The Unsung Hero!

First I would like to say that I am actually shocked on how well Selby is playing! I expected him to get 10 -12 points here or there but he is having a great start to his season against relatively good teams. With that in mind, I would like to inform all of you that the Man of the Year on the Kansas team is Tyrel Reed. The man is a shooting specialist but can also get to the basket, which we are now seeing for the first time this year. Last night, Reed put up 18 points and 7 rebounds in 35 minutes played! He shot 6 for 11 which is pretty good given the fact that eight of those shots came from beyond the 3-point line. This is also not the only time Reed has reached double digits this year, obviously. Of the 11 games we have played, Reed has reached 10 points or higher in six of them. This includes a 17 point effort against UCLA as well as a 13 point night against Arizona. He averages 10+ points a game this year which is double what he averaged all of last year! His assist to turnover ratio is pretty good as well where he has two assists for every turnover. Not only do his numbers show how he plays a major role on the team but you can tell that the game has a much better flow to it when he is on the floor. He seems to have the intellectual capabilities to run a team or even play off the ball, which he does more of. Reed is the man! As I predicted at the beginning of the season, Tyrel Reed will end the season on a Kirk Hinrich type level. He probably won't go to the NBA but that is because for four years he has been outplayed and underused behind starts like Sherron Collins, Tyshawn Taylor, Mario Chalmers, Russel Robinson and many others! Self is now realizing his importance and Reed is finally gaining the confidence he needs to put up some great numbers this year and get himself on the map. He isn't cocky either. He seems to be one of the most down to earth Kansas players I have ever read about. He is quoted in ESPN.com as saying "It was too bad he was out, but we had to play with the guys we had. Selby stepped up; Markieff had a big night. We're a team, and somebody is going to make a play." Does this sound like a guy who is full of himself? Selby stepped up? He is supposed to score a lot. Reed stepped up and actually shot a better percentage than Selby did last night with the same amount of points at the end of the game. Reed is my man and I have been waiting for this time to come for four years now. Just wait and see how he explodes throughout the year. And yes his sister is smoking!

Mario Little, who cares?

So here is the deal, Mario Little was suspended indefinitely for misdemeanor charges for battery, criminal damage and criminal trespassing. Now the question on many people's minds I am sure are how will this affect our team? The answer is it won't! Mario Little is one of the biggest busts, right next to Withey, to hit the floor at KU! He is really just another body, on an already stacked team, to put on the floor. I feel that this was a blessing in disguise. If you think about it, Mario Little was a Guard and so is Selby, Taylor and oh yes Elijah Johnson! This will increase the minutes that Elijah will get. I understand that we are losing some height with Elijah replacing Mario Little but put this in perspective...Elijah Johnson is a top 100 recruit, so is Taylor and so is Selby. Picture them on the court at the same time and think of how fast our team will be with those three guards and the Morris twins running! Now let's try this again, picture Bill Self's recruits at U of Illinois when they went to the National Championship game under Bruce Webber. They had Dee Brown (6 ft. 0 in.), Derron Williams (6 ft. 3 in.) and Luther Head (6 ft. 3 in.) and none of them even had anyone like the Morris twins in the front court! They had Roger Powell Jr. and James Augustine! As you can see we don't need a hassle like Mario Little and we have the talent and the athleticism without him to make a major run to the Final Four this year. And let's be honest here, wee really only want one Mario to be remembered at the University of Kansas because only one Mario really made an impact on the team...you know which one I am talking about! Mario Little is worthless and him being suspended really saved Bill Self some aggravation when it comes to playing time and when it comes to Selby finally being a role player on the soon to be 2010-11 National Championship team! I am watching Selby this weekend and I hope you are too!

Mario Little, who cares?

