Turkey Hangover

It seems like a long time and a lot of calories ago, but just a few thoughts on the Duke game:

First of all, it was damned exciting for KU to be part of a game like that, win or lose. You had to be proud of our guys and optimistic for the season.

I know everyone wants to blame Tyshawn for his 2nd-half turnovers, but the problem right now is lack of depth. Our guys were completely gassed by the end after three consecutive games and an intense first three-quarters vs. Duke. Self didn't have the confidence in Tharpe to play him more than 7 mins., and so TT stayed in there for 38 mins. Interestingly, Self had nothing but praise for Tyshawn after the game.

One good sign re. depth is that EJ, Travis, and esp. Withey all showed signs. In fact, the latter might have been our MVP if he'd stayed out of foul trouble.

Interesting thing about this team's defense -- it's really good EXCEPT beyond the 3-point line, where every opponent is just killing us. I guess that's not atypical for a Self team, and at least they're not taking us to the hoop.

Also: Au revoir, Turner Gill. That was one of the worst of KU's many terrible football seasons. Still doesn't make me miss Mangino, however.

Hawaii 3-0?

Our first big win of the season: a narrow but rather convincing victory over my local Hoyas. I wish we had won by more against an unranked team, but give some credit to a surprisingly athletic G-town squad.

Great bounce-back for T-Rob and Travis after struggles vs. UK. Travis was Mr. Clutch, T-Rob dominated, and TT-EJ continue to show signs.

Now we're in the Final Four with Duke, UCLA and Michigan. Feels like the early '90s all over again...

OK, it's my bedtime. Looking forward to more hoops tomorrow/later today.

Wildcat-Scratch Fever

Well, I enjoyed long stretches of our loss to Kentucky. We fought, we played defense, we outrebounded them, we blocked shots, our guards penetrated on offense and forced turnovers on defense. Withey and Wesley were pleasant surprises.

We proved at least we can play with the big boys. We theoretically could have won if not for the Cats' crazy barrage of 3s, many of them guarded or heaved up to beat the shot clock.

Tyshawn played his ass off. I was impressed that he was able to get to the line so much against such athletic opponents. Elijah penetrated well too. But when they penetrate, these guys need someone on the wings to kick to. Which brings us to this team's possible fatal flaw: shooting.

The turnovers were disappointing, but 14 TOs isn't terrible. 34 percent from the field and 27 percent from three -- now that's terrible.

A lot of firepower went out the door with Brady, Tyrel and the twins. If Teahan is the only spot-up guy we have, then we can expect a lot more games like this one where we're competitive but still fall short.

Any Cause for Optimism in 2011-12?

We're back after a depressing offseason following a depressing early exit -- conference defections, ineligible freshmen, recruiting misses, player suspensions, football futility.

Now at least the games have started up again. But is there any cause for hope after our boys struggled to beat Pitt State? Not much, I fear.

Nine turnovers for Tharpe? (Deron grimaces, tugs collar nervously.)

And I can't give much credence to Withey's triple-double. The Jayhawk big man overachieving against preseason D-2 competition is now a longstanding, and predictable, pattern.

The good news is that Teahan apparently kicked ass, and we won despite being severely depleted. For now, I'll take it. TT, EJ and T-Rob return soon -- as do my fellow bloggers, I hope.

And now for some good news . . .

Robinson and Taylor return!

I figured Taylor would be back, but he is enigmatic . . . and I thought Robinson was 50/50. Add to this the recent signing of McLemore, and Jayhawk Nation has reason to celebrate for the first time in a few weeks.

Selby is still a question mark, but Robinson was the key question mark heading into the offseason.

With the Morri 99% likely to bolt, get ready to see more Withey and, I hope, Releford!

Thirty-Five and Two

Four No. 1 seeds entered. Only one remains. It's white unis from this point on.

I think we all need to pray to the basketball gods that our current shooting prowess will continue -- I can't believe how good our guards were vs. Richmond, esp. Brady. But TT's resurgence continues, and Selby's showing signs too -- his 3's really blew the game open.

Did anyone think at the beginning of the season -- or even in all the midseason turmoil -- that this team would be capable of mounting a 35-2 record, second-most wins in Kansas history? Someone pointed out, too, that for all our status as Big Dogs, this team actually has only one McDonald's guy, and he doesn't even start. This could be Self's best coaching job.

ESPN noted that Kansas has now reached four Elite 8's in the last eight years, but never mind that -- how about six in the last 10 years, baby! If we can win Sunday, it'll be four Final 4's in the last decade.

UFR's Manley reports that KU now has the best five-year stretch of any NCAA team in history -- coinciding of course with the 5-year existence of this blog. But we shouldn't take all the credit.

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.

Made It To Round... Three!

Since the NCAA insists that their stupid play-in round is now actually the 1st round, and the real 1st round is now the 2nd, I would like to declare that we've already gotten last year's monkey off our back and advanced to Round 3. Woo-hoo!

Had to sweat it a bit for 25 minutes of that game, but down the stretch we perpetrated the most vicious terrier massacre since Fish Called Wanda.

Self said we were tight in the 1st half, but actually no one looked tighter than him. Even in the 1st we were making jumpers, which suggests to me we weren't really tight. We just didn't respect the opponent. Once we focused on defense in the 2nd half everything else fell into place. (By the way, how does it help the team for Self to keep telling them NOT to be tight? Just drop the subject already.)

One interesting subplot was Selby. At one point early in the 2nd I noticed him on the bench and began to wonder if he was now out of the rotation entirely -- did he even play at all in the 1st? But Self put him in down the stretch, and while he wasn't exactly great -- hurt us defensively, I think -- he finally got a short jumper to bounce in, made a big layup, and made that key fast-break assist to Brady. Maybe the kid's got his mojo back.

But since I've been so horrifically wrong in my brackets so far, I should probably revise my earlier dismissal of the Illini. I've never seen them play nearly as well as they did in dismantling the Rebs -- the ESPN crew said the same. If this underachieving team is finally going to play to potential (preseason Top 20) we could have a fight on our hands. Considering that they were really more dominant than us last night, our players should approach this game with an underdog mentality -- we have something to prove.


Update: here's that highlight:

he did it again!

Once again Obama picked us to go all the way. How do we feel about this? He says they deserve a second chance this year even though we ruined his and everyone elses' bracket last year.

Also, here's Self on Mike and Mike this morning.