The Rock Chalkboard

Ramel Lloyd excited by offer from 'big-time' KU hoops program
“Now I’m about 6-6; I have a 6-10 wingspan," Lloyd, who is just 16, told Phog.net. "Going into my eighth-grade year, I was about 6-1, 6-2ish, and I was a straight point guard. I always played up. I played straight point."

Top 5 games of Udoka Azubuike's senior season with KU basketball
KU basketball big man Udoka Azubuike was never supposed to be at KU for four years. In fact, one man who helped recruit him to Lawrence, assistant Norm Roberts, even noted to Phog.net that Azubuike's injuries were "the only reason" he stuck it out until his senior year.

Kansas' Bill Self talks day-to-day life during COVID-19 pandemic
“I miss it," Self said on the podcast. "I miss going into the office. I don’t miss recruiting much at all — or I don’t miss going on planes. But I miss going to the office. I miss my staff. I miss my administrative help."

ESPN releases newest projected NCAA tournament bracket
And so ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi created a new projected 2021 NCAA Tournament bracket this week, using the teams he and ESPN project to be not only atop the college basketball world next March, but atop their conferences as well. The depth is fun to play around with; Way-Too-Early Top 25s are fun and relatively common, but to put together a projected NCAA Tournament bracket is to look way beyond that, and pick who's going to win the automatic bids for typical one-bid leagues like the Big South or MEAC.

Two KU basketball players projected as 2020 NBA Draft selections
Boone's one-round mock has Dotson going No. 29 to the Lakers. Last season, Dotson averaged 18.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.1 steals per game.

Kendall Brown talks virtual chat with KU coaches, recruitment
Kendall Brown is used to being heavily recruited, as would be the case with most five-star prospects. Brown, a small forward at Sunrise Christian in Wichita, is the No. 16-ranked player in the 247Sports Composite for the class of 2021.

Scouting Sunday: KU's Gethro Muscadin has intriguing potential
Gethro Muscadin is more of an unknown when it comes to KU's 2020 signing class. Most agree he has high potential, but some of his skills will need to be refined when he gets to the college level. After all, Muscadin has only been playing basketball for a few years.

Bits o Chalk

Dolphins Hall of Fame coach Don Shula dies at 90
Don Shula, the NFL's most winningest coach who led the Miami Dolphins to the league's only undefeated season, died Monday at the age of 90.

Dolphins reveal mock-up plan to host fans at stadium amid coronavirus pandemic
"We would have times to come in for security at different gates so people would be separated out, in terms of when they enter the stadium," Garfinkel said. "We would exit the stadium much like a church environment, where each row exits so people aren't filing out all at the same time in a herd."

Blake Bivens found out family was dead on Facebook
Blake Bivens, a Double-A pitcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, found out on Facebook that his family had been killed last August and said he has been leaning on his faith to carry on.

Source - NFL to call off international games this year due to coronavirus
The NFL will call off its annual International Series games in London and Mexico City this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, a league source told ESPN's Vaughn McClure.

Michael Jordan stands firm on 'Republicans buy sneakers, too' quote, says it was made in jest
"I'll be honest, when it was reported that Michael said, 'Republicans buy sneakers, too' -- for somebody who was at that time preparing for a career in civil rights law and knowing what Jesse Helms stood for, you would've wanted to see Michael push harder on that," Obama said. "On the other hand, he was still trying to figure out, 'How am I managing this image that has been created around me, and how do I live up to it?'"

Eraser Dust

Listen live: Supreme Court broadcasts oral arguments for first time
The Supreme Court will broadcast an oral argument live on Monday for the first time in its 230-year history.

Trump invokes Lincoln to explain bullying, bragging and rambling at coronavirus briefings - The Washington Post
“They always said, ‘Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln,’" Trump continued. “I believe I am treated worse.”

Illinois Church Defies Stay-at-Home Order Again, Holds Service Days After Filing Lawsuit Against Governor Pritzker
In the suit, Cassell and the firm alleged that Pritzer's orders were discriminatory against those practicing religion and "intentionally denigrated Illinois churches and pastors and people of faith by relegating them to second-class citizenship."

Liam Gallagher calls Mark Lanegan an "uptight junkie" over claim he bailed on fight
Lanegan outlines a terse exchange with Gallagher in his new memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, in which he claims the Oasis singer quit the band’s 1996 US tour to avoid a planned fight between the two.

"Murder hornets" have now entered the U.S. — and they could decimate the honeybee population - CBS News
A roughly 2-inch long insect known as the "murder hornet" has made its way to the U.S. for the first time ever, researchers said. The Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, has been known to kill up to 50 people a year in Japan, according to The New York Times, and has the potential to devastate U.S. bee populations, which have already been declining.

Grizzly bears euthanized near Columbia Falls
Two grizzly bears were euthanized after the bears became food conditioned from accessing bird feeders, unsecured chicken feed, and other sources near residences north of Columbia Falls.