who got game? we got game!

Jimbo’s girlfriend doesn’t have the love for the game.

No, I’m not talking about no-limit Texas hold ‘em, although she doesn’t like that one, either. I’m talking about the great game invented in Springfield, Massachusetts, by a guy they called The Deaner. It’s played on a hardwood court 50’ wide and 94’ long, with two 18” iron hoops mounted ten feet above the court, near each end of the court. Most notably, there is a large semicircle on each end of the court 19’ 9” from the center of the iron hoop, behind which a man whose prime time has past can extend his playing years, if he can stroke the three-ball.

The Deaner brought his game west to Lawrence, Kansas, where he became the first head basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Although the building in which the University of Kansas plays its basketball games is named after another legendary Kansas coach, Forest C. “Phog” Allen, the court in that building is named James A. Naismith Court, after the school’s initial coach.

You may recall last year after the Kansas team was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament, I lamented the loss and predicted when winter again came to the Midwest, the Jayhawks would be back to form. Let me take you back to that lamentable day last March.

http://jimboandhisfriends.blogspot.com/2005/03/ncaa-tournament-crimson-and-blues.html

I had a chance last fall to have a drink with some friends. One of them told me that the team should be good this year, only young and probably inconsistent. When the team started out with a losing record and didn’t seem to be getting better, I started to doubt that Mike knew what he was talking about.

Unfortunately, when winter came, the Jayhawks fell flat. It was only when the spring winds blew that the team started to look like a Kansas basketball team. Fortunately, winter showed up in the fall and spring arrived sometime in mid-January this year, here in the Midwest. There was a Saturday afternoon at home when we were beaten by Kansas State—something that is unheard of. Then, the following Monday night it was Missouri beating us in overtime and I thought that it was the single worst performance I had ever seen by a Kansas team. I began to doubt.

I don’t watch all of the games like I used to, because, as I mentioned, Jimbo’s girlfriend is not a fan of the game, nor a believer. I watched that Missouri game from beginning to end. How, I thought, could they dig themselves out of this hole?

Well, tonight Kansas plays Texas and the winner has sole possession of first place in the Big Twelve. Kansas hasn’t lost since the Missouri game six weeks ago. Of course Mike was right as he is most of the time.

Tonight will be a big game, but when the days start getting longer and March is only a few days away on the calendar, the games that count are still ahead of us. One of the announcers on ESPN on that ragged Monday night against Missouri said that the loser might risk not going to the NCAA tournament. No matter what happens tonight, the crimson and blue should be there when they start playing for real in March.

And you know we’ll be watching, here in Jimbo’s world.