D's Notebook

Tag: college sports (Page 10 of 41)

Weekend Notes

October 4, 2022 /

A belated rundown of this past weekend.

FNL

Cathedral finally had their first home game of the year. Since they only have one after this, and it has already been tagged as homecoming, Friday became senior night. Which was a little weird.

I stayed home and listened to an easy 37–6 win over Cincinnati LaSalle. LaSalle has won four Ohio state titles in the past eight years, but this year’s team was kind of dog crap. Or so it sounded on the radio. Until the scrubs gave up a late TD the Irish had gone 11 straight quarters without allowing a score. Granted those were mostly against bad teams, but the defense does seem to be getting better as the season goes on.

KU

After a gritty, gutty, ugly-ass 14–11 win over Iowa State, THE JAYHAWKS ARE RANKED!!!!! AND GAMEDAY IS COMING TO LAWRENCE!!!!! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!!

I missed 85% of the game between basketball, prepping for L’s birthday party, and picking up dinner for the kids. I was able to watch the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, which was not a great experience. KU couldn’t move the ball, the defense was in full bend-but-don’t-break mode, and it seemed inevitable that Iowa State would win, either in regulation or overtime.

Which should have been what happened. But the Football Gods smiled on KU one more time as Iowa State missed a relatively easy field goal that would have forced OT, and the Jayhawks went to 5–0.

I felt terrible after the game, more like KU had lost than won. I think some of that was just the stress of the afternoon and then diving into the game in the worst possible moment. Later in the night I realized KU fans shouldn’t feel bad about any football win. I should be enjoying the W, the record, and the change of tone in the program. Sweating “bad” or “ugly” wins is something the coaching staff and players should be doing, not us fans. The bubble is going to burst at some point and it will be dumb for me to have not enjoyed the success that I’ve been craving for years.

From what I heard on Sirius while driving and read/listened to afterward, it seems like the defense actually played really well. Some of that is surely thanks to an Iowa State offense that isn’t the most efficient in the world. But, even if you give the ‘Clones credit for the three field goals they missed, surrendering only 20 points to a conference opponent would normally be a pretty big deal for the KU defense. It still is a big deal, and it saved the team on a day the offense sputtered, it just got lost a bit in the overall ugliness of the contest.

In the few minutes I did watch I got super annoyed with the ESPN2 broadcast. On KU’s next-to-last drive, the Jayhawks seemed to convert a third down. The announcers talked about what a big play it was, the cameras showed the crowd celebrating, they showed a replay and broke it down, etc. And then right before the next play you saw KU was snapping the ball from five yards behind where the previous play had begun. Only then did the announcers realize that there had been a penalty on KU that wiped out the conversion. Seems like something they or their spotters should have picked up on, right?

ESPN2 didn’t seem to put crowd microphones anywhere in the stadium, either. They would show shots of the band and you couldn’t hear them. When ISU missed the field goal, I assume the crowd was going nuts. That’s what the cameras showed. But you heard the slightest of buzzes on TV. This seems to happen a lot in games that aren’t the marquee matchup of the time slot. For being the World Wide Leader, ESPN sure has a lot of issues getting the basics of showing a game right. For as much as they charge cable companies to carry them, you’d think they could buy enough crowd mics so you get some sense of the environment inside the stadium. Maybe pay some of the blowhards who scream at each other a little less and up the sound hardware budget.

Since this is Kansas football, the Football Gods can’t completely be in our favor. Daniel Hishaw Jr. suffered an awful injury late in the game, rumored to be dislocated his hip late in the game. That sounds insanely painful and is a brutal injury for a guy who missed all of last year.

And then Sunday night Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst. Most folks feel like interim coach Jim Leonhard will get the full-time gig when the season ends. But if the Badgers look like shit the rest of the year, that’s another big job that Lance Leipold has connections to that may target him in December.

I’m not going to sweat that or the Nebraska job. I’m just going to enjoy the seven (or eight?!?! NINE?!?!) games KU has left and hope they can find a couple more wins. I’ll save the angst for once the season is over.

And now we get a whole week to enjoy the lead-up to a very big game against TCU that will get a lot of national attention.

(There’s a TCU guy who goes to my gym. Monday he walked by me and said, “So I guess you’re a football school now?”)

Twitter

I find it damn near impossible to follow Twitter during a football game. EVERYONE thinks they are smarter than the coaches. Doesn’t matter what team/game you’re following. I’ve seen this during KU games, Colts games, and plenty of random games people in my stream are following. The negativity is overwhelming. Where in basketball games Twitter feels like a good way to add context to what is going on in the game, or discuss the action, in football it is an endless stream of people who have been playing Madden for 30 years and think they are smarter than guys who are paid to make decisions.

Granted, a lot of coaches make curious decisions. But not every borderline call deserves a meltdown.

I was reminded Saturday that I often mute a specific KU-related account during games. The dude that runs it shares interesting and useful stuff throughout the week. But during games, even basketball ones, he is SOOOOO negative, that I began muting him on game days last winter. He questions every coaching decision. He rips the refs at every opportunity. He is hateful about opposing fans. Late in the fourth quarter Saturday, Cobee Bryant appeared to have picked off an Iowa State pass that would have ended their final drive. However, replay showed that when he hit the ground, the ball came loose and he never recovered it while still inbounds. It was clearly not a catch and the officials correctly overturned the original call. This guy went off, though, saying how corrupt the Big 12 refs were.

It’s fine to be an irrational fan and always see calls through the prism of your team. But if you’re running an account that represents a website rather than just yourself, you need to calm down and view the games rationally. Don’t embarrass yourself over a play like this, where there is zero doubt the correct call was made.

Kid Hoops

Saturday L had a travel game. They played solid in the first half and had a three-point lead at halftime. Then they played like absolute garbage in the second half and lost by six. L was 1–10 from the field. I think the entire team only shot slightly better than her 10%. Giving them credit for 20% might be too high, though. If Dick Vitale had called the game he would have said it was Brick City with a capital B, baby.

One interesting thing about the game was a girl on the other team may be joining our squad for the next travel season in March. She would be our tallest player, is a terrific athlete, and is a really good defender, but she doesn’t have much of an offensive game. Since we can’t get a rebound to save our lives, that alone makes her a decent addition. Then again, maybe after playing against us she’ll decide she wants to play for a different program. I would argue our poor shooting will give her lots of chances to grab offensive boards!

Sunday L had a CYO game. It was against a team we figured we should beat easily as L’s class has never lost to them in any sport. We jumped out to a 9–0 lead but then ran into issues and only led 14–8 at halftime. L got three fouls in the first quarter and had to sit most of the half, which didn’t help. One was legit, one was marginal, and the third was a crap moving screen call.

We came out smoking in the second half, or at least it seemed like we did. We were much better on defense and ran good offense, just couldn’t get the shots to drop. We got the lead up to 10 and held steady around there before winning 26–13.

I sat on the bench and kept stats. We had 14 steals, which was great. However, six of them were in the first quarter and then we didn’t have another until after halftime. We really should have had 20+ but our girls are soft going after loose balls. They would knock the ball loose then just stand there and watch the other team go after it. Drove me nuts. We got out-rebounded by 2. I think L is destined to never play on a team that can rebound.

There was a call in the fourth quarter than nearly made me lose it. L was defending the ball and ran into a screen. From my vantage point the screen looked solid and legal. Neither L nor the girl setting the screen went flying. But the ref blew his whistle and looked to the scorer’s table. “Foul is on eleven…” and I let out a sarcastic “WHAT?!?!” And just about chucked my clipboard. Our head coach jumped off the bench to argue. L looked totally shocked. Then our mom who was keeping the book turned to us and said “Eleven white, not eleven purple.” The coaches and I looked at each other and laughed. I decided it was a makeup call since L had been called for the illegal screen in the first half, and they didn’t make that call again the entire game. Oh, and both times the screens were legal. Refs…

She had six points.

