......makes the medicine go down. Yes, fellow fans, we've had a bitter pill to swallow this year. I'm going to offer a spoonful of sugar, here, with the hope that the medicine can go down a little easier.
The first sweetness I would offer is that there is not a great deal of difference between the 2nd and 10th place team in our conference. The gap has closed. On Saturday, Oklahoma needed overtime to get a win over Texas Tech. TCU has played Kansas tough twice this year. Iowa State lost to Tech down there. It's no longer such a horrible thing to lose to the bottom 3 in the conference. Kansas State, on the other hand, is in the bottom three but has beaten Oklahoma twice, Oklahoma State and Baylor once.
Now, take this sugar cube, if you will. Since there is such a fine line between winning and losing, just what is the difference between this year and last? We've dissected this animal quite a bit and some have blamed it all on our coach; others have blamed it on the point guard play; others have blamed it on poor attitude of important players while others have blamed it on a mixture of all the above.
I've been thinking a great deal about it. If I could point to one thing, about this year's team, it would be a lack of consistency. Think about it. We go out to Long Beach State and don't even show up. The very next game, in Hawaii, we take it to a pretty good Purdue team. Then we play a stellar game against one of the top teams in the nation. Next game, we don't even show up. In one game, Gip plays well; the next couple of games, you don't even know he's out there. In one game, Marcus is a hero; in the next, he's on the bench. Big Meat makes you think he's found the groove and then he disappears for 4 games. We whip Oklahoma twice and then get nailed by Tech. This is the same coach that we had last year, why so inconsistent this year? I now believe that this year's team has not found a way to replace Mr. Consistent, himself, Will Spradling. Will never became the scorer we all hoped he would be. But, game in and game out, we all knew what to expect of Mr. Spradling. We all knew he was going to bust his ass whether he was playing in pain with the sternum injury or getting knocked to the floor taking a charge. He was going to defend the hell out of the other team game in and game out. He was going to take care of the ball game in and game out. He was going to make good screens game in and game out. He was going to pass the ball well, game in and game out.
This team lacks the cement of consistency; it lacks the determined doggedness of Will Spradling. Shane Southwell's tweet shows that he knows what the problem is. I'm going to miss both Nino and Gip. It's going to be hard not seeing big Gip out on the court. He's worked hard over the years to improve his game. Yet, I've seen Gip get down if he's not getting shots underneath or if they're not falling. Our sophomores, and newcomers, simply didn't have that Mr. Consistent out there to lead them, not with in your face screaming, but with day in and day out dogged determination to do the little things even when the shot isn't falling.
We place too much importance on coaches. Bill Hodges almost won an NCAA championship with one determined ball player and four players who fed off Larry's silent work ethic and consistency. If coaches were so important, then, Billy Donovan, Rick Pittino and Tom Izzo would be fighting for the top of their conferences right now instead of fighting for a post season bid. If you don't have the right mix of players, you falter, coach or not. Jake Pullen was cement. Rodney McGruder was cement.
We need to find that dogged, determined and consistent player for next year. It could be DJamer. If he regains full health, his day in and day out hustle could motivate all these players to do their best. DJamer hustles his ass off even if he isn't scoring 15 per game. It could be one of the newcomers. The Flush seems to be a guy who hates to lose. We need a competitor who hates to lose.
Let's swallow this bitter pill, take a deep breath, and return to a healthy, balanced outlook toward the future.
