College Basketball - KU

66.4% Effective FG%After the Memphis game, I complained that KU didn’t shoot the trey often enough and that they didn’t press. Believe it or not, I actually saw a full court press against Central Arkansas. Ok, it was only once or twice, but that’s still infinitely more than normal. Maybe… just maybe… Self will employ it in the future. And, instead of only five three-pointers against Memphis, the Hawks shot 19 Thursday night, hitting 11. Obviously, my opinion had nothing to do with it, but it’s always good when I don’t have to complain.

Too Close for ComfortThere are two things in the world that I can’t comprehend. The first is how something the size of an atom can be converted into enough explosive power to destroy a city. The second is why Bill Self refuses to press. Actually, make that one thing I don’t understand. I just went on line and learned how to split an atom.

OvermatchedI assume everyone who reads my posts also watched the game. Because of that, I see no reason to replay it in English. However, if the word “Impressive” is in the dictionary, then that should cover the game analysis well enough. The 101-65 victory was KU’s 37th straight home opener win and their 42nd straight home victory – which leads the nation. There are a lot of good things to talk about, so let’s get going.

Self comes up emptyHighly recruited Harrison Barnes (#2 by Rivals and #1 by ESPN) decided to become a Tar Heel this afternoon. Friday the 13th didn’t turn out too good for KU fans. Barnes is considered a freak athlete in that he has a wingspan of a 7 footer and plays like a guard. He’s 6-8”. Being from Iowa, he will join the likes of Hinrich, Collison and LaFrentz who left the state to play for Roy Williams.

KU - History Marches OnWhat started out as “anybody’s guess” has turned into what “everyone knows”. That’s who the nine-man rotation is going to be. You know – the group that Self said he was going to go with. Frankly, I had severe doubts, but the more I think about it, the more obvious it is. Self is obviously a master at manipulating (or rather, positioning) his product on the shelf for maximum exposure (or rather, production).

The Hawks took to the floor Tuesday night in an exhibition game against Fort Hays State. KU was looking to justify their #1 preseason ranking and, for the most part, did so. Naturally, you can’t make too much out of a 107-68 victory – especially since it is their 34th straight exhibition win. Nevertheless, KU looked pretty good and the team didn’t do anything to disappoint the fans.

C-Last basketball season I posted the same headline on Pomeroy’s college basketball ratings which had Memphis #1. If you want to read about that, here it is. This time, the offending party is Jeff Sagarin. Here is a link to his list of all-time basketball schools 1-330 and the list of the top schools by decade. If you have seen this list, you almost surely know what I’m going to say. Or, if you don’t know, it’s only because you have never pondered this question: Which teams belong in the top-6?

This is the last post of this series. Since it is obviously about Self's recruiting in the context of everyone else, I figured I'd end with a breakdown of the KU players Bill has recruited in the past six seasons. Naturally, I couldn't let it go at just that. I'll give my opinions as to the biggest disappointments and the biggest surprises.

Bill vs RoyI would like to be able to say that KU and Self have out-recruited NC and Williams over the six years since Self has been here, but (unfortunately) I can’t. The final totals are North Carolina 11,888 and Kansas 11,424. So, although KU is below NC, it’s close enough for gubment work. And, FWIW, KU led some the time in the six years and may well be again. Here’s the comparison along with a private conversation between RW and BS on the subject.

KU vs NCApparently, not everyone got the joke in Part II – the joke being that Self was doing a poor job of recruiting. Again, for those who missed it… If you want to complain about Self’s recruiting, click on SelfReportCard.com. Ok, now that we have put that to bed, I’m sure anyone alive would agree that BS has been a far better recruiter at Kansas than RW was – and I’m an unapologetic slobbering RW fan! Nevertheless, the facts speak for themselves after six recruiting seasons. Of course, RW has done a great job at NC since he moved, but it’s clearly easier to recruit there than here – at least it is for him. And, now is the time to say the #1 and #2 cumulative recruiting schools over the last six seasons are, in fact, KU and NC - although…

for the wearyIn yesterday’s post, I attempted to explain exactly what went into the ratings by, among other things, explaining the point system. Hopefully, it all made sense. Like anything else, S*it in S*it out. Because of that, I try very hard to make sure that the information is relevant and properly weighted. Sometimes those are subjective issues and that’s why I explain them. If someone wants to debate the basis, I’m happy to do so. Anyway, here some final results of the Self recruiting era at KU.

No time to restObviously, the reason I chose six years for this analysis is because that’s how long Bill Self has been at Kansas. I am still going to do a similar study going back farther, but for today, this is about where KU stands with respect to other schools during Self’s tenure – essentially a Self recruiting report card. In Part I, I will lay the foundation for the study with some results. I will follow it up tomorrow in Part II. BTW: In case you are interested, I did a deeper analysis of 2009 in an earlier post.

NaismithAs I mentioned in Part 1 of this two-parter, I think there is a very good chance that future generations will look back on the pre-1940 basketball period feeling educated rather than the present-day feeling of trying to read a book in total darkness. That’s what we have with the Helm’s Foundation national championships. The upcoming Premo-Porretta poll will change that – hopefully for good.

One of the assumptions we make is that history is… history. But, given the enormous investigative tools we have nowadays, we can actually improve history – make it better. By that I mean we can learn more about history than history knew about itself and this is a classic example.

The Helms FoundationIn part II, I laid the foundation for making my own decision about who is right (Helms Foundation – KU#1 or Premo Power Poll – MU #1) regarding the 1922 "national championship". I will give the only rational analysis I can come up with for making a decision. Presumably, half the readers won’t like it and half will. And, of the half that do like it, half of them will think my reasoning was bad. And, of the half that think my reasoning was good, half those …

Phog Allen - Bigger than life.From Better Basketball, 1937, Phog Allen, Chapter 24.

The Helms FoundationIn the introduction to this series as well as Part I, my primary emphasis was to better evaluate the pre AP Poll seasons for the Jayhawks – meaning everything before 1948. To be honest, at the time I started, I didn’t even factor in Missouri. Of course, most (nay, all) the reason was because I wasn’t familiar with MU’s early basketball success. I quickly realized The Helms Foundation was extremely borderline – and that’s being very kind!

Things are good in the Land of OzI’m sure you have all been on the edge of your seats wondering what is happening in the Men’s 19 (and under) World Championships and the Women’s World University games. If so, you already know the results. The USA won both GOLD MEDALS – the Women on Saturday, the men on Sunday. For the women it was their seventh gold in 15 WUG tournaments since 1973. However, for the men, it was their first gold medal since 1991. Both teams went undefeated. As to the local connections…

Paul EndacottI’m still working on The Helms Foundation series. In doing so, I’ve been looking a little into the 1922 and 1923 national “championship” seasons for Kansas. This business with Xavier Henry reminded me of a story that Phog Allen (who would be rolling over in his grave tonight) wrote about a game with Missouri in 1923. It’s amazing the difference in how players used to simply play for the love of game and school… at least compared to some today.

According to 610 radio and Fox Sports, Xavier Henry will be “going” to Kansas. The first question is “when?” – on the way to Colorado to ski? Assuming this news is true, I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, he could be the piece KU needs to win it all. On the other hand, he and his brother and his dad could be the virus that wrecks the team chemistry.