🏀 KuBuckets Archive

I wasn't able to watch the game live, so I set the DVR. Read through the game thread 500+ posts! Wow!

I tire of the ratface/cal/ratzo/etc. insults. I don't like any of the men much to be honest but they are people.

I tire of the ESPN hates us comments. Saw so many comments like that. The large majority of our games will be on ESPN this season! Give it up!

I really tire of the Vitale hate. Some of us have always liked the guy, although I admit he is getting past his prime.

I admit I'm guilty of most of these at certain times.

I also tire of the refs hate us comments I am extremely guilty of this sin and must repent of it.

I don't have 95 theses like Martin Luther did, but I do have a few complaints. We have a great place to hang out here. I'd like to keep it that way. IDK, but I probably check here 366 days a year or more, but like I said, this is just my opinion.

Vitale sucks. Worst announcer I can think of. Though, Raftery is bad too. If you want to like him, that's fine, it's your choice.

I don't always have a problem with the refs, but they sucked both ways tonight. 17 fouls in the first half on one team.

@wissox I read the thread after the game also, and noticed all of those comments, too. But I admit I myself was shouting at Vitale for the constant rah rah for ND football during live action!

@mayjay Oh, I forgot about that part. I hate ND!

Cal can't coach.

ESPN is an ACC cheerleader.

Vitale is awful.

The refs were bad both ways tonight.

Seth Greenberg looks like Uncle Fester.

mayjay said:

@wissox I read the thread after the game also, and noticed all of those comments, too. But I admit I myself was shouting at Vitale for the constant rah rah for ND football during live action!

There might have been a time when Vitale was good, but we are talking 15+ years ago. He's lost it. Frequently wanders to irrelevant topics.

KirkIsMyHinrich said:

Cal can't coach.

ESPN is an ACC cheerleader.

Vitale is awful.

The refs were bad both ways tonight.

Seth Greenberg looks like Uncle Fester.

Huge facts.

All you could find before this game was ACC coverage on ESPN's CBB page.

@KirkIsMyHinrich If anything ESPN is an SEC cheerleader. They own the SEC network for goodness sakes! Ever wonder why so many SEC football teams get rated so highly? ESPN runs one of the polls!

wissox said:

@KirkIsMyHinrich If anything ESPN is an SEC cheerleader. They own the SEC network for goodness sakes! Ever wonder why so many SEC football teams get rated so highly? ESPN runs one of the polls!

SEC football ACC basketball combo fans. ;)

@wissox Agreed, but mostly just for college football. ESPN owns the ACC network too. When it's college football it's SEC. When it's college basketball it's ACC.

Of course why would they cheer for the Big12? It's really only 1 team that ever accomplishes anything.

@wissox I haven't counted but KU is the #1 ranked team in the country and I'm pretty sure ESPN has written like 5 times more articles about Duke and Zion than they have about Kansas.

@wissox But your point is well-received. I'll try to reduce the amount of complaining.

There were ratzo comments during the game? Must have missed those. I think most of us here think he's a pretty good coach.

The hollywood/flopping comments and ref complaints were fairly legit for any group of homers.

(edit: I'm referring to the MSU KU game. I didn't read any of the Duke/UK discussion)

@Buster-1926 since I titled my piece “just my opinion” I thought that might exempt my post from outdowns.

We hate on Duke for stealing our shine, but if you go on the Baylor ESPN page the first picture you see is of KU players with an article talking about how good KU is.

I guess I’m saying it’s worse for most everyone not named KU, UK, Duke, or UNC. Or right now anyone not named Duke.

I like the Dook worship by ESPN because it's always juicy when they get punked.

The good news is that 99% of our games that are on ESPN will be done by Fran. I personally like Fran a lot. He is a great ambassador for the Big 12 and really knows his basketball.

Woodrow said:

The good news is that 99% of our games that are on ESPN will be done by Fran. I personally like Fran a lot. He is a great ambassador for the Big 12 and really knows his basketball.

Sometimes I snark about Fran, but he is way better than Vitale, Dakich etc...

There was that one time, Fran, said Frank Mason wasn't a Top 5 Point Guard in the Big-12. I think it was more then once actually

@BeddieKU23 By rep Frank wasn't, on the court he was the POY. I believe Fran owned up to that mistake. Fran also has the most knowledge I have seen about foreign players. He knew all about SVI before he came to KU.

