KU Football Good for KU Basketball
One of my favorite KU basketball recruiting stories involves Russell Robinson. Robinson’s recruiting visit, oddly, didn’t take place during basketball season; he came during a football weekend. KU won, and students tossed the goalposts into Potter Lake, which is really just one big puddle on the Hill. Robinson, lost in the swirl of the crowd, loved it. He committed that weekend, and would go one to become a pillar of a title team. KU football did that.
Now, KU football is 5-0. It’s hard to believe. Despite an, uh, uneven performance at home against ISU—if the Nebraska AD was watching in an attempt to evaluate KU’s Leipold or ISU’s Matt Campbell, I am confident neither will be poached—they’re ranked 19 in the AP poll, one spot above KSU, which is hilarious.
The most shocking thing is that they’ve earned their spot. They play an exciting, uptempo brand of football1, and Jalon Daniels, a 19-year-old Junior QB, exploded out of the gate so quickly that Heisman chatter started. They’re undersized at many positions, but they don’t play like they know that. It’s really fun to watch. Oh, and this:
While I’ve resented, at times, the resource drain that the football team has represented over the past decade as we barreled through under-qualified or indifferent coaches, there’s no refuting the fact that college football resonates on a scale that basketball cannot access, even with a natty in hand.
Allen Fieldhouse is the temple of the sport, but it only holds 16000. Getting in and out of the barn can be a chore, and at times the atmosphere is a little stiff; boosters have sucked up the best seats, and students have gotten the short end of the stick. Even if you’re not camping throughout the week, a hoops game is a huge time commitment. Football is an easier ticket, and for a school that hasn’t been successful in a while, the gameday experience on the Hill punches above its weight. If the team is getting pounded, The Hawk is like, 50 feet away. It’s a good situation, and the Lawrence weather in October is often beautiful.
KU basketball has been wise to tap into the pageantry. Jalen Wilson is a constant presence at games, and is basically the program’s biggest cheerleader. The sense of community among our athletes is palpable—we’ve come a long way from fistfighting at Wescoe. We’re regularly lining up visits during football weekends, when the campus is at its best and the atmosphere is top. The same pile of resources and assets I’ve bemoaned in the recent past are now weapons for KU basketball, as the reach and emotion of winning football creates a kind of heaven on the plains.
Recently, my friend Ben Mathis-Lilly wrote a great book called The Hot Seat, which is about a single year of Michigan football on the surface. Though it touches on regional identity and the sociology of a Saturday football game, its main goal is to answer the question all diehard football fans ask themselves—Why are we like this? Ben observes that teams in the upper Midwest are supposed to be gritty and utilitarian, reflective of their fans and their regions. West coast teams are more carefree—dare I say liberal?—and experimental.
Our recent success, and I will absolutely include the tail end of the Mangino era because of the stylistic similarities, feels harder to peg. Both Leipold’s teams and Mangino’s required inventiveness, a maximization of what they had to work with. Playmakers are spread wide, and used to manipulate the defense, whether its through the read option or through the many gadget plays KU has executed perfectly. KU is quirky, plucky, and plays with a chip on its shoulder. This is definitely a sunny read on things, but hey, 5-0, that’s a pretty sweet deal.
KU is a vibe right now, and football is doing the lifting. The AD benefits, and some of that boon will pour over on basketball. Let’s enjoy the ride.
Most of the time.