Just When I Thought I'd Seen It All...

For those of you who weren't at the game, at the last TV timeout (about 3 minutes to go), all of the Kansas State fans decided to move down right behind their bench and take over that particular section in the lower bowl.  There were a lot of them at the Lloyd Noble Center, and they were loud all game.  I give them credit for supporting their team in numbers like that and generally keeping it classy.

But, I have to say, I've never seen a bunch of visiting fans take over a section like that before and then proceed to act like they just won the title.  They were yelling, doing all their cheers, even going so far as to all scream on defense when T.J. Franklin was bringing the ball up the floor, and K-State up by 15. Yes, that T.J. Franklin.

Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble. --John Madden

I don't think I've seen such an overreaction for such a minor accomplishment, such celebration for defeating one of the worst teams in a conference, or such celebration for knocking off a .500 team.  Even Texas fans have never done anything like that.  When I was a kid, one of my football coaches always told us, "When you win, act like you've won before". I think that applies nicely in this situation.

With that being said, it's troubling that our team can let someone come into their house and let them walk all over them like that.  They look like they have no fight in them whatsoever, and if a team goes up by more than 5 or 6, they just fold like a house of cards.  Our team has absolutely no mental toughness.  You could see it in their body language. At one point, only down by 7 or 8, I saw Fitzgerald hanging and shaking his head.  Last time I checked, down by 7 or 8 with more than a few minutes to go counted as "being in the game".  Once again, you can't blame the loss on anything other than stupid mistakes and a lack of toughness (seems to be a theme, no?).

In any event, the Wildcat fans can enjoy their victory over a mediocre team that just gave up.  And Sooner fans can do nothing but shake their heads and hope for better luck next year.