Thursday, March 29, 2012

March 29

Final Four 2008

I have a certain set of rules that I live by when it comes to watching sporting events, a code of conduct if you will.  These rules are very important to me and have been developed over time through trial and error.

1.  Do not watch big games in unknown places.
I like to watch all of my Chiefs and Jayhawk games in the comfort of my man cave.  There the conditions are perfect.  I have food that I want to eat.  I can be wearing clothes that I want to wear.  The bathroom is just a few steps away.  And my tv is tight.  If someone invites me to their party for a big game I will politely refuse.  I don't know what the environment will be at their place.  I don't know who they have invited.  I cannot be in a place that is out of control while I am out of control.  I'm not trying to embarrass myself at someone else's house when my team loses.  My freshman year of college we watched all the games in our R.A.'s room.  He had a dope tv.  He was a Chiefs and Jayhawks fan.  We had our own little spot.  The next year we watched all of the games at my girlfriend's sister's apartment (think about it).  It was known as the Chiefs zone.  That year also happened to be the Chiefs best season in the last 15 years.  The next year I wasn't dating that girl anymore so we had to scramble to find a new place to watch the games.  We chose poorly.  The season was terrible.  Hence the creation of the rule.

2.  Do not watch big games with fans of the other team
As you get older you get angrier and bitter over the fact that your team loses all the time.  But when you are young you still think you have a chance.  In college you have buddies who are fans of different teams. They want to watch the game in which both of your teams are playing each other together.  Someone will walk up to you and say "OH SNAP KU is playing such and so.  You know that's my squad.  I'm watching that with you".  You stupidly agree.  The game is ruined because now not only do you have to worry about your team playing like a dead cat but you have to worry about this guy trash talking you all game long.  Now if someone comes up to me and says "OH SNAP I'm watching that game with you!"  I say "Nope".  Then I walk away.  Because I'm sure that person would rather watch the game in comfort then watch the game with me trying to strangle them cause they are talking to much.  If the Chiefs ever go to the Superbowl I will watch that game in my basement with Izaby Da Baby.

3.  Do not watch the big games with casual fans of your team
I love my sister.  She is a great person.  I never want to watch a big game with her.  Why?  Cause one time I invited her to the Chiefs zone for the Raiders game.  It was me, Michael, Mark, Alyssa Seltman, and my sister.  The Chiefs won the game in the last possession.  It was a thrilling game.  But I wouldn't know cause I was so angry with my sister for talking loudly with Alyssa the whole time about boys or clothes or music or something that has nothing to do with Raider hatred.  She was never invited back to the Chiefs zone (love you buddy).  Casual fans always seem to be the most outspoken while watching games.  The say stupid things because they haven't been paying attention to every little detail of every little game leading up to this big game (they have lives).  I know everything there is to know about my teams so I can't handle it.  I realize that all of these rules make me a pain.  But hey...it is what it is.

Now that you have seen all of my rules let me tell you that in 2003 I broke all of them during KU's Championship run.  The North Carolina game on Saturday night is probably the biggest game of my life.  I have never been more nervous.  I have never been more excited for a game ever.  I was trying to figure out where I would watch the game.  My dad had just bought a huge tv so I tole my buddy Logan (fan of a rival team) to ride with me to Kansas City to watch it.  We got there on Friday night.  We went to church.  I nervously smiled at everyone and then I posted up in the living room for the rest of the day waiting for the game to begin.  So as you can see I went against some of my rules.  To be fair Logan was a perfect gentleman that night. I think he was secretly a closet Jayhawks fan back then.  The game was the most incredible game ever.  Kansas came out to a 40-12 lead.  UNC cut it to 3 but then Kansas pulled away and won by 20.  I have never been happier.



The Championship game was the happiest moment of my life (besides my wedding a couple months later, love you boo).  For some reason I decided that my tv was again to small to watch the game on.  I was mentioning this at the office that day and my boss Rob Weaver heard me and invited me over to his house to watch it.  I said yes.  I don't know why I decided to watch the biggest game of all time at my boss's house but I did.  And it is a good thing I did because he captured this awesome video of me going nuts during the game. My wife who was my girlfriend at the time and didn't know that I was actually crazy yet decided to invite her friend.  I remember before the game starting I told Natalie that her friend better know that I was going to yell at her if KU lost.  Natalie felt free to let me know that if that happened that it would not be ok.  Mario Chalmers hit the shot of eternity and the Jayhawks won the National Championship.  The next day I didn't go to work.  I just sat in my house and watched coverage of the game all day.  This weekend is the next game of the Final Four for KU.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk.



dope

Thanks Yara

Did you see the sign for Takoma Park?

How would Kentucky do against an NBA team?

