Read Matt Tait's column on Tharpe departing. I think it's spot on.
http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2014/may/1/tharpes-departure-no-reason-to-cheer/ ↗
wissoxfan83
3027 posts
@VailHawk I'd give you some advice but half of the trees I've transplanted are no longer with us, but the ones that are with us are doing just great! I'd say get plenty of water in the hole you've dug and make sure the hole you've dug is about twice the diameter of the root ball.
I love aspens too, wish we had them down south. We have a tree that has leafs that are similar called the tallow, but they are an invasive species that are next to impossible to eradicate. They are the only trees that give us any color though.
Good question. I wouldn't like to see Barnes or Drew or Webber win it as they are clearly inferior coaches and to see them win and be compared to Self would be just awful.
I've always like Lon Kruger, It wouldn't bother me if they won, and I guess seeing Fred win up in Iowa wouldn't be awful to me, he's an old Bulls player so I don't mind him.
So I guess with me it's about the coaches instead of the teams. There was a day when the thought of OU winning a title would have sickened me, like in '88!
Everyone back except one guard who is being replaced by his backup who arguably was playing better at the end of the year.
Everyone back except one guard who is being replaced by his backup who arguably was playing better at the end of the year.
Someone just posted odds of who's going to win now that early entries are declared and recruiting is about done. Kentucky, Duke, Wisconsin, Kansas in that order. If Turner comes that may change a little.
I think we might be good if he comes here.
I'm glad he's not going to kentucky and with all their recruits this year, I include Duke in that.
Even if he's a Kevin Durant type talent, Texas will only be able carry that so far, not too worried about him in the Big12.
I should have addressed your chocolate dilemna. If you divorce her, please be sure that you find someone who wouldn't make an annulment worthy mistake like that again. Prenups might be able to take care of that. As for the chocolate itself. Don't eat it!!! Send some to me. Give it to the guy on the corner who needs it. Throw it at the welcome to misery sign if you ever pass one on the way to a Royals game or something. Feed it to the dog. Flush it down the toilet. Call a hazmat team and ask them what to do with it.
Good news: Missouri installed artificial turf in their football field. Bad news: Their cheerleaders will have to find a new place to graze.
Bad news: Missouri's library was broken into. Good news: They've found a book to replace it.
Good news: Norm Stewart went hunting with Dick Cheney. Bad news: Dick missed again.
Good news: I-70 was built crossing the state. Better news: Time spent in the state for cross country travellers has been reduced.
Good news: Thiefs broke into the Mizzou arena. Bad news: Their quest for stealing final four banners came up empty.
Good news: TV stations in Missouri upped their coverage by increasing their broadcasting power. Bad news: More couches and TV's on front porches across the state.
Good news: Missouri lost the Civil War: Bad news: The Union let them back in. (history buffs, leave me alone on that one!)
Good news: The Mississippi River has meandered to the east into Illinois. Bad news: Even the Mississippi River wants to get away from Missouri.
Good news: NBA wanted to honor former Missouri players in the league. Bad news: They only found two.
Good news: Missouri left for the SEC. Bad News: The SEC wants to send them back citing that they're a classy league, and Missouri "is dragging them down". Even noted tree poisoner from Alabama was disgusted by the thought of Missouri being in their classy league.
RCJHKU!
As long as he can keep misery's impressive streak of never dancing on the final weekend of the tournament I'm glad they hired him.
Maybe because I wasn't raised in Kansas and only lived there during my college years, but I can say I miss playing them. And I think we should. I doubt it will happen however.
@icthawkfan316 Don't we all over-value our place in college athletics? I think many here do, which is fine, it's part of being a fan.
I was a big fan of Keith Langford's dunks. The slashing drive dunk with our relative run n gun offense provided some great entertainment.
BMac is my favorite dunker from KU.
@Virgil_Caine Oh thanks! I forgot that he didn't shoot it. Glad he didnt, he'd probably have made it.
