My guess, as a Badger fan too, is he's waiting out Bo Ryan, who's in his upper 60's and will go back to his home state. I sometimes wonder if us KU fans would enjoy having a team that kills on defense, but doesn't have a high flying offense. That's been Bennett's trademark.
wissoxfan83
3027 posts
The hat thing didn't reveal something about the kid? A basketball mad state whose state university has fallen quite a bit and he disses them?
After they got upset in the regional playoffs he laid on the court and pouted, wouldn't get up. I wasn't impressed when I read that.
I hope I'm wrong, and look at my bracket to see how much I know about hoops!, but he's just rubbed me the wrong way so far.
Erron Harris, one of the West Virginia bombers is leaving the team. He is from Indianapolis and says he wants to be closer to home. A 42% three bomber this year averaging 18 points a game sounds nice. Is Lawrence closer to home for him? Probably not, but I wouldn't mind seeing him in a Jayhawk Uni.
Yahoo had a little 'story' about Selden and Wiggins being asked about Stanfords Chasson Randle at a Saturday press conference. Wigs and Wayne giggled and didn't say much, pretty much acting like they'd never heard of him. Stanford noticed and made them pay a bit I'd suppose. Randle had 6 steals, which against our team is only average output :)
I've looked around and haven't been able to find much on next years schedule. We might as well start thinking about next year. Not too much info available that I could find. I'm all for tough scheduling, simply because the games are more interesting to watch than a 40 point blowout. I said it several times here that a tough schedule doesn't pay off too much if you don't win the tough games and we lost quite a few of them. I don't think we would have had a real satisfying ending to the season even if our schedule was easier either. This team was too young and the loss of Joel was devastating. 4-3 in games he didn't play is proof of that.
I am optimistic for next year, and will be giddy, night before Christmas like a 5 year old type giddy, if Joel stays. I'm excited for seeing the development of Wayne, I assume he'll stay, Connor, Perry and the others. Alexander I'm not sold on yet. Put up amazing numbers in Chicago, but some maturity questions give me a bit of apprehension.
I don't follow our recruiting enough to know if we have our eyes on other kids, but generally, freshmen players just don't excite me too much, especially after this year.
Will there be some increasing pressure on Bill Self if we have an early exit again? I can see some unrest at times, even on these pages. I know it's mostly silly to diss on a man who won a ring, came close another time and who wins a lot of games.
A KU loss in the tourney is always beneficial! I turn the TV off and do other things!
Yes, thanks for the site we can go to. Reading comments on websites which invite trolls, or just plain mentally unbalanced people, it's nice to come here and not have to wade through the idiots for the occasional gem. Here, it's all gems.
This is a test. Choose one and only one as the answer:
Maybe we lost because of Bill Self's stubbornness.
Maybe we lost because of a whole bunch of freshmen on the roster.
Maybe we lost because we didn't have a valid point guard.
Maybe we lost because, well, we lost 9 other times so maybe we aren't really that good.
Maybe we lost because we lost our starting center who, had the injury never happened, would have at least five more games experience and we'd be all hoping he sticks around instead of being the top draft pick.
Maybe we lost because Wiggins isn't as good as advertised, nor is Selden and even maybe, Perry.
Am I excited for next year? Yes. We will have far fewer freshmen moments. Self's best teams are the teams with junior and seniors playing leading roles. Although I don't want to see our team become one reliant on junior college players, it might not be a bad idea to bring in one or two to add depth and maturity. Of course there's not going to be a lot of roster spots available if Joel and Selden stay. Wesley wasn't on scholarship I think, don't know about the three coaches kids, but I assume they're not either. So we lose Tarik and Wiggins, bring in Oubre and Alexander, so where else do we even have much room for replacing players? Not much.
There were some moments yesterday where our youth really showed up. One that really stands out is when we were pressing and creating turnovers. A press created a turnover and then we started what looked like a junior high team in the last ten seconds of a game. Everyone (I use that term loosely) began chucking up shots that had no chance to go in, probably 30 seconds on the shot clock when it began. This happened I think on two possessions in a row. Absolutely flabbergasting and a microcosm of the game and even the season.
Thanks Dragon! It was a fun 2nd half.
A big help indeed for the Jayhawks. And part of me really doesn't care that it helps us because I can't stand Syracuse!
Just hope it doesn't cause us to lose a little focus today.
I saw on CBS last night that in the last ten years KU has lost three games to teams seeded 8 places below them or worse. Syracuse and GTown lead the list with four such losses. That's one record we don't want to tie today for sure.
Big game tonight against Oregon. I saw your bracket, you're quite the prognosticator! Mine is a disaster.
Niang got hurt lost night, bad news for ISU.
I didn't know who I'd cheer for in Kentucky, KSU until I started watching but I very quickly found myself pulling for KSU. I was disgusted both by Weber, the refs, and the entire Kentucky nation. Being in the same building as those arrogant hillbillies at the final four two years ago turned them into my most hated team. I know some of you don't care much for Wichita, but I sincerely hope they blow them right into decrepit East St. Louis.
At the half of the UCLA-Tulsa game sideline reporter Otis Livingstone made a report. I looked it up and he's the same Otis Livingstone who played at KU in 87-88 and was dismissed from the team before the tourney. He has turned himself into an Emmy winning sports reporter for WCBS in NYC and is moonlighting for CBS in the tourney. At the end of the half it was kind of interesting to watch him interview his old KU teammate Danny Manning!
We play tomorrow at 11:15. Hmmmm that is church you know. I can go to the old folks service at 8:30 so I'm home in time. I could go at the regular time and DVR it, but that's relying on technology too much on such an important game. Plus if I do that there's no live blogging with @JNewell. OK, early service it is.
Ernie Banks said "let's play TWO" not three JB! Which is exactly what KU needed to do against their horrible interior D, play the two point shot, the point blank shot, the bunny game, whatever you want to call it. Can you imagine having Joel patrolling the paint last night? As good as we were inside, we might not have scored a point from outside the lane had he been playing!
The game made me really really nervous
My bracket is so bad Warren Buffet is going to fine me a billion dollars.
I don't get orgasmic over basketball or cheese for that matter!
But since heart troubles forced me to start making some better dietary choices I did forego velveeta and am learning there are real cheeses that are really quite delicious!
After the slow start, the Badgers outscored America 65-18!
The pod makers could have turned St. Louis into a Kansas v. Kentucky thing had they also been able to put Louisville into the St. Louis pod. Imagine three Kentucky teams, three Kansas teams. As it is, the state of Kansas can send two Kentucky teams packing today. That's pretty satisfying as well.
@truehawk93
I sincerely hope we don't let you down in your pick! Bo needs a final four.
Guess I'll have to go to work tomorrow because my billion dollar bracket is busted, thanks a lot OSU!
Holy cow, a guy #34 of American just shot two one handed FT's against the Badgers! Never seen that before.
Any of our KUBuckets brothers and sisters going to St. Louis? Full reports expected!
I have a better chance of getting every game wrong in the tourney than getting every game right!
This may be the first time in a long time that I don't write KU down on the champion line of my bracket. Of course it's foolish to say these teams can't win it. Every team seeded about 8th or better has a chance to win it. But I'm just not very confident about this team right now, and that was before Joel's injury.
What fuels my hate fire more is the misperception of fans who comment on such stories and say KU always chokes. Or the writers and sportscasters who venerate Duke. Oh and anything between KC, KS and the Mississippi River fuels my hate fire. And anything directly north of that state too. Or the idiotic comments made about the Badgers, that they're not athletic. Or when @Jaybate doesn't automatically give me a PHOF on everything I write. Or when I waste time at work writing such nonsense.
Since I am a multiple sport lover, this time of the year is indeed wonderful. Besides the amazing NCAA tournament there is this.
Opening day. In 1988 (and I'm sure in other seasons as well) it coincided with the KU-OU final, what a day!
I'm also a golf watcher and it doesn't get any better than the Masters. So a few days of no TV detox and then the Masters starts and I watch transfixed at the beauty of the course and the amazing play that usually accompanies that tournament.
There's also no football, of course it doesn't stop ESPN from still giving it more attention than baseball, but that's another topic (and a major pet peeve of mine).
@drgnslayr, I wish I had the know how to find the play and post pictures of it here, but last years elite 8 game between Marquette and cuse was exhibit 1A of what you're talking about. I'm still shaking my head over a call that went against Marquette, too complicated to describe here, but when a team as physical as Syracuse has 5 total fouls half way through the 2nd half something is up.
@jaybate 1.0
JB take off the Jayhawk colored glasses for a second. You've got a lot of ifs there for a second championship. We didn't get it done. I'm a Bears fan, I'd love to call the 85 Bears the best ever, but they fought each other instead of the opponents for the next couple of years and never won another trophy. Sure they had all the talent pieces still there, except the genius of Buddy Ryan, but they didn't win another. I think that's why FLorida deserves this recognition.
I think it's easy. Florida. Sure we beat them in a meaningless tourney in Vegas in November the year of their 2nd title, but winning two in a row clearly shows they're the best really since the early 90's when Duke did it.
And if Florida wins another this year, which could happen, then Billy D's name should be up there in lights as one of the top, if not the top, coaches in the USA. To do what he does at a football school is remarkable. I'm not sure why he doesn't get more credit than he does.
I'd like to say KU in 03. Seeing Kirk and Nick last night on the same court playing significant minutes and Gooden back playing significant minutes again shows what a devastatingly good team that was. 70-30 in the middle of the 2nd half of the FF against DWade and Marquette is proof positive of how good they were. If only they could have made some FT's :( And to think they pretty easily could have been back to back champs had a few more shots dropped the year before against Maryland.
I also noticed Rex Walters is coaching in the NIT as is former asst. coach Joe Dooley. I expected to see Turgeon and the Terrapins in the field as well, but their 17-15 record wasn't good enough. Needless to say there's a lot of KU influence being felt in the post season.
I haven't figured out how to post these to the site other than this way, but this just appeared on Yahoo.
http://sports.yahoo.com/video/memorable-moments-danny-manning-leads-221219786.html ↗ ↗
The video is talking but no video unfortunately, still some good stuff with Danny and Larry talking.
Avenging Syracuse, yes, a thousand times yes! They also eliminated us in an elite 8 game when we were the better team in 96 I think. They played for the championship against Kentucky I think that year. We got em once in around 2000 the famous roy monkey off his back game press conference. We blew them out by about 30. Add another loss a few years ago in some Thanksgiving tourney in KC, and well, we need to beat Syracuse.
I will say this as people say we lost by 6 to Florida, and outscored them by 9 in the 2nd half.
I recall that Wiggins filled up the bucket with a bunch of threes in mop up time. It was one of those 6 points doesn't really reflect how thoroughly we got trounced that night.
I also recall not feeling very satisfied that night at all, 6 point deficit or not.
@nuleafjhawk
I'm the same way, except I wasn't brought into the Jayhawk kingdom until 1985. Kind of sucks to only have the correct champion twice since 1985 :)
@VailHawk Bring it on. You going down like yesterdays lunch man. Instead of Vailhawk you gonna be Ailhawk. A Hawk pooping on the winners for each game would choose better than you. You might as well take your bracket to the garbage now, because that's what your's is. My bracket's gonna hang in the louvre, they're gonna hang your bracket in the hall of shame. @Jaybate is gonna write a trillion page treatise on how bad your bracket is, and then he's gonna just write a one word treatise on mine, BHOF. (bracket hall of fame) @HEM is going to disect my brilliant analyses of all 68, while yours is going viral for how bad it is. Heck Warren Buffet might give you a billion bucks for getting every game wrong!
@Approxinfinity Does the bracket have to be completed before tomorrows play in games or is Thursday the deadline? Either way I'm in like win.
As others are pointing out the Midwest is the stuff of nightmares. It's also the stuff of potentially juicy matchups. Louisville-Kentucky sweet 16 game or Louisville-Wichita rematch. Potential of KState-WSU in the 2nd round is delicious too. I think Kentucky-WSU is an intriguing matchup.
As for our draw, I like it up to the sweet 16 and then wowsa, Syracuse and Florida, in Orlando. Of course a smackdown in early December doesn't always translate to a smackdown in late March, but Florida has gone up and we've gone down since then. Syracuse and KU don't have a very good history for KU fans, but I don't really need to go there now.
It's always good to be highly regarded of course and other teams will have our name circled. It's a sign of respect for our program.
I don't get why you're annoyed by ISU fans. Who cares? They're happy, they beat a great program. It's a way of showing us respect by thumping their chest when they beat us. Why insult them? They're part of our league, I hope they make a deep run into the tourney with us as well obviously.
Every team in the United States has idiot fans. Come to my daughters soccer games for proof. But the majority of fans of every team are like you, like me. They want to see their team do well, nothing more, nothing less. We don't wish ill on our opponents. Sure there's some good natured banter sometimes. Just let it go man, life's too short!
I am definitely glass half empty on this team right now. I just don't see how we can scratch together even 4 wins, let alone 6. I know, we can be inspired by our 11 loss champs in 1988, but they were rolling coming into the tourney (despite a conference tourney loss).
I just wrote this over on another thread. Our SOS is only beneficial to a point if we win those games. Otherwise losses to tough teams causes negative vibes.
As for Wichita, I'd assume their SOS was similar a year ago, and well a quick fact check shows they were beating the National Champs in the final four by 11 in the 2nd half, so maybe, as tough as it is for some you to admit it, they might just be really good.
