Kansas City Uncensored

Really looking forward to tomorrow’s slate of hoops especially number 3 Baylor versus number 5 Missouri in Waco.  Baylor is pissed after getting slapped in the face at Allen Fieldhouse and will be looking to avoid two straight losses after starting out 17-0.  The Bears are playing at home and need this game more than Missouri does.  Missouri is effectively playing with house money, because at the beginning of the year you mark this game down as a loss and it doesn’t diminish any chance of the big 12 title.

Just like any other team the rest of the way for Missouri they will be undersized, but to me, Baylor’s style of play I think plays well into the Tiger’s hand even though so many people are pointing out what a mismatch it is.  Of course Baylor will out rebound the Tigers right under the basket, but at Kansas, Baylor failed to hustle for long rebounds and allowed double digit offensive boards and that’s where I see Missouri outhustling Baylor.  There should be plenty of long rebounds if the Tigers do what they should and usually do, and put up a large amount of shots from behind the arc.  It will all come down to if those shots are falling on the road in an environment we don’t really know a whole lot about.  Not once have we ever heard of how loud it gets at Baylor or how passionate their student section is, because usually Baylor is irrelevant.  Missouri needs to come out firing and are very capable of getting out to a big lead early and forcing Baylor to slow the game down to get back in it.

I figure Quincy Acy will be on English when Steve Moore and Ricardo aren’t in the game at the same time and that will be a key matchup to watch.  Acy will have his way on the offensive end when English is on him, but I also think it’s vice versa as well.  If English can bring Acy out to the perimeter on defense it will help Missouri on the offensive glass.  That’s just the man to man matchup problems that Missouri can exploit.  Baylor’s 2-3 zone doesn’t hold up well against teams that have good ball movement and Missouri has shown they can move it around efficiently in Frank Haith’s system with the best of them.  The zone also leaves open shooters on the perimeter with quick releases great looks and who has a quicker release than Marcus Denmon and Michael Dixon.

Pierre Jackson has taken advantage of his speed against teams that can’t match, but when he faces teams with guards that can hit that same speed like Taylor at Kansas and Truck Bryant at WVU they tend to struggle.  Missouri is probably the fastest overall team in the nation with their small line up and have some of the quickest hands on the defensive side with Phil Pressey and Dixon picking pockets and will need to take advantage there and get Jackson to turn it over.  Kansas State forced 18 turnovers against the Bears and Missouri can cause a lot more havoc on an offense than the wildcats. 

Missouri needs to go up tempo and not get into a half court offensive battle with Baylor, if they do that they will lose.  The Tigers need to stick to the bread and butter, shoot about 30-35 3’s and hope to connect on half.  I see Missouri jumping out to a quick lead out of the gate and Baylor not responding well enough until too late and the Tigers hold on for an 81-75 victory.  Although if they are missing their deep ball, Baylor could run away, we’ll see tomorrow, but I have a feeling Tiger fans at bars across Missouri will be happy and over served by 3pm.

There is my one positive Missouri write up for the year.

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The only thing that could make this game any better tonight when undefeated Baylor comes into the Phog is if Dickie V wasn’t calling the damn game.  Vitale will do his best to ruin a great matchup with all his ooooooo are you serious and his dipsy dunksy a roo’s bullshit, but the matchup on the court is good enough to outweigh the negatives that Dick brings to the table.  I know that’s a little petty, but that’s the only negative I see about this game tonight.

We all know Baylor hasn’t lost all year and that everyone outside of Lawrence believes this is supposed to be a “down” year for the Jayhawks, but throw all that shit out the window when they come to Allen Fieldhouse.  A place where Baylor is 0-9, against a team that they are 2-16 against overall, but this year you can throw that shit out as well.  Baylor picked a hell of year to have their best team ever.  They are and should be the favorite to win the Big 12 this year.  If Baylor wins tonight you can pretty much lock that up in my mind.

