TEN AVERAGED >10 MPG: IS SELF ALREADY BEYOND TWO PLATOON BALL?
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Maybe Self has moved into “long bench ball”, while everyone else is talking about Calipari’s phony spin about two platoon ball? Ten guys averaged ten mpg this year for KU. And Self never really shortened his bench this season. On the other hand, Cal talked two platoons, but only did it, when the games were blow outs in regular season. In the tourney he usually short benched, leaving a platoon of draft choices benched and NBA franchises wondering if they were worth drafting. Imagine how much better off Dakari Johnson would have been at KU than UK. He would be a star going in top 5 instead of a nobody at UK waiting another season. And he would be developing–getting better.
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I feel like MPG can be misleading though. In games when Hunter and Svi played, they usually played a good bit (8-10 minutes). But there were also many games in which they never saw the floor.
Even then, that still leaves 9 players who averaged 15 mpg or more. That is significant considering Bill usually plays 7 or 8.
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@stupidmichael don’t you think some key injuries, Dg, Perry, and then cliffs eligibility were the result of those players getting more minutes?
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Most every college basketball fan in America is aware of the banner in AFH: “Pay Heed, All Who Enter. Beware Of The Phog.”
But few fans know of the banner in the locker room: “Pay Heed, All Who Enter. Beware Of The Capt’ns Hook!”
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@Crimsonorblue22 Most definitely the reason why Hunter ended up getting minutes down the stretch. I think Landon was always going to get PT and Devonte’s injury just increased the workload for Selden and Mason.
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@stupidmichael not sure on Landon, thought he was playing the Tarik role, waiting for Embiid to learn-Cliff. Ended up depending on both Tarik and Landon, not enough.
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You are right that mpg can be deceiving. UK only gave its draft choice bench 20 minutes when it didn’t matter.
But as you say even 9 was huge for Self and most elite coaches!
I think Self adapted to his talent and injuries and to the greater energy demands of Bad Ball.
Self always turns out to be ahead of the curve on stuff like this.
Self expanded what Bo Ryan and Izzo ran into full blown BAD BALL.
And young players playing drive ball is always going to mean more injuries and so longer benches and more quick hooks.
As usual Self is ahead of the game and it’s driving board rats nuts trying to keep up.
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I wonder if the quick hook is a real difference between Self and other coaches, or if board rats just watch Self more closely?
And if it were real, I wonder if the actual reason for it were that KU is usually more talented than our opponents and so opposing coaches are NOT using their games against KU as teaching games, where they give their lesser players teaching minutes? What if when TTECH plays lesser teams in pre-con Tubby is using a quick hook like Self? Tubby has a pretty quick hook even against KU though.
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@jaybate-1.0 Good point. Most coaches don’t have the luxury of a talented bench. They can’t hook em because they don’t cook em!
If that makes any sense at all.
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Classic!
