D's Notebook

Tag: Kansas Jayhawks (Page 2 of 27)

Belated Weekend Notes

January 30, 2024 /

I’m still battling a cold. It’s one of those shitty ones that isn’t crazy bad during the day, more annoying than debilitating. But at night between the coughing and sneezing and body aches manages to keep me from sleeping. Each of the last two nights I’ve given up and gone into M’s room to toss and turn so I don’t keep S awake with my nonsense. She did the same thing last week when she had the same cold. Remind me to wash M’s sheets before her next visit home so she doesn’t have to sleep in her parents’ dried snot.

Jayhawk Talk

Another week, another road loss. And another one that KU had every opportunity to win. Other than Johnny Furphy, they shot poorly from outside. They missed some layups and blew some opportunities on the break. They had some huge turnovers in important spots. Yet they scored 75 points on 45% shooting on the road against a top five defense, so I’m not sure you can criticize the offense too much.

Once again a team shot out of their minds against the Kansas defense. Iowa State hit their most 3 pointers in a Big 12 game in five years. Coincidentally it was the most 3 pointers KU has given up in a conference game in five years.

Is that flukey/unsustainable or a flaw in the system? After the game Bill Self said they wanted to sag off certain shooters, specifically Tre King who had only hit three 3s all year. Naturally he went 4–7.

I put this loss directly on Self, and not just because of his defensive choices. He decided to go for a 2-for–1 opportunity late in the first half when KU led by one. KU’s offense had been struggling so I don’t know why you decide to suddenly speed things up to force a shot, just so you can maybe get two shots. Dajuan Harris went entirely too fast, turned the ball over, which became a run-out for Iowa State and resulted in a flagrant foul on Parker Braun after a review. For some reason Self decided to argue the point and got hit with a technical. Fortunately ISU only hit 2–4 free throws, but then hit a 3 to end the half and went into the locker room up four. It felt like that 3 opened up the floodgates for the Cyclones in the second half, when they countered every KU run with a big 3. The 3 wasn’t Self’s fault, but getting the T in that moment was dumb (mostly because the flagrant foul call was 100% correct) and he was lucky the deficit wasn’t six. Coaches preach knowing time and score to their players. It felt like Self needed to look at the scoreboard before he got that T.

While the details kind of hid it, I think this game clearly showed how it is the defensive side that is holding the Jayhawks back. Self’s system has always been to take away drives rather than 3s. He’s had to lean on that more this year partially because of Hunter Dickinson’s immobility inside. I also think KU’s three best defenders – Kevin McCullar, Dajuan Harris, and KJ Adams – all play solid D, but they don’t make the other team feel them. Watch KU’s defense then watch a Houston game and you’ll see a dramatic difference. KU gets to spots and tries to force passes. All five Houston players get in their man’s jersey and don’t stop until there’s a whistle. It is a grinding, exhausting experience to play against Houston. Against KU I think teams always know if they move the ball enough, there will be a lapse that leads to an open shot. Because of that, they play with confidence rather than fear.

I think some of that is related to KU’s short bench. The five starters can’t play at 100% intensity on defense because they rarely come out of the game and need to save something for the other end.

With Furphy’s rapid ascension into the team’s best shooter, that fixes some of the offensive issues this team has. Elmarko Jackson, Nic Timberlake, and Braun might better serve the team by figuring out how to guard people than score the ball. Jackson specifically had a rough time Saturday, getting lost on that ISU 3 right before halftime then getting beat and fouling his man on a backdoor cut when KU was making a run late.

Seven games into the conference season the Jayhawks sit at 4–3. I don’t think it’s time to panic. I do think, though, that the team is going to regret not taking advantage of this part of the schedule. After tonight’s game against Oklahoma State, there are no easy ones left. KU might play significantly better in the back half of the schedule and still drop 3–4 games.

BTW, I forgot how much I hate unbalanced schedules. I know this is a weird year where the conference transitioned from 10 teams to 14 before going to 16 next year. It does not feel right that KU and Iowa State won’t play again in Lawrence.

NFL Conference Championship Games

I didn’t get to see much of the Chiefs-Ravens game, but I guess those of us who doubted the Chiefs should have known better. A dominant defensive performance while the offense did just enough to win on the road. I should have known that a team that lost to the Colts on their home field wasn’t good enough to win the AFC championship game on the same field.

I watched almost all of the Lions-Niners game, which was a wild, exhilarating experience. A huge first run by the Lions put them on the verge of their first ever Super Bowl, only to end in an epic collapse.

In the moment I was pretty critical of Dan Campbell’s decisions to go for it on fourth down in the second half. But knowing that was their MO all year and their kicker’s numbers fall in the shaky zone where I’m not sure you totally trust him in the playoffs, I’m more comfortable with them after the fact.

Besides, the Lions dropped passes and flukey-as-hell Brandon Aiyuk reception that bounced off the Lions’ defender’s face mask were bigger factors in the loss.

The anti-analytics folks love to make those choices THE factors when a team loses a winnable game. In this case you can’t bitch about Campbell’s calls without acknowledging the Niners benefited from one of the craziest plays in NFL playoff history, and Lions receivers dropped three balls that were in their hands and would have extended drives. Change one or two of those plays and it doesn’t matter whether the Lions still go for it and fail or miss field goals.

I’m not all-in on analytics. I think they need to be applied within the context of each game rather than be viewed as definitive guides. And I will generally a trust a coach like Campbell, who has a clear philosophy on their use and is consistent in their application.

Sucks for the Lions, though. They are young and can get better, but you just never know how long these windows will be open.

Which, flipping this back to the first game, makes Baltimore’s loss even worse. They had home field, a dominant defense, an offense that was as good as it has been in the Lamar Jackson era and couldn’t get it done. All in a year when the Chiefs were, relatively speaking, down. When Joe Burrow was injured. You expect the Chiefs to be back in the mix for home field next year, Burrow to be healthy, maybe the Bills will finally plug their holes, and Houston has a ton of money to build around CJ Stroud with. This might have been the Ravens best chance at a Super Bowl in the Jackson era.

Early thoughts on the Super Bowl? They’ve made it this far so I can’t doubt the Chiefs.

I guess anyone who watched football on Fox this year has to have an opinion about the seeming inevitable bumping of Greg Olsen from the #1 analyst spot for Tom Brady next season.

I’m in line with main-line opinion that Olsen is terrific and it’s a real bummer that he will lose his spot because Fox owes Brady so much money. Unlike some folks, I still enjoy Tony Romo, although he can be a little much. I described Olsen as similar to Romo except where Romo sometimes comes off as overly impressed with himself or excited to show how smart he is, Olsen seems excited to share his knowledge. Romo can grate because he is a lot to deal with. Olsen is a joy to listen to break down the games.

Maybe Tom Brady is going to be awesome. There is some evidence that if he relaxes and is willing to be critical, he could be a good addition. It’s just a bummer that Olsen was basically a place holder and will no longer get to do the biggest games. Hopefully he lands in a spot where we get to hear him each week.

Jayhawk Talk: Here’s Johnny!

January 23, 2024 /

Fans can be overly dramatic about tiny moments in a long season, both good and bad. Keep that in mind when I tell you that Johnny Furphy has saved KU’s season.

He certainly saved the game Monday against Cincinnati, the only KU player who seemed to be locked in and engaged for every minute he was on the court. He had a career-high 23 points on 7–8 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds (also a career high), kept several other balls alive until teammates could grab them, and hit the biggest shot of the night, a 3 as the shot clock expired to put KU up 10 with about four minutes to play in what ended up as a five-point win.

Crazy that a kid I doubt any KU fan knew about and wasn’t on anyone’s recruiting radar for the current season until late in July has become exactly the piece the Bill Self was looking for to fill the gaping hole in his lineup.

