Tuesday, March 25, 2008
With about two minutes to play in Kansas’ 75-56 dispatching of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, junior guard Mario Chalmers hit the deck after a drive through the lane. Chalmers lay motionless near the baseline for a moment as teammates and coaches arrived to assist him.
Kansas coach Bill Self knelt down to assess the situation. Chalmers looked up at his coach with a grin — he was feeling fine. Self quickly turned his attention from his thankfully healthy player to a more pressing issue: the officiating. Self used the impromptu stoppage of play to turn to a nearby referee and deliver a playful jab.
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No matter which way Self’s Kansas teams have played — slow, fast, big or small — they’ve found success.
“You sure that wasn’t a foul on that block down at the other end?” Self implored, cracking a half-smile.
The Kansas coach’s politicking didn’t convince the officials to overturn junior guard Brandon Rush’s fifth foul, but it did serve as perfect punctuation for the masterpiece of a game Self penned from the sideline.
Self’s success last weekend in Omaha shouldn’t come as a surprise. He’s authored a lot of good ones lately.
Through the first 20 minutes of Saturday afternoon’s second-round game, UNLV had its way with Kansas. The Runnin’ Rebels didn’t run, instead they flustered the Jayhawks with vise-tight defense and a muddy offensive game plan that drew 11 first-half Kansas fouls. With 7:48 to play in the first half, UNLV capped a 12-4 run with two free throws, putting the Rebels on top by two points.
Kansas made a small run to extend its lead to five points by halftime, but the game wasn’t going as planned. No. 8 seeds from the Mountain West Conference aren’t supposed to hang with No. 1 seeds from the Big 12 Conference, let alone the powerful Kansas team that went 18-0 against nonconference foes during the regular season.
Self made sure UNLV wouldn’t hang with Kansas for much longer. In the second half, Kansas adjusted its lineup, throwing four guards and one post at the Rebels instead of staying with its standard three-guard, two-big man setup. The change-up not only helped Kansas defend the diminutive Rebels, who didn’t start a player taller than 6-foot-7, but also assisted with the Jayhawks’ offense.
Without an extra post player clogging the lane, the Kansas guards took advantage of their slower opponents by driving repeatedly to the hoop. The aggressive, guard-oriented system resulted in 17 points for Chalmers, 13 for senior guard Russell Robinson and 10 for sophomore guard Sherron Collins.
“It came natural,” Robinson said. “We took it — it was open, and an easy layup was open for us.”
Self’s adjustment helped Kansas expand its lead steadily throughout the second half. The Jayhawks advantage grew to 11 midway through the second half and a comfortable 19 by the end of the game. Saturday afternoon, Self advanced his Kansas squad to the Sweet Sixteen for the second consecutive season and outcoached a savvy veteran coach in UNLV’s Lon Kruger. And he did it while toying with lineups and experimenting with personnel.
“We’ve always tried to play two bigs, and certainly today we did not do that because we couldn’t match up with them,” Self said “It was encouraging to me to see us play a different way and still have success playing that way.”
No matter which way Self’s Kansas teams have played — slow, fast, big or small — they’ve found success. Forget the early exits from the 2005 and 2006 NCAA tournaments. The man has won 82 percent of his games at Kansas, better than any non-interim coach at the school.
The one thing he hasn’t done is take the Jayhawks to the Final Four. But a talented team and a brilliant basketball mind should change that soon enough.
— Edited by Mandy Earles
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Fusco: Self's quick thinking leads to the Sweet Sixteen
I have tickets available for the sweet 16 and great 8 games for any Kansas fans interested. Tickets are lower bowl. Email me at bildste1@hotmail.com if interested.
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