I've been out of the loop for a few days. Interesting discussion here. I was most crushed by the Syracuse game in 03. Arizona is a close 2nd. All of the rest were just embarrassing more than crushing those teams were mostly flawed teams anyways. I'm going to add Duke in '86 to the list mainly because we just got screwed by the refs and then Archie went down and a team in the finals whom we had beaten twice
What about most forgettable wins? Any low major. I remember one year with a one seed beating Holy Cross in very unconvincing fashion, but I think that team went to the FF. Beating Davidson in '08 was only made memorable by the fact we won it all. I enjoyed not one aspect of that nail biter except watching Curry's final shot miss.
It is fun to reminisce about KU teams that actually played the game with great skill! That's in no way a slam against this years team. We were so darn young we just never could really figure it out.
Thanks for the kind words! I can't contribute with strategies other than things like
'we need to play better defense' or 'coach should play the best players for a change', so I got to come up with lame things like this!
Spring break, sitting around bored, had to do something! Sorry you didn't find any humor in it. I was really just trying to play off of people's perceptions of our team instead of what reality really was.
Late Night A bright star in the eastern sky leads 16300 wise men for their first glimpse of the babe. One fan in attendance, Jordan Michael announces he is turning pro which is unusual because he is a 4 year old "can't miss" KU recruit.
Pitt St. Naadir Tharpe missed the game, which is only unusual because many of the games he missed this year he was actually on the floor.
Fort Hays To get fans and players ready for the tighter foul calling, officials whistle assistant Norm Roberts for slapping his son on the tush as he is sent into the game for mop up duty. Niko misses both FT's.
Louisiana Monroe Reality TV meets big time college hoops. Monroe based Duck Dynasty asks the NCAA if their stars can meet at half court for a post game prayer with all of the players, girlfriends, coaches, wives, cousins and neighbors before a giant spread of boiled crawfish. In fact they cancelled the game so they could set up the court. Fans are disappointed but understanding.
Duke It's a BIG GAME with BIG STARS who had only played TWO COLLEGE GAMES between them. KU proves it's a BIG TIME TEAM by winning a game that started at 9:15 CST.
Iona This game was also played.
Towson Andrew White scored 13 points! KU fans spend the rest of the season wondering why he didn't play more.
Bahamas 1 Winning ugly against Danny's future team. Tarik gets stuck in waterslide after game. Joel catches, snaps in half and then eats a barracuda.
Bahamas 2 Losing ugly against 'Nova. We wouldn't have lost this game if we'd had Doug McDermott, that's all I'm saying. Joel catches a shark noodling style after coach showed him that TV show on Oklahoma catfish noodlers.
Bahamas 3 Winning ugly against UTEP. Self vows to never go back to Bahamas again, or at least play in discotheques turned into basketball gyms. Joel attacks a gator, but loses. The Babe warms up for Stanford by scoring 6 points.
Colorado Self does a favor to former KU player Tad Boyle and lets him win. Self sneaks over to the Colorado huddle and draws up a perfectly executed 3 pointer. Tarik fouls 3 in 3 minutes, a new record.
Florida Domestic terrorists take over ESPN and let two nerdy high school freshmen play the game on playstation, and get it broadcast fooling us all. The kid playing for KU had poor hand/eye coordination causing a PS2 record for turnovers, but he sure new how to get the Babe going when it was too late. (one of whom was being recruited by KU but turned pro immediately after the 'game')
New Mexico Joel ruins the future for KU fans by scoring 18 and blocking 4 shots and becoming a sure lottery pick.
Georgetown Tarik gets a call from his Momma telling him "you best not come home for Christmas if you don't get your game in gear." The call from his Momma never really happened, it was from coach using his best momma voice.
Toledo KU tried out their new matador capes they'd received as Christmas gifts and let Toledo score 83 points.
**San Diego St. ** A big time team that never wins in March shocks 163000 KU fans by coming out in the pregame shootaround and rebounding every miss on both ends of the floor. KU's babes don't know how to respond.
10th Big 12 championship
OU The babe who hasn't played but didn't get a redshirt makes some big shots. The coach acknowledges it was a mistake, he didn't mean to put him in. In the rematch KU forgets they are the team to beat and make OU feel good about losing.
