There is an old adage used for some teams that, “They play to the competition.” That means that when they played a less-than-great team they will drop lower and play like that and when they play a great team they step up their game and play great as well. This Kansas Jayhawk basketball team fits that moniker.
Never was that more true than Monday night when Kansas rallied from 16-down to pull off a win over second-ranked West Virginia. Toss in wins at TCU, Texas and home wins over strong teams and road wins over Kentucky and others and this team has certainly showed they can be great. They also have shown that they can play pretty mediocre basketball as they have under-performed against some teams including at home against Iowa State and Texas Tech.
As Forrest Gump said, “They’re like a box of chocolates, you just never know what you’re going to get!” Fortunately folks, the Big 12 is filled with good to great teams so it would look like we can expect a lot of top performances from this Kansas team. One thing they have showed so far is that they know how to win close games.
Bill Self carries a reputation of being a coach that wins close games. Others, including Kansas State’s Bruce Weber and Baylor’s Scott Drew have picked up the reputation of not being so successful in close games. Once again on Saturday, Weber’s Wildcats lost when they coulda/shoulda won at Kansas.
Call it great coaching or call it karma but there is definitely something there if you look at the results. Self is terrific at coming out of timeouts with a well designed play and his teams usually get stops at the end of games and come up with ways to win.
So, you Jayhawk fans, if you are wondering how your team is going to play the rest of the season, look forward to playing the great teams but be a little beware of the also-rans. (Hint, hint: watch out in Stillwater).
CHALK TALK
— Now that the NFL season is almost over, I am still wondering why the Big Shots think Los Angels needs two football teams in the NFL. The Rams and the Chargers are trying to make a buck there and the name, Los Angeles Chargers, just doesn’t sound like it belongs. Dean Spanos has made ANOTHER mistake with this franchise. It would have made as much sense to have put it in Topeka!
— A lot of basketball fans aren’t aware of how many great coaches there are in the American Athletic Conference that Wichita State just joined. Look at this All-Star lineup of coaches: Kevin Ollie with a national championship at UConn; Tim Jankovich, SMU; Tubby Smith with a national championship at Memphis; legendary Fran Dunphy at Temple; Kelvin Sampson at Houston; Johnny Dawkins of Duke fame at UCF; Mike Dunleavy at Tulane and, of course, Wichita’s Frank Marshall of Final Four fame. What a test!
— Bill Self is normally attired for games in a coat and tie but Monday night he pulled a switcheroo on the Mountaineers’ Bobby Huggins who ALWAYS wears that black pullover hiding his large stomach. Before the game Huggins gave one of those pullovers to Self that had a little Jayhawk embroidered on it. Just before the game Self took off the customary shirt and tie and tossed the jacket back and came out for the game in his “Huggy look-alike” outfit! That brought a big laugh from Huggins!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
