Hope you had a good Monday celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and all he stood for. Equal opportunity, justice, empathy, love. We\u2019ve come a long way since he was murdered. Yesterday was a reminder that we still have a long way to go.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s review some stuff that happened over the past few days.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m about done with this team. Not in terms of watching, I\u2019ll always watch the games.[1]<\/a> But in terms of thinking they are going to figure it out in time to make a deep run in March. I guess anything is possible when the tournament rolls around. But, as I believe I said last year, this year\u2019s parts just do not fit and I think it\u2019s too late to make adjustments to get them to work together better.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s game against K-State was a perfect example. A roaring start, and it looked like another pounding of the Purples was about to be entered into the media guide. But a combination of scheme, talent, and depth issues resulted in a final result that was far too close, and got Jerome Tang clapping like a wind-up bathtub toy as the Wildcats cut the lead down to six late.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Hunter Dickinson finally remembered he\u2019s the biggest guy on the court, and played terrific ball for stretches. But losing KJ Adams to injury and inserting Flory Bidunga into his starting spot meant Dickinson was completely gassed for the last 10 minutes or so of the game. Which made the defensive problems be presents even more pronounced since he could barely move. I get the logic of starting Flory, but with him being a foul-prone freshman, it opens the team up to not being able to rest Hunter because Flory has four fouls late.<\/p>\n KJ has been one of the most frustrating elements of this year\u2019s team. Saturday showed his value, though. He would have guarded Coleman Hawkins better than any of his teammates. Dickinson is too big and slow. Bidunga too young and inexperienced. AJ Storr too small and not smart enough. K-State had a fine strategy of getting KU\u2019s defense to move around, knowing at some point Dickinson would be out of place and\/or Hawkins would have a mismatch. It didn\u2019t help that Bidunga kept doubling way too late and no one would rotate to his spot, allowing easy dunks and layups for the Wildcats.<\/p>\n The game reminded me a little of the Missouri game a year ago. KU won, but it was not super satisfying because their rival exposed some weaknesses and it wasn\u2019t the ass-kicking Jayhawks fans wanted.<\/p>\n Fortunately for KU, Iowa State and Arizona lost (and Houston should have lost). They are just a game back of second place. But there aren\u2019t very many gimmes on the schedule and this year\u2019s team does not inspire confidence they are going to show up focused every night. It\u2019s tough to see them stealing a big win or two AND not blowing an equal number of winnable games. Hopefully we win more than we lose, but, to be honest, I\u2019m more excited about\/interested in Darryn Peterson and the other freshmen coming in next fall, if Flory will return, and if Bill Self can avoid picking the wrong role players in the portal to play around them.<\/p>\n What a weird weekend. Each game had some serious drama, but other than the Baltimore-Buffalo game, they also didn\u2019t feel as close as they actually were. The best part of the weekend, of course, was Sunday\u2019s two snow games. We just needed a little more snow in Buffalo to make it perfect.<\/p>\n I heard a few prognosticators suggesting Washington had a good chance to beat Detroit. I thought that was crazy talk. Then the Commanders went wild on the Lions, pulling off one of the biggest shocks in recent memory. I felt so bad for Detroit fans. This was the best team they\u2019ve had in the Super Bowl era. And they couldn\u2019t even win a single playoff game at home. In retrospect, it\u2019s amazing they got the #1 seed despite all their injuries. They\u2019ve already lost their OC; their DC seems close behind him. I hope they can keep the core of their team around another year for another run. Detroit fans deserve it.<\/p>\n Both the Sunday games had really weird vibes. In the early one, the Rams seemed totally dead. Then they had the ball and were driving late with a chance to win until a sack blew that up. Philly does not inspire much confidence\u2026until Saquan Barkley rips off another ridiculous run.<\/p>\n Baltimore out-played Buffalo in almost every aspect, expect for holding on to the ball. A brutal set of drops and fumbles killed their chances. Strap yourself in for six months of Lamar Jackson discourse, because he dropped a slippery football in the cold and made one terrible throw. In tight games like this, especially in bad weather, sometimes it comes down to luck. The Ravens had terrible luck Sunday night.