These Are Dark Times There Is No Denying

Okay. It is so bad that I have quoted Rufus Scrimgeour. Please kill me. So, now let me bring you all back. There has been, and will continue to be, comparisons to the '04-'05 season. That was the last time that KU lost 3 games in a row. How spoiled are we that that is the case? But I digress... All of the haters are ready to assign a first round loss to Bradley for the '12-'13 unit. Guess what: this ain't that team. That team was Bill Self's first recruiting class + Roy's old boys. Wayne Simien, God love him, was the anchor of that crew, and he was never, ever healthy. Keith Langford was hurt in the UK game - I know, I was there. Alex Galindo got a lot of minutes, the next season he was lost to transfer and oblivion. Giddens was our shooter, and then he got in a knife fight at The Moon Bar, and wound up in New Mexico and oblivion. CJ Giles was an anchor in the paint, then he dragged his girl down the steps of her apartment and wound up in Oregon and then oblivion. The lone professional on that team was Wayne, who was damaged goods from his sophomore season on. To summarize, there is no comparison. Our current team has 2 lottery picks: Withey and McLemore. In all likelihood, Perry Ellis will eventually be a high draft choice. I believe Elijah Johnson will be paid to play. The '07-'08 National Championship team had 7 NBA selections on the roster. It's unlikely that this squad will match that, but the whole semantics of college basketball has changed. So, you can dispense of that nonsense, haters. Nonetheless, as the title suggests: these are the dark times. Maybe moreso, because this is not the '04-'05 team. Let's look at our 4 losses: First,our loss at The Champions Classic in Atlanta to Tom Izzo's Michigan State. For starters, there are very few guys who have an edge on Coach Self, but this was the 3rd consecutive loss to Izzo for Self. The Spartans outshot the Hawks 52%-50%, which was high for both squads, and KU actually outshot Sparty from beyond the 3. Down the stretch, the Spartans made their FT's, and The Jayhawks did not. KU seemed to control most of regulation, but the Spartans had alligator blood, they kept hanging around. In the end it was a circus shot from Keith Appling that won the game, a contest that came down to one possession. Certainly no cause for alarm. Now, we have the 3-game losing streak. The cause for alarm is great. However, the losses are so individually different. The Oklahoma State loss stings. It broke the 2nd longest consecutive home winning streak. We outshot the Pokes from beyond the 3, and from the charity stripe. The FG% was 41/43, in their favor. As stated in my previous post - we just got beaten by a NBA lottery pick and 4 solid role players supporting him. It's happened to us so seldomly, but with a recurring theme, in the Bill Self era. It happens. Then, there was the trip to Fort Worth. I couldn't describe their offensive futility in the 1st half any more eloquently than Coach did, so I will not try. Our 14% from 3 was only bested by our 10% in the opener against SEMO. However, we limited SEMO to 29%/25% from the field and 3, respectively. It is shocking how badly we played in the SEMO game, yet we forced them to play worse. We were outshot by 9% from the floor and 17% from the 3 against Texas Christian, which is amazing, because they shot so poorly. To reiterate the line that I have been saying all week: my mother coached JV girls. I have seen really, really bad basketball. This was the worst basketball that I've ever seen. There has not been a loss like that in The Bill Self era. Hell, there has not been a loss like that in Kansas Basketball history. So, then the question was: how will they respond now? A lot of ado will be given to the third consecutive loss. But truly, it was much more reflective of the first loss, against Izzo. Lon Kruger has not been to The Dance with 4 different schools by accident. He decided to force KU out of the paint, to equalize the superiority KU held down low, especially in light of Kansas' struggles to score. It was a brilliant manuever. Self was slow to adjust to the triangle-and-2, and when the bigs started hitting from deep again, he was slow to adjust out of it. OU improved their FG% from 36% at AFH, to 45% in Norman. They also improved 25% to 35% their 3-point percentage. Having said that, KU outshot them from the floor, and nearly matched them from beyond the arc. The difference on Saturday was at the free throw line. KU had its worst performance there since the Tennessee-Chattanooga game, where they shot a measly 53% from the line. The team meeting seemed to have pulled them out of their doldrums from the floor, but they could not overcome their free throw ineptitude. Needless to say, I believe that the suggestion may have been made on the flight home, that on their mandatory day off, the team may be shooting some free throws. So, that brings us to Monday night. KU will likely, and unbelievably be the lower ranked school in the contest. They will for the first time, in a long time, not be leading the Big XII Conference. They will unexplicably likely be home underdogs at The Phog. How will they deal with that? I'd answer with the numbers. In game one, at The Octagon of significantly-less-than-Doom, the Hawks were outshot at the line by 24%. If that happens, EMAW will steal one in The Sunflower Showdown. KU shot 62% from the stripe at home versus OU. Then dropped to 55% in Lloyd Noble. If they see the same drop-off on Big Monday, they will lose their fourth in a row. From a defensive perspective, the Jayhawks allowed OU to shoot 36% from the field in their victory at Allen. On Saturday, the Sooners improved to a FG% of 45%. In OOD, EMAW shot a weak 35%. If they improve the 9% that OU did, it will be tough for Kansas to overcome. So, as much time is being spent on Kansas' offensive woes, what restoration comes down to is something that Coach Bill Self is the very best at teaching. If they tighten up on the defensive end and make their free throws, they will be right back to form, and the sun will break through the clouds on Mount Oread. I promise.