All Hail Texas! Death to Texas!

Best-case scenario for Kansas last night. Texas beats A&M, but it takes them like three hours to do it. Kansas is finally alone at #1 in the conference and assured no less than a share of the title.

And again, the chips keep falling into place for a #1 seed. We said last week that we'd need to win out (true so far), that A&M would have to lose (thank you, Kevin Durant), and that one of the top teams would have to collapse (thanks, Florida). I wonder if certain commentators are ready to eat some crow.

But the question still is: do we even want the 1 seed?

And, after watching Durant and Augustin last night, what do you guys think will happen on Saturday?

KU 67 - OU 65

On the plus side of the ledger ... we did win.

But it seems like our guys have started to believe their own press clippings. Once we went up 17, we hit cruise control and were flummoxed when OU stepped out of the zone and got in our faces. Who knew our guys would be so susceptible to full- and half-court pressure? I thought that was one area where we were bullet-proof.

It's like we were putting on a clinic in the 2nd half -- to demonstrate what not to do on offense. Don't throw lazy passes in traffic, Julian! Stop dribbling into traps, Sherron! Call timeout when no one's open on the inbounds, Brandon!

Mario saved us at the end by finally hitting some FTs, and Julian had the best overall line -- yet even those two had four TOs each.

But how about some love for the much-maligned Sasha Kaun? 11 points, 9 boards, 4-6 from the field and 3-4 from the line with two blocks and no turnovers. And there he was, on the floor in crunch time (against the advice of almost everyone on this blog), but making big plays down the stretch.

Go Back to Ames, Losers!

Yup, went to the game with Aaron again and look who decided to sit right down in front of us. Max Falkenstein and Mark Mangino. Didn't really feel like I could yell "Down in front!".

Aaron and I shook the Coach's hand and I said "you're doing a good job coach, keep it up" He said "I appreciate it." It was swell.

Max had a giant ring on his finger.

Also Florida and UNC lost, if we win out we might have just beaten them out for a #1 seed.

Sowing Seeds

KU 89 ISU 52

KU continued it's sweep of Big 12 North this weekend, and looked damn fine doing it.



Collins, Arthur, and Chalmers were amazing. Wright and Jackson were also great.

Personally, I'm most pleased that Chalmers has come on strong. I felt that our wobbly play early in the conference season had a lot to do with his disapearring acts.

"One thing about Mario, he sort of lets the game come to him,” says Ronnie Chalmers, Mario’s father and the KU director of basketball operations. “Sometimes, that sort of disturbs me.”

But maybe the Jayhawks, loaded with potential scorers, are a better team with Chalmers playing the waiting game. Mario says he lets each game play out and then decides where he can be most useful. In doing so, Chalmers has become the glue that keeps KU together. He can play a different role for the Jayhawks every game. . .

Most of the time, KU hasn’t needed him to take the lead in scoring. But when Brandon Rush missed four open threes starting the game against K-State on Monday, Chalmers decided it was his time. Chalmers delivered with 12 points and kept KU close at halftime.

As this year has gone on, Chalmers has been more content to let everyone else play the role of “so-and-so.” In nonconference play, he scored in double digits in 10 of 15 games and averaged 18.8 points per game in the four games leading up to league play. His performance prompted KU coach Bill Self to say that, if he had to choose one player to shoot the big shot down the stretch, it would be Chalmers.


But in Big 12 play, Chalmers is averaging only 9.8 points per game.

As Self said, it’s not as if Chalmers is playing poorly. He’s shot 43 percent from the field in conference play and leads the league in steals. . .



“He’s beginning to realize how much Kansas basketball really means to the city of Lawrence,” Ronnie says. “If he could make the last steal in the game for Kansas to win the national championship, I think he would be satisfied.”" -Brady McCollough, KC Star

"Instead of confidence issues, fatigue or complacency, Kansas leading scorer Brandon Rush could’ve blamed his six-point performance Saturday on something more simple.

A crick in his neck.

