Weekend Notes

Another pretty laid-back weekend in our house, made even chiller without football games for either KU or the Colts. Trust me, I still sat on my ass and watched a lot of football. Strangely I watched more on Saturday when it was in the low 70s than Sunday when it was still nice but significantly cooler.

With the holidays sneaking up on us and a busy weekend ahead, S and I did begin to prep for hosting Thanksgiving. We moved a ton of furniture to clean floors and rugs underneath and baseboards and windows behind them. While moving items in one room we decided to go ahead and rearrange that room for the first time since the movers placed everything nearly seven-and-a-half years ago. It was a little like back when I lived in an apartment on my own and would start cleaning then, two or three hours later, I had reconfigured my whole space. Just now I have a helper and my back hurts more afterward.

KU Hoops

Well, the Darryn Peterson thing has officially gotten dumb. The thing is, I don’t know if we should consider it dumb or not. Bill Self seems annoyed by the whole thing, his best player now missing consecutive games and likely out for tomorrow’s contest against Duke because of an injury that has a lot of weirdness about it. It began as cramping and turned into a tight hamstring which has DP sitting watching his teammates.

Which could all be 100% legit and there just hasn’t been good communication between Peterson and Self. Peterson is known as a fiery competitor so perhaps he hasn’t been honest with his coaches because he wanted to play through the injury and then it became worse than he thought.

There are vibes of when Remy Martin had his knee injury in 2022 and he and Self did not seem on the same page about it. Or, worse, Joel Embiid’s one year on campus, when he had a couple legit injuries – it was Embiid, of course he was injured – but while he wanted to play his family and handlers insisted he sit to protect his draft status.

Maybe it’s less combative than that, but it seems representative of the age we live in. Once upon a time college athletes relied on their schools’ medical personnel to determine the severity of their injuries and course of action when rehabbing. Now kids get their own advice from outside sources. Which is probably a good thing!

Like in professional sports, though, it seems like kids like Peterson who are walking lottery tickets, err on the side of extreme caution to avoid bigger injuries. Again, probably a good thing! But annoying when the public doesn’t get the full picture. Worse, when it is a kid like Peterson, who KU fans, and college basketball fans across the country, have been looking forward to watching for a couple years and his limited time in college gets cut short by something that doesn’t sound that serious.

I’m trying to remain positive and hope it is just a minor injury that they are being uber-cautious with that will pass soon and we’ll get to see DP actually play a whole game without incident. He has been SOOOOOOO good in the minutes he’s played, and that’s without going full-bore in the North Carolina game and on a team that is full of new-to-each-other players who are trying to figure things out. He’s deserving of all the hype based on that limited sample.

As for the game Saturday, KU looked like ass for the first 30 minutes. Flory Bidunga seemed like the only player who understood how to guard Princeton’s offense. Even he had a slow start, but once he got going had his best game as a Jayhawk. Which he really should against the talent that Princeton had.

This may shock you but it looks like yet another KU team that cannot shoot. The guys who came in with reputations as shooters look terrible. Guys who had redshirt seasons during which they could have worked on their shots look terrible. Guys who are mediocre shooters look profoundly mediocre. The good news is Peterson will be the best shooter when he comes back, and his game opens up the floor to make his teammates’ shots easier. I’m already prepared for a 2–22 night in March that sends the Jayhawks home, though.

There has been chatter that because of some changes in eligibility rules by the NCAA, KU could try to add a player between semesters, with expectation it would be another big. IF KU decides to add a player to an already deep roster, it sure as hell better be a shooter. I don’t care if Flory is undersized, Bryson Tiller is more comfortable playing outside the paint, and Paul Mbiya is too projecty to get serious minutes. This team’s downfall will be its shooting, not its rebounding. And if they get healthy, they are more than athletic enough to make up for the rebounding part. Find someone who isn’t going to shoot bricks all night and watch the court open up for DP and everyone else.

Hopefully in a couple weeks we’ll look back on this and think it was silly there was so much conversation about a minor injury. The key is getting Peterson back before he misses too many of the big non-conference games on the schedule so this team isn’t in too big of a hole going into the Big 12 season.

College Football

Saturday we had three games going for the first two hours of the day. IU-Wisconsin, Cincinnati-Arizona, and Notre Dame-Pittsburgh. C was at the IU game, M was traveling this weekend but watching her Bearcats from Florida, and we had Irish friends who drove to Pittsburgh for that game.

After another slow start the Hoosiers pounded the Badgers to move to 11–0. Now only lowly Purdue stands in the way of a perfect regular season for IU. The Bearcats kind of fell on their faces and lost to UA at home. I was not all that impressed with Arizona a week ago, but I guess KU’s loss to them is good now? The Irish humiliated a Pittsburgh team that had talked a lot of smack coming in. It’s always funny when the broadcast shows a coach’s fired-up pregame speech to his players then they go out and just get hammered.

Saturday was great because there was a marquee game in every time slot. Notre Dame-Pitt early, which ended up being a dud. Oklahoma-Alabama at 3:30, which was terrific. And then Texas-Georgia to cap the night, which was fun for all us Texas haters. There were a couple other decent games scattered through the day that were worth catching for a few minutes. And then KU hoops in the middle of it all.

No wonder I barely left the couch. Sure, it might have been 70° outside, but it was super windy so it wasn’t like I could do much in the yard since everything was blowing around. I did get the gutters cleaned out and the pool cover cleared off Sunday.

NFL

With no Colts I only casually watched Sunday’s games. At the risk of stepping on my monthly league reviews, Sunday felt like a big day.

We learned Philadelphia’s defense is fearsome enough to get them through their inexplicable offensive issues. Actually those issues can be explained: Jalen Hurts stinks. How did this guy win a Super Bowl? Now I probably just reversed jinxed Hurts into throwing for 400 yards against the Colts in the Super Bowl.

We learned Detroit are frauds and Green Bay might be too.

We learned Chicago might be the best team in the NFC North?!?!?!

We learned the Chiefs might be toast, although the Chargers seem more done than them, so even with a two-game deficit, I would not be surprised at all if KC catches and passes LA over the next month.

We learned the Broncos are legit. Or legit-ish, I guess.

We learned the Bills are back…until they lose another stupid game.

We learned the Patriots might not be true Super Bowl favorites, but it’s going to be tough for anyone to catch them for #1 seed in the playoffs.

We learned the Rams might be the only team that can challenge the Eagles in the NFC.

Pacers

Just when you think things can’t get worse, they do. Aaron Nesmith wrecked his knee last week. Luckily there was no major damage, so he’ll miss about a month rather than require season-ending surgery.

The team lost two more games last week, falling to 1–12, the worst start in franchise history. Their last five losses have all been by at least 17 points.

It got so bad last week that the team had to play shorthanded because one of their hardship contract players, who cannot be replaced, had the flu.

The only good news is that Bennedict Mathurin is expected to return tomorrow night, with a few other players soon after.

I’m glad I was lazy and never got around to ordering my Pacers TV package this year. I’ll just let them do their thing this year, get a good draft spot, and check in again next year when Tyrese Haliburton is back and has Peterson or AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer next to him. There’s my second jinx of the day: the Pacers will now end up with the lowest possible draft pick they can get based on their record. Although next year’s draft is mega-deep, so maybe even that will be good enough to make this year of hell worth it.

A busy week ahead. Three high school basketball games. A pretty big KU game Tuesday that I probably won’t get to see much of. Thursday through Saturday I will be driving to-and-from Bloomington; North Vernon, IN; and Cincinnati.