Wednesday we play a team we’ve never beaten. L has a bunch of friends on that squad, several of which she’s played with outside CYO. She’s pretty excited about it. If we grab those loose balls and can get some rebounds, I think we have a chance.

L Turns 14

Monday was L’s birthday. After her game Saturday she had four friends over. They swam, hung out, and spent the night. It seemed like a good time.

There’s a seventh grade boy who lives nearby who they invited over to play basketball and hang out with them. I couldn’t get a sense of whether one/some/all of the girls like him, as in like-like, or if he’s just a nice kid who lives close. We know his parents a little – his dad actually coached L in soccer way back in first or second grade – but we don’t hang out in the same circles. I give him props for coming over to a house he’s never been to before and hanging out with five older girls for a few hours.

Weekend Notes

September 26, 2022 /

A jam-packed weekend full of events that may be of mild interest to my loyal readers.

FNL

Cathedral traveled three hours to play a horrible team – they were up 56–0 at halftime and held on to win by that exact score – so I walked across the street with my pal Nicole H to watch The Other CHS play the school our tax dollars support. It was the first, real, fall-weather night of the season, and it was terrific, other than the occasional sprinkles that surprised us. The Other CHS used a stellar defensive and special teams performance to win 50–19. I got to talk to Coach H for a few minutes after the game, which is always good.

KU Keeps Rolling

I was able to watch the entire first half of the KU-Duke game Saturday. That was good TV. A packed Memorial Stadium, KU making big plays on offense, and Duke doing enough to make it an interesting game. Daniel Hishaw’s 73 yard TD catch-and-run immediately goes up there with Monte Cozzen’s run in 1991 as one of the greatest plays in school history.[1] And Jalon Daniels’ TD pass to Luke Grimm was a thing of beauty on both ends. I was sure it was going to sail out of bounds, but it was perfectly placed and Grimm made an amazing catch to haul it in.

As has been the theme this season, I missed the second half going to L’s basketball game. KU made it interesting late but held on to get the win and go to 4–0.

I was a little concerned after the game. Duke is solid but I don’t think they are better than any team KU will play the rest of the season. Yet they hung with KU all day.

Then I remembered that the Duke defense never really stopped KU, and if not for several self-inflicted wounds, KU wins this game easily. So chalk it up to still winning despite not playing your best? I don’t know, this is all uncharted territory for me.

I do know the defense needs to find a way to stop giving up the big plays. If you’re going to commit to stopping the run, which the Jayhawks pretty much did Saturday, you have to be able to at least slow the passing game. KU’s secondary make big plays but also give up big plays. With their level of talent and depth, I’m not sure you can hope for much more than that. But I do think that’s problematic as we get into the heart of the Big 12 season.

It was fun to see national commentators jumping all over the AP voters for not including KU. I’m sure K-State fans are taking some joy in knowing their win over Oklahoma is probably what kept KU out of the polls. Still, it’s good that so many national voices have come to KU’s defense.

I really don’t think KU is one of the 25 best teams in the country. But based on their performance through four games, they deserve to be ranked. I believe I saw that, of the teams receiving votes this week, the Jayhawks have played the seventh-toughest schedule, so you can’t say they’ve had an easy go of it.

Still, polls are kind of dumb and I’m not going to get worked up about the “snub.” Use it as motivation to come out extra focused for Iowa State. Win that, and there should be no question that the Jayhawks will appear in next week’s poll.

Double Kid Hoops

We’ve reached the point in the calendar where L has two different basketball teams in action. On Saturday her travel team continued their efforts in the Back to School league. Once again it was kind of a disaster.

They played a team they’ve never faced before. These girls were all long, wiry, and scrappy. They grabbed like hell on defense, which has been a theme all season. We even had three refs for this game and they were totally uninterested in calling any on-the-ball fouls. And these girls could shoot the hell out of the ball. They hit at least 15 3’s. At one point they had a 3-on–1 break and the girl with the ball pulled up and drilled a 3. S, who knows nothing about basketball, looked at me at one point and said, “I think our girls should just shoot 3’s, too.” She’s grasped what modern basketball is about.

It was a humbling 41-point loss. Egad! We were missing our best inside player but I don’t think she was worth 41 points.

L had been sick all week and it showed. She could only play a few minutes at a time before she lost her wind. Yet she went 3–3 from the field, including a 3, and 1–2 from the line to score eight.

Sunday the CYO season started.

We were playing the school, St N, that beat L’s kickball team in the City championship game the two times they made it. We knew they were tall and big and had a really good player we’ve faced in travel ball. We were missing the same inside player the travel team was missing, so we knew it would be tough to compete with them on the boards.

Fortunately L had her stamina back and played the entire game. She played really well, clearly our best player. The only issue was she missed five layups. A couple were in transition with pressure, but she still should have made them. Two looked like fatigue got to her, short-armed misses. And other was just a tough shot that was low percentage. Throw in a couple missed jumpers and she went 3–10 from the field, 2–4 from the line, for eight points. She had a couple assists, a couple rebounds, a couple steals, a couple turnovers. Twos were wild on her stat line.

St N’s best player got hot in the second half and they built a 13-point lead. They had multiple possessions where they got 3–4 chances to score because we could not get our hands on rebounds. We got it down to six with the ball a couple times, but couldn’t either hit the shot to cut it to one possession or get a rebound. Their inside girl wasn’t very good until you fouled her. She was 8–8 from the line, including 6–6 in the fourth quarter. She was six inches taller and at least 60 pounds heavier than the biggest girl we had.

Put it all together and it was an 11-point loss. I think if we have our inside girl and can get some rebounds, and L is 100% we could have won it. But we didn’t really expect to win so keeping it respectable was a decent result.

We are lucky this year to have a loudmouth dad. I was running the clock so well away from him, but I could still hear him screaming at the refs the entire game. In the second half the fouls were 9–2 against us. It was 7–1 before we started fouling in the last minute. All those calls against us were legit; that’s what happens when you’re trying to guard bigger girls with guards. But the one against them was fishy, especially since their best player got three fouls in the first quarter then didn’t get another foul the rest of the game.

Our loudmouth dad came walking across the court when the game was over and the refs were gathered at the scorer’s table. He loudly asked, “D, does the foul button work for them? Because it seemed like it was stuck on one the entire game.” Terrific. I think I’m going to keep stats on the bench during road games so I never have to sit near him.

L is very excited about the CYO season because she knows the level of competition will be lower than what she’s faced in travel. Sunday she looked like the second-best player on the court. They switched their best player onto her in the second half and she was still getting shots. She just needs to prove that she’s improved by hitting them.

Chiefs-Colts

The Sunday game matched up with the Chiefs-Colts game – apparently all my football interest this fall will coincide with L’s games – so I was only able to see the last 20 minutes or so. Even then I was only half watching, because the Colts seemed to be sucking and I figured the Chiefs would do just enough to win on a day they seemed to be lacking intensity and focus. I wondered if another Colts loss could lead to some kind of changes in the coaching staff this week.

Then a fortunate penalty gave the Colts new life on their final drive and Matt Ryan did just enough to get the win.

So the Colts get a tie and loss against the two worst teams in their division, then beat the co-favorites in the AFC. Sports make no sense sometimes.

The win gave me no real hope for the Colts’ season, though. That offensive line is terrible. It’s amazing how quickly things can fall apart in the NFL. That unit was one of the best, if not the best, o-lines in the game just two years ago. A retirement, some injuries, and poor decisions on incoming players have wrecked it. And while I was hopeful Ryan could be a steady if unspectacular correction from the high-stress Carson Wentz experiment, he looks washed up and a worse option than Phillip Rivers was two years ago.

Also, there must be something in the water in Indy, because like the Pacers in recent years, the Colts are just constantly decimated by injuries. It’s hard to expect them to improve when their best defensive player can’t get on the field and each week brings a new swath of players who will miss the next game.

