A Mizzou friend of mine just posted this clearly-stolen-from-an-MU-message-board post: I relay it in its entirety below for our posters to absolutely destroy. Call it a little red meat for a Friday:

Just so we're clear, what follows is the perspective of an MU fan. I had absolutely no part in its drafting and take no credit whatever for the hundreds of inaccuracies contained therein.

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I hinted in Marty's very fine FanPost that I might try to compile some data showing how KU's NCAA tournament losses stack up to the other teams that lead the nation in NCAA tournament wins since Bill Self came to KU. A couple of notes on the data: I only counted NCAA losses. If a team won the national championship, that did not affect their score. Similarly, if a team missed the tournament in a given year (or years, coughUCLAcoughUCONNcoughFLORIDAcough), that fact did not affect their score.

As a recap, here is the data for KU over the same span:

2004: KU 4; GT 3 (1)

2005: KU 3; Bucknell 14 (-11)

2006: KU 4; Bradley 13 (-9)

2007: KU 1; UCLA 2 (-1)

2008: National Champs

2009: KU 3; Mich. St. 2 (1)

2010: KU 1; UNI 9 (-8)

2011: KU 1; VCU 11 (-10)

Total loss-seed disparity: -5.28 per loss

Follows the data I compiled:

UConn

2004: NCAA Title

2005: 2 (10): (-8)

2006: 1 (11): (-10)

2007: DNP

2008: 4 (13): (-9)

2009: 1 (2): (-1)

2010: DNP

2011: NCAA Title

UConn Total: -28 (4): -7

UNC

2004: 6 (3): (+3)

2005: NCAA Title

2006: 3 (11): (-8)

2007: 1 (2): (-1)

2008: 1 (1): (0)

2009: NCAA Title

2010: DNP

2011: 2 (4): (-2)

UNC Total: -8 (5): -1.6

Duke

2004: 1 (2): (-1)

2005: 1 (5): (-4)

2006: 1 (4): (-3)

2007: 6 (11): (-5)

2008: 2 (7): (-5)

2009: 2 (3): (-1)

2010: NCAA Title

2011: 1 (5): (-4)

Duke Total: -23 (7): -3.3

Mich. St.

2004: MSU 7; Nevada 10 (-3)

2005: 5 (1): (+4)

2006: 6 (11): (-5)

2007: 9 (1): (+8)

2008: 5 (1): (+4)

2009: 2 (1): (+1)

2010: 5 (5): (0)

2011: 10 (7): (+3)

Mich. St. Total: 12 (8): +1.5

Kentucky

2004: UK 1; UAB 9 (-8)

2005: 2 (5) (-3)

2006: 8 (1): (+7)

2007: 8 (1): (+7)

2008: 11 (6): (+5)

2009: DNP

2010: 1 (2): (-1)

2011: 4 (3): (-1)

Kentucky Total: +6 (7): +.85

Florida

2004: 5 (12): (-7)

2005: 4 (5) (-1)

2006: NCAA Title

2007: NCAA Title

2008: DNP

2009: DNP

2010: 10 (7): (+3)

2011: 2 (8): (-6)

Florida Total: -11 (4): -2.75

Texas

2004: 3 (7): (-4)

2005: 8 (9): (-1)

2006: 2 (4): (-2)

2007: 4 (5): (-1)

2008: 2 (1): (+1)

2009: 7 (2): (-5)

2010: 8 (9): (-1)

2011: 4 (5): (-1)

Texas Total: -14 (8): -1.75

UCLA

2004: DNP

2005: 11 (7): (+4)

2006: 2 (3): (-1)

2007: 2 (1): (+1)

2008: 1 (1): (0)

2009: 6 (3): (+3)

2010: DNP

2011: 7 (2): (+5)

UCLA Total: +12 (6): +2

A couple of conclusions: UConn's score is slightly skewed by the fact that they only had 4 NCAA losses over the past 8 years (2 titles, 2 DNPs), but still significantly higher than KU's. That said, UConn is the only school that even approaches KU's loss-seed disparity. Of course KU is largely a victim of its own success. It's never been seeded worse than a 4 seed since 2001 (let that sink in here for a bit), so, like Duke, for instance, KU's losses are much more likely to be to a worse seed. A team like Michigan St., on the other hand, is seldom better than a 5 seed, so its tournament success has largely come at the expense of better-seeded teams, and further, its losses are usually to higher seeds.

So what's the point, exactly? I'm not sure. I'm not going to sit here and say that HCBS can't coach in the big game (we all know that's simply not true), but his teams do tend to (dare I say the word?) choke when they're heavily expected to win. Not every time, obviously, but it's happened more frequently than any of us would like to admit or remember.

Anyway, these are the numbers. Discuss!

As a fan watching the last two games it's been on target with what we asked for early in the season. Yes both losses were disappointing in the context of the entire season, but they do at least raise the question and I think Bensa has hit on one side of the argument pretty well here    - Owen

Photo Courtesy KUSports.com

Prediction:  Turner Gill will now NOT be fired at the end of the year.

