Jayhawks Killing It!

The Jayhawks played really well tonight!  One pick six and and  win!  If you didn't guess already, I am talking about in football.  That's right, the only Jayhawks playing a sport tonight that did anything worthwhile were the Jayhawks on the Denver Broncos.  Props to Aqib Talib for a pick six, Chris Harris Jr. and Steven Johnson for picking up a win and being on a championship caliber team.  I wish I could say the same about the Jayhawks basketball squad.

Let me throw some numbers at you; 17 and 18, 32 and finally 0.71.  You guessed!  17 turnovers to 18 total field goals made!  32% shooting from the field!  0.71 assist to turnover ratio for Selden and Mason combined!  That should give the whole story.  Couldn't score, turned the ball over just as many field goals made and finally our two "point" guards having a terrible assist to turnover ratio.

Let me throw out another number; 32.  What is the number you ask? Too high of an average minutes played for Wayne Selden.  He is quick sand, no matter how much he tries to climb out he gets deeper and deeper into trouble.  He doesn't help the team, he makes it worse.  Selden takes time away from someone who may actually try to win games and can score.

Let's keep playing this game…14.  That's the average amount of time a game that we are at a defensive struggle because Brannen Greene is on the floor.  The man is a defensive liability.  He gets burned on the first step by anyone who can dribble the ball to the goal.  My one year old nephew could beat Brannen Greene off the dribble!  The man should play when we need a last three point shot to win the game, that is all.

What Mr. Self should do: Sit them all!!!  When the Jayhawks were down 22 points with nine minutes left in the game, sit them and put the walk-ons on the court.  Not because we want to save whatever inability we have to score to rollover to the next game but because these children need to be taught that lack of scoring and turnovers doesn't warrant playing time, it warrants sitting on your a$$ at the end of the bench, time! These children think they can walk onto the court and blow anybody out!  FALSE!  You're KANSAS…everyone wants to beat the $h1t out of you!

One more number…212.  That is where KU ranks in field goal shooting percentage this year.  There are 351 NCAA basketball teams in the country today, we are only better than 60% of them.  You do the math.

The only good about this team is that they will all be returning next year, including Cliff Alexander.

Jell-O Pudding Pop Excitement!

So the Kansas basketball season began last week with an unimpressive win over UC-Santa Barbara.  Let's be honest here, they won 21 games and returns four starters; they looked good and Kansas looked subpar. With that in mind, I am more excited for tonight's game against the D-League Kentucky team.  They are going to be without a doubt the toughest competition Kansas faces this year and are picked to win the National Championship after only playing two games. 

What I would like to see:
1.  Perry Ellis extend the defense and maybe play a little hybrid 3/4 spot like Dirk.
2.  Limited turnovers from Frank Mason and Devonte Graham.  Need a better asset to turnover ratio than what we had in the first game.
3.  Aggressive rebounding from Jamari, Cliff, Hunter and Perry.  They have Cauley-Stein who is a seven footer who has only gotten better with his three years with Kentucky.  He is a machine and our smaller boys need to be aggressive.
4.  Svi start hitting his shots.  He is supposed to be the best shooter on the team, we are yet to see that.  Beautiful stroke but nothing seems to fall for him.  He needs to get into a rhythm and maybe calm down a bit.


What I expect to see:
1.  Perry Ellis taking more shots and getting to the line a lot more.  He has to stop being so soft and trying to finesse his points.  Drive to the hoop man get on the block and use your turn-around jumper.
2.  Jamari Traylor to start.  He is the most aggressive on the team and Bill would want to make sure Cauley-Stein and the rest of their big men can't get into a rhythm. 
3.  Turnovers to be plentiful.  Although Mason played quite a bit of minutes last year, he is still young and inexperienced.  He and Devonte are inevitably turn the ball over with Calipari's great defensive schemes.  Frank and Devonte need to make sure that if they turnover the ball, they cause one on the defensive end too. 
4.  A high scoring game.  This is going to be a shoot out, hopefully. Kansas can score as long as they hold on to their posessions.  Kentucky is going to score no matter what.  This is going to have highlight reel all over it tonight. 

