It's been awhile, let's see what people around the 'net have been saying about our Jayhawks.
Over at Fox Sports they looked at all of the schools and rated them combining both men's basketball and football. They talked about the Top 25, so naturally fell at 26th. I'm actually pretty happy with a #26 ranking, no matter how good our basketball team has been there is no way we could be that high because of the general ineptitude of our football program. Last year's ranking of 17th was higher mostly because of a bowl win for the football 'Hawks, even though this year's basketball team is much better. To make you all feel better, Missouri checked in at 46th and Kansas State at 37th, meaning we beat both of our rivals.
Because I'm sure you were wondering, Luke Winn is analyzing Julian Wright's and Sherron Collins' similar hairstyles. Apparently, some people don't have enough to talk about. Sticking to the Sports Illustrated theme, Stewart Mandel lists us as 'scalding hot', where he had the following to say about us:
Would the Jayhawks still win the NCAA Title if every player stayed in school 4 years? We wouldn't gain anyone as no one has left early for the NBA (just transferred away), but could still probably make the Final Four. It is doubtful we could beat an Ohio State team containing LeBron James and Greg Oden or a North Carolina team with everyone currently wearing powder blue along with Dwight Howard, J.R. Smith and Marvin Williams. Go and vote for the Jayhawks first to beat the Purple Eagles, then to make a surprise run to the Final Four.
Gary Bedore talks about Southern Illinois' strength, defense. The thing that the MSM keeps forgetting, we have a pretty darn good defense of our own. You can talk all you want about our offense versus SIU's defense, but the real battle is if they can score enough points to beat us. They already struggled enough scoring points and with the possible loss of F Matt Shaw, their offense is heart that much more.
Much like Chicago, Jayhawk fans are aiming to make San Jose Jayhawk-friendly. Allen Fieldhouse Extreme West? Most people are talking about it as a UCLA home-court advantage, but hopefully we can negate that advantage and bring out some crimson and blue supporters.
Lastly and definately most important, Danny Manning is replacing Tim Jankovich as assistant coach. He has been the 'director of student-athlete development' the past couple of years, because he wasn't ready to go out on the road recruiting. Well, apparently now he is ready and will step in and help out both with much more on-court coaching during practice and making recruiting visits. As good of a recruiter Jankovich was, I would imagine it is a different feeling when you have one of the best college basketball players of all time and a very well known name in Danny Manning coming to visit you. While 'Danny and the Miracles' won the 1988 title before many (if not all) of these recruits were born, you still hear his name in basketball lore for what he did in college. Hopefully we can continue our success of getting some top-notch talent and keep us in national title contention year after year.
ROCK CHALK!