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.

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!