Baylor outfoxed Bill Self last month. How KU’s coach made sure it didn’t happen again
Kansas had not run this play all season.
It was three minutes into KU’s 64-61 victory over No. 1 Baylor when Kansas coach Bill Self tipped his hand completely, fully revealing what his game plan was going to be in the Jayhawks’ rematch Saturday at Baylor.
Self created this set specifically for the Bears, first teaching it to his guys in practice this week. Sure enough, after a few motions, point guard Devon Dotson was in the clear, driving down the lane for a left-handed layup.
KU guard Marcus Garrett smiled after the game when recalling what that moment was like.
“Just actually being out there and running the plays, like, ‘Dang, this play is actually working. It’s open,’” Garrett said. “And Coach knew it was going to be open.”
This is the Bill Self advantage. Give him a few days — and a second matchup — and KU’s efficient slicing of Baylor’s elite defense is something that probably should have been expected.
So how did Self and staff do it?
The coach won’t admit this publicly, but it likely started with a bit of embarrassment.
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Sign upIf we’re being honest, Baylor’s Scott Drew got the best of Self in the Bears’ 67-55 road win over KU on Jan. 11. Drew concocted a clever defensive strategy then, essentially double-teaming Jayhawks big man Udoka Azubuike while ignoring other guards on the perimeter.
“They did such a great job on (Azubuike) the first time,” Self said Saturday, “but we had nothing from a scheme standpoint to help him.“
Self, in words he might use, got punked by Baylor.
That wasn’t going to happen again in the second game — and the play mentioned above made clear what KU was going to do.
Instead of playing right into Baylor’s “force away from the middle” defensive scheme, Self was going to keep everything right there in the center of the floor.
That new plan worked ... time and time and time again.
In the first game, Baylor’s plan kept Azubuike to just six shot attempts. The second game — with Baylor implementing the same help defense — Azubuike had 23 points on 13 field-goal tries.
“We stuck with what Coach wanted us to do,” Azubuike said.
And when KU followed through on that, Self made it awfully hard for Baylor to repeat what it did a month ago.
Here’s a look at the difference. Exploiting Baylor’s help defense, the way KU played a month ago, would have required either skillful drives or tricky skip passes.
Self put in two tweaks Saturday. For one, Garrett had the ball much of the time, which forced Baylor to actually guard him. Then, with KU’s ball screens in the middle of the floor, the Bears’ off-ball defenders had a further distance to travel to help out on the rolling Azubuike, with the dilemma of also having to respect KU’s three-point shooters in the corners.
This bottom screenshot, as you might expect, ended with an Azubuike alley-oop dunk.
“We tried to set as many middle screens as we could,” Self said on his postgame radio show, “and even though it didn’t work all the time ... I bet you 10 baskets we probably made off getting downhill with the middle ball screen.”
Self, who has thrived in his career at getting easy twos with throws over the top from the wing, directed his team’s dunks this time by purposely changing up the passing angle.
It was simple and smart. Self manipulated Baylor’s defense, making it so that often, no Baylor player was behind Azubuike when he was running to the rim.
Garrett did the rest, seeing this repeatedly while delivering accurate lobs.
“If my man tries to help, it’s very hard (on the defense),” Garrett said. “When I’m coming off a screen, once I see Doke in front of the defensive man, I’m throwing it up. Easy.”
The final result: KU had the fourth-most efficient offensive day against Baylor’s defense this season, a result that could have been better if the Jayhawks didn’t cough it up so often while in scramble mode late.
“I’ve said this before: Coach is great at putting in plays,” said guard Isaiah Moss, who transferred to KU this year after three seasons at Iowa. “A lot of our plays that we run, and we execute the right way, we normally pretty much always score on them.”
That was the case again Saturday.
Self admitted he was a part of the problem in KU’s earlier loss to Baylor. Given another chance, though, he creatively addressed KU’s previous issues, putting his players in better positions to succeed.
It all worked — the middle screens, the lobs, the drives, and even the brand new play in the first three minutes.
Which means we can add something else to the list of Self’s strengths:
An ability to respond well to the rare times he’s out-coached.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 7:24 PM.
