Kansas University’s men’s basketball fans have been gobbling up tickets for the eight-team Las Vegas Invitational, set for Thanksgiving weekend in Glitter City.
The Las Vegas Sun reported last week more than half the seats in 7,700-seat Orleans Arena figure to be filled by Jayhawk supporters for the Nov. 24-25 round-robin event.
The Sun said KU officials asked for 4,000 tickets for tourney games against Ball State and Florida. The defending national champion Gators, the paper said, requested 700.
Ball State, Western Kentucky, Prairie View, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Tennessee State and Towson State requested a few hundred each.
“Actually, we took 3,000 tickets,” KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating said. “But from what I understand, a lot of (KU) fans have been calling the arena on their own (which could account for the 4,000 figure).”
Keating indicated KU had sold about 2,000 tickets to Williams Fund members. At some point, any leftover KU tickets may be put on sale for non Fund members.
“I don’t anticipate giving any back (to tourney officials),” Keating said. “Our allocation has always been available to Williams Fund members. Once we are sure our donor people are taken care of, we could (put the remainder on sale).”
The KU-Florida basketball game, set for Nov. 25, is a popular draw for Jayhawk supporters despite the fact KU plays Missouri in football early that day in an 11 a.m. kickoff in Columbia, Mo. It’s also the same day Florida meets Florida State in football in Tallahassee, Fla., at a yet-to-be-determined time.
Tickets for the Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 24-25, Orleans Arena) remain available through Kansas University’s Williams Fund for members. Tickets also are available at orleansarena.com. KU will meet Ball State on that Friday and Florida that Saturday at the round-robin event.
KU coach Bill Self is not amazed Jayhawk fans figure to rock Orleans Arena for the Vegas games. He’s used to a throng of KU fans finding their way into arenas on the road.
“The thing is, our fans do such a good job of traveling, especially on trips such as Maui (for last year’s Maui Invitational),” Self said. “We had the most fans of any team in Maui last year. This is a situation I’m sure our fans will enjoy going to Vegas. They have always traveled well and I’m sure are looking forward to this trip as well.”
As of late last week, just 800 tickets remained for sale at the Web site orleansarena.com. Tickets will remain available at that Web site until all are sold out.
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Clinic: KU coach Self will speak at the Adidas Basketball Coaches Clinic on Sept. 29-30 at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. Texas Tech’s Bob Knight, Memphis’ John Calipari and UCLA’s Ben Howland also will give presentations.
The clinic will run from 4-10 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $125. Information is available at adidasclinic.com.
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Wilt’s birthday: Former Kansas University great Wilt Chamberlain on Monday would have celebrated his 70th birthday. Chamberlain died on Oct. 12, 1999.
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NU news: New Nebraska coach Doc Sadler, who talked Aleks Maric out of his decision to leave the program, may halt another transfer.
Guard Marcus Walker, a 6-foot-2 guard out of Kansas City (Mo.) O’Hara who asked for a release from his scholarship in May and was to attend Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College, is pondering returning to NU, the Omaha World-Herald reported Monday.
Walker’s mother on Monday told Sadler the family needed more time for discussion. Earlier, Sadler had told the Lincoln Journal-Star that Walker definitely would not be back.
Sadler, who coached at UTEP last season, has hired two assistants – Tony Benford from Arizona State and Phil Mathews from San Bernardino Valley (Calif.) CC. He still needs another full-time aide and a director of basketball operations.
