Citizen Brand

Sheer Madness

You have to love The Onion. Just click on the screen and enjoy a very funny bit.

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

Salute to the Kansas Jayhawks

All hail the champs!  Please allow Citizen Brand to take a moment to revel in my alma mater's success on the hardwoods this past weekend.

The Kansas Jayhawks won their third NCAA national championship in men's basketball with victories over North Carolina and Memphis.  It had been 20 years since my 'Hawks brought home the hardware and it was a sweet feeling indeed.  For those of you who may have been in a fog on Monday night - those of us who love being in the "Phog" will always remember where we were when "The Shot" swished through the net of San Antonio's Alamodome.

In 110 years of Jayhawk basketball, there has perhaps been no shot of greater importance or timing than the three pointer that guard Mario Chalmers made with 2.1 seconds left in the game.  It capped off a furious rally by the 'Hawks who found themselves nine points down with 2:12 on the clock.  They had led most of the evening until Memphis took control in the mid to late second half.  But this 2008 group of 'Hawks have demonstrated all year an ability to reach down and find whatever is needed to get the job done.

Mario hit the three forcing an overtime.  Memphis went into shock.  The Jayhawks scored the first six points of the extra stanza and the rest is history.  KU wins its third NCAA title tying it with Duke and leaving it just one title behind North Carolina.  It took Coach Bill Self just five seasons to win his first national championship at Kansas.  It won't be his last.  And it won't be his last at Kansas.  Despite a media frenzy building out of Stillwater, Oklahoma from T. Boone Pickens' PR machine, I do not believe Self will leave Kansas for his alma mater, Oklahoma State.  Kansas has a few rich alums too.  Expect this media driven story to end soon and OSU will have to find a new head coach elsewhere.

I am unabashed in my love for the University of Kansas.  It's a great university with a proud tradition of academic and athletic excellence.  The 2008 men's basketball team added a new chapter to this continuing story.  Their record of 37-3 is the most wins ever by a Jayhawk squad and they are national champions.  Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

Armageddon at Arrowhead

Sports and war analogies seem to go together, well like, the kickoff of a football game and a missile launch.  It's too easy, especially with football.  We have a little football game being played this holiday weekend here in Kansas City that has been dubbed "Armageddon at Arrowhead"  It is the Border Showdown which replaced the Border War after 9/11 happened and the squeamish among us felt "War" was a bit overstated.  That feeling seems to have passed with Armageddon having now entered our vernacular around these parts.

So what is this epochal game you ask?  It is pretty special actually.  The University of Kansas, my alma mater and that of my two boys, will take on our neighbor to the east - The University of Missouri.  There is a bit of history between the two schools; its alumni; and quite frankly, all the citizens of both states.  It goes all the way back to the Civil War.  Missouri entered the shaky Union as a slave state and Kansas entered as a free state.  Everyone has heard of the battles of Gettysburg or Antietam when studying American history, but not as many have heard about the horrible atrocities committed along the Kansas - Missouri border that in essence represented the opening salvos of the Civil War.  And there were atrocities committed on both sides.

The one that garners the most attention was the sacking and burning of Lawrence, Kansas by Missourian William Quantrill.  And since Lawrence is the home of the University of Kansas, you can see where the bad blood begins between the schools.  In a normal year, the meetings between KU and MU on the football field and in their respective basketball arenas are always bitter battles with bragging rights being proclaimed by the winning teams, schools and alums for the year.  2007 is slightly different.

This has been the year when the two football teams decided it was time to step up to the plate (wrong sport analogy) and make some noise.  After one of the most improbable and exciting college football seasons in recent memory, Kansas and Missouri stand at the pinnacle of the football universe ranked as two of the top three teams in the land and a date with each other in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium Saturday night.  Throw in a national television audience on ABC and a visit from ESPN's College Game Day and you have the makings of something special.  Armageddon?  Perhaps not.  But it will be one hell of a football game.

Which brings me back to sports and war analogies.  Even with all this talk of Armageddon at Arrowhead - what was Coach Nick Saban of Alabama thinking?

