Charlie Weis, Bonnie Henrickson and Bill Self will have some notable crimson and blue company at tonight’s seventh annual KU Kickoff, which starts at 6 p.m. at Corinth Square.
Jayhawks basketball broadcasting legend Max Falkenstein and fan favorite Tyrel Reed will be on hand promoting a pair of biographies: Falkenstein’s “A Good Place to Stop: 60 Seasons with Max and the Jayhawks,” and Reed’s “Reed All About It: Driven to be a Jayhawk.”
…The location of this year’s rally has moved to the south side of the shopping center, just west of Commerce Bank.
Link
In honor of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2012, which includes Leavenworth’s own Wayne Simien, a Hall of Fame Benefit Golf Tournament will be held on Sept. 10.
Starting at 11 a.m. at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, the event will feature a four-person scramble format and will be followed by a social, raffle and dinner. Many Hall of Fame inductees will participate and be on hand after the tournament.
The public is invited to participate, and registrations for individual golfers and teams are now being accepted.
All proceeds go to benefit the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and a portion of each entry fee is tax deductible. For more information or to register, please contact Laura Hartley at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame at 316-262-2038 or lhartley@kshof.org.
The KSHOF Class of 2012 will be inducted on Oct. 7 at the Wichita Boathouse in Wichita. The group includes K-State All-American quarterback Michael Bishop, two-time national women’s junior college basketball coach of the year, Salina’s Kurt Budke and All-American quarterback David Jaynes from KU.
Other members include Sedgwick and WSU Olympian and national champion Harold Manning, K-State basketball All-American Willie Murrell, University of Kansas basketball’s Bud Stallworth, legendary tennis coach David Snyder from Winfield and softball All-American Brenda Stolle from Emporia State University. Budke and Manning will be honored posthumously.
For more information on this year’s class of inductees or to purchase tickets to the induction ceremony please go to kshof.org or call 316-262-2038.
Link
After not answering Champville management and Lebanese NT coach Ghassan Sarkis in the last week, both Champville and the NT drop interest in Chester Giles after it was shown that he have a contract in Bahrain for the next season. Jarrid Famous (210-C/F-88, college: S.Florida) will arrive tomorrow to Lebanon to join the NT for Jones Cup and Stankovich, while Champville remain with 1 foreigner until now which is Reyshawn Terry waiting to sign a new player or keep Garnett Thompson.
Eurobasket
CJ Giles
VOTE for KU
Kansas 2012-13 Schedule
Big 12/College News
The presence of numerous athletes in the AFAM classes is not sufficient evidence, nor any kind of evidence, that the academic advisors working with UNC athletes were complicit in the acknowledged fraud. There are other plausible explanations for the athletes’ concentration in those courses, starting with the possibility the advisors merely noted the success of particular athletes in those courses and concluded others would do well in them.
These might not be the likely explanations for what transpired. The likely explanations might seem closer to what is being suspected. But that is why it is essential North Carolina commence the sort of comprehensive self-examination Penn State undertook in regards to the Jerry Sandusky scandal. For all the pain and embarrassment that resulted from the Freeh report, Penn State is much closer to recapturing its soul today than Carolina, which has seen the details of this academic fraud bleed into the media for roughly a year without taking a single bold action in response.
There have been only minor steps, such as accepting Nyang’oro’s resignation as department chairman. He was permitted, however, to continue teaching at the university and to draw a six-figure salary.
What is beyond dispute in all of this is that there was a degree of callousness at work in the UNC athletic department at least a dozen years ago that heretofore would not have been imagined. It is obvious not in Peppers’ presence on the Tar Heels football team, but in his two seasons with the basketball squad.
Whatever the academic fundamentalists might declare about the presence of marginal students on college athletic teams, there is no great harm in the notion of potential pros “majoring in eligibility”—so long as the classes they take are legitimate and available to the general student body. In Peppers’ case, the three seasons he played for the UNC football team have led to an NFL career that is into its second decade and has yielded career earnings in the neighborhood of $70 million.
Whatever the veracity of the AFAM courses that helped retain his eligibility, however, it is painfully obvious he was in no position to be competing in two sports at once while at UNC. According to the uncovered transcript with Peppers’ name on it, he received Ds or Fs in 11 of the 27 courses for which he earned a letter grade.
