🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I'm a sore loser.

I like to win. I HATE to lose.

Bucknell. NIU. VCU. You guys know the rest.

I hate for us to lose any game, but a guy at work yesterday put the Villanova game into perspective for me. He didn't know that he did, but he did.

First things first. This guy at work, I'll call him Mr. Howell (Might sound like hole). A. Howell. His self described favorite team is Oklahoma (??) OR any team that beats KU. So Mr. Howell comes up to me yesterday and says " What happened to your little ^%$*& Jayhawks the other day? " Now, I can't really describe how he sounded because he hates KU so much that when he talks about us he actually stutters and drools a little

My gut reaction was to wipe the drool off his face with my fist, but I took a deep breath and had a revelation. I said " Wow, Mr Howell. Thank you for the giant compliment!!" I got the usual Oklahoma blank stare and proceeded to tell him " It's been almost 40 years since any college team went undefeated and evidently you must have expected that my beloved Jayhawks were going to do that THIS year!!" He turned around and stomped off. Stumbled a little bit too....

What that encounter taught me is, we're going to lose some games this year. We all know that. Not one single KU fan here truly thought we were going to go undefeated this year.

If we have to lose, this is a good time of year to do it. It means nothing. Coach Self will turn that loss into future victories.

Thanks Mr. A. Howell.

Thanks Nuleaf,
Yep, we will lose games, and as you say this is the best time of year to do that. I've had some highs and lows watching these games-some because the new rules can make a game plain ugly. The last game we were 14 up late in the game and didn't put the game away-just the opposite. That is one of my biggest pet peaves. I keep telling myself to remember what HCBS said at late night. These guys are young and you'll drive yourself crazy if you expect great play every time out (or something like that)

And Dude, my sympathy you work with mr Howell.
Try to remember this guy roots against a program that wins 30 plus times a year. His winters must be very depressing.

@nuleafjhawk - If I ever build a basketball team from the posters in here, I will come to you to be my PG! Any time we lose I can feel the pain in your posts. Hating to lose should be inside the hearts of everyone on our team. I've always heard that hate is a stronger motivator than love. I hate to lose, too. I mean... I H-A-T-E to lose!

I've had to be around a lot of people who aren't KU fans, too. I also let them have their say and I even play weak to encourage them to say more. Then I record everything they say. I write it down on paper.

I always get to pull at that paper later in the year and remind them what they said. It's nice to get the last word, even if it takes months to get there.

I suggest you bait Mr. Howell. I bet he'd like to say horrible things about Andrew Wiggins. I advise getting him to yack about Embiid, too.

Write it down and keep it on your nightstand so you don't lose that paper!

The chance of any team going unbeaten from and entire season is highly unlikely.

Granted, players come to college playing at much higher level than they did 40 years ago; a result of better facilities, better coaching, better competition and advances in physical preparation. However, the majority of the top players will not play more than one or two years in college and their best play will happen, not in college but in the NBA.

40 years ago, there were at most a dozen schools that dominated the scene every year and had a realistic chance to contend, and many would not play more than a couple of other top teams on a given year. Today, there are 30-40 teams that on a given day can beat any other team and with luck, they can make deep runs in March. The Big 12 alone has 4 teams ranked in the top 20 and every one of these teams will play the other teams in 6 games (3 home, 3 away), so the chances to go unbeaten in conference play or the season, even for a top team like KU, are very small; even smaller for other teams.

Of the 5 teams that started the season in the top 5, MSU. UK, Louisville, Duke and KU. all of them have already lost at least 1 game. Too much parity and zero chance of building a dominant team, with top players with more than a couple of years of experience.