William Chrisman High School senior Nieka Wheeler is a basketball player who was featured in many scouting reports in the recently completed season. She led the Bears in scoring and rebounding, averaging 18.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.
When asked to analyze her girls' track team before the season, Liberty High School coach Pam Koch replied confidently that the spring could feature one of the school's better squads in her 16-year coaching tenure.
Kansas State has played a nonconference basketball game at the Sprint Center in each of the past six years, but that streak is unlikely to continue.
People are calling Andrew Wiggins the best high school basketball talent since Lebron James. Over the next year, depending in part on how Wiggins does at KU, you will hear that line be twisted into "The Next LeBron" or "as good as LeBron" or maybe even "better than LeBron." And Sam Mellinger hopes we can all shout down whomever says that.
Isaac Kreuer, a 6-10 front liner from Kansas City, signed with the UMKC basketball team, the school announced Wednesday.
Hall of Famer George Brett, who turned 60 on Wednesday, played his entire 21-year baseball career with the Royals, and he's still very much involved with the team. The Royals drafted him in 1971, he hit .390 in 1980, had a little trouble with pine tar in 1983, won the World Series in 1985 and was inducted into the Hall in 1999.
Going into the Angels game, Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie had a string of 18 starts without a loss — but that was snapped Tuesday night as the Royals fell 6-2. But he did throw seven innings. When a starting pitcher does not have his best stuff but hangs in there and finds a way to give his team innings, he may not help his team win that night, but he gives them a better shot at winning the next night.
Albert Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout each homered as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Royals 6-2 on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif., ending Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie’s club-record streak of non-losing starts at 18.
Andrew Wiggins, the consensus No. 1 college basketball recruit in the country, announced Tuesday morning he will attend Kansas, picking the Jayhawks over three other finalists, Kentucky, Florida State and North Carolina.
Think about what KU basketball coach Bill Self pulled off Tuesday in landing consensus No. 1 recruit Andrew Wiggins. The 6-foot-7 Canadian star had long been linked with Florida State (where his parents played basketball) and Kentucky (where John Calipari collects five-star recruits like garden gnomes). Those schools have been in on him for years, building relationships and dreams long before Wiggins became the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
All was good for Branden Albert in his long-awaited return to Chiefs camp Tuesday. His arrival was hailed by his coaches and teammates, and as the Chiefs continued their offseason practice, Albert took his spot at starting left tackle as he had been promised.
Broadcaster Fred White, who became an icon with the Royals over the last 40 years, announced his retirement Tuesday from the organization because of what the club characterized in a news release as “recent health issues.”
The latest lineup tweak Tuesday by Royals manager Ned Yost positioned Lorenzo Cain at the top of the order for the first time this season. “On days when (Jarrod) Dyson doesn’t play, I’ve got to have a No. 1 hitter,” Yost said. “For me right now, Cain is as good as anybody to give a look at.”
It’s not often that a highly recruited high school football player cancels a campus visit to Michigan and then commits to Kansas. But that’s what Kyron Watson, a 6-foot, 226-pound linebacker, did on Tuesday.
Senior finishes strong and shares title with Vianney junior. Hawklets finish second, while Park Hill South is sixth.
Cornerback Finis Stribling IV, who became Missouri’s ninth verbal commitment for the Class of 2014 on Monday, is the second defensive back in the 2014 class to commit to Missouri, joining East St. Louis safety Greg Taylor. Stribling is also the second prospect from Tennessee to commit, joining two-star receiver Thomas Richard from Nashville.
When word came that Kansas was the college choice of Andrew Wiggins, the 6-foot-7 forward from Huntington Prep in West Virginia who is considered the nation’s top college basketball prospect, Jayhawks coach Bill Self had scored the biggest recruiting victory of his decade-long KU tenure. But Wiggins also ranks among some of the biggest gets in KU history.
It appears as if free agent Akeem Jordan will get first crack at the vacant inside linebacker position in the Chiefs defense. Jordan played alongside Pro Bowler Derrick Johnson with the first-unit defense when the Chiefs conducted their first full-squad practice of the offseason Tuesday.
Kansas will play at Florida, West Virginia will play at Missouri and Mississippi will play at Kansas State this fall in the inaugural Big 12/SEC men’s basketball challenge.
Lacrosse is still a club sport at the high school level across Kansas City. Just don’t be fooled into thinking that it hasn’t arrived, or that it doesn’t have staying power.
On Monday night, the Royals slapped around a team that is currently 14-24 with a .368 winning percentage. The pitcher they beat, Joe Blanton, woke up this morning with an 0-7 record and a 6.46 ERA. I’m not writing this to belittle Monday's win — far from it. That was just the kind of game the Royals need to win to get where they want to go. But the Royals may not have done anything more to improve their performance than playing a worse team.
Missouri will be building a new softball stadium. Associate athletic director Tim Hickman confirmed over the weekend the building is now in the school’s plans, though no site has been determined. He expects the stadium to cost in the neighborhood of $15 million.
The Kansas State baseball team is on the verge of making a special year even better for the Wildcats’ athletic department. With just one victory, the Wildcats will have their third conference championship of the 2012-13 academic year. The football team won 11 games to claim the crown in December. The men’s basketball team shared the Big 12 title with Kansas in March.
Results from fishing tournaments in the area and upcoming events.
The Thunder had a score of 323 in winning the 5A regional hosted by Blue Valley Southwest at Heritage Park Golf Course in Olathe on Monday.
Most encouraging, perhaps, for the Royals in their 11-4 victory Monday over the Los Angeles Angels was their season-high 19-hit attack, which included five from slumping Billy Butler — three singles and two doubles — that accounted for five RBIs. Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and Salvy Perez each added three hits.
Blue Valley West rising senior Michael Fairchild, a 6-foot-6, 283-pound offensive tackle, verbally committed to Missouri on Monday night.
Jarrod Dyson started in center field for the fourth time in six games and served as the leadoff hitter for the second straight game. Manager Ned Yost characterized both moves as day-to-day decisions.
The Chiefs added another offensive specialist to their coaching staff, hiring former University of Nevada coach Chris Ault as a consultant. Ault is known as a guru of the pistol offensive formation, which features option plays. Colin Kaepernick was among the quarterbacks who played for Ault at Nevada.
The Kansas State baseball team entered the national polls for the first time since 2009 on Monday. The Wildcats, who lead the Big 12 at 37-15 overall and 14-7 in conference play, came in at No. 19 in Baseball America’s Top 25 and entered the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll at No. 21.
Colorado quarterback Jordan Webb, a former KU player, and former Buffaloes offensive lineman Alex Lewis have been charged with second-degree assault after they were arrested early Saturday morning in Boulder, Colo.
Running back Knile Davis, selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the NFL Draft last month, signed with the Chiefs. The Chiefs are hoping the 227-pound Davis can be a power back to complement the speed and big-play ability of Jamaal Charles.
The Royals are coming off a difficult week, where they went 1-6 against Chicago, Baltimore and New York. They're still over .500 at 18-16 as they start a nine-game road trip, but they definitely have issues. What do they need to do to snap this early skid?
The offseason practice schedule picks up for the Chiefs starting on Tuesday, when they’ll hold the first of three full-squad sessions this week. The Star’s Adam Teicher breaks down some of the more important issues they’ll need to sort through, including Branden Albert’s mindset as he’s set to report.
Sunday against the Yankees, Royals starter Ervin Santana threw 102 pitches — and three of them cost him the game. In the third inning, Santana threw a slider up in the zone to Robinson Cano, and the Yankees second baseman hit it over 400 feet.