Furphy is a freshman, so there will be regression as defenses focus on him. He can get bullied on the defensive end because of his slight build. He’s not going to continue to average 17 & 8. However, the threat he presents can open up space for his teammates and he is long enough that he can still be disruptive on defense and on the boards even when physically overmatched.

Despite Johnny’s emergence, this team remains maddening.

Monday both Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar seemed to be laboring with their mysterious “knee issues.” It didn’t help that for the first time this year Dickinson was in foul trouble. KJ Adams also seemed off. Since it is January, I wondered if those three were all sick, as their energy levels seemed lower than normal. More likely it’s just that they are asked to play 35+ minutes a night and are already getting worn down with seven weeks of Big 12 basketball in front of them.

Sigh.

The most concerning performance of the night, though, was Dajuan Harris’. He missed two wide-open layups. Three of his turnovers were brain-dead mistakes, throwing the ball directly to a UC player. Plus he forgot to catch a pass from Furphy that hit him in the hands. Dajuan has always been polarizing simply because there are nights where his shit doesn’t work, generally against more physical opponents. Yet there are also games when he punishes bigger, faster, stronger players. You would think by year five of a player’s career those lows wouldn’t be as low, even if we’ve accepted his highs can only be so high. He’s been in a bit of a funk all year.

Self defends Harris, saying that sometimes when you are trying a little harder to share the ball, you are also going to turn it over more. I don’t buy that. Harris was always hyper efficient. He might have Meh games, but rarely was he guilty of the unforced errors he’s been routinely making this year.

I don’t have an explanation, and thus no solution. He needs to get his shit together, since this team has a very narrow margin of error each night. A steady, boring point guard will be just fine.

Monday’s game was entirely too close. Cincinnati did not play well – mostly a function of KU’s defense – but the Jayhawks could not shake them. If you take away all those unforced errors by Harris, and 80%+ free throw shooter McCullar missing four freebies, the final margin is much more comfortable. There aren’t many opportunities for comfy wins in the Big 12, and Monday seemed like a chance to get one. Instead it went to the final minutes with the result still in doubt.

Self, and this team, need to find a way to manage the stretches when all five starters are not on the court. They’ve been starting games well, only to fall apart when a couple starters check out 5–6 minutes into the first half. After the game Self preached that depth is overrated in March, which is very true. But you have to get to March in a good place to maximize the opportunity for your starters to rip off wins. Right now I’m not super confident KU is going to win any Big 12 road games, and several of the home games frighten me. No matter how good the starting five is, or how much the Big 12’s strength helps KU’s analytical rankings, going in as a 3–4–5 seed means the path to the second and third weekends of the tournament is incredibly difficult no matter how talented the starting five is.

M and I didn’t have any contact before or during the game Monday. I wasn’t happy enough with the result to reach out after the game. She did text me about 10 minutes later, saying she heard someone on her floor yell “What the fuck is a Jayhawk, anyway?”

Naturally I replied with a very patronizing explanation of how Jayhawkers were anti-slavery forces dedicated to keeping Kansas a Free State and saving America. Then we started exchanging GIFs, me sending ones of Big Jay and Baby Jay, she sending me ones of the Bearcat. She is a big fan of the Bearcat.

Good times.

I was only able to watch the first half of Saturday’s game against West Virginia, a loss that seemed really bad in the moment but that I think will be respectable when the season ends. West Virginia had won just six games going into that contest, which seemed shitty. What people don’t factor in, or the Mountaineers’ BPI rating reflects, is that they got multiple starters eligible less than a month ago and are still missing one starter because of injury.

Don’t get me wrong, KU should have won that game. They scored 85 points and had just seven turnovers in a road game. 95% of the time that means a W. For some reason a 30% shooting team hit everything they threw up in the first half, often when well guarded, and carried that confidence over to the second half when they refused to fade even when the 3’s stopped dropping. Apparently there were a few maddening missed shots, defensive closeouts, and horrible missed block-outs that were huge factors in KU’s loss. I’m glad I didn’t see those, I might not have slept.

As I said, though, West Virginia has almost all their expected starters in the lineup now. They’ve beaten KU and Texas in consecutive weeks. RaeQuan Battle is going to score 35 on someone. You can’t say anything with certainty in this Big 12 schedule. I would bet that not many teams are going into Morgantown and winning, though. Which will make KU’s loss seem less bad and more of a missed opportunity.

I missed the second half of that game because of L’s games. I believe I’ve shared before that there is another KU dad on her squad, although he was a graduate and law student there.[1] S loves watching this dad and I during games because we see the game in very similar ways. He usually sits a few rows in front of us and will get agitated about something – sometimes a call/no call, other times something one of our girls does – and start looking around for support. Eventually he’ll find me and I’ll say, “I saw it too, C!” and he gets this relieved look on his face, like “I’m not crazy, right?” Then S laughs.

Anyway, Saturday CHS started as KU was wrapping up. We both had our phones balanced on our knees while we watched our daughters. Each dead ball we’d check the KU score then look at each other and shake our heads or pump our fists.

The funniest part, though, came at halftime of the CHS game. He came up to sit by me and we broke the KU game down. Keep in mind, we didn’t see any of the second half. But based on what ESPN, Twitter, and text messages told us, we were still analyzing how it went. I thought about that later and laughed at us.

It is much easier to take these losses when you don’t see them. Maybe instead of clearing the family calendar in March for the last 19 years, I should have made sure we had things scheduled when KU played. My blood pressure might be a lot lower.

Also Saturday, M called me right when the KU-WVU game got to the under–4:00 timeout in the first half. I paused the ESPN app on my TV and talked to her for about 20 minutes so she could tell me all about going to the UC game earlier. When we finished talking, I hit play on my remote. Instead of picking up at the moment I had paused it, the app skipped to live TV, which was in the middle of halftime.

What the fuck?

I needed to eat something before we left so I paused it just to test if I had done something wrong. I ate my sandwich then pressed play. Again the feed jumped to live action, this time as play had just begun in the second half.

I don’t know if this is an Amazon issue – we use a FireStick on this TV – or an ESPN issue. Whoever designed this function, though, obviously has no idea how pausing a live program is supposed to work. Truly maddening.

Finally, this is Jayhawk related, so I’ll throw it in as well.

  1. His daughter is also a freshman and is probably the most physically gifted player on the team. She has moments where she makes jaw-dropping plays. She falls onto the spectrum, though, and really struggles with the mental part of the game. She can be totally unaware of what is going on at times. She makes maddening decisions with the ball or forget who she is guarding and will get subbed out. Fortunately she’s a super sweet girl and once she relaxed and opened up, her teammates fell in love with her.  ↩

Weekend Notes

January 15, 2024 /

Kind of a strange weekend, mostly due to the weather, which kept us cooped up inside. I spent roughly 87.2% of Saturday and Sunday on the couch, under a blanket, either watching sports on TV, watching shows on my laptop, or reading one of two books.

Jayhawk Talk: Hoops

It took awhile to get going, but a very nice bounce back game against Oklahoma. Johnny Furphy moving into the starting lineup worked out pretty well, both for him and Elmarko Jackson, who looked more relaxed coming off the bench. The more I see it in action the more I think KJ Adams’ free throw line jumper/floater could be the key to unlocking the KU offense. Assuming this team continues to never hit 3s, that is.

I forgot to mention in my wrap-up of the UCF game that when KU was cruising in the first half, I texted friends that this was the best KU had looked all year. Moments later they went into the shitter. Saturday, after KU blew a five point lead, I said I hated this team and that they were terrible to watch. Moments later they broke the game open. I need to keep my mouth shut until the game is over.

