This will cause some of you to shake your heads, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps in disgust, perhaps in resignation. But I must share it anyway, because it’s just so excellent to those of us who follow the Kansas Jayhawks.
Grantland’s college basketball guru, former Ohio State player Greg Titus, produces a weekly column in which he ranks his top 12 teams of the moment. It’s an often hilarious look at what happened over the previous week of college hoops. And I like him because he seems to always be a fan of KU and was responsible for making the Ben McLemore celebratory dance a huge deal a year ago.
This week, he goes to a whole new level. First he points out that Andrew Wiggins was never struggling as much as some people claimed. And then, when discussing Joel Embiid’s development, he pulls out one of the holy grails of late 1990’s pop culture. The Big Bear With Claws and Fangs scene from Swingers. Complete with a clip from the movie!
One way or another, Embiid got the message. He now understands exactly how good he is and he’s playing like it. He’s got an attitude that he didn’t seem to have before and the Jayhawks are much better for it. Sure, I wish he didn’t commit those flagrant fouls against Kansas State and Iowa State, but the good news is, he’s turned into the guy in the rated-R movie whom you’re not sure whether or not you like yet, and that has made his play so money.
Such good times.
If you’re not a KU fan, or if you’re just sick of all the KU freshman hype, read the rest and skip over the KU entry. There’s lots of other great stuff to digest.