Title would have been vacated

By Gary Bedore     Aug 21, 2009

The 2009-10 Kansas University school year is officially under way.

“Everybody’s in class. We had a team meeting this evening. Everybody is ready to roll,” KU basketball coach Bill Self said Thursday night upon the conclusion of the first day of the first semester.

“It was similar to every (first) team meeting we’ve had. We went over our basic guidelines on things like conditioning, how to handle their business.”

The Jayhawks will begin individual workouts on Monday, KU’s seventh-year coach said.

“They’ll be lifting and doing conditioning and getting acclimated to school,” he said of what will take place until the start of the two-week Boot Camp in late September. The season kicks off with Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 16.

It’s all moot:

Let’s pretend for a moment Mario Chalmers missed a late three-pointer and KU lost the 2008 national championship game to Memphis.

Would KU have been deemed national champion Thursday, following the NCAAs ruling that Memphis must forfeit all its games in 2007-08 for using an ineligible player?

“No,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said Thursday, indicating there simply would have been no 2008 NCAA champ in the record books. “They (Tigers) would have vacated the title. Fortunately that’s moot.”

Remember, Memphis beat UCLA in a Final Four semifinal that season, so the Bruins also would have reason to argue they could have played KU in the title game and perhaps won the crown.

Other Final Four teams throughout history to have their season vacated?

Villanova in 1971, Memphis in 1985, UMass in 1996 and Michigan in 1992.

Knight’s in-homes:

Brandon Knight, the No. 1 basketball prospect in the recruiting class of 2010, will hold an in-home visit with Self sometime in September, Rivals.com reported Thursday.

Knight, a 6-foot-3 point guard from Pine Crest High in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has also promised in-home visits to coaches from Kentucky and UConn. Knight also is considering Florida, Florida State, Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami and Syracuse.

PREV POST

Bucs’ CB Talib arrested for allegedly hitting cabbie

NEXT POST

33393Title would have been vacated