KState KU routs the mildcats. KU fans, only two games since their last loss, declare KU the team to beat in March/April. In the rematch at the octagon of Dumb KU makes the comeback for the ages, except they lost.
ISU Fred's boy cries again as the 'Hawks kill are Able to kill Kane and the 'Clones. In the rematch. Same thing. In the rerematch, the 'Clones and Kane are Able.
OSU The babes defeat their baby who does a flop at mid court instead of a flip. In the rematch March madness begins as KU gives OSU 22 gifts. Smart doesn't need to flop or flip because of the generous babes. In the rematch, the biggest play of the year happens when Joel gets lassoed to the ground by a Cowgirl and hurts his back. KU is dethroned as the team to beat.
In a new low, one antler shows up for a Missouri game against Auburn.
Baylor The Bears bring their coach to the first two matchups of the teams and lose. One of their players is heard saying "Next time, let's lock him in Heslips locker"
TT The Babe has a career highlight making a one foot shot to win a game against a team that has given up one foot shots for the last 52 years. 46 TT fans go home disappointed. In the rematch Everyone makes one foot shots and Keegan pronounces (I'm not making this up) "There's no need to rush Joel Embiid's return" KU fans offer Keegan to Missouri.
WVU The hillbillies with fast guards and always with players with full beards split the season with the Babes who are not fast enough or old enough to shave. Huggins was caught smiling when the hillbillies had a 30 point lead but then his Momma texted him and told him to wipe it off his face.
Texas The only relevant item about Texas is if Turner decides to come to KU instead of Texas. Our season split with them doesn't matter.
Western Hillbillies Not wanting to join Duke (LOL, Haha, TeeHee) and Misery (TeeHee, Haha and LOL) as two seeds losing to 15s KU remembers they have Connor whose contributions led coach to wonder why he hadn't put him in the rotation more often this season. Coach was heard asking Norm Roberts, "Who's that kid down at the end of the bench, our manager? Do you think he could help?"
Smart kids who are also tall and long. KU's season sadly ends prematurely as the babes can't get the job done. The Babe earns national ridicule when he reveals that he and his lookalike brother at Wichita actually switched teams for that Sundays games "as a harmless prank".
Post script. KU loses 10 games. The babes realize that between them in four years or so of high school ball they've lost only 7 times. One of them is overheard saying "I'm going pro so I can play on a team that will never lose."
Some Fiction Some Malice
I was going to post something similar about Easter. It's my favorite day of the year, late night and any day/night KU is playing coming in a distant 2nd! Glad to be part of Jayhawk Nation and all my virtual friends here.
He is Risen!
I understand, to my knowledge it's only happened once, right? Didn't Brandon Jennings go play somewhere else for a year or am I mistaken?
Well as the parent of two college students and two to come, I believe a 5 year scholarship is plenty of compensation. Unfortunately those kids of mine inherited my athletic ability, but fortunately they got my wifes brains, and the one is about to graduate and already has an accepted job offer!
I like it for college basketball's sake, but, it still makes a farce out of the idea of the student athlete. As much as I despise any kid leaving college early, I really, for the life of me can't figure out why a kid has to go to college to play in the NBA.
So I go back to my proposal, let kids do like baseball does. Declare if you want when you leave high school, or go to college for a minimum of three years. Then you'll see the college game improve overall.
Baseball lets a kid get drafted and negotiate with their team and he can then decide whether or not he likes the offer. I know a kid who was a phenomenal HS pitcher (he started and won four state championship games in a row in highly competitive Louisiana), was signed by LSU and drafted by the Pirates and held out until he got the deal he wanted and signed, 1,25 million bonus.
Eron Harris might help.
So the article basically brings up HEM's oft debated question. Is it a successful conference season if 7 teams make the dance? Or is it a successful conference season if a few league teams make deep runs in the tournament?
By one measure the SEC had a great season. Half of the final four was from the league and three made the sweet 16.
But was the leagues strength masked by a lot of good teams but no outstanding teams? Again, we don't know if KU or even ISU were outstanding because of their key injuries.
