FRIDAY

A Jayhawk on a Missouri license plate? No need to check to see if those pigs have sprouted wings. It could be a reality as soon as June 2013.

The Kansas University Alumni Association has been working to get a KU license plate in Missouri, which recently began issuing Pittsburg State license plates. After all, KU does boast more than 30,000 alumni who live in Missouri, said Danny Lewis, director of alumni programs for the association.

…As part of the process to get a license plate approved in Missouri, a state legislator needs to agree to sponsor the plate.

“As you can imagine, you don’t have too many Missouri representatives too willing to sign a University of Kansas license plate application,” Lewis said.

Enter Missouri Rep. Charlie Denison, a Republican from Springfield. After a KU alumnus approached him with the idea for the plate, Denison had no qualms about signing on.

“I have sponsored several different plates that wouldn’t necessarily have to do with the University of Missouri,” said Denison, who is the chairman of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation.
LJW


Yahoo's Top 25 for preseason 2012-13


KU seniors Tyshawn Taylor, Conner Teahan and Jordan Juenemann will compete in a Barnstorming Tour game at 7:30 tonight at Roeland Park’s Bishop Miege High School. The three will be part of a team to face KC area high school all-stars. Prior to the game, Taylor will sign copies of the book “Beyond the Phog” from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Kansas Sampler, 97th and Quivira Road, Overland Park, across the street from Oak Park Mall. Teahan and Juenemann will sign starting at 6 p.m. at Miege.
LJW


Thomas Robinson has two things going for him entering the draft. He looks as if he’s been chiseled from the side of Mount Rushmore, and he plays with tons of passion.

Those two things alone make the power forward out of Kansas worthy of GM’s of lottery teams time and consideration.

But that’s not all.

During his junior season, Robinson displayed a penchant for finding ways to put the ball in the basket, showing marked improvement in his overall ability and comfort-level with the ball in his hands. He chased down rebounds, dove for loose balls, and was one scout put it, was often at his best “in winning time.”

In fact, Robinson was the biggest reason Kansas made it all the way to the national title game (before losing to Kentucky), putting an otherwise overmatched squad on his back and carrying it.

“He has plenty of skills, an all-around game really,” said one NBA scout. “But what I really like is the intangibles. He just refuses to lose, and takes losing hard. He’s just a tough guy mentally.”

The scout speaks the truth, as Robinson isn’t a great jump shooter -- but it’s not a good idea to leave him open, either. He isn’t necessarily an unstoppable force down low -- but he’s strong and nimble enough to get off his shot against taller defenders. He isn’t a fantastic passer by any stretch -- but you don’t have to worry about him committing a turnover when double-teamed.

“He isn’t going to wow anybody with his style of play, but he gets the job done with very good fundamentals and raw strength,” said another scout. “He’s a physical specimen who also is a very smart and competitive.”
Fox Sports

Big 12/College News

The hot phrase of the week around West Virginia is tier three rights. But, do you really know what tier three rights are? We sought the help of Big 12 Associate Commissioner Bob Burda to help answer that question.

"Tier three rights consist of rights to television content or rights to sporting event content that has been passed over by our television partners," Burda said. "Tier one is over-the-air broadcast rights. Tier two is considered cable television rights and tier three is member retained rights."

Sounds simple enough, but how does it work? At what point does a member institution get control of its tier three rights?

"Our television partners, ABC, ESPN and FOX depending on the sport and season have rights to our content," Burda said. "Once they make their selections, any games that are not selected by broadcast by the Conference's television partner revert back to the host institution for exploitation in their local television markets."

How an institution chooses to utilize its tier three rights is entirely up to the respective school. For example, The University of Texas created the Longhorn Network.

"Member schools can put together their own network where they can either sell those rights to local affiliates for broadcast, or in the case of the Longhorn Network, have their own network to air those contests," Burda stated.

There is a lot more inventory, or games, during basketball season for the television networks than there is for football. So tier three rights pertain mostly to sports other than football, but the Big 12 did find a way to preserve some tier three rights for their member institutions when it comes to the gridiron.

"In the case of basketball, our television partner will make its selections by the end of July or early August," Burda explained. "Any unselected games go back to the member institutions. In football, the way it is going to work moving forward is that every game is guaranteed for broadcast, every home game that we have the rights to. One game will be designated for the member institution. FOX will designate which game that is after analyzing each team's schedule. That game then reverts back to the institution to sell or they can sell that game back to FOX."

Big 12 Administrators and Athletic Directors point to the television agreement and tier three rights as one reason for stability in the conference.

"What it has done is created additional revenue stream for our institutions so they can monetize sporting events that are not selected for television through the conference's broadcast rights," Burda said. "Those rights have been freed up significantly under the television contract. Under the old contract, any games that were not selected were warehoused by FOX and then the school would need approval by FOX to show those games in their local market."

