Filed under: Preview | Tags: Big 12 Conference, God, Iowa State University, jayhawks, Jimmer Fredette, Josh Selby, kansas, Kansas Jayhawks, Nebraska, Tyler Zeller, Wisconsin
I expect a lot of this tomorrow afternoon. In fact, I'm going to call it a wasted Saturday if there aren't at least 15 of them.
The last time the Cyclones played the Jayhawks was a little too close for comfort. We won by five. That’s not enough against the lowly Cyclones. They’re in the cellar of the Big 12 right now (don’t worry, there will be an update on the progress of the Big 12 Cellar bet later), so playing us down to the wire is not what I want. I want blood. I want a massacre. I want Iowa State to wish that Nebraska had taken them along to the Big Ten. All of these things will probably happen.
Iowa State isn’t a good team. They just aren’t. Add on that the fact that they had their chance to beat God‘s Team at their house and I’m feeling that the Jayhawks are cruising for a straight up killing. It’ll probably 15+ at the half. That’s wishful thinking, possibly, but I just don’t see any way we get embarrassed at the Fieldhouse tomorrow. Will Iowa State be fired up? Sure. Will it matter? Not at all. The bigger questions, for me, are what’s going to happen on our side in this one. The biggest question mark is Selby. Will Selby play? I like to think there are two schools of thought on a bad injury (1.) bring him back when you have a weak opponent, on your homecourt, so that he can get his sealegs back, so to speak; 2.) bring him back in dramatic fashion against an important opponent). I don’t think that Toupee really worries too much about the second of the two options (he’s a little bit more Coach K and a TON less Coach Cal, in this regard). So, if Selby gets cleared, I think he plays bench minutes (I just did a Google search and he’s expected to play against ISU. So, there’s that). That’s fine. Get him back on his legs for a weaker opponent before we have to take on Sexual Frustration at Bramlage (I know that they have that stupid knickname for the place, but I refuse to acknowledge it. Leave it to K-Staters to nickname their basketball court something so profoundly sophomoric). I like this situation.
You won't be waving that towel this weekend, my friend. No, you'll be getting that coveted JCTD Award. Well, I hope you will. You're due.
Now, Selby coming off the bench asks the question: will he be the one that steps up and has a monster game? Yes, as I’ve discussed a million times, the Morii (thanks Joel!) are good for about 30-35 combined. That’s not what’s been impressive in the last couple of contests. What I’ve loved is the whole “we’re Kansas and you have to beat ALL of us” mentality. First, T-Rob dropped 17 on K-State (he also quietly hit 17 over Texas Tech, but that wasn’t nearly as emotional as doing it two days after his mom’s funeral against K-State after a standing o from the faithful at Allen). Then, we had Brady reigning a ton of points on Nebraska. Then, Mario Little went off like a Roman Candle against Misery. Given that Mario put up nine in the previous game, I like to think that Releford will go off tomorrow. SRSLY…I would love for The Swashbuckler to dropped like 15 on Iowa State. Did you watch the last game? Think about him draining threes like a white guy on Duke. Think about all the screaming and midair hip bumping that’s going to come from that. I just want to see him go nuts. It would make the game for me. It’s a touch premature (since, you know, there’s still a ton of basketball left this season), but his honest fucking exuberance after that three in the Missouri game…it was a defining moment of the season for me. It was the moment where I thought “fuck…we have the Moris twins, Robinson, Taylor and Selby. We have a really monster team and here’s a guy who barely saw action in the last four games screaming like he’d just killed a six point buck.” That’s what I want to see. That’s the kind of enthusiasm that makes a team for me (if you’re wondering, I’m very seriously in like with this team).
Long story short, I expect a complete crushing of Iowa State tomorrow. It’s just in the stars.
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Around the NCAA
Can anything stop Sullinger? The Big Ten doesn't seem to be able to. I'm just hoping that one of the other strong teams knocks him out come March so God's Team doesn't have to contend with him.
– Ohio State is staring down the barrel of the first unbeaten season since Indiana, 1975-76 (yes, Indiana won the National Championship, but that’s the harder task). By my reckoning, there are only a couple of teams that could beat them. They have two games against Wisconsin and one against Purdue. I’m going to throw Purdue out (they play way too much into the Big Ten style of grind it out shit that’s so boring to watch). It’s just not going to happen. Wisconsin is the only team that has a chance to actually beat them. Wisconsin has been pretty impressive in the games I’ve seen them play this year. They run a more uptempo style of basketball and I think that they have the skill to shut Sullinger down. That’s why I’m looking forward to Saturday’s game. This is one of two shots the Badgers have to take down the Buckeyes. If they can’t do it on Saturday or the next time they face each other. Otherwise, we’re looking at some unheralded team beating them. That’s just unlikely (on the plus side, Meredith’s dad thinks that Kansas will be number one next week. I’m not sure why he thinks this, since I can’t think of a time where The Order of Succession Rule didn’t apply [I just named this one. I’ve been talking about how the rankings go every year. One team sits atop the poll until they lose. Once they lose, they drop ranking and the rest of the undefeated get pushed up. This goes on for most of the season until everyone’s lost at least one game. After that, teams are ranked on their merits…or at least on how infrequently they’ve lost over all]). I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an Ohio State loss this weekend.
