KU, take note of Texas Tech

Cracked me up this morning, Konza. Thanks for the laugh! Well, well played.

There is really no point in disparaging either Smith or Tech, but the COY award was and is a joke. And the sad part is that everyone involved knows it. Tubby is a competent coach. He's smart, has a good understanding of basketball, generally keeps his players involved and interested, and his teams generally win more than they lose. But he's an awful recruiter, and has never demonstrated to ability to maintain success. This year, because the alleged 'experts' underrated Tech in the pre-season, he gets credit for a decent season, and wins an award because his team won a few more than the 'experts' predicted. But he's not the COY, and it really is a shame that he stole that award from the only 2 men in the Big 12 that deserved it. Self should have been the COY, a subject with which we are all quite familiar. He's the best, and his team, OUR team, is the best as well. But as much as we may dislike Bob Huggins, he should have won if they weren't going to give the award to Self. But sometimes things work out, and at the end of the tournament, we'll see which team is still standing. And obviously it won't be Texas Tech.

First off, you're spot on about Tubby. Competent, but the system is what it is.

Nevertheless, if you look at the votes you can probably tell a few things if it was a Self-3, Huggy-3, Tubby-4 vote (is that correct?).

Off the bat, I'd assume that none of the coaches voted for themselves, so it's a relatively safe bet that Self voted for Tubby or Huggy, Tubby voted for Huggy or Self, and Huggy voted for Self or Tubby.

That makes it theoretically possible that one of the 3 got the other two's votes (say Self and Huggy both threw it to Tubby) then Tubby only needs 2 votes to go over the top, or 1 vote to make it a 3-3-3 tie.

While we'll never know who voted for who, if Self and Huggy both picked Tubby, it would likely sway it enough to put him over the top.

It's kind of like how the conference coaches tend to vote 9-1 in the preseason that KU is the pick to win the conference. Wonder who that 1 dissenter is....hmmm....can't quite get my head around that....

Funny how this thread title would hint at KU being awake for today's game, but quickly devolved into a Tubby Smith contest.
For an interesting discussion by HCBS regarding the Big 12 tourney, please see the top story on KUSports.com

I'd add that now that there are 10 teams in the league and we play a true home-home exchange with everyone, there's less to play for. Sure, we could face WVU in a "rubber match", but it's kind of secondary since all 10 teams had the same opportunity to play the same schedule to win the league regular season.

It WAS different before when we had 12 teams and a North/South split. I remember years where we'd win and one of the South teams would be right on our heels, but we'd win by a game....but we played that team in AFH instead of their gym. Inevitably you'd hear that "we'd have won the league if we'd played you in our gym." So the tournament would "validate" the winner or "reinforce" the controversy for the 2nd place team.

I much prefer the round robin we do now, but it does make the tournament more of a distraction. Also, the tournament tends to be more "controversial" if the league race is closer. I think KU winning by 2 with 15 wins really took the air out of the rest of the league as event the best of the rest fell significantly short.

But yeah, let's win this thing too...and stay healthy and motivated throughout.

I must say that I never understand playing a game without a total commitment to winning. I understand why some teams might actually see a game as a 'problem,' considering that winning the game gains them nothing and playing to win might result in an injury to a key player, but in my world you don't participate unless you intend to win. I hope our guys feel the same way. At this point in the season, any loss is magnified in importance, and I'd much prefer to win out. Yes, winning out is my goal, and I hope it's ours.

I agree, Senex. I get the sense from this team that they have more work to do and will not be distracted from reaching the goals they and the coaching staff have set.

I agree that conference tourneys are a farce. Unfortunately, instead of more leagues doing away with them, the last holdout (Ivy) is going to have one next year. So, until they have gone by way of the dinosaurs, play to win.

KU is playing with "house money" right now. They're a lock for a #1 seed and likely a lock for THE #1 seed barring something truly bad happening. They've already proven that they're the Big 12 champs and the tourney does nothing to change that.

Compare that attitude to OU. Had they hung on at KU, and won at home, things would be very different for them. They've been playing not-great of late, so seeding IS a big deal for them. A good showing in the Big 12 tourney could help them out quite a bit.

Both KU and OU want to win, and both will be motivated if they meet each other. The difference, IMHO, is that KU "wants" to win and OU might feel that it "needs" to win.

The trick is getting Self to get the guys to buy into the "need" to win camp despite the evidence to the contrary. I have no doubt that he can do that. I also have no doubt that the guys who get to play at KU have a whole lot more "killer instinct" than I ever showed on the playground or in rec league. Nevertheless, I've always been told to fear an animal that's been backed into a corner, and no matter how you slice it, I don't think KU feels backed into any corners right now.

I may not be old enough to remember Clyde Lovellette playing; but I AM old enough to remember the Big 8 pre-season tournament. Probably played in Municipal Auditorium (but I don't recall THAT for certain)..... Anyway I don't particularly care for this post season money fest....probably because we are never in a position to HAVE to win the tourney to get into the Dance field; other wise I might feel differently.

AND IIRC, the media tend to refer to the Tourney winner as the Big 12 Conference champs.....not the Big 12 TOURNAMENT Conference Champs.

I just hold my breath until KU finishes up on Saturday.....I so worry about injury.

Did I read where Squeaky has the Grapes playing for an NIT bid? SWEET!

OK. We can forget about Texas Tech now.