The only good thing is the Colts are in the weakest division in the league, so there’s still a path to the playoffs if they can get healthy and find a way to protect Ryan. Although Jacksonville may not be as shitty as people expected, which could change that math significantly.

Local Excitement

One final note. S and I were taking a walk Sunday morning when we saw and heard a couple police cars race by. We were about a mile from our house and they seemed to be stopping at a major intersection, so we figured there must have been a bad accident. But then more police cars roared by and we figured it was something else. It seemed like they were turning away from our house, so we weren’t super concerned.

As another batch of police screamed by, we crossed paths with some other walkers who told us they heard there was am armed intruder in a home. When we got back to the main road our house sits off of, we could see at least eight police cars in front of a house about half-a-mile south of ours. We later read there was someone with a weapon in the house that was refusing to come out. Whether they were an intruder or a resident we never heard. But the person was detained, no ambulances ever showed up, and things calmed down.

Not your typical sleepy, Sunday morning.

  1. The play was made even better by the FS1 announcer LOSING HIS MIND over the play. “LOOK AT HISHAW GOOOOOOO!!!!!”  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: FOOTBALL!!!!

September 19, 2022 /

Some weekend. No Cathedral football Friday. L’s hoops team got blasted on Saturday. The Colts appear to be shitty and have made the wrong selection, yet again, for their quarterback. I could write a lot about two of those three topics.

I’m going to save all my writing effort for another topic, though. And I think you know what that is.

THE KANSAS FOOTBALL JAYHAWKS ARE THREE-AND-OH!!!!!

First 3–0 start since 2009. Consecutive, double-digit road wins for the first time since 1995. First time receiving votes in the AP poll since October 2009. And with the early lines out for next week, which pegged KU as eight-point favorites over Duke, it is the first time KU has been favored over a Power 5 school since November 2009.

When you’ve been as bad as long as KU has, even a modest run of success can make history.

I wish I could Saturday’s game against Houston down in great detail, reveling in all the highlights as KU laid the wood on a team that was ranked in the preseason and had designs on a New Year’s Day bowl. Sadly I missed almost the entire game.

Just like last week, L’s basketball kept me from the beginning of the game. We got in the car in time to hear KU score, get an interception, and drive into the red zone before lightning stopped play for an hour.

We met friends at Top Golf. Between shots I checked and saw that KU tied the game, took the lead, and then pulled away.

When we got home, I was hoping to watch the final 5:00 or so. However, I was again the victim by one of the biggest screw jobs in televised sports: despite paying for ESPN+, since our cable package does not include ESPNU, I can’t use the ESPN app to watch any games that are on the U. It’s a fucking travesty and Congress needs to get involved.

Luckily KU still streams the radio broadcast for free so I was able to listen and hear the Rock Chalk Chant rolling through the stadium as KU closed out the win.

I was pumped, but at least 30% less pumped than I would have been had I been able to watch the entire game.

What a performance! What a start to the season!

We KU fans have been teased for years. Every August we heard stories about how that season would be different, how whatever coach was running things had finally got his players in, how the attitude around the whole program had changed. And every September they would lose to some shitty teams then go get pounded for two months in the Big 12.

I figured KU would be better this year. Lance Leipold and his staff had a full year in Lawrence to get their systems in, to get used to the returning players, and to bring in some really good transfers. But I knew with KU’s schedule, seeing a huge increase in wins was unlikely. The team would be better, but it was most likely a 2–3 win squad and the 2023 season is when we should expect to see real improvement.[1]

I didn’t put much stock into the week one win over Tennessee Tech, a truly bad FCS team. I wasn’t sure what to make of last week’s win over West Virginia. Maybe WVU was shitty and it wasn’t that impressive of a win, a game KU did its best to piss away. And I really didn’t think KU had a chance this week. I thought they might battle into the second half, but Houston was supposed to be really good. The persistent rumor this summer was that KU was doing everything it could to get out of the game, hoping to replace the Cougars with a cream puff. Houston refused, lest they give up their own cream puff. Joke’s on them, I guess!

When I saw KU was down 14–0 I let out a sigh and hoped we could at least make it respectable.

I never expected KU to erase that lead in a matter of minutes. Or dominate the rest of the game.

Jalon Daniels appears to be the real deal. The running backs are one of the best collective groups in the nation. The wide receivers don’t awe you with their talent, but they make plays. And how about the offensive line?!?! The unit that has killed KU for a decade, rendering decent skill players impotent because they couldn’t block or protect, has somehow given up zero sacks through three weeks. Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki might be a genius, and it’s as much a crime that he took so long to get any national run as it is that Leipold was ignored for so long.[2]

The defense…well, it’s shaky. Some people who know more about football and follow things more closely than me have said the D really isn’t that bad. In fact they are often solid. They just kill themselves by giving up too many big plays.

My reaction to that view is, ok, fine. But it’s going to get a lot harder to not give up those big plays in the next few weeks as the talent level they will face ratchets up.

I don’t know if KU can continue to score 50 a week against Big 12 competition. The defense needs to find a way to stop giving up 40 a week so the offense has a chance.

So here we are, nearly a month into the season, and KU football fans can actually dream a little. Duke is 3–0, but against lesser competition. KU had a lead on the Blue Devils last year at half-time then got blown out in the second half. I think the returning players will look to atone for that loss.

Then comes home games against Iowa State and TCU. Not necessarily games KU will be favored in, but likely the easiest of the remaining Big 12 games. If KU is for real, it’s not too much to ask for them to go 2–1 over that stretch. Hell, 3–0 and being bowl eligible before Columbus Day is not likely, but it’s also not completely outrageous.

Maybe this is all still a fluke and KU will come crashing down soon, if not this week then as soon as the proper Big 12 season starts. Maybe KU will somehow thread the needle this year of not winning enough games to make a bowl game but enough to ensure that Leipold and his staff leave for a better job after this season. Maybe a rash of injuries hits the squad as they play bigger, better teams and they fall back into the hole of getting blown out every week.

For now, though, we Jayhawks can enjoy competence and actual good play from our football program. It’s been so long since that’s happened, we have every right to gloat and dream for a minute or two.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

  1. Until you look at the non-conference schedule and see zero patsies on it. I’m not sure who has done the football scheduling for KU in recent years, but they are all idiots. Play a bunch of crappy schools from crappy conferences until you are sure the program needs the boost of playing other Power 5, or near Power 5, teams.  ↩
  2. Cue the “We finally hired the right guy and he’s going to leave in two years!” complaint. I’ve said for years I’m totally onboard with this. KU should aspire to be a stepping-stone job. It’s better than firing a guy and starting over every three years because it means the outgoing staff has done something right. Ask me if I still feel the same way in December if/when Leipold is interviewing in Lincoln, NE, Auburn, AL, or other cities with a richer football tradition than Lawrence, KS.  ↩

Weekend Notes

September 12, 2022 /

The first full football weekend of the year. I have some notes.

Friday

We had the big 6A #3 Cathedral at 3A #1 Bishop Chatard game Friday. Or the girls did. S and I knew it was going to be an absolute shit show; BC has a tiny stadium in the middle of a packed neighborhood and it seemed like every Indianpolis Northside Catholic was going to go. So we went to dinner with friends while the girls enjoyed the game.

Although it wasn’t much of a game. I checked my phone at about 7:45 and CHS was up 21–0. They got it to 35–0 before half, had a running clock for the second half, and won 38–0. I watched the highlights Saturday, and pretty much every score was a long pass, or set up by a long pass. When you have four receivers who are 6’3”+ and your opponent is small, you have to take advantage.

Of course, Chatard has a better chance of winning state than Cathedral, so not sure the BC fans were smarting too much afterward.

I got home in time to watch the end of the Tiafoe-Alcaraz US Open semifinal. Frances gave it his all, but Carlos Alcaraz is just too damn good. We’ve been waiting for years for the next superstar to come along in mens tennis. Alcaraz might be that dude.

Saturday

Lots of sports.

