By Kevin Haskin
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Musings at the mid-week:
-- Let’s see, Missouri should be ranked in the top five. Now, where to put Kansas? Right up there. Those teams are pretty even in the Big 12.
-- Read the line above again if you want, but it seemed like the logical approach for a voter involved in a national basketball poll this week.
-- Not so, however, for Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart or Boston College’s Steve Donahue, each of whom left the Jayhawks out of the coaches poll. Completely.
-- An oversight, apparently. Probably on the part of their respective sports information directors.
-- The moral? Do not ever place complete trust in any poll. Agendas exist, no matter who is being polled on what subject.
-- I’ve also forgotten all I learned in Stat I and Stat II calculating margin of error based on sample size.
-- Not sure any of my homework incorporated the omission of a clear-cut choice in college basketball’s top 10.
-- If you feel good about a 29th day in February, then consider that since 1950, KU won 20 percent of the NCAA Tournaments contested on leap years.
-- Those titles, in 1952, 1988 and 2008, represent the three NCAA championships the Jayhawks captured.
-- Wonder how much any pre-occupation with seeding plays into teams getting upset in the NCAA Tournament?
-- Gotta believe, to some extent, that KU’s televised reaction to its draw on Selection Sunday revealed a team that was disappointed or — can this be possible? — disinterested.
-- That said, KU coach Bill Self did not make a big deal over the seeding of Big 12 teams, while Kansas State’s Frank Martin did.
-- Odds on Syracuse claiming the NCAA crown shot to 14-1 (from 10-1) after Fab Melo was ruled out.
-- Curious timing. Just two days after the bracket was announced, Syracuse loses its strong inside force. The 7-footer was a key staple to its 2-3 zone.
-- All the analysts, and fans, showering so much love on Missouri might want to review the Tigers’ performances against K-State.
-- There is a blueprint there, and it could be the Tigers are susceptible to opponents that pound the glass and are allowed to play physical.
-- Then again, Mizzou may just be able to shoot its way out of any trouble and just happened to be uncommonly cold the two times it lost to the Wildcats.
-- Good to see some old Big 12 coaches at it here at tournament time.
-- Tad Boyle pushed Colorado through the rugged (yuk, yuk) Pac-12, Pat Knight will try to keep the meat necklace off Lamar, and Doc Sadler is ...
-- Well, Sadler will be alongside Mitch Holthus on Wednesday analyzing a first-round NIT game.
-- Happy to see the good Doctor gainfully employed so quickly after getting dumped by Nebraska.
-- Doc Osborne made that move, something Nebraska executes from time to time while managing to keep its losing hoops tradition intact.
-- Unlike its Big Ten finish, Nebraska would not have occupied the Big 12 cellar.
-- No way Sadler’s good friend, Billy Gillispie, could avoid that spot with Texas Tech.
-- Gillispie truly did beat a dead horse by regularly comparing his team to Seabiscuit.
-- Good thing Colorado left. K-State could not afford another inexplicable sweep to go with what Oklahoma administered.
-- Guess I shouldn’t leave out Larry Eustachy from the old Big 12 boys (will be boys) club, especially with him coaching Southern Miss against K-State on Thursday.
-- Topekan Mark Turgeon went 17-15 overall in his first season at Maryland, which placed eighth in the ACC at 6-10. The Terps missed out on the postseason for the second straight year.
-- A little late with this, and my thanks to Mark Janssen: Before this athletic year, the last time Kansas State posted winning conference records in football and men’s basketball was 1925-26.
-- By the numbers: 64 — truTV channel listing on Topeka’s version of Cox cable. Started watching and got hooked on all the great programming. ‘Lizard Lick Towing’ can convert any viewer.
