As we have long suspected, God favors the Jayhawks.
After it appeared yesterday that forward Darrell Arthur was going to bypass KU in favor of Baylor (a school which goes to extremes to curry favor with the Almighty), Darrell has experienced an overnight conversion.
According to the LJW, Darrell said he "prayed on it hard last night," and then had a dream of himself suited up in the crimson and blue. By morning, his decision was made. When asked if his change of heart was the result of divine intervention, he said, "I think it was."
Just as He once reportedly appeared to another Arthur--King Arthur--God (pictured) apparently felt He simply had to intervene in the college recruitment process.
A few other items of interest from the Dallas Morning News:
Arthur said if he had made the announcement as scheduled on Monday, he would have picked Baylor. (What unseen force could have compelled him to put it off a day? Hmm.)
Arthur said he would stay in college "as long as it takes," but he would prefer to spend "one or two" seasons in Lawrence before turning pro.
Well, here's some negativity:
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of higher powers, and one thing I like even less is preening high-school students. Do we want a team that includes someone who waits until mid-May to decide on a school?
Get thee behind me, prima donnas!
I could think of worse qualities in a prospect than religiosity and indecisiveness ...
ReplyDeleteMore, from Scout.com:
"So, why the big fuss over Arthur? Well, he's one of the elite prospects in the country. He's 6-foot-9, explosive and has a legitimate face-up game that creates all sorts of matchup issues."
"For the past two seasons, the knock on the power forward has been consistency. But during the final two years of his high school career, Arthur led South Oak Cliff to back-to-back state championships in Texas, and that's not an easy thing to do."
"Kansas' recruiting class now consists of Sherron Collins, the nation's No. 2-ranked point guard, Top 25 post-graduate recruit Brady Morningstar and Arthur. Not too shabby."
Your post is cooler-looking than mine Deron, but I still beat you by 2 hours. :)
ReplyDeleteYou get credit for the scoop, SJ. I just thought a more elaborate post was in order for such big news.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried about minutes. There aren't enough to go around. Also, he does strike me as a bit of a prima donna. I don't like the nick name, I don't like the way he picked schools, and I am not sure he will be a good addition. Still, no doubt he is incredibly talented. In his defense, I must say that I felt the same way about Rush last year and he seems to have turned into a great guy. So I guess the jury is still out. I may me won over by Self'sstatement that Arthur is quick enough to guard a point guard. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the nickname, Ismail. "Slim Shady" is already taken, DA! "King Arthur" might work, though that's a bit too obvious. Maybe his game will suggest a name.
ReplyDeleteI also agree about minutes. I'm still half-expecting one of our junior big men to announce that he's transferring any day now ...
But post-scoring was one of our deficiencies last season, and that seems to be Arthur's strength. If this kid and Morningstar are for real, it's getting harder and harder to see any weaknesses on this team ...
That's never how I pictured God.
ReplyDeleteIs that from a Monty Python cartoon?
Good guess. I just nabbed it off Google images, but I'm pretty sure it's from "Holy Grail." (again, apropos of Arthur).
ReplyDeleteBad Keegan Quotes of the Day:
ReplyDeleteTry to decipher the meaning of these two paragraphs from today's column on Darrell Arthur:
"It’s human nature to ask for a play-alike, even though basketball players are like hail stones, no two are exactly alike. Townsend gave it a shot."
And:
"Think about it. The NBA? No thank you. Florida? Just as good, even better, until proven otherwise. More entertaining? No. The Globetrotters? Weak schedule. North Carolina? Close, but this isn’t horseshoes."
Well, that second paragraph does make sense--it's all a bit abbreviated, but I get it, and I agree that for my entertainment $ the KU bball team may be the best in the nation. . . .
ReplyDeleteYour students must love you, YHD.
ReplyDeleteMissing punctuation, faulty parallelism, incomplete sentences, undeveloped arguments--he gets paid to write this crap?
And why does the addition of Arthur suddenly make us the most entertaining team in the known basketball universe? For all we know, he might not even play that much as a freshman.
Of course, you did leave out the preceding sentence, which lends some sense (in fairness to Keegan):
ReplyDeleteNow, if the coaches can get the players to be as cohesive as the staff, there’s no reason to believe there will be a more entertaining basketball team on the planet to watch next winter.
Obviously there's context, but that doesn't excuse garbled writing (or thinking), even when it comes to sports. I can't believe you've gone so soft on us, YHD.
ReplyDeleteCadillac Ranch?!
Your unfamiliarity with or distaste for asyndeton, DGL, does not make its employment improper. . . .
ReplyDeleteNow (for anyone bored enough or interested in rhetoric enough to have followed that link), I am not suggesting that Keegan's writing rivals that of Lincoln, Kennedy, or Jefferson; I am sure, though, that the sole test of good writing is not the completeness of the sentences or the inclusion of punctuation marks.
If I were to pick on a Journal-World writer, for the record, it would have to be Bill Mayer.
But that “eye of a newt” element, “lack of institutional control,” looms as a troublesome “toe of a frog.” How much of that is new; can the Kansas officials convince the collegiate conquistadors it is remedied?
Huh?
Or this:
With luck, Kansas athletics could have a 2006-07 year that will decimate the Macbeth Syndrome and leave everybody gurgling jubilantly. Let’s just hope we don’t wind up with a grieving KU fandom conversing with a Yorick-facsimile skull and uttering: “Alas, poor Jayhawk! I knew him
Which play are we reading here? Shakespeare references are cheap (see the other blog Chris and I have been working on); using complete, punctuated sentences to say something worth reading, on the other hand, um, takes a little more, like, work, you know?
Thanks for the lesson. I've even taught rhetoric and was unfamiliar with that term.
ReplyDeleteBut if the Wikipedia definition is accurate, Keegan is not using "asyndeton" in these passages; these are just standard run-ons and fragments.
I agree that Mayer is pretentious (feel free to make it a recurring feature if you like, YHD), but compared to Keegan he is f-ing Shakespeare ...
How about a heady mix of asyndeton and anacoluthon?
ReplyDeleteDidn't think I'd go there, did you?
I suppose we'll eventually have to agree to etc.; classic Faulkner v Hemingway problem, I suppose. . . .
Which is which?
ReplyDeleteWay off topic, guys.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, it's May. Stick to the college bball.
Not off-topic. Tangential.
ReplyDeleteThe best way for you to cut off this fascinating exchange would be to post something yourself and push us down the page.
Seriously. Somebody post something. I'm getting tired of the sound of my own blog-voice.
No, I was kidding. Not much college ball to discuss. This debate is as good as any.
ReplyDeleteWell, according to this story on kusports.com, some high school prospects, including Cole Aldrich, will be playing a tournament this weekend in the Fieldhouse. I think I'm too busy grading to attend, but I'll try and put up a post once there's some reporting on the games. . . .
ReplyDeleteI, of course, am Hemingway, dammit.
I thought Keegan was Hemingway ...
ReplyDelete