Let me know what you would like to see and expectations for the game and I will be at Black Sheep Lodge in Austin cheering on our boys and of course hoping Duke loses somehow without Michigane State winning! 

ROCK CHALK!

March with a blindfold

Hey there,

I am so sorry for taking so long to get this first post of the season out but without further ado, here it is.

What I saw last night was painful, more painful than watching Walter spraying The Dude with Donny's ashes, you find it appalling but you can't turn away.  More painful than seeing the -21 degree weather in Minnesota!

What I saw was something that is going to get the Jayhawks' butts handed to them.  They don't make effort.  There is no desire to win and it seems that everyone passes to each other but they don't mesh with each other.  You see Tharpe making lazy passes to the wing, you see Wiggins shooting or driving without looking for the best opportunity, you see Embiid  and Ellis not hustling for rebounds, you see a team without flow and without passion.  Now this may be do to them being young but at what point do you just want to win as an athlete?  At what point does near defeat and being the first team to maybe not win the Big 12 become a catalyst to your hustle and your effort?   

I made a comparison the other day on The Book, of Andrew Wiggins and Xavier Henry.  So here it goes…Henry 14 ppg, Wiggins 16; Henry 46% FG, Wiggins 46%; Henry 5 rpg, Wiggins 6, Henry 42% 3pt, Wiggins 34%; Henry 79% FT, Wiggins 75%; Henry 36 games played, Wiggins 26 games played.  Henry 69 TO; Wiggins 53 TO.  Henry 1.9 ATO; Wiggins 2.0 ATO.

The final comparison I am going to make is yet to be determined but Tourney Results: Henry Second Round UNI; Wiggins TBD.  The point I am trying to make is the One and Done doesn't work in the Bill Self system.  He needs these kids to grow as players in his system, learn his system.  That is how Self won in 2008, that entire team had at least three years on the squad with one early ousting and an Elite Eight finish before that.  

Do we really need the number one recruit?  Does it help with winning?  I see it more as a hazard than a reward.  We need to give him the ball, he feels the need to live up to his hype, and he becomes a black hole where the other four guys on the court are just as capable as he is to make an impact.  One and Dones are worried about their draft day stock, not the team's best interest.  

I will leave you with this...

Season Over!

Well I guess it has come down to this, the Jayhawks have lost, again, as a number one seed earlier than the Final Four.  I hate to say it but this team has overachieved all season long and we need to face the facts that Michigan was a much underrated #4 seed.  Michigan at one point was actually ranked #1 in the country and well deserving of that ranking.  Trey Burke hit 45 foot threee-pointers that no one in their right mind could stop or even bother to guard.  This loss is definitely on Elijah Johnson's head but we knew he wasn't a big time player going into the game so I am surprised to see all the Facebook posts saying they are so upset, and are shocked by the loss, who are you kidding?

This loss should not be that heartbreaking.  Yes KU had a 10 point lead with 2 minutes left in the game, crazier things have happened in the tourney including KU's 2008 National Championship game.  It is a rough one to swallow but get over it, we lost to a far superior squad that we had on the ropes most of the game.  We should be happy that we even were in the game for so long.  Look at the bright side, Elijah is gone and we have Naadir Tharpe to look forward to...F*#@K!

Here is the kicker, this season's games were like a Channing Tatum movie; there were some good ones some bad ones but in the end you can't turn away because you know there is going to be some hot bitch making an appearance at some point on the screen.  Keep on trucking Jayhawk Fans and enjoy your time off from heartwrenching sports for awhile and cheer on the Lady Jayhawks against Notre Dame!  I will do another post here in a bit just to analyze the game because I am up way to early and got nothing better to do!

Enough!

