Random Thoughts from a cluttered mind...

I said early on that I didn't see much room for growth as compared to other years. I think the season showed that to be mostly accurate. I would guess that our consistency numbers were quite high with little variance all year. We had individuals grow, but overall our team played at a high level all year long.

It was an absolutely wonderful year to watch. All those close games, Frank Mason, Jackson, etc. I really enjoyed watching this team each and every game.

13 straight Conference championships!

Frank's career and Sr year were an absolute joy to watch for this fan. He may well be my all time favorite. With all the stuff happening off the court, not once was his name mentioned and on the court, not once did you doubt that you would get his best. Truly a fine representative of KU.

Lucas was his usual solid self. Maligned from time to time, but we don't get as far as we did without him.

The NCAAs. What can you say. I was almost ready to say I was wrong about this teams potential when I saw the first three games. That Purdue game was about as good as it gets. Though I do remember towards the end saying that we needed to save some of those shots for the next game.

The elusive Elite Eight for KU and Self. I thought when he won the championship in 2008, that things would be different. They weren't. I never fear the first day. He generally has us very prepared for it. Hence I was not worried about Purdue (though I didn't think it would be that one sided) as I was for the second game.

Oregon is a good team that played at their best. Their zone confused us a bit and their shot making was incredible as time was winding down. We were out of sorts and Graham missed shot after shot. The difference in scoring was very small. A lot of our shots would rattle the rims and bounce out. Theirs would rattle around and bounce in. Jackson's early foul trouble didn't let him get settled in the way he always seemed to need to. Missed shots and swarming defense by Oregon caused us to take marginal shots instead of good ones. Oregon played great. Blocking shots, rapid defensive swarming, great and crisp movement on offense, shot after amazing shot...

But with around 3 minutes left, it was a 6 point game. Think about that. As good as they were playing and as bad as we were playing, we still had a shot at it. That is how tough Frank Mason and the rest of the team was. Mentally they were clawing back from what may be their worst game statistically of the season.

Short turn around against elite talent and coaching is tough. But other teams seem to do it. Wish we had a better record in the Elite Eight, but love the fact that we are in the hunt EVERY year and wouldn't trade it for anything.

This was a fantastically enjoyable year to watch KU basketball and one of its best products in Frank Mason.

I remember the Grinter House very well, TexKan. I grew up going to the old Grinter Methodist church a couple miles away, and my grade school (Stony Point South) was 1 mile away.

I toured the Grinter house several times and went to some events there, but I don't recall ever eating that kind of scrumptious country dinner there. It was and is a treasure of that area (one of the earliest homesteads in all of Kansas), and you brought back good memories. You also made me very hungry!