Waco Tribune writer awed by Fieldhouse; KUsports.com men's basketball wallpapers available

Posted by Jesse Newell January 17, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

A few links to start off your Thursday ...

• Better late than never, right?

We now have 2012-13 Kansas men's basketball desktop wallpaper schedules available, featuring some of the top photos of the year by Journal-World photographer Nick Krug.

McLemore by Jesse Newell

There are also some iPhone schedule wallpapers available at the same link as well.

• The Waco Tribune's John Werner is the latest writer to praise Allen Fieldhouse.

Here's a snippet from his Wednesday column:

With 16,300 fans jammed into the bleachers, the night begins with a loud, rousing pregame introduction video that shows Jayhawk legends like Wilt Chamberlain and Danny Manning. The noise hits a crescendo when the big screen shows Mario Chalmers hitting the game-winning 3-point shot against Memphis to win the 2008 national championship.

Then you look down the Kansas bench and see one of the best teams in college basketball and one of the premier coaches in Bill Self.

Intimidated yet?

It all got to me, and I was just there to write about it.

• Speaking of the Fieldhouse, ESPN.com's Jason King ranked it as the top college basketball home-court advantage in his latest "King's Court" column.

Also, in King's weekly straw poll (which surveys five ESPN writers), KU coach Bill Self ranked as the second-best X's and O's coach in the nation behind Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. Self received one of five first-place votes.

• The Austin American-Statesman's Kevin Lyttle says KU men's basketball is "most successful brand name in the Big 12."

Here's more from Lyttle ...

Sure, Oklahoma wins a lot in football. And Texas is a marketing giant. But nobody dominates like Bill Self’s Jayhawks. Through the Big 12 years, they have the most of everything, including victories, star players and fans.

• In case you weren't at Monday's game, this YouTube clip shows both the KU introduction video (1:13 mark) and pump-up video (3:49 mark) before KU's contest against Baylor.

• KU has moved up to No. 2 in Luke Winn's Power Rankings at SI.com.

Winn also puts together an interesting chart, showing that KU guard Ben McLemore's freshman-year numbers compare favorably to those of Ray Allen when he was a freshman at UConn.

• KU 2013 commit Brannen Greene tied a career-high with 37 points in his high school's 87-77 victory Tuesday night.

Greene's effort included six three-pointers, five dunks, and eight rebounds.

Here's what the Albany Herald's Mike Phillips said about Greene in the game story:

Greene plays the game as if he is ready for Division I right now. Greene, a 6-foot-7 forward, can play outside and is dangerous at the wing and deadly from 3-point range. He opened the game by hitting back-to-back 3s and just kept coming.

Greene is averaging 26 points and five rebounds this season.

• St. Mary's guard Matthew Dellavedova had one of the best buzzer-beaters of the year last night ... and one you probably missed if you went to bed at a decent hour.