Sports are Dumb
This weekend was another reminder that sports are dumb. At least they were to the people – well me – in our house. KU You all know that I’m superstitious. So I got a bad feeling as news broke that Tech’s two best players, Terrence Shannon Jr and Kevin McCullar, would miss Saturday’s game against KU. It just seems like anytime people get excited about an opponent missing key player(s) against KU, the Jayhawks decide to lay a big, fat egg that day. Sure enough, that’s what happened in Lubbock. The undermanned Red Raiders took it to KU the entire game. They were better on offense and defense. Tougher on…
Jayhawk Talk: Unwatchable
What the hell was that? In the building named for Henry Iba, KU and Oklahoma State took turns sending basketball back to the Stone Age Tuesday. OSU was awful in the first 10 minutes. KU was even worse in the next 10, at one point missing 19 straight shots. And both teams looked like fifth graders in the closing minutes of the contest. In the final 2:24 there were seven turnovers, five fouls, four missed field goals, two missed free throws, and zero points scored by either team. It was a fucking mess. Dave McCormack got benched and responded with one of the best games of his career, going for…
Jayhawk Talk: The David Problem
KU has entered the silly season. Three-straight scheduled games either cancelled or postponed because of Covid issues with their opponent. The next regularly scheduled game is in jeopardy, too, although the new quarantine rules may save it. Odds are at least the first half of January will continue to be crazy, and perhaps only a quickly declining Omicron wave will keep the entire conference season from being a mess. In place of two of those games, KU scrambled to get new opponents. Last night was Nevada, giving KU a chance to earn some redemption from the Kirk Snyder/Nick Fazekas disasters in Bill Self’s early days in Lawrence. Seriously, those were…
D’s Notes
KU Hoops Well, I was hoping to post another Jayhawk Talk entry this week. I was looking forward to seeing how KU played three days after struggling to put away a Stephen F. Austin team that exposed some of their deficiencies. Alas, Colorado had some players test positive, the game got wiped from the schedule, and the Christmas break begins early for the Jayhawks. Which leaves the big KU hoops news of the week the announcement that KU will play Indiana the next two years. It took 19 years but it’s finally happening: the Jayhawks vs. the Hoosiers on campus!1 What timing, too. KU will come to Bloomington in December…
Rivalry Renewed?
After a week of fun buildup, Kansas and Missouri finally took the floor against each other Saturday for the first time in nearly a decade. The result felt a bit empty, although the process was a lot of fun for us Kansas fans. The Jayhawks’ 102–65 win was the third-largest margin of victory in series history. That wasn’t a surprise. From the Vegas gambling line (starting at KU minus–25!!!) to every article I read, podcast I listened to, and discussion I was in last week, universal opinion was that KU would win easily. This is a really good Kansas team that has a chance to be great. This is not…
Jayhawk Talk
A couple flawed yet fairly easy wins after the Thanksgiving tournament for the Jayhawks. Now everyone can look ahead to Saturday’s game. Not me, though. Or at least not yet. The last three games have brought a very nice and surprising development: Christian Braun is good. Really good. He struggled so much in the opener against Michigan State that I think a lot of us kind of wrote him off as just being a role player again this year. But he’s been scoring in a variety of ways, getting rebounds, making plays on defense, and moving the ball when needed on offense. He’s become an ideal counterpart for Ochai Agbaji,…
Weekend Notes
Our house smells different this morning. Some of that is a real change in the aromatics that are spread around, some of it is the smell of anticipation. As we begin a Thanksgiving week unlike any other in our family’s history, some notes from the weekend. Friday was semi state for high school football in Indiana. Cathedral played a school from down near Louisville that only advanced because their regionals opponent, who had beaten them by 30 in the regular season, was missing their starting quarterback and running back. CHS was up 14–0 about three minutes into the game, gave up a long touchdown, then proceeded to score another 28…
Jayhawks Notes: On Remy and Expectations
There was no time for a full Friday Playlist, but there is time for some words about the Jayhawks. Thursday’s game against Stony Brook was about what you expect this time of year. KU – especially David McCormack – was sloppy early; they struggled to guard a smaller, faster team; and generally muddled through the first 20–25 minutes. Then Ochai Agbaji caught fire and scored 10 straight points, the rest of the team relaxed, and a 20+ point run put the game away. My big thought from last night regards Remy Martin. We are three games into the season and KU Twitter loves losing its shit when it looks like…
Real, Live Hoops
With L done with hoops for the time being, I figured I should still get out and watch some live basketball. Tuesday I went to my first high school game in a long time. C has a classmate that made the varsity team (girl also made varsity soccer as a freshman, so obviously she’s a stud). A few of the freshmen girls wanted to go and support her so I took C. CHS is usually pretty mediocre in girls hoops, but this team shows some promise. Of course, they were playing kind of a crappy team. They won by 30 and were paced by a junior who transferred in this…
What a Night: KU Football?!?!
Holy shit! There aren’t a lot of big, important, communal memories surrounding Kansas football. For those of us who were in school in the early 90’s, there was the Monte Cozzens game, when KU beat Oklahoma. For the few of us who stuck it out through the cold, there was the Tony Sands game. The Mangino era brought an epic win over Nebraska, an Orange Bowl victory, and a game-winning, fourth down play against Missouri in the snow. Since then, though? Nothing. When you average two wins a year over a decade, it’s tough to make memories. It doesn’t matter than it came in what is likely to be a…