Little Miss Runner Pants

the big game is, as i'm sure you all know, tomorrow.

kansas vs. north carolina.. semi-final saturday.

an epic, larger than life game that will affect the fans of those two teams, especially on the kansas side, more so than your average loss or win.

a lot of you... most, probably, although its hard for me to believe... don't understand the big deal.

why all the hullabaloo?! its a game!! get over it!

well, that kind of talk gets you a bloody nose around here. so to help explain the connections between these two basketball schools i thought i'd share an excerpt from an article one RUNNING JAYHAWK passed along to me.

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OK, so let’s see if we can get all the connections straight. James Naismith invented basketball. We know that. He went to Kansas, where he coached Phog Allen, perhaps the most influential coach in college basketball history. OK.

Phog Allen coached Dean Smith at Kansas. Then Dean Smith won all those games and two national titles at North Carolina. Dean Smith coached Larry Brown at North Carolina. Then Larry Brown guided a team with Danny Manning and his backup singers to a national title for Kansas. Still with us?

Wilt Chamberlain played at Kansas, of course, and his most painful loss was in the 1957 championship game. To North Carolina. Dean Smith was ejected from one tournament game in his long career. That was against Kansas.

Bob Dole played at Kansas, and then he became a Kansas senator, and then he married Elizabeth Dole, and then she became a North Carolina senator.

And, of course, there’s the whole Roy Williams conundrum. Roy Williams was an assistant coach for Dean Smith at North Carolina, and then he went to replace Larry Brown at Kansas and then he reached four Final Fours, and then he went back to North Carolina (to replace his old Kansas assistant Matt Doherty) and then Williams won a national title, and now he’s coaching North Carolina (with his assistants, who all played at Kansas) against Kansas in the Final Four.

for the full article, read here.
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as you can see, these two schools are deeply linked. when roy announced in 2000 that he'd be with Kansas forever, only to turn around and leave 3 years later....

that blow can still be felt by many the jayhawk fan.

its been five years, yes, but the feelings are still pretty raw.

so tomorrow night, no matter who you root for...

be it Kansas, UNC, UT, Kentucky... Memphis, UCLA, K-State or even Mizzou....

do yourself a favor and get in on this game. its history in the making folks and is going to be something you'll wish you hadn't missed!

(and for you KU fans... this made me totally tear up. *sniff sniff*.)

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

beak 'em!