Kansas Jayhawks fan telling everyone that was a “good loss”. No. Really.

SALINA – Junior College student and avid Kansas Jayhawks basketball fan Ryan Hartley spent all day on Monday telling everyone the Jayhawks’ loss to Tennessee was, “good for the team.”

The Jayhawks, who went into Sunday’s game in Knoxville undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation, looked sluggish and slow, losing to a Tennessee Volunteers basketball team that was playing with just six scholarship players after an incident caused coach Bruce Pearl to suspend four players.

This came on the heels of a near-disastrous game at home against Cornell last Wednesday, when the Jayhawks needed a herculean-effort from Sherron Collins to avoid one of the worst upsets in the program’s history.

Despite losing to a team that would have had to forfeit a slow-pitch softball game, Hartley said the game would help get the Jayhawks focused for conference.

“Every coach will tell you, you always want to lose a game or two,” said Hartley. “Losses aren’t one step backwards, they’re two steps forward. Losing is a good thing. You don’t want to be ranked No. 1 all season, that’s too much pressure. They’ll focus on what they need to improve on. Or it’ll light a fire under them. Or that test will give them experience in the tournament. I was actually rooting against them, so I was happy to see them lose. Seriously, I lit up a victory cigar. That’s how good of a loss it was. I definitely didn’t skip dinner then cry myself to sleep.”