H/T to @jaredadunn
To honor our 4 (5) Seniors...they each get a logo. Just because I can
12:02 PM - 05 Mar 13
Shout out to the old heads for holding things down so far... instagr.am/p/WfC7LcF6EG/
https://twitter.com/AndrewWhite03
Feeling a bit sentimental — and comfortable with his Kansas University basketball players holding a 34-point lead — Bill Self let his players look at the videoboard in lieu of listening to him during a TV time out with 7:14 left in Monday’s 79-42 rout of Texas Tech in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Our scoreboard is great. It’s kind of a pain for me. Our players want to watch it. It’s hard to get their attention,” Self, KU’s 10th-year coach, said on his Tuesday Hawk Talk radio show. “Yesterday, the seniors’ ‘Pop-Up Video’ came on. Why not let ‘em watch it? It was kind of a unique game.”
So with the Jayhawks leading, 69-35, on Senior Night, Self told seniors Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford, Jeff Withey and Kevin Young to enjoy the video instead of listening to him bark orders with the game well in hand.
“Trust me, it wouldn’t have been like that last year on Senior Night against Missouri. We didn’t care about the ‘Pop-Up Video’ last year,” Self said of KU claiming a come-from-behind overtime win over the Tigers. “Last night was a little bit different.”
LJW
Pollard was in Indiana attending one of his daughter’s games Monday night when he started receiving texts about Withey’s 3-pointer.
Despite Self’s jest, Pollard said it’s true that Withey is the better shooter of the two players. Pollard rarely strayed from the basket on the offensive end and was more of a bruising post player than Withey.
“I was a banger and a rebounder and the fifth option on a team of five players,” Pollard said. “Sometimes I was the sixth option even if I was on the court. Sometimes they’d give it to Paul (Pierce) twice before they’d think about giving it to me, which was always a good decision.”
By making that 3-pointer against Texas Tech on Monday, Withey joined Pollard as the only Jayhawks to make their only 3-point attempt in their careers.
Pollard’s 3-pointer came on his Senior Night in 1997 against Kansas State, a 78-58 Kansas victory. Roy Williams, Kansas’ coach at the time, wasn’t aware Pollard planned on shooting a 3-pointer, but Pollard had every intention of doing so.
“I was thoughtfully planning it out,” Pollard said. “I wanted to show Coach Williams all the 3-pointers he had missed out on during my whole career and I figured if ever there was a time that coach Williams would not take me out of the game for shooting a 3-pointer it would be on Senior Night.”
It was Pollard’s first game back after missing time with a sprained ankle, so his minutes were limited. But before Williams took Pollard out of the game for the final time at home, Pollard had the opportunity to launch a shot from beyond the arc on a secondary break.
“I trailed into the break, and nobody was guarding me because as Coach Williams used to say, ‘Sometimes there’s a reason you’re wide open there big fella,’” Pollard said. “Nobody was guarding me and I just thought, hey what the hell, I’m not going to get a chance to shoot a 3-pointer in Allen Fieldhouse during a real game again. I threw it up there and it went in.”
Like Self did Monday night, Williams took his big man’s playful moment in stride.
“I went over to him and I said, ‘I told you I could shoot threes,’” Pollard said. “He just laughed. He said, ‘OK big fella just don’t shoot anymore.’”
UDK
"That's exactly right," Sutton says with a laugh. "That's what I've thought many times."
Twice in the past 20 years, Sutton advised his young protégé to beware the pitfalls of a particular job opening, and twice Self cut his own path to greatness.
It was 20 years ago this Friday that Self, an Okmulgee native, Edmond product and Oklahoma State alumnus, got his first head coaching gig.
New ORU president Richard Roberts called Self at 11:15 on a Sunday night, March 8, 1993, and Self was introduced as the Titans' new coach the next day. A month later, continuing its reboot from 20 years as a maverick and two years in the NAIA, the school changed its nickname to Golden Eagles, and things at 81st and Lewis have been rolling ever since.
So has Self, whose career record has climbed to 502-162.
"Time does fly," Self told the Tulsa World in a phone interview Tuesday. "And it flies faster when times are good, and we've had some good times."
After Ken Trickey was let go following a 5-22 season, Oral Roberts opened up a national search for its next basketball coach.
It came down to Self (then an Oklahoma State assistant under Sutton) and Northeastern A&M head coach Lonnie Spencer (an ORU alum). Self got the job because of his recruiting acumen (he landed Fred Burley and Randy Rutherford and was instrumental in getting Bryant Reeves to OSU), then went 6-21 in 1993-94 and 10-17 in 1994-95.