Baylor is loaded with NBA talent and they are a freakishly long and athletic team that very much resembles Kansas teams of the last few years.  There are very few times when a team brings more talent into the Phog than what the Jayhawks have, but this is definitely one of those times.  Two, possibly three first round picks, the Bears want to make a statement against the team that has owned this conference.  As if the 106-65 drubbing of a bad Oklahoma St team wasn’t enough, now they are looking to have a coming out party on national television in the best venue in college basketball.

When I look at Baylor, I see balanced scoring, unselfishness and plenty of guys that can shoot.  The only player averaging over 30 minutes a game is Jones III, while all 5 Kansas starters are over the 30min mark.  I really didn’t think Scott Drew was a capable coach, but I think he just has enough good players to overcome his ineptitude in game planning.  Baylor plays a 2-3 zone a lot which is where HCBS will have to be effective in his one day of preparation, but I trust the man to have the guys fully prepared for a coach he is 8-1 against.  The best way to beat a zone is to hit your open shots behind the arc, which will probably be the biggest key to the game.  The Jayhawks ball movement will create the open opportunities, but we just need to capitalize on them to win.

I see Jones and Robinson both having big games and kind of cancelling each other out and the game will be decided by contributions from the role players.  I like Releford and Johnson’s ability to lock down on defense and limit the number of open looks behind the arc and have plenty of faith in Withey’s defensive abilities.  As long as the big man plays his game, blocks some shots and takes it to the rim when Robinson draws the double team, I like that matchup.

Jackson and Taylor’s matchup at the point should be a good one of really fast guards.  Taylor needs to avoid the dumbass, unnecessary drives into the middle where he just goes out of control and loses possession without a good look. 

As far as the starters go I like how Kansas matches up, but the Kansas bench play as been so inconsistent and that’s what worries me.  Baylor will be going 9 to 10 deep and Kansas really needs the best games yet out of Tehan, Young and Wesley.

Baylor has played a nice schedule, but no top 10 teams.  This will be Kansas’s 5^th matchup with a team ranked in the top 10.  While the Bears did go to Northwestern and beat them by 28, that’s the only time I’ve seen them put away a good opponent.  They beat SDSU by 10, BYU by 3, West Virginia in overtime by 2 and Mississippi St by 2 and have 3 of their last 6 victories decided by 2 points.  17-0 is what it is, but that many close games they are bound to trip up eventually and this is the best team they will have faced yet this year. 

Kansas is 4-0 in conference play and in those 4 games has won by an average of 18.25 points.  This will be the Jayhawks biggest hurdle in route to winning the 8^th straight conference title, but if they can and get to 5-0 and give Baylor a black eye, it would go a long way in accomplishing that.  Kansas has won 84 of the past 85 games at Allen Fieldhouse and that place is going to be as crazy as anyone has seen all year.

I’m looking forward to one of the best games all year and hopefully the Jayhawks come away with a win.  Going 79-76 Kansas, but I am not going near putting money on that.

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Tags: CJR, Kansas, NCAAB

Coming out of high school in 2008 Travis Releford was a big time name.  He played on Kansas City’s most prestigious AAU team Pump N Run and was the 10^th rated shooting guard in his class and ranked overall ahead of some of college basketball’s top players this year.  Also, to shed some perspective on being the 10^th overall shooting guard in that 2008 class, the nine guys ahead of him are somewhat impressive.

2008 SG ranks: 1. Jrue Holiday 2. Tyreke Evans 3. William Buford 4. Elliot Williams 5. Iman Shumpert 6. Willie Warren 7. Malcolm Lee 8. Sean Mosley 9. Mike Rosario.  7 of the 9 are in the NBA or D-League including 2 current stars and a ROY candidate in Shumpert.  To say it was a loaded class would be an understatement. 

Here are a few names ranked behind Releford overall: Kevin Jones, J’Covan Brown, Miles Plumlee and Khris Joseph to name a few.  Hell, Tyshawn Taylor was ten spots behind him at that position as the number 20 overall SG.  I bring this to your attention to realize that Releford hasn’t been over achieving these last few games, he has been finally living up to some potential. 

