We're Number One
Monday’s poll revealed that Kansas is the new number one team in the country, the fifth different number one on the poll this year. (RIP Louisville, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State). It’s December. Weird season so far!
A big part of being a KU fan is having a complicated relationship with the No. 1 ranking. We all covet it—let’s not delude ourselves—and it tastes particularly good during a season where the preseason narrative focused on others. But, the superstitious nature of Kansas basketball can be a harsh chaser to any coronation. Does being number one put too big a target on KU’s back, too early in the year? Is it more of a distraction than an honor? Does early exaltation inevitably lead to letdown?
Here’s my thing: it’s Kansas basketball, and even if we sucked, there’d be a target. But in a basketball landscape where less and less attention is devoted to rank-and-file college hoops games, being number one is something that resonates with even the most casual fan. In a season where hoops journalists are scrambling for season-long narratives in our post-Zion reality, any kind of slip from the top—which is inevitable, it’s December!—will be amplified to fill that void.
As for the Big Letdown… I don’t know. Being a number one seed in the tournament is an odds-stacking arrangement that inarguably helps you, no matter how loaded the bracket. While it’s been easy to fantasize about what an expectations-less Jayhawks team could do in the tournament, there’s never going to be that kind of emotional freedom in the Bill Self era and all KU fans need to let go of “1988 Part 2” ever happening. Self is working at his usual level, if not higher. All of his signature “insights” are turned up to 11, and the team has responded so far.
For instance: Kansas pummeled UMKC on Saturday, and while David McCormack had a career game, a beloved Streak Talk reader pointed out that Self’s exuberant post-game comments focused on Doke. (Self did give McCormack a sideline high-five, however, which is basically Bill Self’s take on a bear hug). Keeping everyone hungry, even through small headgames, is part of Self’s blueprint. Number one is business as usual.
Hail the McLemoreaissaince
Much of my NBA-related philosophizing is built off of one principle: that the current depth of the NBA is unmatched in the league’s history. Player #450—the worst player enjoying active status in the NBA—is light years better than that same player ten years ago. So, if the talent gap is less than it has been in the past, team fit and chemistry is more important now than ever.
Enter Ben McLemore. During his first six seasons in the NBA, McLemore’s skill set didn’t stick in two stints with Sacramento and a single season with Memphis. Touted as a shooter coming out of college, he’s shot 35% from deep in his career so far, and the defensive numbers aren’t particularly pretty, either. When Houston offered McLemore 2 years/$4M, he had to take it—that offer probably wasn’t on the table anywhere else. His most memorable moment in the NBA, to that point, was this:
Not exactly what you want!
As we’re seeing in LA, particularly with the Lakers, teams that look top-heavy on paper are dominating by optimizing their superstars. This is what wins in the modern game—superstars, pushed to their usage peaks with a well-thought-out roster of complementary players. (As in, directly complementary to the superstar in question) These numbers will stabilize eventually, but McLemore, since joining James Harden, is eleventh in ESPN.com’s efficiency measure, Real +/- in a non-insignificant number of minutes.
How’s that for a scenery change?
To the eye test, McLemore looks much more comfortable in this role. He’s not pressing. The idea of him as a commodity 3-and-D guy is probably a fantasy at this point, McLemore has established himself as a key piece of Houston’s rotation. He’s shooting 70% from 2, but that’s because he doesn’t take them—he averages 1 attempt a game. He’s in there to shoot, draw pressure away from Harden, and make people pay for losing him on defense. It doesn’t exactly follow that it took McLemore leaving a very bad team to join a very good one to unlock his unique value proposition, but here we are. This is the NBA.
As Devonte’ Graham has proved all season long, it’s crazy what a slight uptick in confidence can do for a shooter. McLemore is not going to stay this highly ranked forever but it’s a cool success story for a Jayhawk that has been through a lot.