BeddieKU23 said:

“You know, you look at this team and everybody, including myself, has said what's wrong with this team all year long. We don't do this, we don't do that or we're too small or we don't have enough depth or we don't play hard enough or we're not hungry enough. And all they've done is they're the No. 3 overall seed, and they've won two games in the tournament and are going to the Sweet 16. We've got to win two more games to get where we want to go. But I'm so proud of our kids and nobody can say that they haven't had a great season. Now we have to go make great (turn into) special.”
-Bill Self

Has Self said anything better all season long?

I'm pumped for Friday. We're going to win

That is totally on point! That's dope and it makes me swell with Jayhawk pride!

RCJHGOKU

Rolling on the floor! Who's brackets are trash??? Mine are! I only did two this season and both just got murdered with all the upsets. Did anyone pick UVA to get beat by UMBC? Is that right? UNC gone, Arizona gone ( HAHA sucks to be them) Michigan St gone, Xavier gone. I had UVA picked as my NC in my first bracket and Ive got KU picked in my other one. We'll see what happens sports fans.

I, for one, am totally thrilled that KU has made it this far and I hope they keep on dancing until April.
But, seriously, I am not expecting anything else. Just look at the tourney so far! Its bonkers! I mean, we could literally have a final four with ZERO one or two seeds in it!! How crazy would that be?? People talk about parity being some sort of urban legend but its not! Not any more it isn't.
Im also very proud of the Big 12!!! 25% of the sweet 16. Toughest conference and its not close.
Yeah, I was hoping every single big 12 team would win at least one game. Even K State and Texas. Well, I take that back. I despised OU this year simply because of Trae Young. Eff that guy. Remember when he "guaranteed" that he would beat KU and win the conference? So much for his post season accolades too. How many of the final awards lists have dropped him? sigh I guess its just youthful exuberation. Boy did he learn his lesson though, right??

One final thing. I really hope, regardless what happens next week, that D'tae gets at least one post season award. He truly deserves it. I mean, that guy has been made of iron this year! Total stud. Nearly as good as Frank was last year. I only say that because he wont sweep the awards like Frank did last year.

Rock Chalk!!!

@BShark Omg! That's a killer! I had Miami picked

Hey KU fans, I wasn't able to watch the game just now.
Anyone know where I can find it to watch on replay somewhere??

Thanks in advance!

RCJH!

Just saw that UVA lost one of their major players to injury... that changes things a bit

Is Keenan Evans back? Is Bamba back? Is Doke back?

Dammit you guys. Im really having an existential crisis here. I just cannot pick KU to get past the elite 8 or sweet 16. I just cant.
I want to but I keep having flashbacks of the last 5 seasons.

@approxinfinity Alright, I just picked my first, "gut feeling, instinct, first pick, no thinking bracket.
Im sure I'll pick another one or two before Thursdays tip off.

Rock Chalk!

Lets hope we get another parade down Mass street in April!

Texas Hawk 10 said:

To me, there are really only 3 true bloods. Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina. These are the three programs that you can look at just about any decade and they are/were relevant to college basketball in that decade.

I would put Duke, Indiana, and UCLA as 2nd tier programs. Their history is largely associated with one coach, but they have had some success during the tenure of other coaches.

Yep. and without Kansas there would be no Kentucky or UNC basketball.

@kjayhawks Yah. I get it. I really do. But, KU has also gone thru a period of time where they weren't very good. Its been like 35+ years but still, KU went through it and still remains a blue blood.

@approxinfinity Yep. Im in.

HA!!

@Bwag Cool post. you should probly leave the politics out of it though because this is a college basketball forum. Yes, i am referring to your use of the word snowflake.

I was thinking I might do a little basketball education for my benefit and for anyone who might read this that isnt up to date with the history of the two programs. Im doing this to compare KU's current run of conference titles to UCLA's back in the old times. ;)

We all know that UCLA had 13 straight conference crowns and that KU has broken that streak with #14 this year. UCLA had the legendary, late, great coach John Wooden for 10 of those crowns. KU has had coach Self for every one of our 14 and counting.

UCLA had players like Bill Walton and Kareem during that time frame. Obviously this was waaaay before the OAD era. Both those guys stayed all four years! Freshmen still werent able to play in games back then.

KU has had none of that dominant future NBA all star type talent on on their roster...except Joel Embiid and he only stayed one year in this OAD era.

Another intersting bit of information about Coach Wooden that I found on Wikipedia. " Wooden coached his final game in Pauley Pavilion on March 1, 1975, when UCLA trounced Stanford 93–59. Four weeks later, following a 75–74 overtime victory over Louisville in the 1975 NCAA Tournament semifinal game, Wooden announced that he would retire at age 64 immediately after the championship game."