So here is the deal, Mario Little was suspended indefinitely for misdemeanor charges for battery, criminal damage and criminal trespassing. Now the question on many people's minds I am sure are how will this affect our team? The answer is it won't! Mario Little is one of the biggest busts, right next to Withey, to hit the floor at KU! He is really just another body, on an already stacked team, to put on the floor. I feel that this was a blessing in disguise. If you think about it, Mario Little was a Guard and so is Selby, Taylor and oh yes Elijah Johnson! This will increase the minutes that Elijah will get. I understand that we are losing some height with Elijah replacing Mario Little but put this in perspective...Elijah Johnson is a top 100 recruit, so is Taylor and so is Selby. Picture them on the court at the same time and think of how fast our team will be with those three guards and the Morris twins running! Now let's try this again, picture Bill Self's recruits at U of Illinois when they went to the National Championship game under Bruce Webber. They had Dee Brown (6 ft. 0 in.), Derron Williams (6 ft. 3 in.) and Luther Head (6 ft. 3 in.) and none of them even had anyone like the Morris twins in the front court! They had Roger Powell Jr. and James Augustine! As you can see we don't need a hassle like Mario Little and we have the talent and the athleticism without him to make a major run to the Final Four this year. And let's be honest here, wee really only want one Mario to be remembered at the University of Kansas because only one Mario really made an impact on the team...you know which one I am talking about! Mario Little is worthless and him being suspended really saved Bill Self some aggravation when it comes to playing time and when it comes to Selby finally being a role player on the soon to be 2010-11 National Championship team! I am watching Selby this weekend and I hope you are too!

Dear Mr. William Self,

Thank you! Thank you for giving me this wonderful Chanukah gift of a win over Memphis! I really appreciate the gift and I hope to one day give it back to you! I guess Chanukah Harry was watching me really closely this year and saw that I have been a good little boy! I would also like to thank you and Chanukah Harry for the wonderful gift of not only being the best shooting team in the nation (55.8% field goal shooting) to also being the least selfish team (20 assists a game) in the country. Oh wait I almost forgot thank you for the fifth highest average point total per game as well (87.3 points per game)! I know we are ranked third in the nation right now but I really don't care much for the rankings, I just would really appreciate another National Championship! I know it is pretty much inevitable this season, but I would greatly appreciate it if you could bring one back to Lawrence, again.

Dear Josh Selby,

Don't be that guy! And by that guy I mean don't be Xavier Henry, don't be Brandon Rush (his freshman year), don't be G.R. Giddens and for the love of GOD do not be David Padgett! Yes Jayhawk fans I pulled a David Padgett reference. You know the tall white kid who transferred to Louisville from Kansas and you never heard from again until 2008 when Louisville lost to UNC in the Elite 8 when oh yeah KU won the whole damn thing!! Great move Padgett great move!

Selby you got talent and we all know that! Now prove to us that you aren't some cocky kid who just wanted one year at school so her can go to the NBA the following year. Show us you really care about playing the game and that winning is everything and not making yourself look good. Out of all of those players I mentioned, who is having a good career huh? Brandon Rush maybe? Think about! It isn't Selby to the rescue it is Selby as supporting cast. We aren't broken my friend and if you are looking to be our Messiah, think again!

I look forward to the USC game to watch you play. I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!

Comments are appreciated!

So here is the problem...!

I can sit here and critique everything that the Jayhawks did wrong such as free throw shooting in the second half at 6-16, poor defense in the second half allowing UCLA to shoot 52% from the field and really dumb fouls giving UCLA three "and ones" in the paint and two from behind the three point line. I would also like to add that the Jayhawks actually shot pretty well at 51% from the field the entire game but that was not the problem. In truth, I blame the entire officiating crew. The fouls that they called, on both ends of the court, really didn't allow any sort of flow to the game. I am not going to lie, we should have probably have lost last night if it wasn't for the fact the the official blew the whistle when everyone and their mothers know that you shouldn't call a foul to decide the outcome of the game!! The official also called fouls on two, that's right two, three point made baskets on Brady Morningstar. Now the problem with that is replays really showed that Brady did everything anyone else would have done and the replays also showed he didn't even touch the player from UCLA. In the past, officials only called those fouls if they were blatantly obvious such as the shooter getting knocked over or his arms being hit hard to the point where the ball flies away, not when it was an uninterrupted shot! KU Jayhawks, I count this as a loss because it should have been do to poor defense and not being prepared for the UCLA team you met up with. To the officiating crew, I would fine your asses for negligence and if there was a law against stupidity an wrongful foul calls, on both ends, I would put you in jail for good!!! Let's get ready for Memphis next week at MSG, I will be there cheering my Hawks on! Where will you be? By the way check out the press conference after last night's game.

