Big Coincidence or Small Coincidence

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I don’t want to turn this blog into the Las Vegas Travel Journal with a side of Jayhawk; but it’s March Madness so you are just going to have to put up with another Jayhawk post …

Last year, an extremely talented Kansas team – filled with Roy Williams recruits – headed into the NCAA Tournament as a #3 seed and a favorite to win the championship. Gifted, experienced (2 Final Fours and an Elite 8 appearance to their credit) and led by seniors, the only thing Kansas and their fans had to worry about was whether Roy Williams’ Tarheels would win all of their tournament games to eventually set-up the game of the century.

Unfortunately, Bill Self was never able to convince his talented, but Roy Williams loyal, seniors to totally buy into his coaching system. Injuries, bad breaks (the phantom Texas Tech traveling call on Aaron Miles, for example), and too many close games had worn the team down mentally and physically. Watching Kansas last season, it was easy to see that they were winning games on talent alone, not having fun, and disaster was looming.

I remember telling my old boss as I left work to watch Kansas in the first round of the tournament last year that, “I don’t feel real good about this game.” And I didn’t. I felt like one of those NASA engineers who had a bad feeling about the damage to the Space Shuttle Columbia; but chose to ignore their feelings, convincing themselves that they were just being paranoid, that the data they were interpreting was faulty, and if there was a real problem - someone else would have spoken up by then.

As a result: Bucknell – 64, Kansas – 63

This year, a team of confident and wildly athletic sophomores and freshmen have led the Jayhawks to a Big 12 regular season championship, a Big 12 tournament championship, a #12 ranking in the polls, and a #4 seed in the tournament – and exceeding everyone’s expectations in the process. This team laughs, they have fun, they’re cocky, they’re loyal to Bill Self, and I would argue, better than last years team.

BUT …

They play freakin’ Bradley in the first round of the tournament! Call me crazy, but Bradley is eerily too close to Bucknell for comfort… Check out these coincidences:

- Both schools are BUs.
- Bradley – 2 syllables, Bucknell – 2 syllables
- Bradley – 7 letters, Bucknell – 8 letters
- Bradley’s mascot – the Braves, Bucknell’s mascot – the Bison. Both Bs.
- People have no clue where either school is located (Bucknell is in Pennsylvania and Bradley is in Peoria, Illinois)
- Both traditionally suck at basketball and consider it a great season just to make it to the tournament.
- AND, I’m watching the Bradley game at the same sports bar I watched the Bucknell game

So what does all of that mean in the grand scheme of things? Heck if I know? I do know that I originally I was going to write about all the coincidences between Bucknell and Bradley, and that I felt indifferent towards Bradley and slightly nervous about the game -- until one of their writers wrote an article making fun of KU, the Jayhawk and the Rock Chalk.

F*ck Bradley. Time to take the gloves off.

So now, not only do I want KU to avenge last years first round loss by beating Bradley, I want them to beat the sh*t out of Bradley. I want KU to play the role of Alton on the Gauntlet II, and Bradley will be everyone else. I want Bradley to get so sick of hearing the Rock Chalk chant that it gets stuck in their head for their entire plane ride back to Midway Airport and that they find themselves humming it aloud as they wait for their baggage. I want Julian Wright to dunk on a Bradley player so badly that CBS uses the slam dunk as promotional material for next years tournament. I want the blowout to be so painful that Christian Moody not only enters the game, but even sinks a few free throws. I want Bradley’s coach in a post-game press conference with ESPN to say, “They killed us like Sonny at the tollbooth. They even kicked our ass in the pre-game warm-ups. It will take a very talented team to beat Kansas. We haven’t been beaten like that all year – if ever. I hope we never have to play the Jayhawks again.” I want Bradley fans to frustratingly yell at the TV, “PLAY DEFENSE! … WHY CAN’T KANSAS MISS? … WHY DOES KANSAS KEEP STEALING THE BALL? … WHY CAN’T WE RECRUIT PLAYERS LIKE THAT? … WHAT IS THAT FU*KING CHANT I’VE BEEN HEARING FOR THE LAST 10 MINUTES?” And finally, as Warden Norton so proudly exclaimed, I want Bradley to “Vanish! Like a fart in the wind” from this years tournament - compliments of the Kansas Jayhawks.

You gotta love March Madness!

Good luck, Jayhawks. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!