Date: 21 Mar. 2010
From: AlumniShockerBlackAndGolds.com
Bare Bones
Well there you have it KU fans, the worst loss in the history of the KU basketball program. But say, the sun still came up this morning. Its going to be a fine day and the snow will start to melt. Life will go on. Don’t despair. Yes, this was the worst loss in the history of KU basketball, but there were other disastrous losses. Do you remember when KU was in the NCAA finals with a can’t miss national championship team with Wilt Chamberlain, a 7'1 ½" center, the man who scored an NBA record 100 points in and NBA game, and the can’t miss national champion KU hawks, missed. But that was in the final game, and that can’t be as bad as losing in a second round game to a one bid league team, a league KU wouldn’t lower itself to play under any circumstance other than the NCAA championships. KU had won 33 and lost only 2 games, one to the Tennessee walk-on’s and one to Oklahoma State on States home floor. The selection committee had anointed KU with the 5th toughest schedule in the country. KU had been number 1 in the country for most of the season and more weeks than any other team, including number 1 at the end of the season. KU was the odds on favorite to win the national championship. All three sports scribblers who covered the tournament for the Wichita Eagle, picked KU to win the national championship. Even our illustrious Teleprompter Obama, Mr. President, who pretends to play basketball himself, picked KU to win the national championship. KU had won the Big 12 league championship going away. They had won the Big 12 tournament championship. KU was a number 1 seed. Not only that, KU was the number 1 seed for the entire tournament. They had a first team All American point guard, and a second team All American 7' center, and 3 or 4 McDonald’s All American 5 star other players on the team, including a starting freshman and a couple of sophomores. The selection committee even favored KU with a close assignment to Oklahoma City, an easy 4 hour drive from Lawrence for the KU fans, and an even easier 2 hour drive for the 1500 KU alumni the KU alumni association says is living in Wichita Sedgwick County. The place was full of rabid KU fans who could be heard on TV booing every call against their beloved Hawks, no matter how justified the call or how egregious the KU foul. It was an absolute disaster. It was worse than KU’s third round loss with All American Darnel Valentine to Wichita State University with Antoine Carr and Cliff Livingston in New Orleans in 1981, another Missouri Valley Conference team. It’s worse than the KU loss to the Bucknell Bisons killer B’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, again in Oklahoma City, when KU was a high seed, but thought to be only a contender for the national championship. It was worse than the KU loss in the second round to the Bradley Braves killer B’s, again in Oklahoma City, and again to the Missouri Valley Conference - a conference KU would never stoop to play in the regular season, when KU was only a high seed thought to be a contender for the national championship, and worse even than the KU first round loss to the Road Island mud hens. This time the Hawks were the number one seed of all 64 teams in the tournament, losing to the number 9 seed purple panther bird eaters of Northern Iowa, from a one bid league of no respect with the selection committee. Northern Iowa had no All American athletes. KU had two All Americans and all the better athletes. But alas, it is a team game, and Northern Iowa plays team basketball, and they play devastating defense, as the KU Hawks found out to their chagrin. KU scored the first two points in the game, and were ahead for exactly one minute and 5 seconds in the entire game. After that, the purple panther bird eaters led the entire game. There went ahead 10-2 and were ahead at half time by 8. In the second half they went up 12 and were ahead by 11 at the 10 minute mark. They were still ahead by about 8 at the 5 minute mark. Only some fortuitous calls for the Hawks – for example the KU clear bump that caused Ahelgbe to step on the edge of the base line, that should have been UNI’s ball out of bounds or a foul on KU – and a furious full court press by KU allowed KU to cut the final margin to 2 points. KU’s All American 7 footer Cole Aldrich played outstanding, but he was essentially neutralized, and for his contribution to his team, outplayed, and out scored by the purple panther bird eaters center. KU’s first team All American Sherron Collins was shut down by a stifling defense. Collins was barely even allowed to dribble the ball and go anywhere with it, and he was essentially not allowed to dribble penetrate the lane. Except for a couple of short shots, a fast break lay up - one of only about two that Northern Iowa allowed, and a fall down throw up prayer for 2 in the last seconds, Collins was essentially shut down cold, 4 for 15 and 0 of 6 from three point range. Collins was no factor in the game, except for chirping at the refs and pushing Ahelegbe at a time out.. KU’s season long devastating fast break was not allowed by the purple panther bird eaters. KU’s three point shooters were not allowed to get into rhythm. Collins was so pressured that when he did try a three point shot, he had to force it and was accordingly inaccurate. Morningstar wasn’t allowed enough space to shoot three pointers, and Reed after hitting a couple of open three pointers, was then given immediate attention and like Morningstar wasn’t thereafter allowed enough space to shoot three pointer with any degree of accuracy.
And then after the game there Marcus Morris on his knees with his head buried in the floor and his hands over his head, with his obligatory crying; and Xavier Henry exhibiting his class on behalf of his KU team mates with his media and press interview in the locker room, thus:
“Every dog has its day, I guess.”
Thank you Mr. Henry. You got beat by a better team, notwithstanding you have better athletes, and you exhibit a complete lack to class in disparaging the UNI players.
