D's Notebook

Tag: college sports (Page 6 of 41)

Labor Day Weekend Notes

September 5, 2023 /

It wasn’t that long ago when Labor Day weekends were big, involved deals for us. When we were lake house owners, that would always be the last blowout of the year. Lots of friends or family down for two final days of floating, swimming, boating and fun.

We’ve backed off that pace quite a bit and these weekends are much more laid back. We did have some friends over Sunday evening. I spent about 10 hours smoking a pork shoulder which turned out well. I may have had a beer or two too many, though, and Monday morning was a struggle. Sadly that “beer or two too many” limit comes a lot quicker than it used to.

Here’s what else went on during our final weekend of the summer.

HS Football

It was a PERFECT night for football as Class 6A #6 Cathedral pounded #9 Penn 35–6 Friday. The Irish were up 35–0 at halftime and all the starters sat out the second half. The fourth or fifth string let in a long, impressive touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to ruin the shutout.

This is homecoming week with big rival, Class 3A #1 Bishop Chatard on the schedule.

KU Football

My first point, one I will repeat next week, is that playing a college football game on a Friday night is generally stupid. When you are a program that has struggled to be successful and generate fan interest for over a decade, it is super dumb. So big thumbs down to KU for deciding to play the first two games of the season on Friday nights. Sounds like they had a decent crowd last week, but I bet playing on the night when almost every high school in the state was also playing cost them a few thousand more asses in the seats.

I didn’t get to check the score until halftime of the CHS game, when it was tied at 7-all late in the first quarter. That alone confirmed that Jalon Daniels was not playing.

I was able to listen to the first drive of the second half – a KU touchdown – and then watch the rest of the second half. Obviously I was the key as the team shook off some inconsistent play and did what you’re supposed to do to FCS teams. It was just a few years back when KU was losing these games, so a 31-point win without the starting QB was just fine.

As I only saw part of the game, I won’t offer any assessments.

College Football

OK, we all owe Deion an apology, right? I mean all of you who doubted him. Because I, of course, did not. I believed he would turn Colorado around immediately. Never had a single question.

It was good to have a full slate of games, even if I spent four hours of the day in the car between here and Cincinnati. More on that in a moment…

Auto Update

My appointment to get an estimate on the girls’ car was last Thursday. My big fear was that they would need to open the back tailgate to assess the damage, not be able to get it shut, and we would lose the car because of that.

Turns out that shouldn’t have been my worry.

They crawled underneath the vehicle, looked for about five minutes, and told me the impact bar was compromised and the car was no longer drivable if we wanted insurance to cover the repairs.

Great.

I already got an initial estimate but the car is supposed to be disassembled today for a full inspection, so I guess we’ll see. Turns out the other kid’s family’s insurance company uses the same body shop as one of their preferred vendors, so hopefully no issues getting payment hammered out. The shop told me Mazda parts aren’t too difficult to find, and ballparked it at 2–3 weeks for repairs.

All that means I’m back on the school driving grind for awhile. The only bonus to that is I get to sleep an extra half hour since I don’t have to wake C up as early as when she drives.

A Weekend Visitor

As for that trip to Cincinnati, last Wednesday M texted us and said she had looked at her schedule of sorority events and realized this was the last weekend she had a chance to come home for awhile. The catch was that while she did not have a ticket to the Bearcats’ season opener Saturday, she did want to hang around for “tailgating and fun,” which I thought was a hilarious way to put it. She asked if we could pick her up late afternoon to bring her back for a quick visit. We didn’t have anything on our calendar, so we said of course.

I drove down and picked her up around 5:00. I checked the UC score when I parked and they were up on Eastern Kentucky something like 45–7 just before halftime. It was very hot in Cincinnati and people were already streaming out of the stadium to return to tailgates or just get out of the sun with the game firmly in control.

Long-time readers with great memories may recall the years I picked M up from CYO camp, when she would talk nonstop for the entire 90-minute drive home telling me every detail of her week away. This time she had three weeks of material and talked the entire two hours home. I didn’t mind.

She seems to be doing well. Classes aren’t too hard. She and her roommate are getting along great. She really likes the girls in her sorority. She’s made a co-ed friend group in the dorm.

The only bummer was she found a fraudulent charge on her debit card a week ago. Fortunately it was for only $2.00 and the bank reimbursed her. Glad she has learned the lesson that it’s a good idea to check your account frequently before a single bad charge can turn into a bunch of them that wipe out her balance. She’s been able to manage between Venmo and the balance on her Bearcat Card. Hopefully her new debit card will arrive this week.

Friends who have already been through this will likely agree with me, but one of the greatest sounds you will ever hear as a parent is when your college student comes home and she and her siblings are all upstairs, screaming and laughing together.

She saw one friend while she was home, did some laundry, took some naps, and hung out with us. Pretty low key.

S took her back on Monday afternoon. It was a quick but good visit.

As of now we aren’t scheduled to see her again until Family Weekend in late October, although I may go down for a football game earlier in October.

Friday Football Notes

September 1, 2023 /

A rare Friday post about something other than music promoted by the beginning of college football and an interesting night at a high school game earlier this week.

KU Football

I was thinking last night that there have been very few falls in my life when KU fans were genuinely excited about the coming football season. I’m talking about the excitement that comes with the chance for a really good season, not just “Hey, if everything breaks right, we might win six games this year!” excitement.

As best as I can recall, 1992, 2007, 2008, and 2009 were the only years that the Jayhawk faithful could great the coming season with honest-to-goodness optimism.

After last year’s 6–7 season, with almost the entire offense back, the 2023 season has joined that list.

And then this morning I woke up at 5:15 to take L to basketball, opened up Twitter while she was getting ready, and the first message I see says that Jalon Daniels’ back injury continues to bother him and a few “insiders” do not expect him to play in tonight’s season opener.

Just freaking great.

I guess we’ll find out later today whether those rumors are true, but nothing about them is good. Daniels has labored all month in practice with some kind of back issue. If he can’t play next week against Illinois, and beyond that, or can’t be close to 100%, all those fun expectations for this season get tossed aside.

I was reluctant to be too optimistic about this season simply because of Daniels’ health. He has been injured every season he’s been at KU. It seemed to be asking a lot for him to get through the next 12–13 games unscathed. If you told me he would play this entire season, I think KU has a realistic chance to win eight games, perhaps more if the defense can find a way to be even halfway decent.

But if he’s already battling a lingering injury before the season starts? Throw out any hopes for an upper-division Big 12 finish and second-consecutive bowl game. Jason Bean is a nice backup, and KU fans should be very thankful he changed his mind and decided to return.[1] He’s not a quarterback that will get you through the non-con at 3–0 and then find a way to win 3–5 games in the Big 12, though.

Once again the Football Gods decide to kick KU fans in the shins. It’s not fair to Daniels that so much of the program’s success will be determined by his health. It is our truth, though. Lance Leipold and his staff are excellent at developing talent. Maybe they have the program far enough along where they can still be in just about every game whether JD plays or not. A lifetime of mediocre-to-bad football has me conditioned to expect the worst.

Expectations

I’m reluctant to make a call on wins with JD’s status unclear. I listened to a KU pod this week where they threw out a few hypotheticals that were kind of fun.