They would get smoked

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

March 28

Championship game 2003

2003 brought a lot of heartbreak to the CCP (ccp stands for country club penthouse and was the name of the suite that I shared with Michael Paradise and Aaron Purkeypile).  I would like to place all of the blame on how the season ended on who deserves it, Michael Christopher Paradise.  The week before the Final Four Michael was headed down to the basement in the Prescott Elevator to wash his clothes.  In his hand he carried two quarters.  In this moment he decided to play a little game.  He would flip quarters to see who would win the games.  If it was heads KU would win.  If it was tails KU would lose.  He flipped the first quarter...Heads!  KU would win the first game of the Final Four! If you don't remember what I wrote yesterday this actually came true when KU beat Marquette like they stole peaches from Farmer Johnson's farm.  He flipped the second quarter...tails.  KU is now destined to lose in the championship game.  He reached down to pickup the quarter when the tails side of the quarter caught his attention.  It was a North Carolina quarter.  For those of you in your College Writing 1 class that what I did right there is called Foreshadowing.
The big matchup was going to be between the young guns of Syracuse and the veteran leadership of the Seniors of Kansas.  Michael, Aaron and I got invited to watch this game at Stephanie Vercio's Grandma's house (Steph is now a Larson).  There were a few Kansas fans there.  I remember Tasha and Billy Heinrich and one their buddies was in the building.
I don't have to tell you what happened in the game cause you already know.  Gerry Mcnamara came out and went bonkers from the three point line.  He could not miss.  He hit six threes in that first half.  KU missed 18 free throws.  Going 12 for 30 in the championship game isn't a good thing.  KU cut it to 80-78.  Michael Lee had a wide open three that ended up being blocked.  My favorite KU team with my favorite basketball player of all time had lost in the championship game.
After the game Stephanie spilled a bunch of pancake batter on my Royals hat ruining it (an example of things never going my way when my team loses).  On the way home Michael told us about how he flipped the quarters in the elevator.  We did not look him in the eye for a long time.  When I got in my dorm room I had 9 messages on my answering machine.  Every single one of them was somebody from Minnesota making fun of Kansas losing.  All in all it was miserable.  After that it took about a week before Roy Williams decided to leave Kansas while at the same time ruining my life.  I was hopeful that he would stay.   Here is some videos that break down my pain.  I do like Roy telling Bonnie Bernstein that he doesn't really care about North Carolina.


hit me

This is my du

why we don't have kids yet

This kid is tight. My kid will be just like this.

You see what he did here

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

March 27

Final Four 03 KU vs Marquette

If I am not going to be able to watch a sporting event live on tv and I really want to see it there are certain steps that I go through.  It's almost impossible to get to watch the game without knowing the score but it is possible.  First off I have to go on cell phone silence.  That doesn't mean I don't look at the phone if it rings.  That's to easy. Any single vibration of your phone can mean a thousand things.  For example let's say I am at church during a Jayhawks basketball game.  If I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket I instantly think it is one of my buddies texting me to tell me that they knew KU would lose.  But what if it is a different buddy texting me telling me that KU is killing!  These thoughts will bother me until I look at my phone.  And the worst thing that can happen when you are recording a game is to find out the score before you watch it.  You might as well not even watch it if you know the score.  That's why you must go on airplane mode on your phone.  Three years ago I wen't to every single Chiefs home game except for one.  The one I missed was because I was at my grandma's funeral in California.  I didn't go on airplane mode.  Wouldn't you know one of my friends texted me in the middle of the funeral making fun of the Chiefs (You are a jerk Jason Odenthal).
In college we had a fool proof system for getting the game taped and watching it after Sabbath.  This is before DVR and Cable in every dorm room.  Back then only one man had the power...Ron Dodds.  We would leave a video tape in an unmarked envelope in his mailbox.  In the unmarked envelope there specific video taping instructions.  We would then get the video tape at 15 minutes after.....Actually we just gave a tape to Ron and asked him to record the KU game for us.  He would say sure.
Kansas played Marquette in the first game of the final four in 2003.  Marquette was led by a guy that was unknown named Dwayne Wade.  After this season he went on to make a fine little career for himself in the National Basketball Association.  To get into the final four Marquette destroyed Kentucky.  We knew that this game was huge.  But it was on Sabbath.  So after V2 Michael and I wen't to Ron's door. Ron opened the door and handed us the tape.  We didn't look him in the eye.  If you look into someone's eye who knows the score you will instantly know the score.  We ran up the flights of steps to our fifth floor penthouse.  Right as we were about to get into our room one of our buddies who was a casual Jayhawks fan saw us.  We saw him first so we tried to dive into our room before locking eyes and finding out if we won.  Right before we closed the door and got out of harm's way we heard the phrase "How about them Jayhawks".  We knew we won.  Another attempt to watch a taped game without knowing the score failing.  That is why whenever I don't want to know the score I lock myself in the cellar and turn off my phone.  Tomorrow I break down Syracuse and the Quarter story.  I looked all over the intertubes and couldn't find any video of this game.  So instead here is some D Wade College vids.  We beat this team

dope

This is also how WallaceDaDawgie be doin

This is how I train WallaceDaDawgie

Monday, March 26, 2012

March 26

Final Four Stories

In my life I have seen KU play in five Final Four games.  Each game has had it's own flavor and story.  This week is Final Four week in the Young household so by the end of the week hopefully you will be prepared for what is going to happen on Saturday night.