I watched parts of several Big 12 games Saturday. Man, this conference is such a beast. Most games in the 60s, with minimal separation. I watched Houston for the first time. They are so tough and athletic and relentless. Just because they lost twice last week is not a reason to count them out. Their game with TCU was tremendous.

At this point Baylor would seem to be the favorite, even with Texas Tech tied with them at 3–0. Still, Baylor did not look all that impressive when I was watching their game against Cincinnati. Of course, Tech is letting an accused rapist play, which you have to think the Hoops Gods will not look kindly on.

The conference is filled with teams that have very little to differentiate them. UCF is probably the “worst” team in the league, and they just beat KU. West Virginia beat Texas. BYU and Cincinnati are much better than most people expected them to be. Just like I’m going to complain about KU’s shooting every week, I’m going to remind you about how tough the Big 12 is every week.

Jayhawk Talk: Lance!

KU fans had roughly 24 hours of semi-worry and then 15 minutes of full-on panic when rumors about Lance Leipold taking the Washington job bubbled up. First, he was said to be one of the top candidates on Saturday. Sunday afternoon both an allegedly reputable national site and a local source who is fairly locked in suggested that he had been offered the job and was likely to take it.

The next 10–15 minutes were pretty wild on Twitter and in text threads.

Fortunately Leipold put all that speculation to rest with a Tweet of his own and both national and local sources quickly reported that he and KU had agreed to a new contract.

Full-on panic to elation in 15 minutes. America, 2024!

A couple hours later news dropped that UW was hiring Arizona coach Jed Fisch. Which makes me wonder if UW really offered the job to Lance or if it was just posturing by his agent to squeeze a little more out of KU in their negotiations. Regardless, it seems like KU dodged a bullet. We had all relaxed after the main round of coach shuffling passed with Lance still in Lawrence. Then Nick Saban fucked that all up and we had to briefly stress again.

The added bonus is with Fisch leaving Arizona, they are likely to lose some players, weakening a team that was expected to be one of the best in the Big 12 next year. They aren’t on KU’s 2024 schedule, but that does potentially mean one fewer team to have to beat out for a spot on the conference championship game. Although I have no idea how that is going to work in the revamped Big 12. And KU has a few more holes to plug before we start getting too excited about a possible conference title game run.

NFL Playoffs

First off, we all agree the Chiefs-Dolphins game being on Peacock was bullshit, right? Even more bullshitty was NBC’s incessant promotion of the game. Shots of Kansas City during the Houston game, just so they could talk about the nightcap. Calling it a historic event was even more bullshit.

Then came the cherry on top, NBC proclaiming Sunday that it was a milestone in sports and media history. We are into the second decade of broadly available, streamed sports events. NBC didn’t roll out any new technology for this game. They, and the NFL, decided to hide it behind a paywall that still forced viewers to watch commercials just to scrape more money out of fans.

You have to take out a mortgage to afford going to games. Over-the-air broadcasts have more commercial breaks than ever. And now more and more games are slipping behind paywalls. The NFL and Roger Goodell rival MLB and Rob Manfred for finding the most ways to fuck its fans.

I guess the Chiefs played well? We don’t have Peacock. I watched a movie.

Super impressive performance by Houston Saturday. I picked Cleveland and was very wrong. C.J. Stroud is going to be a problem. The Colts better hope Anthony Richardson can develop into a reasonable foil for him. And if Carolina didn’t have a shit-bag of an owner, I would feel sorry for them totally blowing the draft last spring.

Even more impressive performance by Green Bay Sunday, knocking out my Super Bowl pick Cowboys in shockingly easy fashion. Again, I was very wrong. The Niners are going to cream the Packers next week, though, aren’t they, making this an even worse loss for Cowboys fans.

The last game of Sunday was a lot of fun. Detroit jumps out early and their crowd is going nuts. LA claws back in the second half. You could feel the tension in the Detroit crowd as an LA win seemed inevitable. Then a couple close calls went Detroit’s way, the Lions converted a big third down, and they won their first playoff game since 1992. A great, cathartic scene at Ford Field, even if the Rams probably should have won that game.

Weather

As miserable as it was/is here in Indy, we really got off easy. A ton of rain Friday; I had the pump on the pool cover all day and three different times it rained hard enough to cover it completely. It had time to pump nearly all of it away before we dropped below freezing. As we walked out of L’s games Friday it was still raining hard, but with fat snowflakes mixed in. We got home just before everything froze up. We got just a touch of snow overnight and again Saturday evening, barely enough to cover the ground. And the winds that roared Friday into Saturday were not as strong as expected after the changeover, so our windchills were only around –15 Sunday. Far less snow than many of my readers got, and relatively warmer than many of you had to endure.

It isn’t supposed to get above freezing here for at least a week, with no real chances of snow at the moment.

I ran L to practice this morning and made a quick stop at the grocery store. The 30 seconds it took me to walk from my car to the store were not pleasant. My phone said the windchill was –16. Once you get below zero it really doesn’t matter anymore.

As always, winter sucks.

Sports Notes Emergency Entry

January 11, 2024 /

Events demanded an emergency sports notes post. I’ll try to keep these relatively brief.

Jayhawk Talk: Disaster

Well that fucking sucked. Arguably the worst Big 12 loss of Bill Self’s career, the first time his team lost when they led by 16 or more points. Having that big lead is what made it worse than the TCU loss in 2013. Because they had this game won. They were toying with UCF. Making them look silly. Then the entire team fell apart when Hunter Dickinson got his second foul and sat the last 3+ minutes of the first half. In the second half they panicked even when they still had the lead, throwing terrible passes, taking terrible shots, and getting cooked on defense. For a team loaded with experienced players, they all sucked when a team that wouldn’t lay down for them. Super concerning.

On the one hand I’m inclined to throw it out as a flukey loss as the team had been trending towards a loss like this for a few weeks. In years past this was a classic Wake Up Call loss. If they can’t get their shit together, though, things could get awfully interesting awfully quick.

Carroll and Saban and Belichick (Oh My!)

What a 12 hours or so for legendary coaches stepping down!

Pete Carroll in Seattle is probably the least significant, simply because the Seahawks have been good but not great in recent years. It was a true surprise – perhaps even to him – that he will no longer coach them. It seemed like he would coach forever. He set up the first college dynasty of the century at USC, a program that in its prime was breath-taking to watch. He won a Super Bowl and lost another. A pretty good run.

Then Nick Saban shocked the world about an hour later by announcing his retirement. A truly stunning turn of events. The greatest coach in modern college football history, and on the short list for all time greats. Alabama should be able to pick just about anyone they want for the job. Yet the opening still comes with a lot of pressure. They hired a lot of bad coaches over a 20-year stretch before they landed Saban. This could easily go wrong and upset the balance of power in the SEC and game as a whole. Many Big 12 fans laughed when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving for the SEC, mostly at the hubris of thinking they could match up with Saban and his Bama machine. For Texas especially, they may have timed that jump genious-ly well.

Finally, Bill Belichick is out in New England, which was very much not a surprise and perhaps a year or two overdue. He will almost definitely end up coaching somewhere next year, so this is just the official end of the Patriots dynasty. Nine Super Bowls – and six wins – in sixteen years is outrageous. For a man who is widely considered the greatest NFL coach ever, his next job does come with some pressure for his legacy. If he does about the same or worse as he did in Cleveland, or in his first year-plus in New England, much of the credit for his success will shift to Tom Brady.

I’m fascinated to see where he ends up. San Diego, err, Los Angeles to try to harness the gifts of Justin Herbert? Washington to try to rebuild that franchise in the post-Snyder era? Might an organization that isn’t totally in love with their current coach – Green Bay, Arizona, Jacksonville, Dallas if they fall apart in the playoffs – decide to make a switch if they can lure Belichick? And then does he have the humility to give up control of the roster, an area he struggled with in recent years in New England?

