OK! Some of you may have read my ode to Virginia's new JPJ Arena, but I was raised in this beautiful old barn they call Allen Field House, and it will be rockin' tonight!

Hopefully the student section can drown out Vitale.

Apparently, if you want your kid to be a kick-ass basketball player, name him Acie. A&M has an Acie Law, and I remember Acie Earl with the high-top fade playing for Iowa back in the early 90's, as well. I have never known a non-basketball-playing Acie.

9:00 Building rockin' for tip, and it goes to the Aggies. God I love the barrage of noise the students make. Takes me right back.

first shot by A&M is a missed three, out of bounds to KU. Wright makes a pass that was nice in theory, faulty in execution.

Josh Carter nails a three to take the lead after KU gets a nice transition layup from Chalmers.

Kaaayyyy - YOU YOU!

"If they play their best, they're as good as anyone in the country." Why do I feel like that's an epitaph for the season? Too many early losses in the NCAAs in the Self era.

Apparently Gillespie is like a rock star in College Station. Wow.... that must be a heady experience.

9:10

Wow, very little scoring, as I expected. Since Gillespie was a Self assistant at Illinois and Tulsa, he runs almost the exact same system. The D is going to be some of the best you've ever seen.

KU steal and a missed layup - that was a crap sandwich - lots of missed buckets so far.

SLAM! from Wright. Thank god he kept it simple - he's been missing windmills and three-sixties recently - it's embarassing.

9:14

Law gets a smooth shot to make it 7-6, but Chalmers hits another one - he's already 3-3 for 6 points because he takes the easy shots and makes them. It'll win you games. Good thing Kansas had a cushy Assistant Coaching position open for Mario's dad.

Recruiting-it's tough!

9:16

Every kiss begins with Kaye. Diamonds for a kiss. What the hell do I have to buy her to get a beejer?

9:18

Awwww...yeah. As soon as I type the word "beejer", the honeyed tones of Erin Andrews come across the speakers.

Billy Gillespie's doing "jazz hands" on the sideline. Wonder what play that is?

Nice shot of Self, Gillespie, and Roberts of St. Johns on the bench together. Old photo.

Beautiful passing from A&M, they're up by three 11-8.

9:20

Oh, Dan Shulman - why did you have to say "A&M has NEVER beat Kansas". You dirty jinxer.

Sherron Collins hits a three to tie it - he's amazing. He's built like a linebacker but glides the court completely under control. For a muscle-bound guy like that to be a point guard is unusual.

You can tell this is a big game - we get a new commercial break every three minutes.

9:24

Hmm.. the Duke/NC game is coming up. I propose that Sam T. and I do dueling live-blogs on that one.

Two horrible shots by A&M, but one of them was probably a foul on Kansas.

Yikes - horrible passes by Kansas. If it keeps up this way, A&M has the advantage. I think Self is going to peel paint off the locker-room walls at halftime.

Note: Almost ALL of A&Ms players are from Texas. Gillespie must have done an incredible job of recruiting the state.

9:26

Russ Rob gets free on a screen and hits the three.

Lots of upsets this week - something like 10 ranked teams got beat. The one to watch in my opinion was the K-State/Texas upset. We all knew Bob Huggins would right the ship quickly at K-State. The question is, can he stay sober and keep his recruits from pulling knives on people.

9:30

Davis makes a nice move and scores, it's KU 16- A&M 15.

Wow, Erin tells us some of these players were here for an 0-12 conference season. Quite the impressive turnaround.

Wow, Durant scored 32 for Texas and they still lost. Hope he enjoys playing in Memphis next year.

Wow, the ad for Maxyderm was playing straight-up porn soundtrack music. How did that sneak into the ad-lineup?

9:33

OK, chill-bump moment for the Manning footage. I was a freshman in '88, so that was a defining moment of my sporting life.

Darrell Arthur ties it up again. He's good but inexperienced.

Lots of lead changes, but I'm still waiting for the atmosphere to get as raucous as it can be. I don't think the students are taking it as seriously as they could - they're used to beating inferior A&M teams, and there's no natural rivalry there.

9:36

Earl shoots a three with 2 seconds on the shot clock. That dude is money. It's A&M 23, Kansas 20.

Rush finally scores for KU!

Kavaliauskus - I plan not to type that again, so if I say "K scores" you'll know what I mean.

Pompey blocks the shit out of Rush's shot.

9:40

Chalmers decked on a steal. I love it when tough teams play each other......

Sorry, watching Eriin talk about things. Wonderful things.

What was I talking about?

9:42

Cool! Wayne Simien's parents still come to games! He's been in the NBA with the Heat for two seasons. I like that - they're true Jayhawk parents.

Rush nails a three off the screen - 27-26 for KU

Nice block by Wright leads to a shot-clock violation. Lots of contact inside!

Nice hip-hop montage of one of America's whitest Universities.

9:46

I'm glad they're showing some of the hotties of Kansas. They usually pan across the hillbilly section of the crowd during a national game.

Collins is not afraid of the lane - he was a WR in high school. Nice layup.

A&M parlays a trap into a steal - nice D.