A few days between games, nothing earth shattering to discuss, so I 'll write a little and hope someone reads and enjoys.

1000$ is what brought me to Kansas from the suburbs of Chicago. I had a professor at JUCO who played football at Missouri who actually recommended I go to either KU or Wisconsin. Both had excellent cartography programs and so I explored both.

Wisconsin sports was a joke in the 1980’s so I wasn’t swayed by sports to become a Badger, that would come later. I was engrossed in lllinois/Depaul hoops as a teenager, didn’t really know anything about KU basketball.

But KU was 1000.00$ cheaper a semester than UW so I packed up a little uhaul behind my Chevy Chevette and came out west! And was I glad I did!

I was on a field trip out to see what erosion had down to the Wakarusa (sp?) River and getting into the van, I pulled the door shut on someones hand. I heard someone say “I hope that’s not your shooting hand”. His hand was fine. I sized him up as a golfer, and asked him and he said he was on the basketball team. Now my interest was piqued! We chatted the short ride back to Kansas. His name was Scooter Berry and he filled me in about the history and aura surrounding the program.

Well 1985-86 was a good year to be introduced to KU athletics. The football team was actually competitive, Mike Norseth threw for 500 yards in my first game I’d seen against Vanderbilt and Willy Pless was on his way to the career tackles record in the league. Back then you had to buy football tickets to get basketball tickets for students so I went to the games. Things fell apart for the team after briefly being ranked, but no one seemed too concerned in the stands because of basketball being around the corner.

David Letterman provided someone to come for late night, the basketball team showed off and I was hooked.

Thankfully in those days fans weren’t crazy enough to have to sit in line for 4 days to get a good seat. It was more like get there a few hours early and while you might not end up behind the bench, behind the basket was always available. These seats were much closer to the court than they are now and so it was a great place to watch basketball.

Kansas played a better schedule then than they do these days and so there was a steady flow of great teams visiting Lawrence those seasons, and of course us going there too. I saw Louisville, Kentucky (not the famous beatdown), St. Johns, and many others. It was great fun.

That 85-86 team was an all time great at KU since I’ve been there. I can’t compare to earlier great teams. It was beat down city all year. No surviving last second shots by the opposition like we’ve done all year it seems. There were a few close calls, and a loss in ames and also a loss to Duke in a holiday tourney, but not much else tarnished that team. The Final Four was a foregone conclusion.

Clockgate happened in the regional final against Judd Heathcoate and the Spartans. We made a nice little comeback after that episode which included a technical against Larry Brown.

Getting to the Final Four was exciting of course until it wasn’t. The Duke whistle appeared…sigh, and a team that had beat eventual champ Louisville twice during the regular season wasn’t given the opportunity to beat them one more time. I knew I was into KU basketball because that 26-14 foul edge in a four point game that we led most of the time really stung, and it still does.

Adding to the magic of that season was the Royals world series win and the Bears dominating season.

1987 was a so so year by our standards and powerhouse Georgetown knocked us out in the Sweet 16.

1987-88 was magic of course. Late night the team sang a song “Kansas City Here I come” kind of like the Bears Super Bowl shuffle. But by Christmas it wasn’t looking like a FF season, it was looking like a bubble year.

I watched us lose at home for the first time since I’d been on campus to KState and Mitch Richmond, and of course Lon Kruger. The fans started leaving with about 2 minutes left. We started chanting at them “Don’t come back”! I’m sorry if you’re reading this and that was you! Two more losses to Duke and Oklahoma at home meant a 3 game losing streak at home. But of course, as you all know everything started clicking. The three home losses were all avenged and we won an amazing championship.

Campus afterwards, if you didn’t know what had happened, looked like a riot had happened. I bought my T shirts that I still have. I graduated 5 people in front of Danny a month or so later. Didn’t even know he was behind me as I walked down the hill, but everyone stood and cheered when they saw him coming in.

And then I was gone. Like most of you I kind of bleed crimson and blue. I’ve got to watch us in person twice since then. But thanks to cable I don’t miss a game.

Despite our relatively thin trophy case since I arrived it’s been an amazing stretch.

