Excuses, excuses, excuses…
KU’s got a million of ’em to go with Jayhawk’s head basketball coach Bill Self‘s poor numbers. He’s 2-6 in the Elite 8, has lost nine times in the NCAA dance to teams ranked below his and KU underachieves far too often when it matters for an elite program. Just too many early exits.
Some might say Self is settling for conference titles today.
Hey, the guy has 12 in a row, one short of UCLA’s all-time record of 13. Sounds pretty good to me. Kansas has four national titles and has gone to 14 Final Fours. And Self’s teams have held down No. 1 and No. 2 slots in nearly every NCAA Championship run. This year they were the numero uno. Nice. And KU did make it to the Elite Eight – nice again – but close and no cigar.
The $64 million question being, why?
Simple:
KU rarely has that one superstar that can carry a team on his back at crunch time.
They play as a team – a very good team. And Self stresses defense more than most coaches. Maybe most telling is the lack of an elite 3 point shooter in today’s big time perimeter game.
Yes, Kansas had Perry Ellis but he was no killer 3 point shooter?
Devonte Graham became their most trusted 3 point man, but was inconsistent.
Graham scored 17 points in the loss to Villanova, but he had little help.
Frank Mason came on late with 16.
However the player who gets the blame for losing the game is Perry Ellis.
Ellis was totally shut down with just 4 points. Yikes. Buddy Hield he isn’t.
Over the years KU has only had so many players go to the NBA.
And only a few of those became huge stars like Wilt Chamberlain, Jo Jo White and Paul Pierce.
And here’s another knock at Bill Self:
None of Self’s players has come close to being a force in the NBA. Perhaps that will come later.
Meanwhile Mike Krzyzewski of Duke has 12 Final Fours and five national titles.
UCLA’s John Wooden won 10 titles in his 12 Final Fours.
The drop off from there is huge.
As we know Bill Self has only won one of his two Final Fours.Indian’s Bobby Knight has three wins in five Final Fours and North Carolina’s Roy Williams has two in his seven Final Fours.
So guys, it ain’t easy.
But clearly Bill Self is no rock star – I mean, he’s good – but why all the nepotism and sex scandals?
Still before we all come down on Ole Bill, we need to remind ourselves that KU basketball has been our best sports franchise by far over the last five decades.
The Chiefs were in two Super Bowls half a century ago and until very recently the Royals were practically the worst team in baseball. Meanwhile, during that long period KU basketball stayed up with the other elite teams with 14 Final Fours.
We were all down on Marty Ball until Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer got axed.
After which the Chiefs went more than 20 seasons without a playoff win.
So clearly, KU being in the mix is better than being off the map.
Now let’s be honest; would KU fans want to see Bill Self leave the program?
No way!
If you recall, Kansas was not expected to be very good this season, yet they the best record in college basketball with only four loses and 30 wins in regular season.
And when you look at all the numbers – and the talent pool Self has to work with compared to say Kentucky, North Carolina or Duke, Self’s has done a great job.
You know, except for not recruiting nearly as well as Kentucky, North Carolina or Duke.
Now come on Bill, can you at least get one more national title before you bail for the NBA? Please.
That’ll shut everyone up, I think.
Everybody but me maybe.
Obviously 2 or more championships is better than 1, but if we are looking at cumulative results as you are, most coaches have dismal records. Coach K has 5 championships, but you might argue, if so inclined, that his cumulative record is pretty dismal considering the talent. You have the 2012 and 2014 first round debacles as high seeds and a lot of other losses in early rounds as high seeds. I have added a link to an ESPN site where you can plug in any team and get all tournament results. You will see that pretty much every coach has a cumulative dismal record except for John Wooden.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/history/_/team1/5847
Q. – How?
A. – Roy Williams.
“He’s 2-6 in the Elite 8, has lost nine times in the NCAA dance to teams ranked below his…”
FYI…….When you are a 1 or 2 seed you can ONLY lose to teams ranked below you!
An Elite 8 loss is an early exit?
Coach K has been Duke for 36 years. John Wooden was at UCLA for 27 years. You want to compare all of their career numbers to Self who has been at Kansas for 13 years? What do you think Self’s record would be if he stayed another 23 years to equal Coach K? What about another 14 years to equal Coach Wooden?
Come on, CG! If you are going to write a piece to blast Self, at least compare apples to apples.
BTW – you obviously have some facts about who, what and where regarding some Bill Self sex scandal. This being KC Confidential and all, put it out there. You don’t have any issue making mention of it in every single article you write about self. So, spill it.
Headline should read: Fake Birds Lose Again, Hype Doesn’t Equal Win
Imaginary birds choke at big dance. Film at 11.
