were kicking the ball out to a shooter, whether it was Perry for a face up jumper (or a three), or one of our bigger wings. Long live the drive and kick.
Post ups are actually one of the least efficient offensive options. Unless you have an amazingly dominant post scorer (think in his prime Shaq) throwing into the post isn’t all that efficient. The very best post scorer will shoot 65% from the field on post ups (i.e. not including pick and rolls, lobs, etc.). They may net other scoring opportunities on kick outs to shooters off double teams. However, because many post players aren’t great passers, those kick out opportunities don’t necessarily lead to assists. And of course, if a post player isn’t a good FT shooter, they can always be fouled.
Drive and kick is much more efficient. The driver is usually a guard, and that leads to generally better FT shooting. Most drivers are also better passers, leading to more pinpoint passing leading to open shots. And of course, if you collapse the defense, there’s always an interior player hanging around the basket for an easy dump off for a dunk.
It looks like KU is starting to embrace this efficiency, especially since they have enough shooters and drivers to really make things interesting.
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Agree with you down the line about how Self appears to be dealing with all of this.
But I want to put this in a bit of a glass half full context.
History records endlessly that there is nothing more difficult than escaping the prison of past success. Almost every war ever fought is the same plot: start the war fighting the last war and, if you are lucky enough to survive the catastrophes of doing so, then adapt most fittingly to new weaponry and context and get some luck and win. With few exception, so few I cannot recall any right now, this is the recurring plot of human warfare.
Formulas for success seem to be even more addictive than heroin, or nicotine.
So where is the half full glass?
Self seems to know the above about success being a prison is true. He seems to be trying to escape. Many attempts at prison escapes run into obstacles. It is not a simple clean process…this business of prison escape.
All prison escapes by definition requires that we escape the comfort zone of our cell. It is exhilarating to get out of the cell but as soon as we are out we realize we are in uncharted space and that space is kind of perilous because while we are out side the cell, we are not yet outside the prison. That takes some more work. And there are times when it may make sense to run back into the cell briefly while the spotlight passes our direction, before we resume our escape.
Self endlessly takes his players outside their comfort zones to get them to adapt and get better. Some times they cannot do it, or are slow to adapt, but I would say 90% of the time Self’s players get better in increments small or large that in the end make them sharply better than when they came to KU, not just better at what they came good at, but transformed into more complete basketball players. This transformation is really at the heart of Self’s astronomical success of winning 82-84% of his games at KU depending on which season you tally from. Other coaches get to 76%, or so, because their players only get better at what they were already good at. Self’s relentless pressuring of his players to become more complete players in the end gets more out of what he has that most other coaches can consistently accomplish. Self takes less talent than Cal, K, or Roy, for three examples, but pushes it farther over the course of a season, or over the course of a career, to become more complete players, and so, more able to find more ways to win more games.
So: what has this to do with Self and a half full glass?
Self has forced himself entirely outside his own comfort zone the last two seasons.
By forcing himself out of his own comfort zone, he often gets in over his head and looks bad, just the same as his players do when he is forcing them outside their comfort zones.
Self takes a couple steps forward, and backslides, just like his players do, when they are operating in this very painful, very unfamiliar realm beyond what they already know.
What you and I have noticed about Self appears to accurate.
He IS ambivalent about not going inside out for the short trey and the open look kick out, just as his players ARE ambivalent about playing out of position.
He really DOES think three point shooting IS fools gold in tough games; that is the prison of his experience talking.
BUT…he really HAS reschemed at the beginning of the season, and then he really HAS junked everything and reschemed in an almost unscripted sequence of improvisations of late in which the team REALLY IS playing in unprecedented varieties of ways including both old and new stuff.
He really HAS put himself way out there beyond his comfort zone.
My old age makes me appreciate how difficult it is to push outside the comfort zone, when you have done something that worked enough that you don’t have to push outside it again.
Self could easily walk away from all of this and be venerated as one of those all time greats that walked away at the top of his game. Everyone would ask him every year if he would come back out of retirement and lead KU to greatness again. He could be KU’s Joe DiMaggio, who retired at his peak and was thereafter greater in memory than he ever was in real life.
Instead, Self has committed to continuing in the arena. Continuing to try to adapt to change. Continuing to try to engage in the thrill competition at the highest level in his profession. Continuing to try to help a small number of kids escape poverty every season. Continuing to try to use his celebrity to channel donations into various kinds of cause he believes in.
I often recall John Wooden in my posts. I do not do it because the past was better than the present. I do it because the past holds certain lessons that apply timelessly. I do it because Wooden once upon a time exemplified much that could be done, and much that was and remains inevitable in a coach’s, or person’s progression through life.
Wooden at 50 had never recruited, and never believed in recruiting. He had resisted recruiting, while all the other leading programs had long since made recruiting a basic part of their way of competing.
Wooden at 50 believed even more staunchly than Bill Self in half court man to man and no zone.
Wooden at 50 believed in the running game that Ward Lambert had taught him at Purdue 30 years before.