Regarding the Pac 8 conference vs the Big 12 conference.
I think it is necessary to keep KU's streak of 14 straight in perspective when taken into consideration with the elite talent around the other teams of the Big 12 conference vs the sheer dominance of UCLA from '67 to '79.

KU on the other hand has had to play and win against far greater adversity imo with players on opposing teams like DeAndre Jordan, Lamarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin, Michael Beasley, Kevin Durant.

My belief is that Coach Self has had a much tougher time navigating the Big 12 conference juggernaut than Coach Wooden had to deal with 40+ years ago in the Pac 8.

I think that which ever selection committee is involved in giving the Coach of the Year award next month should absolutely, without a doubt give it to Coach Self!

Coach Wooden won that same award multiple times in a row for facing far inferior competition.

@KUSTEVE if Silvio wasn't playing like a badass last night, we lost that game.

@KUSTEVE boom

@JayhawksandChill Great question.

I'll give my uneducated opinion. I think regardless of what happens thru March that Malik will test the waters. He will go to the combine. Svi did last year, why wouldn't Malik? That being said, I think he comes back because I doubt he will slip into the lottery. There are too many other OAD types ahead of him. Draftnet doesn't even have him in the second round, which is a gross underestimation imo. But still, how is he going to suddenly crack into the lottery? What are the odds of that happening?
No. He'll go test at the combine and come back to KU next season and go in the top 15 next year for sure.

@kjayhawks UCLA and Indiana are still blue blood programs. You cant deny the history or tradition of those schools. Yet, they admittedly are struggling in this era of college ball.
John Wooden and Coach Knight. Two of the best ever. You cant take that away.

@mayjay I would not switch places with UConn. Especially in light of Ollie being given the boot. Coach Self is one of the best coaches EVER. KU is going to win another national title while Self is still coaching. Its just when. No way would I want to see KU go thru such embarrassment as UConn has been dealt.

Well done fellas!!

Wow, Big 12 conference and tourney champs!!

Silvio is doing his best T Rob impersonation

DCHawker said:

De Sousa is the difference in the game so far. He goes after rebounds unlike anyone else on the team. If we can get him for another two years, he may become unstoppable - and monster on the glass...

Kid keeps playing like this next year he'll be a lotto pick.

DCHawker said:

Silvio - 16 pts (on 8-8 from the field) and 10 rbs....

What a beast!!! Our Freshman who should still be in highschool, leading us in points and rebounds! WOW!

@jaybate-1.0 Boom! Silvio is a beast on the boards! His free throw shooting is smooth as silk too. Kid can ball.

Mitch? He's just doing what he did all season, only better. That block he had in the 2nd half was nasty!

@HighEliteMajor Very well said.

He and the whole team and kstate fan base will also cite the Svi travel from last year as reason they lose

@jayballer73 Yah, that's actually pretty cool to see D'tae get some post season love from the awards. I hope he gets at least one of them. Very tiny chance he sweeps them like Frank did last year.
The competition for said awards is just too spread out this year and Nobody could beat what Frank did last year. I mean, the best PG in KU history imo.

Ditto everyones sentiments. I love our Jayhawks, always will. But, they just got their asses handed to them by Okie state. I am officially tempering my expectations even further for the remaining guaranteed games. 1 Big 12 tourney game and 1 NCAA tourney game.

drgnslayr said:

Our post play next year is going to be sick! Heck... imagine the improvement Doke will make between now and next November!

Full on beast mode sick!

You know what? I have none. After those guys wrapped up an NCAA best 14 straight conference championships, I am good.
Literally anything else that happens next is icing on the cake for me. No joke. Im good.

I want to be as realistic and low maintainance about KU's post season as I can this year because of how small a margin for error they have.

There is no point in asking more of this team than they have already given to us. They made the almost impossible, possible.

They broke a HUGE record.

Now, Im going to speculate on KU's NCAA tournament just a bit.

With a 20+ win season and 6 losses so far. I expect that they get a 2 seed. It'll be bonkers if they get a 1 seed with 6, maybe 7 losses heading in.

I am guessing they win the first and quite possibly the second games depending on seeding placement and match ups.

I am doubting they get past the sweet 16. Simply due to lack of depth and historically low margin of error for a Self coached KU team. But hey, if they prove me wrong?? Cool. If they under achieve?? Cool too.

Im a Jayhawk for life either way.

Rock Chalk!

Ehhh, big deal. KU is stacked anyways. Like Legit stacked. We don't need him.

I was actually hoping he would go to his dad's alma mater. LSU
Oh well.

Pfffft, he is just taking a book from the current administration.

I mean, WTF!! He was caught on wire tap talking about Ayton and $100,000.

How is he innocent? How?

