coaching icons

its been great to see this board increasingly comment on the amazing job that self has done both this year and ( frankly) the last 14. while we have had some great players of course the players come and go and the one constant has been self. he has blended experience with generally one oneanddoner per year and has done a great job coaching to the teams strengths and ( as importantly ) away from its weaknesses. at illinois he ran a guard centered offense but changed to hi/low post when he came here and then moved back to guard centered particularly the last two years. the flexibilty he has shown has been remarkable espec when compared to the other coaching icons who in every case have a pretty fixed playbook of what they do with their teams. its not surprising that the media did not tell this story after the game on sunday but it has to be said that coach K was badly outcoached. despite having a materially more talented team at every position self beat him with a better game plan and better in game adjustments. we carved up his zone and he made no adjustments. we applied a stunningly successful defensive scheme that held their three best players in check for most of the game and he made no adjustments. we scored after nearly every timeout and i remember duke scoring once. of course i dont expect the media to tell this story but we shld recognize it. villanova is of course nearly as well coached as ku and has the same blend of experience and youth. they will be more ready for us than duke was but somehow it feels like this group will prevail as devonte and doke resume prior standards of play. mich of course we will easily beat as they have no offense. if we can steal one this year with this team with its lack of size and depth it will not only reinforce ku’s and self stature in the eyes of many but it might also make up for the two or three years in ku history where we shld have won and didnt ( we all have our lists!). it wld set us up great for next year when for the first time ever self will have kentucky like talent and quality depth thru at least 12 players. hes become so good at coaching small ball with a short bench can he go back to two posts and a deep bench and be just as successful? im guessing he will welcome the challenge!