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January 25, 2007
Zac Hunter chips in his two cents while bloggin' from Boston.I admit it. I'm a message board junkie. My online vocabulary consists of words like Blaker, pwned, sig lines and avatars. But I don't think I can take it much longer. There's more negativity surrounding Kansas basketball than President Bush's State of the Union Address. Although I think Bush might get more applause than the Jayhawks have received recently. I can't take people hammering on Russell Robinson. The kid plays as hard as he can. He may not make the best decisions all the time, but I love his heart. I slap my forehead every time Julian Wright passes up a five-foot shot for a highlight reel pass, but I love the kid's energy and willingness to get others involved. I take this team as it is. I suppose you could consider me a crimson and blue Kool-Aid drinker because I refuse to get down on this team. It used to be that KU fans were miserable only in March. Now some of our fellow Jayhawks are miserable all year long and I wonder what's the point of even being a fan? Kansas fans have become Chiefs fans with more regular season success and a lot less Zubaz. It's time to enjoy the ride. It's time to appreciate a classic Kansas vs. Missouri game in the Fieldhouse instead of crying about not winning by enough points. And while this team has been inconsistent, it is still 17-3 and ranked No. 8 in the country. I can think of 300+ teams that would love to trade places. The 'Hawks control their own destiny in the Big 12 with Texas A&M coming to the Fieldhouse, and games against Top 10 teams are where they really shine. They will probably win the Big 12 for the third straight year and no one will care, because it doesn't matter many how Big 12 titles Kansas wins. It didn't matter last year. Only Bucknell and Bradley matter. A large portion of the Kansas fan base only cares about how many points Kansas beats Iowa State by on a random Saturday in January and what it does in the NCAA tournament.And that's the beauty part about this season. It's all practice until March. It's the same reason why I don't care about a road loss at Texas Tech. Yeah, it sucked to lose because the Jayhawks are obviously the better team, but good teams lose all the time. Florida and North Carolina have each lost a couple of times this season. It's college basketball. It happens. Kansas, despite wins against Florida, USC, Boston College and Oklahoma State, doesn't have the style points of some other Top 10 teams. But that doesn't matter either. Wins in November and December don't get you jack in March.Kansas' season, from here on out, will be judged on what happens during the best three weeks of the year. So with that, I'm calling my shot. Mark it down right now. This team will be in the Final Four. Now pass me the Kool-Aid. I've got some message boards to read.
Comments
fabolous_bg (anonymous) says...
I totally agree with you about the fans being like Chiefs fans. Chiefs' fans are horrible, if their team doesn't win every game, they hate on the team. I hate comparing the two but its definitely true. I must be drinking the kool-aid too.
January 26, 2007 at 8:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
KUFan90 (anonymous) says...
I think it's a rabid, unrealistic, vocal minority that do all this whining. I believe the majority of fans understand the ups and downs of this game and support (and...gasp!...enjoy!) watching the team through thick and thin. I only read message boards in the off season just to get my "fix" of KU Hoops. I don't go near them during the season, mainly due to the negativity.
January 26, 2007 at 10:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
manderson (anonymous) says...
I refuse to categorize myself as rabid, brainwashed and compared to some of Chief's Nation that is constantly complaining.
However, I do believe this one thing to be true. Kansas gets zero respect from the national media with the exception being in the pre-season polls.
Every year we are pre-season number #3, #,5, with an occassional #1, by some pundits. The simple fact is that Kansas does little to help itself garner the national respect so many feel we deserve with it's early exits from the dance or it's demorilizing losses to teams not ranked in the top 100.
I for one am sick and tired of seeing Duke, Carolina, UCLA, and flavor of the week teams get paraded in front of our great program all year.
It seems that in order for Kansas to gain the respect of the national media, we either have to blow people out every game, or go undefeated.
I challenge anyone to name another team in the country that lost a game this season while being ranked in the top ten that dropped as many spots as Kansas after that one loss. It's rediculous. I admit rankings have little factor in anything. However, there is a pride factor. This years voters are all over the place with their rankings. They've stabilized as of late, but early in the year it was ludicrous.
So forgive me for simply asking for some consistency from KU. I can handle a loss. But how in the hell this team goes from performances like Florida, to that of DePaul or ORU in the matter of days has got to have coach Self crying himself to sleep at night!
January 26, 2007 at 12:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
KFoz (anonymous) says...
Amen, Zac. However, I am guessing the Texas A&M won't be very good since they went and lost to Texas Tech. They must be mired in a slump. And as for the media, let's hope the talking heads stay away. The pundits are there not to analyze, but it seems to boost ratings. You mentioned east and west coast teams. That equals population and viewers. Polls mean squat; if they meant anything, we would have to have a BCS basketball championship. Instead, we do the playoff/tournament, a much better system. Let's enjoy the season, focus on getting by the first round, and then be the team that "came out of nowhere".
January 26, 2007 at 1:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawkgolden (anonymous) says...
"Chiefs' fans are horrible, if their team doesn't win every game, they hate on the team."
It's hard to argue that Chiefs fans are horrible when they've sold out every game for damn near 20 years and haven't won a playoff game since 1993. Chiefs fans complain because of hard-headed management and general ineptitude on the field, but still show up for games. Jayhawk fans complain because of five-point wins, then leave 2,000 seats vacant in GA.
January 26, 2007 at 2:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cwrist (Chris Wristen) says...
I could be wrong on this, but I thought the only reason the Chiefs' streak of consecutive sellouts has continued is because the franchise has picked up the cost of remaining tickets to avoid having the game blacked out on TV. If someone knows this to be wrong, please correct me on this. But that was my impression.
January 26, 2007 at 2:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawkgolden (anonymous) says...
My mistake. 79,794 Chiefs fans show up every game to 80,000 seat capacity Arrowhead. The remaining 206 "fans" can draw Carl Petersons and cwrists ire.
January 26, 2007 at 3:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
shaft3500 (anonymous) says...
ku fans complain after two consecutive first round losses, chiefs fans haven't had a postseason win since 93. sports organizations at times are like government, a little questioning has to be done by fans(voters) in order to make necessary changes from time to time. i think confucious said that...
January 26, 2007 at 5:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawkgolden (anonymous) says...
Damn straight, shaft.
January 27, 2007 at 11:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cwrist (Chris Wristen) says...
golden, I have no "ire" toward Chiefs fans. Let's be clear about that. I was just curious if anybody knew differently about what I'd heard about the consecutive sellouts statistic. I remember something about this coming up when Gunther Cunningham was coaching and the Chiefs started struggling.
In fact, I'd be willing to argue that Chiefs fans' anger is far more restrained than Jayhawk fans' when their team is struggling. At the same time, when it comes to angry KU fans on the message boards, I believe that group doesn't represent the majority. That group simply is the most vocal (or, in the case of message boards, is the most skilled at typing in all caps).
January 27, 2007 at 7:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
fabio (anonymous) says...
Part of the reason KU fans are growing impatient is because year in and year out expectations are high in November but we can never win the championship. KU is turning into the Buffalo Bills of college basketball. Most of the students today dont even remember the 88 team.
Thats no excuse for ripping on the Hawks everytime they lose though. I really dont care how much they lose from November thru Febuary as long as they beat KSU and Mizzou in the mean time and bring back a national title to Lawrence.
January 27, 2007 at 11:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sherricoale_is_hot (anonymous) says...
"nascar fans are the most loyal fans you'll ever run into."
--dale earnhardt
January 28, 2007 at 9:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )