Jayhawks' Intangible Results
In the game of basketball, there is no way to calculate the importance of knowing where your teammates are going to be and having that unspoken bond, nay, unspoken assuredness that a teammate is going to be where they are supposed to be and perform the task delegated to them on a given play. This implicit belief cannot be quantified nor underestimated in regards to the success of a team.
Twin brothers Marcus and Markieff Morris were teammates on the 2010-2011 Kansas Jayhawks basketball team. Whether or not people want to joke about twin ESP or something of equitable value, the Jayhawks team was a group of veteran, experienced players who knew each other’s roles and knew the importance of playing together.
The 2011-2012 Kansas squad will be no such thing. The Morris brothers, along with Tyrel Reed, Brady Morningstar and Josh Selby represent five of the top six Jayhawks in minutes played per game last season. All five are gone from this year’s team. In addition to representing a rather obtuse chunk of Kansas’ points, rebounds, assists, etc. from a season ago, these men also gelled and existed as a cohesive unit (with the possible exception of Selby). The blatant loss of experience and leadership, the intangibles, will certainly harm Kansas more than the lost production.
The remaining players who will be in charge of trying to oust Baylor as the favorite to win the Big 12 conference will be Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson. Where they certainly have talent, what they do not have is familiarity with being go-to scorers and leaders with a number of young players perhaps deferring to them on a nightly basis.
What they also will not have, along with their fellow Jayhawks, is the unsaid fellowship of a team used to playing with each other, knowing where help side defense will come from, when to overextend for a steal, when to knife in for offensive rebounds because your teammate will be trailing the play. Kansas will try to defend their Big 12 title with a team that hardly resembles the one that seemed to be playing with extrasensory perception amongst its stars.
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