Big 12 Tournament Primer

            This weekend is a true contradiction for me.  As an institution: I loath the conference tournament.  The weekend discredits all of the hard-fought victories of the conference season, which, as a throwback guy, I put so much emphasis upon.  As a KU fan, the wins at The Octagon of Doom, Hilton, and Gallagher-Iba Arena were as difficult and as meaningful victories as you’re going come by.  In any sport.  So, to make them relatively meaningless is a philosophical chasm for me.  Plus, Jayhawk fans have had to deal with the catcalls of the loss to Topeka YMCA, and the cries about the missed foul call on Elijah.  I don’t want all of that caterwauling to have been for naught.  And the 9 Straight.  That’s an important thing to Jayhawk fans.  Like, gutturally important.

            So, now I’ll offer you this:  I love the Big 12 Tournament.  Like, it’s my favorite sporting event of the year.  The culmination of those aforementioned games is metastasized at The Sprint Center.  All in one weekend.  We will potentially have a Friday evening primetime double feature that will include KU/ISU3 and KState/OkState3.  How could you possibly want more than that?  With TCU and WVU out of the field, we have a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of traditional Big 12 opponents who really, really dislike one another.  And, by the way, have had some of the most closely contested conference games in all of college basketball for 2012-13.  I’m all geeked up over it.

            The Big 12 Tournament does offer us a picture of what to expect over the next month, though.  NCAA Tournament is really a collection of 3 consecutive 2-game tournaments.  The rounds of 64 and 32 will very much resemble Thursday’s contest; half-empty arena, heavy with KU fans, against a team with very little chance of scratching The Hawks.  The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 will very closely resemble Friday’s atmosphere; impassioned fans and lots of TV timeouts.  So if we’re trying to measure what’s in store for this version of Self’s Jayhawks, there’s no better measuring stick than this weekend.

            But let’s be real.  All we really care about is this:  who can beat Kansas?  It is, as usual for the Big 12 Tournament, Kansas versus The Field.  And, based upon trends, Kansas is a safer bet than The Field.  But maybe not this year.  Every sports writer in America seems to be jumping on Marcus Smart and Oklahoma State.  We’ll see…

            We start on Thursday with Texas Tech, so that’s where I’ll start:

            How the Red Raiders beat KU: They don’t.  I mean, if KU comes out like they did on Senior Night, a game which ended 79-42, this is going to be Tyler’s first Big 12 Tournament action.  Even in that game, the Red Raiders held KU to 13-10 for 10 minutes.  But 4 Jayhawks went for double-digits, Elijah had 12 assists, and KU out-rebounded Tech by 22.  At one point KU led by forty.  So, if that iteration of the 2012-13 Hawks appears, the limited number of Tech fans (and the vast number of KU haters) will have a very, very short day. 

            However, if they can simulate the game in Lubbock, it won’t be as ugly.  There the Red Raiders held KU scoreless for over 11 minutes in the first half, and only allowed 27 total first half KU points.  Unfortunately for them, Tech only scored 25 points of their own, and Jaye Crockett only accounted for 3 points, for the night.  In order for this team to test Kansas, they have to work the perimeter, create transition baskets and limit second chance opportunities.  Coordinately, they have to not allow Kansas to control the paint or the tempo.  Either of those scenarios will be fatal for Tech.  And, with the team that they field, they aren’t up to that task.  Sorry. 

            Prediction:  Chants of “We want Tyler”, and a much extended version of The Rock Chalk Chant around 4pm CDT.

            Where to watch:  I would say, ideally, in The Sprint Center.  It is a very nice arena.  But, I’m not a huge live sporting event guy.  It will be $15 for a CAN of mass-produced beer.  The wifi is sketchy, and there will be a ton of empty seats for the early Thursday session.  It will not be the best environment.

            The next best bet is Power & Light across the street.  The Alumni Association watch party and pep rallies will be at Z-Strike, formerly Lucky Strike.  I went last year, and the seating is really limited.  A bunch of JoCo codgers from the 70’s drinking Chardonnay.  Meh.  But, the pep rallies are fun, and there is a nice KU Bookstore remote kiosk set up for buying gear.  Just down the street is Johnny’s, which is a favorite for Lawrence transplants.  Great place to watch a game, and great KU crowd.  Plus, the pizza is damned good.  But, it’ll be full, early.  So good luck.  Another great option is The Cashew, down past The Crossroads at 19^th and Grand.  Good KU crowd, good environment, and good drinks.  But, for me, the Power & Light experience begins, and ends, at The Flying Saucer.  Get there early enough and you can sit on the couch.  The food is good, they have hundreds of beers on tap, and the Beer Knerd staff is dressed as Catholic schoolgirls.  ‘Nuff said.  Plus, on Friday, when it is 70 degrees, they’ll roll up the garage doors.  Do it.

            Of course, many of us won’t want to leave Johnson County.  If that’s the case, I’d recommend the Johnny’s in Olathe.  For all of the reasons that I recommended it at P&L, plus it’s neither in the congestion of P&L nor in North Lawrence.  Really a great place.  Or you could just do what I’ll do: a Casey’s pizza, a 6 of Shiner, Centurylink wifi and DirecTV HD on a Samsung HDTV.  The beer is cheaper, the picture is perfect, and the company is great!!!  Rock Chalk, Jayhawks. 

