Kansas University has plans to build a two-story student center next to the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse that will serve as the new home for James Naismith’s original rules of basketball, KU officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Plans are still in the preliminary stages, and many details still have to be worked out, said Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment Association. An architect for the new building could be selected as soon as next month.
“It’ll be kind of the place to be on the southern edge of campus for students between classes to drop in, or for faculty to meet for lunch,” Seuferling said.
And the focal point, he said, will be a new exhibit for the rules. The building will be connected to the other historical exhibits in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics.
“I think it’s spectacular, actually,” said David Booth, an Austin, Texas-based investor who purchased Naismith’s original rules for $4.3 million at auction in December 2010 before donating them to KU. “The way things have worked out, I’m glad I was able to buy the rules.”
…The building will be funded entirely by private donors, Seuferling said. Several donations have been secured, but he declined to say how much money has been raised or to provide the names of people who have contributed so far.
LJW
For now, KU officials would prefer not to speculate on a final cost for the project. But a similar project — the construction of the Booth Family Hall of Athletics in front of Allen Fieldhouse, a 26,000-square foot museum of KU sports history — was completed in 2006 at a cost of $8 million. David Booth and his wife, Suzanne, were also part of a group that donated $5 million to that project.
For now, there’s no consensus on when construction may begin. But there does seem to be a general consensus among KU officials: This is where the rules should be.
KC Star
Spirit Day 2012 will be held Saturday, Sept. 8, it was announced by Catherine "Cat" Jarzemkoski, University of Kansas Spirit Squad Coordinator.
Participants will cheer on the Jayhawks with KU’s Cheerleaders and Rock Chalk Dancers inside Memorial Stadium for the first half of the football game versus Rice. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. that day.
KU AD
Your first week of syllabi and lectures are almost over, freshmen, but there’s still more to learn. The University of Kansas has some of the best traditions in the country, but there’s always room for improvement. Reaching the upperclassmen is useless at this point, so it’s up to you, class of 2016. Here are a few tips to make your first year on campus better for everyone:
It’s not “Home of the Chiefs.” Many of you will hear this for the first time in a few weeks in Memorial Stadium, a version of The Star-Spangled Banner praising a pro football team in a different state. Like the wave at a baseball game, the “Home of the Chiefs” chant is passed down annually without question, purpose or intelligence. Before joining your drunken cohorts before football and basketball games this year, ask yourself a simple question: Why are they cheering a pro football team in Missouri while at a college game in Kansas? If you come up with something other than “everyone else is doing it,” then by all means, continue. But when you don’t, and the urge is still strong to belt out the other version, just remember: You never had to watch a down of Turner Gill football. The least you can do in return is to slowly phase out this chant.
There is no “Woooo” in the Rock Chalk Chant. Teddy Roosevelt once called it the greatest college chant he had ever heard. When done right, it’s nothing short of haunting. Then, sometime in the past, fans started wooing between verses of the song like a bunch of 12-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. Don’t act like a bunch of 12-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.
Don’t leave at halftime of football games. They have these things now called refrigerators that keep beverages cold, so you can actually attend an entire football game and come back to a cold drink. There’s no excuse for following the herd of students out of the stands and back to the tailgate at halftime. Unless the team is down 24 points or something; then all bets are off.
Wear blue shirts to basketball games, not red. Everyone owns one or twelve blue Kansas shirts, but there’s always a handful of people who can’t conform and throw on something blue. Conformity can be fun.
Don’t be afraid to call it red and not crimson. Oklahoma is crimson. Kansas is red. You might get dirty looks from University employees or rabid fans, but show them a color wheel and you’ll win every time.
Kansas State is not suddenly your biggest rival. Kansas never fought Kansas State in a war. Until then, your biggest rival is still Missouri. A fierce rivalry is tough to maintain without playing one another, but the United States and the Soviet Union did it for decades. How hard can it be?
UDK
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Kansas 2012-13 Schedule
Big 12/College News
Two of the nation's elite programs rely on big men with weight problems.
