Allen Fieldmouse - Jayhawks Opinionator

Dick Vitale has not yet shown his face in Allen Fieldhouse this season.  ESPN has instead chosen to saddle fans with the substandard color commentary of Bobby Knight during the nationally televised games.  Knight appeared drunk in the first game that ESPN aired, seemingly seeing double, while adding both Marquise and Maurice Morris to the Jayhawks backcourt during the USC game.  Albeit, Knight was slightly better when KU played Baylor, at least he could tell Brady Morningstar and Tyrell Reed apart, but I suspect that was either because he was afraid of the consequences of drinking in Waco, or he just couldn’t find a bar.

So, how will fans react to Vitale’s presence this year?  In the past, he has been overwhelming supported and welcomed, despite the fact that when he talks about how great of a basketball venue Allen Fieldhouse is, he always manages to mention Cameron Arena and Duke within a sentence or two.  Prior to this year, that has always been excused to a certain extent, because Vitale was universally recognized as the preeminent expert in college basketball.  With his increasing trend towards senility, and the growing inaccuracies of his predictions, that is no longer the case.

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Over time, the Earth’s alignment and has changed. This week, so did the Zodiac calendar. There was even a thirteenth sign, Ophiuchus, added to the calendar to reflect the changes in the night sky from 2500 or so years ago, when the astrological calendar was first ordained. Since no new days were added to our calendar, all of the other signs had to be shifted to make way for this new unpronounceable sign, and realign dates to match the night time sky. On January 11, the new calendar was announced, changing the astrological signs for most of the Jayhawks players a day before their non-conference opener with Iowa State.

In a massive exodus at the guard position, Josh Selby, Tyshawn Taylor and Tyrell Reed have all gone from being Aries last week to Pisces this week. According to such reputable sources as Astrology-online.com, this represents a fundamental change in the personalities of these players.

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There has been much speculation on which guard would lose playing time when Josh Selby joins the Kansas rotation on Saturday.  It now seems that all that speculation was for naught.  Mario Little was arrested early this morning on charges of criminal trespassing and assault, in what Coach Self called “very poor judgment.”  Rio has been indefinitely suspended from the team, and through his own actions has made himself the odd man out in the lineup, making room in the playing rotation for Selby.

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This is the first time in history that Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri have been ranked in the top ten at the same time.

For the non math-geeks, the Big East has 6 out of 16 in the top 25… that’s 37% of the conference

The Big 12 has 5 out of 12 teams ranked, which is 41% of the conference.

Many of us remember the March 21, 1997 game against Arizona. The Jayhawks were 34-0, and seemingly unbeatable. With a slew of future NBA players, including Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce, the Jayhawks had steamrolled almost every opponent that year. The team had a deep bench, and could run like no other team. The formula to victory for that team was simple: outrun and outshoot anyone that dared step onto the court with them.  It was a finesse team, that, until last week, held the distinction of having the longest home court winning streak in school history.

Arizona employed a different kind of strategy in the ‘97 NCAA Sweet Sixteen Tournament game than any other the Jayhawks had faced all season. They played rough. Really rough. They didn’t try to run with the ‘Hawks, they just tried to get in the way and trip, push and bully their way through the game… and it worked. Kansas was knocked off their game, and after going through the regular season, through the preliminary rounds of the tourney, and into the game with a perfect record, the Jayhawks ended up losing their first game of the year.

Last night, Arizona tried the same thing. Derrick Williams led the way for Arizona, and played like he was a member of the ‘97 Arizona thug team. He did his best to intimidate inside, throwing elbows and playing an aggressive post. He got as much help from the officiating staff as he got from many of his teammates, I personally counted nine obvious fouls that he got away with, before finally fouling out last in the second half.

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...There has been much speculation that the Morris twins might choose to forgo their senior seasons and enter the NBA Draft early.  Marcus is certainly a first round pick, and if Markieff’s performance continues to improve at it’s current pace, he would also likely be a first round choice.  It is understandable, of course, from their point of view, to start their professional careers early and avoid the financially devastating possibility of injury, but Sam Bradford’s ascendance in the NFL, despite his season ending injury at Oklahoma last year, gives some comfort.  It is also the forgone assumption that a talent as rare as Josh Selby would most likely be a one and done player at Kansas, following the Kevin Durant model.

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The Jayhawks are currently riding a 62 game home winning streak, tying their all time streak, set in 1998. The Jayhawks will attempt to break the ’98 record tonight, when Texas A&M comes to town… fortunately, it will be the A&M team from Corpus Christi, not the College Station variety.

The last time the Jayhawks were defeated in Allen Fieldhouse was February 3, 2007 by a Texas A&M Aggies featuring Acie Law at the point and Joseph Jones at center. Texas A&M was ranked eighth in the nation, and the Jayhawks were ranked sixth.  It was the first and last time that a Big 12 South team has come into Allen Fieldhouse and walked away with a victory.

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Polls

The current rankings will be updated tomorrow.  Kansas has already moved up from a preseason #7 ranking to #6 (and that was before the Selby announcement).  The USA Today Coaches Poll and Associated Press agree on the top three teams.

1. Duke
2. Michigan State
3. Kansas State

Incidentally, this is the first time that I can remember KState being ranked higher than the Jayhawks since 1989, the season after Danny & the Miracles. 

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When Windows Vista was coming out, Microsoft spent a ton of time and money hyping it.  We were told about all of the cool things it could do, and how much it would improve our computers, and make our lives so much better. Unfortunately, this was just hype, and much to Microsoft’s chagrin, most people stuck with Windows XP after hearing the horror stories from people who ‘upgraded.’  Even people who bought new computers with Vista installed, often downgraded the system software because Vista kept crashing.  Who could ever forget the speech recognition calamity that became a youtube hit?

Much like Vista, Selby’s release has been delayed… but a release date has finally been announced: December 8, against USC. Continue reading this post »