Alabama-Texas was interesting, surprising, and entertaining. Not the game I expected at all, although I really didn’t think ‘Bama would blow them out.

I caught the end of the Marshall-Notre Dame game. What a disaster for the Irish! Marcus Freeman seems like a really good guy but he’s feeling the heat already about whether he was the right hire.

L had a basketball game Saturday evening. They played a team made up of lacrosse players. These girls were big, athletic, and had this really good offense that kept getting them open looks. But they were not basketball players. L’s team ran them off the floor, at least in terms of the score, winning 47–23.

L had six points on 3–7 shooting, including two sweet drives for layups. On one she got hammered and threw it up-and-in off the backboard as she tumbled to the ground. Her teammates went nuts and she came up with a look like “THAT WENT IN?!?!” Then she missed the free throw… Not sure what’s up with her at the line lately. Her jumpers look good but her free throw form is awful.

I was glad it was not a close game. The refs were ones who never call fouls unless they are hard fouls at the rim. And these lacrosse girls were mega-physical and handsy. Once L was leading the break and a girl was tugging on her off arm the entire time, slowing L down, and the refs didn’t call anything. Need to teach her how to flop.

AND HOW ABOUT THOSE JAYHAWKS!?!?!?! Two-and-oh! Highest scoring team in the country!

We listened to the beginning of the game on our way to basketball and I was regretting finding the Sirius broadcast when West Virginia scored on a 59 yard TD pass, KU had four penalties on their first possession, and then WVU scored again. I checked the score at halftime of L’s game and saw it was 21–7. I was glad I was watching hoops.

When we got back into the car it was 28-all and I was all-in. We heard KU take the lead as we drove home in an intense storm, and then watched the fourth quarter and overtime from home.

What a great win. This was a game pretty much every KU squad for the past decade would lose by 40+. But the Jayhawks settled down after the bad start, hung in there, and dominated for a long stretch. Then they not only won, but got the ultra-rare, double-digit overtime win thanks to Jacobee Bryant’s pick-six.

There was some whooping it up in our living room, and some questions from the girls upstairs about what the hell was going on.

It looks like after getting it wrong four-straight times, KU finally hired the right coach. It was bound to happen eventually. The Jayhawks are disciplined, more talented than in recent years, put that talent in the right spots, are prepared for their opponents, and don’t fall apart the moment they face adversity. A long way to go but things finally seem like they are trending up.

Naturally Nebraska lost about 30 minutes later, Scott Frost was fired Sunday, and Lance Leipold is reportedly high on the list of potential replacements.

I think that bloom will fade, as Nebraska is not going to hire a guy who goes 4–10 this year.

Unless KU wins eight, nine, ten games this year, right?

Sunday

The first NFL Sunday of the year. I missed most of the Colts game as L had to go do her team photographer duties for her CYO football classmates. It was pouring rain so I decided to sit in my car and read in case she wanted to bail early. She ended up staying the entire time so I read a ton and didn’t see much football.

I did listen on the radio long enough to hear the Colts go down 20–3 but then turned it off to focus on my book. We got home in time to see the Colts tie it, then blow a chance in win in overtime. This franchise just does not do opening day well. I believe this is nine-straight opening weeks without a win. So maybe a tie is progress?

Still a super-disappointing beginning to a season in which the Colts were, allegedly, poised to be a player in the AFC title race. At least no one else in the AFC South won. You figure there will be growing pains as Matt Ryan settles in, but he wasn’t the problem on Sunday. At least when I was watching.

I forgot about the US Open final until late and caught the last four games of Alcaraz’s win. The first of many, I would bet.

I half-watched much of the SNF Buccaneers-Cowboys game. That old fucker Brady can still sling it.

Holiday Weekend Notes

September 6, 2022 /

I’m guessing this was our last ever four-day Labor Day weekend, at least on the academic side of things. St P’s generally (but not always) gives the kids Friday and Monday off, while CHS just takes the actual Monday holiday off. Who knows what M’s schedule will be this time next year, but she won’t be here, so that means the remaining girls will be on the same schedule for the final holiday weekend of summer in 2023.

L took advantage of her extra day by doing some work for us and family members to earn some money. She’s been drafted as the St P’s football team videographer/photographer and has been saving up for a camera. With a final push over the weekend she was able to order it.

Her first project of the weekend was mowing her aunt’s yard, which she has done a few times. I followed her around with the trimmer, which is too big and too temperamental for her to use. As I was trimming I felt a white-hot heat on my right forearm. I dropped the trimmer, thinking it was in the process of blowing up or something. But I didn’t see any smoke and it started right back up.

“Well, shit,” I thought, “I think I just got stung!”

But I hadn’t seen/felt anything on me or seen anything fly away. I looked around and then noticed, on my nephews’ swingset/playhouse, the biggest wasp I had ever seen crawling around. I got a fly swatter from inside the house and nailed it. Seconds later several more Big Ass Wasps emerged from under the decking and I fled before they could get me.

Fortunately my sister-in-law had a couple cans of wasp/hornet killer. I unloaded one on the nest I could see poking through the frame and left her instructions to hit it again when the wasps returned for the evening.

Not going to lie: the sting hurt like hell. I don’t know if I’ve ever been hit by a wasp before, but this fucking hurt. Even today, Tuesday morning, the area is all swollen, red, and itchy. I’m not sure what flavor of wasps these were, but I’m just going to call them Murder Hornets because they were so big and the sting was so painful. Still, happy to take one for the team rather than one of my nephews.

IMG 5531

Don’t fuck with the Murder Hornets

Friday night was one of the more interesting sports following nights in my recent history.

I had the US Open up on the TV, watching Serena Williams’ final match that began at 7:00. At 7:30 the Cathedral game began, and I pulled up the audio on my phone. And at 8:00 KU kicked off their season on ESPN+, which I had on my MacBook Air.

Super Sports Fan #1 here!

It was a bit chaotic keeping track of everything, but I managed, selectively muting as conditions warranted.

I should probably write more about Serena’s loss. I think of my life not really hitting adulthood until right around 1999–2000. That made Serena the last athlete from my extended childhood or adolescence or whatever who was still active. Just another sign that we are getting older.

Props to her for such an amazing career, for coming back after having an insanely difficult pregnancy and childbirth experience, and for going out on her terms. I couldn’t believe she was still playing doubles with her sister Venus on Thursday. I think that effort clearly affected her in Friday’s match. Then I realized that she just wanted to play with her sister one more time and was willing to sacrifice her singles match for that opportunity. When you’ve won everything there is to win, you get to pick how you say goodbye.

Cathedral fell behind 13–0 but then ripped off 35-straight points for a 35–21 win. The game was three hours away so none of the girls went. The Irish had a ton of injuries going into the game, so played a number of kids who had not played the first two weeks. This week they play their big-time rivals BC, who are ranked #1 in 3A and just lost the the #1 4A school on the final play of the game.

KU rolled Tennessee Tech. Which should be expected, and I know non-KU fans are making fun of us Jayhawks for being excited about the win. Never forget this is KU football, a program that has found a way to do the un-doable for decades. Pounding an overmatched opponent is never a given for Kansas, and while one or two more wins is likely the max we can hope for this year, at least we checked off the easy win.

The team looked better, with more playmakers on defense than I can recall. But they still lack depth and things will be very different this week against West Virginia and pretty much every week for the rest of the year and the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher. But this game was the baby step we needed.

Saturday we headed up to S’s aunt and uncle’s in the morning. They live on a lake and offered to take the girls out to ski. M took a brief run and had no issues. L tried but could not get up. C was annoyed about having to wake up early on a holiday weekend and stayed in the boat. We took a nice trip around the lake and got off the water just before rain moved in.

Later in the day L had a basketball game. They were playing a team they’ve played many times. That team plays and practices all year, and added another good player since our last meeting. We were down 13–0 to start then went something like 5–22 from the free throw line and lost by 15. L alone was 1–6 from the line. She was 0–4 from the floor but had three rebounds, three assists, and three steals. She hit one shot that came after a foul was called away from the ball and was super annoyed by that. I was super annoyed she was missing so many free throws after all the practice shots she put up over the summer.