Opinion:  Turner Gill should NOT be fired at the end of the year.

As to the prediction, it's to my knowledge unprecedented that a BCS school would fire their football coach after only 2 seasons (no matter how bad) absent some sort of disciplinary issue or scandal, etc.  It's just not done.  And further, if we're gonna can Gill after just two seasons, what kind of message does that send to the next guy?  Come in here and fix it or else you're gone!!!  What coach of any quality is going to want to come in under those conditions?  For those reasons, I think AD Zenger will decide to bring Gill back.  We'd better start preparing ourselves for that possibility.

As to the opinion, we've got to think long-term here, folks.  Yes, these last two years have been disappointing.  Heck, I've lost faith myself (and that's saying something) at times.  And I'm certainly not discounting the fact that there will be powerful and influential donors calling for Gill's ouster at the end of the year.  But AD Zenger needs to do whatever he can to calm down (what's left of) the fan base and preach a willingness to stay the course and see this thing through.  We've looked better the last couple weeks.  Yes, the results aren't there yet, but we're getting better.  In fact, haven't we all been asking just to be competitive?  Well, we've been competitive these last two weeks.  What's the point in begging for something and then turning it down when you finally get it?

I loved the aggressive attitude in going for 2 in OT.  Take the bull by the horns, I say.  Yes, the play call left a bit to be desired, but that's fixable.  We're headed in the right direction.  These last two weeks have shown that.  Let's not upset the apple cart just yet.  Give Gill time and the results will follow.

A frequent concern KU fans have mentioned with regard to this KU team is their Free Throw percentage.  Some have tried to downplay the concern, citing the fact that our primary ball handlers (Taylor, Selby, Morningstar, Reed) all shoot 75% or better. Others have noted that many of our games are simply uncompetitive, so what does the FT percentage really matter, anyway?

I decided to take a look at the numbers to see if there was a marked difference between our FT shooting in blowouts and in closer games.

I broke down the games based on whether the final score margin was fewer than 15 points (maybe not the perfect method, but I needed a decent enough sample size to do the analysis).  Here's what I came up with:

Opponent       Score           FT            FTA            %

Arizona            87-79            20            29            68.9%

UCLA              77-76             16            30            53.3%

Memphis          81-68            11            19            57.9%

USC                 70-68            21            31            67.7%

Michigan          67-60            23            31            74.2%

Iowa St.            84-79            19            31            61.3%

Nebraska          63-60            10            19            52.6%

Texas                63-74            11            18            61.1%

Colorado           82-78            14            18            77.8%

Total:                                    145          226            64.2%

Other games:                       205          299            68.6%

All Games:                           350          525            66.7%

As you can see, our FT percentage is about 4.5% lower in close games than it is in blowouts.  One question that comes to mind based on these stats is kind of a chicken/egg scenario.  That is, are these games close because we're not hitting our free throws, or are we missing more free throws because the games are closer and our players wilt under pressure? 

Frankly, I'm not sure if there's any way to figure that out.  Likewise, I'm not certain it matters.  Either way you look at it, it could be problematic, especially come tournament time, when games tend to be closer.

What do you think?

As some  of you know, I am scheduled to sing the National Anthem at the next KU home game, Feb. 7, against Mizzou.  Obviously, I'm thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity, especially for such a big game.  But I'm also concerned.  I noticed this when I first sang the anthem at Allen Fieldhouse last season, and unfortunately it reared its ugly head again for the entire nation to see on College Gameday last Saturday.  Therefore, I have a simple request:  please, please, please stop with this "home of the CHIEFS!!!" nonsense at the end of our National Anthem. 

I'll refrain from getting too deep into whether it's appropriate for this to be done at an actual Chiefs game.  (It's not. Period.  But I digress...)  But that's the Chiefs' problem, not mine.  That said, I simply cannot understand why anybody, let alone a significant number of fans (it's gotta be several hundred, no?) attending a KU basketball game, would feel the need to trivialize and demean the anthem by paying tribute to a team that plays a different sport in a different state!!!  It simply makes no sense.  

 And I'm not trying to make this about me.  It's not.  In fact, one of the first things I learned about singing the National Anthem is that it's NOT about the singer/performer.  It's about the anthem, about the flag, about our country.  That's one reason why I try to sing the anthem in as straight-forward a manner as possible.  It's not about me.  It's not about KU.  And it's certainly not about the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let's be respectful of our great nation, and we should start by enforcing an immediate stop to this nonsensical "tradition."

Thank you and ROCK CHALK!!!

Bensa

Since 81 out of 226 (36%) of voters were dead wrong on KU losing to Baylor, I thought it might be a good idea to put in another poll.  I suspect many will select our next game against Texas as the most likely loss, but I also expect a hefty number to vote for At Colorado.  Let's try this again!

Remaining schedule and poll after the jump.

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This subject has been getting some attention around here lately (from non-sbnation folks, even!), so I thought I'd put something together to attempt to document the evolution of the term and (hopefully) decide once and for all the proper spelling.

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I know, it's blasphemy for me to even suggest KU might lose a game this year (*cough*40-0*cough*), but I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion. 

