Nothing good can come of tonight’s game other than someone who usually spends his time on the far end of the bench using the time between 8:40 and 10:00 pm CST (approximate) to set a career high in various categories.

On the other hand, the vast gulf of talent and athleticism that separates the Univeristy of Kansas men’s basketball team from the Winston-Salem State men’s basketball team renders everything that happens on the court meaningless while the very existence of this game highlights the most unpleasant realities of 21st Century college basketball. What progress is made tonight is not in pursuit of a conference or national championship in 2007 but in pursuit of narrowing the gap in Athletic Department revenue between the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin.

If anyone wants the particulars as to Winston-Salem State’s easily purchased incompetence, check Ken Pomeroy’s wonderful content here and here.

Updated team and individual stats for the Jayhawks are after the jump.

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A few weeks back, Calipari said he wasn’t going anywhere. Now, the tune on the old Coaching Carousel changed and got a little louder as Calipari is said to be in a dangerous flirtation with NC State University according to Gregg Doyel.

Calipari, the Memphis coach, is in serious negotiations with North Carolina State about becoming its next coach, according to a source close to the Wolfpack.

Texas coach Rick Barnes should send a fruit basket to NC State, because by simply dropping his name out there, they got the folks that our beloved flesh eating death machine of Texas Athletics a little motivated, such that Barnes is now making 1.8 million a year, despite potentially losing Tucker and Aldridge.

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes is staying. But LaMarcus Aldridge, his star sophomore forward from Seagoville, is leaving.

According to two sources, Barnes will see his annual base salary jump from $1.3 million to $1.8 million with a $125,000 incentive for reaching the NCAA Tournament.

While Barnes will remain at Texas , he’ll be without Aldridge. The 6-11 forward averaged 15 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.97 blocks per game and has told teammates and the coaching staff that he’s headed for the NBA, according to three sources.

Zone busters. Spark plugs. Pit bulls.

I’m looking for the right words, help me.

The Kansas Jayhawks are rolling as the NCAA tourney looms, and it’s hard to do justice to their offensive tenacity and smash-mouth defensive mentality.

After the Jayhawks beat down the Texas Longhorns, making me look good for having called the win and predicting key stats, the whole state of Kansas started jumping up and down. Out in the prairie, ground hogs thought a minor earthquake was hitting the Midwest.

Nope, it was just the �Hawks and their fans, celebrating a pay-back smack-down. Everyone told them not to do it, including the Longhorn cheerleaders, but KU went on and defied the Lone Star curse. They messed with Texas, but the dirt didn’t stick. If anything, NBA lottery pick LaMarcus Aldridge (4 points, 5 rebounds, no blocks) is looking a little dusty now.

As the week progresses, I’ll post some thoughts on KU’s first-round match-up with the Bradley Braves. Bradley features a couple of NBA-caliber players, one of them a 7-footer. Needless to say, the services of the Jayhawk big men will be required once again.

For the moment, I’m simply thrilled with the tough, tough, in-your-face intensity I’m seeing from the Jayhawks. This team appears sold on Bill Self’s strategy, and as a result has a toughness that Roy Williams KU teams always seemed to lack. This concerted aggression is embodied by PG Russell Robinson, whose stat line in the Oklahoma State game included 7 steals, 7 assists, 7 stitches. No problem. Against the Longhorns, Robinson’s stat line resembled a Trophy assembly line: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals.

Gutsy.

UT evidently didn’t like what was written on their championship trophy on Sunday, so they called on the PhD hotshots at their sekrit embossing lab to make a quick replacement, and it was the replacement that got fans and such all excited.

So what did UT choose to place on its trophy? Check out the photo evidence below…

Curiouser and curiouser…Mizzou will probably call for an investigation.

I won’t take anything away from UT. Both defensively and offensively, they played great. If they play like that, they will be in the Final Four.

They just couldn’t miss and I think that demoralized us over time.

A brief rant: It’s time for Dick Vitale to retire. I used to enjoy his enthusiasm, but he’s become an absurd caricature of himself. ESPN should have higher standards for their in-game analysis. Seriously Dick? Talking about the square footage of Shaq’s house? What a slap in the face.

How much are they paying you to ignore the game? ESPN and its viewers ought to demand more.

UT beats anybody in the country tonight, and while 25 points is much much worse than I expected, the season’s not over and our Baby Jays are going to grow up.

Here’s my Saturday Night Special Guarantee: Brandon Rush will be a Jayhawk next year.

Here’s my Saturday Night Wish: Dick Vitale gives up the mic for color commentary. He just doesn’t add anything to the game for anyone. He doesn’t provide any special insight into what’s happening *on the floor. Indeed, he only masks his ignorance of the game by blabbering endlessly about every imaginable topic except that which he should be talking: what’s happening between the baskets.

I’m really not that down about this game. We hit Texas on a blistering night and we really had no chance. Bill will teach these guys a lot from the game and our boys have already shown that they can rebound.

They’ll wake up smiling tomorrow and they’ll rebound strongly.

Have a good night everybody!

�Basketball Shrink^TM is Ken Pomeroy’s little toy that allows you to click on a team’s name on one of his stat pages and see teams that are similar, according to the stats being viewed.� For example, the KU defense is most similar statistically to Florida.� To make a long story short, I rigged up an Excel file that does something similar, but using ALL of the stats listed on Pomeroy’s site, instead of just those from one page.� Also, if a team is particularly good or bad in a category, that category is given more weight.

“Why did you waste your time doing this?” you ask.

My original reason was that I wanted to look at the teams Texas had lost to, to see how similar they were to eachother and to Kansas, but that didn’t prove to be too fruitful.� Along the way, though, I ran across something interesting.� Take a look at the teams Texas is most similar to:

1. Kansas
2. Connecticut
3. Pittsburgh
4. LSU
5. North Carolina

Now look at Kansas:

1. Texas
2. Connecticut
3. LSU
4. Bradley� (not as ridiculous as it first seems - statistically they’re like “Kansas Jr.“)
5. Syracuse

Now, as soon as you WATCH the teams you can see they’re not that similar.� As mentioned earlier today, Texas plays a lot of zone (softies!), while Kansas plays (hard-nosed) man-to-man.� But the results are pretty similar.

Anyway, I just thought I’d offer up what I thought was an interesting little coincidence.� If this is any indication, tomorrow’s game should be a good one.� I guess I should throw up a prediction.� I think KU will hang close but fall in the end.

Kansas 67

Texas 72

Click here for Part One (Team Stats and Backcourts)
All stats are from conference games only.

stats glossary

Rush v. Tucker

One’s essentially a guard, the other’s essentially a forward. They’re both arguably the best players on their respective teams. If forced to make one overriding, potentially foolish prediction, I’d say that the player who makes this matchup of disparate types a mis-match will lead his team to victory.

Brandon Rush is a little more efficient from the field than PJ Tucker�

�but Rush takes a lot more jump shots even though less than a quarter of his field goal attempts are three-point shots. Tucker’s free throw rate is solid in conference play, but well below his season rate.

Brandon Rush is a good rebounder for his size. PJ Tucker is a good rebounder for anybody’s size. The degree to which both players have an advantage on the glass over a typical college small forward is masked to some degree by playing alongside two good rebounders at all times.

Tucker is a better passer and ball-handler than Rush. Both are good defensive players, though Tucker has quicker hands and plays the passing lanes better. Rush has become an effective on-the-ball defender, using good lateral movement to keep smaller players in front him and his long arms to challenge their jump shots. When guarding his man off-the-ball, Rush can still get caught ball-watching and be slow to react.

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