I may have gone to school in Iowa, but I have been a KU fan my entire life. I remember Danny and the Miracles in 1988 and I was at the Final Four in 1993 (the one where Chris Webber call the timeout that Michigan didn’t have). I attended the Roy Williams basketball camp when I was a kid. I still remember cursing every single free throw that Nick Collison missed against Carmelo Anthony and the Syracuse Orange. Somedays my shoulder still hurts from when Mario Chalmers made “the shot” and I nearly threw it out pumping my fist in excitement.

There have been some spectacular highs this year. Beating K-State three times and Mizzou twice. Winning another Big 12 title. Getting the #1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA tournament. All great things.

But today sucked.

Photo by Nick Krug, source: KUSports.com

There were so many reasons that KU lost today:

• UNI’s ridiculous (and extremely timely) outside shooting
• UNI’s tenacious interior defense combined with the fact that KU couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from behind the 3-point arc
• UNI’s dominance on the boards (particularly offensive)
• KU’s complete indifference in the first 32 minutes of the game
• Self’s decision NOT to press until it was too late
• Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich being complete non-factors in the game

As a KU fan, you have to expect a fair amount of ribbing from your K-State and Mizzou friends when you lose. The general tone of others when KU loses is usually harmless enough, but today, it seemed like the vitriol was downright nasty. I don’t understand it.

As a Jayhawk fan, I expect excellence because that is what I’m used to. I’m obviously disappointed in the loss. But I don’t know why I shouldn’t be. Or why I shouldn’t expect the best from my team. My team has been the best in the NCAA for the majority of the year. Why should I expect anything less?

The majority of KU haters that I talk to (mostly on Twitter) say that the main reason that they hate KU is that we act entitled. I don’t get that. I don’t feel entitled to wins. I just expect them. There’s a big difference between expectation and entitlement.

Now, I wouldn’t expect a K-State or Mizzou fan to know the difference…I don’t think they teach that.

OK, that was a cheap shot. But let’s be honest: all the KU hate from K-State and Mizzou fans seems more like envy than anything else. I want to ask the same K-State and MU fans what they expect of their teams once they’ve managed to string together several winning seasons in a row. And I think that both teams may be well on their way to that. Frank Martin is a significantly better coach than I thought and Mike Anderson’s Tigers just continue to outperform expectations.

But see, therein lies the major difference between KU and its Big 12 competition. KU has won or tied for the regular season Big 12 Championship 10 out of the 14 years that the conference has been in existence. We’ve been to the tournament 15 more times than K-State and MU and have more Final Four appearances and championships than both teams combined.

Both K-State and Mizzou are on their way back to being strong contenders in Big 12 Basketball. But until they start to compete year after year after year, they can’t really tell KU fans that they should just be “happy to be there.” Because to us, we expect excellence. Just getting to the tournament is not enough.

One thing to note before you blast away in the comments: I know that there are exceptions to this. There are in every situation. I am leaving this open to comments.