My best guess:  This may come as a surprise, but I think we make it through January unscathed, but trip up in Lubbock.  We have (almost) always played horribly down there, and for whatever reason, even though they're not good this year, I think our boys might overlook them and get bit.  I hope I'm wrong, and I would love for us to go through conference undefeated, but at some point, the talk of "will KU go undefeated" will get to our fellas and we'll no doubt trip up eventually.  My money's on Texas Tech.

That said, there are a whole host of games on this schedule that I could see us losing.  At Baylor, at Colorado, at Missouri & K-State, Texas and A&M at home.  All of those are tricky games for us.  But we'll see how it plays out.

What say you?   Upcoming schedule after the jump:

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Obviously, we've all been talking about it since it happened, but I wanted to go ahead and put together a collection of what I've seen online so far today regarding the end of the game last night.  Feel free to discuss.

Over at ESPN, Andy Katz says the ref made the right call.

Over at Beyond the Arc (a great MSNBC.com blog managed by KU alum Mike Miller), Rob Dauster argues the ref has to swallow his whistle.  Speaking of Miller, here is his brief take on the call.

On CBSSportsline.com, Gary Parrish says the call was, at worst, dead wrong and shameful.

The folks at Rush the Court had a correspondent at the game last night.  They also fall into the swallow-the-whistle camp.

At YahooSports.com, Jeff Eisenberg doesn't really take a position on the call, but offers a quick recap nonetheless.

I made my view pretty clear in the post-game comments, but I'll link to it anyway, if anybody cares.

Also, the Bruins Nation blog (UCLA's SBNation site) has a pretty entertaining post on the subject.

Enjoy!

Well, it's finally here.  I guess I'll have to change my sig.  As a primer for Late Night tonight, I thought I'd post a collection of various polls and pundit pre-season lists and see where KU stacks up against the rest of the college basketball universe.  Enjoy.

ESPN:  Andy Katz has us ranked #7 here.

Fox Sports:  I think fetch already put this in a fanshot, but Jeff Goodman has KU ranked #11 here.

CBS Sports:  Gary Parrish has KU ranked #12 here.

NBC Sports:  Mike Miller has KU ranked #7 here.

As already discussed, Dick Vitale has us ranked #25 here.

There are, no doubt, many others.  These are just a few that I culled together (I follow some of these guys on twitter, so I've been waiting for their respective lists to come out).  Please feel free to add other polls/rankings in the comments.  I assume SBNation will be doing their own blog poll, of which I'm sure Owen will keep us all abreast.  That's right.  Abreast.  Laugh it up. 

If you're interested in watching Late Night, but aren't local so as to watch it on TV, you can watch online on KU Athletics All-Access.

Also, since I just can't resist, enjoy the following videos to get you pumped up for the season

Now let's go get 'em, fellas!  ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

Coach,

It's never been easy to be a KU Football fan.

I've tried.  I'm following football recruiting now.  I watch all the games.  I don't even turn the TV off if we're getting killed (as we have a couple times already this year).  I even know some of the players' names, even though the names are no longer on the back of the uniforms.  I'm determined to be the best KU Football fan I can be.  But this team is making it really, really difficult.

I gave you a pass after the NDSU debacle.  I said, "it's just the first game. We were very vanilla on offense.  The playbook will open up, and we'll be just fine."  I was encouraged by the Georgia Tech game.  It was as great a turnaround in a short period of time as I've ever seen from a football program.  But what we've seen since then has been an even greater regression.  There's no way the team that beat GT loses by 52 to K-State or by 48 to Baylor.  There's no way the team that beat GT only scores 14 points in those two games.  Heck, there's no way any FBS team should only score 14 points in those two games.

Where's the swagger, Coach?  Was that a mirage?  I wept at the end of the episode of The Gridiron after the GT game.  "This guy is it!" I said.  "He is absolutely the right man for the job.  He's got the players believing and exceeding their collective abilities.  He's who we want to lead our program."  Now?  I can't help but question all of those statements.  What I see is a team that is defeated before they even step on the field.  We just lost by 52 points to our in-state rivals.  At home.  In a nationally-televised game. 

We here at RockChalkTalk.com have often criticized fans at KU Football games for leaving at halftime, saying it's disrespectful to the team and wondering how KU will ever be considered a top-tier football school if the stands are half empty by midway through the 3rd quarter.  Frankly, Coach Gill, that there was anybody left in the stands last night wearing crimson and blue is remarkable, and more than this team deserves, more than the coaching staff deserves.  If we see the stands more than half-full the rest of the year, (1) I'll be stunned, and (2) I will question the sanity of most of those fans.

So what can be done?  I don't know, exactly.  I'm just a fan.  I'm not the coach.  I'm not with these players every day of every week making sure they're ready to play.  But whatever it is you and your staff are doing, it isn't working right now, and changes must be made, and immediately.  What we've seen out of our football team in the last two weeks has been nothing less than a shocking disappointment.

It is unacceptable.  Please fix it. 

Thanks,

Bensa