Wooden at 50 had won his way. He had always finished second with hardly any talent and everyone that knew west coast basketball knew that if he ever had talent even close to as good as Newell at Cal that he would mop up.
Wooden at 50 had integrated the game before anyone else in his first job at Indiana State in 1947. He coached at UCLA where he was allowed to play whatever color players that came to him and asked to be on his team.
Wooden at 50 was not financially independent, as Self is, but he was doing okay, and was quite satisfied with what he had accomplished, yet had a burning desire to beat those that were beating him only because they had sharply better players in much greater numbers.
Wooden at 50 did NOT want to recruit, or play ANY full court presses. He KNEW that he had proven he could play the game his way he could do very well doing it his way.
But Wooden at 50 knew the game was changing rapidly under him. He knew so many programs were integrating that he no longer could sit and wait for young African Americans to come to him. He knew the athleticism of African American athletes that he had relied on earlier than most was now changing the kinds of things that could be done on a basketball floor. He knew that basketball coaches were getting better and better at scheming offenses that could wear down half court M2M defenses with endless running of shuffle offense and wear down is vaunted half court pressure defenses. He knew that all athletes were getting so much better that his half court pressure defense was having trouble containing them.
But Wooden at 50 did NOT want to change. He had resisted pressure from him assistants and colleagues to change for 5 years at least. He knew what worked. He knew things were changing, but he knew how to tinker with what he already did to make it keep working a little better.
But Wooden at 50 also knew that if he did not change, he was certain to become an anachronism, a successful one, but an anachronism nontheless. And he had coached long enough at 50 to have seen many coaches become anachronisms.
Wooden at 50 did not want to become an anachronism. No one wants to become an anachronism in his or her profession. But it happens sooner or later if you don’t retire, or get fired before it does.
Wooden was lucky in many ways, but he was especially lucky in one way. A former player, Jerry Norman reputedly got tired of the real estate business, where he had made some money, and wanted to get into coaching. He came to Wooden and asked to join him and Wooden was glad to have him, because finding assistants was actually difficult in those days, because pay was so low, and schools were opening so fast in college, juco and high schools that assistants quickly found head coaching jobs and living wages by stepping down a level. Norman reputedly immediately offered to be Wooden’s recruiter. Wooden knew he needed more players than he had been getting just to stay competing at the level he had been at–finishing second each season. He consented to Norman recruiting, but gave him no budget.
After coaching for Wooden a year, or two, and proving himself to Wooden, Norman came to Wooden and said he had this incredible new defense-the 3/4 court 2-2-1 zone press; that high schools were running it California, and that it was a way to put more pressure on opponents and make what talent you had go farther. Wooden was diametrically opposed to pressing, because it was wasting a lot of energy guarding someone somewhere on the floor where they could not possibly score. It was a fool’s game to press. It was proven over time. Wooden himself had proven it was not necessary to succeed and that logic told one that it was a net loss. And besides, other coaches winning championships were not pressing either.
Norman asked Wooden to let him try it out on the freshman team for a season as an experiment, and so Wooden could watch and study it for himself. The freshman team kicked as in its short season. And even then Wooden resisted. Yes, it was clearly a potent defensive weapon, but top flight players would break it down. Norman reputedly said basically that without a recruiting budget it was going to take him awhile to get Wooden some players and that he had to have something to sell to players that was different to get them. He had proven with the freshman team that it worked. And that Wooden should give it a try. I have heard the story after that two ways. One was that Wooden said okay, we’ll give it a try this season. Another was that Norman threatened to quit and go get a coaching job somewhere that WOULD run the 2-2-1 press. Either way Wooden stepped out of his comfort zone and, in his somewhat monomaniacal fashion, said if we are going to try it we are going to commit fully to it.
The next ten champions in eleven years with every kind of size and combination of talent level conceivable is history. Two rings with short players with talent no better than the top teams and recruited without cash under the table. Six teams with two super players–Jabbar and Walton–with Gilbert reputedly paying the going rate for players. One team with unprecedented depth, again with players reputedly being paid the going rate. And one team starting NBA draft choices at almost every position, agains reputedly being paid the going rate.
The story is that Norman had to push Wooden constantly to stay with the press the first season, despite them going 32-0.
The story is that assistants Norman and Cunningham had to push Wooden to change to the low post offense, when Jabbar was signed. They had just won two rings with the high post offense. Wooden knew it made sense to shift to the low post offense, but Wooden never LIKED the low post offense. It wasn’t who he was. It wasn’t the kind of basketball he loved.
But just as Wooden had stepped out of his comfort zone and embraced the 2-2-1 press and recruiting, Wooden stepped out of his comfort zone and embraced the low post offense.
But as soon as Jabbar graduated and they signed Walton, Wooden jumped out the low post offense back to his preferred high post and frankly wasted quite a bit of Walton’s potential as a low post scorer and rebounder, before finally consenting to scheme a single post offense where Walton’s great mobility could be deployed variously between down low and up high. I am not absolutely sure, but I believe Wooden steadfastly refused ever to run the high-low, though he might have run it some with his last ring team with Richard Washington.
