It's over

As I write this post, Florida and Ohio State play in the Championship game. Forgive my tardiness in writing this wrap-up post, but I was crying with me head in a closet. Just kidding. I didn't even watch KU's demoralizing defeat against UCLA. Let's just say I felt it in my bones that something bad was going to happen, so I'd rather be with my friends than at home, crying. I spared myself a lot of misery, I'd say.

Anyway, I have to say that this season was the best season KU has had since 2003, when they were in the Championship game against Syracuse. The Jayhawks, still young, went 33-5 and won the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles. They beat Florida, the team I predict will win the Championship two years in a row, in November. They defeated Kevin Durant's Texas Longhorns twice by overcoming large deficits. I can't say I'm disappointed with the way this season turned out. An Elite 8 appearance is better than some 300 schools can say that they've done.

However, it looks to me as if Brandon Rush will turn pro and declare for the June draft. It only looks as if we'll replace talent with more talent, though. 6-11 Cole Aldrich and guard Tyrell Reed will join the team, and the offensive juggernaut that was Kansas this year will continue to roll.

Kansas will make the Final Four next year and win the Championship game, going 35-2. Or thereabouts, anyway. The leading scorer will be Mario Chalmers, at 14.3 points a game. Kansas will, once again, win both Big 12 competitions, and only lose one conference game, against Texas.

Kansas ROLLING

I apologize for the length between this post and my last one, during which time Kansas has taken home the Big 12 Tournament trophy with an amazing overtime victory against Kevin Durant & Co., claimed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament, and walloped Niagara by an even 40 points. Reason to feel good? Definitely. Kansas dominated the entire game, and it was never in doubt. All but one of Kansas' players scored, and four of them were in double figures.
Sunday's game against Kentucky, however, will present more of a challenge. If Kansas can keep up the intensity for even thirty minutes though, the game will be over. Kentucky just doesn't have the talent.
Kansas' potential opponent in the Sweet 16 would be Southern Illinois or Virginia Tech, barring an upset in either of their two games, which is possible. Either way, I can't see the Jayhawks going out before the Sweet 16. Which would be much better than the two previous years. : (

KU gets big win over Texas in comeback victory...

Watching the game today, Texas looked like the dream team the first half, partly due to more than 80% 3 point shooting, and partly due to KU not defending well at all. Texas pretty much controlled the tempo and the game the first half, except for a few brief runs by the Jayhawks which hardly put a dent in the deficit. The one bright spot of the first half was Julian Wright, who looked like the only Jayhawk that wanted to play to win.

The second half, however, was different. I have to speculate that Bill Self laid into the Jayhawks and gave them the energy to play the second half with intensity. The team was a totally new body as they started the second half by outscoring Texas 22-7 and taking the lead, for the first time since 4-2. Brandon Rush started playing stellar defense on Kevin Durant, who was unstoppable the entire first half, and for once, the Longhorns looked clueless, as Kansas played great defense and outhustled Texas for pretty much the entire second half. All in all, if the Jayhawks can continue to play this way for the rest of this season, I can't really see too many teams capable of playing with them; i.e. THE JAYHAWKS WIN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! The scoring totals on the Jayhawks side once again were very similar; 21 from Mario Chalmers, 17 from Russell Robinson and Julian Wright(who also ripped down 13 rebounds and blocked Texas' last chance to tie the game), and 15 from Brandon Rush. The one negative thing this game was that, for the second straight game, Sherron Collins scored exactly 0 points. Still, the good far outnumbered the bad in this classic game. Oh, and the Jayhawks won the Big 12 regular season championship outright, taking home a very nice piece of hardware and a no. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament. Nothing but reason to believe in our Hawks today.

An inaugural post.....

Having unsuccessfully tried several other times to maintain a blog here on blogspot, I'm trying once again, with one of my favorite topics the theme of this site: Kansas Basketball.

To start out with, I'll give you some links that I appreciate a lot.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology (Joe Lunardi's now daily prediction on how the bracket will fill out come the Big Dance. KU is finally getting recognition with him after most of the other potential No. 1 seeds are falling like flies)

www.kusports.com (The official website for Kansas sports, they have daily articles, including columns by Tom Keegan, which are highly enjoyable)

www.phogblog.com (A site run by several people, including my brother, who's blog is here )

The Kansas City Star's coverage of Kansas basketball

That's all for now, as I'm on a tight schedule. Tomorrow, THE big game against Texas. 11 am, CBS.