It's a lot easier to slow a team down than speed someone up.

There's also a reason Selfs ku teams have iirc the most tourney victories the last however many years.

Don't let facts get in the way of emotion.

I remember that everybody was a big Tyshawn hater as late as his junior season.

His senior year was pretty damn good. There's absolutely no reason why Tharpe can't do the same thing. He's not as speedy or as talented as Tyshawn Taylor, but he can absolutely learn to play smarter and more grounded basketball.

Not me (Tyshawn was a great 4 year starter for KU and I always appreciated what he could do rather than what he lacked), but I do recall that hate as well. There certainly is a chance Tharpe could play at his January level more regularly, I suppose. He's shown those flashes of being a good guard.

Self's biggest shortcoming, IMO, is his reticence to press. Kansas is the best pressing team I've seen since Pitino's Kentucky teams. It's a difficult balance, because elite players don't want to play really hard, exhausting defense, but every time they press it brings their single best asset (superior athleticism) to bear. I wouldn't run 40 Minutes of Bull****, but a couple of five minute segments of pressing per half could really grind down an opposing team.

Especially in the tourney against the lower talented teams that always grind the game down.

Like PB said, self shouldn't allow said teams to do that to him. He does an I think it shows a lot that his teams tend to en up playing tight, but I would in those situations try to increase number of possesions.

I do think Self might be the best coach I've ever seen be able to extend a game te last 2 minutes or so.

I agree with this. I wish Self would have his team press a little bit every game.

Tharpes defense is ass. He's out there because he can get around guys and (when he doesn't have his head firmly in his rectum) he can really pass the ball well. Conner has not done these things.

Tharpes problem is inconsistency. As good as he is, he is bad when he's bad. I can understand disappearing in some games but the difference between making ridiculously awesome plays to the dumbest shit I've seen outside of seventh grade.

I was down on Taylor. Not nearly as much as some, but I was pessimistic about him starting. However, I was the biggest Taylor homer outside of his mother on the planet. Dude was outstanding and him and TRob willed a junk team to the national ****ing championship. TT ended up being one of my favorite Jayhawks.

I'd agree with that. I would like to see him use it to stop teams runs. And definitely employ it earlier when KU gets down.

Frankamp is not and should not be the starting PG. This is silly, and we should forget about this right now.

He will be a good shooting guard that won't turn the ball over, but that's not what we need out of the PG position.

Mason will be a very good to great PG. Maybe as soon as next year. We are talking about FRESHMEN here. They will get better.

I remember all the talking points about the Morris twins their first year. They didn't dunk. They were soft. Just hit "power layups." They didn't have "fire." Look how that turned out.

Things will be fine, but let's not get crazy.

Unofficially I have since Self went to KU:

Cal: 29 (and counting) / 1 title
Roy: 27 / 2 titles
Self: 26 / 1 title
Pitino: 24 (and counting) / 1 title
Donovan: 24 (and counting) / 2 titles
Izzo: 23 (and counting) / 0
K: 23 / 1 title


So virtually no difference among any of them.

Thank Christ

@jojo_embiid: WHAT IF......................?????

JoJo trollin'

3 Trillions for the year for Garrett. What a stud.

So it's almost like the tournament is largely a crapshoot and the real best programs differentiate themselves from the very good in the much larger sample size of the regular season.