WEDNESDAY

Kansas Jayhawks

Johnson bruised his left knee in the KU men’s basketball team’s Nov. 20 victory over Saint Louis. It was the same knee he had surgery on in April.

The Las Vegas native appeared to have much better bounce against CU.

“I’m feeling real healthy right now,” Johnson said. “My knee hasn’t been feeling bad, but it just wasn’t feeling great. Right now, it’s feeling great. Just working out with ‘Cheddar’ (Bill Cowgill) every day — our trainer — he’s just getting me right, pushing me and making me do some things that I didn’t think that I could do. And I think it’s starting to show on the floor.”

Johnson said the sessions with Cowgill haven’t been fun.

“He usually tries to make me do something that he knows I don’t like to do, or something that my body responds to significantly,” Johnson said. “Lately, we’ve just been working on some explosion stuff, some lateral movement and just getting it going every day.”

This past week, Johnson said he’s felt more comfortable jumping, and because of that, he’s been doing it more.

…Johnson received a nice surprise during the game Saturday, as at halftime, he looked to the crowd thinking he might have seen his sister, Terrin.

The senior left his team’s layup line, walking toward the Colorado bench while squinting to try to figure out if he was actually seeing his sister.

Both Terrin and Elijah’s mother, Yolanda Brown, had made the trip from Indiana to watch him play without telling him they were coming.

“I looked up at halftime, and I saw my sister Terrin standing up. I thought I was tripping at first,” Johnson said. “Then I looked again, and I actually walked down there, and I saw them. It kind of just caught me off-guard.”

Johnson wrapped his arm around his sister during most of his postgame interview while his mother stood a few steps away in a red, “15 mom” T-shirt.
LJW


Kansas guard Ben McLemore has drawn all sorts of comparisons during his short time at KU. And just eight games into his redshirt freshman season, McLemore’s play has sparked a flood of others. Some see Brandon Rush. Some see a young Dominique Wilkins. Fortunately for us, we have stats for this.

At KenPom.com, the spreadsheets and formulas spit out similarity scores for nearly every player in college basketball. There are a couple rules, and here’s one important one: The comparisons can be made across years, but only among guys that are in the same class. Example: Junior season Thomas Robinson can’t be compared to sophomore Blake Griffin.

So what do the stats say? To whom does McLemore best compare?
KC Star


LJW: Who feeds Jeff Withey the best?


Kansas

1952 - team

Clyde and Danny - players

2008 comeback - moment
NCAA lists all-time great March Madness players, teams, moments


In honor of its flagship tournament's dodranscentennial (say that five times fast) anniversary, the NCAA is breaking form with a similarly inequitably distributed, outdated governing elite andnot hosting its own Diamond Jubilee. Probably a good choice. Instead, on Tuesday morning the NCAA launched its first foray into all-time lists of tourney superlatives -- the "Top 75 All-Time March Madness Players, 25 All-Time March Madness Teams and 35 All-Time Madness Moments." You can see the complete lists here, at the NCAA's web site.

At first, I assumed these lists were the final word, which made me wonder why they were released in the middle of a dreary mid-December finals week. Alas, that's because these lists are merely the start of the conversation. In early January, fans will be able to vote for the top 15 players, as well as the No. 1 team and No. 1 moment in the tournament's lifespan. And if there's one thing I know about college basketball fans on the Internet, it is when their favorite school's history is a matter of debate and/or democracy, they show up.
ESPN


Kansas 2012-13 MBB Schedule


Kansas 2012-13 WBB Schedule

Big 12/College News

The latest blizzard of universities jumping from one conference to another spurred a flurry of email among University of Cincinnati officials last month. UC leaders believed the school could get into the Atlantic Coast Conference with the Big 12 as a secondary option, the emails show.

The ACC likely remains UC’s top option, even after the conference chose Louisville as its 14th member, bypassing UC. UC hopes to leave the declining Big East Conference, where both UC and Louisville compete now.

“Big 10 and ACC moves ... could cause Big 12 perhaps to rethink staying at 10 schools,” UC Athletic Director Whit Babcock emailed to President Santa Ono on Nov. 18, before the ACC announced its decision. “We need to focus on both ACC (primarily) but also Big 12.”
Cincinnati Enquirer


From 2014-25, the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC will earn an average of at least $91 million annually, sources told ESPN. By comparison, the average for the group of five -- Big East, Mountain West, Mid-American, Conference USA and Sun Belt -- during that 12-year period will be about $17.25 million annually.

The BCS recently signed a 12-year contract with ESPN. The deal averages $470 million annually, sources said. Of that amount, about $125 million is expected to go toward expenses, including an academic reward component, game participation, team expenses, allotment to Football Championship Subdivision conferences and other items.