Hail To Thee Our Alma Mater

Far above the golden valley
Glorious to view,
Stands our noble Alma Mater,
Towering toward the blue.

Lift the chorus ever onward,
Crimson and the blue
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hail to old KU.

Far above the distant humming
Of the busy town,
Reared against the dome of heaven.
Looks she proudly down.

Lift the chorus ever onward,
Crimson and the blue
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hail to old KU.

Greet we then our foster mother,
Noble friend so true,
We will ever sing her praises,
Hail to old KU.

Lift the chorus ever onward,
Crimson and the blue
Hail to thee, our Alma Mater
Hail to old KU.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU! Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU!

The Fieldhouse: Correction

So I assume everyone has a friend that loves to prove everyone else wrong, I have one of those friends. Anyway, he read my blog today and informed me that ESPN did an "Insider" article on the best college basketball arenas in the country. He was polite enough to give the article and it shows that Allen Fieldhouse is actually the best college basketball in the entire country! It is said "1. Allen Fieldhouse Kansas
Jayhawks' record at Allen 633-106 (.857)
Capacity: 16,300 | Student Seating: 4,000 (24.5%)
Student Alias: Phog Phanatics

Surprised to see Allen Fieldhouse at No. 1? You shouldn't be. Not only is it home to the longest current winning streak in college basketball (59 games), but Bill Self is 113-6 at the Phog in his seven seasons as coach.

Simply put, it is the perfect combo of dimension, students-to-court proximity and low-absorption materials. But if you want the down-low on KU's acoustics? Here are three factors that turn the Phog into a sonic storm:

The Seats
They have no padded backs to absorb the crowd clamor. The Phog is filled with aluminum bleachers that are made for stomping -- not to mention reflecting the eerie strains of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" after yet another home W.

The Students
Yes, a committed student section is key. But the most thunderous undergrads won't do much good if they're stuck in the rafters while boosters schmooze politely courtside. Not only does Kansas welcome a high percentage of campus kids, it keeps them close to the action, too.

The Ceiling
Unlike more modern domes, the Fieldhouse roof is fairly flat and hangs relatively close to the floor. Plus, there are no sound panels attached to the ceiling. So sonic booms bounce around rather than get swallowed up" (Ian Gordon ESPN The Magazine).

Here is the full article if you have an Insider account with ESPN.

Thanks Goldfine, for once I am glad you proved me wrong!

The Fieldhouse

So I graduated from the University of Kansas and made my way to something like 50+ basketball games in my four and a half years at KU and one thing that gets me truly excited about KU is how non-KU people talk about Allen Fieldhouse. I read this article today, which is just a preview of the game tonight, and got goosebumps when they spoke about Allen and when they spoke about the possibility of a 63-game home win streak! So as any Jayhawk fan would do, I decided to share one of the most amazing articles I have ever read regarding Phog Allen Fieldhouse. It was featured on csbsports.com while their college basketball analysts did a cool "arena vs. arena" series of articles. What was a little weird is that Allen Fieldhouse was put up against Gallagher-Iba Arena (OSU Cowboys Arena). This is the article and I hope the chills are running through your body once you read this! I would also like to inform you that Allen Filedhouse was actually second in voting for this entire series of articles and was second to Cameron Indoor. I hope you all enjoy these articles because on a boring day like today, especially when I am awaiting my flight to Austin, nothing creates excitement like Phog Allen Fieldhouse! "Pay Heed, All Who Enter, Beware of the Phog!" Eerie!

Selbymania Begins!

