D's Notebook

Tag: Kansas Jayhawks (Page 6 of 39)

Holiday Weekend Notes

November 27, 2023 /

For the first time in three years we were home for Thanksgiving week. We packed a lot in, and it deserves a wide-ranging, extra-long breakdown.

College Visitor

I picked M up Tuesday around noon after her last scheduled class of the week. We grabbed lunch at Hangover Easy, a place just off campus I’ve wanted to try just because of their shirts. It was solid, but I couldn’t find any shirts for sale. I guess I’ll have to get one online.

That night she (and C) went with me to L’s game. M had a couple nights out with high school friends, but didn’t do anything too crazy. She thought about going to the IU-Purdue game with one of her best friends but they slept too late to make it to Lafayette in time. Seemed like she behaved herself. Unlike me during my freshman Thanksgiving break, when I may have consumed as much alcohol as I ever did before or have since.

S ran her back to school Sunday evening.

She will be back soon. UC has class this week then go straight into exams. She only has two true finals. One of them would normally be on the 9th, but all tests for that course are done outside class, so she’s hoping she can come home earlier in the week.

Oh, she was also elected as social chair of her house. Most of the new officers don’t take over their duties until January, but since she has to plan the formal this spring, she’s already pretty deep in finding a venue and getting all that arranged. Shocking she would be social chair, right?

Hawaii Basketball

Mixed results for KU out in Oahu. Smashed Chaminade in round one, as expected, with Kevin McCullar becoming the first KU player ever to record back-to-back triple doubles.

Then smashed by Marquette in the second round. That game never felt close, which was super annoying. There was the added bonus of Shaka Smart acting like a clown and then pretending he didn’t know why anyone was upset. It’s always a shame when someone acts like a punk then wins the game. Thanks to the Purdue-Tennessee game taking about five hours to play and this one starting after 11:00 PM eastern, I recorded it and watched first thing Wednesday morning. Good call, as I was able to fast forward through most of the second half. I would have been up until 4:00 AM pissed had I watched live.

Finally an encouraging win over a tough Tennessee team in the consolation final. Jamari McDowell stepping up might have been the best development of the week.

KU has some holes, but I think as a few players get more comfortable, those holes will get smaller. And Bill Self will figure out how to hide them better as the season continues. This is a good team that can get a lot better.

Jim Irsay

Oh boy…

In case you missed it, the Colts owner appeared on HBO’s Real Sports and, as is his general MO, was very candid about his life. Which in general is a good thing. Until he claimed that the only reason he was arrested a decade ago when he was pulled over for driving under the influence was because he is a “rich, white, billionaire.”

Please note he was pulled over and arrested in Carmel, IN, which isn’t exactly the most diverse suburb in our area, nor one that has ever been noted for its anti-capitalist views. Hell, the new mayor who was elected earlier this month refused to denounce a local mom’s group that used a quote from Hitler in their literature.

So, sure, the white cops in a super white, conservative suburb decided that they were going to stick it to the man by arresting the Colts owner.

It’s sad that someone who has done so much to both own up to his mistakes and help end the stigma around mental heath disease can’t take responsibility here and resorted to pretending that he, with endless resources and likely decades of people looking the other way at similar behavior, is the person oppressed by a racist police department.

Thanksgiving

Last year we were in Italy for Thanksgiving. Two years ago Hawaii. So it was nice to be back home again in Indiana for the holiday this year. We hosted, and had just 16 this year. We’ll be closer to 30 at Christmas so this felt super manageable.

I did the bird, Giada’s dressing, and potatoes. We delayed our meal until later in the day to allow for a sister-in-law and her kids to return from their trip to Denver. That made the day a lot easier than eating around 1–2 as we usually do. Although that last 45 minutes always gets crazy no matter what time you eat.

KU-UC

Several of you asked over the past week. No, I did not drive down to Cincinnati for the KU-UC game Saturday night. Had the game been played at noon, I could have made it work. However, the 7:30 kickoff was the exact moment that L’s game was scheduled to tip. As much as I love my Jayhawks, I love my daughters more, and chose to be a good dad.[1] Plus, M wasn’t interested in going back on Saturday and we really didn’t want to make the drive both Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and it was very cold.

Naturally I was annoyed that I missed it given the result. When we walked out of the CHS gym, KU had just taken a 21–10 lead into halftime. As we were pulling into our driveway Devin Neal was scoring his second touchdown of the night to extend the lead. Once I was seated in front of the TV I made M come down and watch with me. The next hour or so involved a lot of me waving the wheat and sending her bean emojis – 🫘 – with her flipping me off and telling me how much the Bearcats “freaking suck” in return.

Good times!

Sooooo happy for Jason Bean. Sure, the UC defense had basically given up by the fourth quarter, but it was fantastic for him to cap his regular season college career with two more long touchdown runs. His 340 total yards were both super-efficient and impressive. The guy has taken a lot of abuse, verbal and physical, over his career. He tried to leave KU last summer but no one wanted him. And, in the end, he is as responsible for KU’s turnaround as Jalon Daniels is. JD beat Texas two years ago. But Bean nearly beat OU that same year, did beat OU this year, and led the Jayhawks to two conference road wins this season. KU won eight total conference games from 2009 to 2021. Jason Bean has been the starter in six Big 12 wins over the past two years. When this season seemed to be on the verge of going down the toilet because Daniels could no longer play, Bean stepped in and KU barely missed a beat, winning eight regular season games for the first time since 2007.

There is a lot of praise to go around for the KU turnaround, from Lance Leipold and his staff, to Travis Goff and the athletic department, to players like Daniels, Neal, Kenny Logan, Cobee Bryant, etc. Bean’s name needs to be high on that list as well.

Eight wins! The Big 12 was a true adventure this year, with results often not making sense from week-to-week. KU was pretty damn steady, though, with the only real blip coming over the past two weeks because Bean was hurt and Cole Ballard had to drop his clipboard and fill in for 2½ games. KU was damn close to 11–1, and who knows, maybe they can stick with Texas longer if Bean had practiced as the QB1 all week instead of finding out about 30 minutes before the game that he was the starter.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

Other Football

As much as I hated all the hype that surrounded Ohio State – Michigan, that was a hell of a game. Incredibly entertaining.

M asked me if the weekend after Thanksgiving is when most rivalries play. I liked that she picked that up. I switched to Indiana-Purdue a few times during the OSU-UM game and that game felt very familiar. For a good chunk of my life the Kansas-Missouri game was at the end of the year,[2] and at least one team was usually pretty bad. Some years both sucked. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a cold-ass stadium in late November with 24,000 other people watching two shitty teams battle for bragging rights and not much else.

The Colts are 6–5? The Colts are 6–5! They would be playing in a Wild Card game if the season ended today. They have a pretty favorable schedule remaining, too. They – especially Gardner Minshew – do not make it easy each week, so I wouldn’t go printing playoff tickets up just yet.

Poor Detroit fans. It’s been since early in the Barry Sanders years that they had a good team to root for on Thanksgiving. When it finally happens again, they get curb-stomped by a mediocre Green Bay team. Just a cursed franchise.

Oh, and the Buffalo-Philadelphia game was straight-up awesome. Rain and a sloppy field. Josh Allen doing good Josh Allen things. Jalen Hurts doing Jalen Hurts things. Maybe the biggest and most clutch field goal in adverse conditions since Adam Vinatieri’s kick in the snow 21 years ago. And then a fun overtime to top it off. That was a fine way to end a terrific weekend of sports.

Pacers

The Pacers are a wild-ass team. Last Tuesday they clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament with a 157–152 win over Atlanta. When we got home from L’s game, the Pacers were down by 20. I know everyone makes a run in the NBA, but coming back from 20 down to build a 12-point lead is kind of crazy. Even then the game came down to the final minute, and the Pacers just did not miss. Tyrese Haliburton had 37 points and 16 assists. Buddy Hield was 6-for–6 from deep. I don’t know that Bobby Knight purists love them, but I sure enjoy watching this year’s team.

They scored 131 the next night…and lost by one. Which was kind of incredible given what they did the night before. Then they dropped another 136 in a win on Friday. They are on pace to shatter the record the Sacramento Kings set last year as the most efficient offense in NBA history.

