context

i certainly dont mean to lecture but i think some of us are failing to put this game into proper context. we are the same team that just finished a remarkable season. we have just lost a completely meaningless game to a pretty good team who is very well coached and has been getting better all year. and frankly its hard to beat a BLT sandwich three times in a season. and finally we were short our best player ( meaning no disrespect to frank). no statisticians keep track of clutch points, rebounds, assists, steals, or 50/50 balls but if they did jackson wld dominate that stat based on my eye test anyway. his basketball IQ is off the charts and his competitiveness espec for a freshman is astounding. so did we miss him today? of course. wld we have won with him? easily. will we still be a number one seed? in my view yes. will we play our first four games in tulsa/kc? again, as the 8 ball wld say all signs point to yes. will it turn out to be a very good thing to take a week off to rest a short benched team and get the young men focused? i have to think resoundingly yes. i know coach self wld never tank a game for this outcome but he essentially did that by sitting josh and not coaching his best game. i think hes very happy with this outcome and we shld be too. we shoul be heavily favored to win the first four games and the last two only a fool wld try to predict since they depend so much on matchups and chance. but i wld never bet against this team to win it all this year. we have 3 of the most competitive jayhawks ever, a pretty decent 3 support players and, of course, the best living coach in the universe. with doke it wldve been a laydown. without him its 50/50 vs the field. i like those odds. feels so much like 2008. go hawks!

I needed that.

While I wasn't that down after the loss, I've been bummed knowing we won't be playing anymore this week even tho it is better for my vacation lol AND mostly for the guys to get lots of rest. It helped a bit knowing Baylor also lost hehe

I think I'm going to cheer for Iowa State. I miss the Mayor and they always had a respectful team. And they beat us so I want them to win over W.Va. if it comes to that.

Now on to bigger and better things

I thought it was sad that per Holly Rowe's reporting during a late time out, that HCBS was yelling at Frank to play like the NPOY. If the rest of the team played half as hard and as skilled as Frank does, would be no worries.

Just getting back here now after the game. Listened to it on the radio stream while working yesterday. Didn't bother to watch the DVR version.

There's lots of "silver lining" in this cloud:
>Our resume is so bulletproof that it shouldn't hurt us in the NCAA seedings (won't be THE #1, but will be a #1, and will most likely still get Tulsa/KC).
>Huge lesson to Jackson and our other group of troublemakers.
>Time off to practice without the pressure of playing the rest of the tournament over a fairly meaningless prize. IMHO, there's actually more downside to playing the rest of the tournament that upside.
>MOST IMPORTANT: E N O R M O U S wake up call to the team about playing tournament ball. You simply CANNOT let teams get a lead on you, and you must stomp on throats for 40 full minutes. Every possession counts.

So while I'm disappointed, I'm also seeing a lot of upside. We'll go into the tournament in as close to a home court as we can find, with fresh legs, a big chip on our shoulders, and 2 POY candidates anchoring a team with a possible COY / likely HOF inductee coach running the ship. We'll be lean, mean, healthy, and angry next week.

I can't say that I was surprised that KU stumbled Thursday. TCU played well head-to-head during the regular season so without JJ the margin for error was slim.

Hate the loss, but it might help get the collective attention of the team to address a few key points in the lead up to and then through the tournament.

Wake up call! Time to answer it.