NCAA tournament every year since 1985 except for the 1 year ban.

Longest streak of tournaments qualified for ever.

Only 2 early exits in that 30+ year period.

24 conference championships.

13 conference tournament championships

22 sweet 16’s.

15 elite 8’s

9 FF’s

5 Championship games

2 Championships.

Kstate’s made the sweet 16 3 times in the same time span, the elite 8 twice, and of course no FF’s since I was born in 1964!

Missouri has made the sweet 16 4 times, elite 8 3 times. Of course no FF’s ever!

I’m not going to take the time to do this research but I’d guess we have more of all those categories than the rest of the Big 12 combined since 1985.

I’m glad I came to KU! If anyone took the time to read this long thing, thanks!

3:00 Tarik Phillip made Layup. 64 - 50

2:43 Foul on Jevon Carter. 64 - 50

2:43 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 64 - 51

2:43 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 64 - 52

2:40 Foul on Lagerald Vick. 64 - 52

2:40 Tarik Phillip missed Free Throw. 64 - 52

2:40 Landen Lucas Defensive Rebound. 64 - 52

2:30 Devonte’ Graham missed Three Point Jumper. 64 - 52

2:30 Landen Lucas Offensive Rebound. 64 - 52

2:21 Frank Mason III made Three Point Jumper. 64 - 55

2:18 Kansas Timeout 64 - 55

2:06 Foul on Frank Mason III. 64 - 55

2:06 Daxter Miles Jr. missed Free Throw. 64 - 55

2:06 West Virginia Deadball Team Rebound. 64 - 55

2:06 Daxter Miles Jr. missed Free Throw. 64 - 55

2:06 Josh Jackson Defensive Rebound. 64 - 55

1:56 Devonte’ Graham made Three Point Jumper. Assisted by Lagerald Vick. 64 - 58

1:46 West Virginia Turnover. 64 - 58

1:43 Devonte’ Graham Turnover. 64 - 58

1:43 Tarik Phillip Steal. 64 - 58

1:40 Foul on Devonte’ Graham. 64 - 58

1:40 Tarik Phillip made Free Throw. 65 - 58

1:40 Tarik Phillip made Free Throw. 66 - 58

1:33 Frank Mason III made Layup. 66 - 60

1:33 Kansas Timeout 66 - 60

1:25 Foul on Lagerald Vick. 66 - 60

1:25 James Bolden missed Free Throw. 66 - 60

1:25 West Virginia Deadball Team Rebound. 66 - 60

1:25 James Bolden made Free Throw. 67 - 60

1:15 Foul on Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. 67 - 60

1:15 Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk Turnover. 67 - 60

1:15 West Virginia Timeout 67 - 60

1:14 Nathan Adrian Turnover. 67 - 60

1:14 Landen Lucas Steal. 67 - 60

1:13 Foul on Nathan Adrian. 67 - 60

1:13 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 67 - 61

1:13 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 67 - 62

1:07 Foul on Lagerald Vick. 67 - 62

1:07 Tarik Phillip made Free Throw. 68 - 62

1:07 Tarik Phillip made Free Throw. 69 - 62

1:03 Devonte’ Graham missed Three Point Jumper. 69 - 62

1:03 Carlton Bragg Jr. Offensive Rebound. 69 - 62

0:52 Foul on Elijah Macon. 69 - 62

0:52 Devonte’ Graham made Free Throw. 69 - 63

0:52 Devonte’ Graham made Free Throw. 69 - 64

0:52 Tarik Phillip Turnover. 69 - 64

0:52 Landen Lucas Steal. 69 - 64

0:47 Frank Mason III missed Layup. 69 - 64

0:47 Landen Lucas Offensive Rebound. 69 - 64

0:47 Landen Lucas made Two Point Tip Shot. 69 - 66

0:45 Foul on Mitch Lightfoot. 69 - 66

0:45 Esa Ahmad made Free Throw. 70 - 66

0:45 Esa Ahmad made Free Throw. 71 - 66

0:36 Devonte’ Graham made Three Point Jumper. 71 - 69

0:33 Kansas Timeout 71 - 69

0:26 Tarik Phillip Turnover. 71 - 69

0:21 Foul on Tarik Phillip. 71 - 69

0:21 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 71 - 70

0:21 Frank Mason III made Free Throw. 71 - 71

0:16 West Virginia Timeout 71 - 71

0:02 Tarik Phillip missed Three Point Jumper. 71 - 71

0:02 James Bolden Offensive Rebound. 71 - 71

0:00 End of 2nd half 71 - 71

To further break it down

3-5 3 pointers 2 by Graham, 1 by Mason 9 points

8-8 FT’s 8 points

2-3 on layups 4 points

2 turnovers

3 offensive RB’s, 1 defensive.

WVU 3 turnovers,

WVU 0-1 FG’s. That’s all they attempted, this according to the data above. And the 1 shot? Their desperation heave at the end of regulation.

WVU 7 FT’s

