Goodbye Roy; Respect Our Self

Time to let it go...all the bitterness towards Roy Williams many Kansas fans have felt since he left Kansas to go home to Carolina. Last night's game proved once and for all that Kansas basketball is better off without ol' Huckleberry. Sure, he gave Kansas 15 great years...no championships, but a lot of good basketball, a lot of "dadgumits" and a lot of tears.

I think this line from a story I read this morning sums it up best:

Roy Williams taught Kansas all about how to handle cruel, crushing disappointments.

Bill Self schooled the Jayhawks on how to dish out some pain of their own.

Kansas left its former coach in the dust Saturday night...

-- Eddie Pells, AP

Time to let Roy go home (after all, he left five years ago). Let's all give him a big group hug and wave goodbye. He's headed home today and the Jayhawks are staying in San Antonio to play in the title game Monday night.

I'll still keep that picture of me with Roy at the 2002 Final Four in Atlanta (one of those bitter disappointments -- how could you lose to Maryland with Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, and Drew Gooden on the same team?) on the bookshelf in the study with other memorabilia from Roy's days at KU, along with the "Oh Danny Boy" Sports Illustrated cover (from the 1988 Championship under Larry Brown) and the signed programs from the 70s (when Ted Owens was coach).

Roy is just another former Kansas coach in my book.

Bill Self is the KU coach now and he has earned the adoration of Kansas fans once reserved for Roy. Ever-humble Roy even admitted that he got outcoached last night. Self had his players better prepared, relaxed (for the first 15 minutes at least) and ready to go. He even did a better job of coaching down the stretch, calling timeouts when the Jayhawks looked rattled (something Roy always refused to do and didn't do in the first half last night).

I like our chances in the finals with Bill at the helm more than I ever did with Roy. I love all the talk about how KU might be too emotionally drained from last night's game to win on Monday night. Haven't the pundits paid attention to how Bill got his players ready to play Carolina? It wasn't by buying in to the emotion of KU fans who deperately wanted to beat Roy. It was by focusing on winning a basketball game. I'm confident he'll have them ready to play Monday night.

Bring on Memphis. May the best team win.

Rock Chalk!

Daren

Awareness Test

This awesome video was sent to me by my good friend Adam from San Diego. Don't worry, it's totally clean and guaranteed not to send you into an epileptic seizure. Can you pass the awareness test? I failed. Play it...then leave a comment letting me know how you did.

Bionic Collarbone

I had a follow-up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this past Friday and he took this X-ray of my new collarbone. This shot is a lot clearer than the one they gave me the day of the surgery. Pretty wild, eh? Looks like simple hardware you could buy at Home Depot but I'm sure it cost a lot more. OK, so I may not be the Six Million Dollar Man, but Dr. Loucks did tell me that the bone graft putty (Deminerilized Bone Matrix) alone cost $5,000 for one tube!

I thought it would be interesting to compare this X-ray to one taken before the surgery...

As you can see, the pieces of bone definitely line up better than before. Dr. Loucks says it won't ever be perfectly symmetrical, but the big bump on my right shoulder (caused by the broken bone sticking up) is gone. More importantly, it no longer moves around! What I had before surgery was a "fibrous non-union" that basically acted like a joint. I could actually make it move up and down...kind of cool for grossing people out, but not great for everyday functionality!

The best news from my follow-up appointment was that I could ditch the sling and start using my right arm again (oh yea, and taking showers!). It already feels better than it did several weeks after the initial break, but regaining full range of motion in my right shoulder is going to take some time -- and physical therapy (two times a week for six weeks).

I had my first PT session yesterday. Nick, my therapist, put me through some basic stretching exercises to start loosening up the muscles in my shoulder. Not too painful, but I get the sense it's going to get worse before it gets better. As they say...no pain, no gain.

Daren