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!