Would you rather KU win nine games and play in a legit bowl game but lose Leipold at the end of this season, or win just four games and keep Lance? I’m 100% take the wins.

Would you rather beat Kansas State or Texas? This one is tricky. K-State is the smart answer. Texas is leaving the Big 12 and we’ve never really thought we could play on their level. K-State has proven that you can create a winner in the state of Kansas and are the model KU should follow: smart recruiting with great coaching. Plus a loss to KU might knock KSU out of the Big 12 title chase.

But…I’m going to Austin for the Texas game. It would be pretty dope to see KU get its second-straight win in Austin as the Longhorns depart for the SEC.

Mind says K-State, heart says Texas.

The third hypothetical was the most unrealistic: would you rather Jalon Daniels be a Heisman finalist (they may have even said win it) or KU make it to the college football playoff? Both seem extremely far-fetched, and that’s even before we knew of Daniels’ status for tonight. I would lean towards the CFP. But one of the hosts pointed out how Robert Griffin winning the Heisman was a massive moment in the growth of Baylor football. I get that, but I still would take the team success with a super cool QB who just missed making the trip to New York as a Heisman finalist.

Freshman Ball

Monday L asked me to take her to the Cathedral freshman B game against Carmel so she could stand on the sideline and take pictures. She had fun and got some good shots. Find her on Instagram if you’d like to see some samples.

Since this was a B game and both teams had played on Saturday, I believe they rested most of their freshmen starters, or rotated them into positions they don’t normally play. As you would expect, the game was rather ragged, with Carmel grabbing a 13–12 win, the difference being they were 1–2 on PATs while the Irish were 0–2.

My big takeaway was that you have to be a very patient person to coach freshmen. I reached out to a friend of mine who coached for a few years after he got out of college and his response was, “I am a very patient person. But coaching freshmen almost killed me.”

There were kids standing around on the sideline when they’re supposed to be in the game. Guys lining up in the wrong spots. Running the wrong plays. Players just flat fumbling the ball when no defender is within ten feet of them. Holding on every play. So many false starts or offsides calls.

Here’s a sequence that summed up the game: Cathedral had a beautiful drive that got them into the red zone late in the first half, fueled by about 65 yards of rushing by the quarterback. Then they had holding on four straight plays, a false start, and a personal foul. Next thing you know they are punting from their own side of the field and the punter lets the snap go right through his hands. Carmel covered, scored about four plays later, and hit what became the game-winning extra point.

Again, these were freshmen, mostly playing out of position or who don’t normally get into games, so I give them lots of leeway.

Since there weren’t a lot of people in the stands it was easy to hear the coaches. In warmups I heard one of them scream at one of L’s middle school classmates, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BEN RICHARDS?!?!”[2]

While the offense was running through their warm up sequence the head coach screamed at the quarterback who was indecisive on an option-read play “ACT LIKE A QUARTERBACK AND MAKE A PLAY!” Same kid who ran the play to perfection three times on that doomed drive in the game, so I guess he was paying attention.

My favorite coaching moment came in the fourth quarter. All the kids who are usually starters but being held out were acting like your normal, bored 14–15 year old kid. They were dancing, talking to people in the stands, and throwing balls on the sideline. In general not paying attention to the game.

The Irish forced a turnover with 4:00 left and were trying to drive down to take the lead and these kids were still throwing a ball around. It whizzed by a coach’s head. He turned around, intercepted the next toss, heaved it into the stands, and screamed at them, “THIS ISN’T FREAKING MIDDLE SCHOOL. KNOCK IT OFF AND PAY ATTENTION!”

I laughed out loud.

My other favorite part of the game was the mom who was sitting near me. Her kid was the quarterback. She was intense and involved, but I’m not sure she knew much about football. Every time he got tackled she would yell at the refs, “Hey! Get them off him!”

The very best moment, though, was when Cathedral got the ball down to the one yard line. Her son is probably 5’7”. She yelled down to him, “JUST JUMP OVER THEM!!”

I liked her enthusiasm but that seemed misguided. Fortunately he didn’t listen to her and snuck it in under the linemen. She made several other very unorthodox suggestions.

She also thought a PAT that was five yards short and wide was good. I just realized that she may have been drinking.

Anyway, I’m glad I was just there to watch casually and could laugh at all the silliness rather than get worked up by it.

  1. Fun fact: KU’s third and fourth string quarterbacks are both from the Indianapolis area!  ↩
  2. I’ve changed his name to protect his innocence.  ↩

Weekend Notes

August 28, 2023 /

Not the most exciting weekend of the year. I feel obligated to share the minor doings anyway, since that’s kind of our thing here.

HS Football

Number two Cathedral went west of town to Brownsburg, where they went 1–1 last year, to face the #5 Bulldogs. Last August CHS fell behind 21–0 before making a furious comeback that fell short, losing 42–35.

This year they started better – although they gave up an 80 yard TD pass on the first defensive possession of the game – and led 17–14 late in the second quarter.

But a BHS touchdown just before the half gave them the lead, they added 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, and won 45–31.

Not a great night for the Irish. The defense gave up too many big plays, the receivers dropped a lot of balls, and the quarterback threw two interceptions which made his over 400 yards of total offense kind of moot.

L went to the game. She said it was miserable. Like most games in the area, the start was pushed back to 7:30 to give the kids some break from the heat. Not sure it mattered all that much.

College Football

This week zero thing is dumb. If there are going to be games, there should be GAMES. Not the tease of Navy-Notre Dame and then a bunch of crap teams playing. Oh, I guess USC played, but since it was on the Pac–12 network no one saw it. Which explains why half of that conference is fleeing for other leagues.

I watched a chunk of the Notre Dame game. Gorgeous stadium in Dublin. Be nice if they painted the sidelines so they were visible. I wondered what the cost was to fly the football team, its support staff, and the entire band to Ireland and put them up for a few days. I’m sure NBC and Guinness handled some of those expenses.

My big takeaway from the game was questioning whether they had Irish people who know nothing about football operating the cameras. Multiple times after the snap, the main camera would follow a receiver who was racing down the field while the ball was still in the backfield. Weird and distracting. At least this wasn’t a close or important game.

Weather

We survived our week of heat. It ended up being less than intense than predicted, only because each morning was cloudy and breezy, and held the heat back a few hours. But each afternoon was pretty blistering, especially Thursday and Friday. I believe our heat index was near 120 both days. Turns out I’m glad I don’t have one-to-three girls playing kickball on asphalt parking lots this year. Our pool got as warm as 93°, which is right on the edge of miserable.

The heat broke Friday night, though, and Saturday and Sunday were terrific days for sitting around the pool. It was in the 80s Saturday, high 70s Sunday, and the humidity had faded by Sunday morning. As I type this Monday morning it is 58°. It looks like we have 4–5 days of super nice weather before the heat builds again next weekend.

Weekend Notes

August 21, 2023 /

Even down a kid, it was a pretty busy week. Although some of that activity was due to the missing kid.

Jinxed Myself

I mentioned in last week’s post that I was off the hook for driving to/from school for awhile. Well, not so fast…

C got rear-ended leaving campus by another student on Monday. No injuries, thankfully. Her car is still drivable, fortunately. But at some point it will go to the shop and stay there for a bit as it gets repaired, putting me back on the daily driving grind.

