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Good Will Hunter
Good Will Hunter: Six months of loathing
Zac Hunter chips in his two cents while bloggin' from Boston.
I really hate the offseason. I mean, I really hate it.
It seems as though this time of year is when all the idiots come out of the woodwork. Kansas State fans proclaim that incoming recruit Michael Beasley is the second coming of Carmelo Anthony and are predicting nothing but glory in 2008. I believe the 'Cat fans forget Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara were on that 2003 Syracuse team as well.
Over in Columbia, there has been a massive influx of UCLA T-shirts in honor of Missouri’s greatest sporting achievement of the year. Congrats Tiger fans.
And there’s always the exciting message board chatter about which player will transfer and what school is going to make a run at Bill Self. This year's hot topic was Arkansas. Forgive me if I seem a little disinterested in the idea of tracking the University of Arkansas jet across the country. The last I heard it was in Wichita. I’ll keep you up to date.
But aside from all the rival chatter, there is nothing going on. I tried to watch the rest of the games, but after the ‘Hawks bowed out to UCLA I kind of lost interest. I decided to man up and cheer for the Bruins to win the whole thing. After about ten minutes of that pathetic performance on Saturday against Florida, I could no longer cheer for UCLA. My rooting interest was replaced by complete and utter rage. How did that baby blue joke of a team manage to beat Kansas just seven days earlier? Thanks for showing up clowns against the Gators, clowns.
The two dagger tossing Bruins from the West Region Final, Arron Afflalo and Darren Collison, managed to make a total of eight buckets on Saturday. It only took them 28 tries. I guess they didn’t come across too many guarded 3-point opportunities with one second on the shot clock. I know, I know, I shouldn’t complain. Kansas had its chance to be in that game Saturday night, but the shots didn’t fall. But it makes it suck so much more that the Bruins couldn’t even keep it close.
So now we’re left with the evil empire for Monday night’s championship game and I couldn’t be more disinterested in CBS’s fantasy come true. Prepare yourself for the battle of storied football programs and Johnny Come Lately basketball programs. Prepare yourself for replays from the BCS Title game from three months ago. Prepare yourself for Chris Leak and Troy Smith. Prepare yourself for crowd shots of Yannick Noah in a wacky hat. Did you know he won the French Open in 1983? Remember, you heard it here for the 1,000th time in the last 30 days.
And most of all, prepare yourself for the boredom of the offseason. Baseball's excitement will wear off when the Royals are eight games back after the first month. The NFL Draft will generate some buzz, which will be replaced by despair once everyone realizes the Chiefs will be just as pedestrian this year. And while I love heading to Memorial Stadium for a 'Hawks game in September we shouldn't expect too much from our boys this season.
It's all just a countdown to Late Night as far as I'm concerned. Only six months to go. Man, I really hate the off season.
- Darrell Arthur : F, Memphis Grizzlies
- Mario Chalmers : G, Miami Heat
- Nick Collison : C-F, Oklahoma City Thunder
- Drew Gooden : F-C, Chicago Bulls
- Kirk Hinrich : G, Chicago Bulls
- Darnell Jackson : F, Cleveland Caveliers
- Raef LaFrentz : F, Portland Trailblazers
- Paul Pierce : G-F, Boston Celtics
- Scot Pollard : C-F, Boston Celtics
- Brandon Rush : G, Indiana Pacers
- Billy Thomas : G, Cleveland Cavaliers
- Jacque Vaughn : G, San Antonio Spurs Julian Wright : F, New Orleans Hornets
- All-time list of 'Hawks in the NBA
2003, 2004, and 2007 EPpy Award Winner. 
2003 and 2005 Digital Edge Winner
Comments
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Posted by JayCeph (anonymous) on April 2, 2007 at 3:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh, I don't know if the Bruins losing to Florida was that bad. I mean, if you look at BBall like a game of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' then it all works out. Rock= KU, Paper= UCLA and Scissors= Florida. They all beat each other in a round-a-bout... just like the season proved.
There can be only one Nat'l Champ. If it's not going to be KU, who cares?
Six months and counting... (I hate the off season too).
