Snow and KU!

Mother Nature might just give us a snow-break. We had 9” of snow the other day and let me tell you I need to stop that shoveling snow business because my back was hurtin pretty bad for a couple of days. I guess when you get to a certain age that you should let somebody else that kinda stuff, but I probably won’t listen to my own advice or my back and will continue to do my own work. Well anyway, we don’t have anything to complain about – December was mild and we didn’t get the snows till January and February. On top of that, hey it’s winter time yet.

It’s getting close to crunch time for college basketball. I haven’t written about the sport since KU lost to those farmers out west. I thought: okay it’s alright to lose a couple of times but not to those guys! That’s all I can say about that.

A top team needs to be ready all the time and can’t take anything for granted, and this is especially true in March. The team who goes into the tournament and plays with another level of intensity will be holding that big trophy at the end. It’s only then that the Fat Lady will sing, the cheerleaders will rub on the players, the cameras will go off non-stop, some coach can expect a huge pay-increase while the players have to resort to whatever method to put walking around money in their pockets, some player will become famous as a result of the last games or command a huge NBA contract, and there will be a whole lot of people pissed off again.

I hope it isn’t KU and us die-hard fans. There are some tough teams out there, Pittsburgh, Duke, St. Johns, Ohio State, Texas, to name a few so the road isn’t going to be easy for anybody. I think they need to get to the big dance and do away with those league tournaments because if you haven’t got it together by then ….

I hate to see the season end! I watch KU all season, read all the headlines about them, and did my own commentary about them. The Morris twins have done an outstanding job in the paint and can shoot from the outside on occasion. One of the ESPN announcers said he saw the twins in an all-star game in NYC and they didn’t play in the big game but in a level below that. He said he was surprised KU offered them a scholarship, but Self has molded them into top-notch players and I think Danny Manning has a huge influence on both of them. Manning is a master at teaching the footwork to the big guys because of his own experiences. He played injured in the pros and made those needed adjustments to survive in the NBA. The two guards Morningstar and Reed have been lights out on several occasions and nobody can say white boys can’t run and shoot at that level. Selby, despite the hype, is a hit and miss guy who needs more seasoning. T-Rob is a hard-working guy, and has also improved under Manning. Taylor needs to harness those inner demons and #15 Johnson has fallen from the sky and helped this year. I thought Releford would do more this year and is a dark-horse to help more in March Madness. When KU passes the ball enough times, somebody is open as evidenced by their 52% nation-leading field goal percentage. When they pound the ball into the middle first it frees up somebody on the outside and makes them a top team. But the word “intensity” has to come into play to make it anywhere in the big dance for KU. It's a similar picture to when Jock Ewing told Bobby in the show "Dallas:"  nobody is going to give you power, you gotta take it.

I guess if all else fails, we can dream about next season, but hell that ain’t no fun!