My apologies @jayballer54, It's just sports, didn't think you'd get offended. You're right, we choose our teams for a variety of reasons. Most of us just go with the local teams and accept our fate. Thus, I've celebrated 1 White Sox championship in 100 years, 1 Bears championship in the last 50 years, 2 KU championships in 30 years.

I think anyone who lives in Kansas should believe in a flat earth. :)

Joel is 0-10 on 3 pointers so far, but averaging a double double!

So you're a Yankees fan, Packers fan and KU fan. Sounds like you're a frontrunner.

I didn't look it up obviously, but thought I'd read that Houston had the best record.

@kjayhawks Fox is televising it for the historicity of the game?

@BShark Yeah, he was a good get. Sorry to see him go unless KU gets him of course. I can't think of many Wisconsin kids who went to KU. Calvin Rayford is the only one I can think of since I've been paying attention. He was out of Milwaukee I recall, and I wouldn't even remember his name if he wasn't a Badger stater at KU.

Was waiting all night to type this when Dodger pitcher Yu Darvish got walked on 4 pitches!

@mayjay Smart. Mario remains my favorite Jayhawk after Danny Manning.

@mayjay Respect the Packers? Ha! Never. It'd be like respecting Missouri, or the Cubs, or the IRS, or lawyers (sorry, I know that's your field) or televangelists, or both of last years candidates, or well, you get the idea.

@jayballer54 I know. You've had only a couple of QB's and we've had a zillion. But it's really about getting that ring, and all the years of great GB QB's has led to them getting one more Super Bowl than the Bears since 86.

Of course for some of us the Packers losing, the Cubs losing and the Bears winning makes it a pretty good day in sports even if Aaron did get busted up!

@approxinfinity
Of course the Royals new car smell championship trophy is still there so Royal fans don't get much sympathy! But it is amazing how quickly a championship club can become an also ran ready to rebuild.

@jayballer54 Yanks played the Indians first because Astros had the best record. That makes the Astros a little better. Don't get me wrong, both are great teams.

By the way the Sox are a year or two away. They have the highest rated farm system in baseball, will draft very high again. Some of that young talent came up in the last two months and the Sox played respectably. In addition, the Sox will be one of the strongest free agent bidders in 2019 as they'll have a very low payroll the next couple of seasons.

Houston's very young, but did give some up for Verlander. Detroit got some studs for Verlander and Minnesota arrived in the playoffs a year early in their rebuilding.

The future in the AL looks very exciting!

@jayballer54 I think the Astros are the best team in baseball. Cleveland was only ten games over 500 when they went on their amazing streak. Stros been strong all year.

I don't know, the meth doesn't add up on that one.

Kcmatt7 said:

@dylans So Bill Self is Hitler in this scenario?

Just to keep a list of things that have been said.

• This game has been compared to Lawrence being burned to the ground and the murdering of 200 people.
• Bill Self has now been compared to Hitler.
• We would rather play a game against the North Koreans than Mizzou.

Edit: Sorry, apparently MU not Bill Self was compared to Hitler. Where it says Bill Self in my post above, please read MU.

I think we'd destroy North Korea. Trump can use it as his bomb and end his stupid war of words with the fool over there!

dylans said:

:pray: Please be done @globaljaybird @wissox too many locked threads lately. We all have the Jayhawks in common let’s try to meet up there.

Not sure what I did wrong. I just proposed a ridiculous change in baseball that I know doesn't have a snowballs chance and next thing I know, well......

BShark said:

What in the actual bleep is going on in this thread right now?

I just want shorter baseball games.

Bill Self's dad suggested they do this is what I read somewhere.

@globaljaybird Wow. Just grinding an ax and you're turning it into something serious. Why can't you just discuss things instead of turning it into insults?

globaljaybird said:

How's this for groundbreaking ? Sounds like you're the one getting tired of watching so simple fix. Set your own clock to turn it off whenever it makes you happy or don't watch in the first place. Likely if your team was in it instead of the Cubs you wouldn't mind if outcome was in the sox favor ??