He was known in high school as a great shooter and someone that can create off the dribble that can be a real scoring threat.  The ’08-’09 season Releford saw 7 minutes a game and managed 2.7ppg and was a non-factor.  The next year he took a red shirt year, rarely done after playing a full season and being healthy, but was too much talent on the KU roster to waste a quality year of eligibility.  Releford patiently waited his turn when most people would have bolted.  I’ve never heard the guy complain about his role and he seems like a great team player, I say that assumingly since I’ve never met the guy, but you know he isn’t going to “Taylor” it up in the locker room.

Last year, his minutes increased a bit up to ten minutes a game, but he was more of just a reserve who gave us a nice defensive replacement and only managed 3.7ppg.  This year, everyone knew it was going to be a different story, but probably didn’t see this latest streak coming.  We knew we would need increased production from Releford to be successful and he has lived up to expectations in the last few weeks. 

This year he is starting and averaging 29 minutes a game and has emerged as a nice secondary scoring option to Thomas Robinson.  I’ve always been rather critical of Releford for his play, mostly because I know the potential is there and have never understood why he hasn’t flourished.  The beginning of the year he was passing up open shots and differing to everyone else to score.  These last 3 games it seems like he wants to score and isn’t passing up those shots and success has followed.  He is a career 54% FG shooter and a 37% 3 pt shooter, not a great percentage behind the arc, but I think confidence goes a long way in that and I’ve never seen him play as confident as he is right now.

After only two Big 12 games he is averaging 22 points, thanks to a 28 point output against Oklahoma last Saturday.  Perhaps a daunting non-conference schedule has him finely tuned and ready to go for Big 12 play.  As a Jayhawk fan, I fucking hope so.  The Jayhawks desperately need good guard play out of him in order to take home number 8.  He has always been a lockdown defender and now that his offensive game is coming along, Releford is turning into an all-conference caliber of player.  He still worries me from the line, shooting free throws worse than the big guys, but his overall production that he has given this team has got to be pretty satisfying considering his patient wait.

Now as much as I love him averaging 22 ppg in conference play, it is unrealistic to think he can keep that up, but I do expect his 10.1 ppg season average to finish around 15-17 ppg.  By getting that type of production out of Releford combined with his defensive prowess, Kansas is a team not to fuck with as soon as Head Coach Bill Self gets Taylor straightened out.  You can look at how his production and increased role in the offense has helped, in the loss to Davidson, Releford didn’t attempt a three pointer and didn’t score and they lost.  Against Oklahoma he attempted 5 hitting 3 of them in route to dropping that 28 and the Jayhawks cruised in the second half for a Big 12 road win.

I’m glad Travis is finally figuring it out and he is a huge piece of the puzzle that Self is trying to put together to keep the streak alive.  If Releford can keep this up and I have to admit I’m a little skeptical he can, then Kansas will win its 8^th Big 12 title in 8 years and if they don’t then at least he has emerged as a veteran leader for what will be a very young and very talented Jayhawk team next year.

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Tags: CJR, Kansas, NCAAB

Yea, I get it, Tebow won a playoff game against a beat up team that didn’t have its leading tackler, because Denver is so fucking high above sea level.  I think we’ve all been ear raped enough this week to know what happened, but that doesn’t mean shit for next season.  The Chiefs clearly know how to beat that team and the longer they keep Tebow at quarterback the better for everyone else in my opinion.  Now with the Chargers keeping underachieving Norv Tuner and the Raiders firing of Hue Jackson, you might as well pencil in the Chiefs right now as 2012 AFC West division champs.

How in the hell Marty goes 14-2 and gets fired and Turner continuously blows it with supposedly all this talent and keeps coming back is beyond me.  Personally, I think the farther removed you get from Marty, the worse the Chargers roster gets.  AJ Smith keeps letting backs like Darren Sproles and Michael Turner go and invests a high first round pick on Ryan Mathews, that right there shows you how much of a num nuts AJ Smith is.  As long as those two are still there and there quarterback is still suffering from a severe vaginal infection, I’m not worried about them.

