Saturday in Ames

Anyone else concerned about a post-OSU hangover Saturday? That's about the only way I could see us losing to this Stinson-less ISU squad.

I do expect a bit of a letdown but nothing fatal. KU 75-66.

Speaking of the Pac-10 (as Chris was below), it appears they are now signed on to a "challenge" series with the Big 12, a la the Big 10/ACC series. As a result, Arizona is coming to Lawrence next year (along with our already scheduled visit to USC). So there is some hope that our SOS might exceed this year's 159.

The Pac-10 does seem to be the best conference this year; next year, who knows? But if Arizona's young phenoms stick around they should be an exciting opponent.

'Hawk and Awe

KU 87, OSU 57.

I'm glad my prediction was wrong on this one. Our final score fell right between the forecasts of Yancy (90) and Ismail (84), so that's a tie.

I didn't realize OSU was so clumsy with the ball. But a lot of credit should go to our defense in the first ten minutes of the game. OSU never knew what hit them.

And as the KC Star points out, the Big 12 South is now 0-31 at Allen.

Big 12 Kickoff

Now soliciting predictions for Wednesday's game against the Cowboys (no, you're not allowed to watch the President's speech instead) AND for the Big 12 in general.

Tonight, it will be a brutal battle of attrition which OSU will lose because they are only 8 players deep. (No troop surge on the horizon for them). KU wins, 68-62.

As for the conference in general, I project that we'll go 15-1 and win it by two games. The schedule just lines up for us too well.

At any rate, if we want any chance of getting a 1 seed in the Dance, we're going to need to do about that well. Considering that our conference is rated even lower than the Missouri Valley right now, merely winning it will not be enough: we need to dominate.

'Cocks Blocked

'Hawks defeat South Carolina, 70-54. Now, that's more like it.

I didn't get to see the game (thanks, CBS), but the thing that stands out in the box score is our efficiency on offense. We shot 58% from the field, with Mario hitting 7 of 10, Arthur 8 of 12, Brandon 5 for 9, and Julian 3 for 3. That's not easy to do on the road against a well-coached SEC team like this one.

And look at Brandon's line: 12 points, 6 boards, 4 assists and a steal to just 2 TOs.

After all the criticism, let's give Bill and the boys some credit: in their three most challenging games thus far (Florida, BC, and SC), they've come up big. And now, with all the losses this weekend, we should move back up to 5th or 6th in the polls, where we were just after the Florida win.

Highlights here, here, and here. Julian's runout was great (though he got away with an NBA walk), and there are two nice assists from Brandon to Darrell.

Jayhawks/Gamecocks Predictions?

Will we play uninspired and get burnt like in Chicago with Depaul? Or have we learned something about having a killer instinct since then? Did the BC game teach us how to finish?

A quick glance at South Carolina's schedule tells me that they reallt have only 1 legit win, which was against the "other" USC in So. Cal's gym, the same team we struggled to finish in our gym. They lost to Clemson, and inexplicably, to the UC Irvine anteaters. Of course, that's not really any worse of a loss than our ORU loss. So, I'm not sure. The SJ NCAA Tournament projection metric (which I just made up) tells me this team should receive about an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney, so facing them on the road should be a better test than Depaul, which I do not think will make the Tourney.

My score: KU 67 USC 59.

Your prediction?

Let's start the conference season already. I'm tired of struggling against these crappy teams

Well, another terrible team that will hurt our RPI, and another terrible effort. This time, we managed to "gut it out" in a 80-69 win over the7-7 Rhode Island Rams. It's a good thing they didn't still have Lamar Odom, or they probably could've beat us. Russell Robinson was sick, I guess, but that doesn't change the fact that we struggled to execute offensively once again.

We really play up or down to whoever suits up against us. Roy would've beaten this team by at least 25.

It would've been nice if we played a legit top 25 team on the road before conference play. I think the first time we go into a really hostile gym, our guys won't be ready and we lose to someone crummy like ISU or Baylor.

Where Eagles Dare

Finally, a big game, for the first time since Florida.

The BC Eagles are unranked at this point but they're getting votes. Like Kansas, they have a pair of head-scratching losses, to Vermont and Providence, but they also have three high-quality wins--Rhode Island, Michigan State, and Maryland--so we have to assume they've got the chops to be one of the best teams in the country.

BC has been a great program the past few years, and while I'd like us to blow them out in our house, I can't see it. More likely scenario? KU 70-65.

Uh oh, is B. Rush the next Giles?

Breaking news on jayhawknation of a bad variety. It hasn't been reported by kusports and no one on phog.net says anything about it, but the Missouri court website makes it clear:

At http://www.courts.mo.gov/ go to "case.net" in the right margin, then click on the icon that says"litigant name search", then put "Rush" for last name and "Brandon" for first name. This paternity suit comes up. Rush got a default judgment just like Giles did, which means he was too lazy to show up. So, next would be a child support action, and Rush can get behind on that since he is not allowed to earn money. Good stuff B Rush. :<

Keith Richards Turns 63

UConn't be serious...

Chris ain't going to like this article by Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, who says KU reminds him of UConn's talented underachievers from last year.

Most of DeCourcy's points don't really add up. He says UConn's players were all NBA-minded showboats, then he admits that our guys aren't really like that. He's right that Julian needs to focus more on making solid passes than highlight-reel assists. But his suggestion that Sasha should start instead of Darrell (so that "Shady" can avoid early foul trouble) completely ignores the performance of Darnell Jackson, who's been far better than Sasha this year.

And his criticism of Russell for shooting too much is just flat-out wrong. It's true that RR's shooting percentage is poor, but it's not for overshooting; he's taken far fewer attempts than every other starter and 12 fewer than even Sherron.

Overall, though, you can see some parallels. UConn had a good year by most standards but you did have a vague sense that they were underachieving, even before George Mason. On the other hand, they went 30-4 and made it to the Elite 8; that's about what I predicted we'd do before the season. Considering how young we are, would that really be so bad?

(After losing to two unranked teams in the first month, I can't help but think we'll be lucky to do as well as Calhoun and co.)

Here's something to cheer us up: Winston-Salem State is coming to town on Tuesday. They're D-1 (status pending) and, I believe, winless. How about a 100-40 shellacking? What else are cupcake teams for?