My dad passed away this morning. He was 94, dementia is an awful beast transforming kind and caring people into, in Dad's case, a difficult and demanding human all while requiring the kind of care you'd give a toddler.

Dad was not a baseball fan, not a sports fan. I'm kind of jealous as I think of all of the ups and downs of being a fan. But somehow I became a fan. And so in the summer of 72 dad took my 8 year old self to a Yankees game in the house that Ruth built. And in 73 he took me to several Mets games in an exciting year to be a Mets fan. And in 75, this man who was probably bored stiff took me to a Mets game and watched Joe Torre ground into 4 double plays. Illinois Bell wanted my dad back from ATT where he was an engineer and so we moved to Downers Grove. And this non sports fan took me to a Sox game and we saw an entertaining game in which a fan threw a lit M-80 out of the seats behind Bobby Bonds who was already wearing a batting helmet in the outfield because of the fans.

When I matriculated at KU I had the fortune of being in town for the Larry Brown years. April 4, 1988 I get a call from my dad saying Go KU. He told me he'd had a KU pin and was going to wear it to work that day. I'm sure if you'd ask him about that game a few months later he would have not known that it even happened.

Enter adulthood and now I took him to a game, first time for him in New Comiskey and the only memorable thing was watching a fire in the projects across the expressway. I think that was the last game he went to all the way back in 91.

He was a father who didn't really like baseball who cared enough to help develop my passion for the game. Just thought you'd like to know a little about my dad.

Christian Braun presser:
On the way out the door he was asked if he heard about Kansas beating undefeated Arizona

“No big deal. That was expected”

Svi started and scored 23

I'm back.

@Jayhawk_69 said in Kansas Jayhawks at UCF Knights Game Chat Sat. 1/3 1:00 CT:

Unfortunately this game gives us a lot of negative takeaways and only 1 positive.

The positive: Melvin Council is the real deal. He is a stud who can hit big shots, play defense, and get to the rim at will.

The negatives:

1. DP will not play a second half for us all year. It does not matter if he is "100%". It just isn't going to happen.

2. Our defense, it turns out, was a paper tiger.

3. We have no heart. This is the only explanation for us not getting any defensive rebounds. We have the size and athleticism to be great on the glass.

4. We have no toughness. Everytime we tied or took the lead we gave up an easy basket at the other end. In the last minute with a chance to win we allowed 100% 3 pt percentage, 100% shooting from the field, and gave up 2.67 points per possession.

5. Flory has not taken the step forward needed from him.

6. Tiller is not ready to be a big 12 starter.

I suppose, on the bright side, all these issues (minus number 1) are fixable, but as of now it looks like we are a bottom half of the Big 12 team.

Overreaction city, not based on our full season of work.

1. We still don't know. I wish if he was on a minutes restriction that they'd be allocated out a bit so we have him at the end of the game.

2. Our defense is really one of the better units in recent memory. Today 1st half was ugly but 2nd half was much better. Against a tall team we had 7 blocks

3. We have no heart. Really. How is that measured? I'd say we've showed a lot of heart this season in the way we've played against really good teams, even shorthanded without DP.

4. We have no toughness. One game we were down by 1 with 10 seconds left on the road against a well coached and 1 loss team. Come on man, again how are you measuring toughness? Since the championship, this is the toughest team we've had by far, we've all been saying it. Don't let a bad result (that we win if DP plays) cloud your judgment on this team. They're a fun team to watch and have given us thrills this season we haven't experienced since 22.

5. Flory has improved in many ways since his freshman year. More minutes sure, but he's been indispensible to this team.

6. I might agree on Tiller.

There was a lot of negativity on the board today. Disappointing loss for sure. End of the world? Not ready to go there.

KU wins, first sweep in the little apple since the year before I was born, 1963. They've won 17 of their last 18.

Never knew there was a Funny category on the Bucket. Here's a few. What are some of your favorites?

Roman guy walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says give me 5 beers.

Dyslexic guy walks into a bra.

Skeleton walks into a bar, says give me a beer and a mop.

When they installed artificial turf at KState football the cheerleaders realized they'd have to find a new field to graze in.

Nebraska stressing academics decided to put the letter N on their helmets for knowledge.

Drug dealers in Missouri not so smart. They didn't want to risk jail time so they sent one of their interns down to Mexico to get some coke they could sell. He came back with a couple of 12 packs of Pepsi saying it was cheaper.

I hate it when people use your and you're wrong. There so dumb.

@FarmerJayhawk

Yeah, even when he had an off game yesterday he got 17 points seemingly almost effortlessly.

The series was started Feb 11 1926 so we're on to the 2nd century of KU-OSU basketball!

@approxinfinity So you're saying Vitale has become a diaper dandy?

On the same trip we were treated to this sight. Mackinac Bridge tower.

I love clouds, well at least the interesting ones and this taken in northern Michigan looking south caught my eye the other day.

@rockchalkjayhawk Apparently they were doing the trump dance in the corner after the match. Pretty clear chip on their shoulder. Had Trump known anything about soccer he'd have kept his mouth shut because you don't give motivation to a favorite. It's like KU basketball giving Houston bulletin board material. WE could have had the chip on our shoulder because we were playing without Balogun.

And yet another juvenile mistake. Belgium has won 24 world cup matches and lost 11 and 18 draws. We've got a 12-8-21 record. The experience at a level like this is showing.

Junior high mistakes on defense cost us two goals. Belgium did have a nice finish on the 2nd goal but he ran right by our defender ignored goal side defensive principles and it cost us.

This taints anything the US accomplishes tonight. Irony is Balogun is a birthright citizen.

@approxinfinity So sorry for your loss. Prayers for your family.

@patoh3 Thanks for the fun stories and sorry for your loss. My dads best moment was about a year ago when he proposed to my mom, his wife of 67 years. It took a half hour to convince him that he was married. I told my mom you should have told him how much weddings cost these days, he would have dropped the idea right then!!

I was always told when you foul someone from behind it's a red card. That's why our guy got the red card.