Enga mellom fjella

The best team in North Carolina? Davidson!

The best team in North Carolina? Davidson!

KU 84, UNC 66.

The score 40-12 was the real story though. Kansas was focused and in the zone. They showed up, not to win; but, to crush Roy Williams and North Carolina.

Then they got tired, sloppy and let the Tar Heels back in the game. But. When the score was 40-12, the game was o v e r.

Memphis? If KU plays sloppy the Tigers will win. They are the best team in the country and Kansas will have to not make any mistakes to beat them.



Was the rout a surprise? Not totally. I'd been to KU games against Nebraska back in the day when KU fans despised the NU coach and felt that basketball season was time for revenge after embarrassing football losses. The fans would actually egg on the coach in hope he would get 2 technicals and be forced to leave the game. KU crushed NU in those days. A win was not enough.

I watched the game last night at Allen Field House. Not packed, there were only a few thousand. Thousands more were downtown. When they won? The honking cars, the yells, the dancing in the streets and the fireworks! I walked up the hill and could hear the noise from downtown. Red lights of tail lights, booms and color blooming across the sky, the roar of a crowd of thousands. 20,000 maybe?

I stayed till 2 am at Henry's and by then there were only a couple thousand out and about on Massachusetts Street.

The KU fans? Spoiled drunken brats. And that would be a mild assessment. They are not nice fans. Very disrespectful. And are more interested in THE PARTY than actually watching the game. Fans who put down the other team or mock do not elicit my admiration. It's very hurtful and it is amazing that so many here at KU are oblivious to hurting others and exhibit great joy in doing so.

Montana football fans, Buffalo Sabres hockey fans ... those are true-blue (or maroon and blue jeans) fans. Knowledgeable and loyal. The blond Johnson County brats up on Snob Hill could learn a lot from them. Blue collar fans are a breed above privileged ADD suburbanites seeking out the next rush, the next high, the next party.

I graduated form Kansas back in the day when it actually had a student body from 105 Kansas counties instead of 40% from just one. It has become Korporate University. It's brand name is more important than the actual student body. And that's one reason why the wealthy 'legacy' kids come here. Get an MBA and join Daddy's or Mommy's firm and get ready to play golf in the Summer and party in Cancun come Winter. They can even pretend to be 'liberal' for 4 years! Don't get me started ...

T shirt: "WHY PLAY WITH ROY WHEN WE CAN PLAY WITH OUR SELF" is one of the funnier and more respectful messages that I saw worn. Self is the coach at KU and Roy used to be ... get it now?

ME:

I feel on hold. I'm doing something every day but getting nowhere in my search for a place to live, for a means of travel. It could resolve itself in a very short time or stretch out till May. Every basketball tossed in the air, comes down some time some where. Patience.

Talked to my cousin Judith in California after the game last night. Some day I'll visit San Fran again. Called my BIL and left a message that I expect a call Monday night ... we watched Kansas/Syracuse together 5 years ago. He's an Orange fan.

Met a charming young lady from Grand Forks, North Dakota. She was Minnesota 'nice' . We talked about autism (her field), the movie "Fargo", the movie "My Life as a Dog", the unsettling stare of Utahns.

Gotta put in a poem, no?

To those who'd discount the farmer's woe

Dare come to Kansas, dig down toes
through wind blown soils finer than your city's lust
that blows across your t.v. screen.

What do you know of suffering?

The dairy farmer's love-spurned son
that cuts his wrists.
Death has won.
Wheat's daughter diving into the silo bin's embrace
found three days late, mouth spilling grain.

What pain
is indoor plumbing,
a one mile walk to school,
a bus that fumes as bad as you?
What anger's stoked
from central heat and playground drama queens?
What mean
streets ooze a rutted mud,
wires downed by ice that spark,
the dust of drought,
the calf birthed sideways, stuck,
what taboo breached by wearing red with blue?

Do you have a clue?

Next time you sip on milk that's tainted pink or
grab a loaf that fills the mouth as soft as flesh,
remember Kansas dust and heat and know
the farmer's woe.

© Kåre Enga 2008 [165.17] 2008-04-05

Saw Odessa last night at Henry's . This is from 2 years ago:



Kansas: 64º, partially sunny.

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