Long Live The Swat King

So long, Cole.

He was the best true center I've ever seen at Kansas -- maybe the best since Wilt. Critics said he was too slow, but he covered so much ground with that massive wingspan it hardly mattered. Favorite memories: his incredible 1st half against Hansbrough, his triple double against Dayton in the '09 tourney, and his complete ownage vs. the Tigers (both Memphis and Mizzou) this year.

It's too bad he couldn't stay another year -- he could have finally come out of Sherron's shadow and been "the man," and KU would have been a title favorite once again. But given his family's financial situation, he made the right decision. And I think he'll be one of the best centers in the league within a few years.

Under Pressure

This kind of game I don't need. I'm not sure how LeHigh only warranted a 16 seed, but we made them look better than they are at times with our usual episodes of sloppiness. This game was basically a carbon copy of rounds 1 and 2 in KC last week.

I guess the biggest frustration for me was defense. Yes, we held them to a low percentage, but we fouled incessantly -- they got 21 FT attempts to our 10. Some of that was bad officiating, but we got beat on defense a lot, in the 1st half especially.

The Midwest looks less formidable now with G-town out, but it doesn't get any easier in Round 2. No. Iowa is another one of those Mid-Majors that make these early rounds so miserable for the top seeds; we got past "Bucknell" (Patriot League), but can we get past "Bradley" (MVC) on Saturday?

Anyway, hats off again to Marcus and Sherron for scoring, Cole for blocks, Tyrel for clutch 3s, Tyshawn for facilitating the break, and X for doing a bit of everything.

And what a Day 1 it was. I just watched Texas take a 6-point lead in OT, and started to think to myself that they could knock off UK if they play like this -- and then, alas, they choked it all away.

Day One

Looking forward to the matchup with Lehigh tonight...

In the meantime, how about Robert Morris? I picked 'Nova into the Final Four, so this would sink my bracket, but it's hard to cheer against a 15-2 upset. What a wonderful time of year!

Rock Chalk Big 12 Championship

Awesome! This was K State's best season ever and they lost to us 3 times! That says a lot.

Sherron!

Have I mentioned that I'm going to miss him?

In a game that was less than great, at least for the first 30 minutes, here's Collins' line:
9-19 from the field and 5-6 from the line, for a total of 26 points.
6 assists.
And, in a game rife with turnovers, only 1 TO.
Oh, and 1 rebound and 1 steal.

Sherron!

I received this text message, which seemed to sum up everything else pretty well:
"Last 10 mins was a lotta fun"

Big 12 Liveblog Spectacular '10

It's on, y'all. On ESPN2, that is. We'll be tuned in here at the office, and I'll see how many man-hours I can waste watching and blogging.

The Texas Tech motion offense has been a problem for Kansas on the road, not at home. Neutral sites? We'll see. I remember Roy beating up on Bob Knight pretty decisively in the '02 tourney. I want to say Aaron Miles had like 13 assists.

Also will be pulling for G-town vs. 'Cuse alongside the homers here.

Hope you guys are out there...

Back Where We Belong (#1)

KU conquers Columbia! J'Cuse goes down in flames! The table is set, ladies and gents.

That was quite a feast-or-famine game: 16-0 run for Kansas! 16-4 Mizzou! 16-0 Kansas again! Mostly "feast," though, and those runs were among the most entertaining ball we've played all year. That was a pleasure to watch.

Tyshawn and Tyrel must wish they could play Mizzou every week. In fact, one could say, the up-and-down style of play is "Taylor-made?" Thanks, I'll be here all week.

Reed deserves a bit more pub than he gets (although I see Keegan did give him some love before the game). He seldom scores more than a few baskets per game, but those 3s of his always seem to be lifesavers for KU and/or daggers to opponents. He's shooting a ridiculous 45% from 3.

Slowly but surely, we're getting closer and closer to the 2008 team in terms of balanced production -- we won't ever quite get there since this team doesn't have a Sherron coming off the bench.

It's a strange thing; even though Mizzou has gotten better under Anderson, some of the air seems to have gone out of the rivalry. Maybe now that they actually expect to be in the Dance every year, the single-minded motivation to beat Kansas isn't the same. Or maybe it's just that Self owns Anderson (going back to his UAB days).

(Not that the crowd wasn't still out for blood. Was there really someone wearing a black KKK robe in the crowd to distract our FT shooters? Did I imagine that? Surely I imagined that.)

The Midwest Regional (OKC-St. Louis) is now ours to lose if it wasn't already. The other good thing is, as one commentator was pointing out, the committee should stack the best 2 and 3 seeds in the same bracket with the weak #1 -- Duke, K-State, and say, Ohio State could all be bunched together, leaving our bracket relatively clear.

P.S. It's March, people, and this could be the best KU team ever when all's said and done. I want to see everybody here a-bloggin'. Blog like the wind. As John Oliver says, it's quite literally the least you can do.

My Sherron Amour