Best posts made by wissox

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.

When I started typing the title it popped up because those words have been used for topic titles a few times on this group.

Here’s what I’m thankful for acrostically related to the Jayhawks. There’s way more important things in my life but our Hawks are a great diversion.

James Naismith. He’s partially ours and for goodness sakes, we wouldn’t even know each other without him.

Allen Field House Before the internet days when I attended we all knew it was the best in the nation even if there was no ‘best…’ lists floating around causing arguments on the www.

Youth. I truly enjoy watching our fans behind the basket making it such a nightmare place to play for our opponents.

Hinrich, Kirk. Easily one of my favorite Jayhawks of all time. When we recruited him and Nick and Gooden I saw these freshmen just play way above their age and saw the potential to do what they did. If the letter N or C was in this acrostic Nick C would get his shoutout.

Agbaji, Ochai. His first high profile game in the champions classic, we saw the potential. Glad he hung around to become an all time great and win a championship.

Wilt Chamberlain. Now of course I didn’t see him, probably didn’t ever catch a glimpse of him on TV in his last year when all he did as a 36 year old was average 19 rebounds a game along with 14 points, and 4.5 assists. I love looking at his stats and also admire him for what he had to overcome as an African American in this horribly backwards country when he came to Lawrence.

Kansas football. I had a good time going to the games my first year on campus when Mike Norseth, and Willie Pless had them ranked until injuries derailed the season. After the games I’d drive my Vette (chevy chevette) over to pizza shuttle and tear around town for the next 12 hours delivering pizzas which was still the funnest job I’ve had. kubuckets. OK, I’m adding a 2nd K because @approxinfinity is the true GOAT of KU basketball for rescuing us from sudden homelessness for our chatting. I really don’t read KU sports stuff. I get what I need here.

Self, Bill, Brown, Larry, Williams, Roy. To have 3 all timers coaching at the school since I arrived is truly remarkable. Still can’t believe Roy didn’t win one, but fricking UNC distracted him that weekend in 2003 and we lost a game we should have won.

No letters to fit Danny Manning into this but being a senior in 1988 was truly magical. Watching him for my 3 years on campus was watching greatness. Times weren’t crazy yet so we’d show up about 3 hours early and nab seats in the first row behind the basket, about 10 feet from the court. If we ever wanted to storm the court we would’ve been the first ones on the floor!

Also thankful for Mario for making that shot because Bill Self would’ve had the can’t win the big one label big time if he hadn’t done that.

Have a great day ya’ll and see you next time!

Dementia overtook my father in law in the last 4 years and he finally, thankfully succumbed to it a month ago. We were able to take our time to plan his service and finally had the memorial yesterday. He was 87 years old.

He was a remarkable man and a remarkable sports fan. He loved the Brooklyn Dodgers as he was Long Island kid. Heady days to be a Dodger fan in the mid 40s to mid 50’s and he loves to talk about his father who wasn’t a sports fan in the least. He would come home from work and say “everyone’s radio is on all over Manhattan, is something going one?” My Father In Law would tell his dad, “the Dodgers are playing the Yankees in the World Series”! I must have heard that story 50 times as his mind began to fail him.

He was also a huge college basketball fan. Never had a real favorite but liked Indiana in the Bobby Knight years. He attended a NC game in St. Louis in 1978 sitting directly behind John Wooden as Kentucky beat up Duke. (imagine how much we would’ve hated watching that game!) He told me frequently of a guy from his HS who was a 6th man at KU, although I can’t come up with his name right now. He would go down to the Chicago Stadium for HS tripleheaders when his busy schedule allowed it.

His boys were very athletic and my bro in law set an NCAA record catching a pass in every game all four years he played in D3 that of course will never be broken. He loved telling of his son in Jr. High football who was back to field a punt and the kick was way short and rolling on the ground. Every coach on the sideline and in the stands (dads) were yelling to let it go. David picked it up and ran it all the way to the house for a TD. My Father in Law was livid after the game. David said, “but Dad, when everyone yelled let it go, I noticed the defense started walking off the field. There was no way they could catch me”!

He was a masonry contractor and won, if you will, an oscar for masonry construction. He was named the industry leader of the year. He cared deeply for all people, and to see union leaders come and honor him this week was remarkable. He thought all workers should be treated fairly. Not many union people go and honor the man who headed up the other side. You probably have been in masonry buildings that he influenced how they were constructed more safely, with better mortar, etc.

He did get quite wealthy, but while he did live very comfortably, he invested in the inner city of Chicago through a faith based organization that provides very low cost health care, legal care, food, housing, etc. Millions of his dollars went to this neighborhood and who knows how much to other community development projects around the country.

He let me marry his daughter, an amazing thing indeed! We now have 4 kids and will become grandparents around Christmas, and he was an inspiration to them as well.

We believe that his life was lived to honor God, and his life was laying up treasures in heaven. Don’t mean to get too preachy but just want you to know about this great sports fan and father in law.

@globaljaybird I decided to quit KUBuckets a couple of weeks ago. But as the Indiana game loomed I really wanted to be part of the live chat, so it allowed me to rebrand myself and choose a less clunkier handle without losing my identity from before.

You don’t realize how much something is part of your life until it’s gone. I found myself lurking and the lurking caused me to reconsider dropping out and well, here I am, same as always. I quit Facebook the other day also after the election, really tired of ‘friends’ on FB bickering over the result. I’ve never seen a country so divided. Of course I wasn’t alive during the Civil War, so I guess there’s that, but in my ever increasing lifetime, we are at an almost 3rd world like mentality of I don’t like the election so I’m going to riot. I’m not against protesting necessarily but protesting the will 50,000,000 people or so seems to be sore loserish. (I didn’t vote for Trump fyi!)

Speaking of the election, I read where some department of KU was offering ‘serenity dogs’ or some such term for students to play with to help deal with the emotional toll from the election. They weren’t the only ones. Ivy league schools were offering all kinds of ridiculous play do, coloring books, etc to students to ‘help’ them. Ironically it’s not helping these kids one bit because they’ll be working in real jobs in a few years and experience in jobs where bosses will breathe down their necks and these pansies won’t be emotionally prepared to handle.

So to some up, I need @Red_Rooster to read this and affirm me with a thumbs up because I don’t have a serenity dog to comfort me when no one thumbs up my rambling post!

t I met Jerrance at the Proviso West tournament near Chicago. Future Jayhawk Markese Jacobs was playing. I told coach I had some eligibility left

No offense to anyone here but this board has lost much of my interest this year. Missing jaybate is a major reason why. I still check back out of habit, and appreciate some of the banter, but it’s lost its color. I’ve been home all day for Presidents Day and this is the first time I’ve looked at it. I remember a couple of years back that @brooksmd left too along with globaljaybird. Some I know keep in touch.

I didn’t read everything Jaybate wrote, some of it was outlandish, but goodness, it was entertaining and educational! He was a tireless cheerleader for the Jayhawks, seeing the slightest of silverlining in the darkest cloud.

I guess this is part of the mysterious nature of an online community. We’re all anonymous. And when someone goes we’re all scratching our heads. Some of you have been part of my life for over a decade! Some of us go back to the KUSports days. Some names are brand new like this week. Life goes on. Hopefully we can keep this thing going. Thanks to @approxinfinity our MVP Techie for everything.

@mayjay my dad was stationed in Moon Township during Korea. He met my mom at a church in Pittsburgh. She was from a town near there called Mars. So my dad from moon married my mom from mars.