BShark said:

mayjay said:

@wissox I read the thread after the game also, and noticed all of those comments, too. But I admit I myself was shouting at Vitale for the constant rah rah for ND football during live action!

There might have been a time when Vitale was good, but we are talking 15+ years ago. He's lost it. Frequently wanders to irrelevant topics.

you may not like Vitale , i'm not crazy about him either - - BUT - -I will still take him over Walton - - OMG -- - -you talk about irrelevant topics - -holy crap he talks about 90% of the time talking about anything and everything OTHER then the game - -he has hit the pipe one to many times - -time for him to put the pipe down and slowly back away- he is just horrible. - Could you imagine Walton AND Vitale doing a game together. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

KUSTEVE said:

I like the Dook worship by ESPN because it's always juicy when they get punked.

News flash I don't think they will be getting Punked to much this year-- Straight up. - -Would love to hear arguments otherwise , and NO before I need to hear any oh a Duke lover - - ummmm no - -but if you saw what I saw in that game last night , you if your honest even half open minded would acknowledge the same thought.

Who is gonna stop Williamson? -- please don't say Doke - -it would be just another case of Doke getting taken out in open space - - guy with a 45 inch vertical? - - holy crap space -anyone just happen to catch him leading the fast break and the bounce pass he made? - -umm ya. - -I mean come on now let's be honest.

I thought we played really well especially the 1st half , then I watched the Duke -UK game and thought DAMMM -those 3 freshman. - -Truthfully - -it would not surprise me if they took over the # 1 ranking next week with their total dominance of the # 2 team who also had the # 2 ranked recruiting class , they just dominated UK in every phase of the game from start to finish. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@BeddieKU23

ISU has been his current favorite for a while now which led to this exchange...

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And his answer was...

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Which of course did not sit well with KU fans.

Walton is on a different planet. Vitale is a good ambassador for college hoops but as a commentator he spends way too much time hyping the next game etc... Seldom talks about the game that is going on.
I personally like Bilas, Miles Simon, & Fran as far as staying on the game at hand and having some (X/O) knowledge.

I was snarky about Vitale last night. He's not the same announcer he used to be. Some guys become more charming with age, but he's kind of becoming more irritating.

Maybe I'm not being fair. But he can't hide his excitement about Kentucky and Duke -- more than he has for either KU or MSU. They were walking through the tunnel and he about ruptured his aorta.

Izzo is a fine coach. I'll admit Coach K is too. I'm a bit dubious about Cal, but I try not to disparage these guys, and I don't throw stones at other programs (other than Mizzou) because I don't want the stones thrown our way (e.g. FBI investigations).

Whether ESPN intends to be biased or not, there is clear favoritism toward ACC and SEC... and even Big East. They are based on the east coast and they know where the population centers are. It is what it is. Fortunately, KU has been competitive despite being a time zone away. Imagine being a fan of a team in the mountain or pacific zone.

@jayballer73 i love walton...lol. when he punked arizona a few years back, I almost fell out of the la-z-boy...lol.

I can't stand Fran!

While we are on the subject of east coast bias (which extends far beyond ESPN), my prediction is that Duke will be #1 in the next poll, despite the fact that we won as well.

I have no problems with Vitale. i don't care if he talks about Dook and Tucky all game, because i don't value what he says anyway. What i do value is his neverending work in his fight against cancer. If he babbles all game, then that's a short price to pay if one kid gets cured, in my books.

bskeet said:

While we are on the subject of east coast bias (which extends far beyond ESPN), my prediction is that Duke will be #1 in the next poll, despite the fact that we won as well.

Eh, I can't argue with this. I do think early polls are dumb because there isn't enough data, but based on what we have seen so far, I'm fine with Duke being #1.

KUSTEVE said:

I have no problems with Vitale. i don't care if he talks about Dook and Tucky all game, because i don't value what he says anyway. What i do value is his neverending work in his fight against cancer. If he babbles all game, then that's a short price to pay if one kid gets cured, in my books.

Copy, paste!

My favorite Dakich moment was when he got schooled by Jason Benetti last year in AFH. (disclaimer, Benetti is a personal favorite, an up and coming broadcaster who happens to be the Sox' play by play guy. He's also a victim of cerebral palsy and is really impressive.) Dakich early in the game said something about the Jayhawks needing Graham to play well in order to win the game. And while I don't remember the exact quote, Benetti basically said 'way to state the obvious Dan'.