That is not the case now.

The Big 12 proved to be a bit of a pioneer in relation to tier three rights. The Big 12 was formed 16 years ago and became the first conference to reserve tier three rights for its member institutions.
West Virginia Illustrated


There remains a desire among some member schools to leave. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of their situations told ESPN.com that Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich told the Big East board of directors that the Cardinals want to be in the Big 12 or the ACC, opting for transparency by making members aware of his school's true intentions.

No invitation has arrived as of yet and the only likely one would be from the Big 12 if new commissioner Bob Bowlsby sees the need to recommend to his board that an expansion to 12 teams is in the league's interest. Last year, Louisville made a strong push to get into the Big 12 over West Virginia but was rebuffed in the 11th hour.
Andy Katz


Texas Rivals: Realignment Round 3?


Overall, home court advantage will be emphasized even more in West Virginia’s new league.  That’s not to say there weren’t tough places to play in the Big East – Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame and Louisville, to name a few, give any team fits in their home venue.

But in the Big 12, there will be environments like that almost anywhere you go.  There will be no more half-empty NBA arenas for a Sunday game at noon, or a Wednesday night at 7:00 for that matter.

“It’s so much of a college atmosphere at all of those schools, Texas is maybe the exception,” said Mountaineer head coach Bob Huggins.  “Other than that, it’s just an incredible student involvement.  There’s so much energy in those arenas.

“Going to Oklahoma State in Stillwater is unbelievable and Iowa State is absolutely crazy,” Huggins continued.  “Going to Lawrence is like nothing you’ve ever seen with the ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk.’  And then there’s the ‘Wabash Cannon Ball’ at Kansas State.”

On the men’s side in 2012, the Big 12 finished just behind the Big 10 and SEC in home basketball attendance.  The Big 10 averaged 12,868 fans per game while the SEC brought in 11,513 fans per contest and the Big 12 tallied 11,057 fans per game.

The numbers are solid on the women’s side as well.

“They were talking about in our meetings that the Big 12 has led the country six years in a row with fan support on the women’s side,” said Mountaineer head women’s basketball coach Mike Carey.  “We realize that’s going to be the case when we go into that.

“Sometimes when we play on the campus of Georgetown, Providence or St. John’s, for example, there may be only 500 to 1,000 people,” Carey continued.  “That’s not a great home court advantage for them, so it’s going to be a lot different.”

…Huggins took part last week conference meetings out in Arizona and said there was an overall sense of excitement moving forward.

“There were 10 coaches in there and five of them have been in the Final Four, I think three of them multiple times,” Huggins said.  “We have been very proud and rightfully so of Big East basketball and the coaches we have in the Big East, but you look around the Big 12 and wow – 50 percent of the coaches in your league have been to the Final Four.”

Huggins also said the league expects to have its 2012 schedule put together sometime in early August.
WV Metro News


Men’s basketball attendance for all three NCAA divisions in 2011-12 totaled 32,781,399 fans, which represents a slight increase from the previous year and ranks fifth all-time. The record is 33,396,316 from the 2008 season.

The Big Ten Conference led the nation for the 36th consecutive year in conference attendance. With the addition of Nebraska, the Big Ten’s 12 teams totaled a league-high 2,856,785 fans and averaged 12,868 per game.

For the seventh consecutive year and for the 16th time in the past 17 seasons, Kentucky led the nation in home attendance average at 23,721 fans per game. Syracuse was second at 23,618. One of those two schools has led the nation in each of the past 36 seasons.

….After the Big Ten, the Southeastern (11,513), Big 12 (11,057), Big East (10,881) and Atlantic Coast (9,876) rounded out the top five in conference attendance average per game. The 16 teams of the Big East totaled 3,133,782 fans, the fourth most ever for a conference. The record is 3,259,992 by the Big East in 2007.

BIG 12

10. Kansas  16,445  (+9)

24. Iowa State  13,015  (+895)

25. Kansas State  12,783  (+131)

30. Texas  11,950  (-1,749)

32. Missouri  11,830  (+718)

43. Oklahoma State  9,239  (-1,208)

49. Texas Tech  8,665  (+152)

53. Oklahoma  8,525  (-38)

62. Baylor  7,914  (+970)

71. Texas A&M  7,383  (-1,617)
NCAA


The successes of the 2012 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship have set the stage for the NCAA to celebrate 75 years of March Madness next season.

Near-record number of fans flocked to the games and associated events during the overall tournament in March and the 2012 Men’s Final Four in New Orleans March 31 and April 2. Viewership was strong as well, as all 67 tournament games were broadcast live by Turner and CBS for the second year.

