BitterSweetLife

I'm on a KU Jayhawk binge and I'm not apologizing. Midway through the Big 12 conference season, Sherron Collins convinced me that he could bring the hoops-swagger that had been mostly lacking from KU up until that point. This despite being a freshman. Collins is tough. KU has become a tenacious, gritty team, and I give Collins a lot of credit.

Once he got in shape, there was no keeping him out of the line-up. Yesterday he came up huge, leading the Jayhawks with 20 point (6 rebounds) and bringing an aura of fearlessness. Collins was more than willing to go into the paint against taller players. A couple times he drove inside against Kevin Durant, shot blocker par excellence who stands about a foot taller than the 5'11" Collins. A nice gesture? More than that--Collins came away with points.

“I thought he was the best player in the game with the exception of Durant," noted Bill Self. And again: “We had no chance to win unless he was really good today, and he was fabulous. And he had that one week where he went stale and couldn’t make a basket, but today the game was his, and I love it when he’s in attack mode like that."

From where I'm standing, Sherron Collins looks like a made-to-order NCAA Tournament player.