"I will tell you, those first two years we spent at ORU," he said, "it felt like six years."
Self hasn't had anything remotely close to a losing record ever since, winning at least 21 games 16 times in 18 seasons and breaking new ground at ORU, Tulsa, Illinois and, for the past 10 seasons, at Kansas.
"It's been fun," Self said. "But it's been a learning experience, and every step of the way has really prepared us for the next step. It's been really cool for Cindy and me to be a part of it. It's been a fun journey for us."
Oral Roberts nearly hired Spencer in 1992, but after much prayer and personal deliberation about his good friend and confidant Trickey, Roberts let Trickey coach another season.
If Roberts had hired Spencer that year, where would Self be today?
Or, if Self had gotten that first head coaching job he so desperately wanted at Oklahoma City University before the Chiefs hired Darrel Johnson in 1990? Or if Self had been hired by Missouri instead of Quin Snyder in 1999? Or by Wichita State instead of Mark Turgeon in 2000?
"Garth Brooks is right: Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers," Self said. "I think that happens in everybody's life. Sometimes what we think we want or what we think is best isn't always the case. It happens that way in our profession all the time."
Self is just as glad he didn't take Sutton's career advice 20 years ago.
"I said, 'Bill, I don't think that (ORU) is an easy job. That's pretty difficult,' " Sutton told the World on Tuesday. " 'I'm not telling you to take it or not take it. But there will probably be other opportunities if you stay.' But he took it and just did a marvelous job."
A decade later, Self had another opportunity that Sutton figured he might be best served to steer clear of.
"When he got ready to go to Kansas, I said, 'Bill, you can't even come close to what Roy Williams has accomplished up there,' " Sutton said. " 'The only thing you can do that he didn't get done is win a national title. Other than that, there's no way.' "
Of course, all Self has done in Lawrence is win 84 percent of his games, eight (soon to be nine) consecutive conference titles and the 2007-08 national championship.
Self recalls another bit of advice he got from Sutton before he took the reins at ORU.
"We were in the NCAA Tournament at Oklahoma State," Self said. "He said, 'Bill, you can go over there and work, but I want you be with the team and not actually start until our season is over at Oklahoma State.' I said, 'Coach, thanks. That's great.' He said, 'Yeah, you need to enjoy the NCAA Tournament because it's gonna be a long time before you play in one again.' "
It was three years until Self had ORU at 21-7 and in the National Invitation Tournament, and two years after that before he guided Tulsa to a 23-10 record and to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"We lost 18 games in a row at the beginning," Self remembers from that 1993-94 season at ORU. "But then that same core group of guys won 31 of our last 38 and had some success against the big boys. It was so much fun to be a part of that."
Said Sutton, "I always knew Bill would be a very, very good head coach. He just had some wonderful qualities. He's a good recruiter, had good rapport with players, good work habits. And he was very, very good on his feet, speaking-wise. I knew he would be a head coach.
"What he's done at Kansas, I just am so happy for him."
Tulsa World
GROWING UP in Lawrence, Rich Clarkson and his friends would ride their bikes to the University of Kansas's central power plant and explore the tunnels that ran beneath the campus. The game was to guess where they would come out. One day they emerged in Robinson Gymnasium during a basketball practice. Jayhawks coach Forrest C. (Phog) Allen introduced himself to the boys and allowed them to stay and observe. Clarkson was mesmerized by the sights and sounds of the players as they passed, shot, ran—even when they took their water breaks.
A decade later, in the fall of 1951, Clarkson was a freshman at Kansas, and he asked Allen if he could ride to away games on the team bus; the coach said yes. The timing couldn't have been more fortuitous: The Jayhawks would go on to win the first of their three NCAA titles, and Clarkson would be one of only five photographers who traveled to Seattle for the championship weekend. He has been a Final Four fixture ever since, toting his cameras from courts to locker rooms to planes to shoot 59 championships, snapping photos of almost all of the game's legends. His first picture published by SI—the Wilt Chamberlain portrait on the following page—was shot in 1955 when Clarkson was a senior at Kansas; many more would follow in the 30 years he spent as a contract photographer for the magazine. "I'm always trying to do different things," the 80-year-old Clarkson says. "I'll look for a different angle for a shot or a different place on the court to photograph from. But you always have to be sure that you are ready for that signature moment in the game."
SI: Through the lens of Rich Clarkson
With under a minute left, Kansas University point guard Angel Goodrich took a few dribbles into the lane, glanced to her left and at the same time flipped a push pass back to her right.
Waiting for it was teammate Carolyn Davis, who put in the layup that left KU fans with one final highlight from their two star seniors in a 74-67 victory over TCU.