As a Big1G fan I'm tired of having the mantle of the strongest league for a few years now and not producing anything postseason. So being called the best league is kind of hollow when nothing exciting happens postseason.
In some ways league pride is kind of strange. Teams we compete against and often loathe as our rivals suddenly become teams we pull for? I know I never cheered for Missouri or KState even if it meant league pride.
Pulling for leagues leads to some strange occurences. In Baton Rouge this year there was an article in the local paper in which the columnist said LSU fans should really hope Bama beats LSU because beating Bama will hurt the leagues chances of getting a team in the national championship game and winning an 8th championship for the league. I know some LSU fans didn't take too kindly to it.
Ultimately how KU fares is what's most important.
Selden was needed to contribute to this team. I think that was the reason why the coaching staff, (remember, decisions like this aren't just the head coach) decided to play Selden hurt. If they had redshirted Selden, then what? Who starts? Connor would've benefited but he wasn't ready to play at the beginning of the season it appears.
I am relieved that apparently this undisclosed knee injury limited his playing ability and we get him back for at least another season. As usual, I'm optimistic about the future while trying to forget the reasons that our team failed in the postseason.
@JRyman It wasn't an 8th grade game. He plays for the varsity which is allowable in Louisiana as long as the middle school and high school are in the same facility.
What's especially impressive about the Louisiana 8th grader is he was playing in the state championship game, albeit Louisiana's smallest class of schools, but still impressive for an 8th grader.
I've driven through Sicily Island, it takes about as long as it takes to type this sentence. Not much there but I always thought a very interesting town name!
KUSports needs our help! I just read two comments on a story about Alexander and Oubre. One commenter was writing about "Shelden" and another was writing about "Frankston". It wasn't HEM either, he still comments some over there but methinks he knows we don't have a Shelden and a Frankston on the roster, but, if they can play point guard maybe we should take a chance on them!
Not time to read all this as I'm supposed to be working, but this year was kind of an exception. We lost our starting lineup to graduation and BMac leaving. We had lots of holes to fill. We had to bring in someone. I think I read that if we had brought in non-5 star players we probably wouldn't have had the relative success we had this year.
I'm looking forward to next year. We will have 3 guys leave, but with our 9 or 10 man rotation this year we've got experience coming back, plus the new guys, and I think we will see the success we're used to. If indeed Cliff and Oubre stick around our team 2 years from now should be a top 2 or 3 team in the country and a serious contender.
@KansasComet I think I saw enough of this years team that the NC wouldn't have happened even if that 3 ball of Connors goes in!
Interesting discussion. Would anyone say Nadir regressed this season? Is there hope that it will click senior year like it did for Tyshawn and even Elijah to a lesser extent? Nadir won some games for us this year too. I forget which, I think Baylor was one where he seemed to hit many key shots.
On the other hand, go get the JUCO kid, get the #1 guard from Mississippi. Get the transfers, get the decommit from podunk state. One of em will work out!
Interesting discussion to me. If you want to find the true national champion you've got to follow the model of NCAA football. You think about it. Everyone seems to have hated the BCS, but, there is no other sport that has consistently delivered the two best teams to the championship game better than NCAA football. Even the new playoff begins to water it down slightly. The fourth team in I assume will play the 1st seeded team. Might that 4th seed with maybe one or two losses be able to surprise the 1 seed? Of course, and it will happen. And I assume that greed will rule the day and they'll add another layer or two and all of the sudden you'll have 16 seeds playing 1 seeds and upsets will rule it just like in basketball.
I think it's fun to see teams like Wichita and Butler and VCU make a name for themselves. On the other hand I don't think it's fun to see teams like UConn of a few years back go 9-9 in the league and win the national championship. Of course it was fun to see us be a bubble team in 88 and then win it all!
If you think about it, every conference tournament means every team is in the NCAA tournament. Win the tournament and you're in. But I agree with you Comet. The regular season should be rewarded over the conference tournament.
If kids get paid, or whatever happens, cheating is still going to happen. Boosters are still going to want to benefit kids. It will never end.
