Jacob And The Miracles?

I have been debating about whether to write this article or not for quite a while.  I started strongly reconsidering it on Monday, after Kansas State beat the tar out of Kansas in the Octagon of Doom.  I’m humble enough to realize that what I write really doesn’t have any power to do anything at all.  But I can’t get the thought out of my head that by writing what I’m about to write, I’m gonna reverse-jinx it and it’s all going to come to pass, and I’m going to regret it.  But what the hell?  I’ve been thinking it long enough that it’s probably worse saying.

 

This Kansas State teams is eerily familiar to me.  Frighteningly familiar, to be honest.  The team they most resemble to me:  the 1988 National Champion Kansas Jayhawks.

 

The similarities are uncanny.  Let’s start from the very beginning:

 

Both started the year with a preseason All American (Danny Manning, Jake Pullen).

 

Both started the year in the top 10 (Kansas was #7, Kansas State, #3).

 

Both plummeted rapidly and found themselves outside the Top 25 before they knew it.

 

Through 20 games in 1987-1988, Kansas was 12-8.  Through 20 games this year, Kansas State was 13-7.

 

Both started conference play 1-4.

 

Both lost two players who were supposed to be impact contributors to the team.  The departures of Judge and Asprilla are fresh on everyone’s mind, but in 1988, Kansas lost two players who were AT LEAST as important as those two were, maybe more so.  Starting senior forward Archie Marshall was lost 11 games in to his second ACL tear, and starting junior center, Marvin Branch, was lost 14 games in to academic issues.  Marshall and Branch were the #4 and #5 leading scorers on the team at the time.  Branch was second on the team in rebounding, and Marshall was hitting 55% from behind the 3-point line.

 

As in 1988, Kansas and Kansas State have split their regular season series.

 

In the case of Kansas, after limping to a 12-8 start through 20 games, they actually began playing pretty inspired basketball.  For the rest of the season, KU lost only 3 games:  to Kansas State (eventual Elite Eight participant), Duke (who made the Final Four) an Oklahoma (who made the Finals of the NCAA tournament).  Then, they avenged ALL THREE of those in a row in their last three games of the Big Dance.  Meanwhile, Kansas State is now 4-2 since their 13-7 start.  The Colorado loss doesn’t fit the comparison, but the other loss was to Kansas (and they’ve actually already avenged that).  If I were betting right now, I’d bet they experience only one more loss before the conference tournament, so the model could still work.

 

As you can see, the similarities really are quite remarkable.  There’s no reason to believe the Wildcats can’t be similarly capable of a similar run through the rest of the year.

 

STOP!!! I know what you’re thinking.  “Oh yeah?  Well Danny Manning ain’t walking through those purple doors, Longball.”  OK, fair enough.  There was only one Danny, with his ability to work Miracles.  BUT IN A SENSE….isn’t Jacob Pullen kind of an overwhelmingly poverty-stricken man’s Danny Manning?  Think about it:

 

Has Jake received all sorts of conference and national accolades like Danny did?  CHECK!

 

Can Jake put a team on his back and carry them to victory against incredible odds, Like Danny?  CHECK! (anyone doubting might want to ask Bill Self)

 

Is Jake going to finish his career as his Alma Mater’s all-time leading scorer, like Danny did?  CHECK!

 

Do I really believe all of this is going to end up with a storybook ending for the Purple Nation?  No, not really.  Maybe if they wouldn’t have already put out a disk commemorating their historic victory over Kansas on Big Monday.  You can’t have two DVD-worthy events in one season, and they already blew their wad on the first disk. 

 

BUT MY POINT IS…neither I nor anyone else saw 1988 coming, either.  The Wildcats resurrecting their season to achieve greatness has seemed like a long shot for weeks now.  But history shows us that even long shots pull one out every now and then.