“When it happened, I was kind of like, ‘There you go.’ It kind of just sums up what we do best,” Davis said with a smile. “It was exciting that we got this win. We didn’t make it easy on ourselves, but it was a good win.”
LJW
UDK: WBB seniors reflect on careers as Jayhawks
VOTE for Wooden Award nominees McLemore & Withey
VOTE for Kansas players, team, and moment in NCAA 75th Anniversary of March Madness (Vote for Wilt, Clyde, Danny, 51-52 Kansas, Mario's Miracle)
Kansas 2012-13 MBB Schedule
Big 12/College News
Baylor point guard Pierre Jackson has all but wrapped the Big 12’s scoring (19.1) and assists (6.45) titles, which will make him the first league player to accomplish that. Kansas ’ Ben McLemore is the second-leading scorer (16.5), and Iowa State’s Korie Lucious is second in assists (5.62).
Kansas, naturally, will win the home attendance crown with a 16,438 average. Iowa State is second (13,354) and Kansas State third (12,528). Texas was fourth in tickets sold (10,945) but an estimated sixth in live gate. Lots of no-shows.
At the opposite end is TCU (4,823). West Virginia, the other newcomer, averaged 8,701 to place seventh.
Austin-Statesman
Had Indiana clinched its first outright league title since 1993 by beating Ohio State, the Hoosiers could have celebrated in front of a sellout crowd by donning championship hats, cutting down the nets at Assembly Hall and hoisting a Big Ten trophy.
Instead Indiana staggered to a surprising 67-58 loss Tuesday night ... and still did all the rest of that stuff anyway.
In a coronation that felt anticlimactic and ill-timed, Indiana president Michael McRobbie awarded the team with a silver Big Ten championship trophy at the end of senior night festivities even though the Hoosiers still have one more conference game to play. They've known they'll have at least a share of the league title since Michigan State and Wisconsin both lost this past weekend, but they'll only earn it outright by winning at Michigan on Sunday.
Yahoo Sports
Kansas State is tired of seeing Kansas rule the Big 12. The Wildcats have a chance to finally end the Jayhawks run atop the conference.
The Wildcats are tied with the Jayhawks with each team having one game left after a 79-68 victory over TCU on Tuesday night. If Kansas State wins and Kansas loses the Wildcats will win their first title since 1977. Kansas holds the tiebreaker between the teams having beaten their rival twice this season.
The Jayhawks close out their regular season at Baylor.
"We're tired of KU dominating, basically," Martavious Irving said. "We want to make some changes around here, so that's what we work toward every day."
AP
The trophy case that greets fans next to the Section 17 entrance at Bramlage Coliseum is big enough for five pieces of hardware, and they’re all for championships, Big Eight championships. The year “1977” is etched on the plate of the most recent. Kansas State isn’t hiding the newer versions. They don’t exist.
Because the Wildcats beat TCU 79-68 on Tuesday, the collection can expand.
K-State worked for the outcome. The lowly Horned Frogs, looking to reprise their remarkable conquest of Kansas, closed the gap to four in the second half, and had the home fans booing loudly over over non-call with 4 minutes remaining. Nobody should have cared by then.
But the winningest senior class in Kansas State history — Rodney McGruder, Jordan Henriquez and Martavious Irving — got to deliver quick, happy speeches after their 99th career victory and school-record 25th regular-season triumph this season and turn their attention to Saturday.
One game for a ring. A rugged chore on Saturday at Oklahoma State, and K-State won’t be favored. The Cowboys could have the same incentive, depending on the outcome of tonight’s game at Iowa State.
But to arrive at this place, tied for first with Kansas at 14-3, to hear the type of pregame speech from coach Bruce Weber that players haven’t heard, to have the nervous energy that only those on the cusp of a title feel, is an occasion to be savored.
Had a call or two gone the other way last week in Kansas’ victory over Iowa State, nets might have been snipped at Bramlage on Tuesday. Weber gave his Wildcats the goal of celebrating a league title on Senior Day. But it wasn’t to be.
KC Star
It's the end of an era for the house that cigarettes built.
The Devaney Sports Center will host its last college basketball game Wednesday night when Nebraska plays Minnesota, ending a 37-year run as the home of the Cornhuskers.
After a $20 million facelift, it will reopen in the fall as the women's volleyball venue. The basketball teams, which moved into a new practice facility in 2011, will play games in the Pinnacle Bank Arena just west of campus.
''We're going to have state-of-the-art facilities for any major college basketball team or any professional franchise,'' first-year coach Tim Miles said. ''At the same time, it's a sentimental time because there is so much historical value to the Devaney.''
