In which the Meridian pitches a revival tent in Big XII country
Preach it, Oral!
Aside: Not that I'm at all a proponent of Design Theories of various sorts or, for that matter, of Richard Dawkins' blanket dismissal of religion, but it'd be hard for some to resist seeing some sort of cosmic connection between KU's recent hosting of Dawkins and last night's loss at the hands of a conservative religious school's basketball team. Indeed, it inspires me to song (sorry, Sting and the Police):
A Dawkins,
A dunkin',
It's somethin'--
Synchronicity.
UPDATE: To read the comment thread here about last night's game, you'd think one of the Seven Seals had been opened. (Hat-tip: j.d. of Evolution).
6 comments:
I've been expecting some comment on the OR loss...silly of me not to see the Dawkins tie-in coming. ;)
Oh, dear. That reminds me of the posters for the bad poetry (oh noetry) competition that are hanging around campus, featuring such gems as:
Clytamnestra, you killed my dad
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!
Remember: Bad rhymin' / It's a crimin'!
When I'm cruising the environs of the Nashville area, traversing the distance between jobs, I listen to ESPN radio and a local sports talk station that is better than ESPN. Yesterday they were both funny as they rushed and stumbled through their "what if" discussions and predictions on BCS rankings, bowl games, and "if they run the tables does a school like Rutgers really belong in the national championship game?"
They rushed and stumbled so they could get to the discussion of the apocolypse, which has been signaled by KU being upended by Oral who? Of course one of them had an explanation: the smaller schools attract players who are snubbed by the largeer schools, players who stay there and play together as a team for 4 years while the big Div. I programs have trouble holding onto their best players for more than 2 years, losing them to the NBA.
Some of that sounds reasonable and may indeed be factors. But mostly, the sports guys just could not bring themselves to admit that a little no-name school could possible be good enough to beat a big program like KU, and that KU could not possibly be that bad. They were searching frantically for excuses, not reasons...
Thanks to all of you for dropping by.
Ariel (and Winston as well), something that the so-called mid-major teams made abundantly clear to me as I watched the tournament last year was that athletes do not a team make. A quick visit to PhogBlog revealed to me that a combination of poor shooting and turnovers (well, okay--in combination with phenomenal 3-point shooting by ORU) did the Jayhawks in. There is also truth, I think, in what Winston heard the ESPN guys say about the mid-major teams playing better because they've been together longer. But even if a group of guys has bee together 10 years, if they are not thinking as a team, they're going to lose if one (or more) of the All-Everything athletes has an off night.
When Michael Jordan was first with the Bulls, sure, he'd score 40 or so a night, but they'd still lose. Then along comes Phil Jackson to remind him he has 4 other guys with the same jersey on and, well, we know the rest.
Note to Winston: since Tulsa is just down the road from us, we know better than most that ORU is good. KU should have been better prepared for ORU and--again, according to PhogBlog--should have made some adjustments during the game.
Fearful Syzygy, I dig doggerel. I hope you'll post some more over at your place.
And Randall . . . Ain't it grand? I briefly thought about dusting off Jayhawkdämmerung as this post's title, but then I thought, Hey: it IS only the second game of the season; it's a bit too early yet to be looking for signs of the Apocalypse. Still, as someone wrote in the comments section of that page I linked to, "They [ORU] don't even start with a B!"
And . . . I see that Texas lost last night to Michigan State. Who ever heard of those guys?
Ariel,
Due to my immoderate zeal above, I neglected to mention that Kansas, player for player, (still) looks like world-beaters. They know how to play, or else they wouldn't be in Lawrence; the game against ORU just shows they're still getting used to playing together . . . and I'm afraid that they're probably going to learn pretty quickly how to do that. I (and Randall, and every other person in the Big XII NOT a Jayhawk fan) would just as soon they wait till after they play Texas (in my case) to learn that, but they probably won't oblige me. Darn it.
KU should have been better prepared for ORU and--again, according to PhogBlog--should have made some adjustments during the game.
That's right - I'm afraid that KU's mad talent has made the team into something of a collective head case when it comes to preparation. I'm wondering how long it will take Bill Self to get into that collective head...
I was surprised to notice the Texas loss...watching the Big 12 is going to be fascinating this season.
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