  1. Guess who has a game the same time as the KU-IU game in Bloomington in two weeks?  ↩
  2. I believe if you dive into the site’s archives you can find some of my thoughts about football rivalries and when they should be played.  ↩

Weekend Notes

November 20, 2023 /

Kind of a chill weekend, with the holiday ahead of us. M does not come home until Tuesday so it was the usual crew around the house. L had a game Friday, more on that later. The weather was nice, so S and I did some yard work at a sister’s house Sunday. And a fair amount of football, the biggest game being a certain showdown in a certain state when a certain blogger attended college.

KU-KSU

Ugh.

Uggggghhhhhhh.

So freaking close to ending the 14-game losing streak to the Wildcats, closing out the current edition of Booth Memorial Stadium with a huge win, and going to Cincinnati next weekend with a chance for win #8, the program’s most since 2007.

The first four minutes could not have gone worse for KU, giving up a long pass on K-State’s first play then letting them score soon after, and following that up with a quick three-and-out. K-State is not a team you can get behind under normal circumstances. When you’re playing with your third-string quarterback, there is way less room for mistakes.

Fortunately the KU defense bucked their heads on K-State’s second drive, then Devin Neal got busy. Two Neal touchdowns had KU a PAT away from a touchdown lead in front of a frenzied home crowd. So naturally KU decided not to block a dude, who smothered the kick and then ran it back for a safety. Instead of 14–7, it’s 13–9 and KU fans are getting a queasy feeling in their stomaches.

Still KU led by four at halftime, and quickly added another Devin Neal TD early in the third quarter to extend the lead.

Then came the play of the game. Senior linebacker Rich Miller had a sure pick-six in his hands. And he dropped it. It was inevitable that KSU would rip off a long run on the next play, and eventually punch it in and get the two-point conversion to cut the lead to three. The game might have been over if Miller walks that interception into the end zone. Seriously, he could have done cartwheels into the end zone. Maybe he was trying to do just that and that’s why he dropped it.

Now it was just a question of how KU would find a way to blow the game. Turns out it was by fumbling a punt at midfield early in the fourth quarter.

Such a dumb play. So, so stupid. I don’t want to kill the kid who made the blunder, but he did the exact same thing in the Oklahoma game. JUST CATCH THE DAMN BALL.

31–27 Kansas State, final. Which, if KU blocks that guy in the first half and then K-State doesn’t go for two in the third quarter, it’s actually a tie game as KU drove late. And instead of getting picked off in the end zone on fourth down, they kick the short field goal to take the lead in the closing minutes.

Who am I kidding? If the game was tied and it came down to a field goal attempt, KU would have missed it. Or K-State would have blocked that one and run it back.

Sigh.

A game effort from KU when a lot was stacked against them. The offensive coaches had a pretty great plan for limiting what freshman Cole Ballard had to do, and he played a nearly perfect game in the first half. It felt like KU ran out of wrinkles in the second half, though, and Ballard was asked to do more than he is capable of at the moment. He was lucky that a couple bad balls weren’t picked, then luckier when his first interception was negated two plays later by a Mello Dotson pick. I can’t fault Ballard for the interception on KU’s final offensive play. It wasn’t a great throw and as the Fox announcers pointed out, the KU receivers did not run great routes. I was more annoyed that since KU knew it needed a touchdown, that Neal didn’t touch the ball on first or second down. Passing early with an inexperienced quarterback against a good defense seemed like a real reach. Give your stud who grew up in Lawrence hating Kansas State a couple shots at punching it in.

Oh well. KU did a lot right Saturday and aside from three mistakes, did more than enough to win the game. Those three mistakes were huge, though, and K-State took advantage of each one. That’s where KU is trying to get, when you are the team that holds steady in the game’s biggest moments. The Jayhawks are closer, so much closer than they have been for years, but they still aren’t there yet.

Throw in the fourth quarter collapse in Stillwater and the funkiness last week against Tech, and KU is very close to being 10–1. 9–2 is much more realistic. 7–4 with one to play is nothing to be mad about, especially at KU. But Saturday was a huge missed opportunity.

I have to say I got sick of all the KU-KState “banter” on Twitter. It’s one thing to talk shit with your rival. But a lot of what happens on Twitter is just dumb, lacking in either thought or foundation in facts. I guess that kind of sums up social media, right? I miss the old, third party Twitter apps that allowed you to mute people for specific amounts of time and then automatically bring them back into your feed. Maybe the Tech Toddler will post some more racist/anti-semitic stuff and he’ll get bought/forced out and some new ownership will bring back those options.

Michigan

In other college football news, I’ve never felt strongly about Michigan. Pretty much everyone here in Big 10 country seems to hate the school and their fans. In the time we’ve lived here, Ohio State has generally been the better team, so I’ve learned to hate Buckeyes fans more than Wolverines fans. The only Michigan person I know is pretty cool, plus he’s an Indy native so his Hoosier DNA balances some of that Wolverine douchiness.

But the last couple weeks have flipped that.

I’m not super fired up about the Michigan sign stealing scandal. Everyone is trying to steal signs. You can’t tell me every program doesn’t have some grad assistant watching tape and trying to match up formations with whatever signs they can pick up on the sidelines, looking for an advantage.

And I feel like whatever Michigan was doing was way less egregious than what the Houston Astros did. A baseball hitter knowing whether the next pitch is a fastball or off-speed makes a huge difference in their approach. I don’t think stealing signs in football gives you the same advantage, as it’s an 11-v–11 matchup, and if you adjust your defense, the offense can audible to another call. Plus pretty much every coach who has talked about it claims they often rotate their signals, so what you learned in week three may have no relevance in week six.

That said…Michigan fans need to shut the fuck up. This whole Michigan Vs. Everybody bullshit is so fucking dumb. You had a booster paying someone to go to games and steal signs. That seems a little dirty, even if 90% of other coaches are smacking their heads because they didn’t think of it first. And it’s pretty telling when the Big 10 presented all their evidence to UM and Jim Harbaugh quickly agreed to serve a three-game suspension. That doesn’t seem like a manufactured witch hunt to me at all. It seems like UM fans should be thankful Harbaugh folded and a more significant punishment wasn’t levied.

And I think those UM fans who rushed the field in Maryland after UM won the program’s 1000th game should all be shot. Or at least imprisoned for a lengthy amount of time. And they have the nerve to wonder why people hate them. I might actually root for Ohio State this week…

HS Football

Not super relevant to our family but thought I would share that Indiana will have a new 6A football champion for the first time in four years.

Center Grove was down 18 in the third quarter, came back to take a lead, then couldn’t cover a Ben Davis fumble in the closing seconds of regulation, allowing the Giants to kick a tying field goal that sent the game to overtime. CG could only manage a field goal while Ben Davis scored a touchdown to advance to the state title game.

Quite a run for the Giants. They were down 18 to #1 Brownsburg in the sectional finals and came back to win with 24 fourth-quarter points. It took a field goal in the final 90 seconds then an interception to knock off Cathedral in regionals. And now this, the biggest win of all. Props to them. Ben Davis is one of the most successful programs in Indiana history, but they’ve been down a little lately. A lot of people who probably wouldn’t normally pull for them were hoping they could end Center Grove’s streak Friday night. Not only had CG won three-straight state titles, the year before their streak began they lost in the state title game. Hell of a run. I’m sure they’ll still be really good next year.

Jayhawk Talk: Champions Classic

November 15, 2023 /

Without going back and reading a bunch of them, I’m assuming my Champions Classic posts have a similar theme every year: that wasn’t pretty basketball. Most years it is at least competitive, but despite the big-time matchup, it rarely has the same juice as a March tournament game.

Chalk that up for another year, with #1 KU outlasting Kentucky by five last night.

It was a game of swings.

KU opened up ahead 8–0 then 11–3. Some of us were cautiously thinking this could, finally, be payback for the Cats’ destruction of the Jayhawks back in 2014.

As always, such thoughts were noticed by the Hoops Gods, and Kentucky started hitting just about every three they threw up, disrupting KU’s offense, and charged back, leading by double digits before Hunter Dickinson swished a three at the halftime buzzer to cut UK’s lead to seven at the break.

I was pretty chill during the first half. Yes, KU was out of sorts and had totally abandoned looking inside. But Kentucky was a bunch of (super-talented) freshman, Bill Self >>> John Calipari when it comes to actual coaching, and the second half would be much different.

Thus it made total sense that UK doubled their led in about three minutes because what the hell do I know about basketball?

To say I was not enthused was an understatement. I was dreading how a team that couldn’t hang with a bunch of kids playing their first marquee college game would matchup with Marquette/UCLA/Tennessee/Purdue next week in Hawaii.

Then Self did some of that coaching shit, though, and the game flipped.

