@wrwlumpy said:

no I in TEAM

Actually there is, it’s just hard to spot! :)…

So many good comments here that echo my own feelings, just felt the need to say so in one last 2014 post…

wrw - thanks for the gator link, thankfully we did not have a play like that one!

rehawk - I think your wager is fairly sound about the 1-4 wins against Tejas and IS, although we do have the power of the Phog for maybe 2-4

kusteve - Spot on with nearly all comments. Not sure I saw much chest hair on Ellis, and interesting take on Greene not being around next year…a couple more no-show games and I think you’re right. And while we soooo need Graham back, I have a funny feeling that even when we do, he’ll be too rusty and still hurting to be that effective.

beddie - two great posts, sad observations but true I think. I thought they’d get better over the xmess break too, but totally agree, since Lafayette I’ve had that same awful feeling. And Seldon’s shooting “slump” is more than that.

zig - yep, I’d say UK is a lock this year, maybe even go undefeated. Sure hope I’m wrong on those though

hem - first have to say thanks for all the great posts this year, you’re one of the main reasons I keep coming back for more here. And I’m struggling too and, unbelievably after a win, while I would not have had the cajones to say it, it might have been worse than the Temple game, as Temple is a serious team with those two new additions and Kent State is, well Kent State.

blown - I really really really hope you are wrong about Bill being on the back nine and us becoming more of a 24-8 team… but I have this little nagging voice that says you’re not.

nuleaf - Yes, team makes me crazy! Yes, we are spoiled rotten cry babies! And yes the Doll House in the late 80’s in Austin was a spectacular display of P, even eclipsing last night!

and last but not least, the prolific preacher of the jayhawk gospel himself, jb - it was the best of posts, it was the worst of posts. The best in that, as you usually are, you were humorous and insightful and fun to read. It was also the worst of posts for me, in that you intelligently and glibly popped so many of my hopeful bubbles about our team this year that I kept getting sadder with each one. The bullets to my two favorites - Oubre (getting his first OAD highlight reel game against lesser opponents) and Self (over playing Mason and being a nostalgia game) were especially deadly.

I can’t remember ever feeling this way after a WIN. I feel silly about it, but it’s still the way I feel…

But, being an eternal optimist, I’ll look for something bright to end the year with… things can change quickly in sports and people can surprise us, catch on fire (who would have guessed Embiid’s trajectory?) A couple of toughly fought, tooth and nail wins, a couple of boys growing into men and leading this team - and maybe a few antacids - will get rid of this feeling in my stomach.

Happy Gnu Year to all the board rats. Here’s hoping we look back in April and all go “Man, who would have thought back in late December that this team would go so far in the big dance?”

First off, I take full responsibility for this loss… I was going to wear my traditional KU hoody to watch the game but it was in the wash. I told myself it was just a stupid superstition, but boy was I wrong! I think it caused a force field around the basket repelling our shots.

And second, it’s actually a good thing to get shellacked like this as I was starting to obsess on this team and spend inordinate amounts of time looking for things to read about them. But with a spanking worse than the UK one, out of self-preservation I have to curb my enthusiasm. Which is a good thing because I had totally blown off editing my book in the little spare time I have.

I knew there was a silver lining somewhere. Ack.

Sigh… I still haven’t gotten over that major spanking UK just gave us. It’s not that we lost, I know that losing is part of the game, and that UK is just silly good this year. It’s just all their new McD kids made our new McD kids look they should have stayed in high school for another year.

It took awhile, but I got over the Stanford loss over the summer, and my fears that we still didn’t have a superior PG and/or a replacement 7footer and/or 3pt deadeye. But I read all the glowing reports on these boards and slowly got psyched again at the start of the season… such a plethora of new talent coming in.

But outside of Alexander, I’ve been pretty underwhelmed so far. Pretty hopeful for Svi -he seems to have the goods and just needs the shots to start falling in. Ellis is solid and gets his points, but seems to fold a bit when the going gets tough. A number of others show me flashes while some others make me wonder how they are still getting playing time.

Somebody posted the question about just how many quality wins do we have in the last few years outside of our conference besides Duke last year. Not many I’m afraid. And those early exits from the big dance smart and let these little doubts creep in.

Yes, I love winning the Conference tourneys every year, it’s amazing how much we dominate our pretty good conference. And yes I love how much we win all the friggin time year in and year out, and gotta like our Big Dance '08 win. And yes, got lots of love for our coach and our tradition too.

So as I sit here still stuffed from Thanksgiving, I need to remind myself I have lots to be thankful as a diehard KU fan.

It’s just… well sometimes I feel like if we were really as good as I think we are, we’d go a little further in the Dance each year, and we’d scratch a few more quality wins against non-big 12 teams during the season. I know greedy right?

Well, a nice win on Sunday vs Michigan State would really help continue that warm fuzzy thanksgiving feeling this year.