Sunday we had the local family over for our annual Labor Day gathering. It never got too hot or humid and the rain held off, so it was a pleasant day around the pool. I stay the hell out of the pool when the nephews take over. It’s more fun to drink and watch than constantly babysit your kids so they don’t sink.

Monday was your standard, lazy Labor Day. I watched some tennis – Frances Tiafoe upsetting Rafa Nadal was obviously the highlight, a truly enjoyable match. I was bummed Danielle Collins lost, but we don’t need to go into details about that.

(Another quick aside about tennis: Nick Kyrgios beating Daniil Medvedev Sunday was also entertaining. Not sure I’ve ever switched my opinion on an athlete as quickly as I have about Kyrgios. I thought he was a lunatic who needed to be shut down at Wimbledon. Now I think he’s one of the most entertaining, compelling, and interesting players on the tour. Not sure I necessarily love him, but I do root for him to stay in tournaments because they are a lot more fun with him on the court.)

I read a lot, we did some shopping as we prep for our next big trip, and we did some cleaning around the house.

Otherwise a pretty chill holiday weekend.

This morning we were socked in by low, thick clouds. When my alarm went off at 6:50 and it was still pitch black my first thought was, “Did I sleep through a month and it’s October 6?” Just a tangible reminder that summer is over.

Emergency Sports Post

July 1, 2022 /

Some MASSIVE sports news dropped on Thursday. With Monday being a holiday, who knows what can happen between now and when I get around to sharing some thoughts. So a quick-ish, emergency post about…

UCLA/USC Jumping To Big 10

WHAT?!?!!? Where the fuck did this come from? I have to say, I am utterly amazed that the UT/OU to SEC and UCLA/USC to Big 10 stories remained so quiet right up until they became done deals. It really doesn’t make much sense to me that there weren’t more leaks in each case.

Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC makes sense in a lot of ways. But the two LA schools joining the Big 10 is pretty fucking nutty. I know this is all about money, both grabbing as much TV revenue as possible and about balancing out money athletic departments are going to start losing as NIL funnels money directly to players. But this seems like a way to massively increase AD expenses in the new Big 10, with some schools literally having to fly across the country to play conference games. I suppose you can have the LA teams make an east coast swing, and Maryland/Rutgers can do the opposite. But are you really going to take the women’s soccer team out of class for a week a couple times a season to play conference games, and then pay to fly them and put them in hotels for that stretch?

I guess this is just another step closer to the power athletic schools ending up in one or two giant leagues, renegotiating all the TV deals, then splitting into geographic divisions that look a lot like the old conferences we knew and loved.

Strangely, for the first time since this wave of realignment began over a decade ago, KU is actually in good shape. The Big 12 made good moves to grab Cincinnati, Central Florida, Houston, and BYU and seems stable. Now whoever ends up being leftover from the Pac–12 will be ripe for the picking. The Big 12 would always be the third or fourth strongest of the power conferences, in terms of TV revenue potential, but the conference would stay alive.

Plus there are the persistent rumors that KU is one of a handful of schools sitting pretty for if/when the Big 10/SEC decide to expand further.

Then there was the ridiculous rumor floating yesterday that KU was looking to join the Big East and go independent in football. I say ridiculous because that makes absolutely no financial sense when the Big 12 is still an option, KU football is not in any position to go independent, and the guy pushing it had a number of college hoops “scoops” that were very wrong. Then again, there have been a lot of rumors that seemed absolutely dumb that have come true during this whole process, so I guess you never know.

Kevin Durant Demands a Trade

I literally laughed out loud when I got the text from a friend sharing this news. After a week of drama about what Kyrie Irving would do got squashed by Kyrie announcing he was returning to the Nets, KD drops this big ass bomb in the NBA, bringing the free agency market to a screeching halt just as it opened.

I get the old man bitching about how players angle to play with their buddies and create super teams. I generally don’t agree with that line of thinking, because I believe when you become a free agent you’ve earned the right to choose your own path, even if it’s different from how superstars would have traveled in the 80s or 90s.

That said, I think when you sign a contract and recruit guys to play with you, you can’t jump ship halfway through your contract when you sour on the situation. You have to live with it and do your best to make it work, even if that means some pain along the way.

Still, I kind of love what a drama queen KD has become. He’s one of the most fascinating players in the league, because he’s different that almost everyone else. He’s not as “crazy” as Kyrie, as ruthless as LeBron, as adept at social media as Joel Embiid. But he’s close to each of them, and when you put it all together, you get an absolute content machine, which makes everything he does insanely compelling. Even if it can be exhausting at times.

Basketball Camp

I missed most of this breaking news as it happened because I was at L’s final day of basketball camp. I got there a little early to watch the scrimmages and the awards presentations.

She had a good week. She met some new girls and became friendly with them. You never know what girls will actually end up at a private school, but she is hopeful a couple of them are in her class in a little over a year. She told me on day two the head coach talked to her about the travel program L is in, how she thinks it is a great one, and how she thought it had made L better (we aren’t sure if she’s seen L play before, although the two local Catholic school coaches do pop into CYO games when they have time). When I dropped her off on Thursday the head coach greeted L by name and several of the varsity players came over and said hello.

Anyway, they got to the awards and went through a few for performance in individual drills and stuff before getting to the final award, Teammate of the Week. When the head coach called L’s name, all the high school girls went nuts, with the best player yelling “YEAH L!!!!” really loud. On our way home she told me how that girl, who is in M’s class but was new to CHS last year so they don’t really know each other, kept following her around all week, giving her pointers. So she made a connection with the head coach, with the current players, and with the girls who could be in her class when she gets to high school. It was a successful four days.

Sports Notes

June 9, 2022 /

KU Hoops

I still need to do an NIL post, and now that things finally seem to have calmed down a little on that front, I’ll move that up in the mental queue.

KU’s roster appears to be locked in for next year, so a few thoughts on how that has shaken out.

In general I think the transfer portal is a good thing, as it gives players more control of their careers. But I think it also gets misused as players bail on situations that are simply less-than-ideal instead of truly bad or jump at any opportunity to trade up in prestige of program. For fans, I think we expect too much from players who are transferring-in, expecting them to replicate what made them stars at their previous school while playing in different systems, with different teammates, often with very different roles.

I think the best move for KU this off-season would have been to keep the roster completely intact and not add any players. Even had some guys at the back end of the roster left, I would have been fine going forward with 11–12 scholarship players instead of trying to fill a bench player’s spot with a transfer who had started elsewhere.

There are just a whole lot of guys who will be fighting for playing time this year, and clearing out a spot wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

That said, replacing Christian Braun with Kevin McCullar, Jr was about the best move KU could have. They are different players, but since McCullar is complementary on offense and position-less on defense, he can slide right in and not be disruptive. I don’t think he will struggle to find his role the way pretty much every transfer last year did. While he adds to the roster crunch in the wings rotation, his presence also means that neither Gradey Dick nor MJ Rice will be expected to have an immediate impact for the team to win games in November and December.

Jalen Wilson coming back was the right move for him and potentially a huge move for KU. It’s unrealistic to expect him to take the jump Ochai Agbaji did last year, but after a solid NBA combine, it’s not unreasonable to see a leap in his game. I can see him having a tremendous statistical year, in the range of 15–16 ppg and 10+ rebounds per game.

Right now I think there are three players locked into starting roles: Wilson, McCullar, and DaJuan Harris. I would guess Zach Clemence is most likely to be the starting big man today. And then someone from the pool of Bobby Pettiford, Joe Yesufu, Dick, or Rice fill the remaining spot, depending whether Bill Self wants two small guards or a larger wing to join the other five. One of the freshmen bigs – Ernest Udeh or Zuby Ejiofor – should play a lot. I think Bill Self loves KJ Adams, so he will play.

