Who would you rather beat--Indiana or Puke?

If you were all-powerful and given a choice, just prior to the start of this season, between the Hawks beating the Hoosiers or the Hawks beating the Blue Devils, which choice would you make?

(Insert thought process here)

If my gut is correct, I suspect that the vast majority of us (if not every single one of us) would choose beating Puke 100 times out of 100.

And if that is correct, then the prescription for what ails us all after last night's tough OT loss is simple...

No, it's not more cowbell, though that's always a good salve.

We just have to kick Puke's butt on Tuesday night.

That's it. Period. It will immediately do 10 things, at a minimum, in no particular order:

1. Erase the bad taste of a loss in the season opener.

2. Re-energize the flock. (I was going to say "base," but in the aftermath of a brutal election season, decided to skip any and all political terms that might throw us off)

3. Bump KU right back up in the national polls, and in the eyes of all reasonable basketball fans and pundits.

4. Demonstrate that this team is resilient.

5. Keep Puke quite comfortably behind us in all-time wins, where they belong.

6. Put Puke (and the country) on notice that we're going to be a force by March and April.

7. Underscore how dangerous we can be when we're playing with a chip on our shoulder, or as a wounded, mangy dog.

8. Enhance beer sales at Madison Square Garden among the crimson and blue (and carolina blue, if any) in the crowd.

9. Pull the Lawrence campus out of its post-election, post-opening-loss funk. (Oops, there's that election thingy again)

10. Enable LKF_Hawk (and others like him) to come back inside from the ledge and shift 180 over to puffing his chest out again, like the proud, fired-up Jayhawk fan he is. (All in good jest, LKF_Hawk!)

So there you have it. Life can go from grim to vibrant with just the simple flip of a switch. Namely, a punctuating Jayhawk win Tuesday night over the Fighting Kockawachamahockies...

From this keyboard to God's ears. Let it be thus.

PS: KU will win. You heard it here first.

Rock Chalk...

Just a gut feeling. The combination of pride in the jersey, corrective measures from the Indiana game (see: better defense, rebounding), cornered dog mentality, and wanting to take down the #1 are all factors.

Please don't shoot the messenger (RCBers) if I'm wrong. But oh ye basketball gods, let me be right!

As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west...

As the geese fly southward for the winter...

As the ghosts of Allen Fieldhouse emerge from the shadows...

Like clockwork, baby.