Team Effort

Everybody contributed today. The vaunted senior class. The supposedly NBA-bound sophomore sharpshooter. The conspicuously unimproved freshmen. Even the upwardly mobile head coach did his share. It was easy to spread the blame today in KU's overtime loss to the suddenly chic Iowa State Cyclones.

Coming off a hard-fought double-overtime loss at Texas Tech, the Jayhawks came home to face the red-hot Cyclones. One might figure Kansas, ranked #2 nationally, would be motivated to take control of the remainder of the Big XII schedule, with three of their final five regular season games taking place at Allen Fieldhouse. KU was seriously challenged by ISU in Ames earlier this year and was taken into overtime last season by the Cyclones in Allen Fieldhouse. There is no way they should have been taking this team lightly. Instead, they came out with the same lack of intensity that signified their play leading up to the debacle at Villanova last month.

Iowa State head coach Wayne Morgan smartly employed a zone defense versus the Jayhawks, noting that Kansas has been notoriously poor at handling such a defense. And Kansas played right into Morgan's hands. Did KU get the ball into Wayne Simien's hands in the first half? Hardly. The guards were content to swing the ball around the perimeter and, when the absolutely perfect entry pass didn't materialize, they put up a three-pointer. Time and time again. Few attempts were made at penetrating the zone via the dribble to multiply the offensive options available: penetrate and score; penetrate and draw the foul; penetrate and kick out to the open man; penetrate, pull up, and take the mid-range jumpshot. The Kansas guards seemed content to be patient and "let the game come to them". Championship teams know the appropriate times to employ this strategy. This team seemingly does not.

Coaching and senior leadership were found to be greatly lacking in this game. Senior guards Aaron Miles and Keith Langford made little effort to attack the zone with the dribble. Coach Self, noted last year for his high/low offense, has apparently abandoned it this year. Self never adjusted today, running the same inept offensive system until all hope of victory had vanished. Adding to the pressure being put on the offense was the fact that Aaron Miles was absolutely torched on defense by Curtis Stinson. Miles gave up 29 points to Stinson, leaving his reputation as one of the nation's top defensive guards at the top of the key along with his jock. Miles' long-time sidekick Michael Lee had an equally inept game, making one of four shots and fouling out in only 18 minutes of play. This senior class has been to two Final Fours and was one overtime away from another. Yet they play as if their mere presence on the basketball court will ensure victory. Even the seemingly infallible Wayne Simien has not improved his defensive game one iota in four years. Is this the sort of leadership we want rubbing off on the freshman class?

This leads to another double point: these freshman have been wildly inconsistent. In all fairness, injury has played a part. But can anyone say honestly that any of these freshman is any better now than they were in November? I can't. And I think the majority of that blame goes to Bill Self. The first three months of the season were spent experimenting with the lineup, trying to figure out who would play well enough to fill out the nine-man rotation. Again, injury made this process more difficult, but just last week Self said that he had finally figured out who those nine players were. In today's game, 11 players saw the floor. The freshman big men were shuffled in and out of the lineup like hockey players in the first half. How are young players supposed to find any consitency or rhythm in a situation like that?

And does sophomore J.R. Giddens get a freebie because he's no longer a freshman? Whenever a freshman makes a mistake during the game, Self seems quick to pull that player out. Giddens, on the other hand, seems to be able to throw away countless possesions via turnover, bad shot or just plain cold shooting without receiving the hook. Giddens shot 3-for-16 from the floor, 1-for-11 from behind the arc. I'm all for letting a guy shoot his way out of a slump, but when the season is getting late and the games have more meaning, you have to find someone who can put the ball in the hoop.

What it comes down to in the end, though, is intensity. Urgency. The take-no-prisoners attitude that should be rampant on a team with four battle-tested seniors. Keith Langford likes to shoot off his mouth, but he'd be better served using that energy to turn his switch to "On" at the beginning of the game rather than in the last two minutes. Wayne Simien needs to demand the ball. Aaron Miles needs set an example of intensity and toughness by taking the ball to the hole. And Bill Self needs to realize that if these things don't start happening, a chance at the national championship will have slipped away.