That's big money, and that's only for the new postseason. Never mind all the TV money rolling in for the Big 12. For the 14-team leagues like the SEC and Big Ten, that's only $6.5 million more per school.

In the Big 12, that's $9.1 million per school. That's a big, big difference. Schools take notice, too. That $2.6 million extra can go a long way.

For whatever money the Big 12 earns, there are fewer "slices of pie" and fewer "mouths to feed."
ESPN


On Tuesday the NCAA released a mother lode of lists. With the 75th anniversary of the NCAA tournament culminating later this season, it's high time to start paying tribute and attention to the teams, players, coaches and moments that have made that big bracket one of the best things about American sports.

Of course, our CBSSports.com college hoops team of Jeff Borzello, Jeff Goodman, Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish couldn't let a few lists leak out like this without having something to say about who/what got snubbed. Let's get to the quibbling.
CBS


The Oklahoma State men's basketball team hopes to have a big welcoming party when Gonzaga visits on New Year's Eve. The Cowboys sports information office announced Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 that it will be giving away 4,000 tickets for the game.

For that game Oklahoma State will be hosting No. 14 Gonzaga at5 p.m. Central on Dec. 31.

OSU alum and benefactor T. Boone Pickens bought all the tickets that were available, about 4,000, for the game and is giving them to Cowboy fans.
Link


Hall-of-Fame coach Lute Olson has yet another accolade to add to a long list of career achievements. Today, the Atlanta Tipoff Club named Olson winner of the 2012 Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men’s College Basketball Award.

Created in 1982, the Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men’s Basketball Award is presented annually to an individual whose extraordinary efforts have made contributions of outstanding significance and have created a long-lasting positive impact on the game of basketball. The winner displays character, integrity and dignity, and has contributed mightily to the growth, success and viability of basketball. To be eligible, an individual must have been involved with the sport in a capacity related to coaching, broadcasting, college administration or the news media.  Curt Gowdy won the inaugural award.
NCAA


The BracketBusters is no more. After 10 years, ESPN is ending its mid-major-themed event.

MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor broke the news on Twitter this morning: "ESPN to end the BracketBusters event after this season." ESPN later confirmed.

“BracketBusters has been a unique event for 11 years, producing memorable games and moments while generating national exposure for the participating schools and conferences," ESPN said via a statement. "Given the evolving college landscape, we felt the event in its present form has run its course. We'll continue to work with our conference partners to develop new, creative events to further grow the sport. Our goal is to maintain the BracketBusters brand in some fashion in the future.”
Link


2012-13 Early Season Events List


Big 12 Composite Schedule

Recruiting

North senior Conner Frankamp’s final two threes in the third quarter of Tuesday’s game against visiting Kapaun Mount Carmel were quintessential Frankamp. First he dribbled slowly to the top of the key and spotted up so quickly to knock down the three. With one second to go in the period, he nailed a three over a Kapaun defender.

Frankamp’s 34 points were vital in North’s 75-44 win over Kapaun, which suffered its first loss and fell to 3-1.

“Conner is what Conner is,” Kapaun coach John Cherne said. “He’s a good player in the state of Kansas. He’s going to do fine up in Kansas. But what are you going to do with the rest of those players? They’re role players. They fill in those gaps…. Conner will get his, but you have to fill in those gaps and you have to play defense against everybody else to keep them from getting theirs.”

Frankamp hit 11 of 24 field goals, was 7 of 15 from three, 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.
Wichita Eagle


KC Star: Five things to watch at the Hy-Vee Shootout


The most talked about high school basketball prospect in Chicago history will quiet some of the chatter very soon. Simeon's Jabari Parker is set to announce where he will play his college basketball.

The 6-8 All-American and 2012 National Player of the Year, who is the No. 2 ranked player in the country in the Class of 2013, will announce his decision next Thursday, Dec. 20 at Simeon High School at 3 p.m. Duke, BYU, Florida, Michigan State and Stanford are among his final five.

Depending on who you listen to, either Duke or Michigan State appear to be the schools to beat. Florida, however, has always been the darkhorse and lingering around, even when coach Billy Donovan and his Gators weren't given much of a chance in the early rounds of this recruiting slugfest. While it seems so many have Duke as the favorite -- one national website had five of their six "experts" predicting Duke as his destination -- the City/Suburban Hoops Report has swayed between Michigan State and Florida.
Chicago Sun-Times


My 2012 KU Alumni games, 2011-12 Border War, Legends of the Phog, KC Prep Invitational, & Jayhawk Invitational Videos, Late Night in the Phog, and more now on YouTube