As is a custom for the Final Four matchups, CBS placed a camera in the locker room with Coach Bill Self for his pregame speech. These things are meant to showcase a coach’s motivational speaking capabilities, and send fans off to the tip with thrills going up their legs. Unfortunately, they generally come across as these canned, predictable rip-offs of Vince Lombardi quotations. Of course, Coach Self is a very different kind of guy than Vince Lombardi – his “aw, shucks” 21st Century Oklahoma sensibilities and charm run counter to the gruff 1950’s Brooklyn demeanor of Lombardi – and, thus, naturally his speech was decidedly different. Self challenged his players to “have more fun playing than I’m going to have coaching” for the game’s 40-minute duration. It’s the kind of thing that endears Coach Self to 21st Century recruits, and CBS’ viewing audience, and Coach is an old pro at it. However, what actually ensued for the game’s 40 minutes was the exact opposite. His players had very little fun, unless in some masochistic way these guys actually enjoy the ugly, smash-mouth slogging that they’ve encountered for the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament, and nee the 2011-12 season itself. And, indeed they may. I would submit to you that Coach Self was having very little fun, but his dance routine with his team in the locker room after the victory may make a liar out of me.
You see, I think this is fun for Coach Self. Not just the thrill of victory, even though since joining the Jayhawks no other coach in America has known victory as often as Coach Self. No, I think that for Bill Self, the thrill actually lies in the slog. He thrived in the world of the slog, known as the B1G Conference. And since coming to the Birthplace of Basketball, he has utilized the slog to win 8 straight titles amidst a conference full of runners and gunners. But he has thrived little more than during the 2012 NCAA Tournament, though most of America may have missed it. Fate, geography, and fan base have put Jayhawk start times at the fringes of the nocturnal schedule. Most of the East Coast sports viewers packed up and headed to bed before Kansas tipped off in its first three tournament games. Thus, they were not privy to some impressive displays of Coach Self’s under-appreciated genius.
After going down early, and allowing Ray McCallum to showcase his McDonald’s All-American skills (and Doug Anderson to showcase his Sportscenter dunks), Self made several key adjustments and substitutions that led to a quiet Kansas 15-point victory. Those of us who stayed up to watch, and pay attention, knew what many of the experts had said going in to the matchup: Detroit was no normal 15 seed. Of course, that narrative never materialized because Self coached the senior McCallum out of the Qwest Center. Next up was the B1G’s middle-of-the pack school, Purdue, and, more importantly, their 5th year stud senior, Robbie Hummel. This game was the definition of slog. To say that the officials, “let them play”, would be the grossest understatement of the tournament. And in the 1st half, Hummel won honorable mention in the State Farm 3-point shooting contest along with 22 points. What followed in the 2nd half was a Bill Self coaching clinic. His now-famous implementation of the Triangle-and-Two Zone defense not only stymied Hummel, and his free-shooting teammate Ryan Smith, it embarrassed Self’s counterpart Matt Painter. Or, at least, it should have. Although the Jayhawks trailed for 39 ½ minutes of the contest, for those of us who have watched the progression of Coach Self, there was never a doubt that they had a chance.
The Omaha victory led to a Sweet 16 showdown with Matt Gottfried’s upstart NC State Wolfpack. Because of their late season surge, and Gottfried’s boisterous, non-Self-like personality, the so-called experts were enamored with The Pack, and forgetful of the best coach in the business. In true slog-like fashion, the Jayhawks were down early and often. But, once again, Coach Self’s timely substitutions and effective adjustments sent Kansas to the Elite Eight, and Gottfried back to his fan club in the studio. Yet still, the doubters remained.
When the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee finished putting together the brackets, anyone could see that they envisioned a second weekend storyline which placed the affable Roy Williams against his estranged University of Kansas team. Although Self had dispensed of Williams’ Tarheels in epic fashion in the 2008 tournament - and should have dispensed of Williams’ ghosts in Allen Fieldhouse - the stigma remained. In what should have been a celebration of three games that exhibited Self’s coaching prowess, the narrative instead turned into a three-ring circus headlined by the stale Williams vs. Kansas narrative. Blech. Coach was his usual humble and accommodating self, but he was visibly annoyed, commenting on the way to his press conference, “time to go answer questions about Roy Williams.” And although Self was very complimentary to Williams on the podium, on the court Self was ruthless; he not only out-coached Roy, he emasculated him. Williams was not only unable to answer Self’s Triangle-and-Two, he didn’t even recognize it. And, once again, the doubters never knew what hit them.
That victory led Kansas to its 14th Final Four, and Self ‘s second in his nine-year tenure with the Jayhawks. And although Self had, thus far, demonstrated more coaching prowess than any of his peers in the field, the story was still how KU didn’t have the dogs to compete. While the pundits spent most of the week focusing on a Thomas Robinson/Jared Sullinger match-up that was never going to happen, they failed to focus on the complete dominance Coach Self has enjoyed against his B1G coaching counterparts. And, in the end, although the score was tight, and the result was always in question – Self once again coached Thad Matta into obscurity.
So, as we look to the Championship game, the narrative from the sports journalists will once again be predictable. The focus will be on the “once-and-doners”, the dominance of this UK squad, and the meeting of Player-of-the-Year competitors, Robinson and Anthony Davis. They will, as they have from the start, miss the biggest factor of Monday’s game. These journalists, the so-called experts, will go on endlessly, as they have all tournament long, telling us how great Kentucky’s players are, how they are unstoppable. And the Wildcats players are very, very good. These “experts” will also say that Kansas doesn’t have a chance. For those of us who have followed Coach Self, we’ve come to take this the way that he does. We don’t let the disrespectful nature of such statements rub us wrong. We don’t do what many of our East Coast counterparts do, and get indignant or chippy. Nope. We just get behind the guy who quietly proves them all wrong. And because of that, my money is on Billy Self. Always.
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