Best posts made by VoyagingJayhawk

Well guys, I’ve been following so many of you since the old site when I was a little kid and even followed some on the old cbssports message boards, I’ve read all of your posts for years and always felt like I’ve had nothing to contribute but I have to say I’m pretty crushed by this loss. This is three losses in a row in the month of March that I just find totally inexcusable. I try and convince myself that I care more about the regular season, the grind it out victories that translate into 11 conference championships that may some day equal those of my hero Coach Wooden, but these disappointing efforts stick with me more than those conference championships every year. I wish it weren’t so, but it is.

In 2012 I was lucky enough to have been in St. Louis and experience in person the incredible effort that propelled us to victory against UNC to New Orleans. I watched the unexplainable upset against Ohio State in Allen Fieldhouse and celebrated on Mass Street. These memories stick with me. Since that time I’ve been away from Kansas and I feel drawn to the Kansas and KC area through our sports teams and through you guys. My family traveled without me to Dallas in 2013 and experienced the heartbreak firsthand. Through it all, I always come back to you guys. Jaybate and HEM, to name just a couple, have been my go to opinions for Kansas basketball. This is an incredible site, you all are such a joy to read. The positivity, loyalty, and depth of knowledge is refreshing.

I talked to my father at length about this, we are spoiled, of that there is no doubt. But I do not not believe it is irrational to expect these teams to advance to the second weekend. I didn’t expect this team to be national champions. But to me, losing in the round of 32 two years in a row is similar to a first round exit. If you cannot make it to the second weekend with the talented players and coach that we have than you’ve underperformed at Kansas. So here I am, emotionally raw and in the process of recovery. I just wanted to thank you for the citadel of Kansas basketball this site has provided. You guys are awesome. I hope to see some of you around for the Royals?? Anyways, always faithful to our Jayhawks! Rock Chalk!

Got these numbers from wikipedia so I apologize in advance if they’re inaccurate. The percentage of 2 seeds advancing in the round of 32 past either 7 or 10 seeds historically lies at about 67%. Strong odds but greatly reduced compared to 1 seeds vs 8 or 9 seeds which rests at around 86%. Almost a twenty point difference. Kansas’ performance as a 2 seed (7 times with 3 losses coming in the second round) is around 58%. Undeniably under-performing with two of the three losses coming this year and last year. The positive in me says in ten years, with the consistency of our program, that number should progress closer towards the mean or even exceed it.

WHAT IF Gooden comes back for the 2002-2003 season. One of my many depressing what if’s concerning Kansas basketball.

@JhawkAlum I think you hit it right on the head. You want to go hard into second when there is clearly no chance of turning a double? Fine. That is a style of play that’s been around since the fiery and bigoted Ty Cobb terrorized the bases. You can play that way, but there is also a response to that type of performance that is just as old in the form of retribution.

I don’t know if the Royals are quickly becoming the most disliked team in the division or even maybe the league, but it sure does seem that way. Baseball is at it’s heart a conservative game. So maybe our boys in blue ruffle some grey feathers with their attitudes and swagger. I’m okay with that. They’re having FUN and it’s an absolute joy for us fans to see it. If the baseball establishment deems us the bad guys then so be it. When’s the last time the Kansas City Royals have been a good enough ball club to be disliked? Sure beats being the lovable loser.

@wissoxfan83

I have to be honest, I get the criticism and I think it’s warranted…but all of this talk about giving up on Coach Self is kind of blowing me away. If you think Coach Self is not the guy to get us banner number six then…well then I guess it’s agree to disagree on that one. Eleven Big 12 Conference Championships mean nothing? No, they don’t give us the high of a Final Four but that is a special run guys.

I was like Brooks, I drove home from Washington state once with my father to the KC area. I hadn’t been back to Kansas in almost a couple of years and when I reached Kanorado, which any experienced I-70 driver will recognize as the first or final town in Kansas–depending on direction of travel–I felt re-energized and it seemed as if the stars were brighter and the air cleaner. Once I make it back to the Kansas prairie I’ll never leave it again. It gets in your blood.

@jaybate-1.0 “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”

Interesting perspective on the possible political machinations going on within and around athletic programs. You do believe that there is a concerted effort by some to topple coaches, regardless of program success? Take Kansas for example, who would be in line to benefit from a successful effort to push Coach Self out? I find your comments regarding the wide-ranging excuses for firings quite accurate and something that always leaves me chuckling when I see statements from Universities praising the efforts and successes of a coach they just fired.

