Gary Sheffield, Jr
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Kansas fell short to Oklahoma State 75-70 last Tuesday and Jayhawks’ head coach Bill Self claims another coach diagnosed the problem: They aren’t guarding a soul.
Self admitted it was tough hearing this from a peer, but maybe it’s for the best?
Final pic.twitter.com/Ges6qguHQ8
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) January 13, 2021
“She told me…she said, ‘Bill I watched you guys play early in the season. You weren’t very good offensively, but you guarded. Now you are not guarding,'” Self said Thursday night on his radio show.
“That’s coming from another coach. That’s actually kind of tough to hear. This coach has been a longtime Division I head coach at the highest level. The fact is we’ve got to get back to guarding.”
Apparently, Bill Self tried to remedy the defense in the first half against OSU. But to his dismay, his demands were left unmet.
“I told the guys at the first TV timeout, the second TV timeout, ‘They are on pace for 125 [points].’ “They ran by us like we were standing still. That’s embarrassing,” Self concluded.
This is the right move to share this story with his team
Self is clearly out of options to fix this defense and he’s using stats to back up why they should better, like this:
“They had the best player on the floor by far,” Self said of OSU freshman guard Cade Cunningham. “He scored 14 points in the first half and we didn’t take the challenge to stop a guy who may be the No. 1 pick in the draft. It was frustrating.”
Cade Cunningham displayed his all-around game with 1️⃣8️⃣ points, 7️⃣ rebounds, 3️⃣ assists and 2️⃣ blocks to lift @OSUMBB to an upset of No. 6 Kansas in the lone game of the week for the Cowboys.@CadeCunningham_ is the #Big12MBB Newcomer of the Week. pic.twitter.com/TdpFZXtFfu
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) January 18, 2021
Possible that Bill Self is making up this whole story that a coach told him his own defense was notably awful, but the point still remains: The Kansas Jayhawks need to sure up that defense if they want any chance to make a deep run in the NCAA tourney.
Kansas takes on an unranked Oklahoma this Saturday, so expect a fired up No. 9 ranked Jayhawks to finally turn up on the defensive end.
Okay, when you start a story about Kansas basketball during conference season with
“Kansas fell short to Oregon State”
You’ve lost a lot of credibility.
Look at the picture in your own story–Oklahoma State.
As Rodgers and Hammerstein might say, “O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A”
Do better.
Couldn’t really care less if I lose credibility to someone because I made an honest mistake. I’ll continue to do the job I do and if I lost you, then so be it.
When is the last time Duke Kentucky and North Carolina were not in the Top 25
Not in my lifetime….
1961
We should first worry if they will show up tonight versus Baylor before we move on to Oklahoma. Overall point made though which will be heavily tested tonight. Wonder why we have to question the truthfulness of Coach Self story telling. Seemed to be randomly throw in at the end of a story. Good analysis doesn’t need unsupported speculation irrelevant to the story. Now it feels like gossip not analysis.
Wake me up when March Madness starts.