Last week was pretty much a lost week for me. I could never shake my cold. In fact, it kept getting worse. I thought I had turned a corner Friday before my stomach and head started hurting in the evening. I woke up Saturday feeling even worse. I ate some cereal, took some meds, and passed out on the couch for another three hours. Sunday morning I again thought I was feeling better. Then I woke up after an unexpected nap of 90 minutes. I just can’t get rid of this congestion. As I try to clear the cobwebs Monday morning my head still feels full of various fluids over a week after they first made their presence known. If I didn’t have a haircut this morning, I would probably be crawling back into bed.
I say it was a lost week because I barely left the house. I went to the grocery store a couple times. I picked L up from practice Monday and Tuesday. I went to her game Wednesday. And that was about it. Otherwise I just laid around the house, bundled under my blanket all week.
Maybe this week will be better.
Weather
Thursday was February 1. That was the first day we saw the sun here in Indianapolis in 10 days. It also got up over 50. I walked out to get the mail that afternoon and had that false sense of imminent spring that can come this time of year.
It’s one thing for that to happen on February 25th. It’s another on the freaking first of the month, when spring is still six-to-twelve weeks away.
We might get close to 60 a couple days this week, but there is snow in the forecast next week.
I’m just saying I wouldn’t mind an early spring.
HS Hoops
Friday night I watched the big CHS sectional semifinal on the computer. It was #9 Lawrence North, who beat the Irish on Wednesday, vs. #1 Lawrence Central. LN led by 11 late in the first half, then gave up a 22–2 run that bridged halftime. LN fought back and got as close as three a couple times, but LC won by seven. LC won the next night, too, capturing only the second sectional title in school history. They hadn’t won a sectional GAME in 20 years before Wednesday. Not sure how you go from that to 22–1 in a year, but that’s exactly what they’ve done.
There are five teams that CHS played this year that are still alive.
The highlight of the game for me was that the wrong team inbounded the ball to start the second half, and the refs had to re-start the half. I say this was a highlight because the teacher who normally runs the clock/possession arrow at CHS is notorious for talking too much and having the arrow pointed the wrong way. It’s not an every game occurrence, but it’s happened at least five times this season. Once he had the arrow wrong, they caught and corrected his error, then seconds later there was another held ball and he again forgot to switch the arrow. Come on, man!
It was nice to see he’s consistent and does it in non-CHS games, too.
Jayhawk Talk
I thought about putting this off until tomorrow. Saturday’s performance was so good, though, that I didn’t want to risk not being able to give it proper credit if the Jayhawks drop a turd in Manhattan tonight.
So…
OOOOOOOOH YEEAAAHHHHHH!!!
A good, old fashioned, ass kicking of an elite team in the Phog!
That was KU’s best performance of the season. Not only was it against the best defense in the country. It was against a historically great defense, one that was poised to set records for defensive efficiency. And the Jayhawks sliced them up for 40 minutes, shooting nearly 70% for the game. SEVENTY PERCENT!!!!! They scored more points in the first 35 minutes of the game than any team had scored against Houston all season, including overtime games. Even the area where KU struggled – 18 turnovers – was more about them throwing the ball out of bounds for no reason than anything Houston was doing on defense.
It was just the latest entry in the Magical Saturday Big 12 Games In Allen Fieldhouse catalog, one that the kids who were in the stands Saturday will recall fondly the rest of their lives.
The funniest part of how easily KU handled Houston is that most KU fans – including me – had been extremely worried about this game for a couple weeks. Houston is a fearsome team on defense. They are limited offensively but they also can put up numbers if their defense forces a lot of turnovers, as they did to Kansas State a week ago. This was exactly the kind of game that KU has always found a way to win at home. I’m not sure most KU fans had that much faith in this year’s team going into the game.
To beat the dead horse a little more, Johnny Furphy is the difference. He just keeps producing, and gets more efficient each game. He missed just one shot Saturday (although he missed two from the free throw line). His 3s came in huge moments. He threw down a powerful dunk in transition. He grabbed rebounds. He played decent defense. I was worried he might not be up for the task against a team like Houston. He proved me wrong. Now everyone is worried that instead of a 2–3 year player, he will spend a single year in Lawrence. Declaring for the draft is a ways away, but if it indeed happens, that would make his rise even more incredible.
It’s a small sample size, but since Furphy became a starter, KU is, by one analytical measure, the second-best offense in the country and the third-best team overall. Wild.
It’s not fair or realistic to expect him to keep going for 17 & 7 every night. Whether he is scoring or not, opponents have to account for him on defense. Which opens things up for the other four Jayhawks on the court.
My one hope coming into the game was that Hunter Dickinson would carve up Houston. For all their athleticism, they are not a big team. And athletic defenders don’t bother Hunter. He just uses his big body to render them helpless, as long as he can get the ball in scoring position. He had great numbers, 20 & 8 on 15 shots, but his willingness to share the ball was what made KU’s attack really hum.
We are now at the midpoint in the Big 12 schedule. KU and Houston are tied for first, with three teams a half game back. TCU is another half game back. The next month is going to be crazy. Houston would seem to have a slight edge because of their schedule, which includes a return date from the Jayhawks the last day of the season. Sure would be nice if Iowa State had to come to Lawrence…
Speaking of wildness, how about that Iowa State – Baylor game? Sadly I missed Scott Drew getting ejected. I did see each team blow five-point leads. I saw Baylor miss a ton of free throws. I saw the clock operator start the clock too soon, giving Iowa State a chance to stop the clock and inbound the ball instead of trying to grab a rebound and get up court for a final shot. I saw the Clones bank in a game winner that was wiped out because it came a fraction of a second too late. Imagine if that had counted. Whoever runs the clock in Waco might need to find a new city to live in because their itchy finger had just cost the Bears an important game. Situations like that are why parents make themselves scarce when coaches come looking for someone to run the clock in youth games. You never want to be the person who messes up the clock and have to deal with irate coaches/parents/kids afterward.
One thing that jumped out in those chaotic closing minutes is how imperfect replay review is in basketball, especially college. I’m sure I’ve made this rant before, but the fact you can review a play and overturn an out-of-bounds decision but not also review the foul that caused the ball to go OB is insane.
In the ISU-BU game, the referee gave possession to Baylor after a ball went out of bounds. Since there was under 2:00 to play, it got reviewed. The replay showed the ball, in fact, touched the Baylor player last. But it also showed that the ISU defender clearly hit his arm and caused the turnover. But the non-called foul isn’t reviewable. ISU got the ball.
The NBA allows fouls to be switched upon review. College should go to this system. If an offensive player loses the ball because he was fouled, call the foul, even if it takes replay to show it.
The best thing to do would be to say there was incidental contact that caused the turnover, and give the offense the ball back. But then you’re introducing even more variance into the replay interpretation, and not all plays are as obvious as the one Saturday. I can only imagine the outcry when three refs huddle around a monitor for five minutes trying to determine if there was enough contact to adjust the call one way or the other.
Even better, give each coach one review per half, which do not carry over if unused, and otherwise get rid of replay review except for clock malfunctions/scoring questions. There are 15 marginal possession calls every game. Why the game has to grind to a halt for only the ones in the last two minutes has never made any sense.