I got to watch future Jayhawk Markese Jacobs last night in action. This was a sectional game actually played at my alma mater in the Chicago suburbs.

His team, Uplift Charter was playing Orr, a school in the Garfield Park neighborhood, one of Chicago’s deadliest areas. Dozens of homicides last year out of a population of 50,000 is all you need to know about where Orr is located.

Orr is a defending state champ, and was featured last Saturday with a well done 30-30 style documentary on Fox. They are very well coached and nearly beat national powerhouse Simeon in the city championships.

In December the two teams played each other and Orr obliterated Uplift, so I wasn’t expecting too much. However Uplift jumped all over them and led by as many as 19 in the first half. Jacobs, whom I was there to watch was amazing, pull up 3’s, lightning quick accurate passes meeting their target.

Uplift played a little out of control, especially with a big lead and lost in overtime.

But here’s what I saw in Markese. INTENSITY. He fouled out in OT. At a huddle, he stood, fists clenched, fighting tears. This is an extremely competitive young man. He is still only a junior so he has time to funnel that intensity into even better play. I was wishing last night he played the coach on the floor and got his team to play more under control because if he did I’d be going again Friday night to watch him play.

I think you all will enjoy watching him play.

1. Rupp is an easier place to play than Morgantown. Seriously, Rupp is huge, reminds me of the Deandome and why KU would be insane to ever think about building one. That crowd just doesn’t seem to be intimidating like WVU, ISU, Indiana, Duke, and of course AFH.

2. JJ is gone. Duh! I think sometimes we get fooled by a bad game by a freshman and say he’s not ready. This guy is ready. On the biggest stage of the year 20, 10, 3, 2 steals. Phenomenal.

3. Frank is still the POY. An unspectacular 21 points, just wish he’d be a little more clutch in his FT shooting.

4. We will survive without Carlton. If there was ever a bad game for Carlton this was it. He had to stay home in Lawrence (I assume), watch it on TV, live chat on the Bucket and now he’s thinking they don’t even need me. Unless it motivates him to get his mind in gear to be a great teammate and his skills begin to help us, but I’m not sure.

5. Our experience will make us dangerous until the last game of the year. Not saying it for sure means we cut down the nets, but why not?

6. Self is flexible. I’m not an X’s and O’s guy, but his move to zone won this game for us…I think.

7. For us Bucketeers we now have something for the naysayers who say this team hasn’t beaten anyone. I’m not mentioning names and I don’t want ya’ll to mention names either, but wins like this speak volumes.

8. Cal went to his bench just as much as Bill Self. He used 8 guys, but 4 of his logged major minutes.

9. We have bragging rights over the scuzball cal and their arrogant fans. That counts for something! I suppose we’ll play them in the Champions classic next fall, it’s their turn in the rotation. So we’ll have to hold serve then too.

10. We gain one win on the all time win list on Kentucky. Don’t know what it’s at, but someday…

RCJHKU!

Rocky Top State Win The cleanest Power 5 team in Kentucky (not much competition there) Win

SD State Win

Texas North East Southern Win

Oakland er Las vegas raiders Win

Holy Toledo A Win

I hate Syraccuse Win

Guy who cut down a cherry tree Win

AZ State Pen Win

N on helmets is for knowledge Win

Omahahahaha Win

Stanford Cut Tree down but forgot saw LOSS

Austin City Limits Win

Lone Star Tech Win

Texas’ backsliding Christians Win

Corn State Win

Who’s ever heard of purple wildcats Win

Huggies Hill Hoppers LOSS

BayLOL Win

Choklahoma Win

ATM Win

ESPN likes us losing to octodum fans LOSS

Oke Doke state Win

Hide your women and children we’re gonna be near the football team in Waco. Win

Paris Hilton magic Win

Northwestern Virginia Win

Just OK Win

High Plains Tech Win

Bighornys Win

Stoolwater State Win

14 conference titles in a row. 27-3 #1 seed 2-1 in conference tourney 6-0 in the dance.

This is all just a dumb prediction. I really didn’t research any teams. I made picks based on uniforms, how much I like a place, how much I dislike a team for nothing other than beating us once in AFH, the nerdishness or coolness of their coach, is their mascot good or bad, mean or nice, do they have a pretty campus, have they ever won a basketball game, would they lose to the Texas YMCA, is their coach the most overrated coach in basketball history, does their president walk on water, could their women’s team beat their mens football team, are we mad at their students for going to school in such a nice place.

So go ahead, tell me I’m wrong, because I probably am. Or tell me I’m right, you’ll be my new bff, at least today. Save this for the vault @approxinfinity because when I finish last in our NCAA pool, at least I’ll be able to point to this magnificent season prediction…

As long as doke stays healthy…

As long as DG doesn’t miss his backcourt buddy…

As long as svi improves as much this season as he did last season…

As long the police don’t come a knocking…

As long as Adidas troubles don’t strike…

As long as the newcomers prove why they were privileged to become Jayhawks…

The game’s over already. Here’s what happened. No need to watch.

Final score, KU 72 WVU 69. This after KU comes back from a 68-1 halftime deficit, the largest deficit and comeback in school history.

Huggins is told he owes the school 50,000.00$

Their dude blocks 5 FT’s. Fran thinks that’s legal, but only against KU.

The blue and red sweeper dudes at half time have to push a polished stone down the court behind their brooms. One stone gets pushed too hard and knocks over SZ carrying a 1 gallon tub of popcorn back from concessions. KU fans cheer.

An impromptu luge competition breaks out from the top of the Phog banner.

Ok, sorry for all the made up stuff. Here’s what really happened.

DG 8 assists, 8 shots made 8 FT’s made.

Doke has a breakdown in form and his FT attempt actually goes backwards into WVU’s goal make it the first wrong basket FT in history.

Uber athletic Vick takes off for an alley oop and misjudges his leap. He catches the ball and as he’s falling he and the ball in his hands goes through the hoop becoming the first person ever to dunk himself. Fran doesn’t think it’s legal.

Svi has OAR on his uniform instead of KU.

Those crazy KU students just decide for the heck of it to storm the court. But they don’t know how so they all go back to their seats when they realize it’s the under 8 timeout.

Cunliffe and Sammy De Sousa go down to coach Self and introduce themselves. At halftime one of their parents goes to him and asks if he’ll play his kid in the 2nd half.

Sosinski the football player tackles Huggie in the handshake line. Fran thinks this is legal.

Mitch Lightfoot sports new shoes that light up when he runs.

My recap was so impressive the other day in its spot on analysis I thought I’d try again.

Trae Young made some shots. Announcers acted like he made 50 shots (about 34 times).

Announcers mentioned Lon Krueger as 1. The only coach to take 5 different teams to the dance (mentioned 16 times). 2. The brother of Freddy Krueger whome Lon doesn’t like to talk about.

Doke took some FT’s. Announcers mentioned 33 times how his missed FT’s cost KU their last game against OU.

Announcers 41 times misnamed Allen Field House as Phog Allen Field House. Wife said ‘who cares’ when I complained about it 41 times.

ESPN annoyingly split the screen to show Sam Cunliffe tying his shoes. Then they split the screen to show the nacho cheese ladler saying “Phog Allan Field House Nacho Cheese is the the Phog Allen Field Houses of Nacho Cheeses.”

Devonte Grahams 40 minutes per game streak is mentioned 28 times, but his All American candidacy is not.

Speaking of DG, he snaps his head clear off throwing it backwards to try to draw a foul.

KU shoots 99 FT’s, OU 3. Huggie feels better.