Posted by cwrist (Chris Wristen) on April 2, 2007 at 3:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Agreed Hunter. UCLA inspired me to go for a run with about 16 minutes left in that game and Florida up by 19. Got home just in time for the handshake line.
Glad to see Afflalo pick up three fouls in five minutes during the first half. That's about as big-time as Greg Oden playing two minutes in the first half of the Ohio State-Georgetown game.
Posted by RckChalkJeff (anonymous) on April 2, 2007 at 4:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
every year we hear the same crap from KSU fans....they think one player makes them better than our 9 awesome players....idiots...
Posted by DerekR25 (anonymous) on April 3, 2007 at 2:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah, plus they are losing a ton of their offense. They are losing Cartier Martin, Jermaine Maybank, Akeem Wright, and Lance Harris which calculates to about 40pts and 16rebs per game. I don't care who they've recruited, that's a ton of production to replace on a team that alread struggled with the exception of Hoskins and Martin. Bill Walker could've made a difference in Manhattan this season, but without all the seniors, it will be hard for the freshmen (I still consider Walker a frosh, since he didn't play in many games) to lead their team.
Posted by truefan (anonymous) on April 4, 2007 at 7:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am a KU football fan, so the offseason isn't so long for me. I try to pass the time by checking recruiting websites to see what kind of miracles Self will perform with next year's recruiting class. While checking these sites though, I noticed that Mangino picked up a couple of 300 pounders to beef up our offensive line and make running a bit easier for our unexperienced runningbacks. We'll do just fine in football next year and I can't wait for it to start. I'll be at the spring game, hope to see you all there.
Posted by klineisanazi (anonymous) on April 5, 2007 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
truefan, how would you denfine "just fine"? Beating Missouri, going .500, going to the Texas Bowl, competing for a Division title? As long as Mangino has been at KU, what are reasonable expectations? I, for one, think it is time to raise the bar. A winning record would be a start.
Posted by truefan (anonymous) on April 5, 2007 at 12:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well a winning record was what I was implying. Good Will Hunter was making it seem as though we are going to be terrible next year and I don't think he knows what he is talking about because he is obviously not much of a KU football fan. If you want my opinion on what should be expected from Mangino and his teams I would say that going to a bowl game every year should be the main goal. He has made it to a couple of them, but without the proper facilities he has had a hard time bringing in the big recruits to make sure it happens consistently. You have to remember that he is not simply breathing life into an old and well know football program he is building a football program from the ground up. The facilities for football at KU are decades behind the big football schools like Texas and OU so recruiting 5 stars isn't an option as of yet. He won a few games and made it to a couple of bowls to create the interest and now he is asking for the facilities to help with recruiting so unappreciative fans such as yourself can expect more from his teams. They gathered up the money to make the facilities and plans are already drawn up, but until you can actually walk a recruit into the building it isn't going to help much. Raising the bar is fine and I encourage that, but lets be realistic with it and not expect conference championships right away. As of this point in Mangino's career I expect a winning season next year and a bowl game (even if it is the Texas Bowl again) and if he doesn't reach these goals I will be disappointed.
Posted by logicsound04 (anonymous) on April 5, 2007 at 3:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I love the rock-paper-scissors comment about KU, Fla, and UCLA! However, I was extremely frustrated by the UCLA/Fla game, as WE were the ones with the best chance of keeping Florida from it's f-ing repeat.
As for KU football--Mangino lost any goodwill he had built up in the previous three years with last year's choke job of a performance. In four SEPARATE games, the coaching staff made some monstrous errors that cost us in every one of the games (How many times did our workhorse of a running back touch the ball in the fiasco to Mizzou????). Our team was excellent last year and capable of a 10-2, 9-3 record and a RESPECTABLE bowl bid. Bowls don't mean too much when all but 2 or 3 teams with non-losing records get to play in them--it should be more of sign of how BAD you are if you DON'T make a bowl, especially with the ability to beef up your record on D-2 foes. A supposed lack of recruits explains losses to teams like Texas, not to teams like Baylor, Oklahoma St. and Toledo. Mangino is an AVERAGE coach getting paid Bob Stoops money--when was the last time our results even came CLOSE to Oklahoma's?