Interesting stuff. Of course we had to foul them, but they really made it tough on themselves by not taking more than 1 shot down the stretch.

This list just ends regulation. I didn’t break down OT.

I don’t recommend this as a winning formula, but it sure was fun while it lasted.

One part of this season that has been fascinating to watch is this teams ability to win games where their recent history would indicate that maybe they’d fall flat. None of the games I’ll mention were earth shattering upsets or history making games in our long ledger of basketball games. They were just games that in my view were significant.

We were all kind of in shock just before Christmas. A lot of us were thinking we just might enter conference play undefeated. After a month of patsies we were glad to see a team that at least would be competitive we thought. The Washington Huskies came into so called AFH East and extended the Pac12’s win streak over us to at least two games. ASU, a team on a roll, and some here acknowledged they were a bit nervous about, comes in and embarrasses us at home.

Suddenly the fan base is edgy. Some are whispering ‘could this be the year they don’t win the league’? Some are even thinking worse, like maybe this team doesn’t even make the dance.

To make matters worse, at least for our somewhat insecure fan base, there’s not a game all week. And it’s at Nebraska, a place we figured would be kind of tough to play. 3 game losing streaks don’t happen too often around these places and we just might suffer one at Lincoln.

A nip and tuck game had Jayhawk fans really on edge. The game chats were a little tense. Nebraska tries to win it in the end, but we pull it out, barely, but someone, not remembering whom, said this felt like a big win. And it did. We’d gotten our season kind of back on track it felt like and we would win a few more before the first TT setback.

A 4-1 start in league play brings us to our next difference making game. We were going to be 4-2 after losing in Morgantown a lot of us said. With good reason. A 4 game losing streak there really gave us a sense of dread, and most of the games, (besides the WVU buzzer beater where the guy picked up his dribble at the 3 point line and shot a layup) were not very close. And then we fall behind. Graham makes the most significant shot of the season, a 3 at the buzzer for halftime that trims a 16 point deficit to 13 and some needed confidence. The 2nd epic comeback against Huggies Thuggies and suddenly we were saying this whole conference championship thing looks possible. A big monkey off our back and we were starting to think about the toughness of our team.

The 3rd game was Sundays historic game against Duke. If there’s a time when we enter a game with a feeling of some dread and some inferiority it’s when we play Duke. They receive the press clippings, the adoration of casual fans in many places, and just a notch higher in the national consciousness than we do.

Pause for a rant. Listened to CBS college basketball podcast today on the way home and Norlander and Parrish talked way more about Duke than any of the FF teams. grrrrr…

KU came into the game with another burden to bear, the perceived failures of our team in Elite 8 games. This is despite the fact that this century we’ve won four of them and lost four of them, nothing to hang our head in shame about. But of course Bill Self has been the coach for 3 of those elite 8 losses, and he’s got a few from other seasons with other schools. We all knew we could beat that team appropriately named the Devils. And we did. Kind of a huge weight lifting off of our collective backs. Bill Self’s reaction said it all. Despite having won the NC, and played for another, He had earned a somewhat negative reputation nationally.

Sundays win may be a freeing type of game that allows this team to burst forth with a run the next few seasons of final fours and championships. Most championship teams overcome some sort of adversity. This one has. Way to go Jayhawks! Lets bring home championship #4!