The real highlight was Withey scoring 17 points!
@jaybate 1.0
And everyone is back except for their shooting guard. And Bronson Koenig who played great agains Kentucky, will be ready to step in as a sophomore in his place. He was recruited by KU too.
And quantitative half wits hits the nail on the head to describe us!
He's one of our era's most successful coaches. We idolized him for 15 seasons in Lawrence. He broke our hearts, but we may have been better off for it in the long run. He broke our hearts again by winning not once, but twice. What coulda been I remember thinking at the time.
Now he's gone from the 2nd championship to the NIT, back to a strong team in 12 that missed it's point guard in our elite 8 game, to an 8 seed and we dispatched them easily to this years early loss to undermanned Iowa State, not to mention some embarrassing regular season losses.
There seems to be a slippage in the Carolina allure. Type in variations of fire Roy Williams and it will appear in the results. Top recruits are starting to look elsewhere. He's 64 years old, and frankly, appears old suddenly.
What I don't want to see happen to Roy is what happened to Joe Paterno. (I'm not referring to the horrible scandal) He won a title in '86. Had some decent seasons thereafter, but I always had the impression he could no longer recruit the nations best because he was frankly, an old man. Why would an 18 year old from Miami or Texas go to the middle of Pennsylvania to play for an 80 year old man? I'd imagine there's some regrets in State College they didn't figure out a way to gracefully show him the door 20 years ago.
I don't follow UNC closely enough to know if they'll be knocking on the door again in short time. One new poll for next year I saw had them in the top 10. But their downward trend since their last championship seems to be saying no to that.
I will always appreciate Roy Williams. He won a heck of a lot of games here. We had entertaining high scoring teams. We, through no fault of his own, should have won a championship. They couldn't make some FT's, that wasn't his fault! I hope he gets his mojo back.
The beat goes on.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology ↗
We're a #1 seed in next years tourney!
No, I missed them! I shouldn't have said anything, I am not next in line for GQ cover either!
@jaybate 1.0
You just copied what I wrote above!
I've never held a press conference before so maybe I will. I've got to decide what I'm going to announce, or maybe I should denounce something. I think I have eligibilty left so maybe I'll announce my intentions to give college ball a try.
I'd announce I'm signing with KU, but I don't think I could handle boot camp.
I'd announce I'm signing with coach Cal, but I don't want to vomit at my press conference.
I'd announce I'm signing with Duke, but I saw Coach K at a Cubs game once so that would not work.
I'd announce I'm signing with Bo but I like to run n gun.
I'd announce I'm signing with Texas or Baylor but I don't want to underachieve.
I'd announce I'm signing with Silo Tech of Manhattan but their cheerleaders remind me of their offensive line.
I'd announce I'm signing with Virginia Tech but that would be kind of Hokie.
I'd announce I'm signing with Marquette or St. Johns but their mascots used to be cool and now their not.
I'd announce I'm signing with Depaul, but I don't want to be a demon, demons are bad.
I'd announce I'm signing with Ole Roy, but I want to play some defense too.
On second thought, cancel the press conference, I have nothing to announce.
Really! So if you click on the link that DanR shared you'll see OSU at #12. The list is a year old so they've dropped a little, but they're right there, and if they can win a few, they'll be right back in the 10-12 spot on that list.
Brandon Rush, I was just looking at scores and realized.
He has been struggling in his return from the knee injury. He's such a good player I really hope he can get some more good years in. He remains one of my favorite Jayhawks of all time.
Will Obamacare be covering either one of these pills or will it be strictly out of pocket?
Good to see Markieff having a good season. I check the box scores most days of the former Jayhawks (and Badgers) out there.
Things are generally looking up.
Marcus has also earned more PT with production off the bench. He's more than a benchwarmer for Phoenix.
Xavier has had a sort of breakout season, but he's done for the season.
Darrell has been earning more PT at Denver, seems to be playing the best he has since his serious knee injury.
Drew Gooden has been picked up by Washington. And he's producing again. I've never understood why he's been with so many teams, seemingly a new team every year.
