It's a shame no one has time to blog here anymore, because this is going to be a momentous week for the 'Hawks one way or the other -- an unprecedented gauntlet of consecutive road games vs. Top 10 teams, with major conference implications at stake.
If I'm recalling correctly, Kansas has not lost two games in a row in the entire history of this blog -- not since early in the 2006 season. But we've never had a two-game road swing like this in my memory; that streak could very easily come to an end. If so, we would go from one game up in conference to one game down, with Mizzou and Baylor then tied for 1st; we'd also probably get knocked out of the Top 10, because that's just the way it goes. But we'd still have a good shot at continuing our Big 12 title streak, since Mizzou has yet to play at the Fieldhouse and Baylor has yet to play at Mizzou.
Honestly I'd be thrilled with a split. A sweep is just too damn much to ask for.
But assuming we lose one or both, I'm still very curious to see HOW we lose. Will we let ourselves get steamrolled like Baylor and Ohio State did at the Fieldhouse? (Or like North Carolina at Florida State? How are we ranked below them, by the way?) Or will we at least take them to the wire and put the fear of God into their fans? We're going to find out something about the character of this team.
(Oh yeah, and also Saturday could be our last game ever at Mizzou, the end of a century-long era -- which we could talk about, if anyone's still out there.)
If this is the end of the rivalry, or at least of the home-and-home series, I certainly hope we give them something to remember. Something like heartbreaking disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI see the line is them by 3; nice to see that the experts put us in striking distance. Should be a great game!
Self had some interesting comments on prep on Twitter yesterday:
https://twitter.com/#!/CoachBillSelf. He's right about guarding the ball and rebounds; and I love his "no big deal" reply to the Mizzou crowd question.
See you hear Monday to celebrate, nation!
Well, whatever you want to say about that game, it's pretty cool that we actually moved up in the AP Poll...
ReplyDeleteSee you in Waco!
At least you can say we looked like a great f*ing team for long stretches in Columbia.
ReplyDeleteI notice there's been a lot of focus online about the foul calls, even in the national media, but there's no getting around the fact that we did it to ourselves. If we had played smart and been strong with the ball in the last 2 minutes, we wouldn't have put ourselves in position for the refs to make the usual homer calls.
And hey, give credit to Mizzou too. That was some clutch shooting.
I hate to be negative, but this may be the end of the road of an unbelievable 6-year stretch without consecutive losses. We've got a super-talented, hungry road opponent out for revenge.
(If I may dwell on the past for a second, it still eats at me that we lost that Iowa State game. We just gave that f*cker away, when a win could have insulated us in the conference standings against the tough stretch we're going through right now.)