I don’t think anyone would argue that Bill Self Ball is based on defense, defense, and physical defense. His offensive philosophy is basically “if we can win more possessions with defense and rebounding, we should score more than the other team.” I LOVE his offensive philosophy, btw.

QUESTION: If it is true that the new rules changes will help programs/coaches who are better offensive coaches and hurt those programs/coaches who are better defensive coaches…Should this not make KU fans revise their win-loss expectations for the coming year DOWNWARD?

Excellent points. Regarding the lack of perimeter players flashing thru the lane when our bigs were doubled–If you rewatch the game (I only watched it live) I believe you will see Wiggins half-heartedly, non-chalantly, passively meandering into the lane on at least several occasions when our post player was double-teamed. My point is, he just isn’t being as aggressive as he needs to be. If he cuts hard through the lane instead of meandering through, he will be wide open for passes from the post. I believe Embiid is a pretty good passer for having such little experience. Wiggins needs to improve this area of his game before he gets to the next level because NBA defenders aren’t going to let you jack 3’s or create your own shot off the dribble as easily.

@HighEliteMajor I have never believed Self is a great offensive mind. He is a great defensive mind who instills toughness in his kids. I think he has USUALLY had some pretty smart offensive minds around him. First Jank became a head coach and then Dooley. Plus now Coach Brown is a little busy to come to town and critique the squad.

Kurtis is a great guy, a great recruiter and a great glue guy between Self and the players. Roberts…a guy with too good of East Coast connections for recruiting to let go. Snacks…well, we know he has great connections for recruiting, but it’s hard to say what else Snacks brings to the table. Probably most of what he knows about offense he learned from Self, so he may not be able to broaden Self’s perspective about offense.

Self could really use an offensive genius on his staff, but that’s easier said than done. It appears now that he has doubled down on the perceived importance of recruiting one-and-done talent by bringing in Snacks.

Plus Self always says that most offense comes off broken plays. So we know he really doesn’t value complex offensive strategies as much as he values defense and recruiting.

The funny thing is, after watching this team and believing all season it was their defense that was not good enough to make a run to the Championship, it was the offense that could supposedly outscore anyone on any given night that let us down today.

@truehawk93 The complexity of Self’s offensive scheme is a disputed point. If, as you say, Self runs an offense that is Rocket Science, perhaps that is Exhibit A that he doesn’t have a great offensive mind. (Though I do not concede that there is anything that complex about Self’s offense compared to a lot of other college offenses.) And besides, the analysis of one’s “offensive mind” encompasses more than their preferred offensive scheme. It includes one’s ability to diagnose match-up issues and make changes on the fly to put one’s team in the best position to be successful offensively.

If I had told you before the game that KU would hold Stanford to 60, you would have told me we would win the game easily, right? This wasn’t about waiting too late to press. It was about not having any ideas offensively to get things untracked against a taller team. The press would have been unnecessary if we had done ANYTHING different on offense to get going.

Fred Hoiberg has a brilliant offensive mind. He isn’t that great with defense. So what did he do? He brought in Doc Sadler. Great move. Did you watch ISU play UNC today? Hoiberg made adjustments to deal with losing Georges Niang. That’s the kind of thing you would like to see from Self when it comes to offense.

Self’s offensive system is the reason he isn’t successful at recruiting pure point guards. As an aside, his offensive system is also one of the reasons why KU can lose to a team like Stanford.

According to a paper Self wrote on the hi-lo system, he wants post players to post up directly between the ball and the basket. He admits that it hinders a skilled perimeter player from getting in the lane and requires the 2 post players to basically get out of the way. Any skilled recruiter is going to easily use that against KU in recruiting. It isn’t that Self has more charisma when he recruits bigs than he has when he recruits point guards. It’s just that his offensive system works against him in the recruiting wars.

Is Self’s system right or wrong? That’s debatable. What isn’t debatable is his system has produced a record number of wins in such a short period of time and an amazing string of conference titles.

But success in March more often than not comes down to whether a team has great point guard play.

@truehawk93 The complexity of Self’s offensive scheme is a disputed point. If, as you say, Self runs an offense that is Rocket Science, perhaps that is Exhibit A that he doesn’t have a great offensive mind. (Though I do not concede that there is anything that complex about Self’s offense compared to a lot of other college offenses.) And besides, the analysis of one’s “offensive mind” encompasses more than their preferred offensive scheme. It includes one’s ability to diagnose match-up issues and make changes on the fly to put one’s team in the best position to be successful offensively.

