4 posts tagged “basketball”

First of all...

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK, BABY.

I believe that's all that needs to be said.  Monday night, DEFINITELY among the best nights of my entire life.  I can't overstate that.  WOO!

But anyway.  Let's talk baseball.  Sara and I have talked a little about the smoov jazz numbers her team and the Dodgers chose for the national anthem on their respective home opening days, and I was wondering what my Royals would do yesterday for their opener against the Yankees.  Well, I don't know who sang the anthem, but I DO know now that Garth Brooks will be leading a round of "Friends In Low Places" at every home game this season.  According to the Kansas City Star, Garth took a few hours recently and recorded several different openings to the song, just to be played during Royals home games.  The Star says he did 20-25 different openings.  So Royals fans will be singing along to that song this season in the 6th inning or whatever.  Sure, seems like a semi-ripoff of the Boston "Sweet Caroline" thing, but pfft, what do I care?  Ha.  I kinda like it.  I'm all for Garth hanging with the Royals.  Why not?

But still, who sang the anthem?  Hmmmm.  I may never know.  Couldn't you kick in just a little early on opening day, Extra Innings?

I'll post something not about sports here again eventually, but...

Just in case anyone was actually beginning to think of Kansas as a football school (not likely, but that was a fine football season), whoa.  The basketball team is only getting better.  85-60 at Boston College?  I know KU was an 11-point favorite today, and I know BC was unranked, but still.  This was the one nonconference game I was worried about.  This and Georgia Tech.  The Tech game turned out to be pretty close, mostly thanks to Kansas' tendency to let up when in possession of a big lead, and yeah, I kinda anticipated a close one today, too.  In Boston, against a quality ACC opponent?  And at 11am Lawrence time?  It had potential to be tough.  But wow.  25 point win.  I never would have predicted that.

I will say, though, that had BC not made Kansas mad in the second half, it might have been closer.  The lead was down to 14, and BC had ALL the momentum.  But eeek, when KU is mad, they're kinda unstoppable.  That little altercation lit a fire under them that they had lacked in the second half.  After that, whoa.

AND, I've never heard announcers be so complimentary toward my team.  Thanks, guys.  And I love Bill Raftery.

Very much after the fact, but I need to say one thing about the Final Four.  Every year, at the end of the championship game, CBS plays its "One Shining Moment" video montage of clips from the tournament, set to the cheesy song of the same name, and from what I can tell, everyone loves it.  I remember one of my high school friends telling me how much he loved that, even.  Well...

I freaking hate "One Shining Moment."  I hate the song, I hate the sentiment behind it, I hate the clips, I hate CBS for airing it.  It reduces the finale a hard-fought athletic competition to something akin to the closing credits of a Lifetime movie.  It's treacly and cloying and schmaltzy and ugh.  I just can't stand it.  I turned off the TV when it began this year.  Bleh.

Just wanted to get that out.  Ha.  Oh, also, Jim Nantz sucks.  Both when he's calling the games, and when he's in that Circuit City ad.  Clark Kellogg sucks, too.  And Seth Davis really sucks.  As does Greg Gumbel.  Pretty much, CBS just blows when it comes to NCAA basketball.  I like Bill Raftery, and that's about it.

Really, what I'd like is, a second audio program on the TV broadcasts with NO announcers at all.  Wouldn't it be cool to just watch the games, hear the crowd noise, listen to the bands and stuff?  Do I really need some dork telling me about what I can plainly see with my own two eyes?  I do not.

Okay, I'm done.

So, it's Super Bowl Sunday.  Super!  Bowl!  Sunday!  SUPA!  BOW!  SUNDA!  SUPABOWSUNDASUPABOWSUNDASUPABOWSUNDA!  Super super super!  Bowl bowl bowl!  SUNDAY!  WOO!  Footballfootballfootballfootball!  HYPEHYPEHYPE!

Wheeee.

Yeah, once again, hype will take the day.  Six hours of pre-game coverage on CBS, and another three on ESPN.  Plus, lots of post-game coverage, too!  Wow!  So, I forget.  Why is this the biggest sports day of the year again?  Seriously, isn't NFL football only about the fourth or fifth most interesting major sport in this country?  What makes this day so great?  The consistently underwhelming game?  The awful halftime show?  It's always so sad when the commercials are the best part of the day.  And they always are.

Having said that, ha, I think this is a nice matchup for once.  I kinda think maybe these are actually the two best teams.  I can't even pick who I'd like to win.  I like Payton Manning a lot, but I generally like the Bears more than the Colts, historically speaking.  So I guess I'll wait until the game starts to see who I'm pulling for.  I think the Bears deserve more credit from the oddsmakers, anyway.

Yeah, really, once the Broncos were knocked out of playoff contention (the 49ers may have done them a favor), I think my very limited interest in the NFL kinda vanished.

Anyway, on to a sport I do care about, hey, Kansas, way to completely blow the end of the game last night!   You had that thing in your back pocket, what happened?   Ugh!  You do know you completely killed my weekend, right?  Sheesh.  You'd better show up for K-State on Wednesday, because they're good.  And now that you're in second place again in the Big 12, I suddenly find myself a HUGE Texas fan for Monday night.  GO HORNS!  WOO!  I like Texas, anyway.  So yeah, go get the Aggies, boys.

And in conclusion, Erin Andrews is purty, and I'd like to see more of her on the sidelines for Kansas basketball games.  The end.