I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Roy who? Visit site »
I’ve been following ESPN’s countdown of the “Top Ten Most Prestigious Hoops Programs Since 1984-85” all week. Yesterday, they posted the final results, which had Duke at number one, North Carolina at number two, and my beloved Kansas Jayhawks at number three. Now, they’ve revised the results, nothing that “some facts for Kansas and North Carolina were incorrectly tabulated by the ESPN research department,” and moving KU into the number two spot. Sweet! Visit site »
I predicted my Jayhawks would come in in the top five, and maybe the top two in this list. I was disappointed to find they ended up at number three. Duke was the obvious number one, but I thought Kansas would edge out North Carolina for the number two spot. I thought North Carolina’s losing season would be the killer for them. Turns out, Kansas’ losses to Bradley and Bucknell in the tournament a few years back hurt them more. In the end, UNC bests Kansas by four measly points!
Of my other top ten predictions, I picked the top five correctly (Arizona and Kentucky being the other two). I correctly picked UConn, UCLA, and Syracuse in the top ten, but sort of forgot about UNLV and Georgetown, picking Michigan State (#11) and Florida (#21) instead. Doh! I really dropped the ball with the Florida pick! Despite being one of only five school to have two NCAA championships in the span, they also had five losing seasons, only four 20-win seasons, and not very many conference titles, thanks to being in the same conference as Kentucky. Visit site »
ESPN is counting down the 50 best college hoops programs in the nation this week, and they’ve just posted the first installment (numbers 50-41). They’re using a scoring system in which schools get points for various accomplishments, such as winning the NCAA tournament, making the final four, winning their conference, and so forth. Fun stuff.
I’m anxious to see where Kansas winds up on the list. Based on the point system, I should think it’ll be pretty high — top five at least, and possibly top two. By my off-the-top-of-my-head memory, only Duke has more NCAA titles (three, to KU’s two), but Kansas has more conference championships and All-Americans. Besides Kansas and Duke, I’d expect to see UNC, Kentucky, and Arizona rounding out the top five. Syracuse, UConn, Florida, UCLA and Michigan State should also be in the top ten. That is, if my memory is anywhere near accurate. Visit site »
In last night’s NBA draft, a record-tying five players from a single school were drafted when my Kansas Jayhawks’ Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson, and Sasha Kaun were all selected by the league. Compare that to North Carolina and Duke who had, um, none. Just sayin’.
The Jayhawks were promptly treated like the school slut, passed from team to team in a fury of trades. All five KU players were dealt at least once, and Arthur was traded three times! Visit site »
My old buddies at the Journal-World have a whole slew of multimedia and other content related to the Jayhawks’ recent visit to The White House. President Bush saying, “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” is probably one of the coolest things he’s ever done. See also LJW’s great special online feature on the Championship, which I believe was mostly this work of Richard Cornish. Visit site »
Bear in mind that the entire city of Lawrence has a population of about 85,000, and that the downtown they’re referencing is basically six city blocks along one street. Here’s a photo. God, I would have loved to have been there. Visit site »
Hillary argued that Memphis had passed every test during the game, including scoring more points than Kansas for 38 minutes. For 38 minutes they had shown the experience necessary to be National Champion. “Just because some team comes along in the last minute and scores more points than the other guy doesn’t mean they’re necessarily able to be National Champion on Day One,” she said.
(Yes, this is a joke. Barack Chalk Jayhawk!) Visit site »
40,000 people on Massachusetts street between 7th and 11th — in a town of 80,000. Awesome. Via Nathan. Visit site »