Tebow.  That’s all that needs to be said.  Fuck Denver.  Even Brady is annoyed with all this publicity TebowChrist is getting.  Looking forward to the 24 point beat down that Brady is going to unleash on them.  Coach Crennel is going to game plan the shit out of Denver twice next year and they won’t be a problem.

The Raiders as always get the “What the Fuck Award,” for their most recent firing of first year head coach Hue Jackson.  A big thanks should go out to Reggie McKenzie for taking a team that was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the last rebuild and just shitting all over that and starting from square one.  Good luck Mr. McKenzie, you don’t have much room for error on those 2 picks you have in next year’s draft, but I’m sure you will be able to nail your first pick as GM in the 5^th round.

Now on to the Chiefs moving forward with their new man.  Yes, the Chiefs are dealing with a new head coach to, but this is hardly your typical handing over of the reigns.  The locker room already loves this guy and knows his style.  He knows what he has and what he needs to get better already so no need for that first year of getting to know his system.  With Eric Berry primed to come back for a huge year and Kendrick Lewis not having to do as much as he did this year, which by the way was a really encouraging year for him in my eyes, the Chiefs will have one of the strongest defensive units in the game.  Not only with what we already have, but guys will want to come play for Romeo so I’m holding out hope that we actually bring in some impact free agents.  I’m also in favor of taking Courtney Upshaw or D’onta Hightower and forming the best linebacking corps in the game.  You had to hire RAC, because you would have to be blind to not see how much progress this defensive unit has made in his two years. 

It appears are biggest area of concern is Matt Cassel.  With a healthy Moeaki and Charles coming back next year, this team can win the division with Cassel.  But to win more than that we need to find somebody else and at the top of that list for me would be Orton or Jason Campbell to come in and compete.  I think Orton made it very clear how bad Cassel is at panicking under pressure and not being able to read off of his primary receiver.  My best case scenario for the Chiefs quarterbacking issue outside of trading for a Peyton Manning if he is healthy, cut Cassel and bring in Campbell and Orton and let them duke it out.  Whatever the solution is, my blood pressure can’t take much more yelling at the television because Cassel didn’t turn his head and find the streaking receiver down the field wide open.  Watching Cassel definitely will not help me overcome my vulgar laden tirades I need to stop doing with a baby in the picture next season.

Either way we need an upgrade if we want to contend for a Superbowl next year and with this roster’s core of young talent getting better, I truly feel we are capable of being a dominant team with a couple nice moves.  We won’t be a team like we were under Vermeil when we went 13-3 by outscoring people and playing no defense, but defense wins championships, (although this year’s playoffs would dispute that.)  We don’t need a Joe Montana or Trent Green style quarterback to win, but we need someone who can go through his progressions and not lock on to his primary receiver and then flip out when someone runs his direction.  It’s not that hard to turn around and hand it off to JC.  If I’m a free agent quarterback looking to prove I can still play, I look at the Chiefs as the best possibility to succeed with the tools you have to work with in the backfield and a group of talented receivers.

Either way I’m fucking pumped as pumped can be for 2012.  I’m pumped for Kansas City all around, Royals about to dominate and now Romeo Crennel ready to take our defense to that scary level and win a championship so I can finally get my Lombardi trophy tattoo. 

For those of you who think I’m way too optimistic, you can go eat a dick.  Pissed off and no hope is no way to go through life.

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Tags: CJR, NFL

Some people are not jazzed about this title game, claiming that it will be boring and lack the entertaining long touchdown plays that everyone wants to see.  If this is you, then I want you to please at game time turn it to Glee or some other gay shit and then insert the remote into your rectum, because clearly you don’t enjoy football.  The first match was college football at the best it has ever been and I couldn’t be more excited to watch part 2.  You have to respect the physical nature that this game represents.  This game is what football is all about, big freaks of nature just pounding the shit out of each other until someone breaks.