In an attempt to extend the game so many OU players foul Doke that 12 of them foul out. They insert their bus driver, cheerleading coach, Lon’s grandson, Lon’s wife and a random fan into the game just to finish the game.

Malik Vick happens.

At halftime Holly interviews Lon, and Trae walks by and shouts into the mic “I should have gone to KU”.

Lunardi reveals his latest 16 seeds, Kentucky, Guatemala State, Guam State Polytech, and Southern Nunavut Central. Kentucky, whom he puts in a bracket with 1 seed Kansas explaining it’s just a coincidence.

The NCAA’s bracketing expert, announces that all regionals will henceforth be held in North Carolina. All ACC teams receive an automatic bid to the dance.

Back to the game, KU wins 77-69 which is what I meant to predict last game.

KU fans celebrate as they leave The Phog Allan Field House Immortal Palace of All Sports Arenas.

Big 12 trophy is located, readied for the inevitable awarding of it to its’ rightful owner.

The most encouraging woman in Loyola basketball history and the KU superfan our one and only Red Rooster! How about it sir, are you up for the job?

I’m worried about what @elpoyo is going to say gonna say after we win this darn thing.

I’m worried about the Duke whistle more than anything.

I’m worried about K meeting with the refs during a TO like he did when Wisconsin was winning by 10 in the 2nd half in 2015. (true story)

I’m worried about the truck unloading cloth money bags to Duke players will entice our players too.

I’m worried that Grant Hill, who by all accounts is a classy, likeable guy both as a player and announcer, will forget his neutrality and trash KU.

I’m worried that Grayson will trip bad wheel Doke.

I’m worried that ACC officials are right now trying to ensure two ACC teams will stay alive in the tourney.

I’m worried that @jaybate-1-0 will write a war and peace rivaling post about the greatness of Bill Self when we win.

I’m worried about the lowest watched National Championship game ever when we play Silo Tech, after beating TTech by a 1/2 point in the semis.

I’m worried that I will incur the wrath of God when I stay home from kids club at church tomorrow night to watch the game.

Couldn’t think which to use.

The first big win for Transfer U.

DG and the Ukraine combine for Svite win.

San Antonio here we come.

Duke Choke

Refs fail in Omaha.

Self regrets calling Jayhawks Soft.

Preston regrets driving into curb

KU improves from Final 5 to Final 4 in one game.

ESPN’s 10th best sweet 16 team knocks off ESPN’s 2nd and 3rd best sweet 16 team.

Kansas wins Big12 and ACC championship.

Coach Self’s best coaching job yet.

Coach K would have lost this game by 25 if he was playing with Kansas’ lineup.

God credited for great defense on Allen missed shot.

“Duke needs this win” spoken by CBS reporter at beginning of game.

“Kansas stuns Duke” Yes Yahoo, a 1 seed beating a 2 seed is a stunner.

“Villanova playing better than anyone in tournament” From Yahoo after Nova beat teams that KU has 5 wins against in the tournament.

“Does Duke have a legitimate gripe with the refs?” This headline was just on the Yahoo front page.

“Did Duke get jobbed by refs in overtime of Kansas thriller?” Read another headline. Wow.

Yahoo being real dicks (there you go @jaybate-1-0 )

Late night is Today!!! Our baseball teams have given us nothing to pay attention to. Football is just a diversion till the boys hit the courts again. The excitement is building.

This really is awful. All year we watched, with anticipation, of a great ending to this season. Had a few ups and downs along the way, but many more ups than downs, a 16 game win streak and counting, the marvelous engineering of a dunking machine named Dok, the lightning quick wizardry of the best closing at the rim guard we’ve had in a long time (anyone better?), and an iron curtain defenseman who will rank among the all time greats at a program that appreciates all time greats on defense.

Every season in my KU memory except 97 and 03 we’ve entered March with question marks. I really thought those two seasons were our years. But this year in my mind was a 97 and 03 type of season. KU was going to win it this year. And then they didn’t.

We can’t blame anyone. Can’t blame weak 3 point defense, or the lack of a surefire three point shooter. Can’t lament Dok shooting 3 of 12 at the line in the most crucial of times. No finger pointing at a relatively thin bench. Can’t even shrug and say, wow, that Glen Robinson got super hot and there’s not much we could do to stop him. There’s no one to blame.

In fact we can’t even properly mourn this loss because it would be in very bad form. An epidemic that is unprecedented in our lifetimes, at least here in the US, creates a new form of March Madness. Social distancing is the word of the year. A week ago I doubt anyone knew what this meant. It’s a term that inserted itself into March Madness in many ways.

In Illinois where I attended school as a child it cost my high school a trip to state for the first time since I was in HS 40 years ago. In fact tonight as I write I would have been in Peoria cheering on the Red and White. (did I just say I was in HS 40 years ago?)

For the brother in law of my daughter it cost a chance to wrestle at DI nationals as a top 8 ranked 197 pounder at Virginia.

My favorite time of year, Players championship and the island green, Selection Sunday, First weekend, final four, opening day of the greatest use of grass since Abner Doubleday devised his little game, the splendor of the Masters. All in one month. All cancelled, or postponed in a few cases, but the Masters without Azaleas will be just a little less special.

My half marathon might get cancelled. I’ve trained for months, likely I’ll never attempt one again.

My daughters wedding in a month. A little up in the air right now, but will happen one way or another.

And we can’t complain. Nor should we. My elderly parents are scared even if they’re putting a brave face on it. So are some of yours. My recovering from Leukemia nephew suddenly has a new threat. How can we complain about a loss of a tournament?

There’s going to be some regret. But LORD willing in a month or two we’ll be able to collectively pat ourselves on the back and say thanks. Your sacrificing the chance at a championship saved someones life, one of those cases where you won’t even know whose lives were saved because they weren’t infected.

I like the version from the good book that the Byrds put to song 3000 years later.

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

How many days til Late Night?

Defense is overrated. Chicks dig the long ball. The showtime Lakers were way more entertaining than the Bad Boy champion Pistons who dared anyone to try to score against them. Jerry Tarkanian lives again in Lawrence. This fast fill up the bucket team is way more fun than the grind it out tough as nails defense team of some of Self’s editions.

I want offense. Just score more than the other team daggummit. I want threes to fly, acrobatics from Ochai and KJ and CB. Give me more menacing stares from Christian after an impressive dunk. Give me more drive and dishes from Harris to back dooring dunkers.

Lets see those 3 balls fly with abandon. Heck even the ones that don’t find the net are filled with anticipation of a suddenly expanded lead. When the other team makes one which it appears they will against us, go ahead and make 2, and then when the other guys are guarding the line lob it to tonights version of Dave and watch him miraculously maneuver the ball into the 10 foot high goal.

Remy Martin man! This dude’s got that swagger that needs to be unleashed. We want to see him put up 30 the next night and then after Ochai has his chance to do it again. I can see it there. He’s holding back, a child held inside a miserable schoolroom for too long ready to run outside and let loose. Man this guy needs to let it fly! It’s fun n gun with Remy and the Hawks!

Tonight was fun! It’s really not fun to be honest to watch us score 95 points against Case Western University or Alaska Panhandle State. But to go on the road against a Power 5 opponent with some star power of their own (more Champagne anyone?) in the bright lights of NYC, or at least its suburbs, and, get this, a bunch of kids from the midwest wheat belt, well that’s fun! I want more games like this.

