Don’t shop on Black Friday
With Thanksgiving weekend here, the holidays are officially upon us. KU football has a chance to become bowl eligible with a win over Baylor on Saturday and the basketball team hosts Furman. After those two events, things probably start to get busy for all of us until Santa arrives on Christmas Eve. There are Christmas parties to attend and host, deadlines before the end of the year, finals, and then you still have to find some time to do the Christmas shopping for family and friends* unless you’re fighting at the front lines for the War on Christmas. While this is all going on, we still have to find time to watch and support KU athletics.
*Hopefully you’re not one of those that does all the shopping online, there’s real value in getting out amongst the masses during the holidays.
That’s why I’m going to help everyone out with a planning guide to help you schedule your shopping and other commitments around the upcoming games. Fortunately, the schedule makers have done a lot of the heavy lifting for us already. The Jayhawks are sitting at 6-0 with pretty big wins over UNC, Duke, and Michigan State already. Do the Spartans still deserve to get mentioned in that sentence? Either way, the big ones are mostly taken care of and out of the way. Now is the time where we get to see how all of the pieces settle into the rotation and hope for a healthy wrap up to the non-con.
The guide will use a scale of 1-4 stars in terms of importance of scheduling holiday activities around. If a game is a 1*, that means you can follow on your phone and do whatever, like shopping or attend your neighbor’s party. A 4* game means you need to go ahead and start coming up with a way to work your activities around the game. Don’t worry, there aren’t many of those that we need to worry about. We’ll go from low to high in terms of importance.
1* games
Sunday, December 22 vs Brown- This game gets a 1 star rating because it should be a pretty easy one plus the students are on break. It’s also here because there’s a chance that it turns into a slog with Brown playing at a slow pace but shooting a lot of 3s. Early prediction is that KU wins but it’s much closer and uglier than any of us like. The stores will be busy but you still might be happier out finishing up your shopping than watching this one.
The bowls if KU loses to Baylor are all 1 star affairs unless the Jayhawks sneak in after teams turn down invitations. A slim chance of this happening depending on what happens with players opting out due to the draft or portal.
2* games
Saturday, November 30 vs Furman- Furman’s a decent team that’s off to a 7-0 start thanks to a solid offense and good defense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the tournament at the end of the year but this game has annihilation written all over it. Plus, we’ve got the football game at 11 am on Saturday and that’s more important than this one. Get a win there and I don’t care if the Hawks win ugly in the evening.
Saturday, December 14 vs NC State- While this game is somewhat intriguing on paper, it’s also in the middle of a Saturday afternoon two weeks before Christmas. Unless you’re way ahead of the game, this is about the best time to complete your Christmas shopping. The stores won’t be so crowded that you can’t walk down the aisles and there will be a strong feeling of Christmas in the air. You’ll get Wham’d but then once you finish shopping, you can stop by a local sports bar for a meal and enjoy the 1st half of the game content with the knowledge that you’re done with the madness for the season.
3* games
Sunday, December 8 @ Missouri- Missouri finally broke their losing streak that carried over from last season with a 77-62 win over Howard. Did you know their losing streak started on January 6 last year? From sources I’ve heard from, it started then in solidarity with their brethren that were also defeated on January 6 of 2021. Old habits die hard for the Tigers and you know they felt that defeat deep in their hearts. Since ending the streak they’ve beaten up on some really bad teams and have started to look worthy of a tournament team. I should put this as a 1 star game because KU shouldn’t even bother playing them but it will be fun to go to Columbia and run them out of the gym. Maybe we can bring back Thomas Robinson to sit on the bench or something.
Saturday, November 30 @ Baylor- KU football’s chance to salvage the season and knock another team down a peg to keep their hot streak going. There is a scenario where a win puts Baylor in the Big 12 Championship game but it would take a whole lot of specific things happening that are very unlikely to happen. Baylor’s sitting 5-3 in conference play with a 5 game win streak but they haven’t really been a juggernaut over that span. They beat bottom dweller Okie State by 10, TCU by 3, and Houston by 10 last week. Despite it being a road game, I feel good about this one.
4* games
Wednesday, December 4 @ Creighton- Creighton started off the year 4-0 with wins over some really bad teams and then have stumbled a bit with losses to Nebraska, San Diego State, and Texas A&M. Creighton’s going to shoot a lot of 3s and if those are going in, we’ll get a reall fun game out of it. It’s also a Wednesday evening in the first week of December so unless your kids have a music program you’re probably not too busy anyway.
December 14 to January 4- Keep some flexibility in your schedule because if the football team manages to win tomorrow and become bowl eligible, they’ll have earned your time for the bowl game. Again, yes it’s a bit disappointing that we’re even worried about making a bowl but things have clicked and I’m looking forward to watching the team play another game.