On Monday, the Kansas Jayhawks whooped the stripes off the Missouri Tigers to the tune of 103-86. But fans at the game may not have realized it because they were distracted by a live episode of Glee that broke out in the stands. The students involved with the Jayhawk Buddy System captivated the 16,300 fans at Phog Allen Fieldhouse with a surprise flash mob dance. The mission statement of the Buddy System is promoting “smart decision-making on the part of students.” And I’m sure they thought about that when they were getting wedgies after the game.

All kidding aside, it’s great when students show a combination of team pride and safety awareness at sporting events, but it’s even greater when I nitpick their performances. Hey Buddy System, the point of a flash mob – as overdone as they are now – is to pop up out of nowhere, like you did, and to sit back down like nothing ever happened. Way to pat yourselves on the back at the end. At least the team didn’t let the rest of us down.

Video after the jump…

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There haven’t been many more head-scratching hirings in college football than that of Gene Chizik, and it wasn’t just because of the name, which is just one letter short of resembling a horrible draw in “Scrabble.” Chizik’s hiring at Auburn over fellow candidate Turner Gill–now the head football coach at Kansas–drew cries of racism. Oh, I should probably mention that Turner Gill was black. And, as far as I know, still is.

Anyway, while Gill is struggggling in his first season at Kansas, Chizik’s Auburn Tigers just came out of the BCS Weekly Sausage Factory** with the No. 1 ranking, and naturally, Coach is pissed about it.

[Chizik] knows he can’t control what they talk about when they’re outside the athletic department walls: “I can only control how we proceed in this building. We just had a team meeting and we talked about being very grounded and understanding that every week is a another new week and another opportunity. It probably sounds to them the same old sad song every Sunday. But that’s what we do. Hopefully they’ll continue to prepare — I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t — like they have every other week.”

Hey, don’t take this as “I told you so,” because I never told anybody so, and if I had, I wouldn’t have remembered. Chizik went to a better program in a more competitive conference. Hell, Kansas won the Orange Bowl three years ago and half their student body doesn’t even know they have a team.

**The BCS is a college football postseason system. It does not produce sausage or any other meats or foodstuffs for human consumption.

Northern Iowa just knocked Kansas out of the NCAA tournament, a shocking upset that makes Ohio’s first-round win over Georgetown look like the smallest of potatoes. Even more amazing is that Kansas, after scoring the first two points of the game, did not have the lead at any point thereafter. Equally insane was the clinching, Reggie-Miller-esque three-pointer from UNI’s Ali Farokhmanesh (white guy, even), which he fired off while leading a fast break.

Whether you love this or hate this says a lot about your mindset on the state of college basketball. Kansas, who was one of the most lauded teams all season, have been replaced by the champions of the not-so-mighty Missouri Valley Conference. Kansas and its accomplishments from a rigorous Big XII season all seem for naught now. It’s somewhat ironic that Missouri is the “Show Me” State. Northern Iowa did just that. Read the rest of this entry »

This will be the only time that “must-see missed free throw” is ever used on this site, but here it is: Brady Morningstar (of the Lawrence Morningstars, of course) steps up to shoot a free throw for a technical foul against Texas yesterday. The ball pops straight up after slipping out of his hands, and Morningstar is forced to jump, grab the ball in midair, and shove it toward the hoop before his feet hit the floor. Of course, he missed. The only thing that could rival this uncoordinated mess is a Conan O’Brien sex tape. –The Dagger.

Mark Mangino is out at Kansas. The big fella resigned amidst allegations of player “abuse,” which is a bit of a joke to me. First we have guys sitting out of games with concussions, and now this? The worst thing that Mangino did was making a kid crawl on hot AstroTurf after missing a weigh-in. The moral of the story? Don’t coach teams where players miss weigh-ins.

Oregon is in the Rose Bowl to play Ohio State on New Year’s Day. Jeremiah Masoli might be the black Samoan Tim Tebow after the number that ESPN has been doing on this guy since he beat Southern Cal. Actually, as of now, he is the black Tim Tebow. Anyhoo, somebody already was bitching about this game because it involved teams that fell short of national title aspirations, to say nothing of the fact that the Rose Bowl is one of the biggest obstacles that proponents of a FCS playoff. It’s one game. You’re still getting Florida/Alabama-Texas…

Unless Ndmukong Suh has anything to say about it. Who? Suh, that defensive end from Nebraska that you probably haven’t heard of, helped vault the Huskers into the Big XII title game against Texas, and if he has his way, we could be seeing a Mountain West team play for the national championship. Which would doubly kick ass because Mack Brown would probably have a heart attack. Not that I want anyone to endure any sort of cardiac arrest. Except Mack Brown. His assistants could campaign for AP voters to find him a new heart. He seems to be good at doing that.

We’re about a week into the season for college hoops, we’ve already had a dramatic last-second win and, after last night, a scare for the consensus No. 1 team. Memphis took No. 1 Kansas the distance last night, just coming up short in a dramatic 57-55 loss. I mean, I guess it was dramatic. For November, anyway.

Memphis (1-1) closed within three on Doneal Mack’s 3-pointer with a minute left, then cut the lead to 56-55 on Elliot Williams’ long 3 with 17 seconds left. Sherron Collins hit 1 of 2 free throws at the other end to give Memphis a final chance, but Williams’ contested 3-pointer clanged off the back iron.

Williams thought the shot was in. The Jayhawks held their breath until it caromed away. –Y! Sports.

Kansas’ 21 turnovers kept Memphis in the game, and the close game keeps a left-for-dead team abandoned by John Calipari for Kentucky. First-year Memphis coach Josh Pastner can hope to see his team in the Top 25 next week. And then maybe eat a nice breakfast. Because that’s important. More NCAA Scores.