I want more Mitch Lightfoot laughing on his way to the bench after doing something silly that it even looked like Self was laughing too. I mean its a game man! Mitch has great reasons to smile. He’s like 24 and he’s still in college playing on a powerhouse college basketball team, and having fun! I love the guy. (get irked by the hate towards him to be honest) That block led to the greatest play of the night when the ref initiated an offensive foul right into the other coach! This is fun!

It’s fun watching this version tonight of the Jayhawks. Now I know it’s just an anomaly. I’m sure the team will revert back to the standard Bill Self system and we’ll grit our teeth on the way to another 30 win season and high seed in the dance, all while flexing our muscles in a more familiar version. But what the heck, lets see tonights version of Jayhawk basketball play ball!

Bill Self? I love the guy. He wins, he recruits system guys who with a few exceptions don’t go on to starring roles in the league. They cause Bills face to turn various shades of crimsonorblue during frustrating segments of games when it doesn’t happen the way he’d like. It frustrates us too of course as he asserts his will on the team and those he’s charged with defeating. But maybe just maybe after tonight we get to unleash some more Fun N’ Gun on the Big12.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, it’d be even funner methinks if Zach Clemence plays more than a few minutes.

Oh and it’d be even more fun if we made more FT’s. It’s the only reason really why we’re not undefeated right now and ranked right behind, or maybe above Purdue in the top spot. That’d be fun too!

ESPN sports center this morning. Shows Jayhawk highlights, they talk a little about KU being only 1 seed left and how 2 of the 4 sole surviving 1 seeds have won it all. The female host then says “lets talk about a great game, Miami, and ISU”. Excuse me? What was great about that game? A 14 point win? A 10 and 11 seed. I just hate ESPN so much.

@Texas-Hawk-10 That’s even more amazinger!

@Jethro Umm, no awarding yourself anything, although we can award other posters, which is what I thought this post was about when I saw the headline.

On 2nd thought, we better not award anyone anything except for @approxinfinity who is the true GOAT for his rescuing us and somehow finding us after we all bolted from the KUSports thing. I remember just thinking all of a sudden like these online folk have been a part of my life for years and now they’re all gone but I somehow got contacted by someone to come to the Bucket. Many thanks for Mr. Approxinfinity!!!

Hello from austin

I turned off Dicky V, he was really annoying me early. Doke goes out with his 2nd foul and he doesn’t even mention it. Then he starts talking about DG having subpar games this year, like averaging 10 dimes a game isn’t important.

So after I turned off Dicky, then I started to enjoy the game more.

And then DG started to act like he heard Dicky V talk smack on his game. He showed Syracuse he could throw the alley.

And then we discovered Clay Young after our bigs were officiated out of the first half. He held his own.

And DG started making threes, he started Mcnamaring Syracuse. Ball game. One of the more electrifying performances by a KU player in recent years.

Except the refs tried to keep them in it by not calling fouls on Syracuse. They called their 3rd foul on Syracuse in the 2nd half with 3:30 left on the clock. They called the 4th foul on us with 3:30 off the clock. Syracuse made a little run aided by a dude carrying the ball so bad I took a picture of it. (if I can get it off my phone onto here I will!) He got an +1 out of it to cut the lead. Contact was being made by them every trip down the floor without a whistle being blown. Unbelievable what they’ll do to try to keep an east coast privileged team in the game.

Malik, not sure what to think about him. Had lots of hope, but it’s just not there. His shot is ugly and it doesn’t go in. He did contribute 5 boards and 5 dimes.

Finally another satisfying win since the long weeks of subpar opponents since the Kentucky game.

Funny season. We were all hyped about the team putting it together, then came the OSU debacle, and then the Doke bad news and we were all writing our season off. Now we’ve steamrolled the competition without Doke, and riding another wave of confidence. But the fact is, we’ve lost 7 games, but another fact is we’ve won 8 of our last nine, we’ll probably be a 7 loss 1 seed. We’ll probably hear some crying about it amongst others, hear some reminders of our ‘failures’ in the dance since we lost to Kentucky 6 years ago, endure some taunts, can’t win the big one, and even among our faithful, we’ll be pessimistic about our dance prognostications, except when we fill out our brackets with KU on the final line!

It’s all over but the shouting boys and girls. The field is almost set. The committee is debating, the talking heads are blathering on and on, the proctologists, I mean bracketologists are making their headline grabbing prognostications, the fans are hoping, dreaming, Vegas is gearing up, travel agents are pedaling packages, personnel offices are bracing for lots of sick days on Thursday or Friday, college fans are lamenting no more home games, and of course Duke is plotting, scheming, conniving, conning into the most favorable position with the best refereeing crew from Durham, NC. CBS is doing their part to ensure that ratings will be high so Kentucky will probably play OSU in the 2nd round, 'Nova will lose again to a overseeded 2nd round opponent, MSU-MU will be slotted oppositely so they can meet, KU/Missou/WSU are all being bracketed together so those dream ratings busters can be scheduled.

@jaybate-1-0 is theororizing, @Crimsonorblue22 is sharing momentus news in very few words, @mayjay is analyzing, @HighEliteMajor is lecturing like a physics of basketball instructor, @BeddieKU23 is looking for every angle to help our team, @BShark is poring over the WWW looking, for news that will help, @JayHawkFanToo is educating us about every nuance we need to know about, @kjayhawks is cheering or worrying or both, @Texas-Hawk-10 is trying on his championship T-Shirt, @drgnslayr is teaching us, @RockChalkinTexas is cheering all the way from Austin Texas in the midst of a sea of orange longhorns who care much more about football anyways, @Red-Rooster is upvoting, @Kcmatt is not worrying, @jayballer73 is RockChalkAllDayLongBabying, @DoubleDD is guardedly optimistic, @KUSTEVE aka Jethro is getting some pointed barbs ready for whoever would disparage our team, @Dylans is applying the wisdom that age brings, and @approxinfinity is just keeping an eye on all of us making sure we obey. (sorry if I forgot someone, I know I did, but once you start a list like this it’s tough to include everyone)

Me, I’ve been pessimistic for several months now, but no other team scares me a ton. Nova usually flames out except against us of course, Virginny can’t get over the hump, Xavier are too jerky, Duke scares me, but lost as much as we did, UNC, I just don’t know, Purdue’s height scares, but they’ve got a Bruce Weber assistant for a head coach. MSU, too scandalous, Zona too much Miller to achieve greatness. So it might as well be us. Let’s win this darn thing, make it an every 10 year thing instead of every 20-30 year thing. Rock Chalk!

(some facts slightly embellished for editorial effect) Recruiting. Kansas does a remarkable job bringing in Grimes Dotson and Dave McCormack whom we’ll refer to as Big Dave because Big Mac was already trademarked by some hamburger joint.

Late Night. Kansas defeated itself before many fanatical fanatics, many of whom were mad because we didn’t defeat ourselves by more. Late night broadcaster Fran was unimpressed.

Preseason. Kansas played some local junior high teams and won. Everyone but announcer Fran was impressed.

THE BIG GAME Going against the Spartans or as some prefer Sparty, KU jumped out to a 53 point lead and then won by 5. Fran was impressed in how we gave up the lead. KANSAS’ LONG WINNING STREAK AGAINST BLUEBLOODS continued.

Two gimme type games that are designed to make KU fans mad at the former athletic supporter who made a great deal for Time Warner. Not one KU fan in the state of Kansas saw any of these games on TV because of him. Announcer Fran was upset that he was supplanted as the most hated person Kansas fans love to hate, but only during these games KU fans couldn’t watch.