Yes as I am sure you all have heard, Josh Selby will be eligible to play December 18, 2010. I really hope you are all as excited as I am about this! This means a couple of things that I have theories about. Take them for what they are; theories. The first is that yes Selby will dominate at the point guard position and yes that will move us from a 23-27 game winning team to the 27+ range which is great! I also believe that this means Selby, unless he has a spectacular March and April, will be sticking around for another year! Let's be honest, he is missing some high profile match-ups that can determine what kind of player he can be in the NBA. He will be missing Memphis, UCLA and Arizona. His first game back will be USC and even then he won't get much p/t because he is not ready for the high levels quite yet. He will need to have a phenomenal tourney to even turn the heads of scouts and project him in next year's draft. He will also be battling with Tyshawn Taylor for the "go-to" assist man and that's tough since Tyshawn has been averaging seven assists a game! This team, come December 18, is going to be a lot more fun to watch as if they weren't already. I am so excited, I feel like Derek Zoolander on opening day of the Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good! Yes I had a Zoolander reference! Here is Se;by's youtube video once again to get you more excited!

Well, well, well...

So after the two games that started off the season, I don't know what to think! Marcus and Markieff Morris are awesome!! They remind me of the infamous twins Kenny and Antoine Taylor (The Sixth Man reference)! Where if one brother is having an awesome game, the other brother has a good game as well. They are the best complimentary players to ever step foot on Naismith Court!

Tyshawn Taylor, you looked incredible the first game! I cannot remember, in my 20 years of being a KU Basketball fan, that we had a 10 assist game from the point guard position. However, you didn't look so hot last night but I will take an 8 point 5 assist day from you every game.

Even though Mario Little is an interesting looking guy, looks like a Gremlin, I still think you are an amazing player. He looked good last night and very poised. Shooting with confidence and making 4 of 5 from the field and the lone miss was an air balled three pointer but no one will remember that ;).

Brady Morningstar, you suck!!!

Thomas Robinson, since you can kick my butt easily, you played alright. Good hustle! I'm just kidding. Looking good man. One thing to work on is those Dean Garret hands otherwise you looked good!

Travis Releford, way to finally get noticed. More p/t in your future.

Tyrel Reed, you tried to hard to be the next Riddick last night. You don't need to pop threes just to get points. You have the ability to drive to the basket. Just because your sister is smoking hot, and yes even the commentators last night mentioned her, doesn't mean you can be weak in the paint!

Jeff Withey, damn you are tall and lazy! How does one man get three fouls in six minutes of playing? Answer me that! You remind me of another black hole, Michael Olowakandi, never moved his feet and if you passed him the ball you would never see it again, just like an object into a black hole.

All in all, I believe there are some improvements to be made however we are looking quite good. Last night, against a team that scored 111 points in their first game, Jayhawks managed to keep them to 44 for the entire game. One thing is for sure, we have some great depth and the ability to score seems like it will always be there. Turnovers seem to be a problem but we made up for it on defense on the other end which is a huge positive. Good win fellas!

Rock Chalk Jayhawks! Go KU!

Jayhawk Nation

For those of you who are actually following this blog, the Nation is the real deal.
This is a picture of a woman in India!

Sensational Selby

So here is the deal. I was going to write about Marcus Morris but I decided that after watching this video Josh Selby is the man to talk about today.

This player is amazing. "Adding Selby to the mix, though, would allow Kansas to take its up-tempo style to a new level. Self has already said that Selby is the top prospect he’s ever signed, which is a significant comment from a man who recruited Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur, Xavier Henry, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich." (Yahoo! Sports November 3, 2010 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=Alc_YFoUjfYhQYLe8LzHz4nevbYF?slug=jn-selbykanter110410)

Josh Selby may be the best player he has ever recruited, but does that mean he is another one and done player? Maybe! Does the Jayhawk Nation care if he is a one and done? Hell no!! If you think about past one and done players (i.e. Derrick Rose, and the entire 2009-10 Kentucky team) you see that one and done players can make a good team a spectacular team. Yes I know they didn't win in the end but man they could have if Calipari wasn't cursed by God for being the all time jack-ass of college basketball. I could go on about him, but today it Selby's day.

