In case you haven't been watching the NCAA Tournament, or at least not watching the commercials, here is one of the most played ads of the first two days of the NCAA Tournament:
And as that ad is shown over and over again, because all I have done the past two days is watch college basketball, I have discovered the incredible relevance it has on our Kansas Jayhawks. You see, we have just as much, if not more, talent than every other team in the entire country. For serious. Go ahead and stake a claim for any other team, we have more talent. And that talent plays like a team, sharing the ball so much it's as if no one even wants to shoot. But despite all of that going for us, we have still struggled for stretches throughout the season. Whenever that happens, I believe the culprit is that we don't exactly believe that commercial.
You see, our power is more powerful than your power. Our fast is faster. Your agility is, in fact, in debt to our agility. But we don't always play like that. We don't always show off our incredible physical talent, instead opting to go through the motions. The first 20 games of the season, all Kansas victories, we full believed in everything that is in that commercial. Our quick did smell like french toast, making Allen Field House perpetually smell like breakfast was being made. But that confidence-draining, streak-busting, season-altering, disappointing loss in Bramlage Coliseum to the Powercats seemed to change all of that. No longer did AFH smell like breakfast, instead it became rank of second-guessing. At least, that is what it looked like on the basketball court for the next six games. Because those next six games, all conference games, we were 4-2 (4-3 including the loss in Manhattan). We won exactly one game on the road, to Big 12 doormat Colorado, and we played like a team looking to find its identity. No one was exactly sure what they were "supposed" to do.
Then at our season's lowest point, our loss to the NIT-bound Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater, our season changed again. While our fall from complete confidence to seeming insecurity made its full transformation in only a game, our return to the confident and pissed off version of the 2007-08 Jayhawks took awhile to show themselves. You had a nice, solid win on the road in Ames against the Cyclones. Then we revenged our first loss of the season, convincingly beating the Powercats at AFH. It was then, Saturday night March 1st, with the ESPN Gameday crew along with Dicky V in the house for us to fully regain our mojo. We played like we knew we were the better team, for the first time in more than a month. And our newly-found swagger was shown off for the entire country two days later, Senior Night 2008, when we embarrassed the Texas Tech Red Raiders to the tune of 109-51. It had become official. The confident Jayhawks, after taking the entire month of February off, were back.
And so, America, you better pay up. Because your agility still owes us $20 and we are ready to collect. After a month of letting you off, we are ready to accept the money, either by cash or check. You decide. As long as we continue to believe that Our Better is Better Than Your Better, which is true and just became our new slogan here at RCT, I have a hard time believing that anybody can beat us.
But hey, thank you very much for coming.
ROCK CHALK!