RCT 2014 Year In Review

So 2014 was a year of change for RCT.

Hopefully the changes were fairly imperceptible for you, dear readers, after our little "coup." Well, except for FanShots, of course, amirite?  misterbrain was rocking the News and Notes at the beginning of the year before it got hectic for him, and I was able to take up that mantle in April.  We kept the daily flow going, we got some fresh writers in, and I feel like we were able to bring you some great coverage and content.  fetch keeps rockin' the Twitter and basketball "stuff" and we're certainly appreciative of him for that.

So, Thank You's go out to our "old" writing staff, our "new" writers, our commenters, and of course, our dear readers.  misterbrain, Penhawk and I want to keep RCT flowing with great content and commentary on all things KU, and dear readers, we certainly can't do that without all of you.

Well, let's see... what did we learn this past year?  Well, I am basically Mike Baxter, Pen won't use periods at the end of paragraphs, and nobody ever reads the intro.

Fortunately, we are an open and inviting community and we all seem to respect each other's opinions, but there were a few things we just couldn't agree on even though I was clearly right:

The Panama Canal

Helmets on pitchers

What constitutes a Christmas movie

Cyclists on the roads

Reaganomics (not football) ((but we did discuss football Reaganomics in a very well written article))

Where western Kansas begins

Living in Wichita

Burning butterflies for cash

Garth Brooks and country music

Hot dog cannons at baseball games

Corporal punishment

Besides the misterbrain/mikeville controversy, did I forget anything?

The year was not without a few highlights, however.

It sure was fun to have Andrew Wiggins for a year, even though March didn't go quite how we hoped.  And when Joel Embiid was healthy in January and early February, man was that awesome.  Tom did a great preview of our first round opponent, Eastern Kentucky.  misterbrain tricked EVERYONE on April Fool's day.  I correctly predicted that Wiggins would go #1 overall (really went on a ledge on that one, I know) and where Embiid would go in the draft.

After Warden laid the smack down on Tom Keegan, fetch got in on the action with an article looking at who would replace Charlie Weis two weeks before Weis got canned, and I (correctly) listed David Beaty as a Top 10 candidate (actually a Top 5 candidate) for KU after Weis was officially fired.  And who knew the Jayhawks would be as awful as the "Crimson Chrome" uniforms they busted out this year?  Apparently the answer to that question is Jim Hammen, Owen, and Penhawk, who all correctly predicted three wins for the football team.

Let's see, what else happened that was fun.... Your favorite editor drunk posted the news and notes after Game 7 of the World Series.  Stupid Giants.  Oh, and, one of the Jims brought in lots of Kentucky trolls to RCT with his excellent piece on how easy it is to hate Kentucky.  Thanks for the site traffic, UK!  We also were able to bring you interviews of Clark Kellogg (not once, but twice!), legendary KU announcer Bob Davis, and former KU volleyball player Erin McNorton.

And now, I've got a fun little exercise for you.  Courtesy of the SBN College Desk, here are the user stats from 2014 (alongside 2013 stats):

Congrats to 2.1 seconds left for taking over the coveted spot of "lead commenter!"  And on the other hand, shame on all you KU fans to let this KState guy come in here and out-comment you!!

Here's to a successful 2015 - may the new year find each and every one of you with health, happiness, and lots and lots of KU victories!  Be sure to vote in the poll... a tailgate with lots of RCTers could be lots of fun!  I know other SBN sites have had great success with such events.