CFP Final

A kind of disappointing game if you’re not a Michigan fan. I was hoping for a more competitive game from start-to-finish, but have to admire how UM put the hammer down on Washington. They were locked in and ready for their moment.

There was a lot of gnashing of teeth after Michigan won about how they cheated to get their title. I say whatever to all of that, and their “cheating” scandal.

Sign stealing is such a dumb form of “cheating.” Everyone does it. Maybe Michigan took it to another level, but every single program is looking at tape to try to pick up their opponents’ signals. They have someone trying to crack them during games. They disguise their own signals because they know the opposite sideline is watching.

I didn’t care much about the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. I care less about this. A hitter knowing whether a fastball or off-speed pitch is coming does give them an advantage. But, again, everyone is trying to get an edge; Houston just took it to another level. I think Michigan got far less of an advantage by attempting to steal their opponents signals. They might know the general set, but they still didn’t know the specific play that was coming.

Now I’m mad because people have me defending Michigan…

Weekend Notes

January 8, 2024 /

It was odd walking downstairs this morning. We put all the holiday decorations away Sunday, so this was the first time since Thanksgiving I was greeted by a dark main floor. C said our family room looked “emo” without the decorations yesterday. I’m not sure if emo is the term I would pick, but it does always take a few days to get used to the tree, etc being packed away for another 11 months.

It was also a strange morning because S is back in the office on Mondays for the first time in years. I’ll share more about that in a future post.

We had a very busy Saturday followed by a pretty lazy Sunday. Some notes…

Back to School

L had games Saturday starting at noon. After her JV contest, S and M left the gym and headed to Cincinnati to drop M off for her second semester. Sunday was the normal move-in day, but she had a greek leadership meeting that began at 9:00 Sunday and needed to go back early. I forget if I mentioned last fall that she was elected as social chair for her house, thus her presence was required at this meeting. She’s already working on planning their formal this spring. UC lovingly added $40 to our bill for her moving in 24 hours early.

I guess move-in went well. Someone working in her dorm told S that Sunday was going to be crazy, so it might have been worth the $40 to avoid that rush.

M ended up getting straight A’s first semester, which was a terrific start. Right before she came home she added Marketing as a major. She figured that’s a better path to a job right after graduation than psychology, which would likely require graduate work. She’s debating whether to do a double major or shift psych to a minor.

While she starts classes today, her sisters got to sleep in one last day. They begin their two-week J term tomorrow.

Snow

We got our first real snow of the year Friday night/Saturday morning. Probably 2” of heavy, wet stuff at our house. I got up and pushed it aside just to make sure the driveway didn’t turn into a sheet of ice. Our forecast this week looks miserable. Rain and/or snow almost every day, and potentially a major storm next weekend.

As a weather geek I love watching how the forecast changes this time of year. Last night one forecast predicted between 15–20” of snow from Thursday night to Saturday morning. This morning it had switched to mostly rain and just 2–3” of snow. I imagine it will change multiple times before the storm finally gets here.

Jayhawk Talk

You’re not going to believe this but I missed the first half of the KU-TCU game watching L play. It’s uncanny how often that has happened this year. Fortunately I got home in time to see most of the second half.

I guess that was fortunate? I might be getting too old to handle games like this, and I’m afraid the entire Big 12 schedule this year is going to play out similar to Saturday’s game. Almost every team plays really good defense. There don’t seem to be many pushovers. The next two months are going to be brutal.

It doesn’t help that this KU team seems to be missing something. Not just the shooters that would open so much up for the offense. There’s another mysterious “something” that isn’t there. It’s far too hard for them to score, even with two first team All American caliber players and one of the best distributing point guards in the county. It’s like the parts almost fit perfectly, but grind against each other just enough to keep them from reaching their potential.

I mean, it would be cool if someone on this team could hit a few 3s every night. Even then I think something would be off, though.

Let’s get this over with: the intentional foul called against Ernest Udeh when he elbowed Hunter Dickinson was 100% the right call. I wasn’t sure in real time but watching replays it’s clear Udeh threw his elbow with intent rather than as a function of trying to grab Kevin McCullar’s truly horrific pass. That said, I’m shocked it was called. There seemed just enough wiggle room for the refs to decide it was a play-on rather than foul since it hadn’t been whistled immediately.

I have no issue with TCU people being pissed about it. I would be, no matter what the replay showed. But I’m already done with Fran Fraschilla’s interpretation of the play, knowing he is going to mention it 8000 times between now and the end of the season.[1] God forbid KU wins the Big 12 by a game because he is going to talk about that single play incessantly. Props to Seth Davis, Seth Greenberg, and Jay Wright for countering Fraschilla’s nonsense.

Fraschilla and the other haters didn’t mention the awful foul called on KJ Adams with about 2:00 left that gave Emanuel Miller two free throws and TCU a two-point lead. I think the Hoops Gods made the call against Udeh to balance that shitty foul on KJ.

(OK, aside time. Fraschilla is truly a putz. For some reason about ten years ago he decided to become the voice for the anti-KU element of the Big 12. He holds onto borderline calls that go for KU like a psychopathic fan.[2] He often parrots lines that clearly come from other Big 12 coaches. Any time there’s a close call in Allen Fieldhouse, you can hear his energy level rise and the eagerness in his voice, like a Jan. Sixer talking about how the election was stolen.[3]

His comments Saturday were even more bizarre since he casually threw in his opinion that Dickinson traveled on his game-winning basket, as if that was another egregious miss by the officials that the entire world saw. It was such a strange observation that CBS’ Seth Davis tweeted back with a clip of the play, showing Dickinson clearly taking a dribble as he shuffled his feet before tossing the shot in.

I’m not sure if Fraschilla has cracked after years of being yelled at by KU fans, if Bill Self pissed him off/froze him out at some point, or just because he is famously close with a couple current/former Big 12 coaches, but it is clear his emotions affect his analysis. At least when KU is involved. Which is fine if you’re a middle-aged blogger. It’s not when you are the main color commentator for an entire conference.)

Anyway, KU is 13–1 but I don’t think many KU fans are feeling great about the team. We were extremely fortunate to beat TCU. There are about 18 tough-ass games ahead of us just to get through the conference season. To be clear, I don’t feel bad about the team. They just aren’t as good as we hoped and the path to reaching the pre-season goals of Final Four caliber team seems pretty daunting.

Colts

What a terrible ending to an unexpectedly inspiring season by our local football eleven. Actually that’s what our soccer team is called so I should not be cute and just say Colts.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, a season in which rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson took his lumps and got acclimated to the NFL, with the idea of competing for a playoff spot again next year.

Richardson was surprisingly good, until he got hurt multiple times and ended up needing season-ending surgery. Gardner Minshew shook off some early rough games and often found ways to make just enough plays to win. After a lengthy hold-out and a brief injury absence, Jonathan Taylor returned to anchor the offense. The defense improved as the season progressed.

The Colts won a couple games they shouldn’t have. They lost a few they shouldn’t have. They benefited from playing in the thoroughly meh AFC South.

It was perfect their season came down to a de facto playoff game against Houston, at home, on Saturday night.

The result felt appropriate for the season, too. A couple dumb coaching decisions by Shane Streichen, who seems like a solid coach but like so many “innovative” coaches, occasionally tries too hard to be cute. A couple meltdowns by the defensive backfield. And then the inevitable Minshew mistake. This time is wasn’t a brutal interception on a potential scoring drive, but rather missing a wide-open back on fourth-and-one in the red zone with less than two minutes remaining.

There’s been a lot of debate about the play that did the Colts in, with a decent contingent of folks trying their hardest to say it wasn’t Minshew’s fault. I’m sorry: that was a TERRIBLE throw. He wasn’t pressured. Tyler Goodson was wide open with blockers ahead of him. At minimum it was an easy first down. The way it was set up there was a decent chance Goodson was going to tie the game and give the Colts the chance to take the lead on the PAT.

It was a perfect play call and 10 Colts did their job. It was Minshew who choked.

Now it’s on to 2024 with, hopefully, a healthy Richardson and Taylor behind him to start the season. The Colts weren’t a good team this year, so there are a lot of areas that need improvement if the want to be legitimate contenders next season. Regardless, the 2024 cycle begins with some genuine optimism about what is to come.

NFL

I’ve been saying all year how weird the NFL is. One week you think a team is dominant, the next they lose a stupid game against a weaker team.

So how do you pick the playoffs this year? The Niners and Ravens seem to have separated themselves in each conference. But do you trust Brock Purdy? Lamar Jackson’s shit hasn’t worked in the playoffs so far in his career, is this the year that changes? I think the Cowboys might actually be the favorite at this point. I’m going to need a few days to ponder on all of it, though.

  1. I think it started when Kelly Oubre wasn’t called for pushing off on an offensive rebound in 2015. It came against Oklahoma, where Fraschilla’s son was playing at the time, and I think something in his brain snapped that night. That game was in mid-January and, I swear, Fraschilla mentioned it every time he did a KU or OU game the rest of the season.  ↩
  2. Ahem. I know. You don’t need to mention pots and kettles, men in the mirror, etc.  ↩
  3. Pretty sure Fran subscribes to that conspiracy, too, based on some of his Tweets, so it all fits together perfectly.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: Bowl Game Breakdown

December 27, 2023 /

I planned on taking most of this week off from blogging. But Tuesday’s bizarre shitshow of a football game that was the Guaranteed Rate Bowl[1] required me to share a few words about the mighty Kansas Jayhawks winning nine games for the first time since the 2007 season. I mean, I was up until 1:45 AM, and then struggled to sleep, because of this stupid game and its aftermath. I’m going to have some thoughts.

The lead up to the game should have been a hint of where we were headed. First Dominick Puni announced he would not be playing in the game to prepare for the NFL Draft. What a rise for a kid who was barely recruited to Central Missouri then got hurt and received an offer from KU based on one game’s tape. He was first team All Big 12 and is going to have a long NFL career if his body cooperates.

Also out was Bryce Cabeldue because of injury. So KU would be missing both offensive tackles. But the team actually had depth on the line for the first time ever, and a month to prepare. That did not worry me.

Then my Indy homie Austin Booker, also a first team all conference player, announced he would not be playing. Again the assumption is he is declaring for the draft, although there are rumors he could come back. He was KU’s best and really only consistent pass rusher and I thought his absence could be huge against a very good offensive team like UNLV.

Finally, hours before the game, news broke that Devin Neal had told coaches he would be coming back for his senior year. Huzzah! More on him in a bit.

Then the game.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game like it.

KU played amazing for roughly two-thirds of the game, good enough to rack up 49 points on six Jason Bean touchdown passes, with Lawrence Arnold and Luke Grimm both catching three. Grimm ripped off 160 yards on four catches. FOUR! Arnold making one of the best catches you’ll ever see for his first touchdown, only to be topped by Quentin Skinner one possession later. KU had touchdown drives that went for 98 and 99 yards. They had four scoring plays of 40 yards or more, two coming on fourth downs.

When KU was good Tuesday, they were awesome.

But KU also set school records for most total penalties and penalty yards in a game. A team that had been penalized 55 times through 12 games got hit for 18 accepted penalties for 210 yards. Which would have been fine, if it weren’t for several of those calls being very strange. A personal foul when there was no contact between anyone on KU and UNLV after a Cobee Bryant interception. A face mask call against KU that came very late and when replay showed it wasn’t close to a face mask. Then a non-call when Devin Neal had his face mask grabbed and the official literally laughing in his face when he complained. Another personal foul when replay showed two UNLV players hitting a KU lineman, who was flagged for responding. There was a stretch in the second quarter when it seemed like every play was followed by a flag, usually on KU.

What made these calls even worse was the absolutely awful ESPN coverage, which rarely showed a replay of the alleged offense. Even when they did show a replay – like on the phantom face mask against KU – the announcers somehow agreed with the call. “There you see he grabs his face mask and doesn’t let go…” when the replay shows the Jayhawk with a handful of jersey and no part of the helmet. Just maddening.

Now that you can gamble on everything, there were degenerates all over the country who had no loyalty to KU other than their money riding on a KU win screaming on Twitter about crazy, inexplicable calls going for the team from Las Vegas. One guy from Ohio took it very seriously and claimed it was one of his best gambling wins ever, overcoming the “crooked” refs who tried to steal the game. We live in weird times.

When the announcers kind of suck to begin with, the production of the game is a C- at best, and your team seems to be getting screwed, it takes all the fun out of watching. I had to switch TVs and chairs. A few friends I had been texting with totally stopped. I eventually muted the TV and had the KU radio broadcast on my phone. I couldn’t get it exactly synced up, but it was better than listening to the ESPN fools.

Switching to radio was a true revelation. They actually broke down plays, provided context, and explained to listeners what was going on, unlike the banal chatter you heard on ESPN. KU analyst David Lawrence suggested that the refs had got into the entire KU team’s head, and they needed to calm down and just play when a 21-point lead shrunk to just four points. Which they finally did and blew the game open. I would suggest the refs got into all our heads. Hell, I think they got into their own heads.

Thank goodness this game was meaningless or I might really have been worked up!

The game kind of summed up Jason Bean’s career. Some brilliant throws in the first half, followed by three horrible throws that were all picked off and let UNLV back into the game. Then a stunning fourth quarter where he picked the defense apart with three surgical throws. The knock on Bean before this year was his inaccuracy and his lack of instincts. He made himself a hell of a lot better this year, dialing in the location on his throws and rarely missing guys by ten yards the way he had in the past. He has a highlight reel full of pin-point deliveries this year. His instincts were still a little suspect, but the KU coaches learned how to put him in positions where success was much more likely. Like so many KU fans, this kid became one of my all-time favorites this year with how he battled, how he shook off failure, those big moments, and how emotionally and honestly he handled moments like beating OU and winning a bowl game. A true Jayhawk legend.

So nine wins, which is pretty awesome. The first bowl win since 2008. Eight of eleven staters on offense return, although the departing players all played huge roles and will not be easily replaced. But fill in those holes on the offensive line, find a pass rusher, let the depth in the secondary fill in for Kenny Logan (another KU legend), bring Cobee Bryant back, find a kicker, keep any key contributors from being poached by higher level schools, and get Jalon Daniels healthy and the Jayhawks are a legitimate Big 12 contender next year.

To be sure, those are a lot of To Dos for the offseason. For the first time in decades, though, KU’s list of questions for next season are no longer than the teams they’ll be playing against each week in the Big 12.

Finally, this lady stole my shirt idea. I really need to find one. She knows what’s up.

  1. Stupid-ass name played in a stupid-ass stadium.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk

December 21, 2023 /

As tends to happen in these pre-holiday weeks, time has gotten away from me a bit. I can’t believe it is Thursday and I still haven’t written about KU’s win in Bloomington last Saturday. Turns it was good to put it off as now I can write about football signing day, too.

KU-IU Hoops


This game was played at the same time as L’s JV game Saturday. Actually they started a few minutes earlier in B-town, so I knew the Jayhawks were down 15–6 or whatever early. I casually checked the score during timeouts and saw that lead bounce around. In the second half I saw KU was down 11 and decided to concentrate on the game in front of me. There’s another KU dad in our parent group and we exchanged worried looks.

