Friday, October 19, 2007

Mayer

Mayer: 2-sport mania returns

By Bill Mayer

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Jayhawks ready for basketball season

Kansas was knocked out in last year's Elite Eight, but a new year means a fresh start for Kansas basketball.

Jayhawks to face Buffaloes, altitude in Boulder

The KU football team heads to Boulder to play Buffaloes at over 5000 feet above sea level.

How long has it been since Kansas reached mid-October with the level of two-sport fan frenzy it now enjoys - a 6-0 football record and legitimate prospects for making the NCAA Final Four in basketball? Closer than you might remember.

Glen Mason's 1995 Jayhawks ran off a 7-0 victory string before falling 41-7 at Kansas State. The Masonites capped a 10-2 season with a 51-30 walloping of UCLA in the Aloha Bowl after Glen talked chancellor Bob Hemenway into letting him return to KU after taking the Georgia job. Roy Williams' basketball team completed a 29-5 season in the NCAA Regional finals. Not a bad year for a "basketball school."

KU's best doubleton since then was in 2005-06 when its 7-5 was the first winning football season since '95. Kansas closed with a Fort Worth Bowl victory, and Bill Self's court crew ran up a 29-5 record that concluded with that sour note against Bradley in the NCAA first round.

Mark Mangino's Jayhawks can enter a highly notable group of past teams by handling Colorado Saturday and joining the 1995 team and the 1968 Orange Bowlers of Pepper Rodgers with a 7-0 start. KU has every reason to believe it can handle the Boulder Buffaloes as well as did Kansas State. Except the Buffs can be cantankerous in their high-altitude domain, and better Jayhawk teams than this one have been gored.

The good news is that KU goes to Colorado with a lot more weapons, skills, depth and swagger than it's had for some time. Kansas seems sure to benefit from watching how K-State dealt with the Buffs and dispensing some of the same commodities.

But once again, we get the old bit about how KU can be good in basketball or even now and then in football but never consistently notable in both, a la Florida, Ohio State, UCLA (in bygone years) and Michigan. Generally that's true. Kansas State also knows that pattern.

KSU once was highly formidable in basketball, often giving KU far more than it could handle. But in the incredible 17-year reign of coach Bill Snyder, K-State, once legitimately judged the worst major college program in the land, developed as a "football school."

All the while, of course, coach Roy Williams was orchestrating a brilliant 15-year record on the court, dispatching K-State with amazing regularity, while football fell short of Roy's Boys' scintillations.

Kansas may never again enjoy the football-basketball eminence it did in 1951-52 and 1952-53. J.V. Sikes' 1951 gridders were 8-2 and, in case you missed it, Phog Allen's '52 basketeers went 28-3 to win the national and Olympic championships. Came autumn '52 and the Sikesters were 7-3 in football. Next thing you know, Phog and Co. were in the NCAA finale again and lost by one point to Indiana.

Only one league team went to postseason games then (always Oklahoma) but under today's policies, both the '51 and '52 KU teams would have wound up in major bowls.

Now the stage is set for an 8-4 or better '07 football record while Bill Self's '08 basketball outfit can go the distance, and I'm not just talking about the Big 12. Yet if the current footballers really want to elevate their sights to a stratospheric level, they can aim for the 10-0 record Fielding Yost's Kansans posted in 1899 and the 9-0-0 mark Bert Kennedy's game fashioned in 1908.

Heck, Mangino and Co. have surged this far, why not finish out with another 6-0 run?

Comments

KoolKeithFreeze (anonymous) says...

Here come the Fighting Manginos!!!

October 19, 2007 at 5:34 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

carterpatterson (anonymous) says...

8-4? Bill...where's the love? With South Florida getting beat, our national championship scenario is looking better and better. :) Perhaps I've had too much Jim Jones kool-aid again.

October 19, 2007 at 7:20 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

Dream big and reality often follows.

October 19, 2007 at 9 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

One game at a time...

October 19, 2007 at 10:16 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Swamphawk (anonymous) says...

Carter - Bill doesn't need the bagging on this one. Look at his last line.

"Heck, Mangino and Co. have surged this far, why not finish out with another 6-0 run?"

I, for one, think that if we make it through this game entering the mizzou game with an unblemished record is a real distinct possibility. Kool-Aid for everyone!

October 19, 2007 at 10:17 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bdsnook (anonymous) says...

I want Sharp to drink the Kool-Aid. Then I want him to barrel into the CU endzone and say "oh yeah!"

Then I will want to drink the Kool-Aid.

October 19, 2007 at 10:24 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

tis4tim (anonymous) says...

Ah, yes. Fielding Yost and Bert Kennedy...that takes me back a ways. Probably to the Pleistocene Era.

October 19, 2007 at 10:25 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

dsmith84 (anonymous) says...

I wish I was a basketeer

October 19, 2007 at 10:32 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

AzHawk97 (anonymous) says...

"KU can be good in basketball or even now and then in football but never consistently notable in both, a la Florida, Ohio State, UCLA (in bygone years) and Michigan. "

What are their athletic budgets compared to ol' KU?

Here is a WSJ article today about a little state university in Columbus, Ohio, and how they struggle in the big world of college athletics:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB11927...

October 19, 2007 at 10:51 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Nice link, AZ. It was refreshing to see how a small university is somehow able to make ends meet in the most unlikely of circumstances. However, I was somewhat disheartened to read no mention in the article of dollar allocations to, and subsequent revenue generated by, their vaunted curling team. Sigh.

October 19, 2007 at 11:10 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

soapboxstew (anonymous) says...

AzHawk, Florida was never any good at basketball (save the last 5 years). In fact, I think that they have only 2 NC's in football, one of which was last year. Ohio St. is on and off with bball. UCLA sucked at both sports for a long time there. UCLA has sucked in football for a long, long time. They are not contenders in football. I want to play UCLA once more in bball. We beat ourselves last year with 32 (or so) missed dunks or lay-ups. We could have run them off of the floor with half of those dunks or lay-ups. I hate UCLA hoops. Why do they get their prayers answered with our missed chip shots and their last second off-balance 3's (in the E8 last year) when they already have 11 NC's? It pisses me off something fierce. They don't even fill the stadium for weak games. Their so frickin' jaded. And here we are, the better team with the better fans, getting robbed of a NC. Damn them, Damn them to hell.
*Sorry for the Rant*

October 19, 2007 at 12:42 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

soapboxstew (anonymous) says...

BTW, OSU grads can't find a better way to spend their money? The only reason why UT is #2 in athletic funding is because they have oil wells that they receive royality rights from. Some of the wells are on their land, others are donated by dying UT alumni. Ohio has no oil, so where the hell is this money coming from? They have donated $109 million in one year?!? That is unbelievable. They are the Yankee's of college sports.

October 19, 2007 at 12:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

soapboxstew (anonymous) says...

Last but not least: I live in Denver, and I was born and raised in Denver. My parents are both from Kansas, and they met at KU. Most of my family went to KU, and they still live all over Kansas. I went to KU, but I didn't graduate. I did graduate from the University of Colorado at Denver. I have been going to CU football games since I was born. I've seen Heisman (sp?) trophy winners and National Championships at CU. I have also always been a KU fan, hell, I was wrapped in a KU blanket when I was born. In basketball, it is never a question, I root for KU. But in football? I have never known what to do. I should root for KU because they have more to play for. But if CU beats another top ranked undefeated team in Boulder, the excitement will raise around the program. I also want to see CU go to a nice bowl game. Jordan Dizon is my favorite player in college football. Those of you that don't know him will be introduced this Sat. He is the top tackler in the nation (as in he has the most tackles). I want good things for him in his senior year. That includes a bowl game, which CU is 2 wins away from. Talib (sp?, you know, the two-way star) is my second favorite player in college football. Decisions...Decisions...Decisions...
I will be at the game wearing gray.
P.S.- I know that people have a problem talking about football on a bball site, but I am doing it for a justifiable reason. I don't care about football at all compared to basketball. I go on to this site (kusports) to read about basketball and nothing else. If I have something to say about football, I'm saying it on the site that I look at, the basketball site. And don't get so upset with all the "ink" that bball gets, they deserve it. Football can't go back and have the inventor of the game teach at KU. They can't be #3 all-time in wins. They don't have 2 NC's or high expectations in the preseason. But we do have that in basketball. The program prestiege is not even comparable. Kansas is basketball.

October 19, 2007 at 1:19 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

rockchalk80 (anonymous) says...

Masonites? doubleton? basketeers? sikesters? gridders?... come'on?!! is this your best?

October 19, 2007 at 2:05 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

...and basketball is Kansas.

October 19, 2007 at 2:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

How many AFH's does it take to fill one big house? Heck how many MS's (at capacity, that's KU's not NU's) does it take to fill one horseshoe?

There are lots of benefits to having a strong FB team.

October 19, 2007 at 3:18 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JBurtin (anonymous) says...

I would disagree that KU doesn't have some impressive history in football as well. After all:

Naismith invented the game of basketball as a workout for the football team in the off season.

Memorial stadium may not be the new age palace that some of the other teams play in, but how many other teams can boast that their athletic departments had the foresight to build a large stadium with room for expansion in 1921.

Missou and Kansas is the second oldest footbal rivalry in the country, and the oldest one that still matters.

Kansas always was a two-sport school, the athletic department just got lazy and allowed football peter off into non-relevance for the last forty years or so. With the kind of support that they are getting now, there's no reason that they should have to return to non-relevance. Give us about ten years of relevance and nobody will remember the forty of non-relevance, they will talk about KU football as if it's always been here. It's time that football returns to it's rightful place as an equal to the basketball program.

October 19, 2007 at 6:22 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jhwkfan162515 (anonymous) says...

Actually, KU's basketball team finished 25-8 in 2006, not 29-5.

October 19, 2007 at 8:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

ralsterKUMed95 (anonymous) says...

Ever seen the enrollment figures for Ohio State? They are a H U G E school--I vaguely recall a 50-60,000 enrollment! If you have that many eventual alumni, you will get alot of $$$ donations. Period. I also recently have been down to Austin the past couple of years for conferences, and WOW-- Univ of TX has alot of $$$ from their alumni base as well. We think we are doing well for KU (and we certainly are, for our size; and should definitely be proud), but some schools are just huge. Florida's own Billy Donovan stated that they played all the "right teams" on their first championship (luck?), which makes their 2nd NC a bit more impressive, except of course, if KU had made it, FL would not have come out on top.

October 19, 2007 at 10:55 p.m. ( | suggest removal )