{"id":11717,"date":"2012-04-01T16:45:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T21:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=11717"},"modified":"2012-04-01T16:45:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T21:45:41","slug":"schuster-destiny-not-talent-will-prevail-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2012\/04\/01\/schuster-destiny-not-talent-will-prevail-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Schuster: Destiny, Not Talent, Will Prevail Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Blake Schuster<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question who\u2019s the better team in playing for the National Championship. \"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kentucky, hands down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m a coach and I have my pick of either team how do I not want Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Terrance Jones? It\u2019d be a damn shame if John Calipari didn\u2019t finally ascend to the top of the college basketball world. His\u00a0 \u2014arguably \u2014 best team ever doesn\u2019t have weak spots. From day one Kentucky was built for April 2nd<\/sup>, 2012 and every game before it was practice. The Wildcats have just about all that a team needs to earn them the title \u2014 but they don\u2019t have everything.<\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t faced the hardship, or the adversity, they don\u2019t have the chip on their shoulder and they definitely don\u2019t have the story.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t have the seven-foot center that was afraid to touch the ball last season, and who turned into one of the most dominant post players in the NCAA this year. They don\u2019t have the hometown kid who plays under the radar and yet every opponent leaves knowing his name. I haven\u2019t noticed a single starter on the Kentucky roster who has had to endure what Tyshawn Taylor went through on and off the court in the last four years. There is not one Kentucky player that understands what losing to VCU does to your stomach. They don\u2019t have anyone that played a part of five teams and earned every second of playing time that he had. And they most certainly don\u2019t have anyone playing for what Thomas Robinson plays for.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that this Kansas team will walk over Kentucky, and it\u2019s far from it. In fact, don\u2019t be surprised to see the Wildcats go up double digits multiple times over the course of Monday night.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But if we\u2019ve learned anything from John Blutarsky of the Delta house it\u2019s that nothing is over until Kansas decides it is. Was it over when Missouri went up by 19? Was it over when Robbie Hummel dropped 22 on Kansas in the first half of their third round match-up? Was it over when Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no \u2014 don\u2019t stop me, I\u2019m rolling \u2014 and it ain\u2019t over now!<\/p>\n

In the 1988 National Championship no one gave Kansas a chance against the heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners who had already defeated the Jayhawks twice that season. But it wasn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n

In 2008 when Kansas was down by nine with 2:12 left, and Memphis fans started celebrating, was it over? Go ask Mario Chalmers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something to be said about teams like the one Bill Self fields this year. They never know when it\u2019s over. They don\u2019t know how to admit it to themselves, and they surely don\u2019t know how to admit it to their opponents.<\/p>\n

Kentucky, Calipari, yeah they\u2019ve put together an incredible team. One that former Kansas coach Larry Brown said couldn\u2019t beat about 15 NBA teams, but when the going gets tough,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tough get going!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So don\u2019t anyone dare think that this Kansas team doesn\u2019t have a chance. Because faced with the choice of taking a team with talent, and a team of destiny, I\u2019ll take destiny every time.<\/p>\n

Kansas has all it needs for a storybook ending with the exception of the final chapter. Monday that chapter will be written, and with nothing to lose it\u2019ll be Kansas that wins.<\/p>\n

Sorry Cal, but sometimes it\u2019s not the players that make the difference, it\u2019s the stories behind them, and Kansas has too many tales of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Blake Schuster There\u2019s no question who\u2019s the better team in playing for the National Championship. Kentucky, hands down. If I\u2019m a coach and I have my pick of either team how do I not want Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Terrance Jones? It\u2019d be a damn shame if John Calipari didn\u2019t finally ascend to the top of the college basketball world. His\u00a0 \u2014arguably \u2014 best team ever doesn\u2019t have weak spots. From day one Kentucky was built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[316,267,657,318],"class_list":["post-11717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-self","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-march-madness","tag-thomas-robinson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/NCAA20Basketball20Logo11.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}