When the JV game ended I checked and KU was down just one. I tapped my fellow Jayhawk on the shoulder as I went to the concession stand and let him know. Another dad who got pulled into keeping the book actually had the game up on his phone – I never figured out how – so I was trying to sneak glances from my seat but was always blocked. Anyway, I was pleased when the game went final and KU walked off the court with a four-point win after trailing by as many as 13.

I watched the game Sunday. From what I read on Twitter during the game, IU could have easily been up 20 in the first half, and there was all the usual complaining. From my view, with the benefit of knowing the outcome, KU didn’t play that bad in the first half. They missed a ton of shots at the rim (evergreen KU critique) or that were wide-open from the perimeter (same). They had multiple chances to seize the momentum, but missed each one, and IU took advantage.

That second half run was fantastic. We started to see Bill Self making some adjustments to open things up for the offense. Hunter Dickinson moved closer to the high post. He can knock down shots from there plus hit teammates who cut into the newly-opened area around the rim. When Kevin McCullar and KJ Adams can attack the rim, KU is at its best.

DaJuan Harris was magnificent in the final 12 minutes or so. He’s been a little off recently, his entire game looser than normal. Saturday he was locked in, as demonstrative as he’s been all season, and made some huge plays when KU went on a 15–4 run.

Indiana isn’t a great team, but they do have some nice parts – Mackenzie Mgbako would be a great sixth man at KU, so makes total sense he chose IU where he can start – were locked in for about 30 minutes, and had Assembly Hall roaring in support. KU weathered all of that and were the better team in the last ten minutes.

It is wins like this, road games against inferior teams playing over their heads, that will make the difference in what should be another extremely competitive Big 12 season. KU acted like they had been there before on Saturday. Hopefully that pays off over the next two months.

It was obviously a fun win for me, as IU friends can’t talk smack about beating the mighty Jayhawks and I can proudly wear my KU gear around Indy.

M babysat for S’s cousin and her husband who went to the game. I made sure she greeted them with a “Rock Chalk,” when they returned home.

Eric Montross

A quick aside about Indy native and North Carolina alum Eric Montross, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 52.

I remember what a huge deal it was when Montross chose North Carolina over Michigan, where his dad and grandfather had played, and IU, who was still amongst the most elite of basketball schools, in 1990.[1]

I was thinking this week about the impact of his signing with the Tar Heels. He helped Dean Smith win his second national title in 1993, beating KU in the Final Four then Michigan in the title game.

What if he had gone to IU, though? I almost guarantee Bobby Knight wins at least one and maybe two more national titles.

The Hoosiers were the #2 seed in the South region in 1991 and got blown out by KU in the Sweet 16. Montross wasn’t a huge contributor in Carolina that year, so who knows if he changes anything there.

The Hoosiers did go to the Final Four in 1992, losing to Duke in the semifinals. That team had Calbert Cheaney, Damon Bailey, Greg Graham, and Alan Henderson, among others. Does Montross put them over the top against the Blue Devils? Let’s say he does, so take away a title from Coach K. Let’s also say they beat Michigan in the championship game, giving Knight his fourth title.

In 1993 Indiana was the #1 seed in the Midwest region, again losing to KU, this time in the elite eight. Surely Montross has a massive impact in that game. So they beat the Jayhawks in St. Louis, roll over the Montross-less Tar Heels in the Final Four, then can they beat Michigan for the second-straight year to go back-to-back? I’m not sure the Fab Five would have let that happen, but you have to at least consider that Bobby Knight was one recruiting decision away from winning four, maybe five, national titles and IU sitting at either six or seven titles overall.

IU fell off quickly after that 1993 team, and other than their crazy run to the 2002 Final Four, have never been close to the Knight Era peak since. Who knows how much of that is different if Eric Montross had decided to stay close to home and play for the Hoosiers.

KU Football

I refused to talk about KU football recruiting all fall simply because I’ve been tricked before. In February of 2017 KU had, briefly, the #1 class of commits in the country, including Ja’Marr Chase. That did not last. The history of KU football is filled with getting commitments from very good players, only to see them flip to a better school in the days leading up to signing day.

But Tuesday KU signed 17 high school players, 14 of which had been committed since before July 4. I’m still in a little bit of shock that so many of those kids, many of whom saw their recruiting rankings rise over their senior years, actually signed with KU.

Among that group was defensive end DJ Warner, who got offers from Michigan and Ohio State late, and had offers from Washington and Texas throughout the process. He is the highest ranked high schooler to ever sign with KU. Dakyus Brinkley, another DE, is also highly rated. And quarterback Isaiah Marshall, the player of the year in Michigan, stuck to his commitment and will sit behind Jalon Daniels for a year before he potentially takes over. There were some other good pieces in the class, which for the time being, is in the top 40 or 50, depending on which evaluation tool you look at. And it’s likely a little better than that. Just as KU’s basketball recruiting will always be a little overrated, KU’s football recruiting will always be a little underrated.

Lance Leipold and his staff have shown they are excellent talent evaluators and can develop those kids once they get into the program. They have a few players in this class who could have an impact pretty early in their careers. The rest will join guys from the two previous classes who have been, slowly, building up the depth of the program that was destroyed when Charlie Weiss was the coach.

I think that roster health is a huge part of evaluating the job that Leipold has done. He turned the team around quickly, getting to a bowl game in year two, winning eight (potentially nine) games in season three, and has the program poised to be a Big 12 title contender in season four if a few key players return. Stadium reconstruction began a week ago, a project that had been discussed and fretted about for decades. And the roster is as deep as it has been since the Mangino era.

KU even lost their offensive coordinator to Penn State and Leipold was able to plug in an OC with a similar system and a proven track record in a matter of days.

I’m not sure there was any doubt but the Leipold era has to get an A+ at this point.

Another sign that KU has ascended: Jayhawk fans are worried about players opting out of the bowl game. First team All Big 12 lineman Dominick Puni did exactly that. We are waiting to hear whether several other key players will not only play in Phoenix, but return to Lawrence next year. Gage Keys announced he was transferring to Auburn this week as well. Three years ago it’s hard to imagine there were any players on the roster good enough to consider either transferring to an SEC school or sit out a potential bowl game.

  1. If you ranked college programs in 1990, before Coach K had won a title, when Dean Smith only had one, and while Kentucky was rebuilding after getting hammered by the NCAA, IU would have to be #1. Kansas? Top ten for sure but that would be based more on history than the current health of the program. How quickly things changed.  ↩

Wednesday Notes

December 13, 2023 /

A good, old fashioned notes dump like the old days.

CHS Lockdown

There was a lockdown for about an hour at Cathedral yesterday. Apparently someone called 911 claiming to be inside the school with a gun. About a million cops showed up and no person with a gun was ever found. We live in wonderful times, friends.

Our girls seemed more annoyed that they had to stay and finish the day after the all-clear than worried/scared by the threat.

Visitor/College Break

M’s roommate from UC came for a quick visit Monday and Tuesday. She lives in Toledo and M visited her last summer for a weekend. Because of her holiday schedule she was only able to come down for about 24 hours. But M showed her around our area and introduced her to a few high school friends, although they mostly hung around with other UC kids.

A funny thing about M’s friend group at school is one of her best guy friends grew up less than a mile from our house. He went to the rival high school and never knew each other, but they had mutual friends. The past several days their local group has been gathering either at his house or ours.

It was a little weird getting M home last week. My first thought was, “OK, it’s Christmas break!” Then I realized her sister had almost THREE full weeks of class left before they were done for the semester. M did a lot of sitting around that first week, but most of her friends are back in town now and her social activity has started to pick back up. She’s also done some babysitting and has several days blocked off to watch either nephews or other kids between now and her return to school next month.

Holidays

M’s arrival has messed up my mind regarding the holidays in more ways than one. I was a little surprised to realize Monday we were two weeks from Christmas. The first half of the Christmas season seems to have raced by. I think a lot of that is because of L’s game schedule, which has kept us very busy the past two weeks.

