Kansas Crimson

Lets be realistic here (and optimistic)
In a "rebuilding" season coming off a title this team went 28-8 in what was clearly the best conference this season (and maybe in years)

I thought this was one of self's best coaching jobs ever (if he was active ncaa tourney who knows)
He took a team that lost (75ish?) percent of scoring from last season and won the toughest conference in America

Agreed. Super average team with great coaching.

I would say very good team but average for a Bill Self team coached to their highest potential.

No post scoring and only one elite three point shooter ( and he disappeared).

i made the comparison to 2012 several months ago…punched above their weight much of the season

when clicking, they coulda beat anyone, but the deficiencies (namely bench play) were too much

love this team though, definitely one of my favorites (like 2012)

I think we all knew this team was highly flawed; for Bill to get another Big XII Championship out of these guys was a huge accomplishment.

Yep.

we would have won yesterday if we had our coach.

this team was good enough to play into the third weekend. If we had our coach.

not having coach yesterday was the difference.

I think we were better than Arkansas, slightly better than St Mary’s and at best as good as UConn. I think UConn would have been as bad a matchup as we could have.

Winning the regular season is starting to lose its value to me because the home court advantage of AFH is just that good and Bill & his staff have such a read on the rest of the conference that if you can win a couple of games on the road and protect your home court then you are probably looking at best a share of the conference.

The eye opener for me was the last two Texas games. They got absolutely manhandled. That told me that this team was going to need EVERY break to go their way and when Self was basically ruled out for the first weekend I knew it was only a matter of time before the L was coming.

Self and Wilson hid the issues we all predicted for as long as they could but eventually it caught up with them. Nothing to be ashamed of. Hell of year.

Another great regular season. Untimely artery clog in coach’s heart. Team pissed down its own leg yesterday. Had 12 point lead to a lesser team, and lost it. Most because of our own mistakes. Next year gonna be more of a ‘rebuild’ than this one, assuredly.

I love winning the regular season. in this league, winning the regular season is accomplishing something.

pdub wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:55 pm I would say very good team but average for a Bill Self team coached to their highest potential.

No post scoring and only one elite three point shooter ( and he disappeared).

I think this is about right. I think this team was better than 2011-12, but not as good as last year's team (once Remy came on).

It's also, which I believe is to your point, exactly the sort of team where uncertainty over Bill (on and off the floor) was an enormous problem. There simply wasn't a high enough baseline of talent to get by with that sort of stuff going on.

We got bossed twice by Texas in a week, and in that span lost the game's best coach. I didn't have super high expectations for the tournament (but losing in the first weekend BLOWS, it just makes this coming week so shitty).

Yes.
That.

I think Arkansas was probably the worst 8/9 we could have been matched with.

I dunno if this team was better than 11-12.

That team had a big who could score in the post, and a guard who could get his own shots. An elite defensive center X factor. Upperclassmen at every position.

Both years struggled to score, but with the factors above, 2012 was just better about grinding out a W. That's why one was within a few buckets of a natty, and the other lost in the first weekend.

This team seemed to have a lot of odd pieces, but even that was still enough for a conference title and a 1 seed.

Earlier in the season I thought they had it all together, then they seemed disjointed about half way through.

Gradey getting open was rare. Teams sold out to face guard him. KJ started to miss short jumpers. Teams mauled Wilson. Left DH open. It was a sputtering offense that shut down the season.

I’m curious now. Usually, I’ve always had the ‘they are kids’ mentality regarding missing FTs, disappearing on offense (Dick), having off games, etc.

I know their actual age hasn’t changed, but with NIL money, should our perspective as fans? And I don’t mean that in a way to give us a ticket to bash them for making mistakes. I don’t think we should. But, more accountability perhaps as they aren’t really amateurs anymore?

I’m sure this is been discussed, but I don’t hang out much anymore, and this might be the type of thing more discussed in the many months I go absent. So, any thoughts there would be awesome.

I know, I’m probably just being a cunt trying to be pissed at a bunch of ‘kids’ making pretty good money accountable.

I wonder if maybe we coulda been better about getting Udeh up to speed. Even tho he was obviously the big with the most upside, and even tho no other big was exactly standing out, he was buried in the rotation behind Zach and Zuby for half the season, and didn't even really get reps til those guys got hurt. He was effective in a limited role and seemed to be coming on, but man, still a foul machine.

I also wonder if we might have been better to just pick a guard rotation and go with it. Usually, Bobby was the first off the bench, got the opposite of the short-leash treatment, even tho he'd often just check in and promptly turn it over. Sometimes it was Yes. We had a stretch we were playing Yes as the backup small guard, with more Mc as the backup point, and it seemed like it was working and we were gonna stick with it, until we weren't.

I also also wonder if we made the most of Gradey. Dude shot 40% from 3! We shoulda had him in constant motion off the ball, sprinting baselines and flying around screens to his spots, like elite shooters do in the league. Coulda got Gradey more looks, and also coulda maybe made things easier for the rest of the offense. But Self has never really used a shooter like that.

of course, hindsight is always 20-20....