Me and the Mrs.

I love living in Chicago. For first 25 years of marriage we were in Wisconsin and Louisiana. When we moved back I made up for lost time and started going to mucho awesome HS games, some college games, mainly Badgers, and some Bulls.

So when I saw the Elite 8 coming to Chicago I started hoping everything would come together for a KU appearance at the United Center, the house that Mike built, but nowhere as magical as the old Chicago Stadium with the enormous organ and (I hate 2nd hand smoke now) clouds of cigar smoke in the air, especially at Blackhawk games.

Anyways 2 Sundays ago looking at the bracket it looked pretty doable. Then the upsets happen. Now you understand my other team UW is in the same region and I started to dream of a KU-UW regional final. Then Iowa goes down. We HATE Iowa like we hate Missouri. They’re a bunch of whiny underachieving brats and they never shut up. McCaffery for national coach of the year they kept saying this year because he took a team picked for 9th in the league and having them earn a BIG tournament bye…until they lost. Anyhow, I hate Iowa.

So when ISU fights into the regional and I know we can beat them and figure we can beat Providence and then Miami wins which means tickets are going to be lower because you know, they’re down by Cuba and they only know football so, alas, a buyers market which it was. I held out til after church this morning and pounced after the benediction and we walked out the door singing the doxology also known as the Crimson and the Blue song.

(buyers tip, when we win Saturday watch the ticket resellers sites like Stubhub and they’ll come down. Then drive to NOLA Sunday to watch us Monday night doing whatever it is you like to do in NOLA which judging by your language probably isn’t going to church before the game!)

Found free parking on Ogden Ave only a mile away and got a good brisk walk out of it.

It’s always great to see lots of Jayhawk fans in Chicago, or anywhere actually, because I don’t see too many. It’s more of a moneyed crowd so you don’t see too many rowdy fans. There’s a few Canes fans around, gave them the courteous ‘good luck’ type of statement without the addendum of ‘you’re going to need it’.

We climb to the same altitude as the roof of the Sears Tower to our seat and settle in. A Sox fan sits next to me and I discover he’s not a KU fan but an Illini fan and he’s there to cheer for Miami because he’s still mad at Self for leaving. I resisted temptation to say no coach in their right mind would stay at the U of I if a school like KU came calling. And he cheered like mad for Miami, for a half anyways.

In front of us were 3 KU kids all 2016 graduates. Nice, fun to talk to, learning new additions to the “we’re going to beat the hell out of you” chant with the pep band song.

At half time I had a cathartic moment (I have no idea if this is an example of that but it sounds like I know what I’m talking about) I take losses hard. I’m still depressed about the Sox losing game four to the Orioles in 1983. That game was a classic, I was a college kid following my favorite team and they were flat out awesome the last 4 months of that season. Remember my screen name used to be wissoxfan83? Well that’s where that came from. So when the Sox lost it was the worst feeling. The Badgers getting screwed out of a championship (my view!) in 2015 was also a depressing loss that I still am pissed about. So anyways during the half I told my wife that I’m not gonna let this one bother me. A 6 point deficit aint much to be honest but you’d rather be up 6 at that point. So I made up my mind to enjoy that I’m at a big game seeing my team with my wife and just take what happens. Very mature of me, right?

Well I’m glad the Jayhawks didn’t force me to learn to deal with another disappointing loss.

A 2nd half like that is just amazing to witness in person. Our seats from the Sears tower made it hard to see if the ball is going through the hoop. In the first half I thought Remy shot an airball and it was a swish. So all I’m seeing of Miami is turnover, shot, clang, rebound break KU. Oh yeah, punctuated by more than a few missed FT’s by KU which was reminding me of the Superdome game in 2003 (another depressing loss). So most of the half is just this blur of a half of missed Cane shot, fast break, KU layup or dunk, another stop, rinse repeat.

When a team scores 15 points in a half, well you’re just doing something really good as a defense. And that was a masterpiece. They became very determined to take away the three ball and take away the penetration. The first half seemed like an open lane to the hoop for Miami. 2nd half there weren’t openings.