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.

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.

A Star is Born.

Okay. Real quick. I watched KU come back from a 19-point deficit against our departing rivals, Missouri, in the fieldhouse last season. I watched on a house monitor during a Missouri Mavericks hockey game at The Independence Event Center on January 30, 2010, as a fiesty senior Sherron Collins transcended to one of the all-time great Jayhawks. He willed an overtime layup into the rim, and into Jayhawk lore. From an apartment room on 14th and Tennessee packed with undergrads and alumni, I watched Mario's Miracle. I listened on CBS Radio, through static and disinterested companions, coming back from a family trip to Orlando, as Keith Langford outbattled Jarrett Jack to overcome Ga Tech on New Year's of '05. I sat on my oversized chair at our apartment in Davenport, Iowa, and watched Dick Vitale give Nick Collison a standing ovation for his 24 & 23 performance against UT in '03. The first-ever game I attended at Allen Fieldhouse, before I was ever a member of the student body, was the "Jacque Vaughn layup" game of 1995. Still the loudest game I will ever believe could ever occur. These are the greatest memories of great victories of my ultimate passion, my alma mater. They were joined on Wednesday night, and quite unexpectedly. It was thirty-nine and a half minutes of very pedestrian play by my beloved Hawks. Well, that is, if an individual performance of 33 points, including 6 3-pointers could ever be termed "pedestrian". Which, of course, it couldn't. In his 13 game regular season tenure at KU, Ben McLemore (@Humb1e_Hungry23) has led the team in scoring 5 times. He has clocked 20 or more minutes in every game and scored 9 or more points, including 22 in 36 minutes against their sole road game in Columbus, OH. He was, before Wednesday night, highly heralded by the sports media, and climbing the draft boards of NBA prognosticators. All of that being said... his legend was born Wednesday, January 9, 2013. It wasn't the 33 points. It wasn't the 6 huge buckets from 3-point land. It wasn't the showtime dunk off of the Withey steal to put KU up after trailing most of the 2nd set. Nope. It was the shot. The bank shot tres to send the game into OT not only pushed B-Mac to the very top of every NBA draft board. More importantly, it put him on my list of greatest Jayhawk victories of all-time. That's the stuff that legends are made of. Stay humble. Stay hungry.

It’s Learning, Not Losing

At least, that’s what John Calipari said in his pregame interview. We’ll see exactly what Coach Self learned about the team, and what they learned about one another, fairly quickly. Here’s what I learned from the loss: 1. @T_2ReleFOUR is going to have to be The Man. It never has crossed my mind yet that Travis is the most tenured Jayhawk. He’s been on campus the longest, he’s been on the roster the longest, he’s practiced the most, he’s been privy to Coach Self’s tutelage the most. This is big. This is important. That makes this, for all intents and purposes, his team. That translated to the most minutes on the floor on Tuesday. It translated to TRele being in charge of leading this team down the stretch. And, finally, it translated to him taking the final three for the tie. It seems to me, on all of those counts, he has a lot of work to do. #24 needs to step up his game; quick, fast, and in a hurry. 2. The Return of Mr. Big Shot. Elijah is not going to be the leader of this team. He is much more comfortable propping the young guys up, than breathing fire into a team spiraling out-of-control. Those are the facts. But the other fact is: when you need a cold-blooded shooter, he will knock them down. He hit some mammoth shots last night, and I imagine we will see some monumental, world-class, all-time shots from him throughout the season. 3. The introduction of @J_Mari31 . Woo. I don’t know what else to say. Jamari Traylor was relegated to coming off the bench, and limited to 25 minutes of playtime. But, boy, did he make the most of it. His alley-oop dunk in the first half blew the roof off of The Georgia Dome, and set twitter afire with tweets of admiration. His backboard stick of a Gary Harris breakaway layup in the second half was equally highlight-worthy. He may not break the starting lineup down the stretch, but he made every case to secure a spot for now. 4. On the other end of the spectrum, @PElliz was less impressive in his debut. Although he was the sole McDonald’s All-American in Crimson and Blue, and the most highly touted freshman on the floor, he was limited to 17 minutes and only four points. Worse, he had a bad turnover. Bad, in that, it looked awful. For everything that Jamari did to accentuate his stature, Perry did the opposite. I’m sure that by the time that the Big XII conference schedule is under way, Perry Ellis will be the superstar that we all expect him to be. But, as of Tuesday night, he has a long way to go. 5. The second half should have belonged to BMac. @Humb1e_Hungry23 was invisible to bad in the first half. But he also had some highlight reel moments in the early second half, helping to push the Hawks to their biggest lead. Unfortunately down the stretch, he could not maintain his heat, and, worse, his defense was awful. I’ve touted him as the phenomenal scorer that Coach Self has been missing at KU. He needs to do a lot more than he did at The Champions’ Classic. So, the resultant loss drops us to 1-1, and 0-2 at The Champions’ Classic. In the early years of Bill Self Basketball, those numbers would have been devastating to me. But, worry not, I saw very good things last night. We wasted a lot of possessions, that’s what we do. We had 16 turnovers and missed a third of our free throws. That is also what we do. But, we were in a trench war with Tom Izzo, and we looked in control for 38 minutes of the game. I hate to channel Coach Cal, but, for me, on Tuesday night we learned more than we lost.

