Just a hunch

I have been in management for the last 22 years. I have developed what I feel, at least, are some keen insights into managing, leading, motivating, inspiring and coordinating diverse groups of individuals to form a cohesive unit to seek a common objective. Admittedly, my charges are high level professionals for the most part and not 18-22 year old prima donna athletes but some things cross over well. I have observed this team as I have all KU teams and while I have no inside info and only my casual observations, I formed a few hypotheses that showed the first signs of possible efficacy and validity in the K-State game. No team in any organization or sport has much chance of succeeding without great leadership. Self's elite status centers around his superior leadership skills. But it is my assessment that leading a sport team especially at the college level requires something more than the "official boss" who is the coach. It requires (as do most business type teams) those magical team members who set the pace and provide the example for the rest to follow. When the boss and the team (floor) leader are not on the same page success will be absent. Or when the "real" team (floor) leader is one person but the "boss" is acting like a different person is the "team" (floor) leader, problems will inevitably arise. The funk of his team was so stark and so clear I hypothesized that the problem was that Self was pushing one team leader but the real team leader was someone else (or multiple someone else's). That will destroy a team faster than you can say Pete Rose. I present two possibilities. Brannen Greene, by force of his personality has a natural leadership personality but is woefully ill prepared from a maturity standpoint to actually lead in a positive way. But he has tried to lead in a fashion that worked in high school. Think of it sort of like the strong personality in your office who is a real gossip and manages to stir up dissension because nobody has the courage to stand up to him/her. So people start drawing sides and before you know it there are factions all over. Now you have Self who is pushing Frank Mason to lead but Frank simply doesn't have the skills. I mean I love Frank and I think he is a decent leader but if the Brannen theory is true, Frank doesn't have the strength of forceful personality to counter Brannen. And then there is Perry. Perry may be the ultimate enigma. The good strong kid that has great character and is not easily swayed but also is not inclined to step out and vocally lead (sort of Wayne Simiem-esque). But inside that misjudged exterior beats the heart of a true warrior. I saw something in Perry last game that brought to mind like he was saying with his play "enough of this sh*t." I think Self may have been asking the wrong thing from Perry. And I think that Self may have been not forcefully enough countering the negative influence of Brannen. I started the year and even posted to the effect that Brannen was my wild card. I really though he might emerge as the guy that keyed this team to the next level. Now I am thinking he may be the guy that is the center of or catalyst for the team's woes. This is the time for Self to step in and fix this issue. That may require a suspension or even release of Brannen. That may also require the release of Frank to do his thing and a reset for Perry to step up. Listen, no one as smart as Perry or as old and mature is incapable of transcending a few personality traits to step outside the comfort zone when the job calls for it. I am not saying he will become a guy that yells in the huddle but leadership takes many forms and it has to start with respect. I see severe chemistry issues on this team and I am here to tell you those are very fixable. I am hopeful to see an old fashioned blow out tomorrow in Ft. worth as this team moves to the next phase of its development. I may be so off base that it is laughable but hey, it's possible.

You make some very valid points. I have been ruminating over this and wonder if it is more Self saying everything goes through Perry and others being resentful of this esp when Perry is flailing. The natural floor leader is Wayne but for some reason her defers to Perry while Perry does nothing. I really do feel it comes down to the world revolves around Perry and others feeling resentful because they aren't being allowed to evolve. There is no joy in this team and very little fire. Frank looks resigned and I don't know that Bra gets to play enough to cause this sort of dissension.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of losses ahead for us and very possibly the first one today. TCU only lost by 7 at the Phog and will be stoked to beat us at home. Then we have two days to get ready for WVU and they are serious as a heart attack as they discovered in Ames. Does anyone remember when Hugs was at KSU and they had the guys practice 8 against 5 to prepare for his type of pressure? Honestly, I see a good possibility of losing our next three games and I hope I am wrong.

Does anyone remember how much playing time Cole had in the '08 run? I seem to remember that Self brought him out almost as a secret weapon against Hansborough and he just waylaid the flopper. There was no way to scout him because he simply hadn't played enough. I keep hoping MAYBE Self is doing that with Hunter and their is no high sprain.

I hope I am wrong about all of this but something is terribly terribly wrong here and it's not being fixed.

About Cole, I remember it that way too (that he was a secret weapon). However, per KU Athletics, he played in all 40 games, averaging 8.3 minutes, 2.8 points - third on team with 34 blocks.
About the rest, something is clearly wrong.

I was going to check and see if I could find his stats when I had time. Thanks for doing that. I just remember what a complete surprise it was and how he just manhandled Hansborough. It was fun to watch

I think we all agree there is a leadership problem and definitely a personality problem.

I think Self is disconnected this year, and is not providing the overall leadership this team needs. He's letting personality issues dominate and it's insidiously eating away at the team.

We have players like Wayne and Frank and Graham who play regardless of their performance or lack of leadership.

We have Traylor and Lucas playing over younger, more athletically talented players, and doing so because the "core 4" have dictated as much (or so we believe from Self's comments)

Perry leads by example - playing hard almost every game - but that only goes so far.