Posted by kcmostwanted (anonymous) on April 5, 2007 at 5:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
wow..i 'm in the same boat with whoever wrote this.. i mean i waited 1/2 a year for basketball season and now it's gone...I'll follow the the Chiefs this year too but as mentioned they'll be a team just over .5 again...unless they can manage to draft Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, and Alan Branch.......Then that'll get them going but they would need to have the 1st 2nd and maybe 5th pick for that to happen...Boy i'm bored... I don't follow KU football much anymore because they tend to dissapoint me every year....That Toledo game last year just about did it...
Posted by truefan (anonymous) on April 5, 2007 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wrong...Ok St., Baylor and Toledo all have better facilities than KU. Ok. St. is a much more storied program, Baylor is in Texas which gives them the Texas recruiting advantage, and Toledo was just an example of a young pass defense and an offense run by a freshman quaterback. And your comment about how many times we have had seasons even close to as successfull as OK...NEVER so why do you expect miracles right away from Mangino? As far as the Missouri game you are right, Cornish didn't get enough touches, but guess what THE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR GOT FIRED! When Mangino sees a problem he fixes it. Our team had chances last year to win mutiple games, but without playmakers on defense and with two freshman at quaterback (the most important position of the offense) we couldn't close out games. If you think I am wrong then you can take a look at how bad Texas was when Vince Young was a freshman. Last year Mangino got us bowl eligible and for only the second time in Big 12 history there were 9 teams eligible. Had there only been eight eligible like usual then we would have gone to a bowl game and you wouldn't be complaining.
Posted by logicsound04 (anonymous) on April 6, 2007 at 2:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The fact that those schools' facilities are better is irrelevant. We didn't lose to them based on talent. We lost based on poor coaching. Mangino doesn't need to perform miracles--in fact, I would argue that some of the leads he lost this year took miracles for the OTHER team.
Wasn't Talib on our defense? Is he a playmaker?
And for the record, I would still be complaining had they won one single extra game and gone to some no-name bowl. That is exactly my point--that going to a bowl is not as meaningful as you seem to think. In fact, I was glad that they didn't go to a meaningless bowl because I didn't want Mangino to get credit from fans for what was essentially a subpar season.
Posted by truefan (anonymous) on April 7, 2007 at 8:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Your name is misleading. If you had logic then you wouldn't even be posting. Aqib Talib is ONE PLAYER. Last time I checked 1 player can't cover 5 receivers. The rest of the secondary was young and inexperienced and pretty much got used every game. Not to mention that our defensive line put little to no pressure on the quaterback which means that he got all day to sit back and wait for an open reciever. Our defensive coordinator pulled out every trick in the book and sent different stunts and blitzes every set of downs and we just didn't have the playmakers to get it done. So no, it didn't take a miracle for the other teams to beat us, all it took was the realization that we couldn't stop the pass and then the game was pretty much over from there on out.
And for the record, bowl games are meaningful because it is hard to recruit top teir players if your team doesn't regularly go to a bowl game. The best thing that has happend for KU football is when they went to the Fort Worth bowl in TX and got to show off the program in the state that we recruit the heaviest. That bowl game wasn't meaningless then and it isn't now. And yes, Ok St. did have better talent then we did and Toledo only beat us because our freshmen quarterback happend to make a few more mistakes than theirs did. Going to a bowl game is not a subpar season when you are building a program. I apologize, you would still be complaining had we gone to a bowl game...that's all you do.
Posted by logicsound04 (anonymous) on April 8, 2007 at 6:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You said we didn't have any playmakers. I logically pointed out that you were wrong.
I also thought that KU athletics was the topic of discussion, but you feel the need to make comments about me. Personal attacks are great when you can't make a well-reasoned arguments, but I have no desire to engage in that kind of a conversation.
Posted by truefan (anonymous) on April 8, 2007 at 6:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah and cop outs like that one work too. Your point didn't prove anything and each of my comments were much more researched and well-reasoned. In fact there are two paragraphs worth of well reasoned arguements. Just because you don't have a rubuttal doesn't mean you can start trying to pick apart mine. I chose personal attacks because your arguements don't make any sense. You mentioned my points, but you never truly refuted them. You don't know what you are talking about and it really gets annoying to have to deal with "fans" like you all the time.