HS Football

Friday was opening week for high school football in Indiana. I took the girls downtown to watch Cathedral play in Lucas Oil Stadium against Lafayette Jefferson. It was a pretty easy 55–14 win for the #2 Irish. I didn’t think their offensive line looked very good, and there were some holes in the defense at times. But the skill players are very good.

It was a perfect night for football. The Colts were even nice enough to open the roof and window for the fans.

We’ll find out a lot more about how good the Irish are this week when they face Brownsburg, who beat them last August before CHS returned the favor in the regional round of the state playoffs.

Weather

Saturday was as nice a day as you could ask for. Sunday we finally got reminded that it is summer, and we have a fairly brutal week ahead of us. Right now it looks like we’ll top 100 at least once, although the heat index was already above 100 yesterday. Last night I walked outside around 11:30 to make sure everything was straightened up around the pool and it felt disgusting. Not sure how we managed to avoid the humidity for so long, but it made me appreciate how great this summer has been even more.

I won’t complain too much as I know a lot of my readers are facing way worse heat, and have been for some time.

New KU Stadium

Kansas finally revealed plans for the new football stadium. There have been so many false starts for a stadium renovation over the years that you always have to take these announcements with a grain of salt. But it seems like this time it’s really going to happen.

I loved the renderings the school released. Yeah, the lights look a little strange, but as long as they work I’m not sure why some people were so fired up about them. The current stadium is a dump and has been a dump for decades. Don’t let the little details get in the way of the big-picture end point of KU having a really nice stadium that is a good place to watch a game for the first time ever.

KU-Illinois

Pretty cool that the Jayhawks and Illini are taking their “secret” basketball scrimmage – I’m not sure why everyone calls them secret when we all know they are happening – public, moving it to Champaign, and using it as a way to raise money for the people in Maui. Savvy of Illinois to open up ticket sales to KU fans. I guess they think not enough U of I fans will show up just to boo Bill Self to fill the arena.

Brunch With Friends

We were delighted to have bunch Sunday with the Roeders from KC, who dropped their son off at Notre Dame over the weekend. I think all of my friends scattered around the country should send a kid to college in Indiana so we have an excuse to get together.

Rush Week

I’ve saved the biggest topic for last, with M participating in Rush Week at UC.

She gave us periodic updates throughout the week and it always seemed like it was going well. Each time there was a cut, she got called back by the maximum possible number of houses. We talked to her on Thursday, when it was down to five houses, and she told us she had really connected with a girl at one house who said she thought M embodied what their sorority was about. That was her clear #1 choice, but she also had a clear #2 followed by the other three that were a jumble together at the bottom.

Then the #1 house dropped her Saturday going into the final round, which really bummed her out. Her #2 kept her, but she wasn’t crazy about the other house that called her back for the last set of visits. What seemed like a pretty straight-forward week was suddenly very stressful. I’m sure it was more stressful for her being in the midst of it. As parents we were concerned that things wouldn’t work out and she would have a huge disappointment right before classes began.

Fortunately she got an offer from her new #1, Pi Phi. We talked to her Sunday afternoon and she was happy, although very tired and a little sick.

The Pi Phi house is pretty new at UC, only opening in 2010. I don’t know what that means for its quality. She doesn’t know any of the girls in her pledge class, which she thought was good. M’s roommate got into her first choice, and her high school buddy and her roommate both got into houses, so their little friend group all landed on their feet.

After she matched I did some searching to find pictures of the house, info about it, etc. I came across this site that listed the reputations and stereotypes of several of the biggest sororities. This clearly isn’t scientific and we found it hilarious. Pi Phis are said to be a top-tier house, but “fake, social, pretty, and not service-oriented.” That made me laugh. I sent it to her and her response was “Ur fake. And Mid.” Ok, then.

I haven’t told her yet that I knew a few Pi Phis at KU – where it was the oldest house on campus – and they were all super granola rich girls. Like girls who were wearing Birks and flannel before it was cool, but still drove BMWs. Not sure how she’ll take that. She better not expect a BMW.

M’s friends at IU and Miami don’t have rush until the spring semester. I kind of like that system, although having to walk to all the houses in the winter would suck. At least they have a semester to build up a group of relationships as something to fall back on if rush doesn’t work out. If you’re the one girl out of your group who doesn’t get into a house, it can still be awkward, so I guess there’s no perfect way or time to do rush.

Her first college class is at 11:15 today.

Weekend Notes

August 14, 2023 /

Lots of lasts and firsts over the past seven days. Let’s see if I can get through them all without getting too wordy or emotional.

First Week at CHS

L had her traditions orientation last Sunday evening and then a half-day schedule walk through on Wednesday before Cathedral began the school year on Thursday.

When we picked her up from the traditions orientation and asked how it went, her response was, “Fine. I have a new potential boyfriend.” Good grief. I believe she and this young man were up talking late into the evening the next night. A year ago this kid refused to wear contacts when she wasn’t playing basketball, had braces, and kept her hair pulled back at all times. Now she’s always in contacts, the braces are off and the teeth look good, and she is super proud of her curls. In fact when she got her schedule and saw that weight training is her first class of the day 3–4 days a week, so got upset because “my hair isn’t going to look good after weights.”

It was very odd for her and C to head off to CHS together without me being involved. I had a mental clock constantly ticking Thursday and Friday, making me think I had to be somewhere at a certain time. I imagine that clock will tick for a few weeks until my brain re-wires itself after 16 years of school year drop offs and pick ups. And right about the time I adjust, L will start basketball workouts either before or after school and I’ll start driving at least one way again.

Early last week M said to me, “You finally get to sleep in now!” I shook my head and said, “Uh, no I can’t!” and nodded at C, who started laughing. C is now the responsible sister for driving herself and her sister to school. She is also the hardest of our kids to wake up. Thus it will continue to be my job to make sure she gets out of bed. Since she parks in the junior lot, which is much more chaotic than the senior lot M parked in last year, she is leaving about 15 minutes earlier than they left last year.

Put all that together and I’ve been getting up in the 6:20–6:30 range through three days, compared to the 7:00 that was my standard wake time last year. Oh well. Allows me to knock out my blogging responsibilities sooner in the day. I’m sure all my friends who have had jobs their entire adult lives feel really bad for me not being able to sleep in every day.

You know what else is weird? This is the first time in nine years we don’t have any kickball practices/games when the new school year starts! Not sure what I’m going to do with myself with no games of any kind until mid-November.

Week of Lasts/Goodbyes

Lots of lasts for M over the past week. A week ago Sunday was her final time working on Sundays for her aunt who is a personal chef, a job she’s had for two years. C took over this weekend.

We had the in-laws over for dinner on Monday. M had a couple other dinners with either aunts or friends. Lots of friends dropped by to say goodbye, which meant plenty of tears. Friday her core group all stopped by to say goodbye together. We cracked up when her one friend, who is not emotional at all, came bouncing down the stairs with a smile on her face while the other four girls were all in tears.

Moving Day

Saturday was move-in day at UC. We rented a minivan, dropped all the seats, and filled it up, then had the back of S’s Jeep Cherokee full as well. Seemed like a lot of stuff to me. We also made C and L go with us. For the record I was against this, although they did help us get unloaded a little quicker than we could have done with just three people. After that they were just kind of in the way, but I guess it saved us having to do sister goodbyes at 7:30 AM.