The KU offense inverted, sending Dickinson out high with KJ Adams low or DaJuan Harris in the mid-post, and KU started getting shots at the rim and slicing into the deficit.

The last 10 minutes were straight fun. KU comes all the way back, and even takes a brief lead, before falling behind by six with around four minutes. KJ Adams had just fouled out, Kevin McCullar had four fouls, and several of the KU players looked frightened to shoot. This did not bode well for my Jayhawks’ hopes.

Then something crazy happened: Harris scored eight points in one minute of game time, draining consecutive 3’s then hitting two free throws. KU never trailed again as their defense pretty much shut down everything UK tried to do, closing the game on a 14–3 run.

Worth noting this comeback, while with lower stakes, came on the same court, and going the same direction on that court, as KU’s massive second half against Miami that propelled them to the Final Four two years ago.

Cool shit.

Also cool was Dickinson absolutely dominating without trying very hard. 27 points, 21 rebounds. Yes, UK was missing all three of their biggest players. Even so, this game was a sign of what Dickinson can do.

Kevin McCullar had a bad game in some ways, shooting horrifically from outside and with a few bad turnovers. Yet it will go down in history as the third recorded triple double in KU history as he scored 12, had 10 assists, and grabbing the final UK miss right before the game ended for his 10th rebound. He’s going to be a feast-or-famine player offensively all season. This game shows how good he can be even when the shots aren’t falling.

DaJuan Harris told the world a week ago, after taking just one shot in KU’s first two games, he was saving his shots for when the team needed them. I guess we should have listened to him. He cashed a 3 on the game’s first possession, and hit five-in-a-row before a desperation heave at the end of the shot clock missed badly. I don’t think going 5-for–5 will be normal, but as always, if he can take and hit a few every night, that will open up so much for the offense.

The bench was trash. Just straight, hot garbage. Four combined points in 37 player minutes, and two of those were free throws by freshman Jamari McDowell in the final 10 seconds. A lot to work on here. Johnny Furphy will get better. Hopefully the other guys can, too.

Play of the game? Had to be McCullar throwing a half-court lob to Adams, who jammed it home from a near-impossible angle. KJ is low-key one of the best dunkers in KU history, combining Udoka Azubuike’s power with Andrew Wiggins’ leaping ability.

Another theme for these annual posts is that I’m not sure what you take from these games. Kentucky was far from full strength. This win will still look really good in March when seeding time comes around. Cal might still fuck it up, but seems like he finally had a class of outstanding freshman who can actually play together. We’ll see if he can keep them on the same page when their bigs come back.

KU took some punches and responded as they should against a team filled with first-year players. The shooting and depth will be issues all year, but it feels like most of the Jayhawks other struggles Tuesday were things that will be cleared up with more time together. The offense, which has more pro-sets than ever to play to Dickinson’s strengths, was often very slow to develop. The defense was solid much of the game, but I would expect them to have forced more than eight turnovers from a team playing almost all freshmen.

The Jayhawks have now won four-in-a-row in the Champions Classic, tied with Duke at 8–5 overall in the series. KU has now won six of the last eight versus Kentucky. More importantly, after the NCAA sanctions knocked KU back behind UK in the all time wins ledger, this was a huge game in re-claiming that title, something Bill Self mentioned early in his postgame comments.

It was a big night. But there are plenty more big nights to come this year.

Weekend Notes

October 30, 2023 /

What a weekend, filled with swings of mood and weather.

KANSAS FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

Kansas 38, Oklahoma 33. LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!!

One of the biggest wins in program history. That alone would make Saturday’s win over the #6 Sooners memorable. It just had so much of…everything, I guess, that no KU fan who watched it will ever forget it.

This feels like a game that could easily turn into a 5000 word account. So I’ll try to keep it brief(-ish) by just bullet-pointing how bizarre it was.

  • KU jumps out to a quick lead with a pick six on OU’s first possession. Apparently my cable feed was working on a 20 second delay because I saw four tweets about Mello Dotson putting KU up 7–0 before I saw the play. At first I thought it was a joke because my TV was lagging so much.
  • KU went up 14–0 and then were the victims of the worst personal foul penalty in the history of college football, Craig Young flagged for a late hit when he neither shoved nor tackled Drake Stoops, and Stoops head butted him TWICE after the play was over. KU fans were quick with “Dollar Signs” memes.
  • After Oklahoma scored and got the ball back, the game was stopped for an hour because of lightning. On a day when the temps were in the 30s. Midwest weather remains undefeated.
  • After the delay Oklahoma took approximately nine seconds to tie the game. Then KU fumbled the kickoff and OU immediately took the lead. I started having vibes of the 1991 Nebraska game when KU lead 17–0 after the first quarter and we were all losing our minds then we still managed to lose 59–23. Calvin fucking Jones.
  • Much maligned quarterback Jason Bean missed WIDE OPEN receivers in the end zone on two straight plays and KU settled for a field goal before halftime. You can’t miss opportunities like that and hope to beat OU.
  • KU forced a fumble and then Bean ran it in from 39 yards out on the next play. Only for him to short hop a ball to an uncovered receiver on the two-point attempt. KU was 0–3 on two point attempts for the day.
  • On third and goal early in the fourth quarter Bean scrambled and rather than diving into the end zone, slid, his knee touching just short of the goal line. Just a horrible, horrible mistake. KU Twitter was in full meltdown mode until we noticed the flag on the field. Fortunately Bean was bailed out by a personal foul on OU and Daniel Hishaw gave KU the lead on the next play.
  • On the ensuing kick, KU booted it short, OU fumbled, and the Jayhawks recovered. Hishaw went 20 yards on the first snap to extend the lead, literally high-stepping the last five yards. It was this game’s Monte Cozzens moment. Somewhere in the student section a kid who shares my name was nearly passing out like I did on that day in 1992. Only KU was called for holding. Three plays later came a badly missed field goal. Instead of being up 12, it was still just a five-point game, and OU seemed to have snatched back the momentum.
  • Literally seconds after Fox’s Jason Benetti said that Bean had avoided the mistakes that plagued him in big moments, he threw an interception deep in KU territory. It wasn’t entirely his fault – the ball went through a receiver’s hands – but it was a poor throw. OU took the lead a couple plays later.
  • On the next possession Bean threw a terrible ball for another pick. The game was over, as OU was inside the KU 40 with 2:52 left. I was literally throwing things and cussing. Luckily C and L were gone and S was upstairs getting ready for the party we were going to so I was the only witness.
  • Only in what may be the biggest upset of the day, the Jayhawks had all three timeouts. KANSAS FOOTBALL, which has been taking timeouts at all the wrong times for 15 years, had all three time outs late in a close game. Unbelievable. The defense got two-straight tackles for losses and held on third down. When OU lined up to go for it, a wide receiver – A WIDE RECEIVER – got called for a false start. OU punted.
  • KU had about 2:00 to go 80 yards.
  • After getting two first downs the Jayhawks faced a 4th and 6. Lawrence Arnold got open, hauled in a perfect strike from Bean, and raced 37 yards for the first down. Again, KANSAS FOOTBALL got 37 yards on a fourth down that meant the game against a Top 10 Oklahoma team. Wacky, wild shit.
  • One play later Devon Neal nearly fumbled behind the line but scampered in for the go-ahead score with 52 seconds remaining.
  • Dillon Gabriel had done this shit against Texas earlier in October. I doubt any KU fans were super confident he wouldn’t do it again. I feared the worst. Gabriel completed a 40 yard pass to get in range to take a shot at the end zone on the game’s final play. KU broke up the pass and mayhem ensued. Although even that play was a mess. Instead of knocking the ball down, Kwinton Lassiter tried to pick it off. Which he did out of bounds, but he also gave the OU receivers a shot at the ball. Never easy with this program.
  • Finally, the field was rushed and the goalposts came down.

Whew! What a fucking game. Not sure it was healthy for my heart but the result made it all worth it.

The first KU win over a Top 10 team since the 2008 Orange Bowl.
The first win over Oklahoma since 1997.
The first win at home over a Top 10 team since 1984.
Lance Leipold became the first KU coach to beat both Oklahoma and Texas since the 1930s. Granted, KU and Texas didn’t play for a long, long time. Still he did in three seasons what about 100 other KU coaches couldn’t do in nearly a century.

And the added bonus that the Fox crew was in town for their pregame show. Although no one really watches that, but, still. Urban Meyer said nice things about Kansas, Lawrence, and the program. I know most Americans find him to be of the highest character and his opinions to be unassailable, so you can’t put a dollar value on how much that helps KU going forward.

