~Mason is the best small point guard KU has ever had. I am not saying he is better than Sherron, because Sherron was NOT a small point guard. Sherron was a brawny point guard that happened to be short. Frank Mason is truly a small point guard and he is absolutely incredible. His defensive anticipation is VERY good, and his ability to maneuver defenders until he get an angle on them, or drain a shot is unparalleled. And I am actually relieved when he switches off a guard to guard big forward, because I know he will do a better job on the big forward than our forwards will. Frank is just insanely good.He has gotten tot that rare level of play where he can control a game on an off shooting night. Only really great players can do that.
~Mason coming from beyond the baseline to steal the pass to a KSU player on the wing late in the game is one of the greatest defensive plays I have ever seen a KU guard make, even though he flubbed it on the other end.
-~Devonte has become the perfect hinge between Frank and Josh and Frank and Svi. Devonte actually makes the team better, when he does not score much. He will be a smashingly good point guard next season, but this season when he is not scoring a lot it means he is enabling everyone else and him playing that role is what makes KU able to beat a lot of teams that seem better on paper.
~Josh Jackson is single handedly redeeming the OAD player. Not since Anthony Walker of UK have we seen an OAD do so many things to help his team win. IMHO, Jackson has done the impossible already. He has become a Self Baller in less than one season. He still makes bad mistakes on defense, especially the occasional switch that puts one of our guards on a guy they just can't cover, but, my god, it is magnificient to watch a potentially great perimeter player leave it on the floor for a season for the team against big forwards. It is everything I love about the "team" game of basketball. Josh is going to remember this season the rest of his life and remember it fondly. It was the year he really got play the game the way it was meant to be played. It was the year before he went to the pros and began trading on his insane athleticism the way the great players in the NBA must. He is making the game worth watching again just by being a team guy and not uncorking his gigaflop hops everywhere all the time. Its like watching Jordan at UNC. Its watching an extreme talent just play the game for the pure fun of it.
~Svi is still searching for his game. it will come next season. But its a testament to how good he is that he can help the team as much as he does, while he is still trying to find his game. The moment late in the game when Josh had taken the ball into the lane and got stopped and kicked out to Svi on a wing was pure basketball nirvana for me. A great player who has dialed his perimeter game down to become a garbage 4 much of the time, could easily have taken the ball up and been fouled, and gotten is two strokes, but instead, the great player playing a season for the love of the game alone, and redeeming the sport and all of us fans at the same time, looks to kick to an old point guard still searching for his wing game, stares at him as if to say here it comes, I BELIEVE IN YOU, teammate, here it comes from one kid from Detroit to one kid from Ukraine, here it comes, I'm kicking it to you in a rivalry game that means nothing to either of us, except that we know it means everything to our fans, here it comes right at the perfect height for you to catch, plant, go up, and drain. Here it comes, because this is how the game is the most fun to play. To believe in your teammates and to play it with them on the X axis, even if I could vector out of this silage dump on the Y-axis and get a feed on ESPN. Here it comes because we are teammates. Here it comes because where we're from doesn't matter and where wer're going doesnt matter. What color we are doesn't matter. What language we speak doesn't matter. Here it comes because nothing matters but playing the greatest game ever invented the most fun way to play it with teammates. Here it comes!!!!!!! And Svi drained it on cue. And neither player even slowed down to make a big deal out of it. It was just pure fun in the moment.
~Landen? Everyone that has read me must know I have a special place in my heart for big men. I love them because they are the guys that noone truly understands. Big men have all been our height, when they were young, so they know us, but we have never been their height and so we don't know them. We have to work to put ourselves in their giant shoes and we have to admit that even doing so, we still cannot really understand that big man territorial thing.We can only marvel at it. We can only watch them walk around like big flipping grizzlies, or bull gorillas, owning the joint. Its not that they don't get challenged and some times bloodied. Its that they DO!!!! They walk around owning the lane even when they are not in control of it. They keep walking around the little guys and don't even have to say in a big deep Berry White mutherflipping voice intoning, "Play him tighter , really crowd him and I'll pick the pencil neck up quicker the next time." Landen didn't have big numbers and he didn't dominate the KSU players, but unlike in years gone by, when things went wrong, and Landen would start looking around all worried, this game when things did not go right, he just got all Barry White and into himself, and walked around reassuring the Darby O'Gills and the little people and kept owning the lane. "Daddy's steady," he seemed to say, especially after burn marks. Landen seemed to say, "Daddy may not always fix everything right the way Momma Self wants it, but Daddy ain't goin' nowhere. Yea, I know, I got to fix that door hinge so it swings the right way, but I'm here and i AM going to fix it. You little'uns just keep minding your Ps and Qs and you'll see, things'll work out."
~Finally, much as I hate to I have to say three nice things about the silage engineers, I feel I must.. Bruce Weber has been to an appearance consultant and they got rid of the helmet hair, and Bruce actually looks like a respectable D1 coach. Second, The KSU home uniforms are not bad. And third, they played well and gave us all we wanted. Congrats.