It was raining in Indy when we left but we got ahead of the storms as we drove down. We were able to pull right up in front of M’s dorm and were almost completely unloaded before the rain hit Cincy. It was pretty gentle until after we had everything out of the cars and I had moved them to a parking garage, so none of us nor M’s stuff got soaked.

This was the early move-in day for people going through rush, who have other early commitments, or are local and just wanted to drop their stuff and go back home until the official move-in date. I can’t imagine what it will be like later this week when the bulk of the students show up. Seemed like there were a ton of people there already. Later in the day you couldn’t get anywhere close to M’s dorm and folks were hauling their stuff several blocks. So glad we were early and missed that.

You may recall M was not pleased when she got her dorm assignment. I told her to suck it up, living in a crappy dorm is part of being in college. But after seeing her room, I’m on her side. It’s not great. I swear it feels older and smaller than my old, small crappy dorm rooms from the early 90s. I’m not convinced it got a very good cleaning after its last occupants moved out. There are also very few electrical outlets, which seems weird for modern times. Hope the girls are careful with their extension cords.

You can see the basketball arena from her window, which is kind of cool. The Bearcats come to Lawrence this season, so KU may play there in the ’24–25 season, depending on how the new, new Big 12 schedule works out.

We arrived three hours before her roommate, so we had a chance to get M’s stuff in and organized on our own. We took off right after her roommate arrived so didn’t see first hand how they divided up the space. The pictures M sent us make it look like they got everything in and arranged ok. The roommate brought a rug, which might have been the best contribution of all.

Rush activities start Monday evening. I’m sure it’s going to be a stressful week for all those girls. I don’t know if M has any preferences. There is not a chapter for the house her mom was in at IU, so she can’t do the legacy thing. The greek system at UC is a little different than at your traditional state schools. Some houses don’t actually have physical houses, and others are quite a bit smaller than their sibling houses at IU or Purdue. I think at some houses you don’t move in until you are a junior. I don’t have my head around the details. I just hope she lands somewhere with good people that makes her happy. And I hope the next few days aren’t too rough on her. Classes begin on the 21st.

Between the rain, us being all sweaty and gross, and the emotions of saying goodbye, we didn’t take a single picture Saturday. I had to ask M to take a few so I have a record of her arrival at college. As of the time of this post, she hasn’t seen me any but promises to.

Oh yeah, the emotions. I wish someone would have warned me.

I kid. Everyone I know who has taken a kid to college warned me. I still wasn’t prepared for the wave that started to hit me while we were eating lunch, knowing that we would be leaving without her soon. Yikes. The goodbyes were hard and I was kind of a mess for a few hours afterward. Glad that L rode home with S, and C slept in the back of the van all the way home.

We’ve sent a kid off to college. Crazy.

Loaner

In addition to the minivan for the trip to Cincinnati, I am also driving a loaner from Audi again. The rear tailgate on my Q5 has failed for the third time, and it is taking a few days to get parts in.

The last time I got a loaner it was an A5, which was a lot of fun. How privileged of me was it to be disappointed when they gave me another Q5 this time? And the same trim level as mine? Mine has better (ventilated) seats but otherwise it is the same car, just newer and white. I did let M drive it Friday when she took me to pick up the minivan. I’ve never let her drive mine, so it was kind of a special treat before she went off to school.

Flory

Finally a big time Indiana recruit picks KU!

My Saturday sadness was balanced somewhat by the commitment of Kokomo’s Flory Bidunga to KU late in the evening. He is currently ranked as the #1 center and #5 player overall in his class. He is the highest-rated recruit to commit to the Jayhawks since Josh Jackson. By one measure he is behind only Jackson and Andrew Wiggins as the highest rated KU recruit ever. I would submit that there are at least three recruits who would be rated above him if modern recruiting rankings existed when they were seniors.[1]

I have been paying attention to him since last summer. He had just been in the US one year, and led his high school team to a surprising semi-state run in the state tournament as a sophomore. His summer team played Xavier Booker’s team, right after Xavier had been named the #1 player in his class. A local reporter was at the game and tweeted out updates. Bidunga just destroyed Booker that night. He had nine dunks and out-played the alleged best player in the country.

I didn’t expect KU to be in the mix – they never really have been with studs in Indiana – but I was hopeful.

Then this past spring there were rumors that Bidunga might reclassify and enroll at KU over the summer. Apparently he is tight with the Adidas folks and that promoted the rumors. Rumors he quickly quashed, insisting he was going to play his senior year and try to win a state championship.

However, KU seemed to be in the lead because of the Adidas connection. Until this July, when all the recruiting “experts” decided that Duke was his most likely destination.

When Flory announced he would be committing this week, there was another rush of predictions for Duke.

Until Friday when a bunch of those same experts flipped their predictions to Auburn. Which seemed…odd. But do you ever really know with teenagers and recruiting?

Then he picked KU, which made me wonder if people around him were intentionally giving bad intel to the recruiting gurus.

Just a good reminder that you should never read too much into these predictions. Bidunga was going to Duke, until he wasn’t. Mackenzie Mgbako was going to Kansas…until he picked Indiana. Don’t believe anything until you see the kid put on the hat.

As for Flory, he led his team to the state finals last year, where they lost to undefeated Ben Davis. He had 19 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks in the title game. He holds the unofficial Indiana records for most dunks in a game, 11, and most consecutive field goals made, 32. He’s only 6’8”–6’9” so it’s not like he’s Joel Embiid or Udoka Azubuike. He is a ridiculous athlete who has very good post fundamentals and tries to dunk everything. He doesn’t register as a one-and-done player because of his size and the lack of variety to his game right now, but Bill Self did tell him he could be as good as Embiid so, again, you never know.

The big bonus is he seems like a great kid. He is always smiling. He always plays hard. An IU friend of mine who has seen him play a bunch texted me saying, “He is going to be awesome in Bill Self’s system.” A reporter asked Flory Saturday what he would like KU fans to know about him. His response was that he is a good person who treats people well, and it would be great if people knew that.

Love this kid already!

I may have to attend a Kokomo high school game or two this year. Hopefully they come down to Indy a few times.

  1. Raef LaFrentz, who was generally #1 or #2 in his class, Danny Manning, and Wilt Chamberlain.  ↩

Sports Notes

August 8, 2023 /

After just a week it’s already time for some more sports notes.

Big 12/Realignment

I neglected to include a section about college realignment in last week’s post as it seemed like the next domino was close to falling. I was expecting medium-sized news, like the Big 12 adding one-to-three more PAC schools to complete its expansion. Little did I know the general landscape was so tenuous that it would quickly feel like 2011 again.

First, the Big 12 added Colorado as expected. Which Big 12 fans went nuts about. A lot of people pointed out that CU isn’t all that great of a get. The Buffs haven’t been very good for about 20 years, and have been only marginally better than Kansas over the past decade. Sure, they have Coach Prime coming in, but I don’t know if many people outside himself and their AD think he’s going to turn them into the CU of the 1990s again. In hoops, they’ve been solid since Tad Boyle took over, but have only won two NCAA tournament games in his tenure.

What got Big 12 fans excited was that the Big 12 was adding again rather than subtracting members. It was a nice bonus that the new school was one of those that fled in the initial exodus a decade ago. Also nice that Boulder is one of the best road trips in any conference.

