Actually... it is Elijah's fault.

Saturday's loss to The Pokes felt familiar. I mean it shouldn't have felt familiar, this team has only lost 2 games. The Michigan State loss was nothing like what happened Saturday. In that game, the Hawks shot 50% from the field and got good contributions at the guard position. Elijah led the team had a team-high 16, plus 27 more points from the other guards. Kansas led for most of the way, up until Keith Appling hit a circus layup with 13.5 seconds left. No, there was nothing similar in the loss in Atlanta in November to the heartbreaker in Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday. Yet, it did feel strikingly reminiscent of Bill Self Kansas losses. And that's because it was. Although this was a conference game in Allen Fieldhouse, it really shook out just like those brutal non-conference games to mid-major squads that always seem to bite us. Northern Iowa, VCU, Davidson in the Sprint Center last year, that's what this felt like. Because that's what it was like. Many of our critics will say, they've been flirting with this inevitability for a while now. That their dry spells on the offensive end of the court was destined to catch up with them. But the woes that have afflicted Kansas in conference play, were not what hurt us on Saturday. This team scored 80 points in regulation. It had not done that since the American game. What happened against The Pokes was inevitable, but not because of their offensive stagnations as of late. No, what transpired on Saturday reflects the loses that have been a trend of the Self-era, and they fulfill the same failings. In the 2010 NCAA tourney, KU lost its round of 32 match-up against 9-seed UNI. The cavalcade of critics went unhinged. But, there's a correlation between that loss, and Saturday. In the 2011 Southwest Region final, #1 Kansas was upset by 11-seed VCU. Once again, the haters rejoiced. And what happened in the Alamodome that March, was reminiscent of what transpired on Saturday. In KU's home-away-from-home The Sprint Center, in December of 2011, the heralded Jayhawks dumped a sure victory to a very average Davidson team. They have yet to live down that loss. In all of those losses, there is a recurring theme: a career performance from an opposing guard, and an all-time abysmal appearance by one of our guards. Against the Panthers, Ali Farokhmanesh made the cover of SI, scoring 16 historic points, including 4 of 10 from 3-pt range. On the other side, Sherron and Tyshawn went a combined 4 of 21 from the field, and 0 for 11 from 3. More specifically, Tyshawn went 0 for 11 from the field himself, including 0 for 5 from 3. I was there, and in 2010 all of the scoring went through Sherron and Cole, but numbers tell us that Tyshawn lost us that game. The VCU game was so frighteningly similar to the UNI loss, it was chilling. The numbers were much more skewed in this one, but the bottom line was the same. The Jayhawks shot only 10% from 3, and the Rams' bench outscored us 22 to 3. But, the underlying theme was this: one of their players, PF Jamie Skeen scored a career-high 26 points, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. By contrast, our shooting guards, Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed combined for 2 of 16 from the field. Morningstar finished with 2 points. He was brutal. Then there was last year's Davidson loss. In it, G Nik Cochran went for 21, and 4 of 5 from 3. He averaged less than 11 P/G for the season and made an average of 1 3-pointer. It's the kind of thing that only happens in these games. Conversely, Self, early in the season, leaned on Conner Teahan, in a shooter's role. He attempted 9 in this game, making 2. If blames rests anywhere, it was squarely with Con-ner. Tea-han. That brings is to Saturday. Markel Brown blew up for 28 points, and 7 3's. Seven. And, contrary to what Coach Self wants us to believe, it was Elijah who killed us, going 3 of 14 from the field. He was awful, and he cost us the game. Of course, I'm being facetious. What these losses truly have in common is Coach Self, himself. Now, I am the first one to laud praise upon Bill, he is the best active coach in America. But in these circumstances, he is too slow to react to a hot hand on the opponent, and too slow to make a move to find a hot hand on his own team. He made great defensive adjustments to shut down Brown in the 2nd half, and he did. Those adjustments needed to be made before he scores 22 points in the 1st half. Also, Andrew White was terrific down the stretch. Coach cannot wait so long to pull the trigger on that. There is too much talent on this bench to allow someone to go 3 for 14, or let us go down 14 points. Bottom line: I'm not one for criticizing National Champion Head Coach Bill Self, but I've seen enough of these exact same losses to recognize his weakness. For 6 wins in March to happen, he has to recognize it, also.