Nebraska certainly isn't a bastion of basketball tradition. The Huskers haven't won a conference championship since 1950 or any of their six all-time NCAA tournament games.
But on the Devaney court, Nebraska has won 75 percent of its games overall (446-148) and 60 percent of its conference games (166-111).
AP
The Big 12 has put on some of the most entertaining football games over the past five years. The conference’s high-scoring, up-tempo style has attracted plenty of TV viewers and helped the Big 12 agree to a 13-year, $2.6 billion deal with ESPN and FOX last September.
But attendance has declined in football and basketball each of the last five years, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman, as fans find more ways to watch games on different platforms and more comfortably from their homes.
“In some measure, we are in competition with our own initiatives,” Bowlsby told Tramel. “We have put together television packages that have been made so available, so affordable, so quality, people are staying away… College kids want the game time to be at 7 p.m. so they can party all day. Young families, they’ve got Pop Warner football and activities, so they want later in the afternoon. Older folks, they want us to play at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and don’t understand why we just don’t tell TV people to go to hell.”
Bowlsby said that TV revenue accounted for around 10 percent of revenue during his first year as Iowa State’s athletic director in 1990 but that money made from media contracts now accounts for half of the Big 12 schools’ revenue. Because it’s so much easier for fans to watch games on TV than in person, attendance has been constantly declining.
“It’s the comparison of live vs. your living,” Bowlsby continued. “Where will it go? (Home,) it’s a comfy seat. Don’t have to wait in any lines. Restrooms are always there for you. Got a 50-yard line seat. We better be figuring out a way to give you something at the stadium that you can’t get at home.”
In an effort to bring more people to the games to watch them, Bowlsby believes the Big 12 should to more to accommodate fans when they attend them.
“Make sure every stadium has wifi capabilities. It’s an expensive undertaking,” Bowlsby told Tramel. “We’re looking at bringing in live feeds from other venues, show you not just highlights, but live feeds… There is a resistance point for students and the general public: $25 to park, $85 ticket or more, $6 hot dog, $4 bottle of water, make a contribution to get a better seat. That Saturday is not really inexpensive.”
Dallas MN
Drake started his career in the acting world, and will make somewhat of a return by lending his voice to film. Drizzy was announced today as narrator of the Turner Sports documentary, Bluegrass Kingdom: The Gospel of Kentucky Basketball, to air on TruTV next week.
The hour-long documentary highlights the storied legacy of the University of Kentucky's basketball program. Bluegrass Kingdom will include first-hand accounts from sports notables like former UK player, Pat Riley, Jamal Mashburn, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and coaches Joe B. Hall and John Calipari.
The past of the program's first coach, and pivotal moments in the team's history like the 1966 NCAA Championship game against Texas Western College's all-Black team, will also be featured. “We are excited to add premier original content to our Turner Sports networks and are proudly looking forward to March and our newest documentary: Bluegrass Kingdom: The Gospel of Kentucky Basketball on truTV,” Turner Sports' senior VP of strategy. marketing, and programming, Christina Miller said, in a statement to Hip-Hop Wired. “The story of Kentucky basketball fits in line with our ambition to continue developing stories that will captivate our viewers."
Presented by Infiniti, Bluegrass Kingdom is the second feature in a series of documentaries centered around collegiate basketball programs, and will usher in the 2013 NCAA tournament.
Drake has a longstanding connection to the team. He's coached an alumni charity Wildcats game, and credited Calipari for inspiring him to get his high school diploma.
LOL
SI: The Ultimate College Basketball Broadcaster Draft
Big 12 Tourney Info for KC Visitors
The Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship returns to Dallas for the fourth time, but makes its first appearance in the American Airlines Center – home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
Single-session tickets are on sale for $20 and $17 plus fees, for reserved seats. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster by calling 1-800-745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com. They can also be purchased at the American Airlines Center box office. The box office accepts Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express and cash as methods of payment.
Extensive video coverage of the entire Championship can be found via the Big 12 Digital Network at Big12Sports.com. The video will include first round games on March 8 and links to live and archived postgame press conferences of all games. In addition, exclusive postgame coverage of the Championship trophy ceremony can be found on Monday, March 11.
Quarterfinals through the final will be aired on FSN.
2013 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship
March 8-11 ~ Dallas, Texas ~ American Airlines Center
Friday, March 8 [Big 12 Digital Network]
Game 1: No. 8 K-State vs. No. 9 Texas 6:00 p.m.
