The Wichita State University men’s basketball team appropriately received a lot of attention for its Final Four appearance. But don’t overlook the Shocker women’s bowling team, which will compete in the national championships April 18-20 in Lincoln, Neb. The women are nine-time national champions and are currently ranked No. 1. The team also has three players in the running for the 2013 collegiate player of the year award. Unfortunately, the Shocker men’s bowling team didn’t advance to the national championships this year, the first time the men have failed to qualify in 28 years.
Good luck to the WSU Shockers as they compete in the NCAA semifinals tonight. Top-ranked Louisville has a great team, but as Gonzaga and Ohio State found out, the Shockers aren’t intimidated. Even the freshmen don’t seem fazed about taking three-point shots when the game is on the line. These are no Cinderellas. Or if they are, they’re angry ones.
Some of the state’s newspapers have joined The Wichita Eagle in celebrating the Wichita State University Shockers’ unexpected run to the Final Four. The Garden City Telegram urged all Kansans to get behind the Shockers, also calling for regular WSU games against the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. Dubbing WSU “the little Kansas team that could,” the Salina Journal editorialized: “With KU and K-State falling by the wayside – K-State a one-and-done and KU kicking away a huge lead against a frantic Michigan team in the Sweet 16 – we’re all Shocker fans now, or should be.” The Hays Daily News said: “The school with fewer than 15,000 students is more renowned for its bowling teams. The men and women pinstrikers have won 19 national titles since 1975. This year’s basketball team will change that reputation.”
Congratulations to the WSU Shockers on their impressive win Thursday night and their first trip to the NCAA Elite Eight since 1981. They dominated La Salle, particularly during the first half. The Shockers play Ohio State on Saturday night. KU plays Michigan tonight, which could be a big challenge. And the KU women play their Sweet 16 game Sunday against Notre Dame. It would be great if our state could get multiple teams in the final eight or, better yet, the Final Four.
Nate Silver, the New York Times statistical wizard known for his accurate predictions in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, gives Wichita State University a 24 percent chance of reaching the Final Four but only a 1.2 percent chance of winning the championship. “Wichita State has had as favorable a tournament as any team in the country so far,” Silver wrote. “Its win against No. 1-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday got lots of attention, but the team also crushed No. 8-seeded Pittsburgh in its first game, a team that the computer rankings regarded highly. As their reward, the Shockers will face an overachieving La Salle team in the Round of 16. Their next game, against Ohio State or Arizona, would be much tougher.” Silver put the odds of another University of Kansas championship at 4.5 percent, down from 7.9 percent. “The decline in Kansas’ winning odds might seem a bit punitive,” he wrote, “but the Jayhawks played three underwhelming halves of basketball before finally turning it on against North Carolina late on Sunday. Kansas will have much less margin for error against No. 4 seed Michigan, its opponent on Friday, and then in a potential matchup against Florida over the weekend, two teams that are well-regarded by the model.” Silver sees Louisville as the most likely winner, with a 32.4 percent chance.
In addition to asking political questions, a new Public Policy Polling survey asked Kansans about some of their college coaches. University of Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self (in photo) had the highest favorability rating, with 62 percent of those surveyed having a favorable opinion of him. He was closely followed by Kansas State University football coach Bill Snyder (58 percent favorable), then KSU basketball coach Bruce Weber (34 percent) and KU football coach Charlie Weis (28 percent). Former KU basketball coach Roy Williams still had a 48 percent favorability rating. As the survey noted, Williams was more well-liked than the state’s politicians (though not former Sen. Bob Dole, who had a 69 percent favorability rating).
Congratulations and thanks to the city of Wichita, Go Wichita, the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission and the Great Plains USBC Association for landing the 2019 United States Bowling Congress women’s tournament. It will bring more than 30,000 bowlers to Wichita during a three-month period and mean an $14 million economic impact for the city. As the community learned when it hosted their 2004 tournament, the women bowlers are hard to miss and a pleasure to have around – eager to have a good time and, not surprisingly, spend money while finding out what there is to do in Wichita. What’s more, the scheduling coup seems to signal that all is forgiven at the USBC over the 2011 men’s tournament, which Wichita won the right to host but later lost over a contract dispute. Let’s hope the 2019 women’s tournament leads to many more such events for Wichita.
The bill filed in the Kansas Legislature to require the University of Kansas and Kansas State University to play Wichita State University in men’s basketball followed KU coach Bill Self’s statement to ESPN that “Iowa plays Northern Iowa because the state Legislature says you have to.” But “there is no such legislation in the state of Iowa in regard to scheduling for men’s basketball or football. It has been widely reported through the years, but has never been the case,” Colin McDonough, assistant athletic director at the University of Northern Iowa, told The Eagle editorial board. Legislative pressure did play a role in reaching an agreement to restart Iowa-Iowa State football games in the 1970s after a 43-year hiatus. Meanwhile, a member of the Texas House has filed a bill that would require an annual football game between Texas and Texas A&M.