Oh, and KU will go to a bowl game in consecutive years for the second time in program history.

Pretty fucking cool way to spend four and a half hours of my Saturday.

So, where does this win rank all time?

It is certainly one of the three biggest wins of my life, right up there with winning the Orange Bowl in 2008 and beating Nebraska by 1000 points in 2007.

Honestly, if the team lays a big, fat turd in the last month of the season, much of the luster of this win gets wiped away. But grab two, three, even four more wins and this has a legitimate claim to the #1 spot on that list.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

KU Hoops

Yuck.

A seven-point loss at Illinois in an exhibition game. Illinois controlled most of the game on both ends. KU’s offense was pretty bad. I’ll chalk some of that up to not running anything super complex. But the absolute lack of outside shooting is a major concern because it confirms the biggest fear about this team.

You can’t overreact to an exhibition game, so I won’t. But my go-to complaint all year is going to be wasting a scholarship on a player who arrived with a domestic assault charge and was kicked off the team when he was charged with rape, instead of filling the clear hole that the team had. You can never, ever have too much shooting.

In super exciting news for all college hoops fans, there are now apparently more plays that can be reviewed. Which is awesome! We need to make games last longer because all action stops while the referees stare at a TV screen and try to decide if they want to overrule themselves or not. Based on the reviews in the KU game, referees still can’t figure out how to not spend three minutes reviewing a play that takes the announcers and TV audience no longer than five seconds to see a clear decision. Either go to limited coach’s challenges or just get rid of replay. It is literally the worst.

Did I mention that we beat Oklahoma in football?

NFL

Looks like the Colts are shitty again.

And I guess the Ravens are indeed the best team in the NFL for the moment. Or maybe the Bengals? But probably the Eagles. Sorry for the jinx last week, Chiefs fans.

Other Shit

Cathedral won their football sectional opener 42–2 Friday night. They will have a tougher game this week.

S and I went to dinner Friday with the families we hung out with most over spring break, the first time we had all been together since graduation party season. It was a gorgeous night and we were able to sit outside.

Meanwhile I wore a coat this morning when I took L to school.

The Cathedral boys lost in the state soccer final Saturday, 2–0 to the, now, three-time defending champs.

L’s team had a scrimmage Thursday night. She played about 19 minutes, all in the second half, against a varsity team. She didn’t do much. 0–3 from the field. A rebound and a turnover. Offense was pretty ragged. Not sure she was on the court very much with the girls she’ll play with when the real games start. They have another week of practice to get ready for that.

We went to S’s sister’s house Saturday for their annual Halloween party. It was very odd going without any of our kids. S spent a lot of time on Pinterest coming up with our contribution to the spread.

“Six Years And All We Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt?”

October 12, 2023 /

Obviously I’m reaching a bit with my subject line. For it to work you have to imagine it is one of the geniuses at the NCAA asking the question when they realize that after six years of investigation and invective and irritation the biggest outcome of their inquiry into the Kansas basketball program is that the second half of the Jayhawks’ 2018 season, when Silvio de Sousa played, gets wiped from the record books. NCAA officials will soon arrive at homes of KU fans to confiscate our 2018 Final Four t-shirts, because Malik Newman never dropped 32 on Duke in the Elite Eight.[1]

All things considered, I’m fine removing a Final Four banner in exchange for closing this chapter and moving on. Pretty much everything about this case went KU’s way. Well, other than taking six years and wrecking multiple recruiting classes. All KU did with those “subpar” recruiting classes was be the pre-Covid favorite to win the title in 2020 and win a national championship in 2022.

This case came down to overreach by the NCAA, simple and plain. Was there evidence that Bill Self and his staff were aware that Adidas was funneling money to players? Yes, but not nearly as compelling evidence as other schools that were involved in this round of investigations. But KU also turned in Billy Preston before he ever played a game at Kansas, Zion Williamson went to Duke, and DeAndre Ayton went to Arizona.[2] Silvio de Sousa was the only player involved in the investigation that actually played for the Jayhawks. And, as some salty KU fans pointed out, the NCAA had vetted his eligibility not once but twice, each time ruling him fit to play.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is that these sham NCAA “investigations” into player eligibility are as bogus as when schools say they’ve done a “thorough review” of a player’s status and cleared them to play. Very odd that despite, again, TWO different NCAA reviews of de Sousa’s status, they gave him the green light to play each time yet he’s the basis of the most significant penalties against the Jayhawks. Seems like some of those investigators should go on probation.

We knew this was coming, though. The NCAA’s IARP group had already let Arizona, LSU, Louisville, and North Carolina State off with minimal penalties. There was no way Kansas, with far less concrete evidence against them, would get hammered.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t worried. The NCAA has taken a lot of fire in the press for this entire process. I did fear that with KU being last on the list, the NCAA might put its thumb on the scales and overrule what the independent investigation group presented to them. Those worries were fueled by multiple rumors that at different times over the past two years KU and the IARP had presented the NCAA with what amounted to plea deals, and the NCAA had rejected them. This was the NCAA’s final chance to save face in a moment when every aspect of their authority over college sports is being questioned.

Fortunately sanity ruled the day.

The penalties added to what KU had already implemented are not insignificant. In addition to KU’s 2018 Final Four, the school loses 15 wins, knocking them back behind Kentucky in the all-time wins list.[3] Plus they lose their 14th consecutive Big 12 title, a Big 12 tournament title, and their all-time best NCAA appearance streak actually ended in 2017. That may not satisfy the haters, but in a sport that is hyper aware of all the history it is built upon, those are clear media guide touch points that KU can no longer claim.

Sorry, I can’t say that with a straight face. None of that history book shit matters. We all saw KU beat Duke in the ’18 Elite Eight (and Villanova destroy KU a week later in the Final Four). We saw Devonté Graham’s crazy shot crawl in during the final minute against Texas Tech to clinch the Big 12 title. We all saw Graham and Newman hit shot after shot in the second half of the Big 12 tournament championship game against West Virginia. All those games might be removed from the official record, or stamped with an asterisk, but that doesn’t erase the memories of what we watched.

We Jayhawk fans should be counting our blessings and thanking the Hoops Gods today that the NCAA is too incompetent to run an investigation properly. There was plenty of evidence to hammer KU. As I’ve said many times over the past six years, I have zero doubt that Self (and the other head coaches involved in the investigation) was well aware of what Adidas was doing. Just as all the Nike coaches knew how Nike was assisting their recruiting efforts, no matter how much they insist otherwise. From all accounts that don’t come from mouthpieces of the NCAA, though, the organization handled every aspect of these investigations terribly. They overreached. They moved the goalposts throughout the process. Their initial charges were based on cherry picked evidence from the federal cases against Adidas employees, which each school could easily counter with other evidence both presented in those federal trials and accepted by the juries and judges as fact. The IARP being run by attorneys rather than NCAA employees made bringing a half-assed case a losing bet.

After six years we’re finally done. KU is still eligible to play in this year’s tournament, and every tournament going forward. Bill Self gets to keep his job. Other than a few recruiting restrictions over the next couple years, the worst penalties are all in the past. Seems like a pretty good deal for the Jayhawks.

I might have to wear my 2018 Final Four shirt to the gym today.

  1. Will official highlights like the one I linked to disappear, too?  ↩

  2. I believe it was national writer Gary Parrish who suggested, something like three years ago, that Duke was KU’s Get Out of Jail card. There was no way the NCAA was going to do a deep dive into Zion’s recruitment, despite there being multiple examples of coaches from other schools talking about what his father was asking for on the FBI wiretaps, because to do so would mean actually taking a long look at the relationship between Nike and Duke.  ↩

  3. Also very strange that KU has to forfeit games de Sousa played in during the 2018 season, but not the following season.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 9, 2023 /

Going to flip things up a bit, as our family had a rough week that’s worth getting caught up on first.

Squad News

Monday M got diagnosed with mono. She’s been sick for weeks and it took a turn last weekend, so she went and got checked. She told us she could see the test turn positive from across the room. So she REALLY has mono, I guess. She had a terrible couple of days but after starting on some steroids, improved pretty rapidly.

She ended up coming home for the weekend – UC is off Monday and one of her local buddies offered her a ride – so she was able to have some downtime away from the dorm. When she was awake she seemed pretty normal, but she did sleep even longer than usual. Hopefully she’s on the right path for recovery. Funny how when your kid gets mono everyone you know has to tell you the story of the person they knew who missed a year of school when they got it. I know one of those people, so I understand some of those stories are legit.[1]

Otherwise she seems to be doing great at school.

