Sometimes life is bitter.
UK beat us down bad. They were a tall, unprecedentedly deep, Nike-stack that had aleady played 7 games BEFORE they met us.
Temple reduced us to babies. That was REALLY bitter. They were just a good solid Fran Dunphy bunch on a good night.
But the Jarhead Jayhawks kept their boots on and kept marching, and learning how to fight.
But along the way they got ambushed in Ames. They got stalemated the first half, and then subjected to a combination of artillery barage and grade school cherry picking. It was VERY bitter.
But the helmets stayed buckled. And their Gunny, Sergeant Mason, seemed to say, "When you can't retreat and you are shot at and hit, and shit at and missed, then there is no where to go but forward.
The gunny kept taking his orders from the C.O on the bench. He kept implementing. He kept steady. Didn't point fingers Didn't blame anyone. Kept leading. Kept waiting for the platoon to get it. Kept keeping them alive amidst the shelling and punkings.
They learned how to march in step, and they learned how to fight dirty inside, and how to pull the lanyard on their four gun battery of 75 Howitzers outside--learned how to fire! fire for effect!!!
On the march went. After they had learned how to play dirty inside, and how bring the outside artillery, they spent a game or two learning to run KU's centers end to end--to run the asses off the enemies centers--to beat them to both ends and do damage before the enemy arrived.
And then, just when they seemed to be ready to tear the ass end out of a rhinoceros, the schedulers threw them a 3 in 6.
A 3 in 6 is a mini campaign. It is an effort that has to be viewed as coordinated series of interlinked battles. What one does in game 1 has an unescapable cascade effect on games 2 and 3. And so on.
The Gunny knows this. The C,O. confides in the Gunny in a way he does not in the other players. The Gunny has to walk the line. The Gunny has to manage. He has to know what the weaknesses are, yet not make the platoon focus on them. It all has to seem as simple as one game at a time. The platoon just has to understand that during each game, different match ups will occur, and so different platoon members will be expected to carry out different tasks. But only the Gunny knows how and how much the platoon will sacriiced in some situations, and how much it will be conserved in certain situations. Because the last thing a Gunny needs is a Jarhead Jayhawk thinking to much about the big picture, when it is the task at hand that enables any one to survive long enough for the big picture to matter.
The Gunny is alone in much of what he knows. And the Gunny knows that the C.O. is not telling him everything either. A campaign means Jarhead Jayhawks operate on a need to know basis. Loose lips during games sink ships. Loose lips during media meetings sink ships. The Jarhead Jayhawks need their ships to get from Game 1, to Game 2. and now to Game 3.
Game 1 saw everyone play.
Game 2 saw a long bench.
At that point the Jarhead Jayhawks are ready go on the offensive, but they have to be careful. While they could have been running on fumes for game 3, had the CO and the Gunny and the platoon failed to manage the fighting for a maximum effort in Game 3, they are not running on full either. They are somewhere in between. The Gunny is likely almost as tired as if the CO and he had not managed the first two games so well. The rest of the players are fresh, and 2-o, largely because the Gunny sacrificed his legs for them.
The Gunny never rests.
Game 3 is the best the CO could have hoped for. Its on friendly wood. The crowd will be at full volume. ISU knows KU is gunning for them. ISU knows it is meeting a bunch of Jarhead Jayhawks that are rounding into a team--a fighting force.
But in the gray area between 3 in 6 fumes and 3 in 6 fresh, lies the twi-light zone of a young, fairly rested team with a tired Gunny.
This ISU game is the greatest test of Frank Mason's young life. If he were rested, he would go through them like crap through a goose. But he isn't.
Part of the fatigue is his body. But he has been on the ragged edge physically many times. The other part is mental fatigue. Concentrating on leading is taxing. The Gunny is this team's Sergeant Rock. But even Sergeant Rock has his limits.
The Gunny has no choice but to press on. Eat right. Stay hydrated. Rest and stretch. Walk among the cock sure platoon and remain the stoic rock that he has been. Not let on how tired he is. Take strength in knowing...
Fred is gnashing his teeth.
Fred knew the schedule favored him big time, since ISU only had to play 3 in 9.
But then Self emptied the bench vs. TCU.
And then Self long benched KSU.
And now Self's green wood will be fresh for at least a half, maybe a whole game, if only the Gunny can focus, play undercontrol, do...his...job.
Fred is drywashing hands.
But Fred is a survivor, too.
Now he is hoping that a bunch of KU guys get sick with whatever Oubre had against TCU.
Praying really.
And the Gunny is thinking, it doesn't matter now. Whoever is sick has to play. There will be week to feel rotten afterwards. And you can be sure that it will be the Gunny's eyes that make the platoon play, if the whole platoon takes sick. The green wood knows the Gunny played the big minutes the first two games. The green wood knows the Gunny is going to do the same in Game 3. Campaigns build to single decisive battles. Monday night in Allen Field House there will be a decisive battle.
Fred knows the same thing.
And Fred has reason to worry.
Because if KU isn't fundamentally disadvantaged someway, somehow, Fred knows walking into Allen Field House will be like giving his Cyclones a zinc acid bath.
Fred needs an edge, because he doesn't have any guys the equivalent our guys.
Not his first 5. Not his first 7. Not his first 9. Not his first 10.
Fred has nothing but two trey guns and a bunch of NBA sets.
Fred, welcome to zinc acid.
