This Is NOT The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

Continuing from yesterday's list of events, on to topic #2: Another devastating end to a Jayhawk basketball season.

Actually, the end wasn't so bad, depending on where you start. KU shared the regular season conference title with Texas who was the consensus favorite to win the league from Day One. They won the Big XII Conference Tournament by impressively beating the Longhorns, a team who had humiliated the young Jayhawks just weeks before. Momentum and optimism were clearly on the Jayhawks' side.

Then came the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Kansas actually received a decent seed (#4) in what some viewed as the easiest bracket. Memphis received the #1 seed, but as a young, upstart team in a weak conference there was reason to doubt the validity of their seeding. The same could be said for UCLA, recipient of the #2 seed. The Pac-10 was nothing spectacular this year and they weren't flooding peoples' sleeper lists.

Kansas' first round matchup was against Bradley, a mid-major team who had a decent season but didn't strike fear into the hearts of men. It was thought that if KU got past Bradley (and few people doubted they would) the real test would be a potential second round game against Pittsburgh. Pitt was similar to Kansas in that they played tough and had a throttling defense.

But Kansas didn't come through on their end of the bargain. They played like freshman and sophomores (which they were) and tensed up at the most inopportune time. Bradley, having nothing to lose, played like they were capable of playing and took advantage of KU's shellshocked approach. Kansas, for the second year in a row, fell in the opening round of the tournament to a much lower seed.

While the hurt is similar, the circumstances were different. Last year, we had a senior-led team that, though at times had underachieved, had a good opportunity to make some noise in the tournament. But they turned the button to "On" a little too late and found themselves as the recipients of one of the worst upsets in KU history. This year's team, on the other hand, made people wonder if they would even qualify for the tournament after starting out so poorly. But, through good coaching, maturation and hard work, the team gelled toward the end of the season and looked primed to be a sleeper in the tourney. Some national analysts even made them their dark horse pick to make the Final Four.

One thing this year's team has that the previous team didn't, though, is time. Most likely, all key members of the team will be back next year. And while they ended last year on a particularly sour note, one of the attributes this team possesses and will rely on next year is its ability to rebound from a bad game.

Given the talent on this squad, that sounds like a good beginning.