Bob’s Blog

Sorry for the lateness of the post because I’m sure thousands upon thousands of you have been checking all day to see when it would happen. It is a post on my blog, as if you didn’t know what "it" is. Well, it’s happening right now.

My travel to Miami, to cover the Orange Bowl and the festivities leading up to it, were uneventful. The flight out of Wichita was delayed almost 45 minutes. No biggie. I made it to Dallas and had an easy time of it to Miami, thanks to my iPod. Yes, I just fire that baby up and listen to music and the time goes by so fast. It also helped that I was seated next to babes on both flights today. I swear one of them almost talked to me, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Anyway, it’s 75 degrees and humid here. Sound familiar? Not if you’re in Kansas, which most of you are. Ha. I came straight to my room, where I am watching the potential demise of the New England Patriots’ unbeaten season. I just turned the game on before the Giants and Patriots exchanged touchdowns, leaving New York with a five-point lead. I’m zoned in now. Great, dramatic stuff.

There is no potential demise for the Wichita State basketball team, however. It’s demise is a done deal after tonight’s loss to Drake in which the Shockers made 9 of 24 free throws and 3 of 21 three-pointers. At least that’s what the box score I just found on ESPN.com said. Is that right? This is not a bad shooting team; it’s a horrible shooting team. I can’t take WSU to task in a Sunday morning column in the newspaper, but I’m going to take a bite out of their hides here.

Outside of J.T. Durley, who made 5 of 7 shots, nobody stepped up for the Shockers tonight. Matt Braeuer didn’t have a good game. Gal Mekel was awful. And P.J. Couisnard is not playing anywhere near the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year candidate we thought he was. Couisnard has been probably the most disappointing player in the Valley, in fact.

Sorry to interrupt the Shockers’ vent, but what is going on with Eli Manning? He’s playing out of his head.

Back to the Shockers. I expected them to beat Drake, even though the Bulldogs came to town with a 9-1 record. I wasn’t convinced about Drake and I’m still not convinced about Drake. I am convinced that Wichita State has one of the poorest-shooting teams in the country and I’m not sure how Gregg Marshall goes about fixing that. The Shockers made 9 free throws and missed 15. How is that even possible?

Illinois State visits Wichita on Tuesday and the Redbirds will be coming off a huge road win at Creighton. Then the Shockers go on the road for four of their next five conference games. WSU could be far out of it after this tough opening stretch. I didn’t expect Wichita State to contend for a Valley championship, but I did expect the Shockers to be in the upper division. That’s going to be tough.

Now, on to Kansas State basketball. It will be interesting to see how the Wildcats play at Xavier on Monday. It’s a big game for K-State because the Musketeers are a difficult opponent, especially at home. If the Wildcats can win, they’ll go into Big 12 Conference play with a ton of confidence and a dangerous array of weapons, fortified by the addition this week of Dominique Sutton. This is a highly intriguing basketball team.

Any of you been to Miami much? Any suggestions on what to do, especially on New Year’s Eve. It’s a little intimidating down here (he says after the ride from the airport to the hotel in Fort Lauderdale). Lots of tall buildings and water. It was dark, so I couldn’t really see much. The Miami airport is going through a major renovation, which made navigating my way from the gate to the baggage claim an ordeal. But I’m here now in my nice little room, although I reserved a king bed and they had only two doubles. Do I go back tomorrow and get my king? That’s kind of a snobby thing to do, but I’m seriously considering it. The guy at the front desk did give me a free breakfast buffet for botching the reservation.

The news conferences, during which the media has its only opportunity to talk to players and coaches, begin tomorrow here at the Hyatt. I’m going to write first about Kansas defensive lineman James McClinton. I’d like to do a column on the relationship between Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer and the greatest Hokie player ever, Michael Vick. I hope to get enough time with Beamer to ask him about that. I want to write about why the Orange Bowl is important. That could be a short column. Actually, it is important for Kansas, especially leading into the 2008 season. If the Jayhawks finish with consecutive losses in their final two games, critics will point out, and rightly so, that KU went through an 11-win season without a marquee win. I think any time you win on the road in the Big 12 _ outside of winning at Baylor _ it’s a marquee win.

I have the air conditioner running full blast in this room, by the way. It was hot when I opened the door.

Again, anyone with Miami New Year’s Eve ideas, please post here. I’m all ears. Probably not going to be crazy that night because there are morning practices the next day. But it would be nice to get out and see how South Florida celebrates New Year’s.

