Monday, March 21, 2011

Sweetness!

Some day I may get tired of Markieff's "wrap it up" gesture, but not today.


Speaking of the Morii, great discussion of the off-the-backboard pass on kusports.com.

24 comments:

  1. On an unrelated note, it occurs to me that this old blog hasn't had a facelift in some time. You all okay with me doing a little tinkering later this week?

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  2. Do what you gotta do, YHD. And thanks for these embeds.

    What a great night. The twins just get better and better. What height disadvantage?

    And Tyshawn has been great now for four straight games. He's always been able to penetrate -- he's finally figured out how to get assists off his penetration. (Should have had a few more but Tyrel was off.)

    Poor Bruce Weber. Real classy move giving Self the brush-by at the end.

    Only two negatives I can think of right now: I hated hated hated that backboard play -- no excuse for pulling that shit only 8 points up in the 1st. That stupid play and the lucky bounce on that early 3 for Illinois were probably the biggest reasons for their comeback.

    The other negative? We're looking at another Mid-Major grind in the next round.

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  3. I missed the off the backboard pass. I can only imagine what that did to the Reverend as the night before he said his only complaint is that Self doesn't seem to have control of the Morii and that they are playing for scouts more than the team.

    I am slow to judge the motives of any players, especially ones that deliver like the Morii. But this play might buttress his point.

    What I hate is how much I'm hearing commentators discuss how shakey we look for a one seed. I don't hear them saying that about Duke, who barely escaped at the last second yesterday. Whereas we controlled the Illini game from start to finish and won by 14. Shakey!

    East coast bias? Now that shit is for real.

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  4. Shoot, and I missed the Bruce Weber brush-by.

    Of course I'd feel differently if things had gone the other way, but I like that the Morii are slightly undisciplined, and I'd like to think they're trying to have fun as much as they're trying to wow the scouts...

    Completely agree about the bias, though, and about how great TT's looking these days.

    I may have mentioned this already, but Richmond's the only loss I've ever seen in person (very weird, very unpleasant), so I'm happy we've got the chance to even the series when it really counts!


    (Oh, and let me know if the redesign looks all right.)

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  5. It looks great, Yance. Is there a way for the comments to display on the page?

    Who's saying we look shaky? Most of the commentary I've heard says the best team is either KU or Ohio State. (I'd have to give it to OSU at this point.)

    I don't think the Morrii are playing MORE for the scouts than the team, but they are definitely taking the scouts (and SportsCenter) into consideration when they try shit like that. I'd have no problem with it in garbage time.

    In fairness, Self has been asking the team to play loose. They're definitely playing loose.

    Anyone else think Texas got screwed yesterday? That was never five seconds on the inbounds, and the refs ignored three different 'Zona fouls on the final play. Of course, it never would have come to that if Barnes could figure out how to coach offense. Steve Kerr (good commentator) repeated what the B12 analysts have been saying: the Horns' spacing is atrocious.

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  6. I'll look into the comments, but probably won't have time until tomorrow...

    I agree with everything you're saying about Texas. Seemed crazy the way they ran their offense in that game. I know 'Zona was defending, but how can Tristan Thompson have attempted only 4 shots in the entire game??

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  7. Apropos of nothing, I'm watching the '92 Duke-Kentucky game on ESPN Classic, and it's ridiculous how many future head coaches were on the sidelines. On Duke's staff I see Mike Brey (Notre Dame) and Tommy Amaker (Michigan then Harvard) -- not to mention Jay Bilas. On Kentucky's staff I see Herb Sendek (Arizona St.) and young, pre-slicked Billy Donovan. Plus Kentucky's players included little Travis Ford (OSU) and John Pelphrey (just fired at Arkansas).

    Coaches K and Pitino were somewhat thinner but otherwise exactly the same.

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  8. I heard analysts talking about how dominate OSU was and comparing them to Kansas and how we let the first two teams hang around, etc.

    But nobody compared OSU to Duke or talked about what it implied that Duke was way more challenged by Michigan than we were by Illinois. All they wanted to talk about was Kyrie Irving's comeback.

    One of the few commentators who broke from this pattern was Seth Davis talking about how composed we were in both games. We didn't come out and blow anyone away, which we certainly can do. But we also didn't show panic, or the huge lapses that we are also known for.

    We played in control, were never threatened to the end, and failed to blow anyone out by 30.

    Don't get me wrong, OSU did look better. But, A) that doesn't matter going forward. And, B) what the hell does that have to do with us? That's Kentucky's problem.

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  9. I think it's good that they're comparing us to OSU. It means these two teams are in a class by themselves.

    Interesting stuff at UFR about Kansas's history of choking. Can't really say that I agree with Manley on this; I'm not sure he even agrees with himself -- more just trying to get a discussion going.

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  10. Just makes me think that if Kansas lived up to just half of those expectations or played to seed just half of the time, we'd have the biggest dynasty since Wooden's Bruins...

    Also apropos of nothing: you all following this Fab Five fracas? Even the Nation getting into it now, in a discussion that deftly (and charmingly, from where I sit) uses Jason Whitlock's Public Enemy referencing against him.

    I haven't seen the film yet (downloading from iTunes as we speak), but I'd love to hear your thoughts, Jayhawk Nation.

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  11. I hated both the Fab Five and Duke. I certainly didn't want to have to choose. I think I rooted for them vs. Duke in '92 and against them vs. UNC in '93.

    That Nation piece was dead-on. This shouldn't have even been a controversy in the first place -- I saw the film, and it was clear that Rose was talking about why he hated Hill and Laettner back then, not now. I'm surprised that Hill, as sophisticated as he is, would fly off the handle about that.

    Maybe Obama needs to call another beer summit.

    The film was fun, if a bit self-serving. It's funny, HH was watching with me, terribly bored/annoyed right up until (SPOILER!!) Webber's fateful timeout. Even as a non-fan she was blown away by the Greek tragedy of that moment.

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  12. Tom Keegan makes some good points about KU's 'easy' path the the Final Four.

    http://www2.kusports.com/news/2011/mar/23/path-final-four-not-easy-ku/

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  13. Yance, I see that the Richmond coach showed his players the tape of that '04 game.

    I also don't like the fact that they have four senior starters, NBA prospects, and tourney experience. Every year we have to deal with a team like this...

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  14. ...not that there's any Sweet 16 team I'd rather be playing. I just like to complain.

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  15. As long as they don't play it in the pre-game, Baylor style...

    Keegan does make some good points there, especially concerning VCU. I didn't realize how much better Florida St. plays with Singleton in the lineup. Should be fun.

    Oh, and we did finally watch that Fab Five show last night. Cocky seemed to work for them (until it didn't, of course), so maybe we should hope for some swagger tomorrow?

    Emily and I both felt a little blown away by that timeout, even though we knew it was coming. What really made us (or at least Emily) fans, though, was that they started and ended the show in the Michigan archives, where the banners sit on a shelf...

    Speaking of banners, let's go step on some spiders so we can get closer to hanging more up in Allen!

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  16. Ha! The great white hopes have once again been dashed all in one night.

    Nothing other than Kansas winning makes me happier than Duke losing. And I really did not see that one coming -- I wanted Texas in that matchup, not 'Zona. I went to bed with Duke ahead at the half, and woke up to find they lost by 16. Sixteen!

    For all of Kansas's tourney upsets, we've never lost by that kind of margin to a lower seed. In fact, the only time I can remember that we were eliminated so decisively was by Self's Illini in 2001, also by 16 I think -- but we were the underdogs in that one.

    As for Jimmer, I had no problem with the kid other than his poor life choices -- converting to LDS and playing for a school that requires chastity (probably the only thing that kept him out of the Final 4).

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  17. I was shocked at Arizona's comeback. I was thinking last night that I'd never seen a 1 seed go down like that after a halftime lead. I think I did pick Arizona to beat Duke, but I picked so much other nonsense that I can't claim much insight.

    I don't mind Jimmer per se, I just get tired of America's love affair with white players that remind them of the past. If you want to talk fundamentals and doing things the right way, let's talk about how he doesn't play defense (Adam Morrison?) and is too in love with his shooting (Reddick?).

    I would argue that the Morri, with their trash talking (Larry Bird?) and sweet East Coast scoring finesse (Dr. J?) are just as good at playing the "right (white?) way." Tattoos and all.

    Speaking of last night, Kemba Walker and Derek Williams were the most impressive men I saw. They may inspire me to make a blog called 'Impressive Men.'

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  18. Panic?

    Richmond is 5-1 vs Big conference schools "beating Purdue, Arizona State, Seton Hall, Wake Forest and Vanderbilt and losing to Georgia Tech."

    Seton Hall and Georgia Tech are not very good, and Wake Forest is just trash this year.

    But they did beat Purdue.

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  19. I would so read that blog! And I agree about the Morrii. Plus they're adorable--I mean, they're twins!

    I watched the whole game, but I have no idea what happened. It was ages ago, of course, but it makes me smile to think back to our game against that Arizona team.

    Oh, and as for Jimmer and his poor choices: well played, DGL.

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  20. Let this be a lesson to the kids: Chastity is for LOSERS.

    I agree that Jimmer is not all that fundamentally sound, although his shooting mechanics are pretty sweet. Maybe you could do another blog: "The Whitest Kids You Know." Or is that already a thing.

    The twins are fundamentally sound -- except when they choose not to be, which is several times per game.

    Is there cause for Arachnophobia? They're very good on both ends of the floor, but not as good as Kansas on either end stat-wise. The encouraging thing to me is that they aren't a strong rebounding team, so even if their first-shot defense is tough, the twins and T-Rob should be able to penetrate their web for some garbage points.

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  21. Ouch--looks like Deron's writing is suffering from a spider bite!

    Hey, isn't this piece on Kansas basketball from your parent company, DGL?

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  22. Sorry, after finishing the article I realize I should have called it "this *hilarious* piece on Kansas basketball."

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  23. Very proud to say that it is.

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