<\/p>\n Nothing about the Chiefs impressed me. They aren\u2019t awe-inspiring on offense the way they used to be. Their defensive line is very good, but it feels like if you attack them the right way, they are vulnerable. Yet every other team has huge flaws that make me reluctant to say any of them can beat KC. The Chiefs are just a super competent, if boring, team with a coach-QB tandem that can always find a way to pull things out when they get hairy.<\/p>\n Not sure that went exactly as expected, thanks to the opening drive by Notre Dame and then their late rally. I don\u2019t think anyone outside the biggest Irish boosters were surprised that Ohio State was clearly the better team and played like it most of the night, though.<\/p>\n I figured OSU would have to work to crack the ND defense, but they had that problem completely solved. I was not surprised the Irish struggled to move the ball. Really it\u2019s kind of incredible they made it this far with such a one-dimensional offense. For every impressive pass he threw, Riley Leonard threw at least three bad ones.<\/p>\n L had a doctor appointment this morning. The physician is an ND fan so I asked him if there were OSU fans in the office to harass him today. \u201cThank goodness, no. Those are the worst people in the world.\u201d This was a first visit with this doc, but in that moment I knew we had the right guy!<\/p>\n C and her buddy E, who grew up in Bloomington, went down to IU on Saturday for a casual visit. They met up with a couple of E\u2019s middle school friends who showed them around town. I\u2019m not certain they\u2019re 100% locked in yet, but C and one of those B-town girls will likely live together next year. I know C was working on her housing stuff yesterday, so call it 98% with the paperwork pending.<\/p>\n They had fun exploring the area, then the Bloomington girls followed C and E back to Indy, went out with them for the night, and slept at our house after. Both Bloomington girls seemed nice, and the potential roommate told us we had a beautiful house, so naturally we liked her!<\/p>\n I think most of my readers are experiencing the same winter blast we are having. We can all agree this weather is terrible, right? As I type this at almost noon Tuesday, the windchill is \u201314. It has been so cold this is the longest stretch in a decade we\u2019ve had snow on the ground in Indy. Which seems wild, but I guess every moderate-heavy snow we\u2019ve had over that span has been followed by a warm-up that melted everything within a week.<\/p>\n Hope you had a good Monday celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and all he stood for. Equal opportunity, justice, empathy, love. We\u2019ve come a long way since he was murdered. Yesterday was a reminder that we still have a long way to go. Let\u2019s review some stuff that happened over the past few days. KU Hoops I\u2019m about done with this team. Not in terms of watching, I\u2019ll always watch the games.[1] But in terms of thinking they are going to figure it out in time to make a deep run in March. I guess anything is possible when the tournament rolls around. But, as I believe I said last year, this year\u2019s parts just do not fit and I think it\u2019s too late to make adjustments to get them to work together better. Saturday\u2019s game against K-State was a perfect example. A roaring start, and it looked like another pounding of the Purples was about to be entered into the media guide. But a combination of scheme, talent, and depth issues resulted in a final result that was far too close, and got Jerome Tang clapping like a wind-up bathtub toy as the Wildcats cut the lead down to six late.[2] Hunter Dickinson finally remembered he\u2019s the biggest guy on the court, and played terrific ball for stretches. But losing KJ Adams to injury and inserting Flory Bidunga into his starting spot meant Dickinson was completely gassed for the last 10 minutes or so of the game. Which made the defensive problems be presents even more pronounced since he could barely move. I get the logic of starting Flory, but with him being a foul-prone freshman, it opens the team up to not being able to rest Hunter because Flory has four fouls late. KJ has been one of the most frustrating elements of this year\u2019s team. Saturday showed his value, though. He would have guarded Coleman Hawkins better than any of his teammates. Dickinson is too big and slow. Bidunga too young and inexperienced. AJ Storr too small and not smart enough. K-State had a fine strategy of getting KU\u2019s defense to move around, knowing at some point Dickinson would be out of place and\/or Hawkins would have a mismatch. It didn\u2019t help that Bidunga kept doubling way too late and no one would rotate to his spot, allowing easy dunks and layups for the Wildcats. The game reminded me a little of the Missouri game a year ago. KU won, but it was not super satisfying because their rival exposed some weaknesses and it wasn\u2019t the ass-kicking Jayhawks fans wanted. Fortunately for KU, Iowa State and Arizona lost (and Houston should have lost). They are just a game back of second place. But there aren\u2019t very many gimmes on the schedule and this year\u2019s team does not inspire confidence they are going to show up focused every night. It\u2019s tough to see them stealing a big win or two AND not blowing an equal number of winnable games. Hopefully