NCAA title game: Earning some Self respect
If Chris Douglas-Roberts can make a - as in one - free throw, is Bill Self a lesser coach?
That’s how the Kansas coach would’ve been framed had CDR not tensed up at the charity stripe in Monday’s NCAA title game.
Coaches are measured by titles, Final Four’s, etc., because the profession has so little else that’s tangible.
But Mario Chalmers’ clutch-tastic 3-pointer to send the title game to overtime eventually earned Kansas the win over Memphis and Self respect… from others, that is.
While the measurement of college basketball coaches is tempered by the brutal format of their postseason tournament, leaders of the elite programs don’t catch much slack. We couldn't stop hearing about how Self had never been to a Final Four, much less won a title. But the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship is the most difficult title to win in sports.
Thus, there are many great coaches who have never and will never win one. There are no five-game series’ a la the NBA to lessen the fluky outcomes, you’ve simply got to win six straight with no margin for error.
The night before the championship game, the Seattle Sonics, which sport the second-worst record in the NBA, beat a Denver Nuggets team fighting its playoff life in a conference where making the playoffs menas you're a top-tier team in the league. But pit the two in a series, while George Karl would lose exponentially more hair, the Nuggets’ chance to lose three or four games is minimal.
The point is, judging a coach, who never sets foot between the lines, is off-the-charts difficult. There are idenfiable things we can point to, but many of these pundits don't see anything taught on the practice court or in the film room, where the majority of a coach's job is done.
Half the in-game, strategy-related occurances go undetected by the media. So, take their opinions for what they're worth.