Bill Self’s angriest moment vs. Duke — and how it helps us see the big picture for KU
The sound of flesh hitting table could be heard from halfway up Madison Square Garden’s concourse ... and for the next few seconds, Kansas coach Bill Self was left to watch the end of a horrible sequence with a sore hand.
This was the middle of the second half in KU’s 68-66 loss to Duke, and Self was never madder on Tuesday than in this particular moment.
KU led by four with a chance to take control. Ochai Agbaji came away with a steal, and the Jayhawks had a potential three-on-one opportunity, with point guard Devon Dotson raising his hand to call for a pass.
Agbaji, though, didn’t throw ahead — at least not immediately. He took three dribbles himself, crowding things up before attempting a crosscourt pass to Dotson ... that was intercepted by Duke’s Jack White.
Self’s right hand raised into the air, then came violently down on the scorer’s table near KU’s bench.
“I actually thought there was multiple times in transition we didn’t pitch ahead,” Self said afterward. “We pitch ahead, we go make a layup, put pressure on them.”
Marcus Garrett said the topic was brought up after the game as well. Too many times, KU turned simple plays into difficult ones.
“I feel like we didn’t execute well,” Garrett said. “The things that we do well in practice, we just didn’t execute in the game.”
The mistake was compounded by KU ignoring another important hand signal.
This time it was with transition defense, as Garrett pointed to the corner to tell teammate Silvio De Sousa to pick up Cassius Stanley on the perimeter.
Too late. De Sousa hugged the paint for a second too long, and Stanley utilized the opening for a three-pointer that suddenly closed KU’s lead to one.
The Jayhawks, with a chance to deliver a knockout blow, had let the Blue Devils back in it. And the original culprit was a turnover — one of 28 that KU committed on Tuesday.
“I think we played uncharacteristic,” Self said. “I think we got out of character.”
And that’s what makes it so difficult to pass too much judgment with KU’s loss Tuesday.
All indications here point to this being an outlier. KU’s turnover rate — 35% — was the fourth-highest out of Self’s 580 games in Lawrence. Because of that, the Jayhawks’ efficiency — 0.82 points per possession — was the program’s worst mark in a game since 2014.
Duke should get some credit. Tre Jones is a tremendous on-ball defender, and Mike Krzyzewski’s gameplan to double the post exposed some of KU’s big-man passing deficiencies.
Still ... 17 of KU’s 28 turnovers were not the result of Duke steals. These mostly fall in the “non-forced” category — a combination of a nervous team in the opener playing fundamentally unsound without the benefit of extended practice time.
“I think we were just kind of bottled up and nervous with it,” KU forward David McCormack said, “but it comes with the first game.”
Here’s the good news for KU: It wasn’t overwhelmed athletically by Duke. The Jayhawks defended well, competed and also showed flashes of offensive execution that led to a nine-point second-half lead.
“They played their butts off,” Krzyzewski said of KU.
It all fell apart, though, because of many self-imposed mistakes that will likely be corrected — at the very worst — in the next 2-3 weeks.
Agbaji, in other words, will quickly throw that pass ahead starting with Friday’s home game against UNC Greensboro. If that had happened just once more against Duke on Tuesday, KU could have been celebrating a win instead of bemoaning a loss.
“We basically guarded ourselves by the ball sticking some today in transition,” Self said. “We can get better at that, though.”
That final sentence is the important point.
The Champions Classic is an entertaining way to kick off the basketball season — and for many, an opportunity to pass early judgment on some of college basketball’s top blue bloods.
Some perspective is appropriate, though. The reality here: This was KU vs. Duke, but it also pitted two teams who, at this early stage, aren’t fully prepared for this kind of spotlight.
That makes the game a fun exercise ... but definitely not the final verdict on what these Jayhawks could become.
This story was originally published November 5, 2019 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Bill Self’s angriest moment vs. Duke — and how it helps us see the big picture for KU."
