KU Basketball

My name is Brad. I am a marketing and Spanish major, currently attending Kansas State University. I am in love with the school I go to - my friends, my campus, my community - in no way do I regret any part of my decision to attend school there and get a degree from the nation's 9th best business school. Recently, I even found out that I got accepted into the Blue Key Senior Honorary.

All this being said, I am a Jayhawk basketball fan until I die. Ever since I can remember, I have been a Kansas basketball fan. From memories of reenacting KU games by dribbling on my backyard grass so much it turned to dirt, shooting in my garage when it was raining because I just had to be the next Ryan Robertson, going to my friend's house every week with my dad to watch the games on ESPN before we had cable, attending KU's first practice of every year, meeting all of the players and getting to eat pizza with them as a "Junior Jayhawk", going to games with my dad, and watching the national championship and Mario's Miracle my senior year of high school, I absolutely love Kansas Basketball.

This year seemed to be the year that KU was going to lose its reign on the Big 12. Everyone was saying that KU was going to have an "off year", and that either Baylor of Mizzou would come away with the Big 12 title, taking it away from KU for the first time in 8 years. And why wouldn't they say that? KU was returning only 1 starter, and 3 of its 4 recruits didn't even make the grades to be eligible for the season. Everything was looking poor for the Jayhawks, but you can never underestimate a Bill Self coached team.

In my opinion, Bill Self is the obvious deserver of the National Coach of the Year. Besides Tyshawn Taylor, his starters had a combined 16 career starts before this season. He made Thomas Robinson go from being a Hulk-ish mess to a potential National Player of the Year, and sealed KU's 8th straight consecutive Big 12 title in what was supposed to be an "off year" for the hawks against what was arguably the toughest Big 12 competition yet. Jim Calhoun, reigning national champion Connecticut's head coach, lost a few of their players and brought in one of the nation's best recruits (a situation that seems even better than Self's), and they ended up finishing 10th in the Big East. Bill Self is a man of character, of tenacity, and of leadership.

Since living in Spain, I've stayed up until 5 in the morning numerous times watching games from bootlegged websites, yelled louder than anyone ever should at a computer screen in Portugal when Thomas Robinson blocked the daylights out of Phil Pressey, and have had to hold back tears every time I've watched KU's intro video on YouTube. I can't wait to follow their run throughout the Big 12 and National tournaments throughout March. I'm so proud to be a Jayhawk basketball fan and will root on my hawks from any country in the world.

Check out this article recently written about Bill Self, and as always, Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

Brad.