THE TOUGH GAMES 6 games against future NCAA teams and recent NCAA tournament champions Stanford, Marquette and VileNova. Other TOUGH games were against Rocky Top who was really TOUGH, at least until Peyton Manning fouled out, the Terrorists from Wofford who were very tough until a 39 point run turned a 33-5 deficit into a huge victory. Announcer Fran really didn’t think any of the games were TOUGH games. Grimes said these games are TOUGH. Big Mac, er Big Dave wondered why he didn’t take the shoe money from Duke.

Speaking of shoe money in a shocking development a Duke player slipped on 100 dollar bills that had fallen out of his shoes while running down the court. He realized the serious SCANDAL that would ensue and in a feat of superhuman strength tore his show, I mean his shoe and ESPN told the whole world that the poor young mans shoe had broken. Dukie V was visibly shaken.

After beating Southern Dakota, another lackluster performance led many to think this team needed a break. Well they got a break all right, a broken hand. Doke broke and the 12 league woke to the reality that for the first time in anyone’s life time Kansas might not dominate them anymore. Cowpokes and kits wept for joy. Red Raiders and horned Frogs leapt in jubilation. Sooners said see ya later Kansas and psych clones spun themselves dizzy. The crowd of 26 people at a game in hoops hotbed of Columbia Misery smiled toothless grins. Announcer Fran was heard saying Kansas always making excuses.

Undefeated season went awol in the hot desert sun just as someone in something called ncaa answered the phone. I think it was coach Self and he said to ncaa “we were wondering how the DeSousa case is coming along. We sure could use him back in the lineup.” ncaa said DeSousa, is that baseball player whose arms got real big? Coach rolled his eyes. Ncaa is not going to help us this year.

When league play started Kansas got themselves ready for what they knew would be a tough two months. Announcer Fran would be doing every one of their games, and like an overzealous prosecutor in a shoplifting case he had dug up more dirt on this KU team than a Kansas farmer over a lifetime.

Some games went good, some were really ugly. Some fans cried, some fans clapped. Message boards that follow the team turned into an ugly cesspool of sports filth. BigDave wondered. Grimes made us bicker. Moore was much much much less. Dot wanted to connect the dots, but there weren’t enough to connect. Lawson carried the team along with senior LaGerald Vick who would use their maturity and experience to make up for lost ground and return the 12 conference trophy back to where it belonged, in Lawrence, Kansas.

In a shocking development announcer Fran was heard saying something positive about the Jayhawks. He said, and I quote, “compared to Depaul, or the Pac12, Kansas isn’t that bad.”

BIG GAME 3 The Jayhawks head to the house that Kansans built AKA Rupp Arena. As our players were entering the arena, Nike agents were posted outside waving wads of cash at our players like ticket hawkers waving tickets in your face. Cal is seen hugging several of them and a Kentucky player came rolling up in his daddy’s ride that was in stark contrast to the 74 corolla he had to drive before he enrolled at Kentucky. Kansas’ LONG WINNING STREAK AGAINST BLUEBLOODS came to an end.

Not coincidentally ncaa made a ruling on the Silvio Sammy DeSousa case. Silvio would have to sit out for the next 48 years for fake receiving money from shoe dude. At the same time an armored delivery truck was seen backing up to the delivery dock at the Blue Devil Towers in Durham NC. ncaa was asked and said “nothing to see here, they were just delivering towels to basketball players”.

A major media college intern discovered an interesting fact while researching for a Eastern Area Sports Program. He was heard saying, “Did you guys know there’s a school called Kansas which has won some league called Big12 14 years in a row?” And Eastern Area Sports Program said “so, who cares?” Intern kid said “did you know they might lose their streak this year?” Eastern Area Sports Program said “Whoa, this is a BIG STORY.” And suddenly people everywhere were talking about Kansas basketball.

Meanwhile ballplayer at Duke got a new pair of cash infused tennis shoes. They are special shoes because all the Duke player has to do is scan the bottom of the shoe at an ATM and it will spit out wads of cash. Several walkons at Duke were said to be jealous. When asked about it Duke coach K said “I don’t know what you’re talking about, he bought those shoes at Walmart.” Eastern Area Sports Program reported that night that controversial ATM shoes were bought at Walmart so there’s nothing to rumors that Duke player had ATM shoes. Eastern Area Sports Program announced somewhat controversially that from henceforth all college games shown on their tv station would involve Duke and officials were contractually obligated to ensure Duke wins. Coach K asked to be called special k from now on.

Kansas suffers more horrible losses. And I’m not even talking about the games they kept losing. I’m talking about the departure of a player who CARRIED THE TEAM at times earlier in the season. One day after 18 consecutive passes to the opposition teams coach, band director, team doctor, center, cheerleader, ballboy, sweatsweeper, assistant coach, referee, his own coach (who grimaced), the scoreboard operator, the usher in the upper deck, the vender in the lower concourse and the parking lot money collector in the yellow safety vest, the player said he needed a leave of absence. Shrouded in mystery the player left campus 3 months shy of a college degree, which really wasn’t necessary anyways because who needs a college degree to play in the league, which is what he was heard saying.

Kansas was now down to the 2nd place intramural team to finish the season as the varsity Jayhawks. It wasn’t pretty really. We suffered THE WORST LOSS EVER to Texas Silo Tech. ISU beat us. Grimes was rumored to be heard saying he was giving up making a shot for lent, but his coach refuted this by saying “I never saw him make a shot before Lent.” But because of the problems with everyone else, the intramural team asked BigDave if he wanted to play since, you know, he looked big and BigDave wanted to play. And despite the coaches nervousness about letting him onto the court other than for warmups, he let him play, and well, whadyaknowaboutthat? Coach was heard saying. BigDave can play.

The team rallied a bit and their fans had some hope but selection sunday came. Some faithful were sure our stirring run to the 12 league championship game meant we were bound for maybe even a 2 seed. Eastern Area Sports Program said they were sure to be the first blublood to ever receive a 16 seed and have to play in the playin game. Announcer Fran said Kansas should be in NIT. More brinks trucks were seen in Lexington and Durham and the season came to a merciful end.

(thanks to @approxinfinity for making this space available and so many others who provide the fodder for a piece like this.)

Illinois is going hard on Adam Miller, but his mom tells me he’s kind of 50-50 between them and us and he will make a visit to Lawrence. He’d be a good add to NEXT YEARS TEAM (I figured it out @KUSTEVE) I don’t often have inside info on recruiting, well, I never had, until now.

Word is Silvio threw a punch, and just like every shot he’s taken this year, it missed.

First comment on the game thread “We Good”. I think most of us were in agreement. But we still had some tense moments.

1st tense moment. 5-0 deficit. Was a little surprised Bill didn’t use one of his TO’s there. He likes to do that sometimes which irks me a bit, but today, he had a confident look on his face. So we outscored them by 8 from that early flurry.

2nd tense moment. After a foul free first ten minutes, the refs at Scotts suggestion started calling fouls on us. Suddenly at the 10:09 Big Dave gets whistled, and Marcus, and then again seemingly for everyone except, most importantly Doke. What irked us was Baylor’s aggressive D seemed to be fouling us at an equal rate, without the whistles. Home court advantage. But even as the fouls mounted, we just kept adding to the lead a little at a time.

3rd tense moment. Dotson and Garrett return with 2 fouls in the first half. I think Bill really wanted to walk off the court at the half ahead. Big decision. Baylor weak 1st half FT shooting helped. Our superb FT shooting in the 1st half was keeping us in it, we were perfect in fact, Doke making 1-1.

