Thursday, February 07, 2013

My Small Hope

I just hope that in the midst of the wailing over what's just happened, we can at some point pause to be amazed at the streak that just ended. Seven years and 264 games without a losing streak is just mind-blowingly cool.

We've mentioned it once or twice, but it is worth considering how many teams, seasons, and championships have come and gone without KU losing two games in a row.

We may be disappointed now, but I hope we can also stay mindful of how special Self's Jayhawks have been...

7 comments:

  1. It's an unbelievable streak, and one that had to come to an end sometime. I just never could have conceived that THIS would be that two-game stretch -- OSU at home and now TCU, which Keegan had said before the game might be the worst team in Big 12 history. And now there's a very real danger that it could turn into three...

    Even though BMac got us going to some degree in the second half, he does seem to be hitting the wall a bit. We need our seniors to get us through this -- it's going to be a huge test of character. EJ finally drilled some shots in the last minute. Can he build on that and get his mojo back? I can't figure out what's wrong -- once again, his shots looked fine on release.

    We also need to find a way to get Travis involved again. I've never thought he was as good a shooter as his percentages this year seemed to show, but he certainly should be getting off more than one shot in a game.

    That was the worst KU regular-season loss I've ever seen, for any number of reasons. We've been harping on turnovers, and 13 is too many in a game that was this slow-paced. But the main thing this time was simply that we could not put the ball in the damn hole. Surely 29 percent from the field is just an aberration, right? We're better than this.

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    1. Deron i will have to go back and check the schedule, but i think one of roys last two final four squads got blown out by last place baylor in Waco. I remember they had this guy who was about 6'6 named terry black i think that we made look like michael Jordan. That's the last loss i can remember this bad.

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    2. Yeah, that one crossed my mind when I was thinking of worst losses, so I looked it up. Turns out Baylor was 16-6 and 5-6, nowhere near as lowly as TCU. (It was 2001, when Kirk, Nick, and Drew were sophomores.) There was also Oral Roberts at home in 2006, but that was actually a solid ORU team.

      Maybe there's a worse regular-season loss that I'm not thinking of. I mean, at least this wasn't a blowout, but considering the 13-point half [shudder] and the quality of the opponent, I cant think of a worse case.

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  2. And another streak ends! But here's to not losing three in a row in over seven years!

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  3. I remember when that last streak started too. That was the aaron miles leg sweep game down at texas tech.

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    1. Yeah, there are some uncomfortable parallels going on. I've been reading "Beyond the Phog," and every player who was on that 2005 team recalls the Texas Tech overtime loss as the beginning of a tailspin from which they never quite recovered. And that was also a senior-led team with Final Four experience, just like this team.

      In fairness, though, the other interesting thing about 2005 in the book was how badly hurt Langford was going into the Bucknell game. Self hadn't expected him to play at all, and still isn't sure he should have.

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  4. One side note... When I was reading about KU's miserable offensive struggles vs. TCU, another story popped up: "Frankamp scores 48."

    But no, no, I promise I'm not giving up on this year's team yet.

    At least the game at Norman was more of a "normal" KU loss. That is, we were on the road against a tournament-caliber team that was nailing all of its shots, and we were competitive all the way to the end. (It is disturbing, however, to see just how confident opponents have become against us.)

    The K-State game is now pretty goddamn huge. If we lose, we'll be down two games in conference, and it could crush our spirits for good. If we win, we'll be back tied for the lead and maybe we can start to put the WORST WEEK EVER in the rearview. It's going to be a weird, nervous atmosphere at the Phog (I won't be there unfortunately); we need some big plays early to get the crowd going.

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