Kansas
"I think the way we finished up was tremendous," Taylor, said. "I'm proud of how we fought all year and I'm proud of how we came as a team together throughout the process of how we got to the national championship game."
Taylor is on track to graduate from KU next month with a degree in Communications.
KSNT
The final piece of the puzzle has now been put into place, Miller School senior Andrew White III signed his NCAA National Letter of Intent to play at the University of Kansas on Monday at Alumni Gymnasium in Charlottesville.
The 6-6, 210-pound senior made the decision on Dec. 2 to attend the storied program that just happens to be the national runner-up before the Mavericks took the floor against Woodberry Forest.
"I like the spacing of how they run the offense," said White of why he picked Kansas. "They have multiple guards that have a lot of versatility and that's a skill I would like to perfect.
"They break people down off the dribble. They put a lot of shots up, they throw the alley-oop, they get out in transition and they get a lot of support."
The signing was a wonderful occassion, according to his family.
Miller School had about 75 people in attandance in Alumni Hall Gymnasium including immediate and extended family, friends, White's AAU coaches, Miller School coaches and students, players and their families as well as well as the school's headmaster and his wife and other faculty and administrators.
"I think what I really liked about the school, when I visited the campus, was its atmosphere and good academics," White added. "But one of the best things was the support the school had for its athletics."
Progress-Index
FB Video: Jeff Withey reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear
It’s not every day you get 10 minutes of individual instruction from Jerry West, one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
But Warriors forward Brandon Rush was the lucky player on the receiving end of that expertise after the team’s Wednesday morning shootaround.
“That was definitely a big thing to hear from him,” said Rush, who is averaging 9.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game this year. “He gave me a few pointers on what I need to work on and offered to work me out during the summertime.”
West is a Warriors minority owner and once in a while will pop into a practice. That’s what West did, imparting specific wisdom to Rush.
“Using your body well, how to draw fouls, how to create space,” responded Rush, when asked what West told him. “Just a quick tutorial on how to do those things.”
CSN Bay Area
Senior Aishah Sutherland received a standing ovation to conclude the Kansas women’s basketball year-end banquet and senior recognition ceremony held Wednesday night in the KU Union Ballroom.
After a highlight video to start the event, Kansas Athletics Director Sheahon Zenger welcomed the crowd of nearly 300 and congratulated the Jayhawks on their incredible NCAA Sweet 16 run. Head coach Bonnie Henrickson then addressed the group of staff, team and supporters before handing out the team awards.
Juniors Carolyn Davis and Angel Goodrich, sophomore Tania Jackson and freshman Natalie Knight were first acknowledged as members on the AD Honor Roll. Goodrich and Jackson also received plaques for earning Academic All-Big First Team honors, while Davis received her award for being named to the second team.
Next, a trio of Jayhawks was recognized for their All-Big 12 appointments. In 2011-12, Davis earned a spot on the first team, Goodrich on the second team and Sutherland on the honorable mention list. Davis and Goodrich remained on stage as the duo received awards for being named All-Americans. Davis was a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention and Goodrich was All-America Honorable Mention by both the WBCA and Associated Press.
Henrickson finished the award portion of the ceremony by presenting Davis and Goodrich with the Ms. Jayhawk Award, the evening’s top honor.
KU AD
David Booth will receive the KU School of Business’ Distinguished Alumni Award at a ceremony with Governor Sam Brownback on Thursday. Booth made international news in 2010 with his purchase of James Naismith’s original 13 rules of basketball. He is giving them to KU to house in a new facility to be built. But Booth has also done a number of other philanthropic things in the community and has seen national business success. He founded Dimensional Fund Advisors in 1981 and oversees the firm’s key corporate initiatives and strategic long-range planning as chairman and co-CEO.
Booth is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Kansas Endowment Association. The University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business was named in honor of David, where he also serves as a lifetime member of the school’s advisory council.
David Booth, who resides in Austin, Texas, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968 and a master’s in business in 1969 from the University of Kansas. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1971.
Thursday’s ceremony is a private event at the Oread.
6Lawrence
Big 12/College News
Turns out, the last of Pat Summitt’s incredible 1,098 victories as Tennessee’s women’s basketball coach came against Kansas in a Sweet 16 game in Des Moines, Iowa. The Vols overcame a halftime deficit and won 84-73 before losing to eventual NCAA champion Baylor in the regional final.
“I was thinking about that,” Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said Wednesday. “I guess we’re the answer to a trivia question.”
Henrickson hated the loss, but relished the opportunity to compete against one of the greatest coaches in any sport.
Tennessee announced Wednesday that Summitt, 59, is stepping down less than a year after she received a diagnosis of early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. Longtime assistant Holly Warlick will take over as head coach. Summitt becomes head coach emeritus and will continue to remain involved in recruiting on campus and player mentoring.
KC Star
The University of Texas men's basketball team will meet UCLA on Dec. 8 at Reliant Stadium.
The game will be the centerpiece of a basketball weekend at Reliant Park.
The UT/UCLA game will be part of a college basketball doubleheader.
The second game is not set yet, but it could involve two high profile women's teams.
Reliant Stadium officials are also planning a high school doubleheader the night before.
MyFoxHouston
The #Mizzou- UCLA basketball series is a home and home. At renovated Pauley Pavilion next season and at MU in 2013-14.
https://twitter.com/#!/BlumbergOTB/status/192718635729563651
Like jilted lovers, persistent telemarketers and overeager reality TV contestants, college basketball coaches and administrators rarely accept rejection gracefully.
Tulsa star Jordan Clarkson learned that firsthand this week when he informed the Golden Hurricane of his intent to transfer and submitted a list of nine schools he wanted to have permission to contact.
Even though the sophomore guard's father insists those nine are neither members of Conference USA nor future opponents for Tulsa, athletic director Ross Parmley only granted three of the schools permission to contact Clarkson. That leaves Clarkson with the option of transferring to Vanderbilt, Colorado or TCU if those schools have interest and a scholarship for him, or paying his own way at a school of his choice.
"I do believe it's an abuse of power," Mike Clarkson said. "Given what my son has done at the University of Tulsa and how he has conducted himself, what I asked for is what is the reasoning behind it. That is something we've actually requested and haven't gotten any answer on."
Tulsa spokesman Donald Komkalski declined to make Parmley available for an interview or to provide an explanation for the school's decision to restrict Clarkson's options. Speculation at Tulsa has been that Clarkson wanted to transfer to Texas or another power-conference program in his home state, but his father is adamant that the family still has not spoken to any coaches and no tampering has taken place.
In a year in which college basketball is on pace to produce a record number of transfers, similar disputes to the one between Clarkson and Tulsa are flaring up across the nation.
Yahoo
C.J. Leslie returning for his junior year at N.C. State is great news for the Wolfpack, its fans and coach Mark Gottfried. It's terrific for next year's prospects as well.
But it's even better for Leslie.
Leslie's trek from a raggedly-skilled freshman who seriously needed a basic course in Hoops 101 to a maturing young man has been a fascinating one. And it's to Leslie's credit he's made this decision.
The long-armed 6-foot-9 forward likely would have been a first-round pick this summer had he bolted, especially if it was all just about basketball. But in his case, it wasn't just about hoops and his unique potential. It was about questions regarding his attitude, character and the degree of risk a team would execute in drafting Leslie.
FSsports
The Toledo men's basketball team will be banned from next year's postseason because of past academic problems after the NCAA denied the school's appeal.
The ban stems from several years of below-standard scores on the NCAA's Academic Performance Rate that a year ago cost Toledo three scholarships.
AP
March Madness is over, but new data from Millennial Media and the Interactive Advertising Bureau shows just how much of a cross-platform phenomenon the NCAA tournament has become.
…The study did not break out usage by tablet, but research by comScore said 20% of total online traffic in the first round of the tournament was driven by tablets -- in this case, the iPad. The paywall likely pushed down traffic overall. Multichannel News reported that traffic to the NCAA site during the tournament fell 6% from last year to 51.6 million visits. The site averaged 1.1 million daily visitors, down 10%. Mobile traffic dropped only 1%.
The Millennial/IAB study found that 69% of those surveyed used their mobile device while watching the tournament. An equal proportion said the mobile option allowed them to access content conveniently. In addition to watching live games, nearly half of mobile users (48%) checked scores during the tournament, a quarter read about teams or players, 23% checked brackets and 20% watched highlights.
Among self-described “passionate fans,” 88% used their devices for March Madness-related activity, and 40% purchased a tournament-related app. Within this same group, more than a quarter (25%) followed the games mainly through their smartphone.
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Recruiting
ESPN HS All-Americans (Ellis 3rd team, Adams HM)
Wednesday was the final day of a "contact period" in which college basketball coaches can make recruiting visits, and at least a few were trying to take advantage of a last-minute opportunity to check in with South Carolina sophomore Damontre Harris, who has been granted permission to explore the option of transferring.
The only school on the Gamecocks' restricted list is N.C. State, meaning Harris could even transfer to an SEC rival.
Florida assistant coach John Pelphrey planned to fly to Columbia, S.C., on Wednesday afternoon, and a representative of Kansas had hopes of arriving Wednesday night, although the weather was going to make that difficult.
Ranked the No. 68 prospect in the prep class of 2010 by ESPN.com during his senior year at Trinity Christian in Fayetteville, Harris picked South Carolina over Florida, Wake Forest and Maryland. He averaged 6.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks last season, when he was named to the SEC All-Defensive team.
Fayetteville Observer
The tweet went out at 10:43 Tuesday night from the University of Memphis men's basketball Twitter account.
"Tony parker," the mysterious message read.
No explanation followed.
Instead, the tweet mentioning the name of an unsigned 2012 center prospect out of Lithonia, Ga., whom Memphis has long coveted was deleted a few minutes later.
The culprit: coach Josh Pastner. Turns out, Pastner mistakenly tweeted the name while trying to do a search for "Tony parker" on Twitter.
Though unintentional, the error still required that Memphis self-report the secondary violation of NCAA bylaws, which prohibit college coaches from publicly discussing unsigned recruits.
Memphis Commercial Appeal
4/20 Under Armour Hoop Group Jam Fest
4/20 adidas VIP Exclusive Run
4/21 Capital Classic (Andrew White) Official site linked now. Rosters listed.
Study hall first thing in the morning at an all star game! First time for everything I guess...
https://twitter.com/#!/AndrewWhite_34/status/192957318399397888
4/23 @TonyParker32 will announce his college decision, per his HS @coachswhite at @MillerGroveHoop.
https://twitter.com/#!/JustinDYoung/status/191991043678412801
4/27-29 Jayhawk Invitational
4/27-29 Real Deal in the Rock
adidas Grassroots schedule
Nike EYBL Schedule
Check here for the NCAA Recruiting Calendar (updated to reflect April Eval period changes)
My 2011-12 Border War, Legends of the Phog, KC Prep Invitational, KU Alumni games, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos and more now on Youtube