I just named 11 players. Both Cam Martin and Kyle Cuffe are on scholarship, and most people think that Cuffe has a bright future. It’s hard to see either of them getting minutes, and I’m a little surprised Cuffe didn’t decide to jump somewhere that would give him a better opportunity to play.

Bottom line, the roster is deep, loaded with options, and seems pretty good here in June. They should be elite defensively if a big man can become a shot blocker. Offense may be a struggle at times, so I expect more games in the 60s than last year.

It’s a long way until practice begins, let alone the first games in early November. The defending national champs may not be in the true list of betting favorites (they are actually rated pretty high by Vegas at the moment, but that seems irrational) but they are going to run back a pretty good squad in ’22–23.

Professional Golf

I don’t know that it’s been on many of my reader’s radars, but men’s professional golf is in the midst of one of the most important weeks in its modern history. For a year or so there have been rumors of a league to rival the PGA, with rumors of multiple competing leagues at various times. The option that seemed the most serious and likely is backed by the government of Saudi Arabia, as part of their “sports washing” efforts to use their massive piles of cash to distract the world from the regime’s awful record on human rights. The LIV Golf tour begins this week and several notable PGA players have renounced their PGA Tour status and made the jump. Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are rumored to be receiving between $100 and $200 million for joining the new tour. Others have received less but still more than they can make in many years on the PGA Tour. The weekly purses are also far beyond the already crazy money players are earning on the PGA Tour.

For obvious reasons, there has been a kerfuffle about all this. There is the fact these players are turning their backs on the tour than made them rich. The fact they are taking blood money from an oppressive government that had an American citizen murdered and chopped into pieces because he was publishing articles they didn’t like. The fact most of these golfers are trying to act like they are doing this for the “good of the game,” or in belief that golf can change the world. The idea that golf will somehow turn Saudi Arabia into a Jeffersonian Democracy with equal rights for all citizens is one of the dumbest things about this whole enterprise.

It’s all a little ridiculous. I think Dustin Johnson is the only person who has pretty much said he’s doing this for the money. Good for him. Be honest, take the heat, and know that it will fade. I disagree with his decision, but respect the fact he’s not hiding behind the BS most of his fellow LIV jumpers are spouting.

I’ve been more interested in the media/public reaction. Granted, my view is heavily skewed by the side of Golf Twitter that I follow, which is unusually progressive for golf in general and, likely, much more aware of all the details than the wider golf public. What has stuck me most is the heat these people are taking. A lot of the public is jumping on the side of the players, usually defending their taking the life-changing money. Which, again, I get.

I wondered how many people making this argument defend other professional athletes who chase money. Do they say, “Well, the Yankees offered him more, I don’t blame him,” when their favorite baseball player leaves their team for a bigger market? Or when the wide receiver their NFL team drafted and developed goes elsewhere when he is a free agent, are they as understanding? I can hazard a guess. I imagine terms like “greedy” and “disloyal” get thrown around.

What makes that question fascinating to me is that you can make a legitimate economic argument for why NFL/NBA/MLB players chase money. You may think that team X overpaid for your shooting guard, but his new contract was determined by market conditions, often based on offers from multiple teams. Nothing about what these golfers are getting paid makes sense from an economic standpoint. They weren’t sifting through a stack of offers similar to what the Saudis had on the table. Saudi Arabia is paying far beyond the true economic value of these golfers in an effort to legitimize their new league. Several golf writers have pointed out that these contracts make even less sense because LIV hasn’t offered any kind of business plan for how to grow and maintain their league. That won’t matter to the Mickelsons and Johnsons who are set for life based on their initial contracts and have PGA Tour status basically for life based on winning majors. But that’s a legit question for the lesser-known players who have joined LIV, and could have their careers wrecked if the league falls apart and they are banned from the PGA Tour.

This whole thing is just Saudi Arabia doing what they do: lighting cash on fire at a moment when oil is as expensive as it’s been in ages to try to get people to forget beyond their flashy architecture and lavish spending, most of country, from its leadership down, live lie it is still the 16th century.

Splitting sports leagues is pretty much never a good thing. The big names jumping to LIV are getting money that can literally set up their families for generations. While they have the right to make those decisions, I don’t think they realize the long-term damage this split is going to do to professional golf. In a decade or so, if TV contracts and exposure have shrunk and golf is even more niche than it is now, I’m not sure the next generation of players will be thanking the players who took the Saudi money and ran.

Royals

Good Lord the Royals suck. As of this morning, they are two games worse than Oakland and Cincinnati, two franchises that are trying to lose. I’m still not watching, listening, or paying much attention. But I still have several Royals commentators in my feeds and get enough of texts from friends who are still on board to have a sense of what a disaster this season has been.

For a long time it felt like the Royals were handling their post-title rebuild the right way and were poised to break back to respectability this year and possible contention next year. Especially with the new, expanded playoffs this year.

At the moment, it sure seems like they’ve bungled it all. And it seems like it’s time for new owner John Sherman to clear out the front office and coaching staff and start anew. Still won’t get me to re-up my MLB subscription this year.

Sports Notes

April 21, 2022 /

Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I’m behind on a couple sports stories. When a huge one broke Wednesday night, that jogged my memory that I should probably get to them.

Jayhawk Talk

Hey, did you know the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship two weeks ago? It was pretty cool!

We’ve had a steady run of packages dropped off with national title gear over the pat week. I accidentally ordered C a youth small instead of an adult small of the shirt she picked, so one of the nephews is getting a Jayhawk tee. M has already desecrated her title gear; her prom group decided to dress in college stuff for their afterparty. In her poorly chosen words, “All the good schools were taken,” so she volunteered her and her date to wear KU stuff. She cropped the shirt I bought her so it’s “cute,” I guess. Whatever. It says national champions on it. It’s dope.

I’ve been surprised how quiet the roster chatter has been. I assumed there would be a week to ten days of hangover and recovery, and then we’d begin hearing about changes for next year. I’m assuming everyone is waiting to see what Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson do before they make any moves.

All winter I said I expected KU to lose three players. That includes early departures and transfers. I’m not sure how much winning a title changes the math for players.

KU does seem to be in on several players who have entered the transfer portal, so that tells me Bill Self expects to lose a few players. Or have a signed recruit decide to chase G-League/Aussie money instead of spending a year in Lawrence.

The deadline for entering the transfer portal is about ten days away. I would expect we’ll hear about CB and Jalen early next week and things will begin shaking out after that.

NLI/Transfer Portal

I was going to include some thoughts about how the ability for players to get paid for their name, image, likeness use and the freedom to transfer. But as I thought more about those, I realized they are better suited for a longer, dedicated post. Look for that next week.

Jay Wright Retires

Holy shit!!! I did not see this coming and never heard any rumors that it was an option.

My first thought is that I hope all is right with Jay Wright’s health and those close to him. Sixty seems early to retire, especially when you are still at the top of your game, so the natural assumption is that something is wrong and forced his decision.

Since his announcement, there have been plenty of rumors that he doesn’t want to coach with NLI hitting. I think that’s going to be the convenient excuse for every coach who hangs it up. That’s what most people think drove Roy Williams and Coach K from the game.

Crazy to lose those three coaches, who won 10 combined titles, in 13 months.

Big props to Wright for his career. He broke my Jayhawk heart a few times, but he always seemed like such a good guy that I couldn’t ever hate him. I didn’t love watching his teams or their style, but I always admired how committed he was to getting them to play that way, and how effective it was. Bonus props for walking away while he’s still young enough to go enjoy life and spend some of that money he’s made.

Carson and Matt

The Colts got a new quarterback about a month ago. And somehow managed to get more for shipping Carson Wentz to Washington than they gave up for getting Matt Ryan from Atlanta.

I’m big thumbs up on getting rid of Wentz. I hated trading for him in the first place and was never confident he was the right answer. Given the not-so-subtle comments from his ex-teammates and the Colts’ front office, no one shed a tear when he was traded away. Good riddance.