I think Duke and Kentucky are in our heads a little bit too. Just an opinion remember, but we spend a lot of time focused on them. When we have a narrative in our heads that so and so receives preferential treatment from whomever we'll look for the slightest evidence for that. It's called group think I believe. We're kind of guilty of that here.

Don't forget our biggest win of last season hinged on a call that KU received against Duke during crunch time of that classic game. Duke fans are still whining about it. Funny to see really.

@KUSTEVE Fair point!

KUSTEVE said:

I have no problems with Vitale. i don't care if he talks about Dook and Tucky all game, because i don't value what he says anyway. What i do value is his neverending work in his fight against cancer. If he babbles all game, then that's a short price to pay if one kid gets cured, in my books.

He can do that work while not doing games. ;)

Agree though that he does good work there.

Anyway, I was thinking about his most absurd comments last night. I seem to recall him saying the Big 10 will be "much better than last year". Yeaaaah no. I think 5 bids max, maaaaybe 6.

Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State are tournament teams for sure.

I would put these teams as tournament hopefuls, likely to make it: Wisconsin, Indiana.

Bubble teams maybe: Penn St, Maryland, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio State

bskeet said:

While we are on the subject of east coast bias (which extends far beyond ESPN), my prediction is that Duke will be #1 in the next poll, despite the fact that we won as well.

Oh I agree , I think the way they destroyed Kentucky - -they will be # 1.- it's ok the rankings at this time of year really doesn't matter other then for the fans to thump their chest - -it's later when it's more important - - ;et them have their's now - -we will take ours at the end of the year. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DDAY LONG BABY

I'm gonna eat a little crow here: I went on ESPN over lunch time and when I looked at their college hoops page it was plastered with Duke stuff. We played a nice game yesterday, nearly coughed it up of course, but we were playing against an experienced opponent too, but thought we deserved some of the spotlight with Duke who admittedly was very good last night.

I'd say most of this is expected on a game thread when people are typing whats on their minds as it happening. ESPN has always been pro ACC and SEC for as long as I can remember. Heck not only as @wissox mentioned that its all about them now, I remember beating them last year and the next day the whole page was full of Dook recruiting not on KU or even the tournament itself. I don't believe I've used the term rat face before tho lol. Yes there are complains about a guy calling the game spending the vast majority of it talking about ND football and UKs fan base traveling so well (UKs campus isn't far from Indy). Sometimes I agree that the Ref comments get old but last night we were whistled for 17 fouls in the first half, I'm not sure in my years of coaching, watching and playing BB I've ever seen that before. I read opposing teams blogs sometimes just to see what rumors and what they are talking about and this site is pretty mild to most of them.

@jayballer73 News flash: we made them cry in the E8 last year. i watched ESPN after we beat Dook to see if there were any tear squirts on the network. They looked very sad...like they had lost someone...lol.

@KUSTEVE Last year was ALOT different then this year -- much better this year over all

@jayballer73 Well, good for them. when they lose this year, I'll watch ESPN cry like babies.

KUSTEVE said:

@jayballer73 Well, good for them. when they lose this year, I'll watch ESPN cry like babies.

Me too -- ESPN LOVE FEST with the ACC/SEC. -- ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@jayballer73 So, we have been hearing for 20 years that Dook was as good as they looked in one game against Tucky ... one time. The rest of the time, we've had to endure these cheesedicks from ESPN slobbering over Dook every second of the season for years and years, telling us how good they are...how " clean' their program is. So, they've had one great game, so good for them. I hope they get ranked ahead of us, and get their asses handed to them against a team that plays defense. Just so I can see them all cry like little babies.

@KUSTEVE Shi--- rat face is far from clean -- if the NCAA REALLY wanted to penalize Schools , they could penalize EVERY FRICKEN school if they wanted to get crappy enough about it -

Thats why the Schools hire Lawyers just to do nothing but keep engaged about the rules and such - -hell the rules book is like a mile thick lol -- ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY -

@wissox Don't be tired of these things my man, the season just started! There will be plenty more ESPN/Dickie V/Coach K/Cal/Duke/ACC/Refs suck comments. You can't get tired of them or it's going to beat you up. To not rail on these forces is divine. We're not divine. We're crimson-and-blue blooded, beer drinking (do you like beer, senator?!) KU junkies. Some degree of homerism is welcome here! At least, I think it should be.