Is nice to have a quality bench when the need arises.
With personal fouls mounting and starters struggling to score in Hilton Coliseum, Kansas University’s basketball team needed a bailout from the guys who don’t get to hear their names announced to the crowd before the opening tip.
It didn’t happen, and KU suffered its first Big 12 loss, 72-64, to Iowa State.
Head Coach Bill Self distributed 29 minutes to his three chief reserves — guard Conner Teahan and forwards Kevin Young and Justin Wesley. In 29 minutes, They responded with five points, two rebounds, an assist and a turnover. They made just 2 of 12 shots.
In the loss to Davidson in in December, the bench logged 48 minutes and contributed six points and 10 rebounds on 2-of-11 shooting. They had one assist and four turnovers in that one.
Duke? Scoreless in 30 minutes, no rebounds, no assists.
Detect a pattern anyone?
On most days and nights, the bench will perform better than it did in the past three losses, but how much better?
This is completely on Self IMO. I mean, he's got what he's got on the bench and it's his job to try and develop those guys and give them the necessary confidence to produce. He has given Teahan every opportunity to produce and he's not cutting it right now. Actually, it's draining on me to watch him play with zero emotion and the negative energy. Basketball is fun! It's the greatest game on the planet. You're playing for one of the best college basketball teams in the country........................enjoy it because before you know it............it's all over!
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree that Coach Self is mis-managing the bench minutes. He's giving these guys opportunity to play and improve. He doesn't bad mouth our players to the media either (i.e. Frank Martin), but just states the obvious facts. I have noticed that Coach Self verbally supports our players when they are going through a rough time.
ReplyDeleteLong story short, I think Coach Self is showing all of the confidence in our bench players he possibly can. In normal years, these 3 guys wouldn't be put in the position of this much responsibility to the team. It's just the way it is this year.
drop
DeleteBigManU (Chris Shaw) replies…
What responsibility is Self giving on the bench other than Teahan? I commend Self for trying to weather the storm with Conner, but I can't remember the last time Conner hit a "Big Shot" during a game.
What confidence is there in KY when he gets 2, 3, and 4 minutes in 3 consecutive games? The answer is none and then Self expects him to produce and be efficient when his time is called in the 9 minutes he got yesterday? That is not being productive or efficent managing your bench as a coach
Who do you want Self to play more: Tharpe who can't hold on to the ball for some reason; Wesley who fouls so fast the other team is in the double bonus with 8 minutes to go; Teahan who doesn't do anything with the ball or away from the ball - he just stands around waiting for the D to forget about him and jacks up threes constantly? Merv Lindsay? Heck, I wanna see him stick in Danny, but he just won't do it.
ReplyDeleteWhen KU has a deep bench Bill doesn't give the stars enough playing time to know how to respond to big minutes in the tourney. When KU has a shallow bench Bill isn't giving enough minutes to the bench to develop the players. Tough to win with this crowd.