Game 2: No. 7 Kansas vs. No. 10 TCU 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 9 [FSN]
Game 3: No. 4 Texas Tech vs. No. 5 Oklahoma State 11:00 a.m.
Game 4: No. 1 Baylor vs. Game 1 Winner 1:30 p.m.
Game 5: No. 2 Iowa State vs. Game 2 Winner 6:00 p.m.
Game 6: No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 West Virginia 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 10 [FSN]
Game 7: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner 1:00 p.m.
Game 8: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner 3:30 p.m.
Monday, March 11 [FSN]
Game 9: Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner 7:00 p.m.
Big 12 WBB Championship
Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results
RPI and SOS Team Comparison Calculator
Recruiting
Was just told I was added to the McDonald AA game .. So blessed man
Julius Randle @J30_RANDLE
3/5/13, 3:15 PM
“@TiltonSchool: Co-Male Athletes of the Winter: @tiltonbvhockey's Brenden Cain and @TiltonBVHoops @WayneSelden23” Roommates strike again#212
https://twitter.com/wayneselden23
Quarterfinal #1: Notre Dame Prep 78 Massanutten Military 76 (OT)
In what was a hard-fought, back n' forth affair throughout, Notre Dame Prep defeated Massanutten Military Academy in OT of the first quarterfinal match-up of the day to advance on to the National Prep Showcase Semifinals. Massanutten came out of the gate with fire, winning the battle of the boards in the 1st half to take a seven-point-lead into the break, but the 2nd half was a different story, as Notre Dame turned up the volume to swing the momentum-pendulum back their way.
Massa was led by 19 point from Miami-bound scoring guard Deandre Burnett, while Kansas-bound floor general Frank Mason added 13 and Maryland-bound Damonte Dodd provided a menacing presence inside.
National Prep Basketball Championship
Top-seeded Massanutten Military Academy's postgraduate boys basketball team made it a short stay in the eight-team National Prep Championship at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Conn.
The Colonels extended the game past 40 minutes of regulation time, but ultimately fell 78-76 in overtime to Notre Dame Prep (Mass.) on Tuesday morning.
"They just made tough shots in the second half," MMA coach Chad Myers said. "I didn't think we played great. It was one of those things where we missed a few shots we could have made, had a few turnovers. That being said, we were still in position to win with 10 seconds to play and just missed one in front of the rim."
The Colonels jumped out to a 25-14 lead and still held a 34-27 advantage at halftime. But Notre Dame Prep steadily cut into that lead to eventually force overtime.
And in the extra frame, it was the eighth-seeded Notre Dame which made enough shots to advance to Wednesday's semifinals.
"You can have a great season, and we beat most of these teams during the season," said Myers, whose squad finished the year 30-4. "But it's a situation where you've got to put three games together at the right time."
NV Daily
Half of the Kansas state basketball tournaments get going today, with the Class 6A boys kicking off the action at Wichita State’s Koch Arena, the Class 5A girls tipping off at Topeka’s Kansas Expocentre and the Class 4A boys getting underway at the Salina Bicentennial Center.
1 Is this BV Northwest’s year?
Wichita North, 20-2, and Shawnee Mission East, 20-2, are formidable, but undefeated Blue Valley Northwest wouldn’t have to worry about either team until the Class 6A final. The Huskies, 22-0 and ranked No. 18 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 national poll, reached the title game each of the last three seasons only to lose to Wichita Heights — but with Perry Ellis now at Kansas, the path is laid out for coach Ed Fritz’s junior-laden squad finally to attain championship glory. Led by Iowa State-bound point guard Clay Custer, the journey begins at 3 p.m. today against upstart Lawrence Free State, 11-11.
KC Star
6:30: BV West vs. Wichita North
No. 7 Blue Valley West (13-9) – The Jaguars are led by 6-7 senior Joey Lillis, who is averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds in the final month of the season, and had 19 rebounds in the sub-state semifinal. He teams with 6-7 sophomore Blaise Gammon (10.2 points, 6 rebounds) to dominate the lane and alter opponents’ shots. The Jaguars are making their sixth trip to state in the school’s 12 years and won the 6A title in 2007.
No. 2 Wichita North (20-2) – North, which is making back-to-back 6A tourney appearances, is led by senior Conner Frankamp (Kansas, 31.2 points), who owns the City League career scoring record with 2,264 points. Frankamp has decimated defenses with 14 games of 30 or more points and five of 40 or more. North’s two losses came when Frankamp was sidelined by a concussion. North has a solid class of juniors backing up Frankamp, including guards Zach Beard, Tarius Williams and Sean Bernard.
Wichita Eagle
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
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