First, allow me to take this opportunity to thank your for clicking here when you have so many cyberspace options. For example, you could have clicked the headline that reads, “[Kate Upton’s Best Red-Carpet Looks][1]”. Instead, you clicked on the one that reads, “Jay Bilas calls this Bill Self’s most amazing coaching job at Kansas”.
I can’t pretend to even begin to understand you for making that choice, but I do appreciate you for doing so.
Answering on a teleconference a question of mine about the advantages of having two point guards, Bilas veered into discussing how Self has had to adjust his preferred style of pounding the ball inside to a four-guard lineup.
“It’s not built-inside out as it always has been in the past,” Bilas said. “They’ve won a lot of close games and this team really competes at both ends. Winning 13 (Big 12 regular-season titles) in a row is amazing, period. But I think that makes this the most amazing of the 13.”
First, Carlton Bragg’s disappointing start and then Udoka Azubuike’s season-ending wrist injury caused Self to shift to playing four guards almost exclusively. He made the move before Azubuike’s injury and used the four-guard look even more after it. Landen Lucas and Bragg, sometimes Dwight Coleby with one of them, still appear together at times against bigger lineups.
The shift has resulted in a faster lineup and a heavier reliance on the 3-point shot.
It has worked to the tune of Kansas taking a 28-3 record into the postseason. Self was named Big 12 coach of the year by vote of the coaches and the Associated Press. It’s tough to argue with Bilas that this has been Self’s best coaching job.
[1]: http://www.elle.com/fashion/celebrity-style/news/g7641/kate-upton-style/
