The Rock Chalkboard

Pooka Williams just 2nd Jayhawk to top 1,000 rushing yards in consecutive years | KUsports.com
Williams’ 22 carries for 116 yards in defeat put him over 1,000 yards for the second year in a row, making him just the second player in KU’s history to pull that off. James Sims (1,013 rushing yards in 2012 and 1,110 yards in 2013) is the only other Jayhawk to reach that figure in consecutive seasons.

KU volleyball reflects on first season in renovated Horejsi Arena | KUsports.com
“Students are gone; you’ve got the night before Thanksgiving,” Bechard said. “There’s a lot of reasons why people might not show up. And they did.”

Bill Self previews first meeting of KU's series with Colorado
The Jayhawks entered that game — played on Dec. 7 of 2013 — at 6-1. Frank Mason got the start at point guard, with Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Perry Ellis and Naadir Tharpe playing heavy minutes in the game. But it was Colorado who pulled out a win on a Euro-step 3-point heave by Askia Booker.

Bill Self believes two-big lineups necessary for March success
"There's no question we're a better team playing four guards — we know that, I mean we know that," Self said on his weekly Hawk Talk show. "So it's not like, 'Well, what are they doing?' What we're trying to do is try to be the best team we can be come March, and we're not going to be a good team unless we can play two bigs — at least a good portion of the time. We'll figure it out, but certainly so far we've been better with four guards."

Udoka Azubuike's Maui finale impresses KU coach Bill Self
"Devon was probably the best player over the tournament, but Doke was the best player in — ... that's as good as a big man can play for about a 15 minutes stretch," Self said. "He was fabulous. That's the kind of stuff that we see often that hasn't translated to the game near as often. ... There were a lot of things he did very positively even when he didn't score the ball, so, yeah, I thought he was great."

The ten winningest first-year Big 12 coaches since 2012
While Lincoln Riley in 2017 became just the fifth head coach in FBS history with no previous head-coaching experience at a four-year college to win at least 12 games in his debut season, Chris Klieman in 2019 became the only first-time FBS head coach to take a Big 12 squad coming off a losing season and win eight games in his first year.

Bits o Chalk

Saints re-sign linebacker Manti Te'o in wake of injuries, source says
Te'o, 28, has been out of the NFL this season after spending the previous two years in New Orleans. The Saints apparently needed more depth after starting middle linebacker Kiko Alonso and starting strongside linebacker A.J. Klein suffered unspecified injuries during last Thursday night's win at Atlanta.

Lakers' Anthony Davis has 'monster game' despite needing IV at half
After flu-like symptoms tore through the Los Angeles Lakers' roster on Tuesday, Anthony Davis, under the weather himself, tore up the Denver Nuggets' game plan, stymieing Nikola Jokic & Co. in L.A.'s 105-96 victory.

Utah up to No. 5 ahead of Oklahoma in latest CFP rankings
With Ohio State, LSU, Clemson and Georgia remaining atop the College Football Playoff rankings, Alabama's loss to Auburn opened the door for Utah and Oklahoma to move up to No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, entering this weekend's conference championship games.

Rockets hopeful NBA acts after James Harden dunk not counted
The Houston Rockets are optimistic that the NBA office will take action after referees mistakenly did not count a James Harden dunk in Tuesday night's 135-133 double-overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs, sources told ESPN.

Eraser Dust

The Viral Photo of Mount Everest: The Untold Accounts of the People Who Were There | GQ
It was morning and bright, and Reinhard Grubhofer, depleted and dehydrated, hoisted his body over a crest and rose uneasily. There, from the summit of Mount Everest, he could see everything. How the earth curved gorgeously in all direction; how wisps of clouds sailed beneath his boots. The view—out beyond his worries—was beautiful. But closer at hand, he could see trouble taking shape.

He’s a Liar, a Con Artist and a Snitch. His Testimony Could Soon Send a Man to His Death. — ProPublica
When Detective John Halliday paid a visit to the Pinellas County Jail on Dec. 4, 1986, his highest-profile murder case was in trouble. Halliday, who was 35 and investigated homicides for the local sheriff’s office, had spent more than a decade policing Pinellas County, a peninsula edged by white-sugar-sand beaches on Florida’s Gulf Coast, west of Tampa. It is a place that outpaces virtually all other counties in the nation in the number of defendants it has sentenced to death. Prosecutors who pursued the biggest cases there in the 1980s relied on Halliday, who embodied the county’s law-and-order ethos. Powerfully built and 6-foot-4, with a mane of dirty blond hair and a tan mustache, he was skilled at marshaling the facts that prosecutors needed to win convictions.

Van Halen performer defends Billie Eilish for not knowing band - New York Daily News
"If you haven’t heard of @billieeilish , go check her out. She’s cool. If you haven’t heard of @VanHalen , go check them out. They’re cool too," Wolfgang, who replaced Michael Anthony in the band in 2006, tweeted