Enough already! Iowa State fans really need to chill out, they are complaining about one questionable call in the entire 40 minutes of regulation play and bitching and moaning about a no-call where they thought should have been a charge but could have just as easily been a blocking call as well!  Here is the deal ISU fans; you guys are sad because you couldn't close out the Jayhawks.  You're not upset at the refs, you may think you are, but it is due to the fact that your team missed free throws at the end, your team didn't defend out hot hand at the end and when it came to overtime, your team was blown out the water! Be mad at the fact that you hocked up 41 three pointers which is nearly 60% of your shots.  Fatigue set in by OT and that is why your team had lost this game as well as any other overtime game your team had played.  Your team also allowed us to shoot 54% from the field while you shot 36% from the field.  Your team was NOT meant to win this game.  Another great part of this game is how just about every official call went ISU's way accept for that end of the game call.  There was a total of 27 total free throws to 34 total free throws taken in ISU's favor.  The foul distribution was 22 fouls for KU and 19 for ISU.  There was also a call in the middle of the second half where the officials were not sure which team goal tended a shot on KU's offensive end, and an ISU player literally went to the official, pointed to the jumbotron and the call went ISU's way after that.  When further replay was shown from ESPN's views, it was clearly an ISU player who had defensive goaltending and not Kevin Young.

So I say ISU fans and players, quit your bitching and throwing things at a team is not classy and the last time I saw a fan throw a cup or water bottle at a player, the fan got the shit beat out of him( see video here) ! So think before you act Ames, Iowa, we all know you are on meth but chill out!

What to do? What to do?

So obviously I am going to come out of hibernation after the Jayhawks have a second consecutive loss!   In all honesty, I am not mad about the issue but it is fun to debate on why it has occurred.  Before I start with my weird, analytic rant about what is going on, I strongly recommend readers to post their own thoughts on this page.  The more comments I get, the cooler I feel.  Thanks.

To start us off, the last three games Elijah Johnson and Naadir Tharpe (who I cannot stand!) have shot a combined total of 47 field goal attempts.  Of those 47 field goal attempts, 11 have been made.  That is a total of 23% shooting from the field.  Not so good for our two point guards.  To put that into perspective, Jeff Withey and Ben McLemore have combined for 62 field goal attempts and of those 32 have been made.  That is a combined percentage of roughly 52% shooting from the field.  And Travis Releford is on his own little island shooting 61% from the field for the season which is incredible!

It is obvious here to see where the real issues are.  Jeff Withey last night shot 6 field goal attempts and made 4 of them.  that is 66% for the game. The issue I have here is that he only had 6 attempts all game!  The shooting percentage shows that he wasn't having an issue scoring against TCU and he got to the foul line three times and made four of five from the line.  Why wasn't he getting more touches?  I can answer that for you, Elijah and Naadir!  They combined for 27 field goal attempts last night and made five.  Yes I said it, five!!!!!  That offensive production is terrible shooting 19% from the field.

What went wrong yesterday and even the day before is the inability for the point guards to know where the ball should be going and that it is a team effort, not the Elijah and Naadir show.  Travis needs to understand that he needs to take more of an initiative and try to score!  He shoots 61% from the field for the season leading the Big 12, grow a pair and try to win some games!  And now Naadir Tharpe, listen bud you suck!  If you are the future of KU Basketball, my hair will turn grey before the age of 30!  How do you think taking a long three point jumper with 4 minutes left when we are down 4 and feeling as a team is a good idea?  Not only did you miss it terribly but it took away all momentum the team had and they scored on the other end of the court bringing their lead from 4 to 6.  Poor decision making by guards and lack of touches for Withey, that is where our issue lies.

Jayhawks in Europe!

The sickest video I have ever seen! I was a little worried about how the Jayhawks would look coming off of such an astonishing season!  They look incredible!  Once Jeff Withey hits that 15 foot jumper from the top of the key, I just smiled.  He is finally coming into his own and we are going to see an amazing offensive turnover for him this season.  His offensive rebounding in this video really makes me happy and the fact that he dunks the put-back instead of falls away with some weird finger roll BS, makes me even more a believer.  He will be one of the top centers in the entire country by the end of the season.  Perry Ellis and Ben McLemore, Studs!!  Releford's dunk at the end, awesome.  He will be an interesting player to watch to see how he deals with a larger role and a need for him to score!  Let's hope he actually gets some PT!

