Mike Yoder/Journal-World PhotoOKLAHOMA CITY ? A late tipoff left Kansas University fans searching for things to do Thursday in Oklahoma City, where the Jayhawks played Utah State at Ford Center.
Some couldn’t avoid being questioned about their activities, proclivities and downright oddities — ever heard of a chanting cockatoo? — as the game approached.
Going down?
Jim and Patti Regan stopped by the Oklahoma City Marriott late Thursday morning for tickets, but left with a bigger bonus.
Try an up-close-and-personal visit with their favorite Jayhawk, coach Roy Williams.
“Pretty cool,” said Jim Regan, an Overland Park financial analyst. “We told him that his kids are like our kids, and he was real nice. He said, ‘You’d like them. They’re good kids, and they’ve been through a lot of adversity.'”
The Overland Park couple — “We’re borderline stalkers,” Patti Regan said — shared an elevator with Williams for 16 floors, and there’s little doubt about them liking “the kids.”
The Regans’ dog, named Bailey’s Crimson Girl, ferociously attacks its toy Tiger (name: Quin). Their cockatoo, Roy, sings the “Rock Chalk Chant.”
And Patti Regan? She wears her allegiances on her sleeves (Kansas sweatshirt) and feet (KU slip-ons).
More news from Brittany Bedene and Amy Goodwin, the spring-breaking high schoolers hot on the heels of KU stars Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich this week in Oklahoma City.
Turns out a hot-tub incident occurred Wednesday night at the health club in the team hotel.
Here’s the story: Brittany had her feet in the water, no doubt wondering what “her guy” Collison was up to. Amy, the Hinrich fan, was in all the way.
Then it happened.
“Kirk came in and got in the hot tub with us,” Brittany said Thursday evening, at the KU pep rally in Bricktown. “Amy’s in there, and she’s all nervous.”
“There was sweat running all down my face,” Amy said.
“Yeah,” her friend said. “She was all hot.”
Evidently nonplused, Hinrich didn’t say much, preferring to recline innocently.
But the work of the girls from Pittsburg isn’t done. They made a special trip Thursday to Target, where Brittany picked up a swimsuit.
“We’re going to go back there tonight, and tomorrow night and every night,” Brittany said.
Stay tuned.
Pat Hughes blames a “booking mix-up” for scuttling a Spring Break trip to Cancun, Mexico, with his two daughters, but he’s not complaining.
The Overland Park physician bailed on the $3,500 Caribbean junket for a more modest — and meaningful — $1,500 jaunt to Oklahoma City for KU’s foray into the NCAA Tournament.
The KU graduate is sharing a penthouse suite with his daughters at the Westin Hotel, a block from Ford Center.
“I would say it’s the perfect trade,” he said. “Of course, I’m sure they’d rather be in Cancun, but we’ll be OK.”
Lawrence attorney Mike Heck couldn’t get tickets for Thursday’s game from the KU ticket office, so he did the next best thing.
He called Utah State and asked if they had any tickets.
“They said, ‘Yeah, we do, but you have to join the booster club,'” Heck said.
He did. Heck paid $100 for the membership, giving him access to Utah State’s ticket allotment. He’s looking to trade up.
“Tomorrow we hope to get better tickets,” Heck said, hoping to cash in on his KU connections.
