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For What it’s Worth---on this February 22 -- And to think—there was a time that I loved snow. Like many, I spent way too much time yesterday digging out of Antarctica. Fortunately, I was able to enlist the help of my just turned 14 year old son. Perspective is a funny thing, I saw it as a bonding moment—ok, there was nothing momentary about it—but a little father and son time can never hurt. He, on the other hand, surely saw it as penance for something he’d done to his sister. Oh well, the driveway got cleared.
Tiebreakers---
With two games to play in the Missouri Valley Conference tiebreakers are being figured in advance of the conference tournament. Head to head records are the first criteria, with non-conference strength of schedule next. A lot of people would use something like records against the third place team as the second option, but last year, in an effort to create more attractive post-season resumes, the Valley wanted to put more weight on increasing the difficulty of schedules. It’s helped a little; the MVC is expected to be a two bid league for the second straight year, after three years in a row with just one team in the NCAA’s. By the way, should they need it, Wichita State’s strength of schedule would give them the number one seen in St. Louis over Creighton.
Turning for home---
Kansas and Kansas State head down the season’s stretch in a dead heat in the Big 12. Yes, KU’s two wins over the ‘Cats would give them the top seed at the conference tourney in Kansas City, but, in a tie at the end of the regular season, KU and K-State would be co-champions of the Big 12. The remaining schedule favors the Jayhawks who have three games with conference bottom feeders at home, with trips to Baylor and Iowa State. KSU hosts just two of those same bottom feeders, but plays three times on the road---at Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma State. Advantage Jayhawks.
What’s that grumbling?
Finding K-State on television this weekend won’t be easy. The game is on the Longhorn Network, which isn’t available on most cable systems---yet. Isn’t it amazing how expectant we’ve become about television? We just expect that we’ll be able to watch our teams whenever we want to. Generally, you can---but not this weekend.
Quarterback questions---
Nobody in the NFL has bigger quarterback questions than the Kansas City Chiefs. So, of course, when they have the first pick in the draft, it happens to be a year with no obvious winners at quarterback. I still think they’ll take a signal caller somewhere after the first round, but it begs the question---what will they do for next year? New coach Andy Reid claims that they haven’t decided what to do with Matt Cassell, but anyone who’s followed this team knows that he’s damaged goods. That leaves free agency or trade. The key people in that realm are Matt Flynn in Seattle, Alex Smith of the 49ers and Philadelphia’s Nick Fols. The problem is that none of those guys look like they will come easily. All three have been talked about glowingly by their current General Managers, who claim that they have no plans to separate with them. Translation: It’s going to take a huge package to pry one of these guys away. I wonder if the Chiefs can afford to do that, then again, I wonder if they can afford to not.