Kansas University’s men’s basketball schedule won’t be released soon.
“It’ll probably be a couple of weeks,” KU senior associate athletic director Richard Konzem said Tuesday after “the most difficult and frustrating day in my career in scheduling.”
He and several other college schedule makers were on the phone much of the day Tuesday, a day after a U.S. district judge threw out the NCAA’s “2-in-4 rule” that allowed schools to play just two exempt tournaments every four years.
Schools can compete in an exempt tourney every year. The Jayhawks will take advantage of the ruling, and will play in the Guardians Classic in November.
“Confusion reigns,” Konzem said of scheduling nationwide. “You’ve got people now dropping opponents to play in exempt events so people who thought they had their schedules done now don’t. You’ve got teams like us who were working on that one last game and now we have three or four dates or games affected.”
KU has several scheduling conflicts because the Jayhawks have agreed to play two home games in the 16-team Guardians Classic, set for Nov. 17-18 at Allen Fieldhouse. If KU wins those two games, the Jayhawks would play in the semifinals and finals or consolation finals Nov. 24-25 at Kemper Arena.
The tournament appearance means KU must reschedule its home game with Michigan State, set for Nov. 25.
KU also will play Stanford at the Wooden Classic in Los Angeles, and Oregon at Kemper Arena. KU also will play in a two-game tourney in Reno, Nev., and at TCU, against former KU assistant coach Neil Dougherty’s Horned Frogs.
“Today is July 29,” Konzem said. “A lot of years we’d have had the schedule in our hands three weeks ago. But the decision to let us play in the exempt event changes everything for everybody.”
As far as specifics of the Guardians Classic, KU, Southwest Missouri State and South Carolina have agreed to play host to four-team regional tournaments. A to-be-determined fourth school also will be a host.
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Hope remembered: Bob Hope, who died Sunday at the age of 100, performed at KU in 1971 and 1982. He also performed in Kansas City’s Bartle Hall in 1988, weeks after KU won the national hoops championship.
Hope was 85 at the time. Konzem was 29 when he joined Hope onstage at the Hall.
Let him explain:
“In 1988 we won the national championship and Bob Hope was at Bartle Hall entertaining the Fleming Foods people,” Konzem said.
“The great idea from Fleming is somebody from KU should come over, bring a cheerleader and give Bob Hope some memento of the national championship on stage. (Then athletic director) Bob Frederick was supposed to go over and give him a jacket, but Bob couldn’t go.
“So I get in the car, drive over with a cheerleader on Saturday of the (Kansas) Relays. We go watch the Bob Hope show and they tell us it’s time to go on stage. Bob had opened the act saying he noticed there were a lot of old guys in the lobby with these young women and whenever he approached them they introduced ’em as their nieces.
“We go up on the stage, she (cheerleader) gives Bob the jacket and he hands her the microphone. She is a freshman at KU and freezes. There’s this dead air. I grab the microphone and said, ‘Mr. Hope, we’d like to present you with this jacket in recognition of Kansas winning the national championship … blah, blah, blah, and by the way, have you met my niece here?’
“I’ll never forget telling a joke to Bob Hope. He laughed. It was hilarious.”