Anyway, it was a bit of an alarm to make sure I am focused over the next two weeks to get all my holiday movies and shows knocked out. I haven’t watched Elf or Christmas Vacation nearly enough (one full time each, several partial viewings thrown in as well).

Sports Illustrated

Man, what a mess. An American icon that has been crumbling for years likely had its final downfall a week ago when it was discovered that the magazine was using AI to both write articles and labelling those articles with AI-generated writer names and headshots.

SI was an integral part of my childhood, and then remained essential deep into adulthood. The arrival of each week’s new volume on Thursday was one of the biggest moments of your kid week. My copy remained in the folder I carried to class until it was dog-eared and nearly memorized, not replaced until the next one came.

Magazines everywhere are dying. It feels like SI could have survived as it was generally more of a high-level view of sports, one which can still be relevant in the Internet age. The magazine, and its publishers, have made about a million bad choices in the past 20 years, though, and it was already an insignificant blip on the sports journalism map before this scandal.

And then they gave the Sportsman of the Year award to Deion Sanders, which seems absolutely asinine on every level. Given how ultra-commercial his whole deal is, my first thought was that he, or his publicists, paid for the honor. Or exchanged it for access. Something classic SI would not have engaged in.

Should he have been in the issue somewhere? Absolutely. But whatever waves he made this year were more because of the work his handlers did to create his story and image than anything he actually did. Many people had a bigger impact on the sports world than Deion.

As one college football expert said recently on a podcast, Deion deserves immense credit for what he’s already done at CU. But the fact is that team got worse each week of the season, there was all kinds of internal turmoil in the program, and Deion proved that if he really wants to deliver on all the promises he’s made, he has a lot to learn about coaching and running a power conference program. That expert has confidence that Deion is capable of making those jumps. But you can’t give a student an A+ for a project that was turned in incomplete missing required elements.

Memorial Stadium

The first phase of demolition at KU’s Memorial Stadium started on Monday. I loved all the people who made comments long the lines of “It was a dump, I watched a ton of bad football there, but I also have a lot of great memories there.” Very true.

In my first game there in 1980 I saw Dan Marino. I was there for the Tony Sands game. For Monte Cozzens. For Eric Vann’s 99-yard touchdown run.[1] Two wins over Oklahoma. I also sat through ice storms, bitter cold, blazing heat, and gusty winds while the Jayhawks were getting housed by Nebraska, OU, and others. When I lived in Lawrence, I was there damn near every home game.

The rumors last week that KU is looking to play some of their home games at Arrowhead in Kansas City next year are interesting. I think they realize the team has a chance to be even better next year, and don’t want to play games in front of 20,000 in a stadium that is under active renovation. Sell a bunch more tickets to bring more money in. Maybe rope in some new fans, or re-energize KC-area fans who stopped making the drive to Lawrence at some point during the Lost Decade. And potentially get the stadium renovations in Lawrence done faster than expected and be ready for the 2025 season. I don’t think you move all the games to Arrowhead, but it makes sense to play a few of them there if the Chiefs are open to the idea.

Andre Braugher

Such sad news that Andre Braugher has died. What an amazing career. His two biggest roles, as Frank Pembleton on Homicide and Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, were two wildly different characters. It was shocking to see the same actor who portrayed the hyper-intense Pembleton make amazing comedy as Holt. He made it work.

  1. Never understood why these announcers called it a 98-yard run.  ↩

Weekend Notes

December 11, 2023 /

We had a super-busy Saturday that featured a lot of L’s for our family. Fortunately, for me, the one dub was a big one.

Throwing hoops and real life together, our family went 1–7 for the day.

Cathedral lost JV and varsity games. More on that tomorrow.

S’s Hoosiers lost to Auburn.

M’s previously undefeated Bearcats lost to Xavier.

The Pacers lost to the Lakers in the IST championship game.

And L was nominated for, but did not win, Ice Princess at the CHS winter formal.

The win…

Jayhawk Talk

Well, we finally got a competitive game between Missouri and Kansas for the first time since the series re-started. Even then, Missouri never got it down to a two-possession game in the second half, so we can call it a comfortable KU win. Comfortable, acceptable, yet somehow unsatisfying. Simply because the Jayhawks were once up 18 and another ass-kicking appeared imminent until Mizzou sliced 10 points off that lead and the final few minutes were a little nervy.

I think it officially qualifies as a Weird Game. Mizzou was better early, and held KU off for about three-quarters of the first half before a huge KU run allowed them to take control. Then the second half had a couple mini-KU runs balanced by steady Mizzou counters. There was never any real rhythm to the game. Mizzou played terrific defense, but couldn’t put together the offensive performance you need to pull an upset in Allen Fieldhouse. KU seemed low-energy much of the game outside of the last five minutes of the first half. Then the ending felt like it could have stretched on forever and the margin would never get outside a 7–11 point range. Like I said, weird game.

One concern for KU is that Mizzou showed that until someone on the Jayhawks starts forcing defenses to respect them from behind the arc, teams will just pack defenders around Hunter Dickinson, both taking him out of the game and preventing cuts to the rim by his teammates. I don’t see anyone on this year’s roster turning into a consistent deep threat, at least not this season. So I think Bill Self’s challenge is to find a way to generate mid-range looks, which this team has the potential to be quite good at, to open up the lane. I’m confident he’ll figure something out.

As is often the case, KU’s schedule is kind of hurting them. They need to develop a couple guys from the group of Elmarko Jackson – who was quite good Saturday – Johnny Furphy, Nick Timberlake, and Jamari McDowell as complementary players that Self can trust. A schedule packed with close games against high level opponents makes that difficult. Worse, KU has played kind of like ass in their guarantee games sprinkled in amongst the MU, UConn, Kentucky, and Hawaii games, preventing mop-up minutes for the young/new guys. Conference play is just a few weeks away, and that’s when guys that Self doesn’t trust usually disappear.

One positive for KU is how well KJ Adams played. He was the best player on the court Saturday. It’s remarkable how he keeps finding ways to add to his game. I joked Saturday night that he may just develop a 3-point shot over the Christmas break to solve KU’s shooting woes. I doubt that will happen, but I also wouldn’t ever count that kid out.

Oh, and he had the signature play of the year so far for KU, one that will be in the pregame video for years.

I also noticed that Self seemed pretty chill throughout the game. I guess this is a post- heart attack thing? It confuses me a little. I mean, I want the guy to be healthy and able to coach for another decade or so. But it also helps my mood considerably when he rips into the team when they are playing like ass.

I love how petty rivalry games make people. MU coach Dennis Gates made a comment in his postgame press conference about how not many teams come into Allen Fieldhouse and lead for 14 minutes. I get what he was saying, and it was 100% valid. I don’t think he was suggesting the game was a moral victory in any way. Just pointing out there was something his young team could build on.

But since it was a rivalry game, naturally KU people made fun of it, generating fake banners about close losses to hang at Mizzou Arena or referencing Bruce Weber and his Try Hard chart. I didn’t necessarily buy into those arguments, but they made me laugh.

Along those lines, I was watching the UC-Xavier game later in the evening and saw a sign in the XU student section that said “Hell Is Real And It’s Three Miles Away.” Rivalries are the best.[1]

Pacers

After a dream run to the championship game – during which they beat Philadelphia, Boston, and Milwaukee – the Pacers played their worst game of the inaugural NBA In Season Tournament in Saturday night’s championship game. They missed sooooo many open shots they had hit over their previous games. Myles Turner was really bad. A lot of people took shots at him forgetting he had played wonderfully in every game before the final.

Oh, and 157 year old LeBron James played like he was 25 and Anthony Davis remembered he is one of the best, and least guardable, players in the game and could not be stopped. Two transcendent players showing out usually get you the win in the NBA.