With the addition of Selby to our team would create some great match up problems as well as establishing a better perimeter shooting game plan. KU teams have been great, recently, on the inside out game plan. Our big men do not score and we do not have a problem with that. It is more fun to watch a guard drive to the whole then a player who resembles boring, stupid Kevin Mchale. If you haven't seen Selby's highlight reels I strongly recommend it. I would agree with Self in that Selby is the best player he has ever recruited.

Selby's amateur status is obviously on everyone's mind right now and the NCAA's probe into this is getting outrageous. Everyone is scared s**tless about whether he is going to play or not. This could be the best thing for the Jayhawk's program. Put it into prospective here. If Selby doesn't see the light of day on the court, he will either think about going pro or staying another year. Now as of right now, the NBA is on the verge of a lock out for the 2011-12 season and if you think Selby is going to go pro just to be placed on the picketlines and not get paid, you are sorely mistaken. The NCAA will see that Selby is still an amateur athlete and their probe may go so deep as to find that Jenna Jameson may still be an amateur as well. Who cares? In the end Selby has one year here now to learn Self's system and if he stays he will be better off and so will the team, if he leaves, he is just as dumb as J.R. Giddens thinking himself was a lottery pick!

Goldfine, I am sorry but the Marcus Morris versus Paul Pierce post will have to be next week. I was too intrigued by the Selby highlight videos to pass it up! Rock Chalk Jayhawks! Win #3 this Saturday? Doubtful.

What will the Jayhawks do?

Yesterday was the first pre-season game for the Kansas Jayhawks and everyone who watched or has read about the game is truly excited about our boy, Marcus Morris. I am also really excited to watch him play, especially since he has been compared to the world-renown player, Paul Pierce (article http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/may/17/marcus-similar-pierce/?print). I am not going to sit here and talk about his difference and similarities between them because that's like comparing Quinton's Bar and Grill to Burrito King, totally different!

So KU vs. Washburn. Let's be honest here, Washburn should not have shot 57% from the field in the second half! Washburn should not have held our Jayhawks to 21% three point shooting. Now I get it, it is the first game they have all played together with new role players. There are some holes that need to be filled and there are some parts of the game that have been greatly improved upon (i.e. free throws). Nonetheless this game does not show the true potential that the Jayhawks can achieve this year. It seems to be another "killer instinct" problem that the team last year had. Marcus Morris played awesome but he played against a terrible team and giving him accolades for it is ridiculous. He should beat up on smaller teams! Tyrel Reed, the next Hinrich as I like to call him, did not play up to his potential making 2 of 8 shots. Tyshawn got a good number of points, 12, but his assist number should be higher! Without Selby he needs to be our go to play maker which means he shoots and dishes the ball, not take shots and when feels like it toss the ball to Marcus.

In truth, I firmly believe that this team is nothing compared to last year's bust but they can definitely run with the big boys this year. This team is like the Minnesota Vikings, great team on paper but when it comes to game time they just don's achieve their potential greatness. We will need to see later on down the road. Next game is exhibition on November 9 and you can expect me to be hearing, watching or reading about it. There will be another post by me mid-week on a great topic of conversation given to me by a genius of sports, A Goldfine.

Why I am doing this!

So I received some feedback on this blog from a great friend of mine and I decided to take it to heart. One thing he said to me was keep posts short and also inform the audience on a little background on why I created this blog. So here it is:

I graduated from the University of Kansas in December of 2008. As a KU student and now an alum, KU sports plays a major role in my day to day life. As a Freshman at KU, my first actual experience of KU athletics was during the Jayhawks invitational when a friend's brother's AAU team was coming to play in a tournament on campus. There I saw soon to be Jayhawk Cole Aldrich. I was not impressed with Cole but more so with how many people were in attendance of this tournament and right then and there I was hooked on KU sports. I went to baseball games, volleyball games, men's and women's basketball games, football games and of course tennis matches. KU athletics is a lot different than any other school in the country. We have something known as the "Jayhawk Nation". Anywhere you go in the country you will find a Jayhawk. I currently live in NYC right now and whenever I wear a Jayhawk shirt, I hear Rock Chalk at least twice a day walking down the streets. That is the "Jayhawk Nation".

