Yesterday, I ran into Home Depot in Santa Clara. It’s not the closest one to my house, but it’s nearby and it was the closest to the previous errand.

KU had a big sports weekend, so I was sporting my classic, gray, KANSAS sweatshirt.

I was near the front checkout area looking at a display and I hear a voice softly say “hey Jayhawk” and then a pause. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from but he then said “you from Lawrence or go there?” I found the source of the voice sitting about 10 feet away on a phone call, trying to get my attention while he worked.

I said “Both. I’m from outside of lawrence and went to KU.” He said, “I’m 55.” I said “I’m 58”.

I said “Did you go to KU?”

“Yeah.” He finished his call and said, “You would have been a senior when I was there.” And then he stood up, and said, “Lincoln Minor.”

I was completely gobsmacked! I immediately knew who he was but was quickly trying to remember which teams and which teammates. I was a senior in 88… I stumbled my way to realizing he was one of the members of the legendary Danny and the Miracles team.

Which led me to take in this surreal scene: I’m standing in this random Home Depot in Santa Clara, California, chatting with a KU basketball player who I had watched as a frenzied fan in AFH many, many times, all those years ago. Meanwhile, the checkout folks were nonchalant and blasé going about their work. To them, he was just the Pro Account Sales Associate, helping the next customer.

He took some time to chat with me a bit about basketball and reminisce about the teams. I got a photo with him and we traded contact info. He said they sometimes watch the KU games at the Home Depot and told me to come by (which I absolutely will.)

When I got home, I realized he played for both Larry Brown and Roy Williams – two hall of fame coaches. That’s pretty amazing.

Reminded me that you never know who the person is behind the counter or in the line next to you, etc. At our age, he looks like a tall gentleman in a Home Depot uniform, unassuming and ready to serve the next customer.

If I hadn’t had my sweatshirt on and he hadn’t connected, I’d have been standing next to a KU champion and never have known it.

My son will be attending KU as a freshmen next year. He’ll be a fourth generation Jayhawk. He’s accepted in the aerospace engineering program. He’s been fascinated with planes – especially military aircraft – almost since he was able to hold a crayon. He’s also looking at AF ROTC at KU.

If there are any engineering or ROTC alumni here who have tips or suggestions, please let me know! (No one else in the family are eng or ROTC alumni).

Looked like that user was responsible for the chinese spam. Not sure whether it was intentional or not, but i felt I had to put a lid on it.

bskeet 1 Cancer 0

Thinking back across the season, and the tournament, I’d love to hear your reflections.

Big 12 Officiating

I will start my reflections with penance for my criticism of the Big 12 officials. I declared, right here in this community, that the physical style of game that B12 officiating allowed was going to hurt us in the tournament.

I was wrong.

That crazy crew created a crucible that forged two National Champions (Baylor and Kansas) in two years.

The officiating this year was a mess for everyone. It was not limited to the B12. I have no idea what is a block and a what is a charge… I had friends over for the NC with kids and I lost it with some f-bombs in the second half. Not proud of that.

But, it appears to have made the B12 strong and prepared KU well for the epic run. Even Iowa State, who was really not at the level they’ve been in the past, was well prepared to play incredible defense which allowed them to make a run.

If It Weren’t For Bad Luck, I’d Have No Luck at All

After all the years of bad luck in the tourney, this year was different. Things broke our way. And this is not to take away from the team and their amazing efforts… but sometimes thing just work out.

Our regional was the best setup I think I’ve ever seen. The matchups were, for the most part, favorable. Injuries made competitive teams (Creighton and Villanova) weaker and upsets removed a few challengers (Iowa LOL, Wisconsin and Auburn) out of our path. But no Kentucky, no Gonzaga, no Duke, no Purdue, no Illinois, no UCLA and no UNC.

Plus, we benefited from the Coach K drama combined with the typical march madness upset drama that overshadowed KU and allow us to stay “under the radar” all the way to the NC game. For a team that always has a target on its back, that target was a bit smaller and a bit more faded than normal.

Remy and the Immaculate Vibe

Let me start by saying the Championship was a Team Effort with a capitol T.

That said, WTF. The dude doesn’t really play for the conference regular season. When he’s in, it looks like he is out of sync with everyone else. Even as recently as the B12 tournament, there seemed to be confusion when he was on the floor. I recall more than once him looking for direction to the bench or Och pointing to where he’s supposed to be.

We are left to wonder: Does he know the system? Is there friction with the other players? Can he, WILL he, ever play defense? What about that injury?

And then, suddenly, he began to fit with our offense or vice versa. Suddenly, our team had two gears. Two very different, distinct styles to the offense. This gave KU a unique advantage: teams trying to scout would look at most of the season and see a monster car. But then they would see the most recent games and see that we could mutate into a race car.