If I had told you before the game that KU would hold Stanford to 60, you would have told me we would win the game easily, right? This wasn’t about waiting too late to press. It was about not having any ideas offensively to get things untracked against a taller team. The press would have been unnecessary if we had done ANYTHING different on offense to get going.

Fred Hoiberg has a brilliant offensive mind. He isn’t that great with defense. So what did he do? He brought in Doc Sadler. Great move. Did you watch ISU play UNC today? Hoiberg made adjustments to deal with losing Georges Niang. That’s the kind of thing you would like to see from Self when it comes to offense.

@HighEliteMajor I have never believed Self is a great offensive mind. He is a great defensive mind who instills toughness in his kids. I think he has USUALLY had some pretty smart offensive minds around him. First Jank became a head coach and then Dooley. Plus now Coach Brown is a little busy to come to town and critique the squad.

Kurtis is a great guy, a great recruiter and a great glue guy between Self and the players. Roberts…a guy with too good of East Coast connections for recruiting to let go. Snacks…well, we know he has great connections for recruiting, but it’s hard to say what else Snacks brings to the table. Probably most of what he knows about offense he learned from Self, so he may not be able to broaden Self’s perspective about offense.

Self could really use an offensive genius on his staff, but that’s easier said than done. It appears now that he has doubled down on the perceived importance of recruiting one-and-done talent by bringing in Snacks.

Plus Self always says that most offense comes off broken plays. So we know he really doesn’t value complex offensive strategies as much as he values defense and recruiting.

The funny thing is, after watching this team and believing all season it was their defense that was not good enough to make a run to the Championship, it was the offense that could supposedly outscore anyone on any given night that let us down today.

@jaybate 1.0 The assumption that teams play 1/3 good, 1/3 average and 1/3 bad games is probably a pretty accurate observation of human/team nature.

Regarding Self’s “geeking” strategy: My opinion is that the Blue Blood Programs do need to selectively “geek” their players. It’s really a corollary to the 1/3,1/3, 1/3 theory of human/team nature mentioned above. We just cannot operate at peak performance every time out. When you are playing league teams you are familiar with that are not as talented, a coach has to know which games to geek his players. Self is a master at it.

As for other Big 12 coaches copying Self’s “geeking” strategy–Other teams may benefit from selective geeking when they play each other. But KU is every league opponent’s Final Four every time we play. They are naturally geeked every time they play KU, especially when they play KU at home. Therefore, KU should never really be impacted by any other Big 12 coach copying Self’s geeking strategy.

Excellent points. Regarding the lack of perimeter players flashing thru the lane when our bigs were doubled–If you rewatch the game (I only watched it live) I believe you will see Wiggins half-heartedly, non-chalantly, passively meandering into the lane on at least several occasions when our post player was double-teamed. My point is, he just isn’t being as aggressive as he needs to be. If he cuts hard through the lane instead of meandering through, he will be wide open for passes from the post. I believe Embiid is a pretty good passer for having such little experience. Wiggins needs to improve this area of his game before he gets to the next level because NBA defenders aren’t going to let you jack 3’s or create your own shot off the dribble as easily.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Bill Self Ball is based on defense, defense, and physical defense. His offensive philosophy is basically “if we can win more possessions with defense and rebounding, we should score more than the other team.” I LOVE his offensive philosophy, btw.

QUESTION: If it is true that the new rules changes will help programs/coaches who are better offensive coaches and hurt those programs/coaches who are better defensive coaches…Should this not make KU fans revise their win-loss expectations for the coming year DOWNWARD?

Interesting topic. I agree the art of free throw shooting may be more appreciated with the new rules. I went back and looked at KU’s two exhibition games from last season to see if your concern is warranted. The first game, they shot 62% and the second game they shot 59% from the stripe. So hopefully, like last year, the exhibition game FT shooting is not representative of the regular season!

Having said that–Will Black compare to Withey in terms of FT percentage? Probably not. Embiid? Too early to tell, but he seems to have a fairly smooth shooting motion.

Hope you sleep better tonight.

29-8

Roy Williams gave Tokoto a suspension from their “secret scrimmage” and one exhibition game for the same infraction. And Tarheel fans wonder WHY the “Carolina Way” isn’t the same as it was under Dean Smith. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9880179/unc-tar-heels-hold-jp-tokoto-exhibition-game