This game could go a number of different ways.  LSU has been number 1 basically all season and Bama might be the only team in its same league.  So in my mind, we have the clear cut best two teams in the nation facing off for the National Championship.  Part way through the season I said that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a college defense as talented and physical as LSU ever, but then by the end of the season I found myself saying that Alabama’s might be just as good and if you were to rely on statistics alone it would say Alabama is even better.

Alabama is the number 1 overall defense statistically.  They are 1^st in points per game, passing yards allowed, rush yards allowed, obviously total yards allowed, but LSU is basically 2^nd in all those areas.  Also, Alabama is the second least penalized team in the country.  That means they are well coached and do not make mental mistakes.  That will come in handy tonight playing LSU who ranks first in turnover margin, mostly in thanks to the Honey Badger who takes what the fuck he wants, when he wants it. 

So it’s clear we have two well coached, physical, nasty defensive teams squaring off tonight and this game will come down to whoever wants it more and makes the least amount of mistakes against killer, attacking defenses.  Look at the first game, went into overtime and the final was 9-6.  Had Alabama not failed to convert on 4 field goal attempts the roles would be reversed with 1 and 2. 

In that game, Trent Richardson had 169 total yards, which was more than half of Bama’s offensive production.  Again I look for Alabama to lean heavily on Richardson and now a healthy Lacey to do most of their dirty work.  Aj McCarron is a sophomore, but had a decent season with being a “game manager” style quarterback.  He didn’t do too much flashy stuff but didn’t turn it over much at all and he spread the ball around.  In fact, he spread it around so much that after Maze the second leading receiver is Richardson and third is the tight end Brad Smelley.  The senior tight end could be an X factor tonight and I look for him to be heavily involved in the passing game.  LSU needs to get McCarron flushed out of the pocket where he is not a mobile threat.

On the other side of the ball offensively, I look for a lot of option, maybe a couple trick plays with Lee coming in for a couple snaps, but mostly just pounding the rock right at you up the middle with their stable of bruising backs.  It would be in their best interest to establish the run early so it opens up the passing game a bit to get a talented group of receivers in Randle, Beckham and Shepherd open down the field.  In LSU’s previous two games they fell behind early in to 10-0 and 14-0 holes to Georgia and Arkansas, but ended up tiring and being more physical than the other team in the end and cruising to easy second half victories.  They will not be able to overcome that if they put themselves down early tonight, because if Alabama gets up early, LSU will not be able to keep pounding the rock or they will run out of time.

Both of these teams are not very reliant on seniors, but that doesn’t mean that the first couple rounds of April’s draft won’t be littered with juniors from these teams or in a couple cases possibly sophomores.  The soph’s I would be referring to are LSU’s Honey Badger and defensive end Sam Montgomery.  Mathieu’s stock will never be higher than it would be after a victory tonight and Montgomery is one of those freaks that has an NFL ready body that can play in the trenches as a sophomore.  Montgomery for my money is the best DE prospect in college maybe outside Mercilus from Illinois. 

The junior class is just stacked with talent in Trent Richardson, Barret Jones and Hightower among others for Alabama and most notably Morris Claiborne for LSU, who is thought to be the first corner taken in the draft.  Talent is flush on both sides of the ball for both teams which makes this such a great matchup.

Although I will be cheering heavily for LSU tonight for financial reasons, I see Alabama winning the rematch in a great game that will see the Alabama kicker make up for the debacle he had in the first game and kick the game winner in the last minute of the game for a 16-14 win.  The win will also be the last straw for a plus 1 format when chaos breaks out the next few weeks debating who really can lay claim to the best team in the nation.

And because this is one of the best videos on the internet, I give you the Honey Badger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

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Tags: CJR, NCAAF

Let us just assume Seattle wins the coin flip and pick 11 and the Chiefs will pick 12, because nothing ever goes are way.  No big deal there, our needs and Seattle’s differ nicely.

11. Seattle Seahawks: Janoris Jenkins CB North Alabama.  If you’re not an astute follower of the game you may not know who this is.  Ever since I saw this guy play his freshman year at Florida, I saw that he is going to be a star in the NFL.  Now if the Chiefs somehow fuck up and let Carr get away, then I hope Seattle goes T-Rich so we can steal Jenkins.

