Those were the words of television analyst Steve Kerr as lightly regarded #11 seed Virginia Commonwealth University roughed up, shocked and upset #1 seed Kansas ("KU") today by double digits to go to the Final Four. (Link to full story at bottom).Fittingly, snow currently falls heavily on this late March day in both Lawrence, Kansas and in Kansas City, much like VCU (a team which barely even made the NCAA tournament) snowed all over KU's road to the Final Four. Two things seem fairly apparent to me. First, KU appears to have taken VCU lightly. They probably paid way too much attention to the fact that VCU lost earlier this season to Richmond -- a team that KU pounded earlier in the Sweet 16 round of the tournament a few days ago.
Second, KU choked. The jayhawkers went a pathetic 2 for 21 from three-point range. And they shot a paltry 53% (15 for 28) from the free throw line. That's called letting the pressure of the moment get to you.
And I wonder whether there will now be any questions about KU's highly compensated head coach, Bill Self? Yes, Self has his one national championship from 2008, but the fact remains that apart from that one year, Self has never gone to a Final Four. Take away 2008, and Self is sort of Kansas version of the old Missouri head coach, Norm Stewart: Great in the regular season but Mr. Elite 8 when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.
Self now has exactly the same number of Final Four appearances (one) as VCU's young upstart head coach, Shaka Smart. And Self has fewer Final Four appearances than the mid-major head coach at Butler, Brad Stevens (who now has two).
Of course, the obvious retort of KU Fan to a Missouri guy saying these things would be to say, "that's still one more than Missouri has." True enough. But Missouri isn't thought of as one of the "elite" college basketball programs, and Missouri doesn't have one of the most highly paid head coaches in college basketball. Food for thought.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/42296683/ns/sports-college_basketball/
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Lovin' this!! I love it when an underdog wins, and even more so when it's a win over the Jayhawks, AND even more so when they beat them pretty soundly =)
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy a good KU loss (just like they always enjoy a good MU loss). It remains (and neither they nor us would have it any different) one the most bitter rivalries in all of college sports, even if it doesn't get credit for that on a national level as it should. I still would not call it the MOST bitter rivalry. Instead, that has to reside somewhere in the SEC, since those southern goofs are absolutely crazy when it comes to football. I've never heard of an MU or KU fan, for example, poisoning old historic trees on the other side's campus!
ReplyDeleteNow, we just need to cross our fingers for Butler to keep winning - I drew them out of a raffle at work and there's money on the line here and my bracket's totally screwed soooo....I need all the good mojo I can get, okay?? =)
ReplyDeleteProbably for the first time ever, I didn't get a single final four team (I picked KU, Ohio State, Florida and Duke), so I can't win any money this year. I hope your thing works out for you. We could all use a bit of free money!
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the spirit! I have a whopping $3 invested in this thing, but it could turn into something like $200....I'm talking about it too much, I'm going to jinx them for sure....
ReplyDeleteMine was $3 too. At my old workplace, I think it was 5 or 10 bucks, and it was a larger joint. Anyway, I recall winning their huge-ass pool in around 2001 (the year Duke beat Mich St I believe) and winning like 800 bucks! Since then, I've completely stunk up the joint on NCAA brackets. A lot of my problem is that I follow the Big 12 very closely, but pay scant attention to the rest of college basketball. But that's just me. I follow my teams very closely, but not their total sports in general.
ReplyDelete