His coaching career is over.

@BigBad

Actually, Devonte and Svi, I expect will both make rosters next season in the NBA. They might even both get drafted in June.

Yah, I miss Hoiberg too. He was great for ISU and great for the league. If he bails on the Bulls, I hope he comes back.

Anyways, which one is which up there? I cant tell.

Either way, imo, I think that Coach Self is just doing what he does with who he has right now. The past couple years, we haven't been the defensive juggernauts that we normally are but our offense has been killer because of all our shooters, scorers. We've been spoiled with Frank and DG and Svi the past couple years.

Defensively, we just cant hang with the bigger teams down low without Doke in the game but we can out score them.

I don't mean to look forward to next season already but next season we are going to be so loaded. Coach Self can field a team similar to our 2008 and 2011 teams and not even break a sweat.

Im betting our defensive efficiency goes back to the normal beast mode next season.

@BShark Lundardi hardly ever gets it right. I mean, it might be close, sort of. But what his bracket looks like and what the seeding committee actually releases on selection sunday aint ever been similar. Except for maybe the 1 and 2 seeds

I was just wondering what KU's record was on Senior night. 36-0?? That's pretty solid.

@jaybate-1.0 HECK YAH! Where's my shirt?

ROCK CHALK!

I don't feel any kind of sorry for Miller. Like, at all. His goose is cooked man!! The feds got him on wiretap. Its a done deal. He will lose his job like Pitino did.

KU and Coach Self on the other hand? Like I said before, I have severe doubts about any wrong doing on KU's part. I hope Im right. If probation is necessary, fine. But, man I hope we don't have to vacate any titles or wins cuz of it.

I swear I saw something that says Elijah Johnson , 15k loan a couple days after he left KU. Am I crazy?? Did anyone else see that?

@HighEliteMajor

Im just plain confused as to what this all means for KU. For one thing I have zero doubts about Bill Self's integrity and ethics. I have a very hard time believing he did or would do anything that would compromise that and risk KU's reputation.

For another thing, I saw Josh Jacksons name on that list as well as Elijah Johnson's.

Again, no clue what this means or what will happen.
But this sucks donkey balls. What the hell??

@BShark Yeah, its crazy but I don't care. This isn't KU Basketball related.

mayjay said:

@Lulufulu The link does not seem to work....

Edit: Here it is.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22519688/jay-bilas-gets-set-march ↗

Thanks! LOL, I dunno what I did there.

Jay Bilas gets you set for March

I would like to draw particular attention to what Jay Bilas says about the KU game vs WVU and the foul discrepancy. This is a cool article, I encourage every one to take a peek.

Ive already voiced my take on the 35-2 situation. Basically to sum it up, I watched the game a second time and purposely counted the times KU and WVU drove to paint for a score or a foul. The count wasnt even close KU fans. Im not saying that was THE causality but it was a definite factor in the lopsided foul count.

@wissox Nice thread. This has to be one of my favorite times during the year. I love this stuff.

My opinion about KU is that we will be a 2 seed...IF KU wins or ties for the league and wins a couple games in the big12 tourney.

Now, I realize its a big if. But, we just saw KU pick apart a very tough WVU team at their place, foul discrepancy not withstanding.
We also saw Silvio's "light" go on. We now have 3 bigs to shore up our post now. That's huge for us going forward and the timing couldn't be any better.

So, yah IF all that stuff happens, KU should be a 2 seed...possibly even a one seed. Were the field picked today, I personally wouldn't put KU higher than the last 2 seed. Maybe even a 3 seed.

@jayballer73 My sentiments exactly on Devonte'! DG is a stud.
We scored big time with him and Frank!
I also loved seeing Josh in the stands too. Reminds me of when Self said" Josh unpacked his bags." Other than Joel, we have not had another high ranked prospect that cared enough about KU to come back and visit. Love it. Rock Chalk!

You guys, it was freeking 60* in New Haven Connecticut today. Crazy, right??

P.S. send that damm ice far north of me ok? thanks.

@BeddieKU23

WOOO HOOOO! KU Gets the 2013 title then!!!

Holy cow Silvio De Sousa just had that light go on in a major way!
Both Doke and Mitch on the bench and Silvio just saved our asses by playing like a PRO!! Beast!!

Yesterday I said" KU is going to win by 20+ points. Im calling it now."

I did not see Silvio's nuclear explosion onto the scene!!

So far 3 minutes and change left in the game. Silvio has 10&6.

Its a time out.

1.30 left.

Starters come out. Silvio comes in with Sam too.
Hope Silvio gets 4 more boards!!

Rock Chalk!

KU just dropped a century on OU!!!

This chicken is a suspected Russian bot. Lets kick this faulty program out of here!!