On a dime Remy could flip the switch. I’ll be darned if that isn’t a reflection of how this team flipped the switch in the second half against Miami and again against UNC.

We don’t get past Creighton or Providence without Remy. And we don’t beat UNC without Remy. He took the shots – and MADE the shots – that others were either unable to because the defense was keying on them or they deferred (afraid). Remy personified confidence and courage.

I have always hated hearing Rafferty say “ONIONS” when someone makes a clutch shot, but Remy delivered the quintessential example of that phrase. He forced tough, contested shots at absolutely crucial moments… and nailed them.

This is not to take away from Ochai who is THE MAN and did this multiple times in multiple games throughout the season.

But, consider this as context on Monday’s performance: Remy shot 4/6 from 3; Mario shot 3/7 from 3 in the 08 NC. The drama of Mario’s one shot is undeniable, but the stats should help us appreciate Remy’s performance in this NC. Self — who so values blood, sweat and tears — seemed flummoxed and hesitant to shower adoration on Remy because he defied the formula; Remy still, absolutely crushed it even though he was coming off more than a month of lost practice and playing time.

Come to think of it, back to the luck theme… let’s put Remy choosing to come to KU last summer in that category. This is the conclusion we all dreamed was possible when he said he was transferring here. But I don’t think anyone could have imagined Remy’s journey.

Team, Toughness and Treasures

I heard one talking head on Tuesday credit the 2nd half comeback to “the law firm of McCormack, Martin and Braun.” That sounds about right. Big Dave (Good Dave) finally gets the spotlight he deserves. Jalen Wilson was a rock throughout the tournament. Dave and Jalen are a perfect reflection of this team: under the radar all year. Part of that was their own doing. But midway through the B12 season, there was no reason for anyone to sleep on Jalen or Dave. They both did all the dirty work.

And speaking of dirty work, Dejuan: how I underestimated thee. (I’m so glad we don’t need to talk about the final 4 seconds). The team credited his defense as the spark for the 2nd half run. And why not? Runs can’t happen without stops, and his steals and energy triggered the comeback.

Finally, what a treasure to have kids that grew up wanting to be Jayhawks. Christian Braun, hailing from a small town in Kansas is the classic Jayhawk. Toughness incarnate. Mitch and Ochai fall in this category.

Again, how lucky are we that we had so much experience and so much love on this team? And how lucky are we to have this forum (thx @approxinfinity) and this community to share our love of the team and the program throughout the year.

Rock Chalk.

---

Ok, TLDR:

I apologize to the B12 officials. Remy delivered in the most heroic way. Jalen and Big Dave (Good Dave), flying under the radar, overshadowed, delivered again and again. I underestimated Dejuan. And FINALLY… KU had the stars align just a bit. Nice way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our first championship.

PS:

Why couldn’t the national announcers get the names of our players right (Braun, pronounced: Brown, Ochai Agbaji, pronounced Oh-chi Ah-bah-gee.) They had 3 weeks and 67 games.

Thought I would share a bit of personal news here.

My son’s football team, Archbishop Mitty High School, won Friday night and will play in the Div 1 Northern California Championship this coming Friday against Serra HS (Tom Brady’s alma mater and powerhouse with a dozen or more D1 commits). Mitty was seeded #6 in the 8 team playoffs and won the quarterfinals and semifinals, both in OT. Even more incredible, Mitty was 1-9 last season and 0-9 the season before that (covid). They flipped the script this year, all the way to the Championship game.

Now you might think that the winner will go to SoCal to play the California State Championship (televised) against the winner of Mater Dei v St. John Bosco (also this Friday, nationally televised, I believe). And you would be sort of correct. If Serra wins, they will play in SoCal for the championship, but not the same for Mitty. California has some sort of committee that picks the team to represent NorCal. Because Mitty was an underdog (lost to Serra earlier in the season), the committee would pick another team from NorCal such as De La Salle, which is another powerhouse up here (but was beat by Serra earlier in the season). It’s not as simple as when I was in a 2A Kansas HS and when you won regionals you went to semi-state. And when you won semi-state, you went to state.

There are a lot of D1 commits on the teams that Mitty plays. Hardly any of Mitty’s players are getting looks. Sacramento State is interested in a couple guys. No disrespect to SacState, but that is ridiculous. The Mitty QB and RB should be on the radar of P5 schools. The RB is small, but so was Sproles and Deuce Vaughn. He is strong and fast.

Anyway. I’m thrilled that my son gets to experience playing HS football after Thanksgiving. He’s the center (junior) and will be in the thick of it Friday night at 7 Pacific.

