Kentucky vs Wichita State - Where Narratives Went To Die

As Duke, Kansas and Syracuse fell the narrative was growing. The 2012 Kentucky team led by freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was the exception, not the rule. You couldn't win with one-and-done players. Even that team had a senior leader in Darius Miller. Carmelo Anthony had veterans around him in 2003 too. It just can't be done.

Down went Jabari Parker and Duke. Down went Andrew Wiggins and Kansas.

Julius Randle was next. His Kentucky squad was matched up against a veteran Wichita State team that hadn't lost since they took one too many punches from Louisville in last year's Final Four.

Wichita State pulled ahead early, executing their gameplan to perfection. I, and many others, thought they would win. Kentucky hadn't played smart basketball all year. Kentucky hadn't played together all year. They had 10 good minutes against Florida in the SEC Championship and that's it.

They picked a pretty good time to start. The Harrison twins played their best game all season. Randle was dominant in stretches. The game was played at a level rarely seen in college hoops. Pressure? Instead of folding, both teams rose. Cleanthony Early couldn't miss. The Kentucky freshmen were money from the free throw line down the stretch.

With all that said, the narrative had a chance to play out. The pressure to execute is never greater than a last second inbounds play. As Luke Winn from Sports Illustrated revealed in this brilliant piece, the play was called "Havlicek" and the number one option was a lob to Cleanthony Early.

Here is a freeze frame as the action starts. Early is the player at the most bottom of the screen.

Things that would inhibit a lob -

1) A defender at the rim

2) A defender inhibiting Early so that he wouldn't have a clear path to the rim

3) Ball pressure making a lob difficult

4) Early getting caught up in the screening action

5) Aliens from outer space

None of these things happened.

James Young (#1 in blue) was guarding Early. He was lost. Willie Caulie-Stein (#15 in blue) is one of the best rim protectors in the country. He had no idea someone was sneaking behind him and it looked like protecting the rim wasn't his assignment. He had a man he was supposed to stick with. It appeared as if no one had the specific job of protecting the rim.

As it played out, Early planted his right foot at the very moment captured above and faded to the wing, out of the play. I would love to ask him or Gregg Marshall what he was reading, because watching the video and looking at the freeze frame above, it seems like he made the wrong read. The pass didn't even have to be perfect. Any where where Early could catch it leads to a layup or dunk. Instead he bailed.

Instead Kentucky shut off the 2nd option, Ron Baker (#31 in white) curling to the corner and Wichita State was left with their 3rd option. Fred Van Vleet came to the top of the key, took one rhythm dribble to his right and launched a 25 footer that missed as time expired. Game over.

As the horn sounded, the narrative died.

Talented freshmen can beat an experienced team that plays together. The key is them actually playing together. That's why Kentucky won in 2012. It's the same reason Louisville won last year. It's the same reason any team wins any year.

There is no new narrative.

Talent will always compete. Execution will always matter. When talent executes, it will win.

Sunday we didn't see talent versus execution. We saw Wichita State's talent executing as they had all year versus Kentucky's talent executing like they hadn't all year. The clock ran out while Kentucky had two more points.

A single game cannot define a season. It can end it. Wichita State is one of the ten best teams in the country and probably the best five. Their problem on Sunday is they ran into another one who finally played like it.

Sunflower Showdown - Coaching Nightmare

Sunflower Showdown of Bad Situational Coaching

Last night I was in Manhattan, KS for "The Sunflower Showdown" between Kansas and Kansas State. The game was close although Kansas felt like it had things under control throughout. For my full game story, you can read here if you have a Scout subscription, but there's one thing I didn't get to in that article that needs to be addressed. Bruce Weber is a good coach and Bill Self is a great coach, but the coaching late in that game was about as clueless as it could have been.

It all started with just under 12 minutes to go when after a made basket for his team, Weber called timeout. He said he saw his guys were struggling and in a game that close, every possession matters. His guys needed a breather. Anybody that knows anything about college basketball already knows where the problem with this lies - it was just under 12 minutes to go. The next stoppage in play is a media timeout. Could your guys really not make it to the next stoppage without a sip of water? 

Fast forward to 6:30ish to go in the game. There had been no stoppages since the 8-minute mark so we're due for another media timeout and Weber does the same thing! He's now down to one timeout with over six minutes to play in a close game.

Fast forward to under four minutes to go and a K-State possession is going nowhere fast. With six seconds left on the shot clock, Weber calls his final timeout. If his player, who was trapped on the sideline, had thrown the ball off the guy guarding him's leg out of bounds, it would have been a media timeout, saving the Wildcats' last. Also, if Weber hadn't burned the other two stupid timeouts, having to use one there wouldn't have been a big deal. Instead, Weber burned his final timeout with 3:46 to go, still got a crappy shot out of said timeout and had none remaining down the stretch.

That wasn't where Weber's in game situational nightmare coaching stopped though. In the final minute, Weber was absolutely clueless of when to foul. He was looking back at his assistants going "should we?" and by the time they decided down 5 with just under a minute to go what their strategy was, they had burned enough shot clock to just play out the possession and hope it worked out. They got lucky as Kevin Young turned it over. Shane Southwell hit a layup with 37ish seconds to go to put K-State down 3. 

At this point you have to foul. A 2-point-something second differential is not enough time to play out the shot clock. If Kansas plays it right, you won't get the ball back. They'd shoot as the shot clock expired and either it'd go in and you lose, or the shot misses and by the time the rebound comes off you need to catch and shoot all in one motion from 90 feet. You have to foul and extend the game, especially since Kansas was in the 1-and-1. If they missed their first free throw, they don't get a second and as long as you rebound, you get the ball back without them scoring.

Instead, the clueless Cats didn't foul and eventually, in just as baffling of a move, Bill Self called timeout with 25 seconds to go. I'm willing to let Self off the hook because he had to figure Weber and his staff would figure it out eventually and you might as well get the ball in the guy's hands you want. He did in Nadir Tharpe who's never met a big shot he didn't like, nevertheless one uncovered from the free throw line. In the timeout, the light went on for K-State, they fouled but Tharpe hit both shots. 

Had K-State fouled immediately instead of wasting 15 seconds, who knows what would have happened. The ensuing KU possession after a K-State miss, Ben McLemore missed the front end of his 1-in-1. K-State came down, hit 2 free throws with 5 seconds to go and then had to foul. Elijah Johnson made one of two shots and game over. 

If K-State had 15 more seconds and two more timeouts to play with, maybe they can get off a few more quality shots and that game has an infinitely better chance of going to overtime. Instead, Bruce Weber's late game strategy left everyone scratching their heads and his team looking up at Kansas in first place in the Big 12.