Bill Self has a coach’s dream of a roster in this respect: He has so many scorers that he can afford to lay down the law, and the law is this: You play really good defense, or you don’t play.
After Kansas defeated Louisiana-Monroe, 107-78, Friday night in the season-opener in Allen Fieldhouse, Self was asked if the roster’s depth will enable him to assign playing time on the basis of defensive performance.
“That would be hard to do tonight because I didn’t think anybody did,” Self said. “To get 78 hung on you in your own building, that should never happen.”
Self will blister his players from the first moment of practice until the last today about tightening up their defense. The players need to respond, because if they don’t, there is always the chance the coach will decide to make it easier for them to play the sort of defense his teams always play. He’ll turn down the speed and, in doing so, lower the team’s ceiling.
Speed is this team’s greatest asset. Rare is a college basketball team that has big men who can run the floor as swiftly as Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun. Few teams have guards who can both pressure the ball and handle it at high speeds the way Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins do.
If this team continues to play at the pace it did Friday and can tighten up the defense, it’s not difficult to see it developing into Self’s best, even better than the one that went 33-5 and lost to UCLA in the Elite Eight last March.
This is a more experienced, better shooting team than that one. Freshman Tyrel Reed (3-of-4 on 3-pointers) gives the Jayhawks one more shooter.
And with Collins slimmer and so far not experiencing any knee troubles, it’s a faster team. The improved speed and shooting have a chance to feed on each other. The faster a team gets down the court, the more open 3-pointers it creates.
Plus, the strides in confidence Jackson made in the second half of last season were just the beginning. He’s playing a louder game than ever, adding scoring to his muscle and hustle.
The depth, particularly once Brandon Rush returns, will enable Self to rotate in fresh players constantly. Even without Rush, the depth is impressive. Combined, Jackson and the two freshmen contributed 38 points in 39 minutes.
Cole Aldrich brings soft hands and a soft touch underneath, two areas where he has an advantage on Kaun, a stronger defensive force who can get up and down the court faster, not that Aldrich is a turtle.
Once Julian Wright bolted for the NBA, the bad news was that KU would have to bank on a freshman big man, almost always a dangerous proposition. The good news is Aldrich looks ready to contribute.
Reed, a confident shooter who appears to have a high basketball IQ, needs to get better defensively at keeping his man in front of him. On those nights he struggles with that, Self can shorten the rotation without worrying about anyone getting exhausted. The opponents will be the exhausted ones more often than not.
“They attack you,” Louisiana-Monroe coach Orlando Early said. “They get it up. That’s tough to prepare for. … I thought they were really good in their transition offense.”
Which means they are halfway there already.