I like Charlie Moore. I saw him when he was an unknown to me. I was at a HS tournament in the suburbs while were still living down south and gone home for Christmas. So the game starts and Charlie gets the tip dribbles to the line and calmly and confidently drains a 3 just like that. I thought, hmm, that stroke looks next level like. The crowd gave him a huge ovation when he was introduced as Chicagoans love their own! But today I mentioned in the thread that he was the Charlie Moore that we didn’t appreciate a whole lot during his season in Lawrence.

I’ve also enjoyed watching Jim Larranaga this tournament. Never paid attention to him much to be honest. But seeing him after the ISU win was fun and then when I got home this after noon I started watching the game, and saw his taking a charge against KU in the lockerroom and loved it! It was a nice coaching move too as they drew 3 charges against us, 2 of which I told the official in no uncertain terms that he was wrong.

So the game ended, the Illini fan stopped cheering, I stopped worrying about having to handle a loss like a good Christian man should, and enjoyed the rest.

Did the chant kind of, and soaked it all in. Just kept marveling that I was at an Elite 8 game watching my team win for the 10th time since I came to Lawrence in 1985. Like that’s ten more times than Missouri and since Iowa hasn’t final foured since 1980 when Lute Olson was their coach then it’s ten more times than them too. The players celebrated, watched Dave jump down from the victory stage set up and worried he could have hurt himself doing that.

It’s interesting to watch how orchestrated it all is by the NCAA. A stage comes out, someone comes out handing out hats, another T shirts, another towels, latter comes out with scissors impaled in the hole on the top step, confetti, some boring NCAA dweeb gives them the typical congrats speech, then they go to cut the net. I watched about four loops being cut and said to my wife lets go! Found a Sox fan walking out who’s also a Jayhawks fan and we chatted about both our teams. Got back to the car, still there, although no car thief these days would know how to steal a stick shift anyways so I don’t worry about it too much. Drove home down the greatest urban highway in America, Lake Shore Dr, um sorry, the Jean Pointe Baptiste Dusable Lake Shore Drive to our own beautiful home in Whiting, IN, the founding place of Standard Oil Company. I like to think that Rockefeller owned my house at one point.

He is Risen indeed!

Happy easter to all who believe this greatest of all messages. It’s better than hoops, or baseball, or money, or a delicious lamb chop grilled to perfection every day of the week.

I’m sure some here don’t have similar beliefs, but it’s important to me and hard for me not to be excited about it. All enjoy this great day!

1. Add an N and Siena is also a color and a car.

2. I’m officially concerned about our 3 point offense and 3 point defense.

3. I’m not as concerned about FT’s. Bill Self will fix it.

4. After playing in far flung places it was nice to see us on a court with a friendly bird in the middle.

5. I think we’re still adjusting to the loss of Perry Ellis.

6. No one fills a stat sheet in such an ugly way as Landen Lucas. 6 pts, 5 boards, 5 blocks, 2 fouls.

7. LaGerald is the most exciting Vick since Michael. He’s averaging almost 10 a game which is quite a bit higher than I expected out of him this year. I just hope he stays away from the dogs.

8. JJ’s 3 point percentage (.400) is surprising in many ways. It’s the high on the team, we didn’t expect him to be a great 3 baller, and it’s higher than his FT percentage (.375). Like Duke, he showed some flashes last night but we will need him to not just have flashes of brilliance.

9. Bragg is our only big averaging over 10 points a game. It’s still early, but interior scoring must improve…I think…but

10. We all knew it coming in, but our guard play has lived up to billing (except for the 3 percentage). Enjoy the season folks. It’s going to be a fun season watching them.

Staff Writer

AP (Amazing Press)

Lawrence, Kansas

Kansas coach could see it in their eyes. He could see the intensity of their glares as the Jayhawks left the court after unheralded West Virginia Sean McNeil had banked in a 3 at the end of the first half giving WVU a 1 point lead after a back and forth 1st half, but one which WVU had scored 8 points in a row to take the lead. McNeil had 20 points. He celebrated near the blue wing tip of the Jayhawk logo at venerable Allen Field House. It will go down as a career highlight for McNeil.

