Top 3 Big X12 teams all lost at home

What a strange day today, KU, BU and WVU all lost at home. Stilk shaking my head at thr KU game.

Opportunity missed

I don't think I've seen such unconscious success with the 3 since that fateful game with Northern Iowa. And I can't recall another game where our players were so often stripped of the ball under the basket. Disappointing indeed.

Looked pretty good for 20 minutes. Too bad they play 40.

Still if you're Baylor or WVU, this game REALLY stings. Yes, we missed an opportunity to put some space on our lead in the conference race, but both Baylor and WVU knew KU lost while they still had an opportunity to win and move up. Both blew it.

In searching for a silver lining, here is what I've come up with:

-outside of the top 3, ISU is the next best team, so we lost to a much better team than the others lost to.

-home winning streak ended...so what. One more piece of extraneous outside pressure is gone.

-we're going to lose some anyway. To get 14 wins, you're allowed 4. We've burned 2, but Baylor has burned 3, and WVU is already at 4.

-good lesson for the team: you can't get complacent on a 15 point halftime lead.

-watch out kitties. You have a very motivated group headed your way on Monday.

Through the years when the Hawks under HCBS hit a bad game and I expected a huge "revenge" type mentality the next game it has not been there. I think HCBS looks much more for consistently good play rather than highs and lows. I have to hope they can play well enough to win. We do not need a blow out or anything like that.

Wind out of my sails......like u hairy, I hope we play well enough to win...I'm expecting the octagon of dumb to be rocking, squeaky to look apoplectic, frank to look stoic ..... not going to memorialize my other visualizations....

Instead I'll:

Visualize whirled peas..... thanks, Kong

Ok, here's the wet blanket post of the day:

We will eventually be disappointed. We can win #13, win the Big 12 tourney (not sure who really cares about that one), and go all the way to the finals...but the odds are huge that we'll end the season in a loss. That's just the nature of the NCAA tourney. 64 teams show up, 63 walk away disappointed. Sure, there's a chance of winning it all, but that's a stretch even for the most highly favored teams.

So if the season were to end today, I think (and predict when it does end) the following flaws will be pointed out:
>Azubuike's injury: severely cut into the depth in the paint. Put a huge load on Landon's shoulders and without the "luxury" of backup, had to refrain from fouls and play more "careful" than if we had depth.

>Bragg's offcourt issues. Further dug into our depth. And even IF he comes back (starting to wonder if he's out quietly shopping around on the transfer market), he will have missed some developmental time.

>Other off court distractions: Vick and potentially Jackson with the vandalism thing. 5 total players being sucked into the sexual assault thing. All unnecessary distractions.

>Free throw shooting: Hurt us yesterday, will hurt us again.


This doesn't mean we can't win it all, nor that the season wasn't a success if it ended today. I look at Duke and UK's struggles and am happier than ever NOT to be in their shoes. We can still win #13, which would be enough to make me pretty happy this year. Then it's just a matter of how much disappointment I'll feel if/when we get bounced out of the NCAA. The later we survive, the happier I'll be.

In some ways I feel the same way right now as I did in 2014-15 when Cliff Alexander was in mysterious trouble about eligibility. It forced Jamari Traylor to have to play more minutes than I think he anticipated, and kind of messed with the rotation enough to screw up our rhythm, where we lsot to ISU in the Big 12 tourney and to Wichita State in the tourney.

So I guess now is the time to either right the ship, or just hope and pray we can hang on. Ideally, I'd like to see Bragg back with a new attitude and for the other crap to go away (perhaps with a high profile firing from someone in the athletic department for leaking confidential information). Wait and see, I guess.