• Ranking Shit: Alternate Hoops Programs

    As mentioned awhile back, I have a few of these in various stages of development. With the college basketball season complete, seems like a good day to dust off this one. This idea comes from a KU-centric podcast I listen to regularly. During the holidays they had a segment where they selected an elite program they would choose to be…

  • Weekend Hoops Notes

    Not a good weekend of basketball. Nope, not good at all. Jayhawk Talk Well, I feared playing Arkansas from the moment the brackets came out a week ago. Long, athletic, fearless, a little crazy. They resembled Texas and TCU, teams that gave KU three of their worst losses this year. Saturday afternoon I began to gain confidence. KU was more…

  • The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

    The appetizer of the First Four is complete. Now it’s time for the real deal. NCAA thoughts. Jayhawk Talk I’m not sure how to feel about this team. Kevin McCullar and Gradey Dick both say their back issues are fine. Can we trust them? Might they be fine against Howard today and flare back up Saturday in the second round?…

  • Hoops Notes

    As you might expect, I have a lot of words about basketball today. HS Hoops A quick note about HS ball. Cathedral’s run as defending state champs came to an end in the regional round of this year’s tournament, losing to #1 Ben Davis by 10. The Irish did have the lead at halftime. I had to run L over…

  • Weekend Notes

    College Hoops I’ll save most of my thoughts for a post later in the week. It is always a bit of a relief when we reach this point in the season and have a few days off. November and December are usually a mix of big games and ones that KU should win easily. I’m always left wanting more from…

  • Weekend Notes

    Kid Hoops A week ago L’s team beat some good sixth graders in the best game they’ve played all year. This week they played another sixth grade team and got crushed. It was a 50–26 loss. And that was with us scoring six points in the last minute. The team we played made at least 7 3’s to our one.…

  • Jayhawk Talk: Escaping Ft. Worth

    Monday night’s win in Ft. Worth deserves a few notes. In Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, he attempts to determine what the perfect win is. Now this was British soccer he was talking about, so the standard is a bit different. I think he settled on a 3–2 triumph when your side trails both 1–0 and 2–1 and scores the winner…

  • Weekend Notes

    An early weekend roundup, as M and I are headed to Cincinnati early Monday for an admitted students orientation. We will likely do the same at IU in March as she continues to gather information before she makes a final decision. Kid Hoops L’s team played a sixth grade squad Saturday. That always worries me because if a sixth grade…

  • Jayhawk Talk: Streaking

    A few brief-ish notes about the Jayhawks, who are suddenly in a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 after a very good week. Tuesday’s win at Oklahoma State was terrific in many ways. It capped a week in which KU got better over the three-game stretch, beating two very good teams relatively comfortably. It was a fantastic…

  • Weekend Notes

    HS Hoops I ended up going to the Cathedral game Friday night after C and a friend decided at the last minute that they wanted to go. Amazingly this is the first boys game I’ve attended in my four years as a CHS parent. We only stayed for three quarters, as C’s back started acting up around halftime. We saw…