Smells Like Basketball Season Again

It felt like just yesterday that I was sitting on the curb in the middle of downtown Lawrence, head in my hands but a smile on my face, bawling my eyes out in pure joy, while 90,000 people were celebrating in the streets all around me. My lifelong dream was reality; my life as a sports fan was complete. The Kansas Jayhawks were national champs.

So where do I go from here? What do people do after they climb Mount Everest? Go back down the mountain, I guess. Start planning the next trip. This year will be fun because basically there is an entirely new team coming in this year. Only two players who played real minutes last year are back: Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich.

One of these players was a freshman from Minneapolis who averaged roughly 8 minutes per game during the regular season. The other player was National Player of the Year, and the only way he could've received more attention and accolades was if he ended the war in the Middle East, cured cancer, and won American Idol. One of these players dominated the other when they went head-to-head. Guess which one is which.


In total, there are 7 newcomers to the Jayhawks this year. One of my favorite things about following college basketball is reading about the incoming freshman, trying to find youtube clips of them playing in high school, finding out how many Baby Mamas they already have, and guessing who my favorite player will be. (Side note: the last time KU had a large incoming freshman class, I predicted that Mario Chalmers would be my boy. Once they took the court, though, Julian Wright stole my heart and that was it. Chalmers did make up for it, though....)

This year, after extensive reading, youtubing, and googling, I predict my boy will be Marcus Morris. He's supposed to be one of the most talented players Bill Self has recruited to KU, and he can play every position, sort of a Julian version 2.0. I may have chosen his brother Markieff as my favorite, but he already got in trouble for firing a BB gun out his window the night he moved into the dorms. After the JR Giddens debacle a few years ago, I don't want to be emotionally invested with any potential bad boys. You want to be the one to change them, but they only break your heart in the end. The only problem with the Morris twins is that they look EXACTLY ALIKE, so the only way I'll be able to tell them apart is their jersey numbers. Ahhh, they all look the same anyway.

I MEANT TWINS! Twins all look the same, you racists.

Another subplot will be whether or not I can just be a normal fan now. Be happy after wins. Be sad after losses. Don't sleep on bridges after tournament losses. I have a zen-like sense of calm about this upcoming season, but I have a feeling that will go right out the window once the ball is tipped.

So it will be an interesting year. After the last couple years, when I had hopes of a national championship, just making the tourney this year will be the goal. While it's fun to watch a team grow up, it's a lot easier to be patient when you can always just throw in last year's Final 4 DVD when times get rough. And times will get rough, especially when UNC is 24-0, a unanimous #1, and the media is calling Tyler Hansbrough the greatest college basketball player in the history of the world.



Internal monologues, from right to left:

Erin Andrews: all right, let's get through this piece and get out of here. Mmm, I hope Hammen gets through MY piece tonight...hahahaha, good one, Erin. I should write that down.

Tyler Hansbrough: holy crap, I'm standing next to Erin Andrews!!! Don't get a boner, don't get a boner, don't get a boner...

Dick Vitale: holy crap, I'm standing next to Tyler Hansbrough!!! Don't get a boner, don't get a boner, don't get a boner...