Lastly, the pre-game video gives me crazy chills.  Watch it and if you don't need a change of underwear afterwards, you are not a true Jayhawks fan!  Get ready, this is is going to be an exciting basketball season!

Danny Manning is a goofy...what?!

So this week, ESPN.com reported that Danny Manning, Kansas' assistant coach and anchor to the team, will be leaving Lawrence for the University of Tulsa Head Coaching job. I get an email from my sister saying "Huh?" with major exclamation point usage. Here is the thing is that Danny is a genius when it comes to teaching big men and holding a team together whether it be ridiculous egos or just stupid (Tyshawn Taylor and the Morris Twins all around) so he deserves a head coaching job. Now we all expected him to take over when Billy Self left but Manning has only been an assistant for 5 years now and you can't just hand over a head coaching job like Kansas to someone who's top spot has been as an assistant, that doesn't happen. So I believe it to be a great move if Manning were to take this job because it puts him on track to one day take the Kansas job. Now let's go through some funny speculating tools shall we?

Similarities between Self and Manning (Based on Manning taking the Tulsa Job):

Self was an assistant under Larry Brown at Kansas. Larry Brown won a National Championship with Manning, Self was not on the staff at that point but Manning was on the team with Self.

Manning is an assistant on Self's team and won a Nationalal Championship with him. Both Self and Manning have learned under a National Championship winning coach.

From there, self went to Oral Roberts. No similarities but only spent two seasons there and went to University of Tulsa where he coached three seasons and giving them their best season ever with their first ever Elite Eight appearance.

If Manning goes to Tulsa, the sky is the limit and I guarantee he will do wonders with that program.

Those are really the only similarities that are interesting to me! If you have any more, please add them to the comments section. Contrary to popular belief, people other than my friends read this thing.

Also this will be my last post before the Final Four, obviously, so let's go Hawks!! I am jealous of all the people going to Lawrence and NOLA for the weekend, but I will be celebrating a wonderful wedding for a great friend instead!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

I'm not one to complain but...

So here is this thing, everyone fans and athletes alike, complain about reffing of games. Anyone who has ever played a sport in their entire lives whether it range from basketball to track and field has complained about some sort of officiating problem. I myself have complained so much that in one season of basketball, I was ejected from every game due to the fact that I received two technical fouls in every game! In my defense, it was really only a ten game season. However, recently I see myself complaining a lot about refs in NCAA Men's Basketball. Whether it be a bulls**t offensive charging call on Thomas Robinson or just the fact that last night UNC-Ashville was screwed out of two points because of a no golatending call and then with 34 seconds left in the game, the referees declared that UNC-Ashville touched the ball last before it went out of bounds when it was clearly touched by a Syracuse player. UNC-Ashville was only down three points and the time and one point was taken because of a lane violation and a possession was taken away because the ref missed the tipped out of bounds call. Now I understand that human error is just the nature of the beast when it comes to officiating however, you need to realize that these officials have drastically changed the course of the game. It would be like giving a kid a Popsicle and then right before they are about to eat and enjoy it, you grabbed it from them and tell them they didn't do anything wrong but the kid across the street deserves it more.

The second complaint I have with officiating is that lack of consistency. Last night, my lovely girlfriend and I were watching the Iowa State UCONN game and she even noticed how ridiculous the skewed foul shooting was in favor of UCONN. When she said something, the fouls for ISU were 3 taken compared to UCONN's 15 taken. Now I can understand the argument that UCONN is a better defensive team but the problem I have is they were down 22 points at one point and becoming more aggressive on the defensive end would eventually have the offense, in this case ISU, draw some fouls. Now the refs obviously down the stretch, made sure that the foul distribution was the same but the foul distribution is a number that can be misleading. We need a new foul tracker that shows shooting fouls compared to on the floor fouls. This will inform everyone on how the officiating really is because when a team that is popular like UCONN gets to the line 12 times more than the other team and is down by as much as they were, there is something not right. Shooting fouls are obviously more detrimental to the opposing team than on the floor fouls, and the refs were literally giving UCONN free shots at the basket. Ridiculous!

Cancel Border War Football Game!

The talk around town of Mizzou leaving the Big 12 conference has been as big of a deal as ABC canceling my favorite show Flash Forward; Yes I am going to miss it but, it really doesn't hurt me and the network whatsoever! If Mizzou leaves I won't say good riddance because the 100+ year rivalry is quite significant being the second oldest in the nation, however I don't care to lose that football game. Mizzou and Kansas don't really benefit from the game because most of the revenue goes straight to Arrowhead Stadium. Then the remaining is split between the schools in the Big 12 and Kansas and Mizzou. Once Mizzou leaves, which won't hurt the conference either, we will be able to build stronger ties with another school and create another rivalry for down the future. As stated by Dodds, the U of Texas athettic director "Mizzou brings no substantial financial means to the conference, we are no better with them than we would be without them...West Virginia has been a top 25 school for years in football and basketball, where does Mizzou lye? I agree Dodds, you are the man! Peace out Mizzou Tigers! What is even funnier is that, while writing this post, I read an opinion article in Mizzou's school newspaper and it says that "Border War showdowns pack Arrowhead Stadium every November with fans from both schools. Turning this into a nonconference event would only further its relative impact on overall revenue for both schools. Kansas realizes this, but it’s as if the Jayhawks care more about wishing Missouri good riddance than protecting its age-old rivalry". This is not true at all your school is the one that thinks they are better and too good for the Big 12! Your school is the arrogant school that feels they deserve more than what the Big 12 is offering! You are idiots and just like a little hot blonde girl who wants attention from their friends when she is leaving an awesome party for no apparent reason! No body cares you attention craving bimbos!

Good luck Mizzou and if you think we are going to sit by and pray for you to change your mind, you are smoking the meth that Columbia is so well-known for!

Anyone else as excited as I am?

So tonight is Late Night in the Phog! One of the most anticipated events in the nation for college basketball! And the most recent news; Ben McLemore and Jamari Traylor have just been declared ineligible for the season and can only practice after the Fall semester. So there ya have it, they will probably stay for next year which is fine but they get no PT this year...sucks for them. As for the rest of the Jayhawks, I am so excited to see what we come up with! Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor and company are going to bring the house down! We will not be starting any Freshman and we don't need to worry about Selbyitus and worry about him getting his playing time. Let's go through out starting five:

Tyshawn Taylor
Thomas Robinson
Elijah Johnson
Travis Releford
Jeff Withey

By the way you hear it here first, Jeff Withey is our X factor and he is going to dominate in the paint now that he has a couple of years under Self and Manning. Just watch he is on the "Golden Globe" watch list!

Here we go again...!

So there has been a lot of speculation on Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 for the SEC today. I decided to write a post about what will happen if Texas A&M decides to bolt for the bigger, better SEC. Let's see here...nothing! Texas A&M is jealous of what University of Texas has; a strong fan base, a strong football program, high profile boosters, and pretty much all of Texan's support. Making the decision to leave the Big 12 where they had some small share of the football market and go to the SEC where Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, LSU, Arkansas, and Georgia whom all have high profile football programs! They must be the dumbest run athletic department ever! If they hate being in Texas' shadow in the Big 12, how are they going to make a name for themselves in a conference with all those high profile football programs? A&M has no pull in the Big 12 and in all honesty I don't think the Big 12 would care if A&M left. They have no conference championships, no national titles nothing to contribute to the conference at all! It was like losing Colorado to the Pac-10, who cares? All we would really lose are the camouflage wearing, weirdos that went to A&M! Is that a loss? Not in my mind! Now think about realignment...? Would the conference break up, I don't think so however if Big 12 splits up could be interesting.

Here is what I think the new conference would look like:

Big 12: UT, KU,KSU,OU,OSU,Baylor,ISU, BYU, UHouston, Memphis,Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame(This is a long shot obviously).