Then, a week later, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah signed up for the Big 12. Or Big 16. Or whatever.

After over 10 years of being the conference that was constantly getting raided, the Big 12 actually seemed to be operating from a position of strength, now adding eight new schools over a couple years. And it, finally, seemed like a conference of true equals. Mostly similarly-sized schools, mostly public universities, all in the same ballpark in terms of athletic budgets and revenues. And everyone seems content, for now, that they are in the third most important conference that seems locked into its current structure for the time being. There’s no Texas throwing its considerable weight around and constantly whining when it doesn’t get its way. If the Big 10 decided they really wanted Kansas basketball, or a restructuring ACC went after West Virginia and UCF, it wouldn’t wreck the conference.

In the midst of all of that came the bigger earthquake: the Big 10 landed Oregon and Washington to grow to 18 schools. The PAC-whatever is dead, and the Big 10 has again raised the stakes in the arms war of realignment. Might the SEC try to match them, grabbing Florida State and Clemson? Would the Big 10 then swoop in for North Carolina and Duke to get to 20? Would the Big 12 follow by trying to snap up a couple stray ACC schools and/or UConn to get to 20 programs themselves?

I don’t think anyone really knows when this will end. For the moment, it’s nice that KU is in a semi-stable environment. Even if that stability may be illusory and temporary.

I’ve seen several people mention that eventually the most elite of the elite football programs are going to decide they don’t need to share their money and run off and make their own league and try to suck up as much for themselves as possible. Hopefully we have another 10 years or so of the new normal before we get to that point.

I just hope all this realignment nonsense stops some of the complaining in downtown Indy at the NCAA headquarters and from university administrators about players getting paid ruining college athletics. Amateurism has been dead in D1 sports for decades. The constant realignment churn of the past 15 years shows that the true powers that be in college sports care most about maximizing how much media revenue they can generate, not about any out-dated ideas of amateurism or about the rivalries and regionalism that make college sports special.

KU Hoops

I should have waited another week for my KU thoughts, too. I wrote that it seemed like the roster for the coming year had locked in, as rumors of adding an international player had faded. And then Australian Johnny Furphy, the kid who was generating the buzz in early July, surprised everyone by reclassifying back into the class of 2023 and committing to KU.

I’m a little suspicious about how much of an initial impact he will make. His highlight videos, while impressive, were often against smaller Australian or International competition. I’m not sure he’s going to be able to take two dribbles and smash on three defenders in the Big 12 as a freshman the way he did in his summer games.

He does have a very nice set of skills to work with. Bill Self called him a mix of Svi Mykhailiuk and Christian Braun. Which is kind of unfair on the kid, but also means if he can come close to that, he’s going to be a very nice, multi-year player for the Jayhawks. We’ll see. I think his biggest immediate contribution will be as another body on the roster, allow Zach Clemence to keep his redshirt status, and serve as a hedge in case Arterio Morris’ eligibility comes into jeopardy.

I watched most of KU’s three games in Puerto Rico over the weekend.[1] You can’t get too up or down about these summer games, and I won’t dive in too deep to my observations.

It was fun to see most of the new guys for the first time (Furphy has not yet joined the program). Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams already have amazing chemistry. They are going to be a problem for the Big 12.

Elmarko Jackson and Morris looked worthy of the hype they arrive with and bring an athleticism KU hasn’t had on the perimeter in a long time. They, DaJuan Harris, and Kevin McCullar were absolutely killing guys they were guarding at times. Add in a legit shot blocker behind them and the KU defense has a chance to be as good as the 2020 team’s.

And if anyone can consistently hit 3’s – an evergreen concern with KU – this team could be un-guardable.

On the negative side, McCullar and Harris don’t look like they’ve been shooting the 8000 3’s a day I think they should be shooting. Although Harris did hit three deep ones and scored 23 points on Monday.

These were games in August against older competition with weird rules.[2] What it all means is just speculation.

One of the highlights of the trip was playing against former Oklahoma All-American and current Indiana Pacer Buddy Hield. He only played two quarters Saturday and three on Monday, but was a great match-up for McCullar and Harris. Both guys ripped him a few times. Monday he hit two ridiculous 3’s with one of those guys draped all over him to turn a two point deficit into a four point lead at the end of the third quarter.

Best of all, though, was when he came over and talked to the KU radio crew during the third quarter Saturday.

He spoke about his recruiting process, and how Self had told him if he came to KU he might not play right away. He said he respected that, since other coaches weren’t as honest with him, and understood it since “you never really know how kids are going to turn out.” But when asked if he ever lets Self know he made a mistake, he responded, “I don’t have to say anything. He knows.” Hilarious.

When asked about having to play against Kevin McCullar he said something like, “Yeah, he’s nice. He plays hard. He talks a lot of shit.”

Broadcaster Brian Hanni immediately jumped in, “I’m not sure we can say that on the radio.”

Buddy immediately looked chagrined and apologized, and did so again at the end of the segment, “Sorry about the curse word.” I was rolling. Buddy is the best.

Finally, when Bahamas made a little run and forced a KU timeout, he started yelling at Self, who was about 10 feet away, “We coming, Self! We coming!”

It was a pretty good five or so minutes of radio.

I found it odd that Washington Township native and North Central High School graduate Eric Gordon was playing for the Bahamas.[3] I mean I get it: his mom is from there so he is eligible according to how the rules are these days. What I didn’t get, though, was that he has played for the United States in international competition before. I thought you had to officially change citizenship to be able to swap teams. I guess I was wrong. Or no one really cares about a 30-something NBA role player.

The Bahamas has a stacked roster. There’s Buddy and Gordon, Klay Thompson and his brother will apparently play for them in next week’s Olympic qualifying tournament. Former Texas player Kai Jones is on the roster but did not play against KU. Most of the rest of their roster played D1 ball in the States. And then there’s former NBA #1 draft pick DeAndre Ayton. The Bahamas insisted he would play this weekend. He sat out Saturday’s game but told KU he would play on Monday. When Monday rolled around he worked out for an hour before the game then disappeared when the game began, strolling to the bench in street clothes and sunglasses midway through the first quarter.

How NBA guys handle these exhibitions is always strange. The games don’t mean anything to them, and with Olympic qualifying ahead, they are glorified scrimmages for them. Often their NBA teams will place minutes restrictions on them, and the Pacers seemed to do with Buddy.

Ayton being weird was no real surprise, though. I am not sad that the Suns matched the Pacers’ offer sheet for him a year ago.

I saw Buddy and Gordon have long moments with the KU coaches and players after each game. They would often tap the KU guys on the shoulder or side as they walked past during dead balls. I didn’t see a ton of interaction from Ayton, although Hunter Dickinson was notably bigger than him when they shook hands. If you know your college basketball recruiting history, you know that Ayton and KU once seemed like a sure thing, until Arizona and Nike beat what KU and Adidas were offering. Allegedly.

USWNT/World Cup

Well, it sure looks dumb to have all these ads with the US Women’s National Team members running in high volume during prime time when the team could only muster four goals in four games and lost their opening knock-out game.

I did not wake up to watch the loss to Sweden, which proved to be a wise decision.

I’ve chosen really poorly this tournament. Every game I’ve watched has been pretty boring. And then I’ll check a micoblogging social media site formerly represented by a blue bird and learn a game I did not watch was bananas.

