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.
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.**
• **Ben McLemore has moved up to No. 2** in Jeff Borzello’s freshman of the year rankings on CBSSports.com.
• **And finally, this is not KU related, but I promise you this is the funniest video you will see today.**
Just watch. I promise it’s worth it.