And even then the Pacers were right in it until about 2:00 were left and the Lakers went on a final surge.

A terrific run, a coming-out show for Tyrese Haliburton, and some rare national attention on the Pacers.

The Pacers have a lot of flexibility moving forward thanks to expiring contracts, some team-friendly short-term contracts, and full control of their future draft picks. Might they make a splashy move to bring in another proven scorer to put next to Haliburton, either between now and the trade deadline or over the summer?

Winter Formal

As I mentioned, L was nominated for Ice Princess at the CHS winter formal. Their winter formal is weird. It is the biggest deal for freshmen, who dress up and get nominated for stuff. Some sophomores go. Almost no juniors go. And seniors show up briefly, but wearing ugly sweaters rather than suits and dresses.

Anyway, L was one of five girls nominated. I hoped she would cross enough demographic lines to be in the running, but it was a girl who is kind of Tik-Tok famous, is a model, and the daughter of a former local celebrity that won. L isn’t a huge fan of the kid who won Ice Prince and she was relieved they didn’t have to stand/dance together. So she really won I guess?

Colts

What a shit game. A couple terrible calls went against them, but the Colts basically rolled over after the Bengals scored an early touchdown. And on a day when the Jags and Texans both lost. This team really isn’t playoff worthy, and will lose in the first round if they make it. But that was still a super-dumb loss.

Indiana Fever

I doubt I’ve ever written about our local WNBA team here before. The Fever won the WNBA draft lottery yesterday. Meaning if Caitlin Clark decides to go pro, as expected, she will likely be playing here in Indy this summer. We already have tickets to watch her play in Bloomington in February. I’m guessing this means L will be going to her first-ever Fever game sometime in 2024.

  1. M was very excited about the game…but went to see a movie with her friends.  ↩

Weekend Notes

December 4, 2023 /

Jayhawk Talk


What a game Friday night between #5 KU and #4 UConn! Since this is rolled into a Weekend Notes post, I’ll chop my thoughts up into chunks tied to the four quarters of the game.

Opening tip to 10:00: This is awesome! The Jayhawks are unbeatable! UConn are frauds! The crowd is AMAZING! Why is Jason Sudeikis hanging out with Sue Bird?

10:00 to Halftime: OK, that could have ended better, but we still have a seven-point lead. And most of UConn’s points were unreal makes at the end of the shot clock. We’re fine, but we need to get the offense back into gear.

Beginning of second half to 10:00: This team sucks. Bill Self is an idiot for not recruiting more shooters. Why is DaJuan Harris playing so bad? UConn isn’t even full strength and they’re going to beat us. I hate this game and sports in general.

10:00 to final horn: What a team! What a win! I love Kevin McCullar and KJ Adams! This was an incredible game and I would have been fine losing it because it was so well played. Bravo sports!

Then I proceeded to stay up another hour watching all the postgame interviews. That put me in bed around 1:00 AM. 9:00 PM tips are dumb. Especially on Fridays.

The Huskies are super tough to guard because of their motion and actions out of it, and KU shut them down for the first ten minutes and last 5–6 minutes. That was an incredible defensive performance. UConn’s comeback was largely fueled because only the KU starters could keep that level of intensity up, and it cost them on the offensive end.

Still a lot of questions about KU’s ability to score, but you toss them aside for a few days after a win that fun.

A bonus to the night was parents of a couple UConn players bitching about their seats. They claimed KU put them in the upper row. Once the game started and you saw two rows of UConn fans right behind the bench – the exact seats you often see Big 12 player parents sitting in – it was obvious someone in Storrs decided that the parents needed to take the upper level seats in their allotment while more important people got the cool seats. Typical entitled east coast BS. Besides, there isn’t a bad seat in Allen Fieldhouse. Even if you have to lean under a beam to see the court.

College Football

OH MAN, WHAT A MESS!!!! AND IT’S GLORIOUS!!!!

I don’t have a huge beef with how things shook out. You can make legit arguments for six teams, and with only four spots, someone is going to get screwed. Obviously a huge bummer for Florida State. It absolutely sucks to go undefeated in a Power Five, err four, errr three, Power Whatever conference, and get the shaft. Michigan and Washington were awarded for doing exactly that. FSU gets the shaft because their quarterback is hurt, which seems like an odd decision point. If you take Alabama, you have to take Texas, who beat Alabama convincingly in Tuscaloosa. Georgia had their shot and blew it.

It was garbage how the biggest topic of last week was not the games themselves, but the hypothetical that the SEC would get left out. Actually my beef was more with some of the horseshit logic used to carve out a spot for an SEC team. The SEC commissioner suggested that if you throw out Texas’ win over Alabama, Bama was actually the better team. Which, first off, is debatable. And then THERE IS NO BETTER DATA POINT THAN A HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULT. Until it threatens the SEC’s spot in the championship playoff. That’s when you throw it out.

The commish also suggested that the SEC deserved a spot simply because of history. There’s no doubt the SEC has dominated college football this century. That means nothing for this year. Georgia doesn’t get extra points for being two-time defending champs. Bama doesn’t get a bonus for being the best program in the game since Nick Saban took over. The playoff is about the games played in the last four months only.

I don’t buy into the conspiracy theories floating around that ESPN wasn’t about to let their future partner the SEC get left on the outside. It is, though, another blow to college sports that a lot of folks are buying into those theories this morning. I think it’s just a super flawed process that had no clear outcome that would have been fair to all. However, you don’t have to be a conspiracist to have known there was no way that it would be Alabama and Georgia who would get screwed in the process.

Mostly I got fired up because the SEC nonsense actually had me wanting Texas to win Saturday so they could put the squeeze on the SEC. I guess KU gets a cut of the Texas CFP payout, so that’s cool. But I’m all about Washington for the next month.

KU Bowl Game

KU goes to Phoenix to play UNLV. Which is kind of weird since the teams will play week three next season in Lawrence.

Seems like it should be a high scoring game, which is how all bowl games should be. I probably just cursed it into being a 17–14 penalty-fest.

Jayhawk fans are now holding our collective breath that no key players decide to sit the game out as they prepare for the draft. Which is dumb. For us fans, not the players. It’s dumb because this game is basically meaningless. It will be cool if KU wins its first bowl game since 2008 and gets its ninth win. Grand scheme of things, though, this is just an exhibition and if Devin Neal or whoever decide they’d rather protect themselves for their pro career, its just a bummer, not something to lose sleep over.

Colts

The Colts remain in the playoff hunt thanks to a truly stupid win in Nashville. Were this not already a pretty long post, I would dive into the details. I mean, the Titans punter got flipped completely upside down and that was NOT the play he might have destroyed his leg on. Let’s all just accept it was a stupid game in every single way and move on.

Holiday Vibes

We went to a Christmas party briefly Saturday. We hung out for maybe 90 minutes then bugged out. It’s not that it wasn’t fun. We just didn’t know a ton of people and weren’t super in the mood to mingle with strangers. Also, S and I both realized we couldn’t hear shit. Everyone was crammed into two connected rooms and our old people ears just were not working at all. S had a long conversation with a lady and I could only catch snippets of it because they were operating in the 5’1” to 5’4” airspace and my ears being a foot higher just could not keep up. I don’t think my hearing is terrible in normal settings. But, man, put me in a crowded room and it goes to shit pretty quick.

M has her last final tomorrow morning, so I’ll be picking her up around noon. We keep telling her that is super early, and our finals always went much deeper into December. I swear we usually wrapped things up at KU right around December 20. UC did not have a fall break, which I guess helps.

Her roommate is already done and went home yesterday. M also has some friends who have a final this Friday at 5:30, which seems like kind of a dick move.

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