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For some time now, at least once during every single game we play, one of the announcers will comment about how Bill Self has more Conference Championships than home losses.

I thought I'd become desensitized to that talk until I actually started thinking about it.

That is one CRAZY statistic!! It would be crazy no matter if it were TWO conference championships with one home loss, or 500 conference championships with 499 home losses. No matter how you crunch the numbers, having more conference championships than home losses is insane.

Keep up the insanity Bill !!

@nuleafjhawk

I used to always like hearing that statement made by announcers... until they started adding in other crapola:

"Is this the year? Is this the year that someone else in the Big 12 steps up and takes the crown from Kansas? Many have predicted that this is not the usual Kansas team, and there are several really good teams now in the Big 12. Blah... blah... blah..."

Okay. Notice how none of these announcers take personal credit (now) for predicting someone else takes the crown? The weasels always speak about it in 3rd person. I'd like to hear one of them admit they screwed up again and didn't pick Kansas.

I know there is a lot of basketball yet to be played. Just one loss in a game we should win would put us back with ISU and WVU. But let's get real... much of the media had painted us out of the picture by now. We were supposed to lose in Waco and Austin, too. Texas was supposed to clean our clock. Rick Barnes was suddenly transformed from being the nicest coach in the Big 12 to the most fierce.

I'm loving every second of this! If we go on to winning #11, I think this will be my most-satisfying conference crown ever!

Please.... I know there are some capable fans in this forum.

Can someone find some video footage of announcers predicting we go down this year and post it in here?

I'd love to RECOGNIZE these fine a-holes that targeted Kansas.

@drgnslayr

Here is Seth Greenberg picking ISU and KU ↗with the sleeper being Texas...of course this was before KU put the hurt on Texas.

Here is an ESPN story ↗ where analysts are jumping back on the KU wagon...big effin' surprise...

@JayHawkFanToo

Thanks for the links.

I just did a rough search... and I can't really find "experts" not picking us. If none did, then the hype against us was formulated out of thin air. Gee... what a surprise!

Greenberg didn't really pick us not to win. Just mentioned that ISU and KU were his top picks. Guess his sleeper is still sleeping!

@drgnslayr

If you go back to the pre-season and start of the season, particularly after the UK game, Texas, OU and ISU were the the teams picked to win the conference.

If anyone has 10 minutes of tape after the Temple broadcast, an East Coast Guru was saying no chance that KU wins or shares the Crown. Texas and Oklahoma are the class of the Big 12.

@drgnslayr I'd like to see tape of Niang saying the big 12 was theirs, believe it was last summer.

Most of our arguments this year have been about changing the offense to get the most out of our personnel. We just always assume that the defense will always be here as long as Self is here. We have lower stats than ever before but the most positive sign yet this year was when the first half ended against K-State and they had only scored 17 points. If we are not shooting great, then we have to rely on defense. Don't ever blame Coach for not covering all the bases.
If we're hitting 4 out of 5 threes, then all is well. If we're not, we need this man's constant emphasis on doing your job on defense. Recently, all this talk about Cliff getting more minutes goes away when we go back and look at the tape and say, "Yeah, I guess he is hurting us more by being in the game and not blocking out on free throws, not getting back on defense and not bringing his MOTOR." IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MOTOR! All other things will take care of themselves if energy is there.

@Crimsonorblue22

Are you thinking of OU's Hield?

!HieldComment.JPG ↗

And Niang's response?

!HieldNiang.JPG ↗

@nuleafjhawk If KU wins # 11, that is approaching Coach Wooden type ish right there. Legendary.
ps. not trying to jinx it.

@Lulufulu

During the Ames ESPN GAME DAY, Jay Bilas indicated the the current streak is one of the bigger accomplishments in sports. Considering the level of competition in today's game, I would say that it is a lot more difficult to do it now than it was in the Wooden era when there were not as many capable teams as there are now.

@drgnslayr said:

I'm loving every second of this! If we go on to winning #11, I think this will be my most-satisfying conference crown ever!

If we win #11, it should be the most satisfying ever, because this team is still very young and the B12 is so good from top to bottom. Still a LONG way to go. We are in a good position, but haven't played WVU yet. Still have some tough rematches.

Love the way the team is finding it's identity (and HCBS is accepting that identity, as foreign as it may be to him).

Nice article by Myron Medcalf on ESPN about the win and the streak. ↗

@Lulufulu This may be simplifying it way too much, but my feeling is that in Wooden's era - if you were a superstar player you went to UCLA. Period. Wooden kind of cornered the market on what would be OAD's today.

Now there are an incredible amount of gifted players, enough so that almost every team has at least one. With so much talent everywhere, it makes what Self has done seem beyond possibility.

@JayHawkFanToo - Sorry - Guess if I had read a little further I wouldn't have posted almost exactly the same thing as you did !

What distinguishes Self's run of conference titles is that he has done it without having more than one season with a potential Hall of Fame type player.

Self had Wiggins one season.

Wooden had Jabbar for 3 seasons and Walton for 3 seasons.

Wooden was very lucky to get those two because there is apparently no evidence UCLA was paying more for top talent than many other programs.

There is a reverse to Self's accomplishment, however.

Self has never had to contend with any program keeping a top talent on the team three seasons the way Wooden had to in his time. Durant was only at UT one season, not three.

All this stuff cuts both ways.

What Self is doing is great. Like Wooden he has won with more talent than everyone in his conference.

Both are great coaches.

And Self is just entering his 50-60 age when Wooden had his great run.

Self only needs to win 9 more rings to catch Wooden. He got one ring long before Wooden got one.

Nothing is written.

@JayHawkFanToo I really wish Hield is right for ONLY tonight and play like a Big 12 Champ for ONLY tonight! Thanks for the favor in advance.

@jaybate-1.0 Great points (as usual).

You mentioned Jabbar and Walton being there for 3 seasons and it reminded me of a hypothetical question one of the announcers (I don't remember which one) asked last night:

Would you rather have Andrew Wiggins for one season or Perry Ellis for 4 seasons?

To ME - the stupidest ( yes, I said "stupidest" ) question ever asked. I'll take a 4 year guy ANYTIME, especially when he's the caliber of Perry Ellis. I know he takes a lot of crap (not from the coaches - from us dumbass fans) but he is a solid player. He might not be as flashy as we'd like or as "aggressive", but we would be doomed without him. No, I'm not related to him.

No amount of "flash" or hype can replace the experience of a solid 4 year player. Wish we had more of them.

@nuleafjhawk

I have thought a lot About how Perry might take the next step up in his game since seeing him dribble drive and wing cut cross court so well, which I always believed he could do, and it comes down to strengthening his hands and forearms. The hands are smallish and delicate--the forearms slender. He needs to carry softballs and have Hudy develop a regime. And buy 3 cords of rounds, an ax, a ten pound hammer, and a wedge and spend the summer splitting logs!! I did it one summer and it increased my shooting range 5 feet and turned my hands into weapons like no martial arts ever did. Do this regime for 3 months and you feel like you can strangle a rhino bare handed. It is great for rebounding and shooting. This is all Perry needs to be a force inside, and more dangerous outside, and a credible NBA 3.

@jaybate-1.0 His hand strength does seem to be less than "normal". I was under the impression that Wiggins had that same problem. Now that I think about it, Traylor can't seem to hold onto the ball either.......

Maybe the whole team ought to be required to carry those spring loaded hand grip exercisers.

Or split logs!

@nuleafjayhawk: I noticed the same thing the moment Fraschilla said it. I said back to the tv screen: We didn't have to choose. We got both. HA!