The Jayhawks made sure there were no more highlights. The players were mad going to the lockerroom Coach Self said. They were not going to see anyone celebrating on the Jayhawk unless they were wearing the sacred threads of the Crimson and the Blue.

Coach Self really didn’t have to say a lot. Defensive whiz kid Marcus Garrett was shocked. No one went off on us like that. Self pulled his mask down just for a moment. He was smiling.
Mitch Lightfoot, the elder statesman of the team nervously looked around. Bill Self had a plan, he knew it. Self pulled the mask back up and devised his scheme.

He said he’d liked some aspects of the 1st half. The Jayhawks had maintained a 3-7 point lead throughout. But the end of the half took care of that. The intensity let down as the cardboard cutouts headed early for the concession stands. Kansas was shooting fairly well themselves but went cold. The bench wasn’t contributing, a major concern tonight coach mentioned in the postgame presser.

WVU would start the 2nd half trading baskets with the Jayhawks, but Self’s plan was about to burst. Braun, coach said was ready for the moment. He was going to be the Sean McNeil of the 2nd half. He would unleash an offensive onslaught that hasn’t often been seen in the Self regime. 3’s firing from all spots. He exploded for 14 second half points, but unlike McNeil, Christian had help.

Jalen Wilson, who’s been a little bit enigmatic this season, also had a big half much like he did against Kentucky. He erupted for 12 more points on a series of athletic drives and 3’s and the Jayhawks were on their way. The threes kept flying and the Jayhawks kept rebounding the misses, with Dave McCormack playing maybe his most effective game of the season. Sure he still missed his bunnies, but he had a productive energy that was being noticed by the writers at KuBuckets. Dave has good instincts tonight was a common thread, and when he sent a Derek Culver shot screaming onto the scorers table a noticeable grimace came across the bemasked WVU coach Higgins.

By the time it was all done a season high 16 trifectas were cashed in on 37 bets by the Jayhawk cagers. Shooting and making more 3’s than 2’s is not something often seen by the #3 team in the land. It hasn’t happened this season. It may not happen again.

Christian Braun smiled as he caught Self’s eye while walking off the court. The plan had worked. Jayhawk nation can celebrate the holidays in good spirits as they usually do.

(I always wished I’d been a journalist, this is my lame attempt!)

I take everything back I said about Kansas usually getting calls. Vick trips into a dude, no advantage gained, foul called anyways. KU’s trip down the floor, Newmie gets pushed to the floor, no foul called.

The foul count is like 12-4 and ISU fans still whining.

ESPN has got to know fans of every team hates their split screen coverage. I counted it on the DVR, Lunardi talked for almost 3 minutes, then they put the big12 standings on the screen for 30 more seconds. All while action is going on.

Doke may never miss a shot again.

Vick and Newmann decided to come play it appears. Wish this was consistent.

Svi still is in a rut, as long as it returns one month from now.

Vick is so athletic I’m in awe.

Desousa and Cunliffe on the floor at the same time!

Long buzzer beater dang.

2nd half starts, wait, they didn’t count the long buzzer beater.

We’ve shown some resiliency this 2nd half. They come down with the ball with a chance to cut it to one possession and then we get a stop. SOMETIMES this is a tough team.

I’m glad I didn’t grow up with the last name lard.

I really enjoyed the years of great ISU teams with Fred and our epic battles up there. The energy just isn’t there this year.

We’re 8-4 in the league (remember this game isn’t over for me yet) which means we’ve played 12 other teams super bowls.

Maybe Lightfoot has hit his wall.

Oh yeah, happy Mardi Gras!

I know someone knows this, how many alley oops this year for Doke?

Doke is deceptively fast.

Keep seeing ads for MSU-Minny. I loathe Minny so much that I drive around the state so I don’t have to go in it.

Finally some balanced scoring.

I wonder if DG is tired.

I wonder if Tom Crean has repressed the memory tonight of losing 71-30 halfway through the 2nd half to KU at the Final Four in 2003?