Jeff Hathaway, chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, cited the expanded 68-team tournament field, strong parity in competition and the NCAA’s partnership with Turner and CBS as keys to this year’s accomplishments.

…Mark Lewis, NCAA executive vice president of championships and alliances, said the Association is planning a series of events and initiatives during the upcoming basketball season to celebrate the 75th season of March Madness. The events will culminate at the 2013 Men’s Final Four in Atlanta.

…As part of the 75th celebration, Lewis announced that all three NCAA divisions will play their 2013 tournament championship games in Atlanta.

The Divisions II and III championship games will join the Big Dance and be played on Sunday, April 7, between the Division I men’s semifinals on Saturday, April 6, and the Division I men’s championship on Monday, April 8.

Philips Arena is the tentative site of the Division II and III championships and exact times will be announced at a later time. The Division I semifinals and championship will be played at the Georgia Dome.

...73,361 fans attended the Final Four session on March 31, the second-highest attended session in NCAA tournament history.
...70,913 fans attended the National Championship Game on April 2, the third-highest title game attendance.
...144,274 fans attended the Final Four, the third-highest total attendance for the Final Four.
...1,566 media members were credentialed for the Final Four, the most in the history of the event.
...A record 200 countries across the globe received live broadcasts of the games.
...The semifinal games averaged a 9.0 Nielsen rating on CBS, the highest rated Final Four since 2005.
...The championship game delivered a 12.3 Nielsen rating on CBS, the second-highest rated championship game in seven years.
NCAA


The National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors met with NCAA president Mark Emmert on Thursday in Indianapolis and, according to at least one source in the room, there is support to close up a few transfer loopholes. The coaches and Emmert discussed making any player who wants to transfer sit out a year, even if he or she has graduated and is seeking a waiver to play immediately at a school that has a graduate program that isn’t available at the current school. The discussion also turned to the waiver that allows a player to play immediately if a relative is ill. That, too, would be closed. The consensus among the coaches is that if anyone transfers, he should sit out a year, even if that means a sixth year in college. The coaches also wanted some sort of universal language on transfer restrictions, maybe even an NCAA rule that forbids transferring within a conference. Conferences and schools create their own policies on restricting transfers.
Andy Katz


Apparently, there is plenty right with Nick Wright, a Kansas City native and the host of “What’s Wright,” the popular afternoon-drive sports talk show on KCSP (610 AM).

Rumors that he was leaving for “a top-five market” had been circulating for days, but confirmation came Thursday when Houston-based KILT (610 AM) announced that it had hired Wright to replace Marc Vandermeer. He will team will John Lopez on the station’s morning show beginning June 5.
KC Star


2012-13 Early Season Events List

Recruiting

The offers just keep rolling in for 2014 forward Chris McCullough.

“I got a lot of new offers, everything’s coming good,” the 6-foot-10 2014 forward told SNY.tv Saturday at the Mary Kline Classic. “Memphis and Kansas.”

McCullough previously held offers from North Carolina, UConn, Syracuse, Arizona, Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Villanova, Rutgers, Miami, Temple, West Virginia, Providence, Louisville, Georgetown, Florida, Seton Hall, Iowa State and Hofstra.

He plans to cut his list down to five or six later on this summer, with Kansas, UConn, Syracuse and St. John’s among those likely to make the cut.

Still, McCullough wanted to make it clear that UConn is not his dream school, despite recent comments attributed to him.

“No, no, that wasn’t true,” he said. “That wasn’t true at all.”

McCullough, who attends the Salisbury (Conn.) School, said he sees similarities between himself and 6-10 2013 forward Jermaine Lawrence, who was named MVP of the Mary Kline underclassmen game after he went for a game-best 27 points.

“Yeah, I mean I grew up with him so we play the same and stuff, same coaches,” McCullough said.

Lawrence has a smooth stroke from downtown and McCullough is also working on developing his outside shot to make his game more versatile.

McCullough plans to attend the Kevin Durant and LeBron James Skills Academies this summer and then cut his list after July.
Zag's Blog


For those that aren't yet familiar with Troy (Mich.) High's James Young, it's time to get acquainted. The 6-6 southpaw shooting guard has been one of the biggest stories of the spring, exploding onto the national scene behind his strong play with AAU squad The Family. While his rebounding remains a work in progress, his shooting and court vision are already polished. He is currently the No. 9 prospect in the class of 2013 and holds offers to Michigan State, Ohio State and Providence, with Kansas and Kentucky also expressing interest.
Rivals Bossi via SI


ESPN HS: Mac Irvin Fire profile


Spring/Summer Event Schedule


adidas Grassroots schedule


Nike EYBL Schedule


Check here for the NCAA Recruiting Calendar


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