That wasn’t our worst health news of the week. Friday morning L cracked heads with a teammate in practice and failed a concussion test after. She went to class for a bit but started to feel bad and I picked her up around 11. She had all the classic symptoms – headache, dizziness, light sensitivity – and they were pretty bad both Friday and Saturday. Sunday they hadn’t improved much but she was feeling a little more like herself.

The girl she knocked heads with is a good friend of hers. She stopped by Sunday to give L a bag of candy, which was nice.

Obviously we’re being very careful. She’s anxious to get back to school and on the court. We told her to slow her roll, it’s better to miss some time and have to make school work up and catch up in practice than get hit again before she is healed and miss even more time.

C didn’t have any issues last week. But we are still working to get her back issue figured out. She’s had an injection that didn’t work, seen a back specialist, and a spine specialist. Friday she goes back to the spine specialist for a more advanced injection he hopes can give her some relief.

HS Football

Friday was the first time Cathedral played Roncalli, the Catholic school on the south side of Indy, during the regular season in 13 years. They used to play every season and often played in the state tournament before Cathedral moved up two classes.

Roncalli won a state title three years ago and were very good last year but are a little down again. Friday the Irish killed them 42–0, extending their winning streak in the series to 13.

I only heard a few possessions as I was picking M up right when the game started. She laughed because one of her UC friends graduated from RHS and was going to the game. He said he was only going because his dad was making him and it was stupid to go because “We’re going to be down 30–0 at halftime.” It was, indeed, 28–0 at half.

Now it’s on to the final week of the regular season, the big Center Grove game. Center Grove is ranked #2 in the state but #23 in the country, so pretty much the same old same old down there.[2] Because a huge crowd is expected and CG is still complaining about having to play on real grass two years ago, the game has been moved to Butler’s stadium. Not sure if I’m going or not yet. I have a big day Saturday and have yet to determine if going to a game Friday night fits with those plans.

The Irish have adjusted their offense and played much better the last four weeks but it will take their best game of the year, by far, to hang with the three-time defending 6A champs.

Late Night

Friday night was also Late Night in Lawrence. Someone asked the question online if Late Night is washed. My response was “Of course it is.” The concept is 40 years old and pretty much every variation has been tried. If you expect anything more than silly/dumb skits and a ragged scrimmage you’re asking for way too much.

Where Late Night used to be the first chance for fans to see new players, we’ve now seen their highlight videos, seen them play on ESPN as high schoolers, seen viewed clips from summer pickup games, etc. In the transfer portal era we’ve even seen some of them play against their current teams. One of my buddies shared that he thought a guy who played for KU when we were in school was white until Late Night, which I thought was hilarious. No such issues these days.

(Lengthy aside: an underrated big day on the college hoops calendar back in our time was the first game after classes had started for the second semester. We always anxiously watched the tunnel the players came out of to make sure everyone was eligible. There was always one guy you were worried about. There was nothing like that moment of relief and elation when you saw Terry Brown or Alonzo Jamison walk onto the court in uniform. Of course today, when athletes take enough hours in the summer and online to stay eligible, kids have no idea about this flavor of anxiety.)

I say accept Late Night for what it is, the ceremonial start to the hoops season, and don’t ask any more of it.

College Football

We had a front blow through Friday night that crashed the temperatures. Saturday and Sunday were both cool and blustery. Which made each day perfect for sitting on my ass and watching football.

The Oklahoma-Texas game was awesome. I was super entertained for the three-plus hours it took the Sooners to pull out the win. And while I hate both schools for leaving the Big 12, I always lean OU in that game since they were a Big 8 school, so I was pleased with the result.

I was super nervous about the KU-Central Florida game. We knew Jalon Daniels would not be playing, which meant KU would feature the run. UCF’s defensive strength is their interior line. Seemed like it could go sideways pretty easily. I was both nervous about losing and about what an L would mean for the season. Drop this game, at home, and the road to bowl eligibility gets a lot tougher, many of the hopes of August quashed in early October.

Silly me. The Jayhawks manhandled those fools. One snap into the second half it was 31–0. Methodical marches down the field. Great defense (in the first half). A punt return touchdown for the first time in nine years. A 75-yard TD to open the second half. Other than the D getting torched in the second half and keeping one of the Indy boys from getting to play quarterback, it was almost a perfect game.

399 yards rushing on the day Tony Sands went into the Ring of Honor was perfect, too. In an ironic twist, my buddy Sweets, who missed Tony’s then NCAA record game in 1991 was unable to watch Saturday. We let him know about it.

So, Jalon… Super concerning. Especially since he apparently didn’t even come to the stadium to watch. Which is weird.

I have four theories, offered in order of likelihood:
1 – His injury continues to baffle doctors and he wasn’t actually in Lawrence but somewhere else seeing a specialist.
2 – He’s already had some kind of surgery and they’re trying to hide it.
3 – KU and Daniels/his family disagree on the best way to treat the injury and because of that he stayed away.
4 – Daniels has shut himself down for the year and was told to stay away from the stadium if that was his choice.

I can’t see JD not being around to support his teammates if he was able, so I doubt options 3 or 4 are the explanations. As the father of a kid with a back injury that experts have struggled to identity and treat, I totally get #1, which is no doubt way worse for a football player than just a random high school kid trying to get through her day.

He’s not been the same since he took that hit against TCU last year, and back injuries are never any joke. I’m hoping there’s a reasonable explanation and a path towards getting healthy and playing again before this season is complete. It would be very KU football, though, if his season/career is over.

Once again KU should be super happy Jason Bean decided to come back. He has some flaws, and I worry about how he’ll manage once teams dare him to make throws consistently. But he’s a hell of a second option and definitely good enough to win another game or two.

And I keep telling myself don’t let the drama around Daniels distract from a second-straight 5–1 start. Last year KU fans were thinking, “Can we win one more game?” This year it is “How many more can we win?” It’s kind of weird to hear national broadcasters praise KU football.

After KU I flipped between the evening games, but mostly watched Notre Dame – Louisville. That turned into an ass-kicking. The Irish, again, are frauds.

At some point in the evening S complained that she felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything all day. I pointed out she went to a friend’s house to take out some stitches and took M to both Costco and Target.

I, on the other hand, had been sitting on the couch watching football for nine hors at that point.

C helped me out, though. “Hey, you yelled a lot for awhile so you got your heart rate up.”

She’s my favorite for the moment.

Colts

What a weekend for the Colts!

Saturday they announced they had re-signed Jonathan Taylor after his holdout and that he would play on Sunday. I was torn on this. He makes the Colts better, but they are now paying like five guys a quarter of their salary cap, and three of those guys have concerning injury histories. Another potentially bad contract as the team tries to rebuild around Anthony Richardson. But, when healthy, Taylor will take pressure off of Richardson.

Sunday Taylor played a few snaps, but his replacement, Zack Moss, had the game of his life. Nearly 200 total yards, 160+ on the ground against one of the best run D’s in the game. Moss makes a hell of a lot less than Taylor, so now the new contract looks kind of dumb?

Moss was huge in the Colts beating Tennessee and pulling into a tie for first place. Which was even more impressive since Richardson got hurt for the third time this season, leaving the game with a shoulder injury. Apparently my teams can’t have good, young quarterbacks.

Again, great to have a competent backup, in this case Gardner Minshew.

I wrapped up the weekend watching a good chunk of the Cowboys-Niners game. Woodsheds, ass kickings, and whatnot. San Francisco looked awesome, which makes me even more sure that one or more of their stars is going to have a leg amputated or something next week.

  1. What up, Em?  ↩
  2. Brownsburg is ranked #1 in Indiana, but only #50 nationally. Cathedral is #8 and #212.  ↩

Lone Star Weekend

October 2, 2023 /

With a notable exception, I enjoyed a very good weekend down in Austin, Texas.

There were a couple motivations for going. One of my best buddies from college, E-bro, has lived there for something like 15 years. Another KU buddy, Billy Sweets, lives in Dallas. The three of us text pretty much every day, so much so that our wives and kids refer to the other two not as friends or buddies or pals, but as “your girlfriends.”