That's the truth.
And though UCLA's Josh Smith has given no indication that he's seriously trying to get his issue under control -- coach Ben Howland publicly expressed disappointment with Smith's conditioning earlier this week -- there seems to be hope at Michigan State, where big-bodied center Derrick Nix has announced he's becoming a vegetarian.
"I've decided to change my life in a different way," Nix tweeted this week, according to MLive.com's Diamond Leung."As of 9/20/12, I am a vegetarian and will remain this way until 9/20/13. ... I just want to stay in shape."
CBS
Eduardo Najera, the first Mexican-born player drafted in the NBA, retired Wednesday to become the coach of the NBA Development League's Texas Legends.
AP
ESPN Tip-Off Marathon schedule
2012-13 Early Season Events List
Recruiting
Hampton (Va.) High School senior basketball point guard Anthony “Cat” Barber will make an official recruiting visit to Kansas University Aug. 31-Sept. 2, his mother reported Wednesday.
Pam Barber told SNY.tv that the 6-foot-2 Barber would also visit Louisville (Sept. 7-9), North Carolina State (Sept. 14-16) and Alabama (Sept. 21-23).
… KU will hold an in-home visit on Sept. 10 with No. 70-rated Demetrius Jackson, a 6-1 senior point guard from Mishawaka, Ind. He has an in-home with Illinois on Sept. 9
…No. 33-rated Marcus Lee, a 6-9 senior forward from Deer Valley High in Antioch, Calif., will visit Duke on Oct. 27-28, Zagsblog.com reports. He will also visit Louisville (Sept. 7), Kentucky (Oct. 12) and Indiana (Oct. 20). He has set in-home visits with KU (Oct. 6) and Kentucky (Oct. 16) and has already visited UCLA and California unofficially.
LJW
Julius Randle says he has no problem with the Harrison Twins and would consider joining them and Andrew Wiggins in a potential blockbuster recruiting class at Kentucky in the fall of 2013.
“I think I’ve said it before, we would have the best class, if not the best class they’ve had before,” the 6-foot-9 Randle out of Plano (Texas) Prestonwood Christian told SNY.tv Wednesday by phone from the Under Armor Elite 24 game in Venice Beach, Calif.
Randle, the Harrison Twins and Wiggins are all slated to compete in the game Saturday night on ESPNU.
The 6-7 Wiggins is mulling reclassifying to 2013 from 2014 and his brother, Wichita State wing Nick Wiggins, recently said he’d like to see Andrew move to 2013 and go to Kentucky.
Wiggins out-dueled Randle at the Peach Jam in July in a highly publicized game that we covered here, but Randle said if Wiggins pulled the trigger for Kentucky, he would consider joining him there.
“Yeah, I’ve talked to Andrew a little bit,” Randle said. “If he went to Kentucky I wouldn’t consider not going there. I like Andrew and I like his game a lot. Like I’ve said before, playing with other great players makes the game easier.”
Speaking of great players, Randle said he has no problem with Aaron and Andrew Harrison and isn’t sure where the Internet rumors to the contrary came from.
“Yeah, I don’t know where that came from, but that’s not true at all,” Randle said.
“I mean, people try to start rumors all the time. I don’t know if it’s for Websites or anything, but I have no problem playing with them.”
Zags Blog
Jabari Parker, considered the consensus top basketball recruit in the 2013 class, took an unofficial visit to Stanford on Monday, his father, former NBA player Sonny Parker said.
Parker was out in California with his mother Lola and his brother Christian, who is a student at the University of Washington.
"Jabari is out in California visiting his cousin," Sonny Parker said. "He did an unofficial visit to Stanford, visiting with coach Johnny Dawkins. He visited last year as well. He said he enjoyed the visit. He'll be home from California next week. Hopefully, we can narrow down which schools he'll visit this fall at that time."
USA Today
Just got done playing pick up with James Harden,Brandon Jennings,and Demar Derozen #Elite24
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