– Wednesday night, I watched the UNC-Duke game with Meredith. It was…it was interesting. Generally, I don’t get to see from the outside what a real fan is like (to be fair, Meredith didn’t go to Duke. She just likes them). Usually, I’m the one who, during a rivalry game (or any game that goes poorly) who’s having a meltdown. During the first half of the game, Meredith was having a meltdown. She drew the line at calling the Blue Devils bums (which seems to be the purview of old timey baseball fans and those who like to think they’re old timey). She was certainly happy when Duke turned the game around for the win (I’m going to be honest again…I kind of wanted Carolina to win. I can’t shake the memory of growing up being told that Duke is full of privileged douche drinkers. I guess my parents won this one). Still, good game all around
The big takeaway for the game, for me was this: Duke can’t shut down post play. They let Tyler Zeller score at will during the first half. Zeller isn’t half the Tar Heel Hansbrough was. What this means, from a practical perspective, is that Duke won’t be able to stop Kansas. Sure, in the tourney, they’ll be able to crush a Brigham Young (Jimmer Fredette, awesome as he is, can’t carry his team over a well-oiled machine like Duke), but when they run into Kansas, they’re going to have trouble. If they can’t stop Zeller, how the fuck are they going to shut down Marcus, Markieff or T-Rob? It’ll be fun to watch, but I think I’ll be the victor.
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Big 12 Cellar Bet Update
At the rate we’re going, Justin and I won’t have to pay each other a dollar. Oklahoma has more or less (more because they could win a few more games I guess; less because they could lose every game left on their schedule) played their way out of the cellar. Texas Tech is closer, but I just don’t see them losing enough games to catch up with Iowa State. So, terrible bet (next year, I’m going to make it a “who finishes worse” not a “who finishes last” bet).
Oklahoma: 4-5
Texas Tech: 3-6
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Yes.
I ran out of time to write this on the last blog, so I’m writing it now. Watching the Super Bowl with a rabid fan of one of the teams is awesome, especially when that team wins. Congrats to Paulie and every other Cheesehead out there for that awesome game. Not only was the game entertaining but the sheer joy for a super fan was absolutely incredible. I’m really glad that it went down the way it did. Also, Paulie saying eat shit like it was his fucking job…that was awesome.
Yes (I wanted to do a series of successively enthusiastic yeses, but it bears mentioning that the putrid green concoction was Paulie's Victory Punch)
So, here’s the thing that I like about the Packers victory. It totally played into what I’ve been talking about the entire postseason (kind of. I was more interested in Brett Favre crying as the Packers won and he realized that he’d pissed away any goodwill that he had developed over the course of his tenure in Green Bay). The Packers and their fans stepped out of Favre’s shadow. After the unamicable split, they seemed to be laboring under the woe is me thing that fans get when something shitty happens to them (tangent: what the fuck’s going to happen when Tom Brady retires or, worse yet, fakes a retirement so he can go play for the Jags before going to the Bills. The city of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusettes will probably devolve into LA during the Rodney King riots). This was just what they needed…
YES!
Until you take into account that the CBA is expiring. Packers fans got the taste of glory before we get a lockout. I’ve been optimistic about the whole thing, but after the announcement this morning that the owners and NFLPA are so far apart that they canceled a meeting this week, not so much. It’s kind of sad to think that there might not be football next season. There’s still time to work shit out, but I’m just…I don’t know. It’s probably going to be a sad September (which is really sad since my birthday is usually around week two).
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Tyrel is all class. All CLASS! Vote for him to win the CLASS Award, whatever that is. How can you not vote for the latest in a long line of elfin Kansas players, especially if he's fighting for buckets like he is here?
Guess what? D. J. Conner is nominated for a Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award (no idea what the acronym is for, though I suppose following the link would probably explain it to me. I’m lazy. Deal with it). So, go and vote for him because he’s a badass and very angular (Meredith mentions the angularity of his face every time we watch Kansas play. God, if only I’d met her when we Kirk Hinrich was playing. The jokes…the laughter…wait…that might have been a little weird. She would have been in high school).
While I’m coming back around to Kansas, here’s something that will absolutely crush my dad (he was a huge fan of the place. Every time he came up to visit, we’d go there. It became such a thing that on my brother’s 21st, I took him there because dad told me to). Jefferson’s closed. What the fuck!? Apparently, the place wasn’t paying their taxes. This after they survived a goddamned fire (coincidentally, dad was in Larry when that one took place…and we were there when it happened). So, godspeed, sweet Jefferson’s. I knew thee well.
And last, but not least, the anti-drinking flash mob got their video on Good Morning America. Congratulations, kids! You’re on top of the world…until a video of a baby setting fire to his father blows up on YouTube this weekend.
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Long Distance Jayhawk 