Also this was the final time KU will go to Austin to play football before the Longhorns leave for the SEC. I’ve been wanting to go down for a basketball game for years, but I could never work that into my calendar properly, mostly thanks to kid sports and those games often taking place on Monday nights. Once the Big 12 football schedule came out I started keeping my eye on flights for deal and nabbed a $100 roundtrip ticket during Southwest’s anniversary sale.[1]

I flew down super early Friday morning, leaving our house about 5:40. I got a couple Rock Chalks from fellow KU folks on my flight. We must have arrived the same time as a flight from Kansas City, as there were a ton of Jayhawks walking around the Austin airport.

E-bro picked me up and we headed directly to Franklin Barbecue to get in line. Despite arriving about 90 minutes before opening, there were already tons of people lined up in their lounge chairs passing time. We spent about an hour sitting in the rapidly warming sun before the doors opened and we could shuffle into some shade. It was another two hours before we got to the front of the line and placed our order. The only good thing about that was that initial rush had cleared and the tables weren’t completely packed. Even though E and I text every day, we hadn’t seen each other in person in seven years, so there was plenty to catch up on as we waited.

I ordered a Tipsy Texan sandwich, which featured chopped brisket and sausage along with slaw. It was very good, although the slaw was not my favorite style, dry and vinegary instead of creamy. Weird to have barbecue without fries, which Texans apparently don’t do. The food was definitely worth the wait, although I would not say it’s the very best barbecue I’ve ever had. I promise I was eating with an open mind, not reflexively knocking it below KC ‘cue.

The lady who was taking and building orders chatted everyone up as she worked. When she saw our KU shirts she told us she was from Wichita and hoped to move back and open her own restaurant there some day. Our little five minute interaction must have gone well from her perspective, because she gave us a couple big-ass beef ribs for free.

E showed me around Austin a little before we headed to his home in the hills of Westlake. I got to see one of his kids I hadn’t seen since he was a baby, meet another for the first time, and see his wife for the first time in over 20 years. We chilled out for a bit, I took a short nap, then we headed out to grab some appetizers and beer in a fancy suburban area.

Billy Sweets was driving down after work and didn’t arrive until around 9:30. I hadn’t seen him since my wedding, the last time the three of us were together. It was great fun both catching up and doing the obligatory telling 30-year-old stories that still make you laugh until you cry. We went to school with some wackos.

Saturday we kept it low key, just getting breakfast tacos before the game. I’ve been hearing them complain about the Texas heat for four months so was not looking forward to a 2:30 PM game in the sun. We wanted to minimize any time away from AC before we were obligated to sit outside.

We sunscreened- and hatted-up before heading downtown to the stadium. I was trying to think of what the biggest sporting event I’ve ever been to was, and I guess it’s been Chiefs games where there are 80,000 people. So pretty crazy to go to a stadium where there are twenty thousand more people than that, almost all dressed in burnt orange. There were quite a few KU people, but the orange was so overwhelming and we were so scattered you couldn’t really pick out the KU folks in the stands, only see them when you walked around the concourses. Random UT fans came over and greeted/welcomed us, asking where we were from, and wishing us luck while insisting that we enjoy our time in Austin. That was kind of great. One very nice older woman also directed us to a tent where a hospital was giving out free towels that had been dunked in ice. These might literally have been life savers.

It was in the mid–90s all day, with the sun either directly above us or moving so it was in our faces. It really makes you appreciate what the players are going through when you are suffering just standing around.

We wandered about a bit before the game. The concourses were totally packed with people hanging out in the shade as long as possible. As we walked through the crowds E suddenly shouted “DTae!” 2018 Big 12 player of the year and first team All American Devonté Graham was walking towards us. As he passed I shouted “DEVONTÉ!” and he came to a complete stop and looked at me. I reached out and yelled, “WHAT’S UP?” He slapped my hand back, saying, “Hey man,” and moved on to another group of KU people. Good of him to drive up from San Antonio for the game.

You all know I don’t do well with celebrity encounters so I felt like this was a big moment for me. Now I’ve accosted two former KU guards in public, Mario Chalmers being the other.


So we get to our seats – eighth row inside the 20 yard line behind the KU bench, pretty good! – and I get a text from one of my KU buddies in KC saying that Jalon Daniels was out for the game.

Fucking great.

Now we’re going to sit in the brutal heat for four hours against maybe the best team in the country without our starting quarterback.

We had been counting “wins” all morning, from getting a good parking spot to the cold towel tip to running into DTae. So much for any good karma we had been trying to find in the day. It would be an understatement to say we lost most of our enthusiasm for the day.

We weren’t feeling any better after KU got one first down then punted and Texas scored quickly after.

It was a weird game, though. KU couldn’t do much on offense, running pretty basic sets to account for the absence of Daniels. But we kept hanging in there. The defense would give up a big play, then hold. Texas missed a field goal late in the first half, and another in the third quarter. KU scored a touchdown on a bizarre play and it was just 13–7 Texas at halftime. We dropped some balls, Jason Bean made some bad decisions, but we were still right in it. When Bean threw a 58-yard touchdown to Trevor Wilson to cut it to 20–14, we went nuts.

Then it all came apart when we had third and inches late in the third quarter and called consecutive bad plays, fumbling on the fourth down attempt. I was 100% fine with going for it. It was going to take a lot of crazy stuff for us to win, and I thought it was worth the risk. But Bean made awful reads each time and you should never run the shotgun when you need inches to get a first down. Liked the gamble but hated the play call and execution. Texas scored seconds later and the fourth quarter turned into a rout. E, Sweets, and I watched a lot of KU football losses together back in the Nineties, so it was like old times.[2]

Even if Jalon had been healthy and played well, beating Texas in Austin was going to be very, very difficult. It was a big bummer to get the news early that JD wasn’t playing, and the fourth quarter sucked, but in between KU showed how far the program has come. A couple drunk students/recent students tried to talk some shit as we walked out, which we took as another sign of how far KU football has come.

One funny/frustrating story from the stands. The guy standing behind us was some “football expert” and broke down each play to the people around him before the snap. “OK, see how the safeties are up? This is going to be a run play.” Or, “They’re bringing pressure, we have to go outside here.” We’re not sure if the people sitting with him were listening or he was just talking to himself. The funny part was that he was wrong like 75% of the time when he predicted the play. I wanted to turn around and ask him what high school team he coaches, what their record is, and if he’d ever sent his resumé into UT. But it was too hot to turn around so I kept my sarcastic comments to myself.

It was, of course, a nightmare getting out of the stadium area. That’s a lot of freaking people in a true, big city downtown. It was probably an hour all together from when we left the stadium until we got to where we could drive the speed limit.

We landed at a restaurant for pizza and beers, then back to E’s for more beer, football, and BSing on the couch.

I was supposed to fly back early Sunday but changed my flight to the evening non-stop so that we could do a leisurely breakfast before Sweets headed back to Dallas. After he left, E and I did some more driving around, this time going through campus, his old neighborhood, some of the quirky and fun Austin areas, and the park where they were setting up for the Austin City Limits festival. We even drove by the restaurant one of my sisters-in-law helped open about 10 years ago. It was, again, like 96, so we did all our exploring by car. The Texas guys give me grief about Indiana winters all the time. Not sure how you live somewhere where it’s been in the 90s and 100s and 110s just about every day since early May.

Travel was easy, no real stories from that other than the guy in front of me in the TSA line in Austin attempting to get through security without any form of government ID. He did have a prescription bottle. Not sure how that was going to work out for him.

It was great to get away and have a dudes weekend with two pretty good dudes. They both have kids at Baylor,[3] so maybe the next KU trip to Waco should be our excuse to get together again before another 20 years pass.

  1. I paid almost as much for parking as for my plane ticket.  ↩

  2. Sweets and I even watched KU lose to SMU in Dallas in 2001 together.  ↩

  3. E’s youngest son is a freshman at Baylor and came home for the weekend. He’s actually a bigger KU fan, and went with us to the game wearing KU gear.  ↩

Weekend Notes

September 25, 2023 /

HS Football

Cathedral went down to Lexington, KY to play last year’s Kentucky 5A state champs. The Irish got an early lead, weathered their normal letdown, built the lead again, then held on for a nine-point win. Probably their best, most complete win of the season, from what I could judge by listening. They travel to Cincinnati next week.

The big news of the week was that the season finale against Center Grove has been moved to Butler’s stadium. CG fans are still bitching about having to play on natural grass two years ago, so this may have been purely a move to shut them up rather than play in a bigger stadium on a better field.

College Football

I had a very good day Saturday. I watched college football for at least 11.5 hours, almost uninterrupted.

