Joel Embiid has been one of the best basketball players on the planet for quite some time now. Recently, the LegionHoops account on twitter, and other social media accountstake a quote from Embiid’s 2018 entry from the Players’ Tribune about his journey, in which he tells a hilarious story about how a teammate in Kansas drowned him. A quick Google search will remind you that the 2013-2014 Jayhawks also feature Andrew Wiggins, as the two freshmen will become the #1 and #3 picks in the 2014 NBA Draft, however, team research. That ball will also remind you of how much talent was wasted that season.
Facts and statistics are the biggest enemies of nostalgia.
Embiid wrote: “In my first screenwriting session in Kansas, I was so overwhelmed by Tarik Black that I almost gave up. “Tarik lunged at me so hard that I was looking at my plane ticket home. This guy is already a final year student. He was a grown man. I don’t know what’s going on. He recovered himself and rushed past me so hard that everything slowed down.
“He actually threw the ball over my head. But I haven’t even told you the worst part yet. The worst part is that Kansas’ entire female hoops team is sitting in the stands watching the script. The whole gym is laughing at me. It was crazy. Seriously, it’s like a WORLD STAR situation.
“So then I went straight to Bill Self’s office and said, ‘I can’t do this. You have to wear red for me. I can’t play with these people.”
That Kansas team was loaded, like six players would go on to make the NBA. In addition to Embiid – who continues to compete for MVP – and Wiggins – who started in the NBA All-Star Game last season – the list also features a rarely used freshman named Frank Mason III. He will become national player of the year in his senior season. The Jayhawks started 5-0 that season and even took down Duke and Jabari Parker early on in a game that featured three freshmen who would compose the first three picks. in the upcoming selection.
But then, things got weird.
Kansas lost three (Villanova, Colorado and Florida) in their next four games. And the team that looked like the one destined for the Finals against Duke in the Champions Classic at United Center was never able to live up to expectations.
Bill Self’s team would go on to win the Big 12 title in the regular season – which it looks like they do every year – but lost in the semifinals of their conference tournament and was knocked out by Stanford in the Round. second of the NCAA Tournament. The second-seeded Jayhawks lost to the tenth-seeded Cardinal, who entered that game with 12 losses. Kansas ended the year with a 25-10 record, the first time Self had lost double-digits in a season during his tenure at Lawrence – until it did again in 2018-2019.
Due to injury, Embiid only played 28 games that season – which meant he wasn’t a good fit for Stanford in the season finale. Black – the teammate who defeated Embiid – led the Jayhawks in points in that match with 18 points. Wiggins, the last No. 1 pick, led the Jayhawks in the minute (34) but scored only four points, when he only took six pictures in his last college game.
THE NUMBER ONE CHOICE IN THE UPCOMING NBA CONTEST THAT SUMMARY ONLY SIX BUTTONS IN THE BIGGEST PLAY OF THE YEAR!
It’s a stat that every true basketball fan should have etched into their brains.
As we enter the month when college basketball reigns supreme and the NCAA Tournament will rule the sports world, let the 2013-2014 Kansas Jayhawks be a warning to you as you fill in your brackets.
March is a wild place where the unthinkable happens, and college basketball is always intoxicating. Future NBA All-Pros could be trained by players you’ve probably never heard of before, and #1 picks could play unpopular basketball games where they only shoot six times while 36 times scoring is considered acceptable.
Fasten your seat belt, the madness is ready to happen. And, ironically, Jayhawks ranked third in the countryhas been the best of the blues all season and is the defending national champion looking to repeat.