I’m qualified thumbs up on Matt Ryan. I think he’ll be a solid, dependable solution at QB for a couple years, provided his body holds up. As far as I know he’s neither a prick like Phillip Rivers or a locker room cancer and disaster on the field like Wentz. So that’s a bonus.

The Colts’ emphasis this off-season has been strengthening the defense. I suppose the thought is you build a beast on that side of the ball then ride Jonathan Taylor and a boring-if-efficient passing game to win in an old-school manner. Ryan is the perfect guy for that strategy.

It is interesting how quickly things change in the NFL, though. Two years ago the Colts had the best offensive line in football. Between injuries, some regression, a retirement, and a bad free agent signing, it has fallen back into the pack. You just can’t plan for any part of your team that relies on multiple players to be elite for more than a couple years anymore.

That makes Tom Brady’s and Aaron Rodgers’ careers even more impressive. And obviously, potentially, Patrick Mahomes’.

Pacers

The Pacers narrowly missed out on having two lottery picks this year when Cleveland lost their play-in game. That said, I don’t feel like lottery picks are as valuable as they used to be. Aside from the occasional, can’t-miss prospect, drafting high in the NBA these days is often about finding the right pieces that develop into rotation players as quickly as possible instead of finding stars. Sure, you hope every pick turns into a star, but you’re content if they turn into players who demand minutes and produce results. Looking at this year’s draft lists, I’m not sure I see a single player that makes me think, “Oh yeah, you build a franchise around that dude.”

It should still be an eventful offseason for the Pacers. Kevin Pritchard has to decide whether to continue tearing down the roster or just find pieces that fit in with the roster that closed the season.

The experts keep saying that Myles Turner could bring back a lot. He has great value on defense when he’s able to stay on the court. But he is so up-and-down on offense and so often injured, I think it might be best to trade him now, perhaps a moment past his peak value but when it it still pretty high.

I believe Malcolm Brodgon is a bad fit to the current Pacers roster and could probably return some value.

I doubt either of those players bring back All Stars. So it seems like the Pacers, again, have a ceiling of being a nice team but never a great one. Although no one really thought Paul George was a franchise player when the Pacers drafted him, and he nearly got them past LeBron twice.

Big Ass Jayhawk Talk

April 7, 2022 /

You might have heard that the Kansas Jayhawks won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday. I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without sharing some, well a lot, of thoughts. These should be super disjointed as they were assembled in various moments and in different stages of sobriety.

I will the answer the question I got from several people first: no, I did not turn the game off. Come on, this was KU basketball in the national title game. I might go through a few stages of my sports pouting, but I wasn’t turning it off. Not until the cause was hopeless, at least.

What I did do, though, was mute the entire halftime show and listen to music while I sat and stewed. I also started banging out some thoughts for my sad, post-loss blog entry. I wrote about how the lack of an athletic big finally caught up with KU. How KU was cursed in the Superdome (this would make them 0–3 in title games there, plus another national semifinal loss). And how despite the bracket breaking their way, they still ran into one of the best “on a hot streak” teams in tournament history.

Here’s the thing, though As frustrated as I was at halftime, with KU down 15 and thinking that was too big a deficit to make up, I wasn’t totally without hope. Carolina hit a bunch of tough-ass shots in the first half and cashed-in 11 free throws. It’s not like they were playing lights out. They were just getting rebounds and getting fouled. Meanwhile KU was missing a ton of shots right at the rim. It wasn’t too tough to see Carolina starting to miss the ones they had made, and KU making the ones they had missed.

But, still, 15 points is a lot. You figure Carolina can play kind of crap and still hold on to win.

I did though, and this is key, change seats.

Just as I did when KU trailed Kansas State by 16 at halftime in January, I moved from the couch to the chair next to it. And I cracked open a beer. You all laugh at me, but didn’t KU play better from the opening seconds of the second half? Prove to me that I didn’t play some, even tiny, cosmic role in that. YOU CAN’T, CAN YOU????

In a game like this it’s tough to pick a key, or even favorite, play. Was it the DaJuan Harris to David McCormack lob on the first possession of the second half, that set the tone for what was to come? Christian Braun causing havoc and running it down the Tar Heel’s throats? Jalen Wilson’s and-one that put KU up six? DaJuan’s sick floater he kissed off the backboard as he was flying away from the basket? Remy Martin’s RIDICULOUS step-back three with about 3:00 left?[1]

Those were all great. But I think the most memorable shots have to be McCormack’s two shots in the final 75 seconds. Actually three, since the first of his made baskets in that sequence came after grabbing his own miss and throwing it in over two defenders. The second was calm, cool, and a dagger. It was the more aesthetically pleasing, as well. He looked so confident on it, pumping his fist after like it was something he did every game.

One of my brothers in Jayhawkdom, E$, asked an interesting question three weeks ago, when the tournament began: Had there been a worse player to ever start for KU than McCormack. I think this was a little harsh, as Dave was clearly struggling physically in the Big 12 tournament.

But Dave had always tantalized and teased and flummoxed. He would do things no other big man in the country could do. Then he would miss five straight baskets. Or clank a dunk off the back of the rim. Or lose rebounds without being pressured. Or dribble the ball off his foot. Or have games where he played 20+ minutes and barely made an impact on the boxscore. And so on. He got yanked from the starting lineup as a senior!

He had a lot of talent, but also some physical limitations that seemed like they would prevent him from ever being a great player.

He also played with the curse of coming after the most dominant big man of the Bill Self era, Udoka Azubuike. Dok had his own issues, mostly with injuries and free throws, but he dunked everything, seemed to know his limits, and never got stripped by a guard buzzing through the lane.

This year I came to accept Dave for what he was, and be thankful for the positive moments.

But dude put it all together the last three games of his career. KU fans kept waiting for Ochai Agbaji to take over. But maybe Dave was the senior we should have been focusing on. Dave played the four or five best games of his career over the last month: the regular season finale against Texas, the Big 12 title game against Texas Tech, the Elite 8 game against Miami, and then the Final Four games. Hitting the two shots that won KU the championship turned him into a legend, and fans that he drove crazy for four years will laugh about the ways he frustrated them if they speak of them at all.

Speaking of Ochai, I was getting all kinds of bad vibes as he kept clanking free throws Monday. It felt like Nick Collison in 2003, a guy who was playing his ass off, but then kept missing freebies. In the same damn building. Seemed like bad voodoo, and in the wrong city to have bad voodoo.

Och didn’t have a great game. I don’t think he should have won the MOP. But somewhat lost in the postgame analysis was how he absolutely shut down Caleb Love, who had been the engine for UNC’s March run. Love scored 13 points on 24 shots. TWENTY FOUR SHOTS!!!! That wasn’t all Ochai, as KU switched a lot. But it was mostly Ochai.

Ochai was also responsible for the most powerful postgame moment, when he raced over to his family and greeted them. He burst into tears and hugged his mother and sister as his father screamed, “YOU’RE A CHAMPION, BOY!!!” over and over. We don’t often see that side of players, when they get a chance to celebrate with their families and all the emotions that went into getting to that moment come out.

Remy fucking Martin, man. What a wild ride that was. He gave it all to us in the title game. An awful first half that featured forced shots and getting lost on defense. A second half that included three clutch 3-pointers, a sweet driving layup, and a potentially game-saving block. Fourteen points, a title, and redemption for a regular season that never met expectations.

This was a massive win for Bill Self, in so many ways.

It makes him the most successful coach in KU history.

Two national titles is a big fucking deal. With K retired – thank God! – Self joins Jay Wright and Rick Pitino as active coaches with multiple titles.

The win balances out some of those bad March losses in his tenure at KU. At a minimum, his post-coaching biography will say “two time national champion” before any mention of those unmentionable games.

I think it also mitigates, in some ways, the effects of the looming NCAA penalties. Not that I want to get into that now.