Wooden was so stubborn about the rightness and elegance of a single post offense that even after winning three rings with Walton, rotating low to high and back low, Wooden practically was orgasmic the following season when he went back to a single high post offense with Patterson out at the tip of the key (as it used to be called anachronistically, for it was by then no longer a key shaped FT lane and circle) and Wicks and Rowe on a double low wing offense, reputedly Wooden’s own improvisation on his own single high post.
My point of this long digression about Wooden, is that until one is 50, one really never has to adapt one’s thinking all that much, because one’s thinking is product of the recent evolution of things and is by definition up to day. It is not until one reaches around 50 that one’s thinking and approach can get behind the curve. Before 50 all one has to do to stay au currant is to keep nipping and tucking and borrowing this piece, or that piece from someone else. But from 50 onwards, it is pretty typical to find the world has changed and you have to make a decision about whether to stay the same, or change with it. Both paths have risks. The former turns you into a winning anachronism that eventually guaranties you become marginalized. The second confronts you with having to get outside your comfort zone to make the changes that are required.
Self IS outside his comfort zone. He has made that commitment. But he is having a damned hard time with it intermittently. A great coach has to trust both his ability to assess what players he has and then scheme who they can feasibly be in a way that can win as much as possible. He also has to trust his split second judgements in the moment of competition. But when you are operating outside your comfort zone, you are usually coming up with new schemes you don’t necessarily like, and you are having to make split second judgements relative to these schemes that are not second nature to you. It creates an awkward phase. I am telling you I know it does because I was 50 once. There is no avoiding this awkward phase any more than once can avoid being physically and socially awkward as an early teenager at certain points.
No one talks about it, but it is just as real a fixture, or parameter, of human life, as the coming of age thing in early teen-hood. Some do it more gracefully than others. Some are more successful while they do it than others. But if you look closely, you will see them going through it no matter what.
So: I don’t look on what Self is struggling with as a bad sign. I don’t look on his ambivalence and backsliding as something that is a bad thing for him to go through. I look on this as signs of a man willing himself into this right of passage and taking his lumps and revealing his warts as he drags himself kicking and screaming through this re-birth canal that happens at this time of a person’s life, especially in one’s profession. The one’s that don’t go through it are doomed to anachronisms. The one’s that do have a good chance of making it. Some don’t make it. But I would bet that Bill Self is going to make it.
Each ten years of our lives is a new phase. Each phase starts with a transition with some peril and uncertainty. But some phases we are being drug kicking and screaming by others into them, others we are kind of smoothly transitioning through as if by force of inertia, and still others, especially this transition at 50, we have drag ourselves kicking and screaming through the change. We have sizable responsibilities to others by this time. Its not just us deciding to take the plunge as a head coach, because that was the purpose of becoming a coach in the first place. This change at 50 is becoming a different kind of coach than we groomed ourselves and were groomed by others to be. This change at 50 distills to something like: are we willing to go through a seemingly near total transformation, while carrying an entire program on our back as we do? It is the same within a family. At 50, you change the kind of father you have been. You have to. You are no longer dealing with little kids that have no say in what happens. You are dealing with 2/3s formed children that think they are fully formed. They have to be dealt with differently and frankly, you never prepared yourself for this phase. You thought they would either be half formed little kids and then some how self-transform into fully formed young persons. You have to deal with ambiguous little creatures that are not quite children and not quite humans.
You have to embrace ambivalence, because you really ARE ambivalent about how you feel and what you understand. You know you have to retool to get through this next phase and it involves trimming yourself back so you are not casting as much shade as before, and yet you know somehow you have from time to time cast a whole bunch of shade briefly to save these pitiful shape shifters in your world from the disasters of their own shape shifting stages of body and states of mind. And at some point, hopefully sooner, than later, you have to realize that the only way to do care for these weird organisms populating your home is to step outside of your comfort zone that got you to this point and do some shape shifting of your own.Anyway, I like that Self is going through what he is going through. It is a good sign to me, even though it is kind of harrowing to watch. You don’t get to be a wise man without going through it.
Rock Chalk!
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“I like how KU used Perry in this game. Stepping him out away from the basket not only helps him because he isn’t worried about getting his shot blocked, but it also opens up the driving lanes for our guards.”
Me, too! And it has opened up the drive for BamBam! Suddenly, he has found his scoring, and his motion post moves (post slasher) will not only continue to be effective, how the heck is an opponent supposed to scout and prep for that?
Perry has the same skill, but teams aren’t respecting BamBam to hit the long ball, so they don’t have to go get him. Self has figured that out by using BamBam more on high screens. Smart!
So working BamBam on high screens should help open scoring opportunities for Perry to become a post slasher because the post defender guarding BamBam has to go out and make the switch on the high ball screen.
Perry should start utilizing more motion in the post and face the goal. He’s not good at back to the basket.