The first Final Four game that I ever witnessed KU play in was my Senior Year of high school.  This team had it all.  The year previous KU had lost to a tough Bill Self Illinois squad.  Kirk Hinrich was a sophomore that year and I remember thinking that he was being pushed around.  I was tired of Roy's teams always getting beaten up. They played fast but I didn't think that they played very tough.  That next season I thought we had too much talent to be pushed around.  This KU team had six players that would end up playing in the NBA.  Trouble is we ran into a team in Maryland that had four players that would go on and play in the NBA.  The only good part of the game was the beginning.  After that Maryland moved the lead up to 20.  KU cut it to four but it was too little too late.  This was Drew Gooden and Jeff Boschee's final game as Jayhawks.  People forget that we had Wayne Simien on that squad.  He was injured and could not play.  What if?

None of this is important.  What is important is where I watched these games right!?  The first weekend of the tournament was watched in New York City.  I was on a mission trip with Mikeydise.  This is the week I found out that I was Lactose Intolerant.  We had alot of pizza that week in New York.  I want to apologize to Bo, Alyssa, and Teresa Seltman, Miriam, Samantha, and Jo Paradise.  We rode in a van for a long time on that trip.  And I now have to fess up that it was me in the van.  I'm sorry...pizza.  KU beat Holy Cross and Stanford.  Kirk Hinrich hurt his ankle against Holy Cross and then came back and played well against Stanford like it was nuthin.
The second weekend was watched at my home in Kansas City.  I remember beating Oregon on Sunday and feeling awesome.  That Oregon team had Luke Ridnour on it.  At this time I would like to put a clip up of Luke to show you how nasty he was.  But they don't have one on Youtube so instead here is a clip of my favorite basketball player of all time Kirk Hinrich bawlin out in high school.


The Final Four was watched at my girlfriend's house with her family and my sister.  Before the game my girlfriend's mom made egg rolls and we ate them and watched the game.  I remember being sad when the game was over.  But there wasn't devastation.  It was a good time that evening.  Juan Dixon could not be stopped and we lost.  Here is the only good part of that game.



Also here is this just cause.

This mug dropped today

It's mah boy Tyler's birthday today

This was last night.




True.

Read this mug

Bill has Ol Roy's Number

Sunday, March 25, 2012

March 25

Leggo

Bullets

  • When Izaby Da Baby came down into the cave to watch the game he screamed out "Let's go UNC!"  The cave erupted in dismay and Michael quickly gave Isaiah a spanking.  Ok he didn't give him a spanking but he did say that we were rooting for Kansas.  Izaby da Baby was cool with that.


  • KU has made it to the Final Four.  I am thrilled.  


  • I have talked many times about what makes a successful season in college basketball.  It is really all based on expectations.  I guess you could say that about anything in life.  


  • Norfolk State had the best season in it's history and it didn't even get to the second weekend.


  • Syracuse had a disappointing season and they made it to the elite eight.  It was disappointing because their potential was sky high.


  • That being said the last two years have been very disappointing for me as a Jayhawks fan. 


  • If you are 1 seed and you don't make it to the Final Four you are allowed to be sad.  


  • Far too much weight is put on the NCAA tournament in judging if you had a successful season or not.  Since Bill Self has been at Kansas he has had an amazing run.  But too many times all that people will remember is the last game. 


  • This season is a success and I will remember it forever.  What happens next is just gravy.  If KU wins the National Championship it will be like the two previous seasons when the best teams did not win.  They just got on a run at the right time.  And please don't tell me UCONN was the best team last year and Duke wasn't tight the year before that.


  • What I will say is that this is Bill Self's worst team players wise that he has had at Kansas.  Go ahead and look at the rosters from the team's he has had since he has been at KU.  That is what makes this year that much more special.  North Carolina had six McDonalds All Americans.  Kansas doesn't have any.


  • The years that always stand out for me in my mind when thinking of my time being a Jayhawks fan are 02, 03, 08, and now 12.  Four final fours in 10 years isn't to bad if you ask me.  


  • Also read this about Bill Self
  • fly you fools

    Hold up. These are my homeys from High school. I think every single basketball game I ever played in High School and College there was a Mott on my team.

    This is the sandwich named after Tebow at the Carnegie Deli. It costs $22. I love sandwiches.

    snap

    March 24

    Today

















    This week