Mario is the "Big Three"

So here is the thing; the Miami Heat didn't win the NBA Finals, woohoo! However, one thing we did see is how well Mario Chalmers can play and how Mike Bibby was a terrible trade for them and they needed to utilize Mario more, if that was even possible! Mario Chalmers did an amazing job as the Point Guard for a team that was obviously not looking to pass very much. Mario made clutch three pointers as well as some great passes and rebounds. He looked amazing against a Dallas team that could have easily made him irrelevant in the series! Let me know throw some numbers at ya! 40% thats what he shot from 3-point range! 44% that was his field goal percentage for the entire post season! These numbers don't even show the shots that were clutch, i.e. the game where he hit the tying three with 12 seconds left! Come on!! A guy who doesn't even start should not have the gull to take a shot like that but he did and he made it! He is just as important to the heat as Lebron (choke artist) James and Dwyane (How did he make that) Wade! Notice no mention of Chris (I look like my old team's mascot) Bosh? Anyway I just wanted to inform everybody that I was routing for Mario to get a ring as long as Dallas won the Finals, which if you are scratching your head right now which I know some of you are, is not possible. Go Dallas and thank god Miami didn't win like I said they wouldn't at the beginning of the season! You all heard me...maybe!!

T-Rob is the man!

Since the season has ended, I have only written one column and it was about a jerk of a coach...today I will write about someone who is not only a great player but a great person as well (from what I read, I don't know him personally). Thomas Robinson seems like a guy who knows exactly what he wants out of life. After reading an article on Rivals.com written by Jason King (article)where T-Rob actually says he wants a legacy at the University of Kansas and he has not achieved that legacy quite yet. He seems determined to better himself as a basketball player and understand that it isn't just about the money it is about succeeding in life and money does not prove succession.

So enough with the money and his legacy, he also understands that becoming better at the game is important in furthering his career in the sport. He informed the entire world that he realizes that there may be an NBA lockout next year which means no training camps. What 20 year old kid is thinking about training camps when there is money and girls? T-Rob that's who! Robinson mentioned that the NBA lockout pretty much scares him because he will lose out on an entire off season of training. He mentioned that he is so lucky to be able to come back one more year and learn even more from Danny Manning, the best bigs coach in the country (and soon to be head coach elsewhere). I agree with him. Why not stay another year learn from Danny Manning a little bit more and even increase his draft stock and maybe clear the NBA lock out, if there is one?

Let me remind you all that Thomas Robinson has a little sister who he is the only one responsible for. He lost his mother during the 2010-11 season and now his sister is living with him in Lawrence. This young man actually turned down a possibility of a lot of money and take a chance when he has bigger responsibilities than just basketball!! He is incredible! I look forward to seeing him on the court next year and I hope we win one for him and no one else!

The problem with the world today...

So I am sure that all of you were patiently waiting for me to do a season follow up but since I don't want to do it because it would be me just reiterating what I have been saying all season long, I decided to write about something that plagues college basketball, John Calipari. If even of you know me and talk basketball with me then you know I hate that man with a passion! I hate him more than the Dude hates Jackie Treehorn! John Calipari is the slimiest of slime balls in college basketball! So I am going to throw out some numbers to you real quick: 3; that is the amount of college programs he has worked with: 3; that is the amount of programs he has taken to the final four: 2; that is the amount of programs, that after he has left, had to deal with NCAA investigations and sanctions. Therefore, 2 of the 3 programs he has/is working at, the 3rd being Kentucky where he is now, has had NCAA violations. Does anyone see a pattern here? Let's do some more numbers shall we? 24; that is the number of McDonald's All American Roster. 4; that is the number of McDonald's All Americans that are going to Kentucky with Calipari. That is the most by one team in this year's game! Last year he got 3 Mcyd's All Americans. Now what is weird is that everyone knows that top recruits like these don't commit somewhere until they know that they can start or are filling a major void in the roster. Since all 3 Kentucky All Americans are Freshman and starters, what void is there to fill? Why have these recruits already committed to Kentucky? $$$$$$$$$!

Lastly, Jay Z visiting the Kentucky locker room after they advanced to the Final Four. Jay Z is probably more to blame than Calipari but Cal didn't have to let him in? Cal probably wanted him to come in to show to possible recruits that they come one year to Kentucky, win for him, they will go pro and meet people like Jay Z. Cal is using the Jay Z stunt as a fricking recruiting tool!

