Kansas “Self” Implodes
How did Kansas lose that game last night to Michigan? I’ll give Wolverines point guard Trey Burke all the credit in the world. He played like the high first round draft pick he’ll be in the last 10 minutes of that game. But how does Bill Self let his team lose a game when his team was ahead by 10 with three minutes left and five with 13 seconds left. A missed free throw was costly by Elijah Johnson and Burke made the Jayhawks pay with a 30-foot three pointer with eight seconds left that sent the game into overtime which Michigan won.
I like Bill Self. He’s a good guy and a good coach. He’s a really good recruiter as evidenced by the NBA talent he has on the floor. But how do you blow a game like that? Self is starting to remind me of former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Self can get you close but can’t seem to get you over the hump. He HAS won a national championship in 2008 when Derrick Rose missed one of two free throws with under ten seconds left to put Memphis ahead by only three then Mario Chalmers sank a three as time expired to send the game into overtime which Kansas won. That was the same tournament in which “Cal”, who is another guy who can recruit but I’m not sure is that great of a floor coach, said that “free throws didn’t matter.” He thought his team would win it all anyway. He was wrong. And Derrick Rose is the same guy who had another young person take his SAT for him in high school. Character matters in big moments.
So Self did win that one, but lately it always seems like he gets his team close but can’t get them over the hump. Smith in his 36 years at the helm of North Carolina took his team to 11 Final Fours. That’s impressive. But if you look at it closer, he only won two national championships with guys like Michael Jordan and James Worthy and a plethora of Parade All-Americans on his rosters through the years. The two titles he won were gifts by the other team. One was in 1982 when Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time though LeBron may have an argument before his illustrious career is over, sank an 18-foot jumper to put Carolina ahead by a point then Georgetown’s “Downtown” Freddie Brown threw a pass right to James Worthy which lost a one point game for the Hoyas to the Tar Heels. The other championship win was in 1993 when Chris Webber of the Fab Five at Michigan called timeout when the Wolverines had no timeouts and cost his team the game because it was a technical and Carolina shot a free throw and got the ball to close out the game. Weber was another guy with questionable character as there was a lot of alleged cheating going on at Memphis. He blew it when it mattered. Bobhy Knight said earlier this year how can you call those guys Fab when they didn’t win anything. I agree.
I was up in Chapel Hill from 1988-90 and didn’t love Smith as a person. I thought he was overrated as a coach. Self is a much better guy than Smith was. Smith was immature and egotistical and liked to put up this persona like he was, as Sports Illustrated’s Frank DeFord called him in a piece, “holier than thou.” It was an act. He wasn’t that great a guy. One time Lefty Driesell of Maryland lost a game to Smith at Chapel Hill that he thought he had won. He and Smith had an acrimonious relationship. Smith came running up to shake his hand in an obnoxious, offensive way and Driesell almost hit him. Smith’s assistant Bill Guthridge intervened and almost got in a fight with Lefty. Smith always had people take care of his issues and protect him and even physically intimidate other people. To me, he was a coward.
But Self is a good guy. I like him. He has a chance to do great things at Kansas. But right now he’s starting to remind me of Smith in that he’ll get his team close to the summit only to come up short when it counts.
You give Coach K, Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan Dean Smith’s talent and each would have won seven or eight national titles maybe 10-12. I believe in all three of those guys. They are historic coaches. John Wooden had that type of talent and he won 10 national titles in 12 years. Dean Smith just couldn’t get over the hump unless he had a lot of help. Self may do better than that. But I was disappointed in his and his team’s letdown at the end. But we’ll see in the coming years if Self can redeem himself.
As for the other games, I liked the way Florida played. Gulf Coast was too much of a media darling this week, it was way overdone, and Florida kind of put them in their place. Got tired of all the hype with Gulf Coast. Florida-Michigan will be awesome. Louisville took care of business as expected over Oregon, and Duke did as well over Michigan State. Coach K has now won seven of eight meetings against Tom Izzo.
So the Elite Eight is set. I like Ohio State over a very good Wichita State team today and ‘Cuse over Marquette. I’m going with Florida’s defense tomorrow to get it done over Michigan and the ‘Ville to get it done over Duke.