From 'The Jayhawker':
(highlighted passages are my additions)
A lot of people are going to take the high road over the next few days and congratulate Northern Iowa for playing a great game, but not me. Northern Iowa is a f****ing joke of a basketball team, and I say that not out of spite over the loss, but because it is a fact. Kansas …is littered with McDonald's All-Americans and future NBA players - there was no excuse for a performance so putrid. Here are the three scapegoats, in no particular order:
1) Sherron Collins. His play over the second half of the season has been the elephant in the room no one could talk about because he was anointed King of Kansas….. What compounds the problem is that because he is such the senior leader and face of the team Bill Self has no choice but to stick with him when he shoots 20% from the floor and 0% from beyond the arc. … To paraphrase Bobby Knight, the kid should have been benched before the wound hemorrhaged, end of story. I won't even mention how Sherron decided to back off a wide open Ali Farwhateveryourstupidnameis instead of getting in his face before the best shooter on UNI drained the three that put the game out of reach. No, I won't bring that up.
2) Rebounding, in particular long rebounds off of 3-point shots. This has been a thorn in the Jayhawks' side all season, especially against lesser opponents
3) Tyrel Reed. He played a great game against UNI...except for the play that sealed the fate of the Jayhawks: his drive and subsequent charging foul when KU had pulled within one point with under a minute to play. … As great of an outside shooter, ball-handler, and passer Tyrel is, he can't take it to the hoop without lunging into his defender. Why he decided it was a good idea to drive the lane in that spot I will never know…. I hope he retains his confidence for next season, I just also hope he never drives to the bucket again...ever.
It will be tough to watch the rest of this tournament. It will be tough to watch teams like Kentucky, Syracuse, and f'ing K-State roll through their opponents en route to a Final Four with the memory of the 'Hawks gagging it up on the first weekend…. I myself will not be routing for or against K-State because they are what they always were and always will be - completely and unequivocally irrelevant.