I started with a little of Fox’s pregame show, something I never do, just because they were at UC for the Oklahoma-Cincinnati game. I talked to M Thursday and she told me some of her guy friends were going to go to bed mid-afternoon Friday, sleep until about midnight, then get up, go to bars until they closed at 2:00, hang out and drink until the official line for seats started at 5:00, then find a way to power through until the show started at 11:00. I haven’t heard how successful they were.

OU-UC was my first game of the day. Because it was another perfect day here, I watched on the outside TV. The Bearcats hung in all day, but are just dreadful in the red zone and couldn’t capitalize on multiple scoring chances. Oklahoma looks super talented, especially on defense, but something feels off about them still. They are good but don’t seem like a great team. Or at least not right now. I probably just jinxed KU into a 56–17 loss next month. The Sooners were good enough to earn a 20–6 win.

Then it was over to the BYU-KU game. The Jayhawks had been favored by between 8.5 and 10 points all week, which seemed crazy. They had struggled against a bad team last week while BYU won at Arkansas. I listened to a couple preview pods and both insisted that KU was a bad matchup across the field for BYU, and expected a comfortable Kansas win. I still didn’t trust them.

Naturally KU covered, winning by 11.

Not that it was that easy. Sure, KU got a scoop-and-score on BYU’s second snap of the game. But the Cougars led by one at halftime and KU’s offense seemed to be struggling. KU dropped a sure pick-six on the first snap of the second half, which seemed ominous. Until Kenny Logan snatched a pick-six two plays later. Then the offense took over. It wasn’t spectacular. Just solid, physical, ball-control offense with a couple beautiful touchdown passes to Luke Grimm mixed in.

Take out a couple bad, untimely penalties and this game is a blowout, so lots to feel good about.

As much as last week’s winning ugly game at Nevada, I think this game really showed the improvement of the program. They won a game by dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. KU rushed for 221 yards while holding BYU to nine yards on the ground. For years that was the biggest personnel issue with the Kansas roster: both lines sucked so they couldn’t protect their quarterback or control the game on defense. That once or twice a year things came together and the team was still in the game late, it was inevitable failure on the lines that sealed their fate. There’s a long way to go, and the competition gets much tougher this week. But as much of the credit as Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal, Daniel Hishaw, Logan, and Cobee Bryant get, it is the two lines that truly demonstrate how much KU has improved.

Being 4–0 in consecutive seasons for the first time in over 100 years is pretty dope.

Oh, and the bigger deal is that I am traveling to Austin to watch the #24 Jayhawks take on the #3 Longhorns next Saturday. Really looking forward to standing in the 90+ degree heat for four hours. No, really, I am. It will be my first KU football game in 13 years, plus I’m seeing guys I haven’t seen in six and 20 years. I’ll take potential heatstroke and sunburn in exchange.

Seconds after the KU game ended S walked in the house with the dinner she had picked up for us. I scarfed down my burger then headed back outside for the evening games.

I watched half an hour of Oregon State-Washington State before flipping to the night’s marquee game, Ohio State-Notre Dame. That was quite a contest. I’m not really sure why Ryan Day was so worried about what Lou Holtz said about his team. No one cares what that crazy old man says. And I’m not sure how the Notre Dame coaching staff can let their team play the final two plays of the game with only ten men on the field. If they struggle through a very rough stretch in their schedule the next three weeks, that decision may become even more significant.

It was getting a little chilly so I moved back inside during the fourth quarter of OSU-ND. Being back on cable meant I could happily rotate between games. I watched a little of everything that was on, without really settling anywhere. Penn State looked pretty impressive. When I was watching USC they were doing usual dumb USC stuff, although it seems like they figured things out late. I ended the night by watching the overtime periods between Akron and Indiana. Akron should have won in regulation, but missed a short field goal as time expired. Eventually the Hoosiers pulled it out in the fourth OT. Inspiring stuff from the Hoosiers.

NFL Sunday

I did not watch nearly as much football on Sunday. I would truly be a sicko if I had tried to sit through another full day.

I flipped on the Colts-Ravens game midway through the second quarter and was surprised that the Colts were only down seven. Anthony Richardson was the most notable of several key players who were sitting out the visit to Baltimore.

The Colts carved out a 10–7 lead at the break and trailed by just one when they set up to receive a punt with under three minutes remaining in the game.

That’s when all hell broke loose. The next 45 minutes of real time covered about 11 minutes of football time. And it was all gloriously stupid. The Colts would make a terrible play, then the Ravens would match it. Then the Colts would say, “OK, we REALLY don’t want to win,” and do something dumber. Only for the Ravens to say, “Not so fast!” and top them again. But then the Colts would make an amazing play and seem to have the game in hand, only for the Ravens to step up with their own amazing play. The CBS announcers were incredulous, shouting about the crazy things each team was doing.

This went on for the last 2:30 of regulation and almost all of overtime until Matt Gay hit his fourth field goal greater than 50 yards in the game to steal the win for the Colts.

Just an amazing, gloriously idiotic stretch of football. I literally laughed out loud multiple times.

This is the freedom that comes with not really caring whether the home team wins or loses. I’m just looking to be entertained. This game – or at least those last 11 minutes – were about as entertaining of a game as I’ve watched recently.

Three weeks in the Colts are in first place, their only loss being a game they pissed away late. Zach Moss (WHO?!?!) ran for 122 yards and had another 23 yards receiving. If only Jonathan Taylor had come to his senses and was playing in this offense.

The AFC South sucks.

Kid Hoops

L had her final travel team tryout Sunday. There were a lot fewer girls there than the first one she went to, as I think many of the locals had already put in their two recommended appearances. When I walked in she looked wiped out since she had played a lot more than two weeks ago.

It’s all kind of a mystery how this high school travel thing works, so we’re hoping we hear in the next couple weeks that she’s landed on a decent team.

She was excited that the director of training and recruiting who runs the workouts knew her name. Doesn’t hurt that her high school coach has worked in this program the past couple years.

Weekend Notes

September 18, 2023 /

HS Football

Two games again this weekend.

Friday night Cathedral played at the public school down the street. Both girls had some friends over before the game and we walked to the stadium. First play of the night CHS snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head, he chased but could not cover, and North Central took over in Irish territory. Not a promising start.

North Central was winless and it showed, as they went nowhere and gave the ball back to CHS, who methodically ran up a 49–0 lead before halftime. A penalty on the final play of the game gave NC an untimed snap, and they got the ball into the end zone to lose 49–6.

I’ve gone to four of the first five games this season (L has been to all five) and each of them has been on a perfect evening for football. CHS is out of state the next two weeks. We’ll see if the weather holds when we return to games in October.

Saturday I took L to the freshman game so she could take pictures. NC took the lead twice on huge kickoff returns that set up short possessions. Each time Cathedral answered with a 70+ yard TD run. The Irish pulled away in the second half to win 34–21. Very entertaining.

I stood near the dads of a couple of the players, who had a game-long commentary going. I’m thinking I should just live blog what they say some week as it is hilarious.

Oh, and L handed her phone to a friend to take a picture of her with some football player after the game. Then she saw the kid twice more over the weekend. Good grief…

College Football

Surely it is a sign of how far KU football has come that Jayhawk fans were pissed off about Saturday’s result. I mean, the program went something like a decade without winning a road game once. So even if needlessly close and nervous, getting out of Reno 3–0 should be what we’re focusing on, right? When you struggle with a team that got blasted by an FCS team the previous week, it’s going to mess with your head.

The worst part of the game wasn’t that KU played poorly, or that I don’t have CBS Sports Network and had to listen to the game, or that I’m not crazy about KU’s radio announcers. No, the worst part was that it began at 10:30 Eastern, and since victory wasn’t assured until there was under a minute to play, that meant I went to bed after 2:00 AM Sunday. Several of my buddies checked out at halftime, which was probably the smart move. I was wiped out on Sunday. I had Colorado State-Colorado muted on the TV so I was entertained. Just wish the game had started at a more reasonable time.

Saturday was also M’s first game in the stands for UC, as they played Miami (OH). The schools have the oldest non-conference rivalry in the country, and I was amazed to learn that despite winning 16-straight in the series, UC only led by one win.

M got fantastic seats and I was constantly looking for her in the crowd shots. Never saw her though.

Miami played great and held a lead into the fourth quarter until the Bearcats jumped ahead. Miami tied it and then UC had a makable field goal to win the game late that Miami blocked to send the game to overtime.