Now I just read that a man from the Kansas ticket scandal just received 46 months in jail for scalping Kansas basketball and football tickets and not claiming the income on his taxes! 4 years in the slammer for scalping?!!! Calipari has taken two schools into NCAA infractions and has caused them serious problems after he has left and for some odd reason he keeps getting jobs! Derrick Rose, who is the man, shouldn't have even been eligible for Memphis basketball but he played. UMASS and Marcus Camby accepted money from agents and their Final Four, just like Memphis', was vacated! Two schools lost Final Four appearances for the time that Calipari was head coach. I ask again, can we see where Kentucky is headed?

Pre-game warmup!

Listen here!

Does this really happen?

So I know everyone complains about referees in college basketball and I know everyone at the end of the day tends to blame them for some of the problems on the court, I do this more than anybody and I know my past basketball teams can attest to that! But I was watching the Duke-Arizona game last night and I could not believe my eyes! Within the last ten minutes of play, there was a something to the tune of 7 fouls called. Now that may not seem a lot however I can almost guarantee that 5 of them went against Arizona. Now the funny thing is, Arizona won this by a large amount of points no matter what so my question to you my ten maybe 11 readers is "did the refs really call all those fouls because they believed them to be true or did they just call them to try and give Duke a fighting chance?" Now I ask this only because I got this feeling last night that Coach K was moaning and groaning about calls and the refs started to give them to him. Let's put it into prospective shall we? KU-UCLA game. This game was determined by foul shooting at the end of regulation because a UCLA player bumped Mario Little trying to shoot. Now there is no question that it was a foul! No question at all!! But do you think KU got the call because it is KU? Do you think if it were say...Quin Snyder, he would have gotten the call? That's the question I ask all of you. Do Blue Chip programs get more calls then mid-tier programs? Does the fact that Coach K is Coach K help him get more from the refs? Also, think of it this way. Coach K is never ever yelling at players or refs, he keeps his cool. Does that make him likable by the refs thereby creating some sort of weird mood towards giving Coach K what he wants compared to Frank Martin? Who wins in a fight? Coach K or Frank Martin? Thankful, Arizona still won last night otherwise I would have more to say! Rock Chalk Jayhawks tonight. I will be missing the game due to management class but everyone enjoy...it should turn out to be a good one.

Magic Number 51!!!

So here is the thing about today's regular season finale; it was a great game and a great learning experience before tournament play! Why you might ask? "We had a fifteen point lead man what are you talking about" you may say. Well let's see why we blew a fifteen point lead and the problem was the reffing. The referees of today's game decided to not let there be any flow to the game. By that I mean, it was hard for the Jayhawks to get a rhythm because every five seconds or so there would be a foul called, either on KU or Mizzou. The referees called a total of 51 fouls in today's game!!! 51!!!!!! Now let's put that into perspective. There is a total of 40 minutes played in a college basketball. Has it clicked yet? That's right that means there was an average of 1.27 fouls called for every minute of game play. When the clock stops that much, even the best basketball player in the world can't get into a good game rhythm. So why was this a learning experience? We found out how to overcome the lack of flow and still pull out a tremendous win! We shot poorly, compared to our season average but the other team shot much worse! Trent Tucker once had a infamous line, "If the (input team name here Jake Smith) scores more points than the other team, they will win this game". That is exactly what the Jayhawks found out to do today. They realized that since their shooting was not up to par, they made sure that the other team shot much worse! I am excited for next week as ya'll should be too! Let's go Jayhawks!

Uhhhh!!! What?!!!