On February 16, 2010, I bagged on Bob Lutz thus:
“No one is questioning Lutz’s right to bag on the Shocks as he gets paid by the Eagle as a professional to do so. Have at it Bob. Take your best shot. But the issue is one of credibility. If you want to be seen with any degree of credibility, you need to be an equal opportunity bagger, and bag on the Hawks when they deserve it; not ignore it altogether, treat it in order of magnitude lighter than you treat WSU criticism, sugar coat it, or apologize for it.”
“I am with great anticipation awaiting an opportunity to sit down and read a Lutz column bagging on the Hawks with the same degree of intensity of adjectives as he exhibits his relish in bagging on WSU.”
Having bagged on Lutz, it is now time to credit him for coming to Jesus somewhat. I am glad to say that Lutz’s column: “Sorry, this one’s in no way a fluke”, is a state of the art advancement in his approach to relating facts and legitimate criticism of KU, although it still could be better in some respects. Some things I am inclined to pass off as just artistic license, but a few points of substance could have made the article even better, in my opinion. For example, Lutz statement:
“By the way, in its last three games against Valley teams, Kansas has lost to Bradley and now Northern Iowa and survived a scare against Southern Illinois. All of these games were played in the NCAA Tournament because the mighty Jayhawks would never, ever schedule a regular season game against a Valley team. That would be beneath them.”
By truncating his statement to “the last three games”, Lutz cut out mentioning Wichita State University’s 1981 victory over KU in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in New Orleans to go to the final 8. I am sure KU fans would pretend they have forgot that loss, but you can be assured WSU fans have not forgotten. Why then would Lutz not include it as the third KU NCAA Tournament loss to Valley teams? Perhaps he truncated his statement to preclude reminding the KU folks of the final 8 Tournament loss to WSU. But why should that be. If part of his job is selling papers for the Eagle, there are only 15 hundred KU alumni living in the Wichita Sedgwick County area, while there is 38 thousand WSU alumni living in the Wichita Sedgwick County area. I am sure the 38 thousand WSU alumni would have like to have read the statement.
Lutz statement that: “[t]he mighty Jayhawks would never, ever schedule a regular-season game against a Valley team. That would be beneath them.”, is an example of Lutz’s recent growth as a professional sports reporter. It’s too early to call it permanent or even a trend, but I am forced to admit that it is substantial progress. I ‘ll have to wait to see a body of work, to form any permanent opinion.
The single statement Lutz made that I believe was clearly erroneous, and reflective of the previous Lutz attitude of sugar coating and apologizing for the Hawks, is the statement:
“What isn’t ‘out there’ is to contend that Northern Iowa is a tougher, more disciplined and even a smarter team than KU.”
Clearly, this statement is false and is not supported by the facts of the game itself. The toughest team, mentally and physically, as exhibited by their play, was UNI. The more disciplined team who played their system precisely as they played it all year long, playing extremely tough defense, precluding KU’s fast breaks, precluding dibble penetration including Collins, pushing out 3 point shooters and contesting almost all 3 point shots including Collins, Henry, Reed, and Morningstar, man on man contesting defense on Aldrich inside, and running their offense patently and taking good shots as a result of that offense, was UNI. And after all, the team that executed the best and controlled the entire game was UNI, clearly the smarter team. UNI clearly exhibited, in my opinion, that they were the better coached team. For example, UNI players all use the same coached form and approach to shooting free throws, and they hit 16 of 19, 84.2 percent for the game, while shooting 75.9 percent for the season. KU players exhibit that they are all allowed to use whatever form and approach that appeals to their ego’s, resulting in only 72.2 percent for the game, and 69.9 percent for the season. In close high pressure NCAA Tournament games, accurately shooting free throws can be the difference in winning or losing the game. UNI scored 3 more points on free throws than KU, and won the game by 2 points.
Which brings me to the UNI’s coach, Ben Jacobson, who Lutz failed to acknowledge at all in his column, notwithstanding Jacobson’s outstanding handling of his team. He kept his poise the entire game, unlike that exhibited by Self, he substituted as situations on the floor dictated. He called time outs and drew up plays at critical points in the game. And, importantly, he never ever exhibited a demeanor to his team other than an absolute body language that said we are going to win this game, just keep handling each situation one play at a time. Jacobson is clearly the stability of his team. Self on the other hand, was red faced and tight jawed early in the first 5 minutes of the game when he realized things were happening that portended KU was going to have a tough time winning the game. He ran up and down the sidelines from time to time the whole game, evidencing his extreme concern. He jawed at the zebras and at his players on the court and off the court at time outs frequently when the play was going bad for KU. Jacobson said nothing to the zebras, and once even looked at O’Rear when he had just air balled a free throw, with a barely perceivable wry sagacious smile with a sparkle in his eye, as if to say: “relax, don’t worry about it, a miss is a miss.”
But all in all, once again, congratulations Lutz, your article was a state of the art advancement in your exhibited professional abilities, in my opinion. Keep up the good work.
Respectfully submitted,
Shocker Black & Golds,
By:
Fred Marrs
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