Fan Fanatic – Big 12 Basketball…

My name is Kari…and I am a Fan Fanatic….Big 12 Basketball is getting into full swing….

Yep, guys and gals, boys and girls….it is tourney time and of course the team I call “My Team”….AKA, the Kansas Jayhawks will be playing today at 3:00 pm.

When living in KC…we had Season Tickets and went to every home game in Lawrence.  When BIG 12 tournament time came ,we went to the Sprint Center (Kemper Arena before that) to watch the Big 12 teams and of course to watch the Jayhawks play.

Living in Florida, we have to live vicariously through the TV and our grandchildren’s visits to the basketball games. (we text off and on during the game)

I love College Basketball!

This is exciting! As many of you know, I am a BIG sports Fan….with College Basketball taking center stage! The Captain said long ago that he had to learn to love March Madness as  much as I do…or he would become a March Widower! 😉  And he gets just as excited as I do when watching the Big 12 tourney leading up to the Big Dance AKA…. NCAA Championship. 

Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com :  “The 2013-14 campaign for the Big 12 orchestrated a shift in the conference hierarchy. The Big Ten has been the king of regular-season college basketball for years. But the Big 12 can make that claim this season. The league will enter its tournament with seven teams positioned to earn at-large NCAA bids. That’s 70 percent of the conference.  No conference can match that depth. And if the hoopla in Kansas City, Mo., is anything like the movie we witnessed in a thrilling round of conference play, then we’ll need a lot of popcorn this week because anything could happen.”

 

Last night the tournament officially started…The Captain and I were glued to our big screen TV….we watched as the Oklahoma State Cowboys played the Texas Tech Red Raiders and started the tourney off with a bang by beating the Raiders by 18 points.  

The next game was between the Baylor Bears and Texas Christian University where the score was a little closer….Baylor easily won 76-68. Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star pointed out that it didn’t even look like Baylor was providing 100 percent effort on the floor and still winning with ease:

Today….is going to be a great day in College Basketball…the second round begins with Iowa State and Kansas State playing at 12:30 pm followed by the Kansas Jayhawks and Oklahoma State at 3:00 pm…. Oklahoma and Baylor at 7 pm and Texas and West Virginia at 9:30 pm

 

As I watch “my” Jayhawks play…I will be talking to them through the TV…I will be calling the plays from our sofa!  I will be scolding Wayne Seldon for missing a layup or yelling “way to go Mr.-A-Wiggins”….(my pet name for Andrew Wiggins), when he easily tosses a 3 point basket from mid court!  

I will miss JoJo (Joel Embiid) who is out with a back injury, but I will be cheering on Tarik Black and Perry Ellis as they step up!  I will be telling our  point guard Nadir Tharp to take charge of this team…keep them on track with the help of Frank Mason, our other point guard.

And last, but certainly not least…I will be admiring one of the winning-est coaches in College Basketball…Bill Self, who has for the last 11 seasons, coached the Kansas Jayhawks to Ten Big 12 Championships.  

The Kansas basketball program has made 42 appearances at the NCAA “Dance”…made 14 Final Fours and 3 NCAA Championships, the last being in 2008! (Quite an achievement)

Yes, I get pretty involved in the play by play…ask anyone who knows me…especially my family who have had to endure losses with me and the jubilation of winning with me.  So win or lose….I will stand by my team!  

Anything can happen on any given Sunday as the saying goes….and the Jayhawks are no exception…some days they  play like they can take on the world…other days they play tired or sluggish and when it is tourney time….a team has to give 100 percent all the time, playing tough games daily.

It can be grueling for any team and that is the excitement!   

So, as I stated at the beginning of this post….My name is Kari and I am a Fan Fanatic….

There I said it again!

Pass the popcorn!

I need to put on my Jayhawk blue shirt …It is tourney time!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk….KU!!! go Hawks!

Me 🙂