"The horror!"

From Madagascar 2:

Alex: Marty, it looks like this is it! I just want you to know, you're a one in a million friend!
Marty: Thanks, Alex! You are a true friend!
Alex: And I'm sure you won't mind when I tell you...
Marty: What? Tell me what?
Alex: I broke your iPod!
Marty: What?
Alex: The buttons were so small! It made me mad!
Marty: The horror!

The horror…the shock…WTF?! (and, no, I’m not talking about Work Time Fun!) Terri and I were sitting in the bar at a restaurant where we were meeting some friends and I was dumbfounded. I was immediately reminded of my sophomore year at OU when I flew back home for a break after getting disappointed about a couple other things going on at school and went to see my “girlfriend” Erin. I say “girlfriend” because I thought there was more there then she did. And then she broke up with me. I was shocked and, looking back, was an idiot for not seeing it.

That’s exactly how I feel about the Jayhawks this year. I was blinded by the #1 ranking, the belief that we could play with anyone because we did but the signs were there:

• Cornell within one point with :25 left on our home court;

• The Tennessee loss;

• Colorado…Colorado!..taking us to overtime;

• The Oklahoma State loss.

Did we have a target on our back, yes, but we never had the killer instinct, the “step on your throat and you’re not getting up until we’ve put you away with 5:00 to play. I’m not saying that we didn’t have the talent or the ability to play with anyone but we sure weren’t doing what some teams in the tourney are doing now:

• Cornell beats Wisconsin by almost 20 yesterday;

• Syracuse destroys Gonzaga and they are still missing one of their key players;

• Duke buckles down on defense and wins;

• Kentucky spanks Wake Forest by 30…30!

So, my guess is if we would have eked out a win on Saturday Tennessee or OSU would have beaten us. Next year will be hard because we will probably lose five of our key players to the draft in June and I can see our 59 game home win streak being snapped by K-State or Missouri…which would be heartbreaking too.

Bill’s a good recruiter but his legacy, even if he wins another two championships in the next 10 years will be one of championships and devastating losses and being outcoached when it was time to buckle down and step on the throat.

Looking forward to October and partially forgetting “the horror”.

Chris

P.S.: I have a lot to write about the new house, the kids and this was my push to get back in and write again.

How about those Jayhawks?!

Man, what a game! I couldn’t sit down the last fifteen minutes and was blown away when Memphis started missing free throws which, “hadn’t been a problem,” throughout the tournament according to coach Calipari.

I think I sent nearly 300 text messages during the game to friends, especially Steve, a fellow KU alum who, like I, was there in ’88 when they won. We were analyzing, making remarks about the dunks, slams, lack of fouling, the shooting drought that KU went through in the second half…and then the shot! HOLY CRAP! I was looking at it again on YouTube and didn’t realize that Collins was running, dishing the ball to Chalmers, and fell and Mario still had the capacity to dribble the ball once and take the shot.

Video (check out 0:59) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-7D_RTZcR0

I was elated with the clips from Lawrence and stories and that we were finally the best again. After all the years of playing in pools and picking KU to go far but not wanting to be stupid, they did it. I didn’t win any money but going into the weekend it was all about my heart and the possible joy of what was to come. The scary thing is I’m thinking during both games that it’s not going to happen but there’s a sliver of chance. The icing on the cake was Bill Self’s announcement yesterday that he’s staying. Hopefully the university will have a chance to name a building after him when the dynasty is over and there are six more championship banners hanging from the rafters.

If we were to play Memphis 10 times maybe we’d split the games 5-5 but what I always like to say at the beginning of March is “Give me six straight wins…that’s all I want.”