Slam Bam Jam

College basketball is finally back!

- After last year's first round debacle, add Northern Iowa to the list of teams that my friends like, and I would love to support, but now am obligated to hate. (Duke does NOT fall into this category. I've hated them almost since the day I started following college basketball, and if you are a Duke fan you have no soul.) I have a lot of North Carolina friends. I kinda enjoyed UNC as a kid; they always had cool players- Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Vince Carter before he became a money-stealing pussy, Shammond Williams, etc. etc. Then Ol' Roy left KU for Carolina. Sorry Fundy and others, but I have to hate them now. Ditto Kentucky, I usually enjoyed their teams back in the day, then they hired the Antichrist Calipari, now I have to hate them on principle. I never hated Syracuse until they beat KU in the title game (although Jim Boeheim is becoming quite the little bitch the older he gets; I have a feeling I'd hate them now anyways.) And now Northern Iowa. I always supported Jonye's team in the past, even cheering for the little guys sometimes, since they were a mid-major. Now, fuck that.

- Here's the silver lining I'm taking from the UNI loss last year: Now I can be absolutely diehard about a championship again. After winning in 2008, then being the best team in the country and #1 overall seed going into the tourney just two years later, I felt just a tad bit guilty (most of that guilt went away during Selection Sunday, when KU got fucked in their bracket while Duke got to walk to the Final Four.) Two championships in three years would've left me feeling spoiled. But adding another early-round exit as a high seed got me thinking. Besides the championship year, here's what I've lived through as a Jayhawk fan:

- 1991: lost championship game to hated Duke
- 1992: lost in second round as a #1 seed
- 1997: lost in Sweet 16 as #1 overall seed
- 1998: lost in second round as a #1 seed
- 2002: lost in Final Four (which led to a rule change that started seeding the #1 seeds so the two best teams couldn't play before the championship, shocker that KU got fucked by that lack of a rule)
- 2003: lost in championship game by 3 points
- 2005: lost in 1st round as a #3 seed
- 2006: lost in 1st round as a #4 seed
- 2007: lost in Elite 8 (when they had to play UCLA in San Jose, even though KU was the #1 seed, are you kidding me?)
- 2010: lost in second round as #1 overall seed

So the edge is back. My game face is on.


Non-KU thoughts:

- There is a HUGE gap between Duke & Michigan St. and everyone else. Not quite North Carolina in 2008-2009 situation, but damn close. Those two teams are stacked. Like Jennifer Love-Hewitt in 1999 stacked. Kansas St. is a solid top-10 or 15 team, but look horrid ranked #3. Ditto KU at #7. They've got a loooong way to go before I believe they'll make the Elite 8. If you make me pick a team to go all the way, as of today, that isn't Duke or Michigan St., I'm going with Ohio St. They lost Evan Turner and might be even better this year. Fo' serious.

- Normally I'd be doing a dance and laughing about how Calipari's latest recruit, Enes Kanter, was deemed ineligible for the entire year (at least we knew in advance that this one had accepted money) but with Josh Selby not cleared to play yet for KU, I figure it would be bad karma.

- Get Pittsburgh and Villanova out of the top 10. Those two teams are horribly overrated, and I will spend the winter and spring making money gambling against them. I still need to find my team that I think is much better than Vegas does, so I can load up early and often on them before the lines catch up. Two years ago it was Oklahoma, last year it was West Virginia. That spot is still open as of now. Minnesota? Arizona?

- Either this is a really down year in college ball, or Harrison Barnes is gonna be really good and I can't see it yet. How he makes the preseason All-American first team, when not even John Wall, Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, or any freshman EVER was good enough, is beyond me. Maybe I'm just bitter because he grew up only three hours from Lawrence, and Coach Self couldn't get him to go to KU. (Also, don't tell anybody, but Marcus Morris might be really, really good this year. Maybe even good enough to take Barnes' spot on the first team after the season. Shhhhhh.)

**********

In non-college bball-related news, I am officially an idiot. Instead of just letting Lane and Jud's joke run its course, I had to blog about it, which opened the door for a bunch of other friends to start in on the "sorry about your illness" shenanigans. My facebook wall is in shambles. To quote Ricky Gervais in Night at the Museum, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....take it or leave it."

Freeeeee Selby!