I watch postseason baseball. This isn't about my dislike of the Cubs. If it was the Sox, I'd still be just as upset about the marathon game. I have a job as do most of us. Can't stay up til all hours and shouldn't have to. The crappy Bears are drawing better ratings here in Chicago than the playoff WS champs. Baseball has a problem. My solution was obviously nonsense. I guess you couldn't see that.

@kjayhawks Sad to say I'm not surprised. A slap on the wrist for Louisville a few years ago led to an even bigger scandal now. When programs think they're untouchable they'll eventually collapse because they'll do something so stupid that it can't be ignored.

justanotherfan said:

A potentially revolutionary idea. 10 pitch max on each plate appearance - if pitch 10 is a ball, batter walks. If its a strike or foul, batter is out.

I'd also do a clock on pitching changes. Too often, the manager goes out and has a "meeting" to let the pitcher get a few more throws in from the pen, then the pitcher comes in and gets his 10 warm up pitches. In the playoffs where there are so many pitching changes, even shaving 30 seconds off each of these could really cut down on the total time for the game.

10 pitch limit has some potential. Not fair to give a guy a walk though if the count is say 1-2 and he draws a ball.

mayjay said:

@wissox So what happens if a playoff game is tied after 3 hours?

And, regular season, lots of ties to make it seem so very worthwhile to sit through those 3 hours?

Love baseball as it is. Anyone can't stand the timing, take a nap!

Extra innings are acceptable, no one likes ties, but if they exceed the pace of 20 minutes per inning, both teams lose!

DanR said:

That was pretty ridiculous, but I'm not sure they could have sped that one up. Maddon and Baker over-managing. 23 hits. 22 left on base. 13 walks. Over 350 pitches. 14 pitchers used and a few of those guys were pretty slow, but not the worst in MLB.

They don't have to speed it up if they don't want to. Just end the game in the 6th inning like it was at 10 oclock!

On the number of pitchers, limiting pitching changes might help. Chapman came in the other night I believe in the middle of a count. That's a no-no. I do recognize last night is a do or die playoff and managers are just pulling out all the stops so maybe playoff games get an extra 15 minutes in my scenario.

Baseball needs a clock. Seriously. Look up the game times of the just completed divisional series. Last night was the worst, 4 hours and 37 minutes. Pushing midnight in central, pushing 1AM in eastern. If a dude doesn't foolishly get picked off in the bottom of the 8th with runners in scoring position, it might have had to go extras.

Set the clock for 3 hours. Can't begin a new inning after the 3 hour time limit. Obviously if the 3 hour mark passes during an inning, complete the inning and the game ends.

Otherwise, viewers are going to keep tuning out. MLB needs a showcase game like last night, it was great theater, but I'm guessing most people just turned it off and went to bed. West coast folks, we envy you!

It's tough to speed up play. Last nights game featured 36 at bats that ended in a walk or strikeout. (granted, one strikeout was dropped and an errant throw led to a run scoring) That's a lot of at bats with nothing happening but time wasting. It's really hard to legislate against walks and strikeouts. Therefore....

Put a clock on the scoreboard and end this madness. Fans will pressure teams to hurry it on up so they get their money's worth. In fact, fans will receive partial refunds if the teams don't get a full 9 innings in. More pressure to get things moving. Soccer manages to televise games with minimal commercial interruption. Let baseball do the same. 1-2 commercials between innings and it's time to play ball again.

Something needs to happen. This old baseball fan is getting tired.

@dylans Wisconsin has a streak going, while not as impressive as our conference title streak, is still impressive. No finishes worse than 4th in the Big1G since Bo became coach which was like 16 years ago. They have the longest current streak of getting to the sweet 16. Ethan Happ is appearing on preseason lists of 2nd team AA. I wouldn't ever count them out! So bad and unathletic? Not UW.

I'd like a resumption of the border war.

@justanotherfan I think anyone playing at a DI level is elite athletic. When I was a KU student in the 80's our football team won about 2 games a year, which almost qualifies for the glory years of KU football! Anyways, those guys during the off season would play a lot of pick up basketball in Robinson Gym, as did I. We'd go shirts and skins. While I definitely was NOT athletic, the football players amazed me. They all looked like hercules. They'd beat everyone down the court, they'd dunk. I was out of my league in a game with too many football players.

My point is, even the "worst" football players in the country were elite athletes. I'd say any team including Wisconsin is elite athletically.

KUSTEVE said:

@wissox I want a cross between Wisky and Kentucky..a smart team that is athletic..

So put you in the camp of Wiscy isn't athletic?

DanR said:

"As long as svi improves as much this season as he did last season…"

-- I did a spit take with that. What more do you want? The rest I was just kind of tearing up about..."Doke stays healthy" ...come on, man.

I think we all need better D out of Svi, and a little more consistency on offense. He was just a nice piece to the team last year. This year he needs to be a key piece of the team. If Svi had gotten hurt last year, we'd have missed him some, but probably don't have much of a different record. I want him to get into the plus territory of the WAR stat. I'm not sure they even do that stat for college hoops, but if they did I'd like to see it where Svi is worth 1-2 wins this season. Last year, not sure he ever had a positive WAR.

I've cringed for years as commentators have described Wisconsin as being not very athletic. They won't be able to keep up with their opponents athleticism. A team that nearly won a title not being very athletic? I'm sorry to say, but there was some stereotyping going on there as commentators were making this statement based on skin color and the Badgers normally played as many if not more white kids as opposed to African American kids.

Was really hoping for a Houston-Cleveland series. Two 100 win teams going at it. But Cleveland can't shake the city that chokes label, so we have NY-Houston. Should be a decent series too.

mayjay said:

@wissox Baylor Backsliders--love it!

I actually was referrring to TCU, but I should have called Baylor Baptist the backsliders!

@BShark I was hoping for more than a few laughs, but whatever.... :)

Rocky Top State Win
The cleanest Power 5 team in Kentucky (not much competition there) Win

SD State Win

Texas North East Southern Win

Oakland er Las vegas raiders Win

Holy Toledo A Win

I hate Syraccuse Win

Guy who cut down a cherry tree Win

AZ State Pen Win

N on helmets is for knowledge Win

Omahahahaha Win

Stanford Cut Tree down but forgot saw LOSS

Austin City Limits Win

Lone Star Tech Win

Texas' backsliding Christians Win

Corn State Win

Who's ever heard of purple wildcats Win

Huggies Hill Hoppers LOSS

BayLOL Win

Choklahoma Win

ATM Win

ESPN likes us losing to octodum fans LOSS

Oke Doke state Win

Hide your women and children we're gonna be near the football team in Waco. Win

Paris Hilton magic Win

Northwestern Virginia Win

Just OK Win

High Plains Tech Win

Bighornys Win

Stoolwater State Win

14 conference titles in a row. 27-3

1 seed

2-1 in conference tourney
6-0 in the dance.

This is all just a dumb prediction. I really didn't research any teams. I made picks based on uniforms, how much I like a place, how much I dislike a team for nothing other than beating us once in AFH, the nerdishness or coolness of their coach, is their mascot good or bad, mean or nice, do they have a pretty campus, have they ever won a basketball game, would they lose to the Texas YMCA, is their coach the most overrated coach in basketball history, does their president walk on water, could their women's team beat their mens football team, are we mad at their students for going to school in such a nice place.

So go ahead, tell me I'm wrong, because I probably am. Or tell me I'm right, you'll be my new bff, at least today. Save this for the vault @approxinfinity because when I finish last in our NCAA pool, at least I'll be able to point to this magnificent season prediction......

As long as doke stays healthy...

As long as DG doesn't miss his backcourt buddy....