Royals

Hey, they ran their winning streak up to seven games! Of course they’ve lost three-straight since then. Kind of crazy a team that hadn’t won three-consecutive contests all year turned their first winning streak into the franchise’s longest since 2017.

  1. Props to KU for coming up with a way, last minute, to show the games. The single cam on the sideline wasn’t perfect, but was better than a lot of high school single-cam streams I’ve watched.  ↩
  2. It was clear in the two Bahamas games that the refs were making calls late to keep the games close. KU got dinged in for a few bad calls in the game they won Saturday, and benefited from a couple terrible calls when they were losing Monday. Self seemed surprised by the calls, but perhaps international refs try to make the end of exhibitions more interesting, or give coaches a chance to practice more late game stuff.  ↩
  3. If you don’t know your Indy geography, and why would most of you, we live in Washington Township and North Central is one block from our house. Pretty far from the Bahamas.  ↩

Sports Notes

August 1, 2023 /

I’ve stacked up a lot of sports thoughts over the past several weeks. Let’s dive in and see how long it takes to get through them.

Tour de France

After watching the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained in June, I was all-in for this year’s tour, even ponying up for Peacock for the month to watch.[1] It was like the good (bad) old days watching Lance Armstrong as I turned the race on first thing every morning and tracked the day’s progress.

This year’s race was awesome. Week one was incredible, with all kinds of cool attacks and finishes until Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, combined winners of the last three Tours, took over. The duo battled across France and stayed within seconds of each other into the final week, until Vingegaard won a convincing victory in stage 16’s individual time trial. The next day he blew the race open in the Alps. What had been a nine second lead exploded to over seven minutes. It was a remarkable two days to earn a deserved second-straight Tour win.

I had a few sources for reading about each day’s stages, one of them The Guardian. Which, being The Guardian, threw aspersions towards any biker who performed particularly well. Vingegaard got the worst of it as he took over the race. Who knows if the speculation is accurate or not. His team noted how many times his blood was tested over the month, an argument we’ve heard before. I just found it interesting it was NEVER discussed on the TV broadcast.

It also drove me nuts that the announcers, the same main two guys as back in Lance’s prime, have the same quirks they had 20 years ago. They’re looking at the same footage we are watching, and somehow almost always misread biker’s body language. Multiple times they suggested someone was in great shape, only to get dropped moments later, or that someone was struggling only for them to surge away from their rivals. And they love to speculate, with like 80 kilometers to race, that some guy with a minute lead “surely has this stage won.” I blame Europeans and their strange ways of covering sports.

KU Hoops

I’ve never followed up on my May thoughts, after Hunter Dickinson committed. It’s been a busy summer.
Both Zuby Ejiofor and Ernest Udeh transferred out, which really, really sucked. I totally understand why they left, and that is the big downside to adding a massive transfer in like Dickinson. I wish Bill Self could have talked at least one of them into staying. Udeh ending up at TCU was a real bummer, but better than Kansas State, which was one of his other options.
Kevin McCullar decided to come back, which was huge.
Christian Braun’s brother transferred in, giving KU another body in the front court.
Zach Clemence, who had said he was transferring to UCSB, changed his mind and announced he was returning and would redshirt.
Incoming freshman Chris Johnson saw the roster crunch in the backcourt and decided to de-commit and go to Texas.
Then, after a couple weeks of summer school, fellow freshman Marcus Adams decided Lawrence was “too country” for him and bailed, burning his free transfer in the process, for Gonzaga.

Suddenly a super-deep roster was kind of thin. There were rumors KU might grab an international player who could come in and play this year, but those rumors have faded. There could still be a grad transfer to add, but it looks like KU might roll into the season with just nine eligible players, assuming Clemence sticks with redshirting. Self normally only plays 7–8, but all it takes is a couple tweaked ankles or the flu running through the locker room for the bench to get shallow real quick.

The Jayhawks go to Puerto Rico this week to play a few games, two of which are against the Bahamas national team and could include several NBA players. Just need no one to get hurt…[2]

Pacers

Man, the Pacers had a nice summer. They made smart draft picks to start. Then they signed Bruce Brown. During the NBA Finals I knew someone would overpay him after his great performance, and I was bummed when it was the Pacers.

However, while his contract was reported as two years, it is basically a one-year deal that the Pacers can get out of if he doesn’t perform this year, or re-sign him on better terms for each side next year if he has a good season. A savvy, win-win signing.

Then they traded for Obi Toppin, which seems like an awesome move. He was always forced to play out of position in New York, and seems like a perfect match for Tyrese Haliburton. The duo showed up at a local pro-am league last week and combined for approximately 800 alley-oops. Toppin has vibes of the classic guy who needs a change of scenery to finally capitalize on his potential. I don’t think he’s going to be a superstar, but he fits what the Pacers are trying to do.

They still need to massage the roster a bit, the young guys need to develop, and Haliburton and Myles Turned need to stay healthy. But they could be one of the most fun teams in the league next year, and should battle for a playoff spot.

Royals

Props to the R’s! They won their last three games of July, giving them their first three-game winning streak of the season. No one keeps the Royals from winning three consecutive games for four months!

Colts

The team didn’t even get to training camp before drama popped up. Jonathan Taylor was part of a group of running backs around the league who met virtually to discuss how their position gets screwed by the current collective bargaining agreement. Then he suddenly was placed on the PUP list when camp opened. Two days later he requested a trade. This from the guy who has been the epitome of how you want a player to behave, and kept insisting he wanted to play his entire career in Indy.

I totally get where he, and his fellow RBs are coming from. Only kickers are compensated less under the franchise tags since the NFL has decided that running backs are basically interchangeable and dispensable. But that’s an argument they need to aim at their own union, not at ownership that is following the agreed upon rules.[3] And I also understand Taylor’s specific fears. He was hurt last year and had off-season surgery designed to keep his ankle healthy. The Colts drafted a dual threat QB who is going to be given the keys to the offense soon enough, which will cut down on Taylor’s carries, yards, and touchdowns. If he doesn’t get his money now, he might not get it next off season.

The Colts don’t seem inclined to move him; I wonder if they’ll have the guts not to play him. Regardless of cause and odds of resolution, it’s not a great way to begin the season. Especially when his prime backup broke his arm in practice on Monday.

Oh, and I read this morning that the Colts have dropped hints that Taylor also hurt his back over the summer working out on his own, a claim Taylor angrily denied. We’ve moved beyond ugly and are pushing irreparable.

USWNT/World Cup

Ooof. I was not up at 3:00 AM today to watch the US women’s national team’s final group stage game against Portugal. Pretty glad I did not set an alarm. The outcome could have been worse, but not much. A team that has looked sluggish through their first two games failed to score and had to rely on Portugal hitting the post in stoppage time to advance to the knockout stage.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski has faced a lot of criticism for how he’s constructed the team and how they played in the run-up to the tournament. I haven’t watched enough nor know enough about high-level soccer tactics to be able to critique his choices. At some point, though, the most talented team in the world, filled with both veterans who own two World Cup titles and some of the brightest young stars in the world, have to take responsibility for their play. Even if Andonovski has made terrible tactical choices, they should be good enough to overcome his errors.

I guess the only good thing about the team’s subpar performance is that so few Americans can watch it because of the time difference.

