The Rock Chalkboard

KU basketball scenes from the day March Madness was canceled
The final days and hours before the end of the college basketball season was announced were met with skepticism. Fans in Kansas City on Wednesday booed the announcement that there would not be spectators at the Big 12 games for Thursday and beyond. A day before, those on social media were skeptical at even the thought Big 12 tournament games might not be played.

Big 12 suspends all practices, team activities through March 29
Specifically, the league sent out a release on Friday evening that said, among other things, all practices and team actives would be shut down until March 29, when the league will reevaluate the ruling and decide if a change is needed.

NCAA planning to grant additional year to some, discussing more
"The NCAA’s Council Coordination Committee has agreed to grant relief for the use of a season of competition for student-athletes who have participated in spring sports," Goodman tweeted. "Committee will also discuss issues for winter sport student-athletes.

Highlights: Baldwin, Gilmore clash in D1 sectional semifinal
2-seed Sussex Hamilton, led by five-star 2021 wing Patrick Baldwin Jr., knocked off 3-seed Arrowhead, led by Wisconsin commit Carter Gilmore, 67-55 in Thursday's Division 1 sectional semifinal. Due to the coronavirus, it marked the end of the WIAA boy's basketball season.

Five-star Kendall Brown talks recent visits
“I am really like the fanbase and the atmosphere there,” said Brown of Kansas. “The program is great every year and they develop high level players. They are definitely up there on my list.”

Bits o Chalk

CBS Sports lists teams and players hit hardest by tourney loss
Earlier this year, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas opined that this was Kansas' best chance to win a national title since the Jayhawks last clipped the nets in 2008. Some of that had to do with the field; there weren't many teams that would seem to be better than this year's Jayhawk team in a vacuum. And a big part of it was how good Kansas was. The Jayhawks set a Big 12 record by winning 17 league games, didn't lose a single contest at full strength and finished as a unanimous No. 1, leading both polls, KenPom, ESPN's BPI, BartTorvik and the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.

Luka Doncic's 50 lead Mavs past Suns -- on Twitch
Soon after the decision was made Wednesday to suspend the NBA season because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Suns announced that their games would continue virtually.

Florida Senate proclaims Florida State national champion
The coronavirus outbreak put an end to the NCAA men's basketball tournament before it could begin, prompting state Sen. Joe Gruters to introduce a resolution Thursday proclaiming the Noles "champions by default."

Lawmakers voted 37-2 to pass the resolution late Friday.

NCAA mulled 16-team tournament over 1 weekend before final decision
As it became apparent the NCAA basketball tournaments could not be held over three weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers scrambled to devise a plan for a 16-team event to salvage the postseason in one long weekend.

Eraser Dust

Wynn Las Vegas temporarily closing sportsbook due to the coronavirus
A Las Vegas sportsbook and casinos in multiple states are closing temporarily amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Raptors test negative for COVID-19; were last opponents of Jazz
Coronavirus tests for members of the Toronto Raptors' travel party have come back negative, with one person's result still pending, the team announced Friday night.

Coronavirus updates: House passes aid package after Trump declares national emergency
Every aspect of modern life is being hit as sweeping measures are rolled out in an effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump declared a national emergency Friday "to unleash the full power of the federal government."

"I don't know anything about it," Trump says about his White House eliminating the pandemic response team
Well, I just thank it’s a nasty question, because what we’ve done, and Tony had said numerous times that we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing. [Ed.: The closing of borders to some travelers.] And when you say me, I didn’t do it. We have a group of people, I could ask perhaps, in my administration, but I could perhaps ask Tony about that, because I don’t know anything about it. I mean, you say we did that, I don’t know anything about it. Disbanding, no, I don’t know anything about it …

An Isolation Center Opened to Protect People From Coronavirus. Then Someone Wandered Out. - The New York Times
A homeless person being tested for the coronavirus wandered out of a new isolation housing facility south of Seattle, prompting alarm from neighbors who wish their town hadn’t been chosen.

US base in Iraq hit with rockets following deadly attack days ago
An unusual daytime rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq injured at least two Iraqi soldiers Saturday — just days after a similar strike killed two Americans.

Iran building burial pits for coronavirus victims, satellite images show - CNN
Iran has been rapidly expanding a major cemetery in Qom, the area worst hit by the country's novel coronavirus outbreak, satellite images obtained by CNN reveal.

The Unstoppable Joe Stone - Flathead Beacon
It was August 2010 and Stone, then 25 years old, was lying in a hospital room after being paralyzed in a speed-flying accident in Missoula. For someone who lived his life outside — just two years earlier he had moved from Minnesota to Montana so he could be in the mountains — it felt like a death sentence.

Reviews of the Best Bidets 2020: Using a Bidet vs. Toilet Paper - Rolling Stone
The team behind TUSHY says you’ll use “80% less toilet paper” with the addition of a bidet (you still need to pat yourself dry after using, though you can easily swap toilet paper for a hand towel or something similar). And considering Americans use more than 36 billion rolls of toilet paper every year — resulting in the loss of 15 million trees — bidets could go a long way toward not only saving our sanity during this toilet paper shortage, but also saving precious natural resources for generations to come.

Zion Williamson pledges to pay salaries of Smoothie King Center employees - CBS News
Williamson said that the gesture is "a small way" for him to show his support and appreciation for the employees, and that he hopes it will help relieve some "stress and hardship caused by this national health crisis."