Banner Talk

via Kansas Athletics

It still doesn’t feel real. KU played their worst half of basketball in the entire tournament in the National Championship game, and then clawed their way back for a comeback for the books, man. Man. Carolina had 20 more rebounds than us, and a 15-point lead at the break. How the hell did we win?!

None of it makes any sense. But it also makes so much sense. KU is the National Champion, delivering a banner right when the program needed it. It caps an absolutely unprecedented three-year period in Kansas basketball history, and this team earned every part of the accomplishment. Yes, some prezzies existed in our bracket, but KU kept swinging and making winning plays at exactly the right time over and over again. Bill Self took a team full of Kansas City AAU benchwarmers and coached them into a title. This team is legitimately unbelievable! I am struggling to find the words, which is a funny thing to say before blasting you with, like, 10,000 of them below, with footnotes to boot like I’m the Sports Guy in 2002.

Vibes, Streakers, are immaculate. We will be hanging a banner in the near future. The parade is Sunday. The Jayhawks are Champions. Let’s soak in it for the days, months, and years to come, because this is the coolest shit of all time. I am so proud of this team. They did it together, and no one can ever take that away from them and if anyone tries I will CRUSH them. I was in New Orleans for the entire week surrounding the Final Four, and these are my confessions.

A note for readers: this is a very long post that your email client will absolutely cut off, so I encourage you to read everything in a browser if you want. I’ve also tried to block individual players/big plays/moments with key words, so if you’re really wanting to read about one or two things you can ctrl+f this bad boy and find what you’re looking for. Hit the comments with your memories stories links thoughts memes CONTENT. ROCK CHALK!)

Remy // king of the vibes

We good? @gifhawk2

lol unbelievable.

Man, the Remy Narrative ¹ this year… what an absolute RIDE. At times, the whole saga felt like a mini culture war within the fanbase—the Remy stans, campaigning for his disruptive and exciting style, set against those who pleaded for Self to stay the course, to make the most out of the group that was consistently performing and consistently available. Am I crazy to suggest that… both sides won? That the Remy experience was both a cautionary tale AND one of the biggest success stories in program/player match history? And this is the exact way to use the portal, completely toppling the concept that we botched the first go-round²? That two ideas can be true at once, that our love is real/not fade away?

This run doesn’t happen without Remy, and there’s not any viable way to refute that. His freewheeling style broke the respective game’s prevailing rhythm and tempo like an elite striker coming on at the 60th minute and completely reshaping how everything looks and feels. Remy comes on and you’re like… is this the same game? I love him!

20/7/4³ against Creighton, he was the best player in the game. 23/7/3 against Providence, shooting over 50% in a Cooley/Self defensive war where no one was in rhythm and the winner had their scrape their way to the mid 60s to win. After playing 21 minutes and scoring 3 against Nova—that wasn’t his matchup—he shot 4/6 from three in a title game where everyone else in the game went 7/24.

I think the clip I’ll never get over⁴ is the one up top, featuring Remy’s step-and-splash with 2:39 to go in the game. An absolutely massive basket, with an execution that is as astonishing as it is hilarious.

Dave sets a great screen here—one that UNC know is coming, and Dave, playing the game of his life, absolutely trucks R.J. Davis—and Remy goes full on David Blaine. What’s the degree of difficulty on this shot, 11? He sees the switch, whirls forward for a microsecond, before stepping back on a closing-out Bacot (who is 6’10’’) and snapping the net. Can you hit it any purer than this?

Remy’s flat-ass beach basketball shot that goes in anyway will always have a place in my heart, but this is the kind of shot Remy came here to make—a completely illogical rabbit-out-of-the-hat that no one else on the team (which now seems to include 3-4 NBA players!) could do. The rotation on this basketball! Whew!!!!

Remy a legend forever, and an homage to him will be featured on my ensuing title-based tattoo. THANK YOU REMY I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 This whole team should be in the rafters.

Dave // speaking of rafters

Thinking about the redemption arc of Dave McCormack is making me cry. Though Dave has never been “bad” per se, a trusted Streak Talk source once mused that while Dave has been productive and good throughout his career at KU, he’s also made more bad plays than any KU player in history. If you were to trawl through KU Twitter on a given Tuesday night, you would find many fans exasperated with a frustrating Dave sequence: a bungled catch here, a move over the wrong shoulder there.

How he has reversed this is mind-boggling and beautiful. And to really crystallize this in amber, let’s do a sweet RANKING.

The biggest shot in KU history is Mario’s miracle. The second biggest shot in KU history is Dave’s final shot in the UNC game. The third biggest shot in KU history is Sherron’s steal-and-three, which put the comeback in range in ‘08. The fourth biggest shot in KU history is… Dave again?