  1. Strangely convenient how our free access to Peacock thanks to being Xfinity customers expired the day before the race began.  ↩
  2. Jinx. You read it here first.  ↩
  3. Note is, as it may be a first: me siding with ownership over labor.  ↩

Weekend Notes

July 5, 2023 /

A lot to get caught up on after a long holiday weekend.

July 4th

Our standard family pool party for the Fourth of July. Almost all the locals were over for a daytime gathering. I smoked rather than grilled burgers for the first time and they turned out pretty good. All the young ones were well behaved, and it seems like both generations of sisters got along for the day, too.

We had neighbors over for drinks in the evening after the family had cleared out. No driveway fireworks this year.

Kid Hoops

Thursday was the last night of summer league games. CHS played a team they lost to by six earlier in June, and both coaches agreed to stack their rosters so that it was a true A game. Which got L excited.

She played pretty well in an eight-point loss. She hit a shot right before halftime to give us a 20–19 lead. But we were on the wrong side of a 9–2 run to start the third quarter that was pretty much the game. L was not on the court for any of that run. When she played, it was an even ballgame. When she sat, our offense bogged down and the defense was disconnected.

She scored six for the night on 3–4 shooting, and had a rebound, an assist, a steal, and a turnover.

She wasn’t super pleased with her play afterward, but I told her about my rough +/- numbers and how I saw her affect the game. There are definitely girls better than her on the team. There are girls with more potential or who are better than her in individual aspects of the game. But of the girls in the 20-ish player pool the JV teams pulled from this summer, no one organizes the game better than her.

Her first summer of high school hoops was a success. She fit in, she got more confident as the season progressed, was high scorer in at least two games, earned the coaches’ trust, and most importantly, she made some new, good friends. I’m excited to see how she improves once fall practice kicks off.

Not much rest for her. The travel team goes to St. Louis Friday for a tournament.

Over the weekend we went to the Y to shoot three times. She came up with a new workout that required her to make 300 shots. Mid-range, floaters, and 3’s. Off-the-catch and off-the-dribble. Lots of free throws. It took roughly an hour to get through it each day. I worked up a good sweat rebounding and passing.

Weather/Power

What a weird weather week.

We began with a terrible bout with the Canadian wild fire smoke. A couple times we had the worst air quality of any city in the US. Wednesday morning we were up to #2 in the world. Never say that Indianapolis can’t compete on the world stage!

It was much worse than our first run with the smoke a month ago. Two days the sky resembled the winter sky right before a big snow storm. Those days we couldn’t even see the sun, let alone take eerie pictures of its light refracted by the smoke. There was also a strange, metallic smell to the air.

Then Thursday a Derecho storm blew through with winds over 70 MPH. Our power went off at 3:57 and did not come back on until 3:00 Saturday afternoon. We filled up coolers with ice and transported our important items from the freezer to a relative’s home, but lost pretty much everything else from our fridges and freezers. S said it was time to replace a lot of our condiments anyway. Our house got pretty toasty each afternoon, but at least our basement remained cool. It was completely comfortable sleeping down there.

At one point nearly 80,000 people in Indianapolis were without power. I was obsessively checking the outage map and watched it slowly tick down a few thousand at a time, only for it to shoot back up after more, if less intense, storms came through both Friday night and Saturday morning.

When our power came back on there were still around 20,000 people in the city without power. I think most of them were back up and running by Sunday evening.

We had zero damage at our house. The neighbors to either side of us kept their power. It was just a thin row of 7–8 houses behind us that all come off the same line that got knocked out. Obviously the big downside of living in an area with tons of old trees and old power lines.

The big surprise was that our pool survived without turning bad. I was worried that sitting in the heat, covered, with zero circulation or filtration would be a recipe for stuff to grow quickly. It has turned cloudy in less time before. But Saturday night it was clear and tested out fine. I shocked it and ran the pump a little higher than normal and it was fine to swim in on Sunday.

In a related note, our refrigerators are very clean and organized.

Taylor Swift

I mentioned in Friday’s playlist that M was off to Cincy to watch Taylor Swift perform. She said the show was awesome.

M just got her tickets a week before the show. She received a text saying that some new tickets had been released. She was worried it was a scam, but noticed the message came from the same number her other Ticketmaster texts came from, so she decided to quickly buy two tickets and hope they were legit. She messaged some friends and they asked if she could try to get two more. The link indeed worked again so she bought four total tickets at face value 10 days before the show. She checked the secondary market and seats in her section were going for more than $2000. Pretty crazy. She was in the lower level in the Bengals stadium, with a great view of the main stage.

The grandparents of one of the friends that went with her live in Cincy, so the girls stayed at their house. The grandfather also met them near the stadium so M could park in a good spot hours before the show, took them to his house to drop their stuff, then back to the stadium. She’s living right these days.

Just a nice bonus this trip allowed her to miss out on about 24 hours of our power outage.

Football Recruiting

I will not address KU football recruiting until December.

Home States

Finally, not only did I just pass my 20th wedding anniversary and my 20th blogging anniversary, but also marked my 20th year living in Indiana. A few years ago I went through the exercise of figuring out how long I spent in each of the four states I lived in.

That was harder than you would think because of the college years, splitting time between two states. I decided to give Kansas ¾ credit for my first three years at KU, then full credit for the last couple after I gained residency and stayed there most of the summers. I’m not sure if that works out exactly right, but it seemed close and fair.

Anyway, my 20th year in Indiana means I’ve officially lived here longer than any other state. That still doesn’t sound right. My current tally looks like this:

Indiana 20 years
Missouri 19 years
Kansas 12 years
California 1 year

Jayhawk Talk: Big Dick(inson) Energy

May 5, 2023 /

The biggest signing in the history of the transfer portal (for now) requires a quick, emergency Jayhawk Talk.

Thursday former Michigan big man Hunter Dickinson announced he will transfer to KU. That news immediately vaulted KU from a top 15-ish squad to a legit national title contender next season.

I’ll get into the weeds on this later – there is expected to be more roster news soon – so for now I’ll focus on the three transfer players we know will be joining the Jayhawks next year.

Dickinson gives Bill Self the most complete big man he’s ever had. One who has a devastating low post game to either shoulder, who can be deadly in screen-and-roll/screen-and-pop sets, and who can step out and hit 3’s. He’s not a great defender but he isn’t a pushover on that end of the court.

He won’t be as physically dominant as Udoka Azubuike, have as much potential as NBA MVP Joel Embiid, be a defensive stopper like Landon Lucas or Jeff Withey, or play as athletically at Thomas Robinson.

Put his whole game together with the players that should be around him, and there is a great chance he will end up as productive and impactful as any of those past Jayhawks.

Adding Nicolas Timberlake as a poor (and shorter) man’s Gradey Dick and Arterio Morris as a freakish athlete who can also shoot it to two returning players who are lock-down defenders and great passers in DaJuan Harris and KJ Adams, and KU’s top five look super strong. Throw in a McDonald’s All American in Elmarko Jackson, another high school stud in Marcus Adams, and perhaps one more new body and Self has a fantastic top eight.

And that’s without factoring in either Ernest Udeh or Zuby Ejiofor, one of which should probably be back to provide inside depth.

