Arizona at Kansas

This was a surprise. The Lute-less and struggling Arizona Meerkats were supposed to get their asses kicked real bad at Allen Fieldhouse. That's what one who has watched the previous Arizona games would have thought.

But instead of that, we got a very close game that was decided late in overtime, where Kansas finally took over the game, following an airball by the high scoring Chase Budinger, an airball that unraveled the Wildcats.

With Collins out, and Brandon Rush slowly recovering from his injury, the Kansas Jayhawks did not look particularly impressive, even though deep and talented to a certain extend. They clearly did not look like a Final Four team today.

With the rich history and tradition at Kansas, is it too early to bring up the "U-word"? Has Bill Self underachieved given the talent he inherited and the boatloads of talent he brought in himself? Were two Elite 8s and two first round exits not signs of the U-word when there was talent for two Final Fours and two Sweet 16s?

Arizona looked a lot better than before, with Kirk Waters thrown into the fire, Nic Wise taking over the point for a big chunk of the game, and at times looking like a kitten running and bumping into things, Jordan "Lee" Hill continuing with the P-word (potential) but not delivering the R-word (results). Apparently ESPN's Ron Franklin decided to call Jordan Hill "Lee". But because he lulls people to sleep with his monotone, people probably didn't notice ;-)

Jamelle Horne is a talented and athletic player but he is clearly overmatched to play big-time power forwards. But apparently Kevin O'Neill does not mind throwing him into the fire. Despite the big bigs of Kansas, Mohammed Tangara and Fendi Onobun, along with touted 7-footer freshman Alex Jacobsen did not get any PT.

Kansas has a ridiculous six-man rotation upfront, they are so deep that perhaps they should experiment with Arthur-SlimShady at the 3-spot when Brandon Rush is not in the game. This was the first time I saw a full Kansas game, and I must admit that I was expecting more from the team, knowning that Rush was recovering and Collins was not playing. They still had a lot of burgers in their rotation! But obviously it's too early, and things, can and do usually improve over the season.