What a difference 14 days can make.
At this point two weeks ago, K-State had just lost their 2nd conference in a row and were sitting at 10-4 and on the outside of the NCAA tournament. It got even worse as we were down by over 20 to West Virginia at home. I was apoplectic. I honestly believed we were possibly looking at 5-13 in conference play. At that point, K-State gets a couple of stops, they hit a couple of shots and all of a sudden they come back to win against WVU. I minimized it. I shouldn't have, but I did. I say I shouldn't have because winning is hard. Even for good teams, winning is hard. Make no mistake, this is a bad WVU team, but it's still coached by a Hall of Famer that has owned K-State.
@Underrated_Fan posted a question at the end of last week about where you were at the beginning of the season and where you stand now as it pertains to the basketball team and it's record. Here is where I was when the season started:
KU 0-2
Tech 1-1
WVU 1-1
Iowa State 1-1
TCU 1-1
Texas 1-1
Oklahoma 1-1
Baylor 2-0
Oklahoma State 2-0
If my math adds up correctly, that comes out to 10-8 and probably an 8-10 seed in the tournament.
After Texas Tech, my opinion had changed dramatically:
KU 0-2
Tech 0-2
Texas 0-2
Iowa State 0-2
Oklahoma 0-2
TCU 1-1
WVU 1-1
Baylor 1-1
Oklahoma State 2-0
That's how I got to 5-13. Was that reactionary, probably just a bit, but I was down on the team. Way down. I saw cohesion issues amongst the coaches, I saw infighting amongst the players and I saw really bad basketball on the offensive end of the floor.
So that brings me to today. As it stands right now, I believe the Cats have a legitimate shot to garner at least a share of the Big 12 title.
KU 1-1
Tech 1-1
WVU 1-1
Texas 1-1
TCU 2-0
Oklahoma 2-0
Iowa State 2-0
Baylor 2-0
Oklahoma State 2-0
That's really optimistic and probably 12-6 is more reasonable, but I think a legitimate argument can be made for 14-4. Kansas is obviously a thorn that just keeps on poking K-State fans, but I do believe this is the most vulnerable Kansas team in Bruce's tenure. Losing Azuibukake was a really significant loss for them. The difference in this year's team and previous teams is simply the ability to shoot the basketball. No matter what happened with past teams, they always had that ability to hit three 3's in a row and push a 4 point lead to 13 in a matter of minutes. At that point, the teams they played simply crumbled. WVU simply dared KU to shoot threes and they were 5-16. As bad as K-State has been shooting the three this year, KU has made 125 and K-State has made 111. Last year, K-State made a school record 254, for comparison, Kansas made 391.
Honestly, there is some hesitancy in that prediction. I am not sure what makes me believe we can go into Austin and win or what makes me think we can go 10-0 against the teams I predicted. Having Dean back against the Horns is a giant difference maker and we are good enough to beat those teams twice. But, the way we can go ice cold shooting the ball, we can absolutely lose to any team on the schedule.
At this point two weeks ago, K-State had just lost their 2nd conference in a row and were sitting at 10-4 and on the outside of the NCAA tournament. It got even worse as we were down by over 20 to West Virginia at home. I was apoplectic. I honestly believed we were possibly looking at 5-13 in conference play. At that point, K-State gets a couple of stops, they hit a couple of shots and all of a sudden they come back to win against WVU. I minimized it. I shouldn't have, but I did. I say I shouldn't have because winning is hard. Even for good teams, winning is hard. Make no mistake, this is a bad WVU team, but it's still coached by a Hall of Famer that has owned K-State.
@Underrated_Fan posted a question at the end of last week about where you were at the beginning of the season and where you stand now as it pertains to the basketball team and it's record. Here is where I was when the season started:
KU 0-2
Tech 1-1
WVU 1-1
Iowa State 1-1
TCU 1-1
Texas 1-1
Oklahoma 1-1
Baylor 2-0
Oklahoma State 2-0
If my math adds up correctly, that comes out to 10-8 and probably an 8-10 seed in the tournament.
After Texas Tech, my opinion had changed dramatically:
KU 0-2
Tech 0-2
Texas 0-2
Iowa State 0-2
Oklahoma 0-2
TCU 1-1
WVU 1-1
Baylor 1-1
Oklahoma State 2-0
That's how I got to 5-13. Was that reactionary, probably just a bit, but I was down on the team. Way down. I saw cohesion issues amongst the coaches, I saw infighting amongst the players and I saw really bad basketball on the offensive end of the floor.
So that brings me to today. As it stands right now, I believe the Cats have a legitimate shot to garner at least a share of the Big 12 title.
KU 1-1
Tech 1-1
WVU 1-1
Texas 1-1
TCU 2-0
Oklahoma 2-0
Iowa State 2-0
Baylor 2-0
Oklahoma State 2-0
That's really optimistic and probably 12-6 is more reasonable, but I think a legitimate argument can be made for 14-4. Kansas is obviously a thorn that just keeps on poking K-State fans, but I do believe this is the most vulnerable Kansas team in Bruce's tenure. Losing Azuibukake was a really significant loss for them. The difference in this year's team and previous teams is simply the ability to shoot the basketball. No matter what happened with past teams, they always had that ability to hit three 3's in a row and push a 4 point lead to 13 in a matter of minutes. At that point, the teams they played simply crumbled. WVU simply dared KU to shoot threes and they were 5-16. As bad as K-State has been shooting the three this year, KU has made 125 and K-State has made 111. Last year, K-State made a school record 254, for comparison, Kansas made 391.
Honestly, there is some hesitancy in that prediction. I am not sure what makes me believe we can go into Austin and win or what makes me think we can go 10-0 against the teams I predicted. Having Dean back against the Horns is a giant difference maker and we are good enough to beat those teams twice. But, the way we can go ice cold shooting the ball, we can absolutely lose to any team on the schedule.