12. Kansas City Chiefs: I’m good with a handful of different picks here.  We are assuming that the Chiefs do not do what would be in there best interest and trade up for RG3 and since they will not do that, then I don’t think there is a must pick here.  And if the draft fell this way and somehow Trent Richardson is still there, I’m sure there would be a hefty bounty if we wanted to trade out, or hell pick the guy and have the most dangerous backfield in football, if JC doesn’t give us that alone.  I’d much rather demand a king’s ransom and hope that somebody wants to make a Julio Jones type package deal that we saw Atlanta pull off.  Of the playoff teams wanting a RB, I’d think the Giants would be the team that might pull that, but would need a lot in return to move from 12 to mid to late twenties.

Jonathan Martin OT Stanford.  The anchor of one of the best lines in college football would be a nice piece, especially considering our woes in that department.  6’6 305 and is athletic and is known for a great work ethic.  Would take care of the Barry Richardson problem.

Lavonte David LB Nebraska.  Dude is a ball hawk, might be a little undersized but makes up for it with instincts, speed and athleticism. 

Courtney Upshaw LB Alabma.  Probably the complete opposite of David, but has a knack for getting to the quarterback.  Had 8.5 sacks this season and would be a great help to the run defense as well as another pass rusher. 

Jerel Worthy DT Michigan St.  Very solid defensive tackle on a top rush defense in college football.  Probably better suited for 4-3, but would be upgrade over current options at our most shallow position.

Me personally I would like to upgrade Jovan Belcher and make a sick group of linebackers that could be one of the strongest if not the strongest in the NFL.  I’m a big fan of taking a strength and making it even stronger.  Pair a tremendously good secondary with a scary group of linebackers and our defense can reach that scary level.

If I’m making the pick I’m going Courtney Upshaw, but there is no telling what the fuck Pioli will do.  I mean the guy drafted Tyson Jackson number 3 so I guess we can’t be too surprised about whoever comes off the board there.  My best guess is Pioli takes Jonathan Martin, so for this Mock draft we will go Martin.

13. Arizona Cardinals: Trent Richardson RB Alabama.  Probably lower than what Richardson will actually go, but I think the value of a first round back has been decreasing more and more.  I know they spent a recent 1^st rounder on Beanie Wells who has been solid, but he has been injury prone.  If not T-Rich I could see Quinton Coples.

14. Dallas Cowboys: Courtney Upshaw LB Alabama.  Cowboys will need to fill a void when Anthony Spencer leaves in FA and Upshaw would be a solid pick.  Wouldn’t be surprised if they picked his teammate either in Dre Kirkpatrick.

15. Philadelphia Eagles: Peter Konz C Wisconsin.  I do know the Eagles will not draft a db here, that I can be certain of.  They need offensive lineman and more than one, but Konz is the best interior lineman in my opinion and is a better prospect than your 4^th best tackle.

16. New York Jets: Alshon Jeffery WR South Carolina.  With Burress being a year older and Santonio apparently just quitting on the team leads me to believe he will be gone and the Jets will move on.  They might even be upgrading with Jeffery and who better for a big receiver to learn from then Plax.

17. Bengals via Oakland: Quinton Coples DT North Carolina.  Going with beef one way or the other.  I think they take Coples best available at this point and then get offensive line help with their next first round pick.

18. San Diego Chargers: Mike Adams OT Ohio State.  The Chargers claimed Jared Gaither out of necessity so you have to go offensive line help with this pick.  Although with Norv Turner and AJ Smith still there I wouldn’t be surprised if they go with a kicker.

19. Chicago Bears: Kendall Wright WR Baylor.  The Bears need to get Jay Cutler some deep threats and who better than the guy who went deep for RG3 all season.

20. Tennessee Titans: Dre Kirkpatrick DB Alabama.  Need someone opposite of Finnegan, best available player here needed to impact the defense.

Will project the rest when we figure out the order.

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Tags: CJR, NFL