This “jayhawks are fake birds” thing has really taken off. I’m not sure why since everyone knows that jayhawks aren’t real birds. Unless there were some people who thought they were real and then when they found out that they weren’t, they figured Jayhawk fans didn’t know either, so they’re spilling the beans. I guess some people just aren’t that bright.
Harley commented that this team would only go as far as ellis took them.
But in this game self got outcoached. Once he saw they were rotating on
ellis he should have moved the offense and taken ellis outside. You’ve got
lucas inside scoringand rebounding. Move ellis a little outside and the
inside isn’t so clogged up that your guards like seldom can’t take the ball to the
basket. It was poor shooting and in the other leagues big men see other big
men who are really good every game. The big 12 has no real big name big guys
this year so perry was all alone inside every game. Villanova sees big men with
skills every night….so perry was outmaneuvered and self was outcoached.
Who cares about his sexscandal or his hair or his playing his son 2 minutes in
18 games …..self is still one of the best recruiter in bball right now and he wins
games.
Glaza….this is just more rehashed remade stories that every one knows. Your
opinion and your writing just goes over what is essentially a stale story.
As I said get back to hotties/hos and strippers. That’s where you really shine!!!!!!!!!!!!
i mostly agree harley. but ellis has had off nights before where he just wasn’t much of a factor and other teammates stepped up. like selden. selden was not much of a factor either.
so yeah, self was outcoached but i also think this: ku players under bill self seem to have a hard time adjusting to the BIG game, the laser-like spotlight. they can do it, but on the biggest stages they fail more often than not.
i’ll take self’s philosophy on “toughness”, but he needs to teach them that means more than defensive stops and second-chance points.
thanks mike t…..I have a mental way of picking teams that
seems to work. I look at a teams previous games…try to find
out where they had a really bad game. Poor shooting…poor
defense….their big names underperformed…..their bench was
weak…and look and see where they took a real good beating.
If its been a while….maybe 6-8 weeks…I know that the
odds are theywill eventually have that bad game. KU had
won what 16 straight….they are not playing in allen field house…and then I look at the travel time as another part
of the decision. KU had a great run to winning the title
and tournament…but it’s hard in college to keep a streak going.
Unless you have a team that is made of future nba stars.
So I figured KU was set for a bad game….its just the odds.
You can see it in their previous ncaa tournament losses…
and eventually every college team has that real horrible
game. Problem is ku played it against villanova.
Seems that the years ku won championships in ncaa was years
they lost in the big 12 tournament….maybe 3 games in
3 days wears them out….
Just a way I’ve been successful winning money on my
college bets. Nothing big…I’m no longer the big gambler
I once was…but I cam out a winner this year.
Eventually every team has that complete horrible terrible
game…KU just seems to have them late in the season
during the tournament.
If we’re talking about the NCAA tournament as being the biggest stage, every school fails more often than not, except for UCLA in the 70s.
Exactly! Only one team wins. You can have the number one overall seed every year and I’ll take the other 63 teams for the win.
Whelp. This is worse than normal
“Kansas has four national titles”
They either have three or five depending if you want to include the two non-NCAA titles back in the 20s. Four is not option.
“If you recall, Kansas was not expected to be very good this season, yet they the best record in college basketball with only four loses and 30 wins in regular season.”
You are right. I don’t recall that at all. Because it isn’t true. KU was overwhelmingly expected to win another Big 12 by media and coaches and was ranked Top 5 by both the AP and Coaches preseason polls.
in fairness, there were some media members high on OK throughout the season… until the triple overtime game at AFH. everyone jumped off that prairie schooner of a bandwagon after that.
bobis 100% correct!!!!!!!! Glaza blows another one.
What is he? 0-15 in his stories?
Contrary to what any RPI metric might state, after seeing how the Big 12 did in the tourney, I’d say the Big 12 was really down this year. Many of the league games were painful to watch because of the skill level of several of the Big 12 teams and a lack of competitiveness. Several of the teams played like they didn’t care too much about losing, which is never a good sign.
I thought the B12 was supposed to be a basketball powerhouse? What happened?
Remember Hearne does headlines and adds comment. I have nothing against Bill Self, but Hearne’s points are well taken.
And in the headline, he puts your name in front of the colon which gives the impression that you said it. In the words of Bill Self, that’s a dick move. I know, I know, that’s how it’s done. The name doesn’t need to be in the headline though.
HARLEY DOES IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pick Villanova to win it all. combine that with super bowl prediction/royals
championship prediction/chiefs comeback prediction/and you have the
king of the prognosticators.
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