Shane Life

Photo courtesy of KUSports.com by Thad Allender.

It’s always fun to watch your favorite college basketball team smack your arch-nemesis in the face for 26 minutes of a game. The other 14 minutes were not nearly as fun. But I thought that what Bill Self told his team toward the tail-end of Carolina’s run was just great coaching:

“Hey, if I told you before the game we were going to be up nine with 10 minutes left, would we have taken that? If I told you we’d be up four at the under-eight timeout, would you have taken that?”

Perspective. That’s all it took for the Jayhawks to snap out of their funk and finish the job they’d started at the beginning of the game. The Roy demons are exorcised. Maybe we can lay that bad blood to rest and begin to honor a man who spent 15 years making Kansas a perennial contender in college basketball instead of booing him when he’s announced before games.

Tonight’s final is going to be a terrific game. Memphis has some terrific players, but Kansas is a better team. If Kansas can play as good as they did for 2/3 of the game on Saturday, I think we’ll see crimson and blue streamers tonight. If their defensive intensity remains high, I believe they’ll succeed. If not, Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts will play their game. Those two players are the only ones who present significant match-up problems for the Jayhawks.

And don’t give me that Joey Dorsey stuff. KU is just too deep at the post for him to be nearly as effective as he was against the Kevin Love Show. Love isn’t tough and he refused to contest Dorsey underneath. We’ll call him “Darrell Arthur”. But KU has Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Cole Aldrich who will be more than enough to combat Dorsey underneath.

I imagine that the Jayhawk fan in me is starting to cloud my vision a little, but I think KU is the toughest match-up Memphis will have faced up to this point. Two great teams will clash tonight and I am hoping for that celebration in Lawrence.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

As much as I despise Florida and its All-Ugly Forward Joakim Noah, I’m more disappointed in KU getting bounced from the tournament last weekend than in Florida’s repeat (and subsequent discussion of it being one of the best college teams ever).

I can’t figure out how a dude as ugly as Noah is being considered a first-round NBA pick…that guy is NO GOOD. He will stink in the NBA. Mark my words.

Not only that, I can’t figure out why scouts have Brandon Rush and Julian Wright both bouncing from KU to the NBA this off-season. In my opinion, Rush is the only one that could even consider it, but he stands to make a lot more money if he sticks around for a year. His stock could rise significantly (see: Corey Brewer, Florida) if he were to stay and lead the Jayhawks to their first championship in almost 20 years next year.

If both Rush and Wright return, we should be the pre-season #1. If we aren’t, I’ll be convinced that there are people voting that just don’t watch college basketball. For the first 2 rounds of the tournament, no one acted more like a #1 seed than my beloved Jayhawks. After a gritty performance against a tough Southern Illinois team, it was really a let down to see them self-destruct in a way to UCLA. And then, seeing UCLA get dominated by Florida was all the more frustrating, considering that we matched up much better against the Gators.

I think that Sherron Collins knee injury likely had a lot more to do with the loss than we thought, and I am anxious to see how he performs as a seasoned sophomore. Here’s hoping he keeps his weight down because when he lost that 20 pounds, he was KU’s X-factor.

Even if Rush and Wright both go to the NBA, Bill Self will just reload with a bunch more studs. I would just really like to see us play more together as a team than we seemed to in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. The coming weeks will be interesting and here’s hoping that everyone sticks around to make a run at greatness.

And here’s hoping that I never have to watch Joakim Noah dance ever again. Seriously. That dude got hit by the #1 Ugly Bus when he was crossing Main Street in Uglytown.

Another basketball season, another first-round exit by the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament.

To be totally honest, I never felt really good about this game. In my pool, I almost picked Bradley (almost doesn’t count does it), instead of taking KU to the Elite Eight. Fortunately, I don’t have them out any further than that.

I’m still in decent shape as long as I don’t miss very many more games. Right now, I’m sitting at unlucky number 13, but if today goes well (and I need some help from Georgetown for that to happen), I shouldn’t be sitting too poorly going into the next weekend of the tournament.

I am hoping that with KU out of it, I can look at the tournament a little more rationally. Not that it matters much…I just wouldn’t mind taking home that 65%.

Right now in my NCAA bracket, I’m 7th. I only missed 3 games yesterday and none of them were of major importance (Indiana, LSU, Alabama). I haven’t lost a Sweet 16 team yet, which is a first for me. I almost lost 2 Final Four teams (BC and Gonzaga), but they both escaped.

I’m not counting on winning, but it sure would be nice. There are 117 people in our pool at $10 each…winner gets 65%.

You do the math.

Figure this one out:

KU beats Oklahoma on Sunday. Oklahoma was ranked #18, I think. They beat Colorado who is ranked #25. KU is ahead of both of them in the Big 12 standings (behind only Texas), but for some reason, KU isn’t ranked.

Methinks the pollsters are not watching the Big 12 closely.

At least Andy Katz has them in Bracketology, listed as a #6 seed. That sounds about right (Oklahoma is a #6 as well and Colorado is a #10). Inconspicuously absent? Missouri. Quin is done after this year.

UPDATE: Is it any wonder why Missouri isn’t ranked? Losing by 26 to BAYLOR. Pathetic.

First it was the Chiefs.

Now, for some reason unbeknownst to me, my Jayhawks are struggling to find wins, losing their third straight game last night (something that had not happened since 1994). I’m not worried so much about the streak…it’s just a streak. What I’m worried about is the utter lack of urgency with this team. Well, that and the lack of a true scorer.

Langford could be considered a scorer, but when you are more of a slasher and you go to the line a lot and then MISS YOUR FREE THROWS, that doesn’t really help. Simien was shut down by Kevin Bookout and Oklahoma couldn’t miss in the first half.

15+ turnovers doesn’t help much either.

So what’s wrong with the Jayhawks. Self thinks it’s the seniors’ faults, but I think that the issue is that we still don’t have a SOLID lineup that can be put on the floor and not screw up. While it was nice to see Giddens get out of his shooting funk a little bit last night and for Galindo to see some minutes again, both those players are absolute disasters on the defensive end of the floor.

I blame the NBA. No one cares about defense anymore. Except Kelvin Sampson and his Sooners who put the clamps down on the Jayhawks in the first half, thus eliminating their ability to score and destroying their confidence. They couldn’t recover and now KU is 0-3 in its last three games.

NOT GOOD.