Of course we frittered away the lead as the D had to be careful not to saddle guys with the 3rd foul. Doke was doing his think like almost never before. I’m thinking this was his best game as a Jayhawk, but I may be wrong.

4th tense moment. Each little run cutting into the lead but the pick and roll offense was working superbly. It helped early in the half that the officials were calling fouls…on them. But each run of there’s was countered by our superb defense. They tied us at 18 apiece with 9 minutes left in the half. They never tied it again.

5th tense moment. The end. As we built the lead we figured a comeback was coming. Unfortunately we allowed it to happen. Garrett (I think) gets tied up (actually he got fouled) and could have used the TO, but decided not to. One of the two sketchy inbounds plays could have been saved by a TO also. Not sure if Self doesn’t like our guys using them but I sure wish they had.

6th tense moment. Moss tries to take on several Baylor defenders on a fast break and misses when we could have run a little clock. In fact that miss was one of many in the last 5 minutes. One reason we were holding our collective breaths at the end was because after Dotson made a layup at the 5:27 mark, we only had one more FG, the Doke put back that wasn’t dunked.

7th tense moment, and this is on Scott Drew. Hack a Doke maybe wins that game for Baylor. Thanks Scott. I kept waiting for it, and of course ultimately we won the game at the line which is a nice thing to write.

So there you have it. We won, it was actually beautiful. Ultimately it’s really a insignificant game big picture wise. We’ll move up a place or two, but with a 1 point loss, Baylor won’t be punished much. Both of our teams are currently almost locked in for the top seed. I’m excited as the midwest regional is in Indy, just down the road from Chicago, might be able to catch a regional final, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Looking to the future, we get DeSousa back in a week. Not sure it will help us any, but it’s certainly another big on the bench and he might have found a little PT today. Maybe he saves Big Dave who the officials had a vendetta against.

So we saw what our team can do, at full strength, as most of us wanted to see. These are special times for us fans of the greatest program in the country. Let’s keep this going.

I will not complain…about anything. (will be broken in about 5 hours as of this writing)

I will read entire post of @jaybate-1.0

I will not make fun of Bruce Weber. Yeah right.

I will learn how to spell jumpin jehoshaphat. (Just kidding @jayballer54)

I will wait to buy season celebratory T-shirt til after NC is won.

I will get excited about KU football and volleyball, and baseball this year.

I will ramp up the intensity of my dislike of Duke until it nearly consumes me.

I will ramp up the intensity of my dislike of Kentucky until it consumes me, only to be saved by us beating them.

I will feel sorry for the sorry state of Missouri basketball, actually, no we won’t.

I will stop saying “no no Frank…good shot.”

I will push for Frank as POY.

I will dream of the day we break the top 300 of FT percentage teams in the NCAA.

I will paint my middle age chest Crimson and Blue when I attend the KU-Texas game in Austin. I will not post pictures.

I will blast all trolls as unpatriotic, pinko commie trump lovers/hillary lovers (make your pick),

I will be sure to have a Jayhawk themed outfit for every day of the week including appropriate wear for church, weddings, barmitzvah’s, and funerals.

I will not post any more meaningless drivel on the Bucket.

I used to go to church with Les and Kathy Miles. Nice guy. KU should hire him based on all of that.

I hate Duke, that’s all I’ve got to say.

The list seems to be getting bigger year by year. Points, RB’s, assists

Marcus exploded for 36 last night for the Pistons. He’s got a solid year of 14, 4, and 2 dimes per.

Speaking of Morris, Markieff is solid as well. Has had 6 double doubles since the new year. He is averaging 14, 7, and 2.

His teammate Kelly Oubre has been surprising to me, but what do I know? Averaging 7, 1 and 3.

Wiggins 21 last night, 22, 4, 2 on season.

Aldrich 0 last night 2, 3, o on season. Obviously just hanging on.

Brandon Rush played 36 and 40 minutes in consecutive games in mid january, played 3 the next and hasn’t played since. Doesn’t mention an injury. He’s barely registered stats, 3, 1, 1

Nick Collison played 4 minutes in all of January and has a negligible statline. I can’t imagine him being around much longer. I’m guessing he’s another coach for them wearing shorts.

Tarik Black had a double double Thursday night, and is averaging 5, 5 and less than 1 block. Getting some minutes on that woeful team. Check out this nice read on Tarik by the way. https://theundefeated.com/features/tarik-black-lakers-masters-degree/

Darrell Arthur. Shady’s been contributing off the bench all year. Has 7 and 3 as averages, and shooting an amazing 53% from three with some volume as well taking nearly 3 per game.

Jeff Withey is averaging 3, 2, and 1 block. And getting 1 million dollars for those numbers.

Paul Pierce is fading away to the Hall of Fame. 3, 1 and well, he barely passes the ball when he’s playing apparently because he has .2 assists.

BMac, has been riding the bench a lot lately until last night when he broke out with an 18 point effort. He is average 5 per game, and 1 apiece.

Joel Embiid’s been very good as everyone of you knows. 20, 8, 2.5 blocks, 2 assists, 37% on threes. He’s sat out 4 in a row due to the knee contusion/bruise, and will miss at least 2 more. I’m hoping they’re just being very cautious instead of something more serious is brewing.

Cheick is making 13,255 dollars per point scored. That’s better than I’ve ever made. Happy for him, but wouldn’t he be looking good in Crimson and Blue?

TRob is averaging 4 and 3. Looks like the career of TRob is going to be a backup. Hopefully he sticks around and relishes that role.

Because the E stands for EAST. They’re idiots. We hate them, but keep watching which is the irksome part of it all.

And syracuse fans are idiots for storming the court. For a 2nd time this year.

His farewell tour is over.

One of our all time greats. Enjoyed knowing that he excelled in the League even if I didn’t watch him play too much.

15th all time scoring.

8 seasons averaging over 20 points.

Future Hall of Fame

NBA champion

Too bad he couldn’t add NCAA champion to that because he was part of, in my opinion, the best KU team since I’ve been paying attention in the mid 80’s.

I predict at least several…hundred squid references on these pages. Nauseating fawning statements about what an amazing coach he is. I predict one Kentucky player who will arrive at the gym in Chicago in a Lamborghini with a personal license plate. He’ll thank his rich uncle for the graduation gift. When asked what his rich uncles name is the kid will forget what his name is. I predict a Kentucky player in his 2nd career game will announce at the free throw line he is going pro just after bricking the FT. I predict another Kentucky player will get whistled for a foul and he’ll pull something green out of his sock that resembles a 100 bucks and then the ref will roll that the Kansas player actually fouled the Kentucky kid. I predict that Doke will foul 6’00" 160 LB Kentucky guard Brad Calipari so hard that the kid will literally break in half. Cal will be seen wiping a tear from his eye, and then go back to coaching the rest of the game saying his kid wasn’t tough enough for Kentucky anyways. I predict Rupp will come back and convince the AD to change their name to KKKentucky. I predict that Cal will hire a new assistant coach named Pitino. Cal will be heard saying Pitino can bring a lot to the team. I predict Kentucky will declare themselves pro at halftime and stay in the lockerroom and don the Bulls uniforms. I predict that Kentucky’s team lear jet will crash because of all the cash on board weighing the plane down. I predict 90% of these predictions will come true.

Half time speech by Bill Self was misinterpreted by players who thought Bill said let KSU back in it, you know for TV ratings or stuff.