So if you are reading this either like my ridiculous sinism or that you believe in everything I am saying so here it goes...The question I have is what the hell is going on? I spoke with a friend at half time and we both were thinking the same thing, "Curse of the #1 ranking". Funny thing, Ohio State had a good run at the top! My friend is a KU alum but he is from Memphis, do you think he was thinking the same thing with Memphis when they were ranked at the top? NO!!!!! KU has a curse and it is the #1 ranking. For some odd reason, we play very poorly when it comes to a number one ranking and the most recent example, tonight! I love my Jayhawks but the question is, "is it the players or the coaching staff" because watching this game tonight the entire team looked like they could care less if they won this game. No I propose a question to you! Whose fault is that? I say Bill Self. Now wait before everyone jumps down my throat until you read my explanation. The Morris twins looked lazy and they thought they could just walk into this game. Poor shot selection and the fact that the fouls were pretty much guaranteed to happen when K-state was on their offensive side and here we are with one time out left and KU is down 18 points! I blame Self! Always have always will. Bill Self may be the worst "in-game" adjustment maker to win a National Championship I have seen in my 26 years of living. Is he a good coach? Sure. Is he the best? Far from it! The problem I see watching this game, listen up because this is why I am not a coach but a blogger, is that Self can't give his teams sense of urgency in their games. A sense of "we need this win"! I think the players take a lot of the mentality of the coach and I believe our coach is thinking "we are Kansas no one can beat us". I urge you KU fans to take a look at the game and try to figure out, for yourself, what adjustments were made in the game to stop the KSU offense. Nothing! Given they hit some ridiculous shots but if it weren't for the first half, this team wouldn't have the confidence. Also, with the fact that he took out the Morris twins with 7:30 left in the game may have been the best "in game" decision he has made. Teach them a lesson! Sorry so long! Also, Marcus keep your mouth shut! :I like being number one because we get everyone's best shot and I like the chip on our shoulder". Really budyy, really? Jacob Pullen put up his best effort congrats! Is this team great? They could be! Is Bill Self good? Maybe. At this level it is coaching and coaching is what makes a team great. Sorry if you don't agree and you think this is a joke. Just my thoughts obviously nothing more. Oh yeah and defense. KSU shot 57% from the field just in case you were curious and shot at least four more foul shots with the same amount of fouls than KU.

The answer is...NO!

I guess the way to start off this recent post is that KU just lost to Texas at home in Allen Fieldhouse. If you are a fan, you would know that KU doesn't lose to often at home and this would have been #70 in a row! This number was obviously not achieved. The question that holds the answer for this blog title is,"Is this team going to make it anywhere?" As I said, the answer is no. This may be one of the deepest, most talented teams KU has everyone see but talent doesn't equal a national championship. Let's take a look at the last time we lost at home, which was February 3, 2007 against Texas A & M. Almost three full years since we lost in Allen Fieldhouse. Now let's go through what team that was shall we? Darnell Jackson, Mario Chalmers, Russel Robinson and all the greats we had for the 2007-08 National Championship team! Now how far did we go in the tourney? The Elite 8! Now that is respectable since we lost to the National Champion Runners Ups, UCLA. The problem we have is here is the same problem we had that year as well as last, the mentality of a national championship team! We were up 15 points at one point which became 11 at half time. We didn't score in the first three minutes in the second half everyone on the floor looked like they just got done at Peking Taste's Chinese Buffet!! Tired and worn down and could care less if they lost this game or not. Little do they know that there are expectations as a Jayhawk. You must win at home! You must be humble and realize you are not a "god". Bill Self and his crew this year has not instilled this practice to this team of Juniors. This team has no idea what they are doing and they have no clue what is in store for them down the road. If they can't beat Texas at home how are they going to beat K-State at all? Mizzou? Forget about it. This team has an extreme hubris to it where they think they are untouchable. This loss was inevitable and Self along with the rest of the team needs to reevaluate what is going on during practices. We don't need Tyshawn starting. We don't need Selby hocking up threes every chance he gets! We just don't need this bulls**t that has become this arrogant, conceded, cocky team that they are!! This team, if they don't change and establish a humbleness that is needed and a will to "put teams away", will not get past the second round when we again play a scrappy team from the Missouri Valley Conference. By the way this conference ha ended KU's dreams earlier than expected; Bradley and UNI are two examples! I am drunk writing this so if you don't like it, tough! Post your comments.