Player Ratings to the Theme of Bands with Verb Forms in their Names

Kansas beats Iowa State in another tight one. Let's rate some player performances.

In honor of Iowa State’s Caleb Grill, whose last name is a verb, and an awesome verb at that, we are rating the players to a verb theme. Today, we take some bands that have verb forms in their names and rate them accordingly. How do the players stack up after that tight win against the Cyclones? Let’s see. As always, here’s the formula for these ratings:

Contents

1. 5 Stars: Hum
2. 4.5 Stars: Tripping Daisy
3. 4 stars: Built to Spill
4. 3.5 Stars: Blur
5. 3 Stars: The Smashing Pumpkins
6. 2 Stars: Air Supply
7. 1 Star: Smash Mouth

5 Stars: Out of this world performance. This is a hard to achieve rating and is only reserved for the most impressive or impressionable performances.

4.5 Stars: Very strong performance, packed the stat sheet, provided undeniable intangibles.

4 Stars: A strong performance that falls just short of the standards above.

3.5 Stars: Above average performance, perhaps stands out in one category or one aspect of the game.

3 Stars: Average performance. Also could be a very strong game in one aspect but a very poor game in another such as 15 points but seven turnovers. Could also be that the player played, did their job, but didn't do much spectacularly.

2 Stars: Below average performance, or we simply have higher expectations for the player on this particular night.

1 Star: Rare, but if a player has a stinker in all aspects.

5 Stars: Hum

Hum just might be the most underrated band of the 1990’s. They had an MTV hit with “Stars” and that album, You’d Prefer an Astronaut is great, but their epic next release Downward is Heavenward is some of the best music to come from a decade full of great music. Check it out if you haven’t.

No one was a five star.

4.5 Stars: Tripping Daisy

I’ll freely admit that I love Tripping Daisy so they’re probably a little too high on this list for most people’s liking. Fun fact: they played at Jayhawk Music Fest at Clinton Lake in 1995 and I lost my hat that day. Somehow, even though I wasn't particularly close to the stage, that hat made it up on stage and lead singer Tim DeLaughter wore it for a few songs.

Without Gradey Dick, Kansas gets smashed.  Five of nine from three point land is a nice day, and honestly though, could Bill Self quit benching this guy when he gets two fouls?  He's much more valuable on the court than off. Finished with a team high 21 and snatched five rebounds.

4 stars: Built to Spill

Very, very solid college radio staple that has since put out a lot of records and toured relentlessly. The original lineup is still the best, but they’re still solid. Keep it like a Secret is a good place to start if you want to start listening to them.

KJ Adams continues to impress. As the announcing crew said in the telecast, at the start of the season, who would've imagined KJ Adams being the guy that Kansas goes to when needing a basket to win a basketball game? Finished with 15 points and six boards.

3.5 Stars: Blur

Song 2 rips. It's also quite tiresome at this point. It’s also not their only song!

Jalen Wilson scored 16 but he jacked up 14 shots en route to that total. Had a game high 11 rebounds and giving him yet another double-double.

3 Stars: The Smashing Pumpkins

Their early records are just about as good as it gets. Mellon Collie gets bloated and so began the indulgences of frontman Billy Corgan. So much music. Too much music? To me, these guys are the perfect “should've stopped a long time ago” band.

I'm throwing most of the rest of the guys in this category, even Dajuan Harris who had six assists and was the best of the bunch. We expect more from Harris. Bobby Pettiford played 19 minutes and had an assist and a steal while Joe Yesufu also notched an assist in limited minutes. 

Zuby Ejiofor was the first big off the bench and was active but could only register two fouls in his playing time while Zach Clemence scored a layup but missed his two free throw attempts in his limited action.

2 Stars: Air Supply

I'm going to supply you with this cool piece of trivia: These guys once opened for the MISL Kansas City Comets at Kemper Arena in the 1980’s. While awesome, the music isn’t.

Kevin McCullar kept chucking up threes and those threes kept clanking off of every possible surface up to and including the side of the backboard. 

1 Star: Smash Mouth

Not good and luckily no KU players were this bad.

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