State of the Union Address: Kansas Jayhawks

I'd like to start by accepting the shout out from ol' Billy Boy Self for reading the blog and yanking Tyshawn from the starting lineup, even though he had to go and one up me by choosing Brady Morningstar over Tyrel Reed- eh, the Tighty Whiteys are interchangeable. This move has resulted in, or at least contributed to, the best two-game stretch of the season (@Iowa St, Missouri) from the team, with only the Temple game being comparable. This should come as no surprise, as this is the time of year that KU always gets it in gear, right at the start of conference season. And since some of the players are confused about what's expected of them, and the fact that Self loves to read my blog so much, I will now lay out the roles for each player (ranked in importance to the team's success):


Sherron Nasty- The man. Has the balls necessary to lead a team to a National Championship. Doing a great job of figuring out when to take over games, and when to defer to teammates. Think of his legacy if he can lead Kansas to a National Championship this year.

'Cus Morris- Turning on beast mode. Averaging 19 and 8 in conference games so far. I rated him as more important than Cole because he has a better chance of becoming the go to low-post scorer. To win it all, you need a man you dump the ball down to and expect a basket. Shadyyyyyy.

Colehelm Aldrich- The Funnelcake. I've given up on Cole at the offensive end, and Herm Edwards tells me that's okayyyyy. It's okkkkk. Just focus on the defensive end. The rest of the defense funnels the offense into Cole sitting right under the basket for some sweet swat action. Funnelcakez.

Brady 'Cornbread' Morningstar- Dude does it all. Every KU fan would understand why he is this high on the list. Every non-KU fan would be confused why he's this high. Defense, passing, and court awareness are the reasons why. A mere 9 points as a season-high causes the confusion. There's more to basketball than scoring.

Xavier Henry- X-Man. The Phader. The Snipah. Has been in a shooting slump for a while now, but I prescribe for him to just shoot his way out of it. Needs his confidence to be high come tournament time.

Tyshawn Taylor- The Pine Cone. Should thrive coming off the bench. Seems to be playing with more passion since his inoffensive demotion, especially on the defensive end. At the beginning of the season, I wanted him to be the steady hand of Russ Rob from '07. Didn't work. Now he needs to become Sherron's spark off the bench from '07.

'Kief Morris- Rebound da ball like a man.

Tyrel Reed- Shoot 3's.

Jeff 'Kill' Whitey- I like him off the bench before Thomas Robinson. Needs to be ready in every first half in case two bigs pickup two fouls.

C.J. Henry- Kid X. Kid Snipah. I'm convinced he might be the best shooter on the team. I'm also convinced that he is definitely the worst defender on the team.

Thomas Robinson- Still makes too many dumb plays. Will be the man next year along with...

Elijah Johnson- Study Sherron's every move (except for elevator behavior).

Conner Teahan- Look pretty. And change your name if you ever want to play.

Chase Buford- Keep rockin that 'stache.

Jordan Juenemann- Work on those cankles Ju Wanna Man.


Prediction for tonight: Kansas @ Kansas St~~I feel like all the pressure is on Kansas State in this game. College Gameday. Just beat Texas. Kansas has the rematch at home to fall back on. I think the fans will be ready, I don't think the team will be. KU does not fear K-State in anyway. This is a game Kansas wins.

Kansas 71, Kansas State 64

Reaction to Kansas Jayhawks first loss vs. Tennessee

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The loss to Tennessee is nothing to fret about, even if they were severely undermanned. In the short-term that can bring teams together, and they certainly played fired up on Sunday. Don't freak when Tennessee starts to plummet because they won't be able to keep that effort up in the long-term. It will catch up to them.

Losses happen. The way to win it all in College Basketball is to respond well to losses. You have to be able to build from them. I'm sure Bill Self didn't mind seeing a loss at all, and is now able to get his point across to his players. They all have gigantic heads now (cough cough, Tyshawn), and now its time for Self to shrink those. I see no reason to think that Self won't get his team to respond well from this loss, and see little chance that KU isn't a number 1 seed come March.

Now why did KU lose? If I had to put blame on one soul, which is hard to do, I'd go with Xavier Henry. He took but 1 shot in the second half of the game, which happened to be an impressive blow by and easy layup. He has to be more aggressive. He looked scared, along with a number of other players, which forced Sherron Collins to take shot after shot. I'd blame Sherron, but he's seeing the same things I'm seeing, that nobody else WANTED to take a shot. We also might have to start admitting the fact that Cole Aldrich isn't the player that he was last year for whatever reason. He seems disinterested in getting involved on the offensive end.

