FanNation

I can't really say anything more right now. I won't use the royal "we" that many fans use. But as a student (and a fan) at Kansas, I have to let this sink in before I write anything comprehensive--and comprehensible. I'm on a high right now... ;-)

...and that's without any alcohol or anything else for that matter... I have a bad cough this week, and watched from home.

So, expect a report/blog about the game, perhaps some pics from the celebration at the football stadium tomorrow afternoon, and a post-mortem on my bracket by the end of the week.

Like I said, I have to let this sink in... three days sounds about right.

Signing off, from Lawrence, Kansas.

Photos added Sun. Apr. 13:

Bad cough was an understatement. Apparently I caught the flu... and this was *without* going downtown for the wild celebrations into the wee hours. There's a parade going on downtown as I type this (Sun. Apr. 13), and there will be an awards ceremony at Allen Fieldhouse this evening, but out of respect for my fellow students and Lawrence citizens I'm resolving not to keep the flu bug circulating.

So, for those dozen or so people who didn't watch the title game between Kansas and Memphis, let me just say that you missed one of the best college basketball championship games EVER.

Why was it one of the best? Because of the comeback by Kansas in the last few minutes of regulation time... at various points in the second half I was quite pessimistic about Kansas' chances to pull the game out, and when Memphis was up by 9 late in the game, it was all I could do to keep watching. I was wearing my "lucky" KU shirt, etc., and even though I was watching from home (coughing etc.) I couldn't help cheering out loud as Kansas began to stage its comeback. Point by point, they whittled away, and I couldn't believe my eyes...

I had a similar reaction when watching the Jayhawks absolutely *dismantle* the Tar Heels in the semifinal on Saturday evening, leading 40-12 at one point in the first half! One of my friends called me, and we shared our common astonishment at what was taking place down in San Antonio. Of course, UNC came back strong at the end of the first half and during the second half, but the Jayhawks had "laid down a marker" (as the English football commentators put it) that would be hard for the 'Heels to match. They almost did, but ran out of steam at just the wrong time (or just the right time, for KU fans).

I included this interlude because one of the more heartwarming sights for Jayhawk Nation (hey, it seems every team has a "nation", so I'll go along for the ride) during the title game was UNC coach (and former KU coach) Roy Williams sitting in the stands, with a Jayhawk sticker clearly visible on his shirt. Considering the smack-down that his team had suffered two nights before, it was quite a statement of solidarity. Perhaps it laid the ill feelings that many if not most Jayhawks fans (I'm not among them) have held for Roy the past five years, since he left KU to coach at his alma mater.

So, back to the game. Need I mention the three-pointer by Mario Chalmers? The missed free throws that left the door open for that three? Really, it was still hard to watch, but more from the "dying of excitement" feeling than the "dying of heartbreak" feeling. I remained rooted to my sofa through the overtime, not really having it sink in. What had just happened?

Were the Jayhawks national champions? Did they really pull off the upset? Really, *two* upsets, of the "first" #1 seed (UNC) and the "second" #1 seed (Memphis)? Did they avenge (in my own view) my other alma mater (UCLA, the "third" #1 seed), which had lost in the other semifinal? Had they completed a storybook season, twenty years after the last national championship in 1988 (when I was a senior at UCLA, natch), going through similar regional sites (Nebraska and Detroit) to reach the Final Four? Wearing the blue "road" unis (in the Final Four, at least) that signified a lower seeding, and thus being regarded (by most) as the underdogs, just as happened in 1988?

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Rock Chalk.... Jayhawk.... KU!