Lastly, the reason behind this post is quite simple. Every Jayhawk loves to talk about Jayhawk sports. If you attended the University of Kansas for your entire degree or just partially, you want to hear, read and talk about KU sports. Nothing is more exciting than talking about why Roy Williams and Bill Self are so different but so similar. Or my favorite, which is my friend's from schools as well, talking about Jayhawk recruiting. What top Rivals.com recruit has chosen KU and if they didn't choose KU where are they going and how could they be so stupid not to choose KU.

Please enjoy my blog and again comments are not frowned on but more encouraged. I also take requests on what to talk about. Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!

Turner Gill

Turner Gill is the first year head football coach at the University of Kansas. He was fourth in voting for the Heisman Trophy while playing at the University of Nebraska. Prior to being the head coach at KU, he was the head coach at the University of Buffalo. That is where the problem starts with this coach. The University of Buffalo is not a top tier school that plays the best programs in the country. The University of Buffalo, under coach Gill, did not even have a winning record. They were invited to one bowl game in Gill's tenure at the school and they lost!

Turner Gill was hired for many reasons by Lew Perkins. The first and most important is that Gill pretty much spent a large portion of his football career as a player and coach in the Big 8 which is now the Big 12.

Turner Gill has a great track record as an assistant coach. He was an assistant at the University of Nebraska from 1989 to 2004. While there, he was the quarterback's coach for Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch in 2001. Gill was also part of the coaching staff that won three National Championships in 1994, '95 and '97.

As a head coach, Gill is not as impressive. His first stint at head coach was at the University of Buffalo which is in the Mid-American Conference. He was named coach in 2005 and from there took the program from terrible to mediocrity. He won the 2007 MAC coach of the year and in 2008 brought the Buffalo Bulls to their first ever bowl game, which they lost. He posted a total record of 22-32 during his tenure at Buffalo in a terrible conference. He also went 0 - 1,000,000 against BCS conference teams. Now, playing devil's advocate, the U of Buffalo is not an easy sell to recruits and he did win more games in the four years he was there than in the schools prior however many years the program has existed which makes him great right? Not necessarily. If you look at non-BCS conferences such as C-USA, WAC, and MWC, each conference has one or two dominant teams. If you look at the Mid-American Conference Buffalo should have dominated everyone. There are no teams in that conference that are worth writing home about. Thing of the type of football that is played between the MAC and the Big 12. The Big 12 has dominant programs such as Nebraska (for the time being), Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State (recently), Missouri, Texas A & M, and briefly Texas Tech (who hired Tommy Tuberville, a high profile coach who has actually won a National Championship with Auburn).

The way I look at it is that Turner Gill may be a good coach, but if he cannot dominate the Mid-American Conference playing teams like Temple, Ball State and Kent State, he will have issues in the Big 12. If I remember correctly, Temple University last year dominated the MAC pretty easily last year by posting 9 - 2 record and playing against UCLA in the EagleBank Bowl. Yes they did lose but they also had a better record throughout the year compared to Gill's 8 - 4 regular season in 2008.

I will leave the decision up to you on whether Gill was a good hire or not. In my opinion I believe that KU could have gotten someone a little more well-known but I guess it is not like KU has some huge football program in the first place. All-in-all I am excited for basketball season in two weeks! And please feel free to make comments on this post, this is my first one so any feedback is good feedback.

Brief side notes:

Turner Gill won MAC coach of the year 2007-08, the same year that KU's coach Mark Mangino won Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year.

Turner Gill lost a non-BCS bowl game in 2007-08 season. Mark Mangino won the BCS Orange Bowl giving KU the first ever BCS Bowl victory. This game was won over the heavily touted Virginia Tech team.

Thanks for reading! The next post will probably be after the first basketball game! Rock Chalk Jayhawks!