Coulda Gone Either Way

Jayhawk fans - I'm officially putting all of you ON NOTICE.

First, my thoughts on the basketball game last night between the Fightin' Willies and the Kansas Jayhawks:

• People should be so lucky to be a part of that game.  Playing in the game, attending the game, watching it on TV - doesn't matter.  That ranks as one of the best collegiate basketball games - bar none - I've ever seen.  And I've watched a LOT of college basketball in my time.  A LOT.
• Both teams played to their strengths, the entire game, which made for an exciting 40 minutes.  KU got up the floor in a hurry, and pounded the ball inside with regularity.  K-State got the ball in the right players' hands, played in-your-shorts 'D', and pounded the offensive glass.
• Wait a minute - it went to overtime.  45 minutes, because 40 weren't enough to decide the game.
• BOTH teams made plays to cause their fans to jump off their seats and scream, either bad or good, at the TV.
• The game was ultimately decided by one play.  KU made one more play than we did, and the cost of that one play was the win.
• The players and coaches for both teams walked away from that game with a mutual respect for each other, and understood how superlative of a game that was.

OK - back to Jayhawk fans:

I've let the game settle overnight, and give everyone a chance to air it out.  After reviewing the responses from all the KU fans that are my friends on Facebook, in the forums and chats, I have the following request:

Shut the F*#K up.

You beat a very good team on the road in overtime...and should revel in the fact that you won, not that you beat K-State for the umpteen-thousandth time.

Every one of you needs some perspective.  The only KU fan that reacted to this game in the appropriate manner was the one I was watching the game with last night.  When asked before the game, I said I figured K-State had a 35% chance of winning.  Because face it - we were playing the new #1 team in the country, who had been there earlier in the year.  Even at halftime, I gave us a half-and-half chance.  It was a tie ballgame - literally and figuratively - at the end of regulation.  His reaction at the end of the game - "This game was too fun to not go to overtime.  Should have gone to a second."

Act like you've been there.  You're (supposedly) the #1 team in the nation - act like it.  Posting demeaning comments, or making comments like you dominated the game and beat us down is downright embarassing for your fans.  Like I said - that was the best game I've ever seen - not the best result for KSU, but still the best game.  Only one that comes close was the 6OT game between UConn and Syracuse.  I challenge you to find someone that was a bipartisan observer that didn't think that was an absolutely awesome competition between two top-tier teams.  Act like you beat a top-tier team, and not like you just took a red-headed stepchild out to the woodshed.  Because that's not at all what that game just was.

Win with some class and dignity.  A couple of posts from Facebook KU fans:

• Not this time little pussy cats.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!
• "Octagon of Doom"?? HA!  Since KU has now won 26 of 27 games there, it's time for a name change...and by the way, its so windy in Kansas because Mizzou blows and K-State sucks!!!

C'mon, really?  Are you serious?  Because you won 81-79 in overtime on the road as the heir apparent to the #1 throne?  This was not the typical 25-point drubbing that has happened recently at Bramlage.  And yes - it's the Octagon of DOOM.  Ask Texas.  And you just found out why - scurrying out of there with a victory in a game that was thisclose the entire way.  If you're really the #1 team in the game - you were SUPPOSED TO WIN.

You are all in complete denial of how close this game was.  This was no domination.  14 ties.  20 lead changes.  20!  Yup, sure looks like we were dominated ;).  Jacob Pullen and Sherron Collins got it.  They understood.  The mutual respect that came from that game between the game's two best players - believe you me; they understood. The mutual respect that came from that game between the game's two big men - Cole Aldrich and Curtis Kelly - they understood.  You KU fans, though - you don't understand.

In fact, if someone that did not watch the game just took a brief look at the box score this morning, they would wonder how K-State lost.  Let me present:

• FGM:  KSU 29 - KU 27
• FGA:  KSU 67 - KU 54
• 3PM:  KSU 6 - KU 5
• 3PA:  KSU 18 - KU 10
• FTM:  KSU 15 - KU 22
• FTA:  KSU 22 - KU 33
• OFF REB:  KSU 21 - KU 16
• TOT REB:  KSU 38 - KU 37
• AST:  KSU 14 - KU 13
• TO:  KSU 13 - KU 17
• BLK:  KSU 4 - KU 4
• STL:  KSU 5 - KU 5
• PF:  KSU 25 - KU 24

KU won last night because they made it to the free throw line more.  Period.  K-State was either even or outplayed KU in EVERY OTHER STATISTICAL FACET OF THE GAME.  And the free throw disparity almost didn't matter, because it was really the defensive rebound we missed on the Sherron Collins free throw attempt at the end of the overtime period that sealed the deal for KU.  If we come up with that rebound - both teams might still be playing.

Finally, I want to tell all those convenience KU fans to kiss my ass.  There are a great number of you out there that root for KU because it's fashionable.  It's easy.  There are those of you that are KU fans because it's not cool to be a K-State fan.  Fuck you.  You don't get to talk shit.  You have no idea what it means to truly be a fan.

"Oh look at me, I'm a KU fan!  Ha ha ha - K-State got their ass kicked!  Ha ha ha!"...is the rhetoric that can be typically heard after a game like that from these people.  Do you understand what just happened?  Do you comprehend what I've said to this point?  Of course not...because you have no idea what it means to truly be a fan.

You're all a bunch of fucking lemmings...rooting on a team that wins all the time.  You have no idea what it means to be a true fan.  You have no idea what it's like to go to games and cheer on your team when the coaching staff is imploding your team from the inside out.  This is how easy it is to be a KU fan:  KU likely will never be mired in a losing season like K-State has in the past.  Your psyche will never be harmed.  Your heart will never be questioned.  Your soul will remain untried.  K-State went through multiple losing seasons during my 5 year tenure attending the university.  And we were still fans.  K-State had fallen from the best in college football to a sub-bowl-eligible team.  And we were still fans.  You have no idea what it means to put your heart and soul behind a team.  You have no idea what it means to live with them when they win, and die a little inside when they lose.  You have no idea what it means to truly be a fan.  Most of you don't even have a connection to KU.  At all.  The Jayhawk fans that truly are fans - that love the game of basketball - that have connections to the university - that truly get it...they all know what happened last night.  At the end of the day, KU has a W, and KSU has an L.  But if you read between the lines - paid attention to the game - understand what really happened last night:  K-State is no longer the red-headed stepchild - and KU has a knock-down, drag-out streetfight on their hands when the sea of purple shows up.