It’s a David vs Goliath story, so appreciate any good juju you can send.

Oh, and the coach’s first name is Danny, which led one reporter to call the team “Danny and the Miracles” after the second OT win.

Silvio is quite the lightning rod. All the talk in the press seems to be about him rather than the K-State players. This is not fair.

It is definitely his fault for taunting after the block. The technical foul was fair. But the physical altercation was instigated and escalated by K-State players-- multiple individuals.

In the video, what I see is KState players running to confront Silvio. One of them pushes him. I see Silvio brush that push away and another player pushes him and he begins to push away and back at the same time (look closely-- his hands are not clenched; they are open to deflect the aggressors.)

There are at least two pushing him, maybe three. Meanwhile, everyone around Silvio is telling him to stop because they are all KU fans. It looks to me like he’s trying to not over-react for a couple of seconds while the K-State players have no one holding them back. Then the third guy lunges and pushes Silvio down and he comes up swinging.

I think it’s important to look at Silvio’s body language in those early moments. He is not trying to fight at first. He gets provoked and then all hell breaks loose. The stool incident I see as an instinctive act… and one that he fortunately is able to overcome with help of those around him.

Silvio is justifiably being called out. But he should not be singled out. The players from K-State who were responsible for the escalation and the first physical acts should be equally called out.

As is often the case when there is great disparity between two forces, the smaller power can’t win with the traditional rules, so they resort to guerrilla tactics to get the bigger power to do something uncharacteristic. Silvio bit on the bait.

OU. Good bye. Losers!

Suck it Sooners.

No one who is here is a fair-weather fan. I appreciate that.

Everyone on this site during the season has followed the team with its incredible comebacks and it’s painful letdown losses.

Today was very disappointing, and we fans are going to have to endure a lot of grief from giddy, over-zealous WSU fans for a long long time.

I appreciate being a part of a community of fellow fans who appreciate the team and carve time out of their schedule to share thoughts and emotions with each other.

Have a great off-season, and Rock Chalk.

Dejuan with the quietest most overshadowed 20 points ever

@rockchalkjayhawk I don’t know how much it would be, but whatever the amount, it would be etched in stone.

Hang in there. Seems like this stuff always comes in bunches / threes.

Hope everyone here and their loved ones find their way back to stable health. …And may we all have perfect GPS when navigating health insurance and health care.

@dylans said in Norm Roberts Retires:

Jacque is 50. Beard 52. Will wade 42. Todd Golden 39.

Bill was 41 when KU hired him.

Thanks @dylans. This is a helpful and relevant data point.

FWIW, Miles is 42. Chase Buford is 35.

@approxinfinity said in The portal.:

@Kcmatt7 think i was incorrect about those guys. Jesus. All i did was ask google the ones i thought i recalled being lefties. Apparently Google really wanted to tell me “yes”. So much misinformation. Just looked at the youtube vids thx.

FYI: There’s a known ‘syncophancy’ issue with some AI (I think gemini fits in this category, Chat GPT definitely does). They are being trained to flatter the user because A/B user testing shows that users like the AI better that is more flattering. Users use (engage with) a tool more if they like it. Therefore, the AI business boosts likeable characteristics —- known as engagement hacking.

So, sycophancy is a side-effect of engagement hacking.

As a result, AI will often tell you what it thinks you want to hear and that may have no connection to what is real or factual.

My 2cents: I see this as a succession planning effort. The assistants that will be brought in will be “interviewing” for the role of HC. Whoever stays will have established a relationship with the players that are crucial to retain as the head coaching position transitions. (The new ‘GM’ will be a part of this process as well). I think this is all about program continuity and stability.

The absence, rather than the addition of players, will mean that next year’s team will be able to play with a faster tempo. I think that will make a big difference.

As far as I can tell, all additions (so far) will not impede the tempo.

Are there rules that cover practice players? For instance, could Zeke, etc return as a practice / scout player? I’ve always thought it helps teams to play against the best practice squad possible. Would it make sense to invest in that?

@rockchalkjayhawk Yeah… Not much variance. But maybe there’s a tipping point on some of these…

Surprisingly, the stat that seems most corollary with a high-achieving team is FT% ~16% (or above, like Duke this year - holy mackerel!)

It kind of makes sense: Late game situations, teams that can A) draw fouls and B ) make foul shots, will have a better chance of winning.

It seems to be more important than whether the team is generating 33% or 30% of their scoring from 3 (teams get to the FF in that range and don’t get to the FF in that range).

Took me awhile to make sense of this-- I think this is distribution of points by source (these always add up to 100%, right?)