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No easy decisions for Self

JASON WHITLOCK

Coaches love it when their players’ skill and effort make the important decisions — such as starting lineup, playing rotation and where the ball goes at crunch time.

If the Kansas Jayhawks were 4-4 and everybody was complaining that the Jayhawks weren’t running enough plays for Wayne Simien, and Aaron Miles wasn’t getting enough minutes at the point, Bill Self would be confident and content.

But even after Saturday’s 69-56 victory at Kemper Arena over a decent California squad, Self knows he has a difficult coaching job throughout the rest of the season. All winter, the Kansas coach is probably going to have to make every important decision on the fly — game to game, possession by possession.

That’s the typical plight of a coach blessed with a roster filled with talented players but no seasoned, dominant scorer or floor general. Self and his coaching staff won’t sleep much this season. They’ll spend countless hours studying film and second-guessing their decisions about lineups, playing time and shots.

A problem that is already bad will only get worse when sophomore post Darnell Jackson finishes his nine-game suspension and swells Kansas’ rotation to 11 players. There’s nothing wrong with being 11 deep. It’s actually a great thing when you have two or three stars and eight or nine guys in support.

The problem is Kansas doesn’t have two stars. The Jayhawks have a potentially outstanding freshman in Brandon Rush (12 points, seven rebounds) and an athletic and inconsistent sophomore in C.J. Giles (17 points, nine rebounds, five blocks).

Self doesn’t know what he’s going to get from Giles or Rush night in and night out, which accentuates the inconsistency of the rest of Kansas’ inexperienced talent, which hampers Self’s ability to determine a playing rotation.

“This could be constant for a large part of the season,” Self said when I asked him whether he had an idea when he might develop a regular rotation.

On Saturday, 6-foot-11 center Sasha Kaun took the afternoon off, playing just 9 minutes and missing the two shots he took. Freshman guard Mario Chalmers provided another 11 minutes worth of proof that he’s not a Big 12 point guard, turning the ball over six times. Senior Christian Moody, the surprising role-player star of last year’s team, looked like a walk-on in desperate need of Simien, Miles, Keith Langford and Michael Lee. Rush, KU’s most talented player, was awful in the first half. His halftime stat line read: zero points, one rebound, one turnover and 11 minutes.

What’s tough for Self is he can’t give up on Kaun, Chalmers or Moody and give all of their minutes to Stephen Vinson, Julian Wright and Micah Downs. Self can’t do it because he knows/suspects that in KU’s next game, Vinson, Wright and Downs might fall into the toilet and Kaun, Chalmers and Moody might play like Jordan, Pippen and Rodman.

All of these kids have loads of talent, and Moody and Vinson have all sorts of intangibles to offer. After the game, Vinson (six points, six assists and 25 minutes) seemed to understand Self’s dilemma better than the media members who appeared ready to anoint Vinson as “the answer.”

“I still don’t know how much I’ll be playing,” said Vinson, who predicted that Chalmers and Russell Robinson will play better in future games.

This thing is really tricky for Self and his staff. They have to figure out how to make 11 players happy, win games, enhance the draft stock of their one-and-done (Rush) and two-and-done (Giles) players and get something out of their Mario Brothers package (Ronnie and Mario Chalmers).

The easiest solution would be for Rush and Giles to become consistent and dominant. That would give this team structure and take most of the decision-making out of Self’s hands.

If that doesn’t happen, then I’d like to see Wright replace Kaun in the starting lineup and Vinson and Robinson split time opposite Jeff Hawkins in the backcourt. I want more Micah Downs and less Moody. I’d make Chalmers and Jackson (and even Kaun) wait for someone to play poorly before they get a shot at moving up in the rotation.

Mostly, I’m glad I don’t have to play the guessing game Self might be forced to play all season. He won’t be able to avoid looking foolish from time to time.

My game today is happening at six, across from the church building.