It’s confounding, cool, and one of the reasons Jayhawk basketball still thrives so well in the imagination. The emotional continuum of the sport is potent enough and something like this is just overwhelming. It’s the story of a coach’s unwavering faith, even when it made for terrible looking basketball and the ensuing jokes. Dave is now an all-time KU legend that is going to live large in the pregame hype video for 50 years. Haters, to the left; this dude just put KU on his back for the natty, and found composure and grace during a chaotic final sequence.

Also, we need to talk about Dave avoiding that fourth foul. That would have been… a problem. The way Dave moved in that game is all-time. DAVE RAFTERS.

Christian // wore Neo glasses at the afterparty but he earned it

Jonathan Givony @DraftExpress

Christian Braun's defense on Caleb Love was the difference in Kansas winning the national championship. Some huge possessions showing length on pullups and using verticality at the rim to force difficult shots. Also brought toughness with 12 rebounds. Potential 1st round pick.

Christian Braun had a bad first half (who didn’t tho?) and really bounced back in the second like the first had never happened. I love my horrible son. While the idea of posting him up in the second half and stationing Dave above the lane wasn’t his idea by any means (getting to this later), CB2 absolutely bodied his man down there and contributed to the visible wear-and-tear being experienced by Bacot and Manek. (Bacot is an absolute monster. Good god! We won and he is still giving me nightmares).

Christian’s second half of defense (Love was 5/24 in the game not ideal) will League him, and he hit big shots when KU needed it most. Shout out to the TikTok trainer who gave him that Euro step, feels like a luxury to be able to bust that out in a final.

He wore tiny Bella Hadid/Neo sunglasses to the celebration party in the middle of the night paired with a white VLONE graphic tee. Rough, but he can do whatever he wants there.

Jalen // generated 0 email signups on his sponsored ST post but generated one (1) banner

Lisa Wilson @lisawilson3434

My favorite Tik Tok he’s done yet! #champtalk 🏆 #loveit 🔴🔵

I’m not going to go through every player in this post but giant shouts to Jalen Wilson. His shot wasn’t always falling and he missed four layups in the first half of the ship, but he constantly made winning plays, rebounded like an absolute psycho and basically couldn’t be taken off the floor. Seems like a lot is on the table for his junior season, assuming he goes through the process and comes back: there’s a world where the Jayhawks put the ball in his hands more often because he is a deft playmaker with a natural feel for where the ball is. I can’t remember the last time the Jayhawks have used a full-on point forward (Julian Wright?) but Jalen Wilson will definitely make them consider it!

When the team showed up at the Beach on Bourbon—KU fans Bourbon Street station for the weekend—he looked by far the coolest. I didn’t stay the whole time but we were at a solid 2/5 starters there. The entire third unit was still wearing their jerseys, just so you wouldn’t get it twisted.

Coach Self // an absolute masterpiece of coaching

via Kansas Athletics

Bill Self came up with a plan right when he needed to. He reversed Braun and McCormack’s action on offense, harnessing Braun as a post-up guy in a very favorable matchup, a move which gave UNC a ton of trouble. He could not have brought Remy in at a more perfect time, right when Remy had the most leverage to put the game in his hands completely. Absolutely every decision he made was “HI HATERS!” level—whereas the 2008 Championship involved some luck, the 2022 banner will be remembered as the game where we went out and took it. We were the best team in the tournament, and Bill Self got them there.

Christian Braun @Ballin25Braun

like I said.. that’s a lot of rings for a team that needs to get more athletic 🤣

Bill Self’s faith in Dave won them the title—full stop! It was worth everything he came before, and he might have been the only person alive who knew it would come down to this. Manek and Bacot, who did so much lifting for UNC, were cooked, and Dave peaked at the most important time, constantly battering both defenders with forceful post-ups and relentless action on the offensive glass. The cocktail Self created for the second half of basketball. His approach was ruthless, purposeful, clear. I mean:

Mike Vernon @M_Vernon

It sure looks like Bill says to himself “We’re gonna win the game” at the 11:01 mark of the 2nd half here down 3 First spotted on @JayhawkSlant boards. #KUbball

Was there any doubt? I mean, yes, there absolutely was. But personally, once we crawled back within 3 or 4, it reminded me of the feeling I got when Cain reached against Harvey in the 9th inning of Game 5. This is the sort of game this team was built to win, and some of the bad losses distracted us from that, putting knots in the narrative. But this is Bill Self’s finest coaching job, one that unquestionably cements his status as the best Kansas coach of all time. We needed a banner, and he went right out and got us one. It’s a remarkable story.

My buddy KS // an attempt to explain how KU fans behaved during the game

So, I attended the game with a good friend, KS, who had hosted us throughout the week in his hometown New Orleans. He sat with my seat crew for the final, where we behaved extremely psychotically—I had to actually go to the bathroom right before tip in order to take an emergency dose of anxiety medicine. Everyone switched seats at halftime. We were acting like we were possessed, which we absolutely were. KS was rooting for Kansas in support, but also had an outsider’s perspective I had to explore because I feel like it’s important for journalism.