Surely Rush and a few of his teammates felt a little strain as they stared at the top 25 scores that flashed across KU’s video board during a timeout of the Jayhawks’ 89-52 victory over Iowa State. . . Kansas hasn’t earned a No. 1 seed since the 2001-02 season, but the Jayhawks certainly looked worthy of the honor Saturday.

“The guys are probably feeling a little freer now than they were earlier,” KU coach Bill Self said. “Maybe it’s because we’re playing better and they’ve got a little more confidence — and maybe it’s because I’m not in their ear quite as much.

“I trust our guys. Their confidence level is pretty high right now.”-Jason King KC Star

And that piece ran before Wisconsin added a second loss in a week, and UNC went down to Maryland. Pretty good weekend for the Jayhawks.

Where does this leave us for rankings, and more importantly, seedings?

I think we now have an outside shot at a 1 seed. If we keep winning like this and others fall, we can play in.

I think we can all appreciate Greg Doyel's take on the Wisconsin - OSU game.

"The No. 1 team in the country was here Sunday. So was the No. 1 team in the country. Ohio State is ranked first by the coaches, second by the media. Wisconsin is ranked first by the media, second by the coaches.

You'd think that, one way or the other, the best team in college basketball was in the building Sunday.

Good heavens, I hope not.

If the best team this 2007 season has to offer was at the Schottenstein Center on Sunday, college basketball needs to die and come back as something else. Perhaps rugby. Or hockey. Lacrosse? Anything but that la-schlock I saw Sunday. . .

Look, Ohio State has a very good team. The Buckeyes have depth and talent and a great coach in Thad Matta. They have the next David Robinson in Oden, the next Chris Paul in Michael Conley, and lots of solid complementary pieces. One of those pieces is Daequan Cook, whose scoring average has been cut nearly in half, from 15 ppg to 8.3 ppg, since the Buckeyes entered conference play. Cook has all the tools in the world, and he thinks he's headed to the NBA perhaps as soon as this summer, but he sums up this OSU team:

Tons of potential. Ought to be great. But something's missing.

I can't tell you what that missing ingredient is, but I have good company. Matta also can't figure it out, because if he knew what it was, he'd fix it. As it is, he's got something pretty special -- the No. 1-ranked team in the country, 26-3 and barreling down on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament -- but he has a team that isn't good enough to win the national title unless something major changes.

Best team in the country? Not Ohio State. Oden is too passive, Cook too flighty and the Buckeyes far too reliant on Oden for rebounding and help defense. And any team that can lose by 26 at Florida, as the Buckeyes did on Dec. 23, is too soft to win a national title.

Not Wisconsin.

Not Florida, strange as that is. The Gators returned everyone who mattered from last season's national championship team, but they've lost to NCAA bubble team Vanderbilt and to NIT bubble team LSU in the past eight days. Joakim Noah isn't the starving-for-greatness player he was last season, but he's not alone. The only Florida starter who hasn't regressed is Al Horford.

UCLA? The Bruins have the country's best resume and the best three-guard set in Collison, Arron Afflalo and Josh Shipp. But the Bruins have a small forward playing power forward, and they have a cavity at center. Not good.

North Carolina? The Tar Heels have it all. They are Ohio State with more star power, Florida with more depth. But North Carolina has been swept by schizophrenic Virginia Tech and lost to mediocre North Carolina State.

So if you're asking me to name the best team in the country, I can only tell you this:

The best team in America wasn't in town on Sunday.

Unless Kansas happened to be stuck at the Columbus airport."

Insult, Injury, Tragedy

We face Iowa State again on Saturday, a team that has only won a few conference games, none against top teams. (How again did we let this team take us to overtime?)

Russell's out with a foot sprain, and will be replaced in the lineup for the next one or two games by Collins, who actually caused the injury by falling on him. We need RR back, but we still should have no trouble w/ the Cyclones: KU by 25.

Coincidentally, it was only yesterday that CNNSI's Luke Winn examined in depth the question of whether Sherron should get more minutes. Winn has high praise for Sherron but ranks KU at 8th, still below A&M.

Some other news items of interest: PETA has taken notice of K-State's live chicken-tossing. Always good to see liberal interest groups monitoring the Big 12 action.