As long as svi improves as much this season as he did last season....

As long the police don't come a knocking.....

As long as Adidas troubles don't strike.....

As long as the newcomers prove why they were privileged to become Jayhawks...

I, like most Americans, will slow down to see a wreck, watch hockey for the occasional fight, will linger while channel surfing on Jerry Springer to see someone get slapped upside the head, etc.

So Saturday news of a potential big upset draws eyeballs for the same reason. A million or so fans turn it on and become temporary Cyclone fans hoping to see a big dog go down. Makes us feel better about our own downtrodden team, or if fortune has you being a fan of a good team with New Years Day dreams giddy because a competitor has been eliminated or at least has had their candidacy weakened considerably.

Which brings us to KU basketball. Because for the last 30 years or so we are that team. If people see a score scroll across the screen that has us losing by ten to TCU, or Oral Roberts, or Richmond, they'll find the game and watch the hoops equivalent to a car accident.

It's a little different in hoops because one misstep doesn't doom you like OK is probably doomed now. But it does hurt and sting, and fans of lesser teams remind us that we lost to some team that we shouldn't have lost to.

The thing is these things happen to all the top programs. It's what makes this game so darn exciting. It leads ISU to think right now they must be better than OSu because they got walloped by OK also. It gives hope to fans everywhere and also makes us petrified because can become that team in the season to come.

Nary a Kentucky player to be seen but a misery player. Weird.

I mean Frank ought to lead the team in rebounding. He's 5'11" after all. Wait, that's a misprint right? He's really 6'11" right?

Been busy, and this site is growing big so I miss some good discussions. Trump caused this whole controversy when he dared the players to kneel. I probably would've kneeled too. I'm not much of a patriot these days. Just not a focus of mine. Too many big things going on in the world to worry about someone kneeling, or sitting out the anthem.

Shoot, sounds like I missed something juicy somewhere on this burgeoning site! Oh well.

http://amp.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article176877626.html ↗

@drgnslayr man o man I wasn't referring to your post! Sorry if I implied that.

@Crimsonorblue22 I can't think of any specifics, but i do recall people getting giddy over a late night scrimmage a few years back. Unless it was 2007, or 2011, we all know how those seasons turned out. Sure I'd like to think KU fans and Bucketeers in particular are more knowledgable but I read it with my own eyes!

@BShark Usually I watch the exhibitions for a half, then get bored and kind of tail off. The exhibitions at least feel like for real games so it's more enjoyable to watch.

To continue my cranky ways, I do get tired of posters who say did you see the way Joe Smith played in the Late Night Scrimmage? That guy's going to be awesome! Dude, it's a freaking show they're putting on where no one really exerts any extra effort so as to not get hurt. Same with the two exhibition games. How many times have we seen a guy score 10-15 points against the Gorilla's, and then takes the whole regular season to score another 10-15 points? I know it's happened.

Thanks for posting the video....of a hokey practice. I think late night needs to be mothballed until this team gets to the final four again. Of course anything that makes money for the team will continue to happen, but I'm just not a big preseason sports guy. I've never watched a full preseason game in any sport. Seen tiny bits of NFL until I realize there's no one on the field I recognize, watched a few innings here and there of spring training games. NBA? I don't even watch regular season games anymore! I guess it is nice to get a teaser on the team, see the new guys, see Doke again and whatnot, but once that season starts, I try not to miss a minute!

Sorry to be a debbie downer. I'm really good at being debbie downers. Comes naturally I guess since I grew up in Downers Grove, IL (true story) but people like me are necessary to balance out all the positive thinkers out there so I do serve an environmental purpose in the world of sports and in Jayhawk nation.

As you watch the game know that Redskins RB Robert Kelley 'Fat Rob' is a former student of mine. Incredibly proud of him!

Were any KU players there?

@rocketdog That must be tough, having a nephew make such a bad choice in life. I hope he's doing well despite a misery education!