Passion - Commitment - History

I love Jayhawk sports. I love watching them. I love reading about them. I love writing about them. I love talking about them. I love bringing a group of friends together to watch a game. I love the emotional ups and downs that go with every play. I love spending a day in Lawrence and soaking up the history of Allen Fieldhouse and Memorial Stadium.

That is the reason for JAYTALKERS.com. It's a place for me to share my passion with Jayhawk fans around the world. I hope you enjoy it.

KEEP ROCKIN' AND CHALKIN',

Mic

Monday, March 31, 2008

Self-Realization for the Self-Doubters

Bill Self got his Final Four. I am so happy for him and the players and of course I'm ecstatic about making the trip to San Antonio to support the Jayhawks. This will be my first Final Four and I'm going to soak it all up, even if getting tickets is like getting all of those Jayhawk fans that doubted Self to own up to the fact that they were just plain wrong.

And that leads me to the point of this article. I've had numerous debates over the years, some very heated, with one person in particular (whose name will not be revealed, but who we will call Mr. Self Doubter) about Bill Self and what a great coach he is, what a great representative he is of the University and what a class act he is. But Mr. Self Doubter couldn't get over the first round losses in the NCAA Tournament and nit-picked every little thing Bill Self did. He focused way too much on Self's "failures" and way to little on his successes.

So it is with great joy that I share the following comments with you. You see, Mr. Self Doubter did a complete 180 and finally came around on Bill Self. I wanted to write an article to all of those Jayhawk fans that doubted Bill Self for petty reasons and leftover resentment of Roy's departure. But Mr. Self Doubter beat me to it. Since I'm not big on reinventing the wheel, I wanted to share with you what Mr. Self Doubter had to say.

Without further adieu, below is the actual email I received today from Mr. Self Doubter. It's a beautiful thing when a Jayhawk fan sees the light. Hopefully all of those other Self Doubters out there can learn a thing or two from my recently converted friend, who I can now call Mr. Self Lover.

"Let me say the following which will hopefully bury a lot of hatchets we’ve had going on over the years. I would like to officially exclaim my pure excitement for Bill Self for finally achieving the Final Four that every coach desires. But it didn’t take a Final Four for me to start realizing we have a solid basketball coach at the helm of Kansas basketball.

It is obvious to me that my past disapproval of Self was wrong, and all of my negative comments were nit-picky little things which I would have with any coach (e.g., I had many of those with Roy too). You may remember when my disapproval of Self started. It wasn’t necessarily in his first season, although I had a glint of doubt because of the way Miles/Langford/Lee/Simien didn’t necessarily “mesh” with Self’s system.

The doubts officially began in his 2nd season, when there was obvious rebellion going on within the team, where the freshmen were benched and never saw the light of day, etc., ultimately resulting in a downturning season ending with the Bucknell loss. Immediately after the season, Padgett transferred. Giddens eventually transferred in the off-season. That season’s demise put big doubts in my mind.

This carried over into the next season when we had an extremely young team who struggled from the outset, as most freshmen/sophomore-laden teams do. Guys like CJ Giles were disappointments. Freshmen like Julian Wright were being benched, and memories of the freshmen-benchings from the previous season kept coming up.

The season ultimately ended with the 1st round upset to Bradley. And then Giles transferred in the off-season. Sometime during this 15-month timeframe of events, Mic and I started and continued having our heated arguments about Self. But it is now obvious to me there were reasons for all of these events. The difference now is Self has HIS players, and they are experienced.

That’s what a coach needs to succeed: Players who are adhering to the coach’s set system, and who have the experience and talent to execute the game plan, the offense, the defense, etc. I look back and realize Self didn’t have that before the Bradley loss. In his first 3 seasons, the first 2 were with Roy’s players, and the 3rd was with an extremely inexperienced bunch who have grown into the group they are now, and a group future players can draw from.

A group who wins basketball games at an impressive clip, who wins Big 12 titles (regular season and Conference tourneys), who took us to the Elite 8 last year and now the Final 4 and hopefully beyond this year, a motivated bunch who have accumulated a 35-3 record this year despite some accusations they’re not motivated, a complimentary group who Self deserves credit for building, who will be tough to replace, who I hope will reach the culmination of everything basketball, by winning the National Championship this year.

I wanted to write this e-mail to give you some insight into what I’m now thinking about our coach; that he is an excellent basketball coach and recruiter and a remarkable representative to have at the University of Kansas. Like I said, the light didn’t flip on only because of the Final Four; I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. Of course the Final Four never hurts though! One of those rare situations in life where you’re absolutely elated you were wrong."

Thank you, Mr. Self Lover. I literally couldn't have said it better myself.

Keep Rockin and Chalkin,

Mic
http://www.jaytalkers.com/

1 comment:

  1. Mic,
    Thanks for the article...although Mr. Self-Doubter wrote much of it for you! Hope you and Missy have fun in San Antonio...not going to be able to make it from the East coast, but we'll be rooting on the Jayhawks like we are right there with you! Mama and Papa Gomez are flying down and meeting us in Florida for spring break/Master's week. Rock Chalk! Gomez.
    P.S. You get me a Final 4 shirt and I'll send you a Master's hat!

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