Self Destruction

I was able to catch HCBS on Hawktalk earlier this week. They do a segment called something like “Mystery Guest Question”. Someone who is not known beforehand to coach asks a question of coach via video. This week it was coach Jankovich. He asked if coach still does the 6:00 AM practices if he is not happy with the team’s effort at practice. HCBS told a story before he answered. Basically it went like this: Around the time Janks was on staff the team had a regular practice 2 days before a game at 3:00 pm. According to Self it was “crap” so he stopped it and rescheduled for 6:00 AM the next day. Again-“crap”. So rescheduled full practices for 6:00 AM AND 3:00 PM on game day for a 7:00 game. KU won by 20.
Then he addressed the question directly and his initial response was, to paraphrase, ‘No I don’t. Well as I’ve gotten older it is not so easy for me to get out of bed so early, so no we don’t do that.’ Then some stuff about with new restrictions on practice time etc would not be as easy to do.
I think that HCBS, for reasons not fully understood (but health may be an issue) is suffering from his most hated malady- he’s become a bit “soft”.
If KJ ends up missing some time it might be a blessing in disguise. Start Griffin in his place and SIT Hunter at start in favor of FB. Get a rim protector and some jump shooters on the floor.
The new landscape of professional college sports does not bode well for HCBS’s style of running a program dependent on getting pretty good talent out of high school and developing into a great squad over 2 or more years. Now we’re getting OK talent for one-two year and trying to fit them into a fairly constrained system.
I’m tired of watching a “deer in the headlights” team that is getting out physicalled, out athleticized, and out hustled for a large part of most games. Can’t get to the line? Love Harris to death but he’s not that guy- so better make damn sure your 2 and/or 3 will drive it and seek contact while your 5 takes it to the rim instead of finessing all of his shots!
You know you’ve lost some luster when they stop storming the floor after they beat you down on the court.

Amen!!!