Pepsi Challenge: It's all about the Taste!
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For those of you who have been away to Cuzco, Peru, overstocking your llama herds, I thought I’d let you know we had some good news last Friday. Elite, HS PF recruit Cliff Alexander “went public” and chose The University of Kansas University as the school he will play for next fall. If you didn’t see the announcement, view it here by choosing your own format:
Polished media version:
Handheld “pirated” version:
Orchestral accompaniment version:
Speedy GIF version:
http://voices.suntimes.com/sports/sports-prose/gif-cliff-alexander-jilts-illinois-chooses-kansas/
We are still awaiting a high-quality slowmotion version.
You may ask, “why do we need slowmotion?” Well, because the U of I might contest the call. Evidently, Cliff first chose an Illini cap so “Illinois University” Head Coach John Groce has been seen over by the scorer’s table, asking officials to review the play.
Evidently, almost everyone in the State of Illinois would like to see a replay… at least, those fans still remaining in the stands who have not thrown in the towel by saying nasty remarks about Cliff “reacting in poor taste” or “choosing Kansas because he was paid.” This remark caught my eye: “The kid couldn’t spell ACT if you spotted him the A and the C.” I wonder if that mattered before Friday? And let’s get real, Cliff doesn’t need the letter “T”… he only needs to know “K” and “U”.
Cliff definitely incited Illinois fans when he stuttered on the hat selection. When later asked about the stutter, he commented that he decided to do it after talking to teammates. That comment didn’t seem to help him smooth over emotions in Illinois. But is that what he meant? Enter foot in mouth. Since when are HS basketball players running for mayor?
Sometimes it requires forensics to resolve comments or issues surrounding HS athletes (and the same goes for college athletes). After careful deciphering and analysis it appears Cliff meant to say that his teammates helped him pick Kansas. And it seems the temporary fumble over the Illinois hat related to a case of stage fright.
So does it all matter now? Probably not, unless Kansas decides they want to schedule Illinois at Illinois next year. My guess is don’t hold your breath!
If you don’t feel like you have grasped the emotion in Illinois, check out the following links. By now, everyone in the western world has seen this first clip. I’ve heard it has now gone viral in Cuzco, Peru. And if you found some humor in this first clip, you might need a diaper change after watching the second one.
Something about seeing the faces.
And while Illinois fans have gone from mourning the loss of Cliff to becoming the butt of jokes around the world, you have to feel empathy for our friends up north, even if they don’t realize we are “The University of Kansas”). We’ve been in their shoes before, but fortunately, we didn’t feel the need to record our reactions and put it on the web for everyone to see. If you’ve ever slipped on a banana peel, you know what I’m talking about. Your first reaction was to look around to see if anyone saw it!
I’ll put this issue to sleep with a link to the Master of Defusing Emotions, Bill Self.
No matter what we do here, it will appear like we are mocking Illinois. I did actually write this with a straight face. Promise.
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Interesting, the “pirated” version has a wider angle and shows the end tables draped with Adidas ads, coincidence???. Jaybate would have had a conniption…as Bill Cosby would say…
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His dad’s actions and smile are just as great as the ole switchero was.
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It appeared his dad enjoyed every minute on the big stage. Hope he doesn’t have the “Carl Henry” syndrome.
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I’ve never been a fan of the ‘picking a hat’ approach. I’m not a huge fan of the televised ‘event’ of an announcement.
Those videos speak volumes and confirm all my opinions.
It’s torturous enough when fans are invested deeply – and magnified with the ‘bait and switch’ trickery.
We’d better hope we don’t meet Illinois in the tournament in the next several years.
And if there’s one good thing that could come out of this event, maybe it’s that the backlash would be enough to end that practice of ‘pick a hat’ for all time.
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Drgn, Thanks for posting. Those are very funny. I, also, feel for the Illini fans. The hat picking is one thing… the fakeout takes it to another level. That said, if it had gone the other way I wouldn’t have felt the venom that those guys did. Does anyone remember the “Hilter reacts to Frank Haith hiring”? Now that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
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Sweet… The new Youtube plugin Julian published is working… All the videos for this story are now embedded.
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Hey approx… excellent!
You keep bumping up this site!