Andy Katz of ESPN asked University of Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self the question that many Wichitans have: Why doesn’t KU play Wichita State University? “You schedule to benefit your own school, not to benefit others,” Self said, adding that “from a financial standpoint, it’s hard to play games away from Allen Fieldhouse since that’s our main source of budget every year.” Self noted that the University of Iowa plays Northern Iowa University because the Iowa Legislature mandated it. “If someone were to come and say something that it’s law, then we would have to,” Self said. KU should play WSU, but the Kansas Legislature doesn’t need to get involved.
Wichitans spoke loudly last year about their opposition to selling or closing one of the city’s public golf courses. As great as that support was, it’s even better that so many more golfers have played the five courses this year – driving up revenues 16 percent and rounds 14 percent – and that they seem newly satisfied with customer service. Projected net income for the year is almost $800,000, more than double the $325,945 of 2011. The debt on the Auburn Hills course remains a challenge, and one good summer doesn’t guarantee more. But city leaders now can view privatization as one option, rather than the system’s only hope.
It was baffling and frustrating to see Intrust Bank Arena again fail to make the list of sites for early rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, forcing the community dream to be deferred until 2016 at the earliest. Didn’t the strong attendance and fine hospitality Wichita showed for the 2011 NCAA women’s tournament make a favorable enough impression? Perhaps the selection team missed the electricity and record-setting house of the recent NBA preseason game – which prompted Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks to say, “There aren’t many non-NBA arenas as nice as this building.” Didn’t the NCAA at least hear about the big, enthusiastic crowds that have been drawn to the arena by the Wichita State University and Kansas State University men’s basketball games? Whatever the reason for the latest snub, arena officials and Wichita leaders must keep after the goal of hosting part of the big dance, which was part of what inspired the community eight years ago to build a downtown arena.
Kansans can wish Kansas State University men’s basketball coach Frank Martin well in his new endeavor of trying to pull South Carolina out of the SEC basement, and cheer on KSU president Kirk Schulz and athletic director John Currie as they seek a new coach who’ll be a positive and lasting asset for the Wildcats, the state and the Big 12. Seeing Martin ditch KSU after five seasons, four NCAA Tournaments and a 117-54 record, it’s fair to wonder whether there’s any loyalty these days between coaches and colleges. But Wichita State University fans just saw proof of its existence in the announcement that men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall (in photo) plans to stay and build on his five seasons and 109-61 record, which have included a Missouri Valley Conference title and NCAA Tournament bid this season and the NIT Championship last year. Marshall said: “Wichita State is a special place, with great resources, from facilities to academics to people.” And a great men’s basketball team, thanks in large part to Marshall.
The University of Kansas’ come-from-behind win Sunday kept its hopes alive for another NCAA men’s basketball championship. If the tournament were decided based on which school’s fans are most tuned in to social media, KU would have already won, the social media site Mashable.com reported. That determination was made by the communications agency Schwartz MSL and was based on a formula that combined followers of a school’s team on Facebook and Twitter, then divided that number by total student body population. KU scored a “Social Media Power Ranking” of 5.2 – based on 18,000 Twitter followers and 137,000 Facebook fans – just ahead of Duke University. KU would also win the national title if it were based on academics. The website Inside Higher Ed rated KU first for the classroom performance of its athletes.
A blogger for the Nation thought the Southern Mississippi band’s chanting of “Where’s your green card?” at Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez last week had “about as much in common with normal rowdy fan behavior as a glee club has with a lynch mob.” Dave Zirin continued: “The chant, first and foremost, was both racist and stupid, given that Rodriguez is actually from Puerto Rico, and therefore has citizenship. But given that the state of Mississippi’s Republican electorate just voted for Rick Santorum, who recently said that Puerto Rico could only be a state if everyone learned and spoke English, their actions should anger but not surprise.” He also noted that the game was played on the same day the Mississippi House passed a “deeply punitive, racial-profiling anti-immigration” bill championed by Gov. Phil Bryant.
President Obama heeded the plea of University of Kansas coach Bill Self and didn’t pick KU to win it all, instead predicting an NCAA men’s championship game in which North Carolina defeats Kentucky. Obama accurately picked North Carolina in 2009, but wrongly called it for the Jayhawks in 2010 and 2011. “They broke my heart each year,” he told ESPN. The Hill newspaper noted that the president’s “selections heavily favor states that are likely to be in play during his re-election bid.” Plus, the Democratic National Convention will be held in Charlotte. The president had Wichita State and Kansas State losing in the first and second rounds, respectively, and the Tar Heels ousting Kansas in the Elite Eight.
Former Wichita state Rep. Todd Novascone used to introduce a bill each legislative session that would require the University of Kansas and Kansas State University to play Wichita State University. Last week state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, raised the issue with K-State president Kirk Schulz when he appeared before her Senate Ways and Means Committee. “I was just curious when you will be scheduling Wichita State to play Kansas State,” McGinn said. Schulz said that such as game would “be a terrific thing” but that his athletic director and basketball coach “would rather play Alcorn State than Wichita State.” McGinn said that the game would be good for the state and noted that Intrust Bank Arena would be an ideal venue. Schulz responded that the arena was a great environment when K-State played West Virginia there in December. “We want to make sure that we’re back in Wichita,” he said.