In OT Miami scored first, then picked off a pass in the end zone to get the W. Now the series is tied 60–60–7. Two of M’s best friends go to Miami. I bet those girls were way nicer about breaking a long losing streak than I would have been in the same situation. We talked to M Sunday and she said it was a lot of fun, until the very end.

Colts

Another Sunday of doing work for relatives meant I missed most of the Colts game. I was tracking the score and saw the Colts were up 14–3, then 21–3. I also noticed that Gardner Minshew was playing. That was strange.

When I got home and looked up what happened I learned that Anthony Richardson had gone nuts early, smacked his head on the turf, played two more series, and then reported concussion symptoms and sat out the rest of the game. Hmmmm.

You can’t get too excited about beating up on the Texans – who tried their hardest to come back in the fourth quarter – yet it’s still promising that the Colts apparently looked really good with Richardson in. Now comes the worry of when he’ll play again and if he’s now in the “every big hit might cause a new concussion” zone. Which is a bad place to be.

KU Hoops

This is not good. Very not good. There were some rumbles of displeasure/disbelief when Bill Self took on Arterio Morris, given he played last year with a domestic abuse charge pending in Texas, but no general outcry. I would expect even Teflon Bill is going to get some serious heat about Morris as more comes out about this case.

Assorted Other Notes

We got the girls’ car back from the repair shop on Wednesday, about a week earlier than expected, which was awesome. It looks nearly perfect, so no complaints.

One of our senate seats is opening up here in Indiana next year, so the rats are scrambling to get their names out there early. The last two Sundays NFL games have been flooded with ads from all the “self-made outsiders” who will be in the Republican primary next spring. Throw in a very nasty Indianapolis mayoral race in this fall’s election, and I’m already having to mute commercial breaks. Really looking forward to 2024.

Speaking of commercials, I saw my first Christmas ad on Saturday. That was September 16 for those of you who don’t own calendars.

While on the subject of getting an early start on the holidays, S and I were at Target on Thursday and bought two full-size, posable skeletons for the front porch. We got a lot of looks as we wheeled them through the store and parking lot. We’ve given them some accessories and have a couple more things coming. Once we get everything situated the way we like I’ll share a picture.

Tuesday Notes

September 12, 2023 /

I have some assorted items that have been sitting around for a week or two that aren’t big enough for their own post. So you get back-to-back Notes entries.

Kid Hoops

L is in her third week of basketball workouts at CHS. The first two weeks were before school on Wednesdays and Fridays. She’s been getting up before 5:00 on those days. My alarm is set for 5:19 but I generally hear her banging around and wake up well before that. We are out the door around 5:35. I don’t mind that, but I also don’t love it.

This week they added a Monday night workout to the schedule. That will continue until the third week of October when official practice can begins, which I assume will be every day.

L said they’ve gone well. A lot of scrimmaging and basic shooting drills so far. This week they are supposed to pick up the intensity a little and start working on a lot of defensive drills. She’s also supposed to get a survey where she assesses her own play and then goes over it with the coaches.

For what it’s worth she’s been hanging out more with older girls from basketball than with her fellow freshmen, and we’ve been giving her shit about that. Two weeks ago she went to the football game with freshmen and she yelled at us, “See, I hang out with freshmen too!”

Her first travel tryout for next year was this past Sunday. There were nearly 100 girls there for all the high school teams. I talked to her coach from the past two years and he said the organization has been poaching good teams from other programs, which accounts for some of the numbers. I don’t think that will have an impact on L since she won’t be on an elite team. It made for a pretty packed gym, though.

Swimming

I’ve been swimming a lot for the past six weeks, give or take.

I can hear you. “No shit, dumbass. You have a pool. Why wouldn’t you be swimming?”

I’m not talking about just getting in the pool and splashing/floating around like I normally do. I’m talking about swimming laps and turning it into a workout.

I’ve never done this in my life. Mostly because I’m not a great swimmer and never had the courage to get into the pool at the Y and bang out some laps.

Fortunately the swimmable part of our pool is only about 30 feet long and it’s not too complicated to turn into a lap pool. After a few weeks of doing it maybe once a week for about 10 minutes, since mid-August I’ve been doing it 3–5 times a week for closer to 20 minutes. I’m not going to pretend this is some awesome workout. I swim one way without taking a breath, pause to suck in some oxygen, then head the other way. I’ll do this four or five times, take a minute break, then repeat. Each time I finish my Apple Watch tells me I’ve set a new record. Even starting from zero, I’ll take that as a sign that I’m headed in the right direction.

My hope is the weather stays warm enough that with the occasional boost from the pool heater I can keep doing this for about another month to continue to build some endurance. Then we’ll see if I’m courageous enough to transfer it over to the Y and swim public laps. I’m a little frightened of both the rules of etiquette at the pool and needing to stop and rest way more often than the other people swimming.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying a different workout that reduces the stress on my always aching joints. And might as well keep using the pool as long as it’s open.

Pickleball

I also played pickleball for the first time ever last week. I picked it up pretty quickly had a great time. It was quite the workout. I’m sure it being a hot, humid night helped. I went with my old neighbor to the church where he’s a pastor. They converted an unused basketball court into two pickleball courts last year. We had seven guys last week, so a nice rotation that allowed you to sit out a game and cool off when you lost.

Not sure if I’m going to turn into one of those Pickleball People, although I have added that group’s weekly meeting to my calendar. And I bought my own racquet? paddle? this week.

I’m sure I’ll keep you updates on my exploits should they continue.

College Recruiting

You may remember me mentioning Marcus Adams Jr. about a month ago in my summary of KU’s summer. He was the recruit from California who reclassified into the senior class in April and committed to KU. When he announced that he would be a Jayhawk, he admitted the reason he picked KU over UCLA was because KU’s NIL program paid better.

From the time he committed there was a lot of weirdness about his situation. There were rumors he might actually go pro instead of enroll at KU. He took longer than the other new recruits to arrive on campus, but that was chalked up to the California academic calendar. Upon his arrival, there were almost immediate rumors that he was struggling in pickup games, and worry among the coaches that because he played at a lower level of high school ball, his game wasn’t ready for a Power 5 conference. As those rumors began popping up KU was suddenly recruiting another long wing who could play this coming year (Johnny Furphy).

Adams lasted about a month in Lawrence before announcing he was leaving. He landed at Gonzaga, but three weeks after committing there changed his mind again. Now he is enrolled at BYU. For a kid who thought Lawrence, KS was “too country,” I’m excited to hear about his experience at a school run by the Mormons.

My point isn’t to throw shade at Adams, which far too many have done. Recruiting is a hard deal and kids who are 17/18 are placed under tremendous pressure in the process. They don’t always end up making the best decisions. Which is why I think one-time free transfers are important.

No, I want to throw shade at the people around Adams. When he did interviews while at KU he seemed super young. There was always a deer in headlights quality to him. I don’t want to say immature, because I have no idea what his behavior was like. It just seemed like he wasn’t super comfortable in that moment. Which is fine, not every freshman can relax when someone sticks a camera in their face.

But given how he’s committed to three schools in something like five months, I’m beginning to wonder if he, in fact, is not mature enough for the moment. I feel like the people around him should have known this going in. One of the pressures on high school athletes is to get their pro clock running as quickly as possible, and often that pressure comes more from their handlers than themselves.

Maybe Marcus Adams is going to be fine, both athletically and emotionally at BYU and my points are silly. The evidence so far, though, suggests that maybe the people who are helping to guide him through this process should have spent more time evaluating his maturity level than his game, and kept him in high school one more year so he was better prepared to select the place to spend his college years. There are worse things than waiting a year to start making money off sports. Especially if that year of waiting improves your odds of long-term success.

NFL

One final note about the NFL, and Monday Night Football. What a bananas game! I was out picking up L so missed Aaron Rodgers destroying his ankle or achilles or whatever. I just saw all the Tweets saying it was the most Jets thing ever.

And then the freaking Jets came back from 10 down to win the game in overtime, forcing four turnovers, making one of the greatest catches you will ever see, and getting a walk-off, punt return TD. Nuts.

The Football Gods have been punishing the Jets, for some reason, ever since they won Super Bowl III. This seemed like the year when they might finally shake that off. They have a fearsome defense that is going to fuck up a lot of teams. Even if Rodgers couldn’t play at an MVP level anymore, he was still an above-average QB, which might have been enough to win 2–3 games in January with that D. Now? This whole season is going to be a gigantic tease for Jets fans. I almost feel sorry for them.

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