Stories for January 4, 2009

Jayhawks hope for another award: best mascot

Big Jay and Baby Jay are hoping to live up to the expectations of KU athletics in a mascot competition.

No kidding: KU leads Big 12 in threes

League’s best long-range bombers — at least for now — to play host to New Mexico State today

Kansas University’s women’s basketball team, leading the Big 12 in three-point accuracy, will play host to struggling New Mexico State.

Mayer: Mangino reminds of LHS great

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino and former Lawrence High coach Al Woolard share many characteristics.

Kansas basketball notebook

Harrison Barnes, a 6-foot-6 junior forward from Ames (Iowa) High School, attended on an unofficial recruiting visit and sat behind KU’s bench. Before the game, Barnes left his seat to shake hands with Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, who had wandered to KU’s side of the court to visit with the Jayhawk coaches. KU and Tennessee are on Barnes’ list of schools, with Duke, Iowa, North Carolina and others.

Slow start dooms Volunteers

Tennessee dug 25-9 hole by second TV timeout

Rocky Top encountered a rocky stop on the road Saturday afternoon. The 14th-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team, traveling to a crammed and rowdy Allen Fieldhouse, surrendered more points to an opponent than in any game this season in a 92-85 loss against Kansas University.

Little falls short

Junior makes debut — with drawers

Markieff Morris noticed something funny about Mario Little as Little, Kansas University’s junior-college transfer, was about to leave the locker room for pregame warm-ups. “He put his compression shorts on. He put his sneaks on and was on his way walking out. I was like, ‘’Rio, where you going without your shorts?’” Markieff said with a laugh. “He was like, ‘Oh.’” In his first game as a Jayhawk, Little had forgotten one of the essentials.

Keegan: Crowd, guard fired up

Sherron Collins dribbled out of the tunnel, teammates bouncing behind him, and Allen Fieldhouse erupted in a way it hadn’t yet this season. The outburst itself didn’t provide the first clue that the Allen Fieldhouse streak would grow Saturday afternoon. The way the Tennessee players reacted to it did. They all flashed huge grins, bounced up and down with a little something extra. They came off so self-conscious in doing it. It looked so affected.

KU licks Volunteers

Collins sparks KU win

Unable to sleep, Sherron Collins cell-phoned a loved one at 1:15 a.m. Saturday for some soothing words of wisdom: 22-year-old big brother Steve Collins, in Chicago. “I told him I couldn’t stop thinking about the game,” Sherron Collins, Kansas University’s emotional point guard, said. “He said, ‘You will be all right. You’ll do good. You live for these games.’

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