What worries me is I think some have an oversimplified perspective of the role of a coach, particularly at this level, be it philosophically or administratively. Coach Self’s responsibilities at Kansas are huge in both scope and size. He is at once a basketball coach, a mentor, a politician, a salesman, and so on. He assumes many identities and must be successful in all of them to sustain the level of success that he has. It is not as simple as winning in March.

Let’s look at a man whose success in the NCAA tournament is unparalleled; John Wooden. To attribute his success to superior x’s and o’s would be an insult to his legacy. Coach Wooden taught boys how to be good men and in turn good teammates because his philosophy combined with his basketball knowledge was all encompassing. He was adamant that the most important coaching he did was away from the basketball court. If he could be successful there the winning would take care of itself because both his basketball and life philosophy were interdependent. Success on the court was merely a by-product of success in other fields. In my opinion, his astonishing accomplishments validated his coaching and teaching methods. I would argue that his success off the court was crucial to his success on the court.

So what if Coach Wooden had not won any of those championships? Would he really be any less of a coach without a title? Was he not a good coach before and without a national championship? How do we or should we define success? Even here in Kansas where we have obtained a level of consistent excellence that has not been matched since the Wizard’s days we seem to have grown bored. This is where I often differ with Kansas fans and fans in general. I believe Coach Self has been and still is wildly successful for more reasons than wins and losses. I think it is important not only to succeed on the court but in the classroom and in the community. I DO NOT believe the only marker of excellence at a university in any role is on an athletic field. If I did I would lament that Coach Cal is at UK, not KU. Of course I want more banners. Of course I think we have at times fallen short. This, however, is where I refer back to my second paragraph; Coach Self is so wildly successful in every role he must fulfill that I would not trade him for any other coach in the country. The basketball program at The University of Kansas under Head Coach Bill Self is truly something every Kansan can be proud of.

My friend’s grandfather is from the south side and so a Sox fan and mourns the tearing down of Comiskey Park at least once every time I see him. “I cannot believe they tore Comiskey down for that ridiculous cellphone field they call a ballpark, makes me sick. Comiskey was more of a classic than Wrigley, son. She was a ballpark!” Or something like that.

What a classy human being. It’s such a shame his great mind failed him at the end.

Gordo’s catch was awesome and Cabrera’s catch not so much. Thought it was 5-5 when it left his bat.

Ok, the basketball universe feels a little more just now. Now Huggy bear needs to eat those kitties.

@Crimsonorblue22 That sounds like a pretty perfect month of May if you ask me!

Hey, we’ve all seen Utah come back when down big at half haven’t we? This is far more manageable. Keep fightin’ Utes!

Who said one run wasn’t enough?? You were right

Just switched to the OU-MSU game. Lot of defensive breakdowns for Michigan State, Oklahoma taking advantage. Hope they represent the Big 12 well and make a push.

Ha! First time I ever did that!

Wow! Go for a run and come back to a completely different college basketball landscape! I’m still honestly surprised, thought the ultimatum was legitimate. He should have been gone so long ago I just half-expected they’d never pull the trigger on the friendly old coach.

Goodnight all! Another fun game! Hopefully see you here tomorrow!

@Crimsonorblue22 I don’t think anything stops Marshall from going if Texas wants him, but in the past he has referred to the Koch brothers as his “heroes.” Perhaps that’s the real root of my distrust of the coach. I think we’re all aware they’ll match anything Texas offers and you know they’ll throw in extra elsewhere, perhaps under the table. Is it enough to stay? I think Marshall wants the talent he’ll be able to pull at Texas. I think recruiting to Kansas just got a little bit harder.

@Crimsonorblue22 That pup is the cutest thing I’ve seen in weeks

@approxinfinity I agree with you about Coach Smart. Watching the cbssports special on him left me with the impression that he’s really comfortable there as a coach and as a human being, which of course doesn’t mean he couldn’t be elsewhere. He just seems like a different breed. I don’t know if Texas is what he’s been waiting for. Would love to have either in the Big 12 as I’m all for a healthy and competitive conference.

@Crimsonorblue22 I’ll take that as a birthday present!

I am pumped for the return of Rios! We have really been struggling at the plate these last couple of weeks, Lorenzo being the one suffering the worst. As fun as it was having Orlando hit those ridiculous amount of triples, overall, him and Dyson have been poor offensive replacements for Rios. But remember that Alex was beamed in the hand and so it may take him awhile to get comfortable. Would like to see Ventura come out and put up a gritty performance, don’t need a perfect one, just six or seven innings of tough pitching.

@wissoxfan83 Let’s go Wisconsin! Your guys are my last, great hope.

Can you believe it’s been over a decade since we’ve seen Langford in a Kansas uni??

