Jayhawkdammerung: Kansas vs. Texas

Disclaimer: I mean no offense to any devotees of Kansas basketball, but: seeing as I came of age in Austin during the Darrell Royal years, the true anti-Christ of college athletics is Oklahoma. A little-known alternate reading of the final line of Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" actually reads "Stoops toward Bethlehem to be born" (darn that meter, though); and equally-little-known textual evidence showed that J. R. R. Tolkien wanted to name it "Norman" before settling on "Mordor."¹ All this is to say that, despite this post's title, I regard Kansas as simply a formidible though ultimately lesser concern within the larger context that is athletic dominance in Big XII athletics. And within the one context that truly matters--Good vs. Evil--tonight's game is analogous to a non-conference game. The game against the Sooners in Austin on March 5 is Armageddon-disguised-as-basketball.

So: no offense taken, right?

Visitors to this blog probably know that one of its faithful readers/comment-leavers, Ariel of Bittersweet Life, is an avid fan of Kansas Jayhawk basketball. He even posts (in the blogging sense of that word) for Phog Blog, which is, I must admit, one of the very best blogs focusing on college basketball--especially seeing as its posts concerning today's game run heavily in favor of the self-evident truth that, though it will be close, Texas will win. So heavily, in fact, that only one post-er there has predicted a Kansas victory.

You get three guesses as to who.

It's either sad or embarrassing, really, given the undeniable truth that Ariel is really quite smart. Faithful readers of the Meridian know that I have counseled him in the error of his ways before, even putting the matter to him in no uncertain metaphysical terms. I've not said too much about it since, though; we Lutherans, for good or ill, aren't much given over to proselytizing. But when one sees one's friends continuing to stray down paths they should know better than to stray down, one must say SOMETHING. And it seems to me that the time is long since past for reasoning or even cajoling.

So: Today I extend an invitation to jump Lessing's muddy ditch with me as we yell together, "Hook 'em, 'Horns!"

UPDATE: I think THIS is all that needs to be said about tonight.

UPDATE #2: The brilliant-anyway R. Sherman at Musings from the Hinterland, whom you should be reading anyway, has a Kennedy-at-the-Wall moment and provides a couple of histories besides. Of course, his prior, marrow-deep allegiance to Mizzou has NOTHING whatsoever to do with said moment, Schadenfreude (usually) being against his religion.
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¹Those readers of mine not getting what little humor there is to get from these jokes are invited to go here for some context.

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College basketball, Kansas Jayhawks, Texas Longhorns