Most of all, the win proves what a great coach he is. I can name at least six, and more likely 7–8, of his teams that were better than this one. Or at least more talented.

Two players on this team were top 50 recruits. Three of the starters were all ranked below 100 in their senior classes. One of his prime bench players was ranked in the 80s, the other well below 100. There wasn’t an Andrew Wiggins or Josh Jackson on the team. Hell, there wasn’t a Wayne Selden or Kelly Oubre. Honestly, this was one of the least talented teams of his 19 years at Kansas.

They guys he had, though, are the ones who hang around for three or four years and understand how to play together. How to not panic when things go sideways. Even the two sophomores, Wilson and Harris, had redshirt years because of injuries and academics, thus a year of at least absorbing how Self wants to play and what it takes to win in the Big 12.

Self has turned KU basketball into an absolute machine. Sixteen conference championships. Eleven conference tournament titles. Ten number one seeds. Nine Elite 8’s. Four Final Fours. Plus there’s the big old asterisk of the 2020 team, which was likely one of two or three best teams ever. And now he has two titles.

Like every coach, Bill Self has his March failings. But with two banners to his name he’s legitimately one of the all-time greats.

I found it incredibly odd that Kansas and North Carolina had two serviceable big men between them. Ten years ago the teams would have run waves of bigs at each other. The game has changed and the talent is spread a lot more widely than it used to be.

I don’t know what’s more ridiculous: a 16–0 run in the national title game, or that same team losing because they were on the wrong side of a 31–10 run.

31–10!!!

Not going to lie, I just about died when DaJuan Harris stepped on the sideline as KU was inbounding with 4-ish seconds left. Same fucking building as Freddy Brown and Chris Webber. SAME FUCKING OPPONENT!!! First the free throws and now this??? I was legit freaking out.

My Carolina friend wished me congrats before the play, and I told him to hang on to see if we got the ball in play. KU had struggled against pressure all year. KU ran the PERFECT play, only for DaJuan to step OB. Sheesh.

Thankfully it didn’t end up making a difference. I’m thrilled the game did not go to OT. Both teams faced foul trouble, have short benches, and Carolina players were dropping like flies. We did not need to see KJ Adams and whoever his UNC equivalent is battling it out for the national title.

Christian Braun played PERFECT defense on Caleb Love on the game’s final shot.

Bill Self warned us that this was coming three weeks ago. During the Big 12 tournament, he said that this is not his best team, but they think that they are. I had not heard that from him all year, and found it fascinating. This team did play with a swagger that seems a little above their heads, but I never really noticed it until a month ago. I heard the Lawrence Journal-World’s Matt Tait on a podcast last week say that Jalen Wilson believes he’s a lottery pick, even though he’s not. I mean, the kid is 6’8” and can’t dunk, but he thinks he is the best player on the court. I LOVE irrationally confident players like that. They can drive you crazy, but when everything comes together, they do amazing things.

This team had all kinds of limitations. But both individually and as a unit, they ignored those barriers. They just went out and balled and expected to win. They didn’t get rattled when they gave up 16 straight points in the title game. They knew if they just tightened some things up, played a little D, and stopped missing layups, they’d be fine.

Which seems insane if you watch them. They are a bunch of nice players, with one who can be all-world when he’s hitting shots. But this team? This is the one that wins Bill Self his second title??? That just seems stupid. It should have been the 2010 team, which was arguably as good as the 2008 squad. Or the 2011 team, that had the entire bracket wide open for them and lost to a shitty team. Or the 2017 team that was a nearly perfect combination of talent.

I mentioned in my Tuesday post that I lost my mind a little during the comeback and in the game’s closing minutes. C was the only other person in the house that was awake at the time. She was in the kitchen to get a snack sometime late in the game, and was there when I ran upstairs to wake L up (more on that in a second). She waved and gave me a big thumbs up and said “DUBS!!” Later she told me she was following the game on her phone. She would hear me scream in the basement and then her app would update the score a few seconds later. She doesn’t know much about hoops but seemed to enjoy this little moment that was all hers.

L told me before she went to bed that she wanted me to wake her if KU won. When TBS went to its first commercial after the final horn, I raced up to her room, opened the door, and shook her. But she was dead to the world. She grunted a couple times and rolled over to get away from me. Tuesday morning she said she had no memory of that.

Speaking of TBS, Bill Raftery is the only person on the broadcast team worth a shit. He gets a little schticky at times, but it’s a good schtick. And I think at times he’s too interested in bantering with his partners. But despite being like 97 years old (or 78) he sees things right away. He notices when teams go away from something they’ve been doing all game. He’ll call out a defensive miscue or someone who makes an adjustment that blows up a play. There were like five times in the second half where he called something out before it happened. Sometimes it takes me three possessions to notice a team has switched to zone, and that’s sitting on my ass in front of a big TV that shows the entire court.

Meanwhile Jim Nantz is giving fouls to the wrong player, trying to turn everything into a pun, and generally making it obvious he’s more interested in getting to Augusta, GA than the game in front of him. I’ve already discussed Grant Hill; no need to pile on.

I posed the question to KU friends, how much national champions gear is too much? I’ve made three orders so far, two for me from different companies and one for the girls. I think it’s weird that national champs gear is produced in limited runs, at least from national companies. Some shirts were already sold out in most sizes by Wednesday morning. Seems like you take as many orders as you can and work to fill them. I’m sure in Lawrence/KC you’ll be able to get things in most sizes for months.

I should get to some ending summary, for any of you who were patient enough to get this far.

I did not see this coming. KU was a number one seed only because of its schedule and winning the Big 12. I would have been ok with a Sweet 16, thrilled with an Elite 8. But as those great KU teams that came up short proved, you don’t have to be the best, most complete team in the country to win the title. You just have to beat the six teams you face. Do that and your warts get forgotten and you become legendary, with your team represented in the rafters for all time.

Championship teams always carve out some identity that defines their legacy. I’m still struggling to figure out what this team’s is. There were two big comebacks in the tournament, but they also jumped all over Villanova early. It’s not like they shot lights-out from 3, or were 1983 Houston/Lousiville, dunking on everyone.

I guess what I’ll remember about this team is their toughness. They refused to wilt. Which, in a lot of ways, makes them the perfect Bill Self team. He harps on not being soft. The 2021–22 Kansas Jayhawks had plenty of soft moments over the first four months of the season. But after the calendar flipped to March, there wasn’t a tougher team in the country.

To close, some of my favorite Tweets of the past few days:

  1. That was the ballsiest shot in KU history since Ron Kellogg’s baseline jumper to beat Oklahoma in the 1984 Big 8 tournament championship game. And Remy’s had a lot more sauce to it.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: CHAMPIONS!

April 5, 2022 /

Once again…WHAT A GOD DAMN GAME!!!

So many mood swings. So much frustration at halftime. So much yelling in the second half. So much happiness when that last North Carolina shot grazed the front of the rim and fell short.

I honestly don’t know how my family didn’t come check on me after I nearly blew the roof off our house yelling during that sequence, with about ten minutes left, when Remy Martin hit a corner three to give KU it’s first lead of the second half, DaJuan Harris forced a turnover, and then Jalen Wilson converted an and-one to put KU up six. That might be the loudest I’ve ever yelled for any sports moment in my life.

Then there were ten more crazy minutes after that. Mercy.

And DAVID FUCKING MCCORMACK hit the two biggest baskets of the season and led KU to a national title! A month ago I would have likely picked him last of KU’s top six players to be responsible for making the game winning plays. But that dude, THAT DUDE, has played his ass off for the past month and made up for every single moment of frustration he caused over the past four years. He became a legend, and he should have been the Final Four MOP.


I’m a bit of a mess this morning, as you can imagine. It’s going to take awhile to get more thoughts organized and presented to you.

I should probably try to get some sleep, too.

So, for now, I’ll leave you with this…

ROCK FUCKING CHALK, BITCHES!


« Older posts Newer posts »

Archives

© 2025 D's Notebook

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