Svi has forgot how to finish at the rim too.

Doke sitting in crunch time. Smart move? We’ll see.

What a great crunch time 3 by Newman!

Lightfoot draws a lot of charges, but twice he’s failed tonight, both times the clones seemed to get the benefit of the call.

I think Lightfoot committed Newmies 5th foul.

I swear if they give this replay review to the clones I will be all in on referee conspiracies.

OK, I’m undecided on referee conspiracies, but I’m ready to jump back on board @jayhawkfantoo.

Nice game Jayhawks. We can take a step back from the ledge at least for a few days here.

Announcer sounds a little disappointed in us winning.

I enjoyed chatting during the game once again.

I didn’t enjoy being a minute or so behind most of you because of a little glitchy game feed.

I did enjoy watching a 28-8 run to close things out. That was vintage KU basketball.

And isn’t defense a beautiful thing to watch? We had 13 steals. They were things of majestic wonder! Partly because the whistles I was expecting on most of them didn’t come.

Isaiah Moss, kudos to you, which is kind of hard to say for me as a Badger too, but I’m glad you changed an I for a J with your Hawk.

Doke, your perseverance through adversity has won us some games this year. When the bad fight left us shorthanded and you got in foul trouble, and managed not to foul out, well that was big, and to see you finished with 3 fouls tonight after picking up two in about the 1st four minutes? Awesome.

Dotson. Game ball for not turning it over in that whithering pressure. Clutch FT’s save the day.

Ochai, some great moments too. Keep improving, we’re going to need you.

Garrett, tonights MVP! 9 points, 5 steals, 4 assts, 7 boards, a quadruple single. That’s filling the stat sheet even if it’s offset by 6 TO’s and 4 fouls. You’ll probably never be enshrined in the rafters because it’s offensive numbers that makes that happen, but I don’t think we win tonight without your all american defensive game. It’s really too bad they don’t have all defense teams for NCAA like the NBA does.

Enaruna, you made a great pass to that hillbilly in the first row.

Big Dave, I think you learned a lesson tonight. If you don’t have it going, you’re not going to play much.

Braun, you’re a freshman and WVU is really tough on freshmen. You’ve been invaluable to this team and I’m still miffed that DeSousa stole the limelight from your big night in Lawrence.

Coach Self, on the road to 800 wins. Let’s get this Natty. It might be your best chance for a while because there’s that big ugly cloud which I shouldn’t even bring up, but it’s there. This feels like THE YEAR to make up for lost time and to soothe the hurt that is likely coming soon. This is the team that can do this.

Stub hub is interesting. Watched prices decline slightly over last two days until last night it was enticing. My college roomie also lives here in the Chicago area so we decided to splurge with our stimulus money. Of course I kept checking the prices after I purchased and by game time they were only 35 bucks! Tip for Monday (workday, might not be that pricey) and even next weekend provided we make it there of course.

When we arrived there were 2 EWU fans there. That’s it. I brought a big KU flag that hangs on my house and here came three buses with the KU entourage and team. So I took off with my flag which was on the pole and ran towards the buses and ran along them as they slowed down. Anyone see any footage like that on Social Media it’s me! I’ve looked a little saw nothing.

Entered an hour early with no problem. No temp check.

Our seats were crappyish. One row from top behind the basket. But it’s a small arena so they weren’t that bad, but I looked at Stubhub which showed seats that hadn’t been sold yet and we simply found still available seats in the front row of the top level. So we actually had great seats.

There was a Missouri guy nearby. Quite a few fans of other schools there actually taking advantage of low game time prices. His friend, a KU guy told us the guy tried to get into KU but was denied admission.

An interesting thing about a gym like that is you can be heard. I have a good loud voice and at one point I yelled at Harris to steal it, and he did. Then I reminded the refs they can call travels on that red team and then they did. If I hadn’t upgraded our seats we might have lost.

The EWU fan we met outside yelled up at us at halftime “Looks like we got your number”. I just thought it was funny because they had made every shot and we were missing every shot.