Before we lift the curtain for America...

Basketball's version of College Gameday will kickoff Tuesday's 2nd Annual "Champion's Classic" event at Atlanta's Georgiadome. For those of us outside of the Kansas Jayhawk Television Network viewing area, which is most of America, this will be the introductory view of the 2012-13 KU Jayhawks Men's basketball team. This is what America should expect: 1. The team. Contrary to what I reported after the ESU exhibition, Bill Self seems to have already settled upon his eight-man rotation. Releford, Withey, BMac, Naadir, Perry Ellis, Elijah, and Jamari Traylor all played the bulk of the minutes in Friday's game against SEMO. I expect Kevin Young to clock a similar amount of minutes in The ATL, cutting into Perry and Jamari's minutes. This is the team that will be introduced to America, and the team that will become household names by January. 2. @PElliz and @Humb1e_Hungry23 - I truly expect that Tuesday will be the national coming out party for these two exciting freshmen. Perry Ellis has been so smooth, with 8 rebounds and 15 points in the season opener. He's a threat to score every time that he touches the ball. But, the Sportscenter highlight reels belong to Ben McLemore. His put back dunks and alley-oops will blow the roof off of The Dome. 3. Angry Jeff Withey. The gentle giant was invisible through the first two exhibition games, playing at times as if he were just troubled to be there. That changed on Friday night. Angry Withey was back in the lineup, and a double-double ensued. Expect Angry Withey to make the trip to Hotlanta. 4. Shooting Naadir Tharpe. Since his less than auspicious debut against Emporia State, point guard Naadir Tharpe has had several runs on offensive. When he heats up, he's as good of a shooter as you'll see in Atlanta. Here's hoping to America seeing that show. 5. Elijah Johnson = Tyshawn 2? Elijah fouled out of Friday's premiere, and was absent for great stretches of both exhibitions. Coach Self sat him out of the starting lineup of the ESU exhibition for missing class. So, we've seen this challenge of character with Jayhawks before. I am interested in nothing more than how EJ15 will respond. Nothing. Rock chalk, Jayhawks.

The point of exhibitions

There is a lot of hand-wringing and consternation about the tepid performance against the Ichabods in Allen Fieldhouse on Monday night. In some ways there should be. The biggest concern of the evening was, foremost, the score. Absent Ben McLemore's 1st half coming out party, the score was basically a draw. And, regardless of how good Washburn will be in Division II, playing to a draw with a Division II school ain't good. No matter how you slice it. Secondly, KU looked bad. There were a ton of wasted possessions. 24 turnovers. 24. Two of our best ball-handling options: Elijah Johnson and Rio Adams, accounted for 7 of them. Our two anchors in the paint: Jeff Withey and Perry Ellis, accounted for another 8. That ain't good. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there appeared to be no one in charge. If this is Elijah and Withey's team, it sure didn't feel like it. From the best that I could tell, Elijah was playing by himself for great stretches, and, for the second game in a row, Jeff Withey seemed burdened to even show up. Those are not gleeming testimonies of leadership characteristics. And with a road trip to The ATL for a primetime national TV game versus an always-prepared Tom Izzo Michigan State team in The Champions Classic just around the corner, leadership deficiency is not optimal. The early season could get out of hand quickly. These are all feelings that I have heard expressed from the KU faithful since Monday night. But, I do not share their fears. Frankie says, "Relax". This is Bill Self Jayhawk Basketball. The leadership deficiency of November is a consistent issue. The horrendous free-throw shooting (16-27) is a consistent issue. The barrage of wasted possessions and ungodly turnovers is a consistent issue. All issues that Bill Self Jayhawk Basketball overcomes. As I have stated previously, the development of Tyshawn Taylor as a team leader was the highlight of the 2011-12 run to the National Title game for me. The development of Chicago football star Sherron Collins into one of college basketball's premier point guards was the highlight of the 2010-11 Elite Eight run. Whoever the leader of the 2012-13 crew will be - Bill Self will foster that. I have no doubts. But, that is a season-long process. I have come to believe, it is Bill Self's joie de vive. Also, know this: the scoring will come. Over the first two exhibitions, we have seen offensive spurts from Perry Ellis, Naadir Tharpe, Andrew White III, Ben McLemore, and Elijah Johnson. Once they develop synchronicity with one another, I honestly believe, special things are going to happen. Coach Self breaks the season into fourths: the non-conference schedule, the Big XII regular season, the conference tournament, and the NCAA tournament. Although the objective is to win each of the four seasons, the secondary goal is progression, and it has become clinical to watch it happen. I have no doubt that by March, this team looks strikingly like the other Bill Self Jayhawk teams: a fine-tuned High-Low Motion Machine. So, remember, it was just an exhibition.