Reminds me of 1996-97

We had the best team in the nation then, but didn't get the National Championship title. (Maybe I am still struggling to get over that one, but I digress) We have the best team in the nation again. And maybe it's that simple. Maybe we can't say we're the National Champs, be we can sure brag about being the Best Team! Two first team All Americans, and the Best Defensive Player in all of basketball. It was a great year that should find a way to be celebrated and properly respected for the results.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!!

I'm not sure what the term "getting over it" means but the 1997 loss is forever a sore spot in my mind. We were head and shoulders the best wall to wall team in the country. But the 1 loss format of the tournament is at once a source of great excitement for all the Cinderella stories and a source of great disappointment when the juggernauts have a rare off game and go down to defeat when they would win 8 or 9 of 10 against that same team. Arizona was a team of destiny for sure that year. They simply coalesced in the right way at the right time. But Kansas would have won 8 or probably 9 games against them out of 10. One of the great things about the NCAA Tourney is the ability of a team to coalesce in just the right way for a stretch. Loyola (IL) for instance. Losing to Kentucky in 2012 was tough but they were legitimately at least as good a team or better. The 2003 Syracuse team was more of a head scratcher. I think we were better by a smidge but we sucked at FT shooting. On the other hand, few teams have coalesced more at the right time than the 1988 Jayhawks. Oklahoma was clearly a better team wall to wall but that game we were better. For 40 minutes and for the 5 games leading up we simply gelled in a beautiful way. So that knife cuts both ways. This season we were head and shoulders ahead of the pack. But Dayton and Gonzaga were not far behind us. It would have been a fun fun ride. Would have loved to get a rematch with Dayton in the Final Four and Gonzaga in the NC. It would have been the ultimate strength on strength with our nation leading defense against their offense. My bracket based on the DPPI had the following projections for KU.

Round 1 - Defeat Norfolk St. by 25
Round 2 - Defeat Purdue by 7
Sweet 16 - Defeat Florida St. by 5
Elite 8 - Defeat Sand Diego St. by 4
Final Four - Defeat Michigan St. by 4
NC - Defeat Gonzaga by 2

If you wonder why we meet Florida St. in the Sweet 16, my DPPI is not nearly as high on Florida St. as the voters.

I was thinking the same thing and I'm still not over '96-'97. This year there was a lot more parity, but that team in '97 was several steps ahead of the pack.

Nevertheless, we lost then, so we don't get a banner. This year we didn't lose, but we didn't prove it on the court and way too many people would consider the "asterisk" to be too big to start calling ourselves the National Champs. As much as I'd like the recognition, the NC is determined by who wins the inherently flawed tournament.

So what's a guy to do? I still think we should hang a banner, but a different banner. Obviously the Big 12 regular season champs goes in the rafters, but I'd propose another banner hung just below our 5 championships that says something like "Final #1 ranking AP and Coaches polls" or something to that effect.

In short, there will be no NC this year, but we're the next best thing to it.

This was a stake in my heart. I’ll never get over this one.