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All in the Wrist

Let the soap opera begin

By Chris Wristen
March 30, 2008 | 2 comments

As a Kansas fan, Must-See-TV is about to take on a whole new meaning.

Forget Forget Project Runway. Forget Top Chef. Rock of Love 2. If you want REAL reality. REAL drama, here’s your joint: the State of Kansas vs. Roy Williams.

From ESPN to the local print, radio, and television media outlets, this story is going to be shoved down your throats all week long.

Fox News will take a break from its fair and balanced fear mongering to tackle other things that divide America, like: Are you for Kansas or against Roy? (Good question!) Keith Olbermann will have to decide which side makes his best and worst persons in the world segments on his MSNBC program. The folks at CNN will be forced to interrupt their incessant Britney updates with this hard-hitting story from our nation’s heartland.

And, though we may well OVER IT by now, we’ll eat up ever last word they say—because we’re Final-Four-bound basketball hounds. While we spend most of the week sweating the outcome, we may even forget to loathe all the Roy talk. Some among us may well renew the ’ol Roy debate—Revered Alum or Reviled Judas?

It’s been five long years since Roy left KU for his native North Carolina, wounding many in Jayhawk country as if he we’d been married to the guy and he’d just left us in the middle of the night after promising he’d stay.

As many die-hard fans surely started looking forward to this meeting for a shot at sweet, sweet revenge.

Two years into that dream, Roy won a national championship at UNC and KU exited the NCAA Tournament in the first round. So much for revenge.

Since then, much of the venom toward Roy had cooled—until the brackets were revealed for this year’s dance. It was immediately clear to most people that KU and its former coach were on a collision course.

Suddenly the chatter was back—first in jinx-wary whispers, and louder and louder with each passing round.

Now, after five years of waiting, it’s just about time. Let the soap opera begin.