And, I'm sad to say, Kirk Rundstrom of Split Lip Rayfield passed away yesterday in Wichita at 38. The LJW has a great slideshow and podcast that just about brought me to tears right here at my desk. And please revisit the Jayhawk Nation tribute to Kirk and Split Lip here.

Yes and No...

... are the answers to Yancy's queries in the previous thread. We did make it 19 in a row at Bramlage (though that seems insignificant compared to our now 24-year road streak against the 'Cats); but it was no blowout.

Sherron's coming-out party continues (despite some dumb TO's in the first half). No one seems to have video of his crazy thread-the-needle assist to Darrell in the 2nd half, but the Star captured it nicely here ...

Sherron, Darrell, and Mario were the only Jayhawks who really had a good game (including the coach, in my opinion--why risk bringing Brandon in w/ two fouls at the end of the 1st half when it just means we have to hang back and play zone anyway? If this game proved anything, it's that this team can score, and win, even without much help from B-Rush)...

Other negatives? Our team assist-to-turnover ratio was 12 to 16; even Sherron's was like 3 to 4, I think. On the other hand, you've gotta be happy with us shooting 51% (against Huggins' Mad Max-style defense) while holding KSU to 32%.

Below, another interesting photo from the Star: Self doing Mick Jagger ...

19-0 at Bramlage? 5 blowouts in a row?

I guess this year must be pretty good if these are the questions I'm asking before our #6 Jayhawks go on the road for Big Monday.

Coach Huggins, during K-State's season-opening madness (?) guaranteed a win and an end the Cats winless streak against KU in Manhattan. They've never beaten KU in Bramlage in 18 tries.

Will they tonight? After the unholy beat-down against Nebraska, we really look pretty unstoppable right now. And Deron's right (see below): I can't remember such a dominant KU game, at least in conference play. Ouch.

Speaking of Deron, we did move ahead of A&M, but not as high as we might have. 6 seems just fine, though: a solid two-seed.

All we need, then, is to keep playing like a 2. Thus, let's go 90-70 KU this evening.
Five blowouts in a row? Yes! 19-0 at Bramlage? Yes!

Good Seats!

Some pics from the game where Aaron and I sat behind the goals courtside.





My favorite part was when the crowd started chanting for Witherspoon to be put in. Big Jay had a wooden spoon with the word "Wither" written on it. Then, with just a few seconds left we all went nuts when he scored, ensuring that every Jayhawk who suited up had a basket. Great fun.

Crappy video i shot with my phone:

Click To Play

KU 92-NU 39

Are you f-ing kidding me? The 4-blowout barrier has been breached!

For like three games in a row I've predicted that we can't keep steamrolling everyone, and each time I've been glad to be wrong.

Even in Roy's years we never saw a score like this one; sure, we might score 100 easily, but holding the opponent under 40? Unheard of.

A couple of points on the issue of rankings and seeds, as Chris and Yancy discussed below:

During our streak, everyone ranked ahead of us has lost except the Big 10 teams. But exactly where should we be ranked now? You could make the case for us being as high as 4th (same record as UNC but playing better at the moment), but should we really move ahead of A&M? We're now tied with them in conference but they beat us head-to-head.

Chris, it's true our record is similar to that of the 2003 team, but the league was much tougher that year and our noncon schedule was much tougher as well (UNC, Florida, Oregon, Arizona, Tulsa). Our weak schedule could be what ultimately denies us a 1-seed, all other things being equal.

CU Later, Suckers!

That may be the last we'll see of Ricardo Patton and Richard Robey (barring a tournament meeting), and what a fittingly pathetic swan song it was.

I guess three upsets in a row wasn't too much to ask after all. I love that Boulder crowd; the AP story estimated that it was 80% KU-friendly.

This string of blowouts has given us, if nothing else, some f-ing great highlights; these might be the best yet. It's all here, here, and here.

Great foul-line dunk from Jules, of course, but how about the steal and pass from Russell that started it?

(Finally solved my issue w/ blogger. Good thing, too--the rest of you are utter slackers.)