Pretty girl behind basket distracted players.

Ugly girl behind basket distracted players.

Any girl behind basket distracted players.

Bill Snyder snuck a football into the ball rack.

Someone opened the door leading outside and the farmland stench was more than we could bear.

Bruce Webers stench was more than we could bear.

Bricks were on sale at the local Home Depot. Snacks went out at halftime and bought some.

Our players were locked inside a closet by an absent minded janitor and imposters took on our unis.

Trump built a wall around the hoop and made us pay for it.

The NCAA, wanting Duke and Kentucky to get all the breaks ordered referees to distract our shooters.

Dokes made FT’s threw off our rhythm.

We weren’t trying hard enough.

They were calling yesterday an instant classic, a great game, Self called it KU’s greatest game played in the NCAA tournament. I don’t necessarily disagree with those assessments, but I’m asking myself why.

We of course still have great memories of what I’d say was our greatest NCAA game in 2008. The epic comeback, steal, and Mario’s shot. But that game wasn’t fun to watch. It was an ugly slugfest of a game, with obviously the thrilling ending.

A better game than that, especially from a fans standpoint would have been the 1988 game. 50-50 half many call the greatest half of NCAA tournament ball, but still not the greatest game. It was a rather epic upset (although I heard ESPN radio talking about how the game today needs an epic upset like in the 80’s when Nova and NCS both won over legendary teams, but they didn’t seem to remember KU, 11 losses and all beating top ranked OU). That game had no buzzer beater, no comeback, we just pulled away ever so slightly.

Certainly yesterday was not the first nail biter, even in this years tournament. Loyola’s seen three of them alone. But they weren’t calling those great games either, although they were.

But historically, yesterday falls in that category. Why? I’ll try.

1. Two blue bloods, one of which is reviled by many/most Americans.

2. There was enough scoring to keep the casual observer tuned in. Sometimes close games that are defensive struggles are tough to watch if you’re not partial to one of the teams.

3. The OAD storyline vs. the upper classmen oriented scenario. KU becomes another poster child for the stay in school title.

4. There was controversy. Always adds to the drama.

5. There was the awful then elation moment at the end. Tripper boy’s winning shot was one of those ball goes through Buckner’s legs or Don Denkinger aids the Royals types of moments. It was the Titans player getting tackled at the 1 on the last play of the Super Bowl. It was Willie McCoveys line drive that if it goes a foot higher the Giants win the WS instead of the rival Yankees. It was a to be much talked about moment. WE ARE LUCKY IT MISSED BECAUSE IF HE MADE IT WE"D BE SEEING THAT SHOT REPLAYED BY CBS AND ESPN FOR THE NEXT MILLENIUM.

6. It’s do or die. Makes it much more exciting. Although they called our game with OU the game of the year, OU, despite losing gets to the FF. They then played their worst game ever.

7. Last college game for some relatively big names in the sport if their team loses. IF KU blows out Duke, we’d be getting a tear jerking retrospective on Graysons career showing him all dejected. At least we didn’t have to see that. CBS did however show multiple shots of the Duke bench in the last minute which was kind of fun watching their pouty little faces, but I wanted to see our bench and we weren’t getting shots of them.

It was a great game and proud to be on the winning side of it.

Looking through the fridge for scraps from the holiday feast.

I think I’ll have more of that Dotson. He’s really making a difference for this team.

I’ll have less of needing to rely on KJ in crunch time. He could work out into something special, and we probably don’t win without him last night, but he probably only gets a few minutes if Garrett is healthy.

I’ll take more of warmed up Dedric and less of cold Dedric. He seems to start slowly, and then by the end we’re hoping he gets touches every time.

I’ll take less, in fact throw it down the disposal, of refereeing. Yes it’s really about 1 call but how on God’s green earth do three referees miss someone pulling the rim down. As some pointed out last night, it was a momentum changer.

I’ll take no more 3-10 FT shooting and more 19-24 FT shooting which is basically the difference between good and bad, and which is what we shot after we collectively decided losing by 9 to Rocky Top was enough.

I’ll take less Doke mistakes. But I’ll take more Doke on the floor. The difference between when he was on the floor and on the bench was obvious the last two games.

I’ll take more hot Vick, obviously, but less you’re not that hot Vick. Head scratching Vick. His talent is enormous, but his flightiness gets in the way.

I’ll take more Moore when he’s under control, and less Moore when he’s not. He made some clutch shots last night and missed some clutch shots when he shouldn’t have been taking a clutch shot.

I’ll take less Garrett until he learns to polish his offensive game which is actually quite offensive like some leftovers in the fridge too long.

I’ll take more coach Self. He’s amazing. Can’t wait for the next feast.

What we saw:

No David McCormack. The board rats thinking a quick team like TCU means he’s not playing anyways. IDK.

OAg with a nice debut. Didn’t try to get greedy after early success. Seems pretty level headed.

Speaking of level headed Vick aint. He’s fortunate he didn’t get T-d up after slapping the ball out of TCU guys hands during a dead ball.

Lawson- Marvelous! His brother too had some nice minutes. Very used to seeing this from DLaw.

We played with a lot of energy tonight leading to a bunch of steals. That probably won the game for us. 20 TO’s for TCU is hard to survive as we found out recently.

Some Grime grumbling tonight. I understand, but he’ll be fine. Not sure he’s going pro anymore after this year and he’ll help this program a lot in the future.

DeDot had an off night shooting, but still contributed in other ways.

Garrett is proof you can earn time without a verifiable offensive game. His defense is indispensible to this team.

At Baylor is always fun to make fun of their coach and pull out another win. Let’s get this rolling in the right direction!

Back in the day OU would come to town and Jayhawk Nation would sharpen up their gameday faces because they knew it’d be a war in AFH. My limited understanding of the hatred started several seasons before I arrived in Lawrence. OU and KU went to OT and won in OT clinching the league title. They called TO with a few seconds left and celebrated in the middle of the court.

Of course overseeing this bush league display was their incorrigible coach Billy Tubbs. A hatred developed and I picked up on it when I came in the fall of 1985. They were great games between the two talented teams. But every time they took the floor those years they came out with a combination of arrogance, hutzpah, and extreme confidence. The fact we came out triumphant 5 of 6 times those first two years I was around was a testament to the ability we had.

Of course in 87-88 OU had the upper hand. Two 8 point losses to them actually felt relatively satisfying because OU was so good. And arrogance oozed from every player on that team. So when we see them in KC on April 4th, I wasn’t too hopeful. And then Billy lost his mind.

In one of the all time great coaching blunders in a NCAA game he forgot about his bench. Of course they loved to get out and run. They scored over 100 19 times! Over 150 twice! You’re going to gas a bunch of guys Billy scoring like that and well, that April day, they were on their way to another 100 point game, but so were we! Danny forced the pace for us in the 1st half and Billy was shocked, Billy Packer that is, who said we can’t keep up with them.

2nd half, we slowed it down, OU used their bench sparingly, 3 guys played all 40 minutes. All the while Larry Brown is bringing in football players and a smattering of odd parts and OU just wore out.

After the game I remember distinctly hearing Tubbs saying OU was the better team. I also remember hearing Stacy King saying when he got drafted by MJ’s Bulls that he was glad because he’ll be able to get lots of endorsements in a big city like Chicago. Arrogance even in defeat.

But in my mind OU has changed. I’ve always like Lon Kruger. He wins regularly wherever he winds up. He’s soft spoken. His teams play well, players are exciting to watch and they regularly give us a tough match.