@wissoxfan83 Well, if we’re into wishing I’ll take a Royals World Series Championship instead of your White Sox, a Chiefs Super Bowl over your Bears, and above all we’ll agree on another national championship banner hanging in Allen.

@JayHawkFanToo Denny has been calling Royals games since the team’s inception and I would almost always defer to his opinion. he’s a saint in my family’s home. He absolutely has a point about Lawrie’s slide being a part of the game, though less prevalent today. Regardless, Lawrie has a reputation and I think it was not just a dirty slide, but an idiotic one as well. If he makes a normal slide he’s safe at second. Instead he drives his spikes into Escy’s calf, overslides the bag and costs his team an out. I needed no more reasons to dislike Oakland and everything that transpired after that from the Royals side I was okay with.

FIVE TRIPLES!

@KUinLA Wine is sacred in my family for many reasons. Let’s just say they’re religious! Ha!

Totally agree with your points by the way. The reasoning is flawed. We want to blame drugs (which includes alcohol), not the abusers. Yet on an entirely different, yet parallel issue such as guns, we wish to blame the abusers and not the guns. I find it illogical.

Interestingly enough, we hail from a state with a fierce and often violent history of progressiveness, perhaps best demonstrated by way of alcohol and the prohibition of it (Carrie A. Nation). Kansas led the way on the moral topics of that era, be it abolition or prohibition.

In the postgame television interview, Pierce was asked if he called bank. “I called game,” he said. Then he walked off.

Paul Pierce wins game, then wins at life.

I still don’t respect lebron for leaving his hometown for a couple of rings. It’s as if he sold his soul for the devil. ONE ring in Cleveland would have meant more to that city and his legacy than four in Miami with that loaded roster. I gained a shred of respect for him going back home but am limited in actually rooting for him when remembering how idiotically he left Cleveland in the first place. So yeah, I want Lebron to lose. And I want Cleveland to lose so that when I think it’s a struggle to be a Kansas City fan I can always think of Cleveland. At least I’m not a Cleveland fan. Thank you Lord.

@brooksmd Ah come on now, that’s the type of demonizing that leads to partisan gridlock and an inability to even listen to the other side, let alone compromise. You know full well 99.9% of Americans do not think he’s a hero. We as Americans want our politicians to get better but when we engage with opposing sides in such vitriolic terms, why would we expect our politicians to do any different? It’s as if we’re getting exactly what we ask for. We need statesmen back in Washington. Respectable men and women (veterans if you ask me).

I’m never not blown away when I see that view of UCSB’s campus. Hope she finds a little bit more success out west.

Jaybate, I want you to know I loved your pre-game Omaha post, read it all in the voice of our distinguished Jayhawk, General Eisenhower. Great post!

3-0! 159 to go!

Like the post Jaybate, I’m always a sucker for optimism. Makes me curious as to just what the message boards were like after the Bradley loss and our second first round exit in a row!

I don’t know if you guys and ladies have noticed but Guts is strugglingggggg

@ralster gotta agree with you here, wholeheartedly. I think HCBS got out-coached by the oil man but I’m really not buying this turmoil in the locker room hypothesis. Coach Self is a tough but fair man and I do believe the guys all see this and know that when it comes to basketball and life in general, Bill knows best. He’s an intelligent, charismatic guy and I believe he cares about all of them like crazy and I think the guys reflect that in the post-game interviews and through their demeanor even after a crushing loss such as the one to WSU. He’s the leader and to read into his remarks during a heated timeout is to me absurd. Leaders lead, he’s the coach and they’re the young men that play for him. He is not in the throws of a meltdown because he questions his guy’s performance in the moments of a game. Notice his demeanor when he knows these guys are rattled; he smiles and tells them to relax and get it together. He’s not perfect on the sidelines, but I think he’s a great influence on them on and off the court.

Well there ya go Jeremy! First K

@nuleafjhawk love it. What It Means to Be a Jayhawk- by Jeff Bolig and Doug Vance is worth the read as well.

Did any of you see what Lawrie said about us Royals fans?

@Crimsonorblue22 Where were all those people booing on election day?? haha. I say Coach Self run our state after he’s all finished up with our basketball program.

@brooksmd hahahaha that had me rolling

I can’t watch anymore, it’s too brutal. On to the Arizona-Xavier game.

These guys must be waiting for the 9th

@Crimsonorblue22 That absolutely cracked me up. I’d like to think 90’s Coach K benches him but he also pampered Laettner so perhaps not. By the way, that 30 for 30 almost made me hate him more. I’ll admit I have a secret respect for Coach K though.

HOS!!!

Boy, this is gonna be a battle!

Man I thought that one was going to drop!

@TheDrunkenJhawk Is it autocorrect or are you fulfilling your username?? Haha!