Withey has been earning more playing time, but is not being asked to score at all, just play defense and rebound.
Which brings us to Nick. His PT is diminishing just a bit, but he seems to be the valuable off the bench guy he always has for that team. And I'd really like to see him get a ring this year before it's too late.
Kirk has been starting for the Bulls, recently stated he'd like to finish his career there. Thibidoux has got to be one of the top two coaches in the NBA I'd say for the job he's done the last two seasons without their former MVP.
Mario is near career highs in pts and asts. Another ring or two for him seems inevitable. Did anyone see where he said he would have liked to have gone to UNC but they didn't offer him? It wasn't a statement like he was disappointed to come to KU either, just reveals his choice at the time.
Cole is earning a few minutes on that crappy Knick team.
Paul is wrapping up a Hall of Fame career in NY with the Nets. Still producing, but not as much.
BMac seems to be finding his shooting touch a bit but I'm guessing the Kings would like to see him much more consistent in his shooting.
TRob has found a niche on a pretty good team and is producing some decent numbers for an off the bench guy. Not sure he'll ever be a starter from what it looks like, but I hope I'm wrong.
It seems I'm forgetting someone but our guys are all showing why they were great at KU and valuable to the NBA.
Awesome!
Dang nuleaf, next time you have an extra ticket, I can drive up from here, just give me 12 hours notice!
@DanR Thanks for sharing. Glad to see the Badgers in that elite list! It's interesting that Ohio State is not in that list. They've had some pretty good success in the tourney it seems.
I've always looked at Blue Bloods as teams that have had an overall impact on the game. And despite our oft discussed 'lack' of championships, our school has impacted college hoops as much as anyone.
Are UNC and Kentucky blue bloods without the hires of Kansans Smith and Rupp?
Kansas' footprint on the game and the relative class with which we've done it all these years makes us an elite program.
We play in the Fenway Park or Wrigley Field of college basketball.
Despite East Coast bias running rampant, we consistently are featured on the major networks games. Kornheiser and Wilbon talk about us on PTI.
Most fans if they'd admit it would say they're jealous of KU.
The greatest basketball player to ever live went to KU.
Our mascot is steepted in American History with ties to the winning side in our countries awfulest episode.
The Champions Classic (I think that's what it is called) chooses us to play in it. UNC, Syracuse, Indiana, UCLA are not included in it.
Top HS talent wants to come to KU.
We are a blue blood. Now let's all agree with HEM and become a blue blood with some more championships!
I'm watching Live from Augusta! It's pretty boring too. They just spent 15 minutes talking about the Eisenhower Tree falling! Enjoy your taxes!
From our paper yesterday:
http://theadvocate.com/sports/pelicans/8827998-123/jeff-witheys-growth-has-pleased ↗
After Saturday's events I'm not watching. If Florida had won, I'd watch just for the satisfaction of seeing them beat Kentucky again. But I don't want to see two cheating programs playing against each other.
When I was in the Superdome two years ago, I watched as Kentucky defeated us. When the horn sounded I got out as quickly as I could. I didn't want to see them hoist a trophy. (I did want to beat the traffic!)
If I was betting, I'd say UConn, but thanks anyway, I'll go into my post NCAA tournament decompress!
I can think of a parallel on the fire Bill Self question.
Doug Collins coached the Bulls to the conference finals in 1989 where they lost to Detroit. Each year he coached the team they got progressively better. This of course coincided with the maturation of Scotty and Michael.
After the conference championship series he was fired. Of course they hired Phil, you know the rest of the story.
As a raised and reared Chicagoan I was shocked. I had only seen the Bulls as a pitiful team, giving away tickets, nothing going good. And now they're consistently making the playoffs. This is great, and you fire the coach?
Now it may be a weak comparison, but it may not be.
I'm not a believer in firing Bill Self. He's had us in two championship games in 6 years. But he is going to have his mettle challenged in the changing landscape of college basketball.
I wish we were the Red Sox, they've won all three World Series they've been in since 2004! I don't recall them losing a world series since 86, just ask Bill Buckner about that one!