The Jayhawks played poorly so it was a bit frustrating to be there and seeing our team getting embarrassed again it seemed in a big tournament.

The Eagles on the other hand were really enjoying it. Their fans were loud and surprising how many there were. Spokane is a long ways away.

I thought one key to the game was, (I assume, the equipment manager who’s probably hitchhiking back to Spokane ( forgot to pack the cute little stools the teams today have for timeouts. So their guys just had to stand there during timeouts. Meanwhile our guys rested.

Garrett had 3 fouls in the first half. We’re depressed. It’s bad enough to lose when you’re watching on TV, but to pay too much money (when you could have spent less) well, it’s just beyond anything for me. But we psyched ourselves up for a comeback.

Dave fueled the comeback with some strong inside play but we still weren’t stopping the Eagles. We hustled for loose balls, started making shots, defended a little stronger and soon we were on our way.

Then the refs took over, at least according to the EWU fans. Several of them didn’t accept congrats from me after the game about how well they played, instead muttering how the refs helped us win.

Dave was indispensable because I noticed Mitch come out of the locker room with a couple minutes left in the game. It was only then I realized he wasn’t on the bench the entire 2nd half. Not sure.

Speaking of the locker room our manager sprinted across the court during a TO, I cheered him on as he sprinted back to the team with a towel. MVP type stuff right there, plus he packed the stools.

I’m pretty sure I started the Rock Chalk Chant at an appropriate time trying not to jinx the team.

Refs seemed ok to me from the stands but one disadvantage of being there is you have no clue of what is going on. Dave scores, then it’s called off, still our ball. No clue. Then clock troubles galore I guess, again we’re just sitting there scratching our heads. Then Ochai throws one down, and another long delay.

Dueling fan section chants. No real crowd noise. Just a mainly empty gym. Really glad we got to go. First game with my college roomie since 1987 when he graduated. Only my third KU game since 1988. Hopefully empty nesting means some more time and I can get back to AFH. But this was fun.

Grow up. LOL. Pot meet kettle.

I’m with Nuleaf. Unless said freshman leads us to glory, I’ll just think about the lost opportunities at KU. Although I follow their pro careers with some pride, I do much more the guys who we got to know. I wish the NBA would end this charade of guys playing college for a year before going pro.

As for you Gradey, go and do well, get loaded playing for some marginal team that will draft you and play in front of 10000 fans who are half asleep. You had the currently best playing situation in the country and you’re trading it in for what now amounts to extra dollars.

@jayballer67 said in Gradey enters the draft:

WOW - what A SURPRISE now for those that thought he might come back -now you can rest easy

Why do you have to rub it in peoples faces?

@BeddieKU23 Yeah, he sure wasn’t his brother. Seems like a good kid. But he’s a mid major player in my opinion.

Goodbye Michael Jordan Rice? Haven’t seen discussion of it but we hardly knew ye. Maybe he’ll find his game somewhere else.

@FarmerJayhawk DON’T apologize. When you get an NIT bid, you expect games like that to happen! Not the best moment for UW though for sure.

Svi getting some minutes since Oubre got hurt again. Started tonight and had 18 points, 8 assists, 5 RB’s and even 3 steals and 2 blocks. Every one of those numbers are season highs.

@Crimsonorblue22 Yeah, could almost touch the ceiling. Great memory!

@DanR I remember it well like I was there. Oh yeah, I was there!

@benshawks08 More titles combined with more really down seasons vs. less titles but and all but written in stone guarantee of being ranked and in the dance every season. That’s the choice between us and them. We are SO USED TO WINNING that when the inevitable day comes that we can’t even be considered on the bubble I’m afraid we’re really going to melt down if this whole social media thing is still happening. But if that day comes a year removed from a NC, maybe it’s easier to swallow?

As goofy as it sounds, I would rather be KU than UConn. Reasons? 1. Tradition 2. BlueBlood status 3. AFH 4. KU’s contribution to sports in general. 5. KUBuckets is better than HuskeyBuckets 6. UConn sounds like you con.
7. Our campus is better 8. Our girls are better 9. Google Earth was invented in Lawrence 10. We never had Jim Calhoun.