Anyway, I asked KS to write some notes about his experience, where we were all visibly freaking out and displaying the full range of the human emotional spectrum.

KS writes:

I was ready to go full native and scorch earth any UNC fans in the area 

I was thrown off by the lack of shittalking of the other fan base. (a formative experience of my life was my friends and I posing as Utah Utes fan after they won the Sugar Bowl vs Alabama and screaming ROLL UTES ROLL at the sad, confused bama fans on Bourbon street – see the thing is, they’d hear ROLLLL and be ready for ROLLLL TIDE but then you hit them with the UTES and we’d almost get punched).

This could just be the ppl I’ve grown up with, but a large part of fandom that I’ve enjoyed is yelling in the face of other ppl. This somewhat seemed to be the case in the concourse too from UNC fans. Not sure if this is just a college basketball thing – a being in the 100 section and ppl not looking to wage war on their own class thing – the Dome being a neutral venue – no students really around us – anyway, it was unexpected. Football, Soccer, hockey, even NBA there’s always some kind of jawing between fans. I don’t think I heard a single instance entering/exiting the building, in the bathroom/beer line, etc.

I had to read the part about Halftime through my fingers, lol.

Halftime

Mostly seemed to be a silent inward retreat. Definite loss of hope at halftime. A lot of wan faces and glazed eyes. Many ppl who were barely hanging on – everyone looked deeply unhealthy. Shells of themselves. Suppressed rage. Why did I spend all this money to be here? Why do I care about this sport this much? Will I ever be happy again? Pretty sure my semi-perfunctory “y’all got this. Hit a 3, hit another 3, boom 9 point game” teetered between encouraging & annoying to the ppl I was with. Most of all it was probably just helpful for me to be talking at all so that Kansas ppl had to shift into being gracious rather than wallowing further.

Corban’s dad did exactly what I’d expect any self-respecting dad to do when their team is down 15 at half. Silently left his seat to go take a walk. Came back 15 mins later right before tip with $5 bottles of water for Corban and all of his boys.

Feels like a dream…..

Players who stood out aka hard-hitting basketball analysis:

Obviously that step back 3 from Remy. What an immaculate name. Fun watching him dance around the court.

Manek on UNC – dominated for a good 10 mins in the first half. Got real quiet in the 2nd.

Bacot was a force.

Agbaji seemed to spend a lot of his time dribbling in swift side-to-side arcs, with occasional cuts to the basket. Seemed quicker, stronger than others on the court – felt like he had to work really hard for his points. Bailed out that those free throw misses didn’t haunt him.

Game seemed to hinge on McCormack hitting those shots in the post in the last minute. I’m not sure how great you’d feel about that in hindsight as a KU fan, but it worked!

Moment I really felt Kansas would win: Remy corner three, me looking down at my phone to text my wife to check on our sleeping toddler, and then looking up for a Kansas And1 immediately out of nowhere.

Also basketball is so weird. Next thing you know there are 3 minutes left and every possession is the game. Felt like it jumped from 8 mins to 3 mins in a heartbeat. And UNC could have won that game!!

And lastly, his very sweet and I hope for the sake of KU fans accurate synopsis of the post-ship vibe:

Post-game

So earnestly emotional. I didn’t really see psychotic ecstasy. More heartfelt hugs. Some tears. It wasn’t the crazed euphoria that I remember from the Saints winning the super bowl. Again, this could just be the age of the ppl I was around (100 level bias). It wasn’t exactly subdued, but it felt like ppl had really gone through some shit at halftime and were just spent at the end of it all

I am absolutely sobbing at this point!

So, I have reached the email length limit. We should probably Part 2 this at a later date. But in the mean time……

Special thanks // Congratulations

Special thanks to dad, Mooker, the Dog Pound, Chris, Chuck, the Concourse Boys, to the biggest moe. fan in Berlin Dave, the artist known solely as KS, to Joe “there’s no window in my hotel room” DeLissio + Amy, to Tony Swift, Rich Morgan’s son and Oumuamua, Devon, D Tuck, Teef and Cuz, Swade, Church gc especially ChuckD, the Monday night jetset gang (you are all cowards but I still love you), to the staff at the St Vincent who are the hottest people alive, to Regine Chassagne’s choreographer, I’m definitely forgetting people but I can edit this post / deny any omission, accidental or intentional.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk. We’ve got a new streak to celebrate.

1. I will hit on all the players eventually but these are just the thoughts for today/this week, as this game will linger in my short term memory for an extended period

2. Reading back through a lot of old posts, I have to laugh about how flimsy some of the critiques seemed while also not feeling all that wrong? I think we all knew this team could be good, but couldn’t string together six games of ball. They showed me!!!

3. you’re not supposed to start sentences with numbers, and while I don’t think anyone cares besides me I had to caveat this because it absolutely bothers me to look at even though I think it’s thematically necessary

4. This is a lie I’m never getting over any of this