Day: April 6, 2023

Let’s wrap up the college basketball season.

Jayhawk Talk

Bill Self finally appeared before the media on Wednesday, his first interaction with the press since before his heart episode nearly a month ago.

He looked and sounded great.

In his recorded interviews with Greg Gurley during the NCAA tournament he always seemed half a step slow, either verbally, mentally, or both. Naturally this led to rumors that he had suffered a stroke.

Maybe he did have a stroke; that didn’t come up at the press conference. I think more likely that was just the meds in his system and some general weariness from what he was going through.

Anyway, he seemed like the same old Bill Self Wednesday. He confirmed he will be coaching next year. It should be no surprise that there were rumors as soon as the press conference was announced on Monday that he would be announcing his retirement. I don’t think that’s a modern age thing at all. Those rumors would have popped up if this was 1973. They just spread faster now.

Self has always been great with the press and he certainly was that Wednesday. KU fans should be excited that he said the time away from the court made him realize he doesn’t want to not coach. My assumption is that means he’ll coach as long as he has the hunger for it and his body allows him to do it.

He alluded to lifestyle changes he needed to make to stay healthy. That need has been obvious for a few years. I think he really enjoyed last summer especially, coming off a national championship. That may be the real reason he stuck with the casual wear last year, as the quarter zips hide an expansive midsection better than a suit can.[1] Wednesday he looked like he’s already lost a few pounds, which is a good start.

Hopefully he is completely healthy and recovered, or at least well on that path. And hopefully his body is ready to handle the stresses of the season again when November rolls around. For the time being I think KU fans can rest easier that we’re not going to have to find a new coach right away.

As for the team, I hadn’t really thought about it until Self said this, but there are only four returning players with playing experience. While the four incoming freshmen are all highly rated, he pointed out that there are a lot of holes to fill.

There’s a chance Kevin McCullar could return. That would probably be the smartest move for him, but it seems like he’s ready to take whatever the pro game has to offer him.

I’ve been monitoring the players in the transfer portal and have been amused/bemused by how many of the best players are bad matches for KU. There are a bunch of little guys who can score. I’m not sure Self would be thrilled to throw a guy smaller than DaJuan Harris next to him in the backcourt, no matter how well that kid can shoot it. And especially if that kid can’t play solid D. A couple of the most talented players are either terrible shooters or highly inefficient shooters, also not what KU needs. Inside, do you take an established big and limit Ernest Udeh’s minutes/development?

I know Self always wants to win in the moment. Next year’s schedule is the usual monster, though.[2] I would suggest this might be a transfer season where he should look to add depth rather than plug-in starters. Roll with the returning players and freshmen while finding one or two depth guys who have experience and can fill holes capably but won’t demand 30 minutes a game of PT.

Once the roster shakes out, I’ll probably have a final Jayhawk Talk entry for the season.

Women’s Final Four

This was awesome, way better than the men’s final weekend. L and I both got swept up in Caitlin Clark fever. Unless you rooted for a team Iowa was playing, how could you not? This might have been the first time I’ve ever wanted Iowa to win at anything. Not sure why, but I’ve always had a strong, irrational dislike of the school’s teams.

Shame the Hawkeyes ran out of steam in the championship game. All props to LSU for a ridiculous performance to grab the title. That reminded me of 2018 Villanova, at least in the title game. The Tigers refused to miss.

When I watch women’s hoops I’m always noting the differences between it and the men’s game. I think one thing that made Clark so popular was how she plays with a flair, edge, and abandon that we expect more from men than women. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more girls pull up from 10 feet behind the 3-point line this travel season.

Which brings us to Clark’s interactions with LSU’s Angel Reese at the end of the title game. Reese was IN CLARK’S FACE for the final 20 seconds or so, flashing all the signs that Clark has flashed all year and pointing at her ring finger. It was a little much, so I was not surprised that people went way over the top in reacting.

Clark brought that on herself. She didn’t seem super upset about it afterward, so props to her for being able to take it after dishing it. I think Reese played the disrespect card a little too hard, but don’t have much of a problem for throwing something Clark did back at her.

I just wish it had been a little so direct. Flat out, if that happened in a mens game there would have been a fight. Do it with your teammates, to your fans, to the cameras. You never need to get in someone’s face the way Reese did with Clark, though.

Did LSU just run over and grab the trophy? That’s kind of awesome. I’m used to the men’s game where there’s a whole 10–15 minutes of celebration before the formal presentation of the trophy. I swear LSU had the trophy 8.5 seconds after the final horn sounded.

Hey, here’s a hot take: those referees in the championship game sucked big time. Just a disastrous performance. The technical on Clark was the capper on a very, very bad day. Yes, let’s put the player more people have tuned in to watch than any other game in the history of women’s basketball on the bench because she was a little petulant during a dead ball. Meanwhile ignore the opposing coach acting like a complete lunatic the entire game and her best player violating every rule of taunting in the books without getting T’d up.

Pretty much every other call in the game sucked, too.

I know America was obsessed with Kim Malkey’s outrageous wardrobe. I have a friend who covered Malkey during her Baylor days. That friend’s assessment: Malkey is not a good person. After doing some reading, I am inclined to agree.

Men’s Tourney

Didn’t watch a second of the Final Four. UConn winning was the easiest bet in the history of the game. It is just ridiculous that program, which for a long stretch of the ‘90s was maybe the most hard-luck program in the sport, is now 5–0 in championship games over a 25 year span. I read that they’ve won 20% of the titles since 1998, and also missed 30% of the tournaments over the same span. That is a weird-ass quarter century.

Yes, I am a little bitter than UConn took just one year to jump past KU again in all time NCAA titles. Especially bitter one of those titles came in a year when the entire tournament opened up for KU and we couldn’t get past VC-fucking-U. KU would have killed UConn in the 2011 title game… We still have those mythical Helms titles, though!

In better news I won one of my pools, tied for first in my other. Turns out if you do really well in the opening weekend and everyone gets wiped out in the Sweet 16/Elite 8, you can win. I should write a book about my strategy. Not sure of my payouts yet but I’m already looking at dumb ways to blow the dough.

I finished fourth of six in my fantasy league. Dylan Disu’s injury killed my team as much as any upset did. If he doesn’t get hurt, I likely finish second. Just another way Texas has somehow screwed me in March.