Dickinson is the crown jewel, though. It felt a little icky watching the process, as no one hid the fact he was not just looking for the best basketball fit but also the best financial fit. I like my team being good, and they are in a position to have a ton of success in this new system, so I’m not going to knock it too much. I will fully accept and understand the viewpoint that it sucks, though.

Funny how every spring when KU fans are moaning about next year’s team, Self almost always finds a way to make his teams better. I’ll get into that a little more in next week’s post, too.

For now, though: Rock Chalk, bitches.

College Hoops Notes

April 6, 2023 /

Let’s wrap up the college basketball season.

Jayhawk Talk

Bill Self finally appeared before the media on Wednesday, his first interaction with the press since before his heart episode nearly a month ago.

He looked and sounded great.

In his recorded interviews with Greg Gurley during the NCAA tournament he always seemed half a step slow, either verbally, mentally, or both. Naturally this led to rumors that he had suffered a stroke.

Maybe he did have a stroke; that didn’t come up at the press conference. I think more likely that was just the meds in his system and some general weariness from what he was going through.

Anyway, he seemed like the same old Bill Self Wednesday. He confirmed he will be coaching next year. It should be no surprise that there were rumors as soon as the press conference was announced on Monday that he would be announcing his retirement. I don’t think that’s a modern age thing at all. Those rumors would have popped up if this was 1973. They just spread faster now.

Self has always been great with the press and he certainly was that Wednesday. KU fans should be excited that he said the time away from the court made him realize he doesn’t want to not coach. My assumption is that means he’ll coach as long as he has the hunger for it and his body allows him to do it.

He alluded to lifestyle changes he needed to make to stay healthy. That need has been obvious for a few years. I think he really enjoyed last summer especially, coming off a national championship. That may be the real reason he stuck with the casual wear last year, as the quarter zips hide an expansive midsection better than a suit can.[1] Wednesday he looked like he’s already lost a few pounds, which is a good start.

Hopefully he is completely healthy and recovered, or at least well on that path. And hopefully his body is ready to handle the stresses of the season again when November rolls around. For the time being I think KU fans can rest easier that we’re not going to have to find a new coach right away.

As for the team, I hadn’t really thought about it until Self said this, but there are only four returning players with playing experience. While the four incoming freshmen are all highly rated, he pointed out that there are a lot of holes to fill.

There’s a chance Kevin McCullar could return. That would probably be the smartest move for him, but it seems like he’s ready to take whatever the pro game has to offer him.

I’ve been monitoring the players in the transfer portal and have been amused/bemused by how many of the best players are bad matches for KU. There are a bunch of little guys who can score. I’m not sure Self would be thrilled to throw a guy smaller than DaJuan Harris next to him in the backcourt, no matter how well that kid can shoot it. And especially if that kid can’t play solid D. A couple of the most talented players are either terrible shooters or highly inefficient shooters, also not what KU needs. Inside, do you take an established big and limit Ernest Udeh’s minutes/development?

I know Self always wants to win in the moment. Next year’s schedule is the usual monster, though.[2] I would suggest this might be a transfer season where he should look to add depth rather than plug-in starters. Roll with the returning players and freshmen while finding one or two depth guys who have experience and can fill holes capably but won’t demand 30 minutes a game of PT.

Once the roster shakes out, I’ll probably have a final Jayhawk Talk entry for the season.

Women’s Final Four

This was awesome, way better than the men’s final weekend. L and I both got swept up in Caitlin Clark fever. Unless you rooted for a team Iowa was playing, how could you not? This might have been the first time I’ve ever wanted Iowa to win at anything. Not sure why, but I’ve always had a strong, irrational dislike of the school’s teams.

Shame the Hawkeyes ran out of steam in the championship game. All props to LSU for a ridiculous performance to grab the title. That reminded me of 2018 Villanova, at least in the title game. The Tigers refused to miss.

When I watch women’s hoops I’m always noting the differences between it and the men’s game. I think one thing that made Clark so popular was how she plays with a flair, edge, and abandon that we expect more from men than women. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more girls pull up from 10 feet behind the 3-point line this travel season.

Which brings us to Clark’s interactions with LSU’s Angel Reese at the end of the title game. Reese was IN CLARK’S FACE for the final 20 seconds or so, flashing all the signs that Clark has flashed all year and pointing at her ring finger. It was a little much, so I was not surprised that people went way over the top in reacting.

Clark brought that on herself. She didn’t seem super upset about it afterward, so props to her for being able to take it after dishing it. I think Reese played the disrespect card a little too hard, but don’t have much of a problem for throwing something Clark did back at her.

I just wish it had been a little so direct. Flat out, if that happened in a mens game there would have been a fight. Do it with your teammates, to your fans, to the cameras. You never need to get in someone’s face the way Reese did with Clark, though.

Did LSU just run over and grab the trophy? That’s kind of awesome. I’m used to the men’s game where there’s a whole 10–15 minutes of celebration before the formal presentation of the trophy. I swear LSU had the trophy 8.5 seconds after the final horn sounded.

Hey, here’s a hot take: those referees in the championship game sucked big time. Just a disastrous performance. The technical on Clark was the capper on a very, very bad day. Yes, let’s put the player more people have tuned in to watch than any other game in the history of women’s basketball on the bench because she was a little petulant during a dead ball. Meanwhile ignore the opposing coach acting like a complete lunatic the entire game and her best player violating every rule of taunting in the books without getting T’d up.

Pretty much every other call in the game sucked, too.

I know America was obsessed with Kim Malkey’s outrageous wardrobe. I have a friend who covered Malkey during her Baylor days. That friend’s assessment: Malkey is not a good person. After doing some reading, I am inclined to agree.

Men’s Tourney

Didn’t watch a second of the Final Four. UConn winning was the easiest bet in the history of the game. It is just ridiculous that program, which for a long stretch of the ‘90s was maybe the most hard-luck program in the sport, is now 5–0 in championship games over a 25 year span. I read that they’ve won 20% of the titles since 1998, and also missed 30% of the tournaments over the same span. That is a weird-ass quarter century.

Yes, I am a little bitter than UConn took just one year to jump past KU again in all time NCAA titles. Especially bitter one of those titles came in a year when the entire tournament opened up for KU and we couldn’t get past VC-fucking-U. KU would have killed UConn in the 2011 title game… We still have those mythical Helms titles, though!

In better news I won one of my pools, tied for first in my other. Turns out if you do really well in the opening weekend and everyone gets wiped out in the Sweet 16/Elite 8, you can win. I should write a book about my strategy. Not sure of my payouts yet but I’m already looking at dumb ways to blow the dough.

I finished fourth of six in my fantasy league. Dylan Disu’s injury killed my team as much as any upset did. If he doesn’t get hurt, I likely finish second. Just another way Texas has somehow screwed me in March.

  1. Like most KU fans I’m still angry that Adidas refuses to sell the gear the coaches have worn the past two years. As the kids say, they are straight 🔥🔥🔥. I guess Adidas hates making money.  ↩
  2. Later in the day it was announced that UConn will visit Lawrence next season. That is in addition to a game against Kentucky to begin the season; a visit to Bloomington, IN; Mizzou in Kansas City; and a Maui Classic that features Gonzaga, Purdue, Marquette, UCLA, Tennessee, and Syracuse. I can understand Self not wanting to play a bunch of freshmen against that schedule.  ↩
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