IS THAT BILL SELF'S MUSIC?
If you’re new to Streak Talk, welcome. As soon as Mike “KU Woj” Vernon’s great new newsletter, The Hearings, went live, it was a free subscriber bonanza1 over here at STHQ. Jayhawk tides lift all Jayhawk boats. Thank you Mike, and I hope the new readers stick around and read the classics.
Something I laugh about every day, to myself mostly, is our self-imposed sanctions on Self. He couldn’t coach the Duke game in Indy, but he could be with the team until midnight the day before. He couldn’t stay in the same hotel as the team, but he could stay nearby, at a different hotel. He couldn’t order mid-shelf cocktails (adios Casamigos!), but anything well was fine. (This one is made up, but you know this sort of provision exists).
The sanctions feel arbitrary, and for all intents and purposes, they are. It’s a performance, and given the general scattered nature of the IARP, I bet it works. Between the salaries of those on the IARP board, and KU’s various legal retainers, a typhoon of cash has been spent trying to resolve this sanction situation. At this point, things feel like they’re petering out a lot. Let’s hope this lasts!
Alright, let’s get to where things stand, basketball-wise. Kansas is 4-0, and Norm Roberts proved to be a more-than-capable fill-in. He flat-out out-coached new Duke coach Jon Scheyer at the Champions Classic, and until the Southern Utah game, Roberts kept the defensive intensity at 11. He also blew out his voice doing it, which I find extremely endearing. I missed the game live because I was seeing The Menu opening night, but Matthew Loves Ball has us covered with the edit:
The defense in this game… less than the standard. That being said, Southern Utah is clearly pretty solid, and knows the formula for beating more athletic, bigger teams. We could use a couple of their shooters! It took another heroic Gradey Dick performance down the stretch to see us through—Gradey Dick is not long for the University of Kansas, so enjoy him while you can—and the end result is a solid win which perfectly sets up the return of Bill Self.
Self returns at the perfect moment in the season’s storyline. It feels like a wrestling plot point, honestly. The defense, which is what’s going to carry this team, needs a boost, and Self’s (SELF-IMPOSED, ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT MANDATED) return is serendipitous timing.
KU is deep, and the rotations need a solid edit—Roberts played three big guys with two ball-handlers (one of them being Jalen), and it was a mess. The Jayhawks suck at free throws. Zach Clemence missed the Southern Utah game but… what exactly is the plan for big Z? I expect KJ Adams (playing well!) to continue to get a lot of burn, and while there’s been some (being generous) hiccups, the progression of Udeh and Ejiofor absolutely has to be escalated for this team to play their best ball. Udeh can fly, and Ejiofor looks like an absolute classic Bill Self big-man find.
NC State, who we play in a couple hours, is 68th in Pomeroy despite being 4-0. They shoot a ton of threes, and I’m guessing they’re gameplanning a barrage for this matchup. I’m not sure we’re ever going to light it up from three, but this game should be a pretty good sample of how we’ll set up for the rest of the season defending it. Self is back. Let’s ride.