Speaking of that, everybody have a Happy New Year. And thanks for checking the blog. I’m 3 for 3 and having fun with this Saturday-Wednesday thing.

Wow, pretty good snowstorm out there. Enough to make it a big project just to dig out enough to get my car out of the garage. Enough to push back the start time of the Wichita State-UAB game to 8 p.m. Enough to make me wonder if my son’s flight to his mother’s house, back in Ohio, will happen tomorrow.

Anyway, as promised, I’m here with my Saturday Extra Points. That borrows a title from St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz, who does an online extra for that newspaper. So what? Sue me.

Speaking of WSU basketball, this is a really important game tonight. The Shockers built some momentum with their 20-point win over LSU on Wednesday night, but the momentum is shaky because of losses to Texas-Arlington and UMKC that preceded the LSU victory. I think the Shockers will walk a fine line all season because of their lack of guard depth, especially, and their trouble shooting from the perimeter. It can be a pretty good team, but I still look for an up-and-down season unless Coach Gregg Marshall can develop some guards, which isn’t going to be easy since there aren’t any to develop. But I do like the upside for forwards J.T. Durley, Mantas Griskenas and Aaron Ellis. It’s just that point guard Matt Braeuer is going to have to play a lot of minutes. And he’s not the biggest guy in the world; hopefully he won’t break down.

Kansas continues its unbeaten season and it doesn’t even seem like it matters. The Jayhawks just go about their business and remain the third-ranked team in the country. But KU hasn’t become a big national story because the Jayhawks don’t have any marquee wins, like the one Memphis got today by blistering Georgetown. I’m ready for KU to get into Big 12 play.

Saw a great movie a couple of weeks ago _  No Country for Old Men. It’s so good that I still think about it on a daily basis. It’s directed by the Coen Brothers, so it’s a quirky movie. But very well acted and directed. And very violent. I see it’s getting mentioned on a lot of pre-Oscar lists; it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this movie won for best picture. And Javier Bardem is a shoo-in to win for Best Supporting Actor.

Still love the new Eagles CD as it rises past three million in sales. The Eagles are talking about embarking on a two-year tour to support the new music sometime next year, probably late summer. Having seem them 17 times, I would hope to make it to at least two more concerts before the Eagles call it quits, if they ever do.

Exciting to see the beginnings of the new downtown arena, although all they’re doing is digging holes in the ground. Love the location and I’m thinking about opening a bar/restaurant somewhere close by. Thinking about it. That’s all. Have no real idea how to turn those thoughts into action, though. Perhaps some of you could help get me started?

Have been going to a lot of Christmas parties lately, including a really good one yesterday at O’Brien’s, near the Scotch and Sirloin. This was a Derby Men’s Club party _ whatever the Derby Men’s Club is. Saw a bunch of old friends. As a part of the new Extra Points venture, I’m going to name 10 people I’m glad I know or glad I’ve gotten to see on an athletic field over the years. So why not start with some of my Derby buddies who were at the party. Tough to limit it to 10, though. Here goes: Doug Baber, Ron Keller, Cy Wiggans, Kyle Dickehut, Kerry Tabler, Jim Noel, Boyd Ayer, Doc Cox, Frank Seitz, Les Depperschmidt. Sorry if I left you out. Don’t take it personally. Boy, I can see how challenging this is going to be.

I haven’t really checked in on a football bowl game yet. None have caught my interest. And I probably won’t really zone in until the Texas-Arizona State game in the Holiday Bowl, coming up Thursday night, I believe.

It’s a busy week. Randy and Jenny Smith are two of my closest friends and I’m also tight with their two boys, Matt and Brad. Matt is getting married Friday night and there’s a bachelor’s party Wednesday. Looking forward to both events. Then I leave for Miami (tough gig) on Saturday to cover the Orange Bowl. It’s been years since I’ve been to Miami. The last time was in the early 1980s, when I was being courted by Ron Fine, who then was a co-owner of the National Baseball Congress. He flew me to Miami for an interview and I accepted the job as general manager of the NBC. It lasted two weeks before I went crawling back to the powers-that-be at the Eagle, who were kind enough to give me back my job. I was a fish out of water at the NBC and didn’t really know what I was supposed to be doing. That was a long time ago.

OK, that’s all for now. More to come Wednesday. Remember, look for my Extra Points at Kansas.com every Wednesday and Saturday. I think I can do this.