It is difficult enough to justify that person playing one sport at the collegiate level, but adding a second to his load was egregious. What was coach Bill Guthridge’s justification for accepting Peppers onto the basketball squad in 1999-2000—and Matt Doherty's decision to do the same the following season—other than the toughness and rebounding he added to the Heels?
That is the core of the scandal revealed by the transcript release: That Guthridge would accept Peppers onto the basketball team under these circumstances and that his superiors would approve it. Where it all goes from there is a matter that demands an extensive investigation, not a quick one.
TSN DeCourcy
UNC statement from the Chancellor
Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis may have pulled off his greatest scheduling coup.
Hollis told ESPN.com on Thursday that he has secured commitments from 16 schools to participate in a two-tournament event in honor of Nike co-founder Phil Knight's 80th birthday.
The two tournaments, each consisting of eight teams, would take place in Portland, Ore. during a four-day period in November, 2017. Knight's 80th birthday is Feb. 24, 2018.
This event would have more collective star power than any of the previous tournaments played at Maui, New York, Orlando or the Bahamas. The 16 Nike-sponsored schools -- mostly elite programs -- include Michigan State, Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina.
Hollis said he has commitments from schools representing all of college basketball's power conferences. NCAA rules prohibit schools from the same conference playing in the same event, hence the two eight-team tournaments.
The other schools are Florida, Ohio State, Connecticut, Georgetown, Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Oregon, Xavier, Butler, Gonzaga and Portland.
"All of these great basketball programs have been supported by Phil Knight and Nike," Hollis said. "His support of the programs have created scholarships and resources for these departments to excel."
ESPN
The question is: Which coach is best at bending the rules but not breaking them?
John Calipari: 13 percent
Billy Donovan: 11 percent
Sean Miller: 8 percent
Tom Crean: 8 percent
Mike Krzyzewski: 6 percent
Roy Williams: 6 percent
Tom Izzo: 5 percent
Josh Pastner: 5 percent
Others: too many to list
CBS series Critical Coaches(aka as CBS desperate for Kentucky fans' clicks lol)
“Overall, I think it was a good trip,” Weber said. “First, we had 10 days of practice before the trip that allowed us the opportunity to start implementing our system. This trip has been a great chance to get to know our players better on the basketball court, but personally as well.
“We had some difficult circumstances. I wish we wouldn’t have had such a tough competitor in game one. I would rather slowly build up the competition as the trip goes on. However, it was good for our guys and now we know what we need to focus on when we get back.”
KC Star
Recruiting
Xavier Rathan-Mayes’ stepfather, Tharon Mayes, called me Thursday morning to clarify comments he made to the New Haven Register regarding his son’s college list.
Tharon said he didn’t mean to indicate his son had trimmed his list of 10 to five or six because he hasn’t yet done so.
“There was never a quotation of me saying he was down to five or six schools,” Tharon told SNY.tv. “Those are a few schools that are interested in him.”
Rathan-Mayes initially cut his list to Baylor, UConn, Alabama, Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Memphis, Texas and UCLA.
“He doesn’t have any visits,” Tharon said. “I think he wants to go on an unofficial to Florida State soon. And I think that’s basically it. He’s focusing on the SAT and then he’s going to focus more on unofficial visits to schools.”
As far as a timetable, Tharon said: “I think he’ll make a decision in November. I think he wants to take his time, to get the SAT score, take his vists and then make a decision.”
Zags Blog
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Ennis hopes to make history at Syracuse after announcing his commitment Thursday night.
The Toronto native officially chose his dream school, choosing the Orange over Illinois, Louisville, Memphis and UCLA, among others.
“I say the main [reason] is the role that I’m going to be playing coming in as a freshman,” Ennis said in a video on the CIA Bounce Website.
“A lot of playing time is up for grabs so hopefully I will be able come in and play a lot more than I would at another school. But also the talent that they have right now is going to help me look better and help me get to where I want to be and that’s the pro level.”
Zags Blog
My 2012 KU Alumni games, 2011-12 Border War, Legends of the Phog, KC Prep Invitational, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos and more now on Youtube