Who would have thought that a positive television advertisement about pulling together to overcome adversity would be so controversial? But some GOP operatives are complaining that the ad by Chrysler during the Super Bowl was political payback to President Obama for bailing out auto companies. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” former Bush administration political adviser Karl Rove said on Fox News. But actor Clint Eastwood, who narrated and appeared in the commercial, said that the ad wasn’t about Obama. “It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America,” Eastwood said. “ I think all politicians will agree with it.” Or they should.
The fact that God didn’t help Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (in photo) defeat the New England Patriots in Saturday’s NFL playoff game was no surprise to former NFL quarterback Fran Tarkenton. “I never understood why God would care who won a game between my team and another,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, adding that there are far more important things going on in the world. That said, Tarkenton found it refreshing that the chatter around the NFL has been about a great athlete with great character and “not about more arrests and bad behavior from our presumptive ‘heroes.’”
Good for the Wichita Park Board for listening to the public and proposing a way to keep all of the city’s golf courses open. City Manager Robert Layton had recommended that the city close one of the courses because of declining usage and trouble servicing the debt on the Auburn Hills Golf Course. But the park board recommended last week that the city raise greens fees slightly, delay some capital improvement projects at the courses, and do a better job marketing the courses. The plan is a reasonable alternative that is supported by golfers. Well played.
The Penn State scandal and the realignment of athletic conferences are more evidence of “the athletic departments being the tail that wags the university dog,” former Kansas congressman Bill Roy wrote. He noted how the University of Kansas and Kansas State University have had their own recent scandals. “When a disgraced athletic director (at KU) can walk away with a $4 million ‘retention bonus’ before his term of service expired and following a tenure of negligent administration, something is badly wrong,” Roy wrote. “When an interim athletic director (at K-State) can, in near-secrecy, write a revised coaching contract with an increased severance clause – which paid off in millions when said coach was fired two months later – there is something wrong.” Dr. Roy’s prescription: “Universities and their boards of regents must reclaim their athletic departments. And national accrediting bodies and state legislatures must make darn sure they do.”
Turns out there is something that most Kansans agree on, whether they bleed purple or blue: 75 percent of those polled last week by SurveyUSA for KWCH, Channel 12, said it was important that Kansas State University and the University of Kansas remain in the same conference. The percentages were even higher for those who’d attended either KU (84 percent), K-State (79 percent) or both schools (96 percent). Despite the inanity of the ongoing conference realignment, 96 percent said that athletics are a plus for universities.
The Huffington Post asked 12 “highly successful” women what “five things they keep nearby to help them get the job done.” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ items included family photos, a framed pen used by President Obama to sign the health care act, a sign from a great-aunt reading “It Can Be Done,” and something of particular interest to people in Kansas, where Sebelius was governor from 2003 to 2009: “Pieces of the Big 12 net, the regional championship net and the national championship net, sent to me by coach Bill Self after the Kansas Jayhawks won the NCAA Men’s Championship in 2008.”
“Republicans are said to be unhappy with their slate of presidential candidates, so here’s a suggestion: Why not draft Abby Wambach?” a Wall Street Journal editorial asked. The striker for the U.S. women’s soccer team headed the tying goal Sunday in the final moments of the World Cup quarterfinal match against Brazil, which the U.S. went on to win on penalty kicks. “The strict constructionists will say you have to be 35 to be president,” the editorial noted (Wambach is 31), “but in this case we’re willing to support a constitutional amendment.”
Fresh off its impressive performance hosting the NCAA women’s tournament, Intrust Bank Arena has booked a Dec. 8 game between the men of Kansas State University and West Virginia University, pitting current KSU coach Frank Martin against predecessor Bob Huggins. What’s more, the University of Kansas and University of Southern California men are working on plans to play a December game at Wichita’s year-old downtown arena. These are just the kind of contests, with big-name teams and significant regional drawing power, that arena proponents dreamed of all along.
“Tiahrt is, in simple terms, nuts.” — Joe Vince, a retired ATF agent and critic of the Tiahrt amendment restricting release of gun-trace data, on Minnesota Public Radio
“It is amazing what people will say when they want to make money off the violation of Americans’ privacy.” — former 4th District congressman Todd Tiahrt, in an online commentary in response
“Can’t say it enough, so why not on Senate floor? Congrats @WichitaState Shockers on NIT Victory!” — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., on Twitter
The Wichita State University men’s basketball team appropriately received a lot of attention for its Final Four appearance. But don’t overlook the Shocker women’s bowling team, which will compete in the national championships April 18-20 in Lincoln, Neb. The women are nine-time national champions and are currently ranked No. 1. The team also has three players in the running for the 2013 collegiate player of the year award. Unfortunately, the Shocker men’s bowling team didn’t advance to the national championships this year, the first time the men have failed to qualify in 28 years.