Oh and Santa, you could continue that warm fuzzy feeling with Oubre catching on fire and Greene shooting lights out from the three for the rest of the season…

@drgnslayr said:

Credit to Perry… He seemed to remove the mental barrier

Yea, I saw that too. I have voiced my unhappiness about his play on these boards earlier, maybe unfairly. But with the changes I’m seeing in his game play, a decent chunk of which are likely due to a change in the team dynamics, I am happy to see such a key piece of our team start to look like a stud and make me eat my earlier words.

Go get em Perry!!

Interesting thought and one I sure would love to see happen.

An obvious difference for me is that Withey was a big time volleyballer. So when he blocked shots, unlike most guys who bat the ball up and away, he tended to spike it back down into play. Plus being two inches taller, a longer wingspan and more vertical pop, he holds the advantage there too.

But Withey did take awhile to develop. And younger Lucas at 240 (compared to Withey’s current 235) has a bigger body and isn’t getting pushed around as much under the basket as Jeff used to be at this stage. I especially noticed this during the ISU game when McKay had been dominating us underneath and then Landen came in and really challenged him and for the most part succeeded. And both play for the best coach in modern basketball… so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you’re right and we have another Withey in the making!

@JayHawkFanToo said:

I don’t believe for one second that Coach Self held them back; WVU defenders were glued to KU’s 3 point shooters

Yep, that’s exactly what I saw too. Good D from a good team that was desperate for a win at home after losing 3 straight and not wanting to be swept by a young team on short rest on the road.

I’ve complained here before (and have heard others say it too): "It’s not that we lost so much as the way we lost because of…fill in the blank with things like “no heart” “no energy” “bad this” “bad that”.

Well for me, this was *not *one of those games… Two good teams in the best conference in the US played a game with many late lead changes, dumb plays and great plays. Games like this is part of what makes basketball fun to watch - not just for the blueblood programs like ours but for everyone. Kids playing their hearts out - some rising to the occasion while others don’t. And it all coming down to a bottom of the ninth, goal line stand, game on the line last second shot. This is the beauty and excitement of sports.

There were no technicals, no indisputably multiple terrible calls favoring one team (nobody punched a guy in the head while he was down on the court… man, did you see that in the Seton Hall game??). Two good teams played their hearts out, the desperate home team won on a prayer. No, this is definitely not one of *those *games for me.

Are we the better team? Yes. Should we have won this game? Yes. From the comfort of our instant replay, did we make dozens of mistakes? Yes.

But… Are we still in sole possession of first place in the B12 lead? Yes. Did we all figure earlier in the year we’d lose this game? Yes. Is this team of young men not really dam fun to watch? Yes. Are we going to win the NC next year when this whole group (sans Kelly) returns next year battle tested and we look like Kensucky does this year? Looks pretty good from where I’m sitting

Please, please, please, no more surprises like these…

2014 No.10 Stanford def. No. 2 KU, 60-57 (Second round) KU’s 0.826 points per possession ranked as its lowest output of the season. The Jayhawks made just 19 of 58 field goals (33 percent) and also were just 9-for-22 (41 percent) on shots at the rim. Wiggins was held to four points on 1-for-6 shooting and took just three shots in the second half. Kansas had been 0 for 10 from 3-point range for the tournament, seven of the misses against Eastern Kentucky, before Frankamp connected with 3:34 to go in the half.

1997 - No. 4 Arizona def. No. 1 Kansas, 85-82 (Sweet Sixteen) This will likely always remain the greatest Kansas team to not win it all. The Jayhawks didn’t lose to a slouch of an Arizona club, as the Wildcats ultimately won a surprising national title, KU had four starters — Paul Pierce, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn and Raef LaFrentz — who played in the NBA for at least a decade, and they were nearly unbeatable that season. Ask any long-time Kansas fan about that game to this day, and it’s greeted either with a pained sigh or a shake of the head.

2005 - No. 14 Bucknell def. No. 3 Kansas, 64-63 (First Round) No Kansas postseason loss will ever be as shocking as this one, as it was the lowest-seeded team to ever knock the Jayhawks out of the dance. Self, in his second season, lead roughly the same group, that advanced to the Elite Eight just a year earlier.

Please, please, please don’t lose this first game on Friday…

@KUSTEVE said:

maybe coach put the 3 ball away on purpose to sneak it in the NCAA tourney

I would love for that to be true… but do these 3 attmpts/made in the last 3 weeks ring a bell?

Baylor- 3/12

TCU- 0/8

W Va- 0/15

Texas- 1/8

KSU- 2/13

Sure seems more slumpish than planned to me.

But dang, am I glad the slump is over - and what timing! Can’t wait to make it rain more on Sunday and show how we are going to… can’t help myself here… separate the wheat from the chaff!

Wish I could have watched the game. I saw this clip of Selden’s behind the back pass for

, a dunk even! This combo could be really fun to watch this year.