Today was a typical matchup. We were more talented, but they have some decent players. It was the kind of game you just wonder what might happen if Garrett doesn’t have an out of the blue offensive performance. Lon seemed at a loss how to respond to the onslaught. Little he could do really. They really didn’t have the talent to match up with us even though they have certifiable talent.

I think todays game shows the potential of our team. This just feels like one of those seasons where the sky is the limit. These are fun times in Jayhawk Nation.

The Jayhawks take the court in weird gray uniforms. Harris finds Ochai for a quick 3 point lead. Without Garrett Harris will be a key to a productive night for the Jayhawks who look to rebound from the Longhorn beatdown.

Nice little shove off leads to TCU’s first basket but BigDave answers with a baby hook.

Wilson sweet steal and a mystery whistle stops play.

Braun ill advised save leads to easy bucket for TCU. But then he nails one from near the Cowboys now empty til next year stadium.

BigDave nearly pulls down the goal like Sampson pulled down the temple of Dagan with all the Pagans inside. It was Dokish. Nice to see Dave with a positive shooting percentage.

Quick check of NC and Miami and all I hear is Dicky V talking. Unranked UNC that is. We’re still watching on ESPNews. Hopefully they tell us when to switch over. MSU shouldn’t be ranked but they are. Duke shouldn’t be ranked but they are. KU best blueblood in the land, but of course didn’t look like it v. Texas.

Fran talking about TCU like they’re the blueblood in the building.

This writer is incredulous that TCU doesn’t have a foul yet.

Mitch with the goaltend that isn’t called. Ochai saying to Marcus, ‘Don’t worry, I got this’.

Garrett needs some lessons on masks.

Mitch must have breathed on that guy for that whistle. It’s one of those mystery fouls that happens early in a game so it doesn’t seem big, but it will loom large later. Then an apparent mystery foul on a 3 pointer. I still have no clue what Harris did on that 3.

Makeup call puts Wilson on the line. What sucks about uneven referreeing is they sometimes call fouls on the other team to make up for it. Then we foul again and officially have foul trouble building.

Wilson going to have to keep playing big tonight.

Sometimes it’d be nice if you could decline a foul. And like in soccer, give refs the ability to say play on if a foul impedes a scoring opp for the offense.

Enaruna is from Europe so he ought to know what an own goal is and he just made one, then he get his own goal. I think he has some talent but he gets in his own way with dumb plays, and that was one of them.

2nd TV timeout

Enaruna has scored our last 5 and their last 2.

KU playing well. BigDave, best game so far, at least shooting wise.

Then we go brain dead, turn it over and Wilson commits a dumb foul and they get an and 1 which they convert on.

The foul count travesty continues. Amazingly Harris is the only 1 with 2 fouls.

11 point lead slips down to 4 after some really bad plays and some blind officials who don’t see a guy kick the ball and who also don’t see a guy roll over on the floor with the ball.

Self calls timeout.

Somehow TCU has 5 guys on the court with 0 fouls.

Wilson calms the storm. I wonder if that ball is a Wilson?

Harris with a nice play suddenly a 10 point lead again. Great timeout from Bill. Then Braun flushes it emphatically with a non called foul to boot.

After a painful game of offenseless basketball on Saturday this is a pleasure to watch. Wilson run’ngun’n to a TCU timeout.

Big Dave been spectacular, Doke like! Then with a beautiful feed. No flagrant which the replay revealed was the right call, kind of.

Kudos to whomever had Enaruna as their Hawk to Rock.

Under 4 TO.

Quick stat check and KU is shooting well in all aspects, 3’s FT’s and on 2’s. Rebounding going well too. We need to avoid fouling this last 3:11 of the half and we’ll be pretty good going into the 2nd half. We’ve gone over 6 minutes since picking up our 8th foul.

Air Lightfoot for the oop! Enaruna making believers of us. He’s still young we must remember. But a silly TO means we don’t score 50 this half.

Halftime. All in all, a nice half of KU basketball.

MSU going to hold Rutgers under 50 which is quite an accomplishment.

A few thoughts on our game. Always nice to see a half like that after the Saturday debacle. Best games of season so for Enaruna and BigDave. Ochai’s hot start fueled this team to do what they just did.

I really applaud the team for their self will to stop fouling. None for the last 8:39 of the half when it looked like serious foul trouble was building up.

Misery. HaHa.

Scotty Pippen Junior? Superstars kids are never as good as their pops. Except Peyton Manning and Barry Bonds. But the best duo ever was Bobby Hull and Brett Hull.

Funny seeing Cal celebrating a win over lowly Vanderbilt.

College football has gotten so boring at it’s highest level. 5 or 6 teams have every recruiting advantage and will continue to harvest 5 star kids and so we’ll continue to see only 5-7 different teams in the playoff every year. ZZZZZ

Every highlight they just showed had us scoring against #21 of TCU. He’s big, but D aint his thing.

We should bust out these gray uni’s again.

Great to see a big shoot FT’s like that.

#21 gonna have nightmares tonight about BigDave.

I’m like Geez Wilson, that’s an ugly 3 pointer. Instead it’s an alley oop.

The foul on KU was the first in the last 12 minutes of game clock.

21 Samuel their center has 0 rebounds and has given up a bucketload of points tonight.

It’d be cool to see Harris get double digit assists.

Dumb announcers don’t know that our offense doesn’t really roll with Marcus Garrett.

Dixon TO.

When you make nearly 2/3rds of your shots it’s hard for the other team to get rebounds. ESPN has TCU with 12, CBS has them only with 9 rebounds.

Why on earth did we start at 9 PM?

The TCU defense is making us look really good.

17 minutes with only 1 foul against us until the Braun foul there.

Under 12 TO. 74-51

Big leads to sloppy play and then leaves a sourish taste in their mouths for the next game. Finish strong. Stop messing around. The last couple of minutes have been ugly.

Enaruna back to playing like crap. But he makes a fade away jumper to stop the mini run.

I’m a little dismayed by some of the negative words directed at Mitch Lightfoot from some here earlier in the year.

Under 8 TO after Mitch forces a jump ball with a great play. Wouldn’t it be great to see them jump em up after a tie up? The current rule works well for HS and below where there are lots of tie ups, but it doesn’t happen that often in college and it would serve to reward good defense. Keep the alternate possession for certain scenarios like refs not sure who the ball goes out on and double fouls.

I keep going back to this stat, but we’ve now gone 24 minutes and committed 2 fouls.

Getting annoyed with Enaruna playing loose. This is why he can’t be relied on. Kudos to him for helping out when the game still hung in the balance, but these showboating plays the last few minutes have really irked me.

BigDave needs to do this every night. I know he won’t but he does. We need him to have some success going forward.

I’m predicting a revenge victory in Austin next month.

Looking forward to seeing us against Rocky Top in Knoxville later this month.

#4 screwing up our superb no fouling streak.

#1 AKA short shorts with a nice drive.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk chant raining down from the upper reaches of the arena.

Shut up Fran, who cares about the Heismann?

93-64 Superb game. Not much drama.

Wilson statsheet stuffer 16 points, 7 RB’s 6 assists. He’s my player of the game. Harris newcomer of the game. Enaruna bench player of the game even with having 3/8ths of our teams turnovers.

I didn’t read the ESPN article but when people act like Baylor has passed up KU they conveniently forget that we were the hands down favorite in 2020 only to have life steal the chance for us to win it. No guarantees of course but I sure liked our chances and I hate when people here criticized Self like he’s lost it or something.