I look for KU to implement the style of basketball that they hope leads to a championship this year starting Wednesday against Nebraska. Look for them to go high-low and hammer the ball inside until all 5 defensive players collapse, and then dish out it to any of the shooters on the outside. Self knows the way to win in March is with inside toughness. He thought that long before his National Championship proved the point. I predict a season-high in points for Cole Aldrich against Nebraska (19).

I would also suggest making a change to the starting lineup. I would insert Tyrel Reid in place of Tyshawn Taylor. The results of this are three-fold. First, I believe Taylor's ego is a little out of control, most likely from playing on the under-19 USA team, and this shrinks it down a bit. Second, they need more of a spark coming off the bench, not Reid and Morningstar, who are too similar of players (racist jokes aside). Think Sherron coming off the bench for the 2007-08 team. You need a scoring threat, an instigator, to come off the bench. This fits Tyshawn perfectly. He can be the main threat on the floor that he's looking to be and do it against the other team's bench, who he's more apt to go against. Thirdly, this frees up all the scoring threats to get more of their looks, and puts the best pure shooter just floating in the corner for when any of them get double-teamed. Reid has finally gotten big enough that he is no longer a liability on the defensive end. Think Lee Humphrey from the Florida Gators' championship teams.

In the long run, this loss is not a big deal to where KU wants to be come the end of the season. Nobody will look back at this season and remember anything about this game really. It's best chance to be remembered will be as the turning point in a National Championship season.

P.S. I smell upset-city in either Kentucky-Florida tonight or Texas-Iowa St. tomorrow

2009 Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Thoughts

I thought I'd throw down some random thoughts on some University of Kansas basketball action after seeing them walk over UCLA on Sunday. First things first, man has UCLA fallen off- they looked terrible out there. They played good defense, which is expected under Ben Howland, but I never feared KU losing their 10 point lead because they had an offense equivalent to that of a high school team.

I'd like to start by saying it has been harder for me to follow the Jayhawks this year with not being enrolled in the school. I've found it a little challenging to watch them blow out the lesser opponents so far this year. That must just come from not living in Lawrence anymore. But, I feel drawn in now, and why's that? Look at who's number 2...Texas. The next line of thought from my brain goes like this, F*** Texas, followed by an upside down hook 'em horns sign. I dunno if people can tell or not, but I currently have a strong distaste for Texas.

That being said, I would have no problem with Texas displacing KU as number 1 in the nation right now. I have not been impressed with them so far. I would say they haven't had an impressive game up to this point, which obviously means I'm not counting the blowouts of the little schools. In the Memphis and UCLA ballgames they seemed very ho-hum in their efforts and played sloppy, undisciplined basketball. I would argue their most impressive game of the year came against Oakland, a team picked to win their conference with a legitimate big man down low. Now, is this anything to worry about right now? Probably not, as long as it doesn't continue. They'll have a chance to impress with Michigan and Cal coming up in a 4 day span later this month. Although, I foresee their first loss coming at the hands of Tennessee in Knoxville.

The biggest problem I've seen out of the team this year has been players not knowing and/or not committing to their roles on the team. I believe a basketball team is at its best with three main scorers, and the other players filling roles around them. There just aren't enough basketballs to go around to feed four hungry scorers. This team has returnees Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich as the main building blocks, along with freshman Xavier Henry stepping in as that third scorer. The person this leaves on the fence is Tyshawn Taylor, who has been struggling mightily this season. If I were Bill Self, the first thing I'd do (besides admiring myself in the mirror) is show Tyshawn tapes of Russell Robinson. Become him. Accept your role. Make good passes, don't turn the ball over, and lead your team. You win championships with a mix of star players and other players knowing and accepting their roles. Tyshawn fits the bill of a role player, atleast for now, and coming off the bench might be the best way for him to learn that.

The next biggest problem I've seen is just an overall lack of involvement from Cole Aldrich. He is your stud, you need to ride him. It might just be early in the season, so they are including everyone in the action, but Cole needs to take charge and demand the ball more. I'm almost wandering if he has leveled off and reached his full potential.

My final thought is about the overall improvement of the Morris twins. They seem to be everywhere this year. Although, I wander, is that because there are two of them and we think we're seeing them twice as much as we actually are? Does anybody have a strategy for differentiating the two? Because I just say "good play Morris" every time, and refer to the two of them as a whole, 'The Morrisi'. I say we make them wear different colored head bands. Or one grows an afro. Or one becomes point guard. They gotsta do something...

Rock Chalk,
His Dirkness