I gave my son one of the posters that I created for the Kansan in the 90s and told him to take it to the game for good luck..

@stoptheflop Tre and Melvin are the 3rd scorer by committee. I love the way Tre is a foul-seeking missile at the end of the shot clock. And Melvin is a bit like a lighthouse -- blinding bright, but sometimes goes dark... Together they are great.

Peterson is once in a decade talent. I remember watching Durant and thinking.. man, why can't we get a dude like that on our team?

We got one.

Ugly game.

Heroic effort to tie the game. Truly. We should pause on that and give credit where credit is due.

Then, a Crimson & Blue gift-wrapped win for St.John's to undermine the heroic comeback. Wow.

Why on Earth Self swapped Rosario for ElMarko I can only speculate... Rosario's contributions in the comeback were undeniable.

It was a bizarre ending for a bizarre year. I'm sorry that Council and Tre weren't able to have more post-season success. I will miss them both.

Flory is really good, but should be interesting to see if he gets any bites.

DP was an interesting experiment.

It's been said, but probably worth saying again: FLORY. This was a defensive game. And we had the better defense and the BEST defensive player.

Flory has to be defensive player of the week in the B12 and should get some recognition nationally.

Despite not sleeping well, I'm more sanguine (or at least neutral) about all of this. The ball bounces your way sometimes and bounces the other team's way sometimes.

I recall those FF years and the 2 championship runs and there was always a place where you can find moment in the game where you can say-- if that call goes the other way or the ball didn't drop at that moment... Self's legacy looks markedly different. We have never had a team that was so dominant that we didn't need a little luck to get to the FF or NC.

Also, we've been a juggernaut: In the tournament EVERY year and a historic run of B12 championships.

The consistent success made it seem like we should have even more success in the tourney. Easy to forget how difficult and rare it is to get a National Championship. (...I will be grateful, not spoiled...)

Only nine schools have won the title since 2004.

UConn (2004, 2011, 2014, 2023, 2024)
Florida (2006, 2007, 2025)
North Carolina (2005, 2009, 2017)
Kansas (2008, 2022)
Villanova (2016, 2018)
Duke (2010, 2015)
Kentucky (2012)
Louisville (2013)*
Baylor (2021)
Virginia (2019)

We all want more, but there are schools that have had a lot of success in the last 20+ years not on that list (Purdue, Gonzaga...)

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On the PAY FOR PLAY topic, I'll just say that it was necessary and appropriate to pay players. It was also predictable that it would be bumpy, especially with the NCAA's track record of poorly establishing governance that drives the right behavior and also poor track record of consistent oversight and enforcement.

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Final point: Performance & Payment.

As a fan, focused on the 40 minutes that we watch on TV, it's hard to remember that player performance goes beyond what we see on court — beyond the stats.

We already know that there are aspects to the game that are beyond analytics, despite trying to count EVERYTHING.

But performance includes many things that we don't see and cannot be captured by analytics. These contributions to a program and to a team should still go into compensation consideration.

For instance, did the player show up to all the workouts? All the practices? Were they engaged in community services with the team and good stewards of the university? Did they do something stupid to damage the program's reputation? Were they disruptive or disrespectful?

When they do all the 'invisible' things right, we tend to ignore them as though they didn't count. But, those expectations are certainly there. And these 'employees' are mostly between the age of 18-23.

I'm disappointed by the loss but I am trying to keep things in perspective.

It was a good group of guys and a good coach. Coach probably did a phenomenal job this year in unique and tough circumstances with DP's situation/injuries.

It was a bad way to lose but the comeback (which shouldn't have been necessary) was still pretty heroic.

I think it's a bad year to be looking for a coach. I also look a Pitino (dinosaur?) who left the NCAA for several years under some dark clouds that were embarrassing and was able to revise his game outside of the spotlight (oversees, then to Iona). Izzo hasn't won a championship since 2000, but has great character and is admired.

Personally, I think Self is admired and needs to be give more time to adjust. It's very different and difficult to do it under the microscope of a legendary program like KU.

That said, none of the objective points above are invalid at all. It's worrisome and uncomfortable right now. Learning often feels that way... and we are all collectively on for the ride.

I hear you all.. but the main thing that was wrong the other night was that our best player (or most expensive asset, if you look at it cynically) was not on the floor.

I think this is a good, competitive roster, when the whole roster is considered, plus the staff and the ability of the players to grow and improve.

That last point is worth noting: Most of the players have played less than 10 games under Coach Self. Some of these players are incredibly talented and others are very experienced (or both). Coach Self's track record with seasoned players is excellent. I'm bullish on them all improving faster than the competition (if they all get on the court and play together sooner rather than later.)

Pounding Missouri is occupying 100% of the space in my head for basketball right now.

I hated the officiating in that game. Absolutely hated it. About the only thing they did right was not call the flagrant on that ridiculous foul.

I think we are all 100% frustrated that he's not 100%. That includes him.

But it's a pretty phenomenal freshmen who can start and play at less than 100% and still be a very significant contributor playing just a fraction of the game.

At this point, I'm thinking he should sit and heal. I sooo want to see him at 100% with this team in March.

Remy 2.0?

It was an eventful night in a multitude of ways. For us Rosario Kohl-watchers, we had a sighting. He looked rusty offensively but his athleticism is undeniable. Spectacular rebound and some decent D.

The sports talkshows are awash in the topic of DP, but I have not sensed any embarrassment for Self or KU. In fact, there has been a lot of empathy and even admiration for Self give the way he has handled this challenge.

This is a very good team most of the time. Occasionally they may you shake your head (i.e. Saturday) and occasionally they make you religious (i.e. Monday).

Flory has been the most consistent energy for the team and (a little credit to Fran here) is likely the B12 defensive player of the year. I knew he would improve year over year, but his growth has been remarkable.

I'm very happy for him because it now seems obvious he made the right call for himself and the team by staying.

Ok.. Just had to get the size under 1MB.

This was AFH Monday morning. My son took this while he was camping for the game. (That's not him in the photo.. not sure who it is..)

They have a Wii set up and were playing while they waited. After practice, the players came by and wanted to play but they had just shut down the game.

Every game from this point forward is like a tournament game... You pick the round.

I think the guys actually figured out what the new level was after the WV and UCF games. The good news is they have adjusted and the results are excellent.

Coach mentioned in the post-game that a lot of teams, by this point in the season, know who they are and where their ceiling is. But for this team, he said that the he still doesn't know where the ceiling is, but he knows it's not where we are right now.

That is some of the best stuff I can recall him saying in February about a team.

I want to believe!

@kjayhawks2.0 said in KU @ Arizona St 8pm CT:

we had 21 offensive rebounds and 4 second chance points. Wow!

Yep. This defined the game and it's stunning.

If you look at this team's record with these remarkably anomalistic, highly improbable and statistically aberrational numbers, you might be tempted to throw a couple of these losses out.

They are pretty good if you take away the weirdness. Or is it weirdness? What is the norm?

It's just hard to know whether this team can still gel and harden and normalize into its full potential at this point.

I felt better about this team 24 hours ago. Now I'm pretty sure this team will be over-achieving if they get to the sweet 16.

Picking between these three is a very happy challenge.

We scored 4 points in the final 8:54.