I have no doubt there are irate players, and worse, irate parents and handlers, over virtually no playing time for players who have the NBA draft in their sights. There's no way that Greene is the only guy to speak out about playing time. Do you really think Hunter or his dad haven't confronted Bill over no PT? Do you really think Diallo's "guardian" is quietly watching his star play zero minutes as the draft boards start coming out? No way.

Ultimately you have Greene who either can't grow up, or refuses to grow up, and punks Self in the locker room, and now on the court, seemingly uncaring about what might come his way in terms of punishment. How worse can it get for him? He goes from 6 minutes to zero?

Stir this all together and there's no way this team is happy, and there's no way they can really play together as a cohesive team. Self has permitted (or caused?) individuality over each player's unique situation to override building a team. Read all of our comments this year - weighted heavily to discussing individual player matters rather than our offense, defense, shooting, etc.

It's every man for himself right now. Not a great place to be as the meaningful part of the season comes at us.

If I had any great insights I'd be trying to pass them on to HCBS. That said, my thought on this team go back to Korea. First of all they played a lot of organized ball and fatigue seems likely. I understand that they might have been running in the gym as many hours without that trip, but the structure of practice and then tip-offs with uniforms, referees .... is different.

Second the success over there increased our already high expectations. ( And after dismal football, Stanford and Wichita State most of us feel like it is about time to feed the beast.) In other words there is even more pressure than usual.

And this team has limitations as far as high level long armed fast twitch athletes compared to most Final Four candidates. Experience we have, but lottery picks, not so much. The thin margin for error adds to the pressure.

Even a cohesive group has flare ups. Not throwing hands but distractions that keep them from firing on all eight cylinders all of the time. We have had groups that could beat TCU down there on seven, but not this year. Needing a 95% or better effort to win any road game, or to beat good teams in Allen seems to weight heavy on these guys and make the interpersonal issues more likely to pop up and to be worse than when things were going smoothly.

What I am getting at is this team may not be well suited for the long grind of 18 games with few if any gimmes. But, I hold out hope that we might round into form for a few weekends next month. I expect a win today, possibly an ugly one. West Virginia should be a payback game, but we might not, at this stage, have the horses. Norman could be very hard to watch.

Shortly thereafter, either the healing begins or we turn abruptly to baseball. Like the past few seasons.

b/t/w If I am right I expect a " Cole like cameo" by a big in an important point in the NCAA , but not necessarily Hunter.

We are a top 10 ranked team. This year has been interesting to me on the board. This is the most pessimistic I have ever seen this board. Hopefully the boys can have some good things happen and play great ball from here on out.

From your mouth to the BB god's ears, Hairy!

I cannot say it any better than those who posted before me on this particular post...perhaps just a bit differently...

Like most on this board, I am passionate about Kansas basketball and all things related to it. I also love a well made soup. I am not particularly happy when either of those things are assembled in a manner that doesn't bring out the best of all the ingredients.

The personality of this team has all the aroma and taste of a foul soup with too many ingredients...or too many cooks adding the wrong amounts of them. It's difficult to extract that (those) ingredient(s) once that soup (team) has stewed without starting over entirely, or, diluting it enough to mask those ingredient(s).

We've all watched sports teams acquire that one player, or coach who was supposed to be the missing key to taking them to the top, only to watch them flop because an out of bounds (or lack thereof) personality destroyed the "team" chemistry.

The head coach is the one who is supposed to dictate the recipe but it sure seems this year that his kitchen is a out of control. It's up to the head chef to determine the sous chef and get his kitchen under control...but can he?...will he? As Mick Jagger once said (w/ Lennon as producer) "...too many cooks will spoil the soup..."

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I"m getting ready to watch the game, but I did want to say that I agree to a large degree with Corpus, with a couple of differences. First, you cannot anoint a 'leader' in any organization; leaders choose themselves, and demonstrate their leadership in a way that attracts 'followers' and builds trust and loyalty by their actions and words. Frank is simply not a 'leader.' Selden is not a 'leader.' I could go on, but as Corpus so perceptively points out, Green has the personality, but lacks the maturity. And he may be the only one on this strange group of athletes with the natural leadership ability we so desperately need. Self, in my opinion, has failed to manage this team this season, primarily because he has failed to identify the leader, and turn that natural ability into mature and stable leadership. To some degree Green has not developed as a leader because he is immature, but as well, he's not developed into a leader because a leader has to be on the floor, not on the bench. By relegating Green to the far end of the bench, he's decided that he will win or lose with 5 or 6 guys who lack any real sense of cohesion, which is the primary failing this team has. There is plenty of talent, and plenty of desire, but there is no 'team' here, but rather a group whose talent is wasted because the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

Good to great managers know how to mold talent, both athletic and leadership, into high level performers. This season, Self is failing at the latter in a way I never imagined he would. I suspect that the core issue is that he simply does not like Green, and that personal animus is destroying any chance to turn Green into a significant cog in this somewhat discombobulated group.

Let's now see if we are 'same old, same old,' or if they are actually 'progressing.' I certainly hope it's the latter.

Greene's dunk may have been what we needed. Guessing a huge dose of sportsmanship and playing as a team instead of showboating individuals went from HCBS to teams ears.