Thought it odd that Self had this to say about who the best player was: “Jamari was the best player in the game tonight and I don’t know if anybody even asked to interview him. He was the best player in the game because he totally changed the second half with his energy”

Traylor - 14 mins, 1-2 FG, 0-2 FT, 0 rebounds, 1 TO, 1 Steal. This is our best player? Huh?

But another big scoring win and a very fine start to a likely AllStar career for Diallo. I’ll take it! Now everybody please stay healthy until late April, okay?

Lol, saw that on my Facebook page as well and it reaffirms my notion that the Lottery is simply a tax on people who are at bad math… split between 300 million Americans, each would each get $4 and some change. Chances are way better of getting struck by lightning… twice!!

But I do like the chances of our 'jhawks winning the NC this year tho

@Bwag said:

NBA drafts underclassmen on potential. Not what was contributed to their college team. Fair, reasonable or not…

Much as i don’t like it, that does seem to be the case doesn’t? And if that is true then we might still lose both both Carlton and Cheick, which would totally suck.

@BeddieKU23

I would love to see Wayne go into beast mode, break his career high of 24pts and hang 30 on some unsuspecting team in the coming weeks! Doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to envision that scenario either.

It is fun to be a jayhawk this year.

@DoubleDD

This thread title made me laugh at loud. Man I hope we take them down hard when we play them.

@JRyman said:

Self falling on the grenade technical so Frank wouldn’t get one.

That’s an awesome observation! He said it was his first one 3 years.

Frank didn’t have his best night, but sure showed some cojones when it counted. Love his post game quotes…

“I could play two more overtimes right now,” Mason (15 points, 5-20 shooting) said with a smile.

and

Of the crucial steal on the out of bounds play, Mason said: “Right before the play started the ref told me not to get close to the line. I took a step closer and went all out to deny. I got a deflection and got the steal.

He was well past the 3 feet separation line he should have given Heild, but oh well, he sure got hosed on that clean steal he had earlier too.

What a battle! So proud of those young men last night. Neither team deserved to lose. And we’ll definitely have our work cut out for us when we go to Norman next month.

@BeddieKU23 said:

I get it, Self let them play but when you go 11 deep and can go 11 deep without losing what makes you good, why wouldn’t you give guys a breather.

Hard to knock anyone in this incredible game (well except the refs which I usually don’t do, but dang that was a clean Mason steal), but I sure was scratching my head about that in the OTs myself. Isn’t that what having a deep bench is all about? Having some fresh legs when the other team doesn’t? I guess I’m missing something?.

And I’m probably missing something else here too, but I know that there was person who I really liked starting last night, who also first got us on the board after OU hung a few on us to begin the game, altered some shots and made some nice passes… then got yanked never to be seen again. I know Hunter had some rough plays as well, but what if we had yanked Graham or Mason after some struggles? Yes, yes, that would have been stupid of course, but the point is maybe Hunter might have stayed in a bit longer and positively effected the game more? Maybe he got hurt?

@joeloveshawks I am typically very opposed to Landen playing at all and in favor of Jamari only getting limited minutes but last night certainly made me eat crow. We don’t win without the performance of these two veterans last night.

And again, hard to knock the efforts of those two last night… they both played like men! But I have to admit to thinking that, given a few more of their minutes in the crucible that was cooking last night, would Svi had found more of his 3s (so good to see one go in for him), would Hunter’s nice little shot to get us on board have happened even more and perhaps his height got in peoples face more, would Bragg and Diallo have had more net positives than negatives, would this game even have gone to OT? Not whining at all, just wondering if better basketball minds than me can point out finer points that I likely missed.

But what the heck, nitpicking at stuff like that in a game like that is like saying cotton candy needs a little more sugar… it was pretty dam sweet already!

It is good to be Jayhawk

What a great article, thanks for sharing. I liked one of the comments at the bottom of the article…

"Any other of the local fan bases from around here care to sign up for a Kansas type of season of, “Suffering through a 25-10 season…?”

Not many teams would call winning 25 games playing a tough schedule, in a tough conference (and winning said conference again), “suffering”. It is good to be a Jayhawk basketball fan Can’t wait for another home win tomorrow night and relish #1 for a while.

(though I can easily envision the current warm and fuzzy feelings evaporating for the “sky is falling” crowd at the other site coming back out in a hurry if we lose)

@jaybate-1.0 Your initial post in this thread is likely my favorite out of all the ones I’ve read by you. A fine example of what happens when passion, intelligence and good writing meet. Nice work!

Looking forward to many solid showings from him, he’ll probably need at least a few highlight games to get his NBA stock up, hope they come at opportune times and win games for us. It will be nice to have yet another weapon other teams will have to scout and plan for.

And sorry to go a bit off topic, but just saw this little clip of Curry sinking five in a row from half court during warm ups like he was dropping bunnies from five feet… the guy is a machine. How cool would that be to have a play where BG stops at the center court logo and drains one before the defense can even get down and set up?