I've been cranky about our team even before Joel got hurt. If you don't win enough of those tough games then you'll watch march madness mad that you didn't win enough of those tough games. Some of those schools listed there would probably be shoe ins for a bid had they won more of their tough games. Minnesota is an example.
The risk of a tough schedule like KU has played is losing the tough games and having confidence flag because of the losses. That's where we are at right now. Fans are grumpy, players are grumpy, the writers are grumpy, coach is grumpy, and unless we suddenly figure out how to guard the three line and the layup line, I suspect we're going to be grumpy well before the final weekend of the dance.
I offer my condolences to you and your loss. I pray for you that you will experience peace and comfort.
@Hawk8086
I think a 2 seed would be a gift, I'll take it, but we don't deserve it in my opinion. There's really not much difference between a 2 or a 3, so it doesn't matter too much I guess.
I'd be upset if I was an ISU fan too. Omaha is just across the river from the state of Iowa! I really hate it when these networks make these harebraned decisions. Alas, I live in SEC country, but got to watch the KU game on ESPNU!
@DinarHawk I like your silver lining attitude, really I do, but we are 8-5 since we lost our first league game to Texas. That doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence going into the tourney.
Their 11-16 was disturbing because we didn't guard the three ball. The announcers kept pointing it out, we were just watching the ball until it was too late.
So I am quite concerned about this team. We'll probably be a 3 or maybe even a 4, and with 9 losses, should we expect a better seed than that? I don't care that we played the toughest schedule because we played tough teams and lost to a lot of tough teams. Sure we beat some of them too.
I think I could have scored against KU's defense tonight....maybe.
@drgnslayr
Well you were smart enough to see Archie as an earlier version of BRush!
I like the baseball rule. As much as I hate losing players after 1 year I also hate even more seeing kids who have no business declaring for the NBA ruining their college careers by declaring and then not getting drafted. What a waste.
I wonder if someone has studied the impact on kids who don't get drafted. They've blown their scholarship so I'd doubt many of them return to school. Some go to Europe I suppose which isn't the end of the world, but they're not showing highlights of the Helsinki Saunas v. the Vilnius Vultures game on ESPN either.
As for the NBA splashers, how many OAD's make a splash? I haven't thought too hard about it and don't follow the NBA closely enough. I presume Durant had a great first year. Kyrie Irving did well. I'm sure there's others, but there's probably more Josh Selby's and Xavier Henry's than Durants.
College hoops would be much better if kids had to stick for 3 years if they don't declare out of HS. Let's hope that happens.
Is the game on TV today? Channel?
@drgnslayr
I was just a dumb college student!
Me and my homies at KU when I was there used to yell at Archie Marshall not to shoot it. I guess it was our estimation that he was a poor shooter and didn't offer much to the team. But I just looked up his stats and he was better than what I remember! Shooting percentages of over 50%, decent rebounding numbers, average points of 8 or 9 per game.
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Graves let us down that game in particular. I was thinking more in terms of he being a greatly skilled player might have changed the perplection of that game. Yes, 14 of 32 made FTs cost us that game plain and simple.
I had a wait and see attitude at the beginning of the season. I really didn't know what to think. I hate to compare us to Kentucky, but we always do so I will too. 2 years ago freshman heavy team obviously won it all. There, it can be done Kentucky proved. And the next year they proved with a freshman laden team they can be a bust.
So I would say we are at a 5 right now. Could turn out pretty sweet still or could turn out with a galling weekend (or worse) exit.
Since we keep talking about Wichita, I will defend them a bit here. I'd reckon we all dogged on their schedule last year as well and they of course, performed admirably. So if they're good, they're good, whether they're playing Haskell Indian College or Louisville.
Interesting that in 2004 Emeka Okafor went through something very similar around the same time in the season and returned with a bang and his team won it all. Everyone's different of course as are injuries, but a return to health and strength is not out of the question.
@globaljaybird It would be unprecedented I think, to penalize a team in the seedings that much for an injury.
How does one step up their defensive intensity? Seriously. There is no way to replace a 7 footer right now that teams shoot almost 5% higher when he's not on the floor. His loss limits the ability of this team to defend the ball plain and simple.
@RockChalkinTexas You might want to change the saying at the bottom of all your posts :)
It's got me to thinking that we have been quite fortunate on the injury front over the years. BRush lost a season which was a blessing in disguise as it helped us win a NC.
We might have won it all had Simien not had his shoulder hurt in 03, Graves was OK, but he was no Wayne Simien.
Who am I missing? I can't think of any other major injury losses going all the way back to Archie Marshall. I'm not thinking of guys lost for a few games during the regular season either. I'm trying to think of guys whose injury disallowed them to play in the dance.