we win more than we lose, but, to be honest, I\u2019m more excited about\/interested in Darryn Peterson and the other freshmen coming in next fall, if Flory will return, and if Bill Self can avoid picking the wrong role players in the portal to play around them. NFL Playoffs What a weird weekend. Each game had some serious drama, but other than the Baltimore-Buffalo game, they also didn\u2019t feel as close as they actually were. The best part of the weekend, of course, was Sunday\u2019s two snow games. We just needed a little more snow in Buffalo to make it perfect. I heard a few prognosticators suggesting Washington had a good chance to beat Detroit. I thought that was crazy talk. Then the Commanders went wild on the Lions, pulling off one of the biggest shocks in recent memory. I felt so bad for Detroit fans. This was the best team they\u2019ve had in the Super Bowl era. And they couldn\u2019t even win a single playoff game at home. In retrospect, it\u2019s amazing they got the #1 seed despite all their injuries. They\u2019ve already lost their OC; their DC seems close behind him. I hope they can keep the core of their team around another year for another run. Detroit fans deserve it. Both the Sunday games had really weird vibes. In the early one, the Rams seemed totally dead. Then they had the ball and were driving late with a chance to win until a sack blew that up. Philly does not inspire much confidence\u2026until Saquan Barkley rips off another ridiculous run. Baltimore out-played Buffalo in almost every aspect, expect for holding on to the ball. A brutal set of drops and fumbles killed their chances. Strap yourself in for six months of Lamar Jackson discourse, because he dropped a slippery football in the cold and made one terrible throw. In tight games like this, especially in bad weather, sometimes it comes down to luck. The Ravens had terrible luck Sunday night. Nothing about the Chiefs impressed me. They aren\u2019t awe-inspiring on offense the way they used to be. Their defensive line is very good, but it feels like if you attack them the right way, they are vulnerable. Yet every other team has huge flaws that make me reluctant to say any of them can beat KC. The Chiefs are just a super competent, if boring, team with a coach-QB tandem that can always find a way to pull things out when they get hairy. CFP Not sure that went exactly as expected, thanks to the opening drive by Notre Dame and then their late rally. I don\u2019t think anyone outside the biggest Irish boosters were surprised that Ohio State was clearly the better team and played like it most of the night, though. I figured OSU would have to work to crack the ND defense, but they had that problem completely solved. I was not surprised the Irish struggled to move the ball. Really it\u2019s kind of incredible they made it this far with such a one-dimensional offense. For every impressive pass he threw, Riley Leonard threw at least three bad ones. L had a doctor appointment this morning. The physician is an ND fan so I asked him if there were OSU fans in the office to harass him today. \u201cThank goodness, no. Those are the worst people in the world.\u201d This was a first visit with this doc, but in that moment I knew we had the right guy! College Visit C and her buddy E, who grew up in Bloomington, went down to IU on Saturday for a casual visit. They met up with a couple of E\u2019s middle school friends who showed them around town. I\u2019m not certain they\u2019re 100% locked in yet, but C and one of those B-town girls will likely live together next year. I know C was working on her housing stuff yesterday, so call it 98% with the paperwork pending. They had fun exploring the area, then the Bloomington girls followed C and E back to Indy, went out with them for the night, and slept at our house after. Both Bloomington girls seemed nice, and the potential roommate told us we had a beautiful house, so naturally we liked her! Polar Vortex I think most of my readers are experiencing the same winter blast we are having. We can all agree this weather is terrible, right? As I type this at almost noon Tuesday, the windchill is \u201314. It has been so cold this is the longest stretch in a decade we\u2019ve had snow on the ground in Indy. Which seems wild, but I guess every moderate-heavy snow we\u2019ve had over that span has been followed by a warm-up that melted everything within a week. Well, not tomorrow when I\u2019m an hour south watching L and her teammates play. \u00a0\u21a9 Good to see Tang has continued the tradition of KSU coaches doing the fly-by handshake after losing to KU. Did Bruce Weber start that, or does it go back further? \u00a0\u21a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,52,26,67,58,14,15],"class_list":["post-16024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-family","tag-football","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-parenting","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16026,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions\/16026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNFL Playoffs<\/h3>\n
\nCFP<\/h3>\n
\nCollege Visit<\/h3>\n
\nPolar Vortex<\/h3>\n
\n\n