Tag: Kansas Jawhawks

Eastern Washington’s Groves brothers briefly stole basketball fans’ hearts before NCAA tournament exit

Tanner and Jacob Groves combined for 58 points in Eastern Washington’s loss to Kansas.

It happens all the time during March Madness. Fans fall in love with a team, a player, a parent or someone like Sister Jean, and then usually at some point, that team loses in the NCAA tournament and hearts are broken.

Saturday during the men’s tournament, it was all about No. 14 seed Eastern Washington’s Groves brothers, Tanner and Jacob, who dominated in the first-round matchup against No. 3 seed Kansas despite ultimately losing.

Junior forward Tanner Groves led the entire game with a whopping 35 points, five rebounds and three blocks, while sophomore guard Jacob Groves was tied for second-most points in the game with 23, along with nine boards. They were a big reason why Eastern Washington had a 46-38 halftime lead.

The Groves brothers combined for an incredible 58 points in the Eagles’ 93-84 loss to the Jayhawks. According to CBS Sports, that’s the second-most points scored by bothers in an NCAA tournament game since 1953.

If Eastern Washington had pulled off the upset, these guys could have been huge March Madness stars this year.

“It was hard,” Kansas coach Bill Self told CBS Sports after the game. “They out-played us today. Those brothers were terrific, and I guess they combined for 58 [points]. I didn’t even realize they had that many.”

But in addition to the Groves brothers’ dominating performance in the loss, fans loved their big-hair looks, plus older brother Tanner’s lumberjack beard. At one point, even the broadcasters compared the pair with Bill Walton and Napoleon Dynamite, and when you think about it, those are actually kind of accurate comparisons.

Regardless of why fans fell for the Groves brothers, for a brief moment Saturday, they captured the hearts of college hoops fans everywhere.

They’re gritty, talented, tough and gave people a lot of hope they could lead Eastern Washington to an upset against Kansas.

That hope evaporated about midway through the second half, but people were no less amazed by the pair. At least we’ll always have the West Region first-round game and the dream of what could have been for the Groves brothers this year.

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WATCH: Bill Self says Spurs speculation has ‘absolutely zero truth’

Bill Self shoots down speculation that he’s in line for Gregg Popovich’s job.

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich hasn’t even announced his retirement, but Kansas head coach Bill Self wants to set the record straight about the speculation that he is in line for the job in San Antonio.

Self has a close relationship with Spurs general manager R.C.Buford. and ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg recently publicly predicted that Self will take over for Pop once the legendary coach retires. But Self says it hasn’t been discussed.

Speaking to News4 San Antonio, the Jayhawks head coach said, “Well, first of all, I haven’t talked to Seth in five or six months. And secondly, and most importantly, I haven’t talked to R.C. ever about it, and he was in my wedding and I was in his so I’ve known him pretty well and we’ve never once discussed it. And thirdly, I think it’s kind of an insult to the Spurs because they have the greatest coach maybe our sport’s potentially ever known — certainly the NBA one of the two or three best of all time for sure. So, yeah, there was absolutely zero truth to that.”

Popovich has voiced his frustration with the way the NBA has evolved in recent seasons, but he still does have 5 NBA titles and has been named NBA Coach of the Year three times. He’ll likely have to say in who does replace him whenever the time comes.

Perhaps Becky Hammon, who Popovich’s been grooming as an assistant coach for years, would be more open to the position than Self seems to be.

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Bill Self says possibility of him replacing Popovich as Spurs head coach has ‘absolutely zero truth’

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich hasn’t even announced his retirement, but Kansas head coach Bill Self wants to set the record straight about the possibility that he is in line for the job in San Antonio.

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich hasn’t even announced his retirement, but Kansas head coach Bill Self wants to set the record straight about the possibility that he is in line for the job in San Antonio.

Bill Self says possibility of him replacing Popovich as Spurs head coach has ‘absolutely zero truth’

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich hasn’t even announced his retirement, but Kansas head coach Bill Self wants to set the record straight about the possibility that he is in line for the job in San Antonio.

Spurs head coach Greg Popovich hasn’t even announced his retirement, but Kansas head coach Bill Self wants to set the record straight about the possibility that he is in line for the job in San Antonio.