The Blame Game. Like most red-blooded Americans, I love it.
It’s how I’ve paid my bills for nearly two decades. It’s a game I mastered as a child. Talk to my high school friends, teachers and coaches, and they’d tell you I perfected the Blame Game by publicly criticizing the Warren Central High School basketball coach, Mike Cooper, from his office chair as his teams practiced and played. Throughout my high school years, I attended every practice and game and offered my harsh analysis and second-guesses immediately after the team left the court.
Mike Cooper, a great guy and one of my favorite teachers, was the first coach I passionately campaigned to have fired for incompetence.
So the Blame Game and I go way back. I know when to play it.
The aftermath of Kansas’ stunning two-point loss to Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament is not the appropriate time.
Whenever there’s failure, especially unexpected failure, it’s an American tradition to assign blame. Something caused the Jayhawks to lose, and whatever it was and whoever was responsible for it, must be publicly scolded and/or eliminated.
One poorly timed loss in a one-and-done tournament is always an enlightening/defining peek into the character of 20-year-old boys.
•Sherron Collins’ reputation as an on-court winner is a fraud now. He had five turnovers and missed more shots than he made Saturday night.
•Bill Self is a terrible game-day coach. He didn’t flip the switch on Kansas’ full-court press soon enough.
•Recruiting Xavier Henry was a horrendous lapse in judgment and a total waste.
•Tyshawn Taylor is whiny and can’t shoot. I hope he transfers.
•Brady Morningstar should’ve never been in the rotation.
One loss to a good team is quite illuminating, if the Blame Game participants are to be believed. Should we believe them?
If you read this column semi-regularly, you recognize my opinions evolve. Well, my critics say my opinions “flip flop.” Whatever, I react to new information. When the brackets were announced, I was confident the Jayhawks were the best team and would win the title. Over a full season, I felt Kansas had proved its superiority — exhibit A being its three-game sweep of a Kansas State team I believe is one of America’s 10 best.
On Thursday, I was provided a new piece of information. I sat courtside while the Northern Iowa Panthers slipped past UNLV. I was impressed with their size, depth, courage, three-point shooting and tenacity.
Seeing a team in person is quite different from watching a team on TV. In person, it’s easier to read body language. It’s easier to sense confidence. You get a better feel of how players respond to coaching. Northern Iowa passed every eye test.
Anyone who left the Ford Center on Thursday night unaware the Panthers would give the top-ranked Jayhawks a stiff test knows nothing of basketball.
ESPN.com’s respected college hoops guru Pat Forde caught the Panthers in person at the Missouri Valley Conference championship game two weeks ago and immediately tapped out a column guaranteeing that some big-name school would get whacked by them in the Big Dance. This was before the brackets were announced.
In my Friday column previewing Northern Iowa and Kansas, I didn’t predict a Northern Iowa victory. I predicted the Panthers were quite capable of competing with and/or beating Kansas. The Jayhawks needed to bring their “A” game to hold off Northern Iowa.
The Kansas team I thought was “invincible” after the Big 12 title game was going to face an experienced midmajor that could make the Jayhawks vulnerable.
So what happened?
A perfect storm wiped out Kansas. Period.
Six quick ouls on Kansas to open the game, two three-point daggers from a plodding, 7-foot center, a delay in switching to a full-court press, a gutsy kid nailing a foolish three-pointer in the final seconds and an officiating crew not beholden to upholding the agreed-upon Big 12 hierarchy ended an awesome season.
(That’s right. The refs called a fair game, which doesn’t always happen in conference play. No way Tyrel Reed would have been called for a charge with 26 seconds to play and Kansas trailing by four points in any Big 12 arena.)
Kansas played with great intensity and effort. The players did not overlook Northern Iowa. No one choked. There were no collective or individual character flaws exposed. Kansas, for my money, is still the best team in college basketball.
A good opponent caught the right breaks and upset a better team. It happens. Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls didn’t win every playoff series in a sweep. Only at this time of the year do we ignore a season’s worth of evidence and jump to conclusions based on a single game.
Well, here’s a conclusion I jumped to: Three predominantly white midmajor teams — No. 12 Cornell, No. 9 Northern Iowa and No. 10 St. Mary’s — were underseeded in this tournament. The selection committee slept on them. Not their opponents. I’m not bagging on the members of the selection committee. They don’t get to sit courtside and watch every potential tournament qualifier.
My point is this wasn’t some unbelievable upset. It was a typical result during a single-elimination tournament that has multiple variables, including luck and human officiating.
There’s one small lesson to take from this game. Self needs to add a heavier dash of full-court pressure to his defensive repertoire.
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