The Rock Chalkboard

Three takeaways: Reviewing KU basketball's loss at Oklahoma State
A big reason for Kansas' 21-2 run in the second half was Self switching to a junk defense to neutralize the Oklahoma State offense. In the post-game press conference, Self said the Jayhawks' first adjustment didn't work, though the second one proved effective.

Bryce Thompson suffers broken finger, out indefinitely for KU basketball
“He broke his finger; he broke his finger,” Self repeated in the post-game press conference. “I don’t know the exact details of that. All I know is we’re sure he broke his finger. So we’ll go back and get it examined. And so we don’t know what it will require, if it’s surgery, if it’s not. I mean, we have no idea on that.”

Why KU basketball's comeback effort against Oklahoma State fell short
After clawing back from a 16-point deficit in the second half, No. 6 KU basketball was one stop away from having the opportunity to put the game on ice. In the midst of a 21-2 run, the Jayhawks led by three with just over a minute remaining.

Five-star junior Mark Mitchell progressing nicely
Tuesday night, I made the short trip from my home to Blue Valley High in suburban Kansas City to watch as they took on Bishop Miege. It was a chance to check on three of the top 2022 players in Kansas City in Blue Valley's four-star wing Aidan Shaw and Miege's five-star forward Mark Mitchell and and three-star forward Taj Manning.

Quick recap & instant analysis: No. 6 KU basketball at Oklahoma State
With the loss, the Jayhawks dropped to 10-3 on the season and 4-2 in Big 12 play. They previously earned ranked conference wins over Texas Tech (at the time No. 14) and West Virginia (No. 7). The Jayhawks' losses this season have come to current No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 4 Texas.

Top 30 big man Vince Iwuchukwu talks his loaded recruitment
“Right now I'm alright. I haven't really thought about college right now,” he said. “I'm just focused on high school basketball. I've talked to coaches, so it's been going really well. I'm just enjoying it right now.”

Bits o Chalk

College football's 2021 breakout players for each Top 25 team
The 2020 college football season has just ended, but it's never too early to start looking ahead to next season. Here's a look at one potential breakout star for each player in the 2021 Way-Too-Early Top 25.

Oklahoma City Thunder's George Hill says NBA's stricter protocol 'makes no sense'
"We wanna play the game ... but I don't understand some of the rules," Hill said. "We can sweat 48 minutes with a guy next to us for 48 minutes, but we can't talk to them afterwards. It makes no sense."

All-Star James Harden says Houston Rockets are 'just not good enough'
"I love this city. I literally have done everything that I can," Harden said after the Rockets' 117-100 loss. "I mean, this situation is crazy. It's something that I don't think can be fixed."

The 2021 Way-Too-Early college football top 25
Even in a 2020 college football season that featured more starts and stops than Los Angeles traffic, there were a handful of near certainties, such as Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State reaching the College Football Playoff.

Brian Schottenheimer out after 3-year run as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator
In a surprising move, Brian Schottenheimer is out as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator after three seasons.

Eraser Dust

Republicans begin backing impeachment in 'vote of conscience' - CNNPolitics
The first impeachment backers included the House's No. 3 Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, in a remarkable rebuke with a President who has been unassailable in the House GOP conference throughout his four-year term. While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is opposed to impeachment, House Republican leaders are not lobbying their members to oppose it, and Cheney told the conference Monday it was a "vote of conscience."

Lisa Montgomery: US executes only woman on federal death row - BBC News
The latest execution was postponed twice - first by Covid-19, then by a judge - until a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for it to take place in the early hours of Wednesday.

Key takeaways from the stunning Justice Department news conference on the US Capitol breach - CNNPolitics
The US Justice Department detailed for the first time on Tuesday the scale of its investigation into last week's US Capitol breach as officials vowed to hold all participants that broke the law accountable.

Fact check: Mexico never paid for it. But what about Trump's other border wall promises?
On Tuesday, the president falsely claimed he’d promised — and delivered — 450 miles of border wall.

In fact, that amounts to less than half of his initial promise. And just 47 miles of the 450 miles amounts new structures where none existed before.

FVCC food pantry a vital resource during pandemic
Brittany Chandler was in the midst of her studies in Flathead Valley Community College’s medical assistant program when the pandemic struck and changed everything.

The Best Sandwich in Every State | Food & Wine
The quickest path to understanding how things work in Butte is knowing that there used to be roughly 100,000 people living in what was once the wealthiest mining district in existence. Today, the city has just over 30,000 inhabitants, and the money is mostly elsewhere, but the town isn't going anywhere, with its grand, boom period architecture and handful of classic restaurants that adeptly pull double duty—not only will they feed you, and sometimes quite well, but they are also very effective as time machines. Pork Chop John's dates back to 1924, when John Burklund began selling sandwiches out of the back of a van, a business lucrative enough that he ended up in a brick-and-mortar location not long after. The original location is still in operation—just ten stools at a counter—and the business has now been in the same family since the 1960s. The pork chop sandwich—pork tenderloin, breaded and fried, on a roll with mustard, onion and pickle—is rather iconic. Make ours a double.

Chuck Norris weighs in on U.S. Capitol riot after photo resembling actor goes viral - CBS News
"It wasn't me and I wasn't there," Norris tweeted Tuesday night. "There is no room for violence of any kind in our society. I am and always will be for Law and Order."