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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011
MEN'S BASKETBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Recalling memorable events from 2008
Tyrel Reed reflects on heartbreaking losses to Kansas State, Texas and Oklahoma State and an important team meeting
In today's excerpt, Tyrel talks about his freshman year, the march to the 2008 Final Four and a players-only meeting that changed a season and lifting the "Final Four Monkey" off his coach's back.
Our first big road test that year was at Southern Cal, which had
"official" about this meeting. It was just sort of like, "Hey, we're going to Henry T's," and everybody showed up.
I imagine the other people in the restaurant were pretty curious about all this. Because we all have different schedules, it's pretty rare to see the entire basketball team
16. Which put us in the Elite Eight, where we had lost the year before, against Davidson, who was everybody's Cinderella story.
As much as you try to ignore everything, there are certain facts that people just won't let you forget. We were aware that all of coach Self's best tournament runs
NOTICE
WHO TO FOLLOW // FAKE JOE DOOLEY
>The tweets people are talking about
AMANDA GAGE
TWEETS:
Contributed photo
WHO: Fake Joe Dooley
WHAT HE DOES: A music artist and songwriter from Brooklyn.
@FakeJoeBooley: Today, we declare victory in the Border War! Missouri has said "no mas" and surrenders effective July 1, 2012. #VMDay #MuckFizzou #RockChalk
TWITTER HANDLE: @FakeJoeDooley
@FakeJoeDooley: After years of war, a people must reflect on what their struggles have taught them. What have we learned, Jayhawk fans? Missouri sucks.
WHITER HANDLE. @ raskooboney
WHY: "His tweets about KU basketball,
Lawrence and the University in general
are pretty spot-on and hilarious," says
Alec Toews, freshman from Wichita in KU's
pharmacy school.
@FakeJoeDooley: Held more walk-on tryouts today. We decided we'd take anyone that could beat Jeff Withey in a free throw contest. We now have 430 walk-ons.
@FakeJoeDooley. Our bench looks like a cross between a J. Crew catalogue and a Kid Cudi concert.
@FakeJoeDooley: An upside to the thin roster? With the empty space on the bench, Tyshawn & I set up a horseshoe pit to play with during the game. #kubball
@FakeJoeDooley: Fundamentals are key.
T-Rob's poor stanky leg technique is what caused his knee injury. He needed to execute that dance move to be successful.
WESCOE WIT //
> Lol.
GUY 1: The winter sucks. I hate it.
GUY 2: Anything that makes girls wear more clothes sucks.
GIRL 1: Did you end up going to that Halloween party?
GIRL 2: Yeah. Everyone else was a sexy nurse or princess. I was a banana.
GUY: Video games are bankrupting me this month.
GUY: Are there any bars in Lawrence that don't play 'Party Rock Anthem' every other song?
GIRL: Well, here's what they taught us about masturbation in my Cataclysm class.
GUY 1: Who had the pleasure of feeling the earthquake this time?
GUY 2: That's a little sexual. Did you have the pleasure of feeling the quake?
GUY 1: I don't know. You should ask your mom.
GIRL: Is it bad that I've gotten used to police sirens at my apartment complex?
GUY: I just wanted to stand up halfway through that test and say 'You've destroyed my innocence.' That test did awful things to me.
MATT GALLOWAY
WHAT IT'S LIKE // TO WITNESS A BREAK-IN > We know you're curious.
| BY PETER AS TOLD TO AMANDA GAGE |
On Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 3 a.m., Peter was sending an email when he heard unexpected commotion outside the door of his bedroom. He opened the door to see what the noise was and an intruder walked directly past him without any acknowledgment. Peter ended up in a frightening situation and was left shaken up. He chose not to disclose his full name to protect his safety.
Photo illustration by Jessica Janasz
My roommate Dave and I started questioning who the individual was and he replied with some hubbub about how he was meeting with a "friend" of some sorts. This guy was big, stocky and about 6-foot-1. He definitely worried me because I could tell he was tough.
At that point Dave had come down the stairs to try and break it up and as I looked at him, the guy placed his hands around my neck shoving me against the table next to my room. I fell backward over it while my head and shoulders dangled over the ledge of the stairwell, where I could have fallen 10 feet upside down.
I asked him again for his name and who the friend he wanted to see was as I gave him a shove against the wall. A third time I asked him for his name and purpose for being in our home while giving him a significantly more violent shove against the wall.
I got to my feet and charged the guy and started hitting him as hard as I could. After a few seconds, Dave then separated us again. Before I had a chance to even react, a different
I've read that when you get in life-threatening situations your adrenaline pumps and your heart rate rises and that sometimes things move in slow motion. That's exactly what happened. I completely zoned out from everything around me and all was quiet. What probably took only 10 seconds seemed to last twice as long. Thankfully, though, Davé snagged me and pulled me up.
guy (who was running up the stairs), grabbed me and pushed me against the wall and storage closet and then all hell broke loose.
Dave continued to defend me and he was able to come between me and the other guys and separate us. The two then began to sprint down the stairs and out the front door while I yelled a bunch of stuff that I probably shouldn't repeat.
Then Dave and I looked at each other and I said, "Holy shit." Both of our eyes were wide open and we basically starred at each other for a few seconds. In my head I was replaying the whole incident thinking about what I could have done differently so that I didn't almost flip over the balcony.
I was kind of mad at myself for letting my guard down even for that split second in such a tense situation. But at the same time, I felt extremely violated, disrespected and disgusted that the whole event had actually taken place.
for us, especially Darren. He had been through a lot of tragedies already in his life, and his cousin had been killed earlier in the week. Sherron was hurt too, and didn't play much (11 minutes).
That loss shook us up a little bit. We realized we weren't invincible, and one of the outcomes was the realization some things needed to be said, some things needed to be heard and we needed to sort it all out as a team. The manifestation of this was that some guys on the team — I can't remember who — decided we ought to go to Henry T's for dinner as a team, an event which I am now aware has taken on something of a legendary quality. I assume this is at least partially because nobody outside the team knows exactly what happened there, except that we never lost again that season.
So here's the story; Henry T's is a sports bar known for its wings and burgers. It has one extra large booth in one of the corners, which suited us fine. There was nothing
Kansas got up by 24 in the second half and won 88-74.
The NCAA Tournament is a totally different animal from the regular season. You get funky game times; you don't know who you're going to play. It's weird. The stands are often half full and even the half that is there is a mix of a few different teams' fans.
We had one more chance for a revenge game that year, and it came in the Big 12 championship game against 'texas. The memorable thing about that game was how well both teams played. It was almost surreal to watch. If you're a basketball fan, that had to be fun to watch because of the pure skill and talent on display. That's one of the better halves of basketball that I've witnessed.
We played Portland State in the first round. Then we had a nice game against UNLV and whipped Villanova pretty hard in the Sweet
bigger target for our fans than he already was (which was pretty big).
overtaking
him at that time. I can only imagine coaching in college basketball for so long and coming so close; You're so defined by that last game in college. I think we need to be held accountable for losing in the NCAA Tournament, but we try not to let it define us as a team. Things happen. It's tough when people say we had a bad season. You wish it wouldn't be that way, that you went 35-3 but didn't have a good year. I think at a lot of places that would be a pretty good year.
The Davidson win was really a pressure release in a lot of ways. I felt like once we got to the Final Four, there was a sense of calmness.
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© Reed All About It:
Driven to be a Jayhawk
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