I hate long posts. But if you have the time, take a read and let me know just how crazy this sounds.
We all saw it with our own eyes. The team we know and love went from horrible to pretty decent in less than 6.2 seconds. I’d call it the biggest surprise in these parts since Rich Strike won the Derby.
So, how do we explain this? The steroid backlog was resolved and the shipment arrived? KP sold his soul to the devil? Aliens replaced our players with talented doppelgängers? Who really knows, but I’‘m gonna put on my tinfoil conspiracy theory hat and take a stab at it.
For weeks now I have questioned the role of our highly touted assistant coaches. Danny Manning is a smart guy who does have head coaching experience. He held Md. decently together last year so there is some of the old been there, done that In him. Nolan Smith played and coached at Duke. Another smart guy. How could they not help produce better results than a 0-9 start? My theory has been that their voices have been silenced or at least unheard by KP. So, anyway, my easily persuaded mind then was influenced by a thread in the 247 Sports fan page that made some pretty outrageous claims. Not really buying what the guy was selling but he reported that his “reliable sources “ told him that KP, his agent, Josh Heird and the New York Knicks (including WWW) were involved in negotiations that would provide KP with some financial payoff and a face-saving job with the Knicks that would provide him a good cover for an exit strategy. Again, not saying I believe it but I plugged this info into my other “Silent Assistant Coach” theory to see if they would mesh. They did. So here’s how it goes. While KP is in NY playing footsie with the Knicks, Manning and Smith are back home running practice. At last they are free to have input to the team, simplify things for the players and get them to stop thinking so much and play intuitively more. The players love it.
Then KP comes back, sees the change and (since he is planning to leave anyway) let’s Manning and Smith continue to lead the team. All of this produces the results we saw Wednesday night. So, you ask….is there any proof of this? Well, like most conspiracy theories, there is always a kernel of something. I went back and watched the WKU game and focused solely on the bench. During the first half, Manning was on his feet almost as much as KP was. He was directing players on defense, shouting out to players on court and doing some individual coaching during game stoppage. Nolan was also very active. In the second half, during a late timeout, Manning was in KP’s ear before KP talked to the team. At one point, there was a player substitution made by an assistant, not by KP. Also, Bob Valvano, who sits courtside, said there were incidents of Ellis and Lands chirping at KP and he back at them. He stated he had not seen this before. So, my point is that Manning and Nolan basically prepared the team for and largely coached them that game and the players responded to this. Go back and watch for yourself. Tell me I’m wrong. To further investigate this, I went back and watched the Miami game. Night and Day. Nolan was up from time to time but Manning barely moved at all. He basically looked pretty unhappy.
Buy it….don’t buy it. Matters not to me. But there has to be some explanation for the massive change we saw last game and, to me, this seems as good as any.
Now….anyone want to buy a tinfoil hat? Thanks for reading.
We all saw it with our own eyes. The team we know and love went from horrible to pretty decent in less than 6.2 seconds. I’d call it the biggest surprise in these parts since Rich Strike won the Derby.
So, how do we explain this? The steroid backlog was resolved and the shipment arrived? KP sold his soul to the devil? Aliens replaced our players with talented doppelgängers? Who really knows, but I’‘m gonna put on my tinfoil conspiracy theory hat and take a stab at it.
For weeks now I have questioned the role of our highly touted assistant coaches. Danny Manning is a smart guy who does have head coaching experience. He held Md. decently together last year so there is some of the old been there, done that In him. Nolan Smith played and coached at Duke. Another smart guy. How could they not help produce better results than a 0-9 start? My theory has been that their voices have been silenced or at least unheard by KP. So, anyway, my easily persuaded mind then was influenced by a thread in the 247 Sports fan page that made some pretty outrageous claims. Not really buying what the guy was selling but he reported that his “reliable sources “ told him that KP, his agent, Josh Heird and the New York Knicks (including WWW) were involved in negotiations that would provide KP with some financial payoff and a face-saving job with the Knicks that would provide him a good cover for an exit strategy. Again, not saying I believe it but I plugged this info into my other “Silent Assistant Coach” theory to see if they would mesh. They did. So here’s how it goes. While KP is in NY playing footsie with the Knicks, Manning and Smith are back home running practice. At last they are free to have input to the team, simplify things for the players and get them to stop thinking so much and play intuitively more. The players love it.
Then KP comes back, sees the change and (since he is planning to leave anyway) let’s Manning and Smith continue to lead the team. All of this produces the results we saw Wednesday night. So, you ask….is there any proof of this? Well, like most conspiracy theories, there is always a kernel of something. I went back and watched the WKU game and focused solely on the bench. During the first half, Manning was on his feet almost as much as KP was. He was directing players on defense, shouting out to players on court and doing some individual coaching during game stoppage. Nolan was also very active. In the second half, during a late timeout, Manning was in KP’s ear before KP talked to the team. At one point, there was a player substitution made by an assistant, not by KP. Also, Bob Valvano, who sits courtside, said there were incidents of Ellis and Lands chirping at KP and he back at them. He stated he had not seen this before. So, my point is that Manning and Nolan basically prepared the team for and largely coached them that game and the players responded to this. Go back and watch for yourself. Tell me I’m wrong. To further investigate this, I went back and watched the Miami game. Night and Day. Nolan was up from time to time but Manning barely moved at all. He basically looked pretty unhappy.
Buy it….don’t buy it. Matters not to me. But there has to be some explanation for the massive change we saw last game and, to me, this seems as good as any.
Now….anyone want to buy a tinfoil hat? Thanks for reading.
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