Bill Self has a unique chance at NCAA innovation. Next week, he should copy the Spurs
One of Bill Self’s biggest strengths as a coach is his adaptability.
The Kansas coach has never been hesitant to look for a better way to do things, molding his concepts and methods around both his players and current situation.
Examples of this are numerous. Three years ago, he developed a four-guard offense — he’d never done that in the past — that helped his team reach the 2018 Final Four. This season, he’s taken a page out of Texas Tech coach Chris Beard’s playbook, shifting to a no-middle defense he’d never implemented previously which resulted in KU becoming the nation’s most-feared defense.
However the game has changed, Self has as well.
Which is why the coach should take a long time this week to think about his next move.
Self — because of the success these Jayhawks have experienced over a 28-3 season — has a unique opportunity now to be a step ahead once again.
And he also has a chance to innovate in a way that basically no other college coach has done.
With KU all but guaranteed the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Self should look to what the San Antonio Spurs have done before their playoffs recently, with many other NBA teams adopting the practice after that.
Self, after looking at the big picture, should come up with a way to rest his players before the most important games in the NCAA Tournament.
This is the reality: Next week’s Big 12 Tournament means basically nothing.
As college basketball writer Jeff Goodman noted Saturday, there are six rankings that appear atop the team sheets that the NCAA Tournament committee uses to seed teams: NET, KenPom, Sagarin, KPI, BPI and ESPN’s strength of record.
Here are KU’s ranking in each of those measures going into Saturday: first, first, first, first, first and first.
The committee also looks at quality wins, and KU leads the nation with 12 Quadrant 1 victories too.
In other words … during a conference tournament week where 90% of the country will lose, KU still should have no possibility of getting anything other than the NCAA’s No. 1 overall seed, which does come with some pick-your-regions benefits.
To be clear: Self absolutely understands how important it is for KU to be fresh over the next month.
He addressed the topic on his HawkTalk radio show this week when asked about his top concerns or objectives as his team headed into March Madness.
“Probably having our bodies be as healthy as we can be,” Self said, in the opening words of his response.
If that’s goal No. 1 — and it should be at this point — the coach has lots of control on how this situation plays out. Not to mention, this appears to be a instance where additional caution could be warranted.
KU has been carried by its Big Three players, but all have been slowed at times over the last few months because of nagging injuries that could only be helped by additional rest. Devon Dotson has had issues with his hip and ankle. Udoka Azubuike, just two games ago, rolled his ankle as well. Marcus Garrett has had problems with both ankles, while also grinding through a foot injury that Self has said he can’t make worse, but “what helps it is time off.”
I asked Self after Saturday’s 66-62 victory over Texas Tech if he was going to approach the Big 12 Tournament any differently while trying to achieve the goal of making sure his guys were rested before the NCAAs.
“I don’t know yet. I don’t think so,” Self said. “I may give them off Sunday and Monday this week and practice Tuesday, Wednesday light. But I don’t know how we’re going to approach it. It’s not a ‘win at all costs’ tournament. Even though, if you play, you’ve got to win, but I’m not going to go into it thinking that we’ve got to grind to win this one.”
The response highlighted why Self has been such a successful coach over time ... and why he also needs a game plan before Thursday if he wants to follow through on what’s best for his team.
One of Self’s greatest strengths is his competitiveness. He hates to lose, anytime or anywhere.
I remember talking to him before a summer exhibition trip to Europe a few years ago, where he was asked what he wanted to accomplish. He spoke about the games not having that much meaning, and how the team could relax and just focus on development.
A few days later, Self ended up getting a technical foul in a foreign country from an official that didn’t speak his language.
Self can’t help himself. When his team is playing someone and there are fans in the stands, the competitive juices start flowing; he can’t shut off that desire to win.
This is an overwhelmingly positive quality. Think about it: Every other blue blood has had down years recently including Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina.
Self’s constant burn has helped KU always stay above any hint of mediocrity. With his next win, Self will have averaged 30 victories per season during his KU tenure — a fact that has to be read a few times over to be fully comprehended.
But next week isn’t the moment for fire or machismo. It should be a time for reflection and wisdom.
Rest is important — something that even a recent scientific study of the KU men’s basketball team concluded. This sport is one of the most violent on human bodies because of the actions it requires, so any way to relieve that stress following the grind of a conference season should be considered.
And let’s be honest: Perhaps no other team could pull this off besides KU. Every other school is likely to have the possibility of improving its seeding, perhaps making the small safety risk worth the squeeze.
It’s a different calculation for KU, which already seems to have lapped the field with its résumé.
College basketball, if we’re honest, does a poor job of helping out its top teams in the tournament. Self and his staff are rewarded for their excellent regular season by still having to play six games in an unforgiving one-and-done setting, and even if the bracket falls right, the Jayhawks are unlikely to have more than about a 25% chance to win it all.
Because of that, it’s worth Self pulling out every possible advantage he can.
There’s an argument to be made to hold out Dotson, Garrett and Azubuike altogether. Though I could make that case, it would definitely be considered extreme, and something I don’t believe Self would contemplate.
Here’s a happy medium then: Come up with a minutes limit for each of those three guys. Tell yourself before all the games that each will not play more than 25 minutes in any Big 12 Tournament game … then have a watchful assistant hold you to that word.
I asked Self on Saturday about the potential three-games-in-three-days scenario, and he seemed to agree limiting minutes could be beneficial.
“If we played each one of those guys — Dot and Och (Agbaji) and Marcus — 30 minutes, it would be like us not even playing ‘em, because they’re used to play 35 and 37,” Self said. “So it would be nice to be able to do that. But we’ll definitely try to win. We’ll definitely try to win Thursday, and then we’ll wait and see Friday. If anybody gets nicked up, I wouldn’t think I’d push that at all.”
I’m sure you noticed that sentence in the middle: “But we’ll definitely try to win.”
Self is going to stay true to himself. He can’t stand on a sideline — any time or on any continent — and hold back that constant push to always be best.
So he needs to avoid that situation by thinking rationally now.
Come up with a plan. Stick to it. And work hard to achieve that previously spoken goal of making sure guys are ready for the most important games in two weeks.
That would be smart. That would be innovative.
And it also would be in line with the exact type of thinking that’s elevated Self above many of his peers.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 8:37 PM.