Oh by the way - ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK - GO KU!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

There is nothing more exhilarating or frustrating than being a true and faithful fan of your collegiate alma mater.  And in the interest of full and fair disclosure, I have to acknowledge here at Citizen Brand that my beloved Kansas Jayhawks have fallen to the dastardly Bruins of UCLA on this very evening during the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

I have used this space to applaud and celebrate the Jayhawks' successes these past few weeks.  I do believe that the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament - aka March Madness - is the single greatest sporting event in America.  And the University of Kansas has had more than its share of success over the years.  But now we are finished for 2007.  But not before this great, young team has been recognized here at CB for their accomplishments:

33 - 5 win/loss record

Big 12 Conference regular season championship

Big 12 Tournament championship

Number one seed in the NCAA Tournament

3 - 1 record in the NCAA Tournament ending in the round of the Elite Eight

All of this was accomplished without a senior on the team.  It is likely this entire team will return in 2007-2008 along with at least two of the best freshman recruits available.  And one of the finest coaches in the land will be back to lead them -- Bill Self.

  I cannot wait for basketball practice to start in October.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Final Four Fun with Colbert

Thanks to my friend and fellow Jayhawk Rob Merritt for sending this along today.  Even the Colbert Report is picking the 'Hawks to go all the way!

Jayhawks march on to Sweet 16

The Kansas Jayhawks are quickly becoming one of the big stories of the 2007 edition of March Madness.  After a 107-67 thrashing of Niagara on Friday night, the 'Hawks put their big game faces on today to defeat the winningest program in the history of college basketball, the Kentucky Wildcats.  Kansas is the third all time winning college program garnering their 1,905th victory today.

Kansas heads to San Jose to meet Southern Illinois out of the Missouri Valley Conference on Thursday evening in the round of 16.  UCLA and Pittsburgh play in the second game with the winners meeting on Saturday for the right to go to the Final Four in Atlanta.

Kansas has developed into a true team.  Egos are left in the locker room each game and these guys come onto the court with a single mission in mind.  It has been a true joy to watch this team develop over the past two seasons.  They are a great example of what a real team can accomplish - a great example for all of us regardless of the business in which we work.

The Jayhawks' business right now is winning basketball games and they are four victories away from college basketball's promised land.

Another week, another championship

     Have to keep the Rock Chalk karma going.  Another week and the Kansas Jayhawks win another championship.  In a thrilling 88-84 overtime victory over the same Texas Longhorns they defeated just eight days before, Kansas took its second consecutive Big XII Tournament championship.  They were the regular season champs as well.

Now March Madness begins and Kansas has earned itself a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.  I have been a Kansas Jayhawk since the moment I could say Rock Chalk and I have to say I have never seen a team play as tough and as hard nosed as this team does.  I'm anxious for the rest of the nation, especially those along the eastern seaboard, to see Kansas play.  I think this team will get some attention over the next three weeks.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Big XII Champs

A quick nod to my alma mater and the cradle of college basketball -- the Kansas Jayhawks are the undisputed Big XII Conference champs and did it in style knocking off Texas and college basketball's best player -- Kevin Durant.  Final score was 90 - 86 in arguably one of the best games ever played in historic Allen Fieldhouse.

It looks like a wide open NCAA Tournament this year and March Madness will truly live up to its billing as sports' greatest three weeks.  Kansas has had a tough road the past two tourneys getting knocked out in the first round in 2005 and 2006.  So the skeptics will be thick as thieves questioning the Jayhawks and their ability to go deep in the tourney this year.  The Texas game proved they can overcome a hot team with the best player by working hard and playing together.

Saturday's game marked Kansas' 1,900th all time basketball victory putting us just seven wins behind North Carolina and 40 plus behind Kentucky.  It was the Jayhawks 50th all time conference championship -- the most by any school in any conference in the nation.  Those two schools' greatest coaches - UK's Adolph Rupp and UNC's Dean Smith - both played at Kansas under the legendary Phog Allen.  Phog Allen played for James Naismith, the guy who invented basketball.  They hate being reminded of that.

So Jayhawk Nation, it's that time of year.  We are a nine game run away from cutting down some more nets and hoisting some more trophies.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk!