The Rock Chalkboard

Report has Crawford headed to Wisconsin; Kansas volleyball finishes season ranked in Top 20 | KUsports.com
Former Kansas volleyball player Caroline Crawford is headed to Wisconsin, according to a recent report from the Wisconsin State Journal.

COVID-19 issue within Colorado hoops program leads to cancellation of KU-CU game in Boulder | KUsports.com
“Tad said, ‘Bill, if we have seven and they say we can play, we want to play,’” Self said Tuesday evening. “But this is not an important game in the big scheme of things. I actually agree totally with the decision that was made. It was their doctors, our doctors, everybody.”

KU women pick up road win at Wichita State to move to 9-1 | KUsports.com
Four Jayhawks scored in double figures and the Kansas women recorded a season-high nine blocked shots during a 68-55 road win over Wichita State on Tuesday night at Charles Koch Arena.

Bits o Chalk

NBA commissioner Adam Silver says there are no plans right now to pause the season amid COVID-19 surges
"No plans right now to pause the season," Silver said in an interview on NBA Today on Tuesday afternoon. "We have of course looked at all the options, but frankly we are having trouble coming up with what the logic would be behind pausing right now.

Buffalo Bills WR Cole Beasley on reserve/COVID-19 list, will miss game against New England Patriots
"Just to be clear COVID is not keeping me out of this game. The rules are," Beasley wrote Tuesday on Instagram. "Vaxxed players are playing with Covid every week now because they don't test. One of my vaxxed teammates is in the hospital missing games. I'm sure he didn't get this same energy. Thank you for those who support. Everyone else, if you don't get what's happening then there is nothing anybody can do for you."

LeBron James - Hard to fully assess 16-16 Los Angeles Lakers 'when we haven't been whole'
"We don't know," James said. "We have no idea what this team can be."

Los Angeles Rams beat Seattle Seahawks after 'emotionally, physically exhausting' week
Despite placing up to 29 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list over the past 10 days and playing Tuesday night without three starters, the Rams defeated the division rival Seattle Seahawks 20-10 at SoFi Stadium in a game the NFL rescheduled from Sunday because of Los Angeles' coronavirus outbreak.

Eraser Dust

Biden: U.S. ‘concerned about Omicron, but not panicked’
“I know some Americans are wondering if you can safely celebrate the holiday with family and friends,” he continued. “The answer is, ‘Yes you can,’ if you and those you celebrate with are vaccinated.”

Omicron Severity New Study Shows Hospitalization Rate 80% Lower Than Delta - Bloomberg
South Africans contracting Covid-19 in the current fourth wave of infections are 80% less likely to be hospitalized if they catch the omicron variant, compared with other strains, according to a study released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Biden Still Hopes to Strike ‘Build Back Better’ Deal With Manchin - WSJ
President Biden said he and Sen. Joe Manchin “are going to get something done” two days after negotiations appeared to fall apart on the roughly $2 trillion education, healthcare and climate proposal.

Colorado DA asks court to reconsider truck driver’s 110-year sentence in deadly fiery crash | Fox News
A Colorado prosecutor is asking a court to reconsider the 110-year sentence recently imposed on a truck driver who killed four people and injured many others in a deadly pileup that has prompted outcry from the trucking community and a petition signed by at least four million people.

The Fellowship of the Rockers : NPR
Inducting the Foo Fighters into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October, Paul McCartney noted the almost eerie parallels between the group's jovial leader, Dave Grohl, and himself. Both men entered the realm of rock legend as rhythm-section anchors in paradigm-shifting bands: Macca as bassist for The Beatles, for whom he was also a primary songwriter, and Grohl as the drummer who helped take Nirvana worldwide. Both recovered from history-altering group implosions by retreating to the studio and making albums mostly in solitude. Both, McCartney said modestly, started life as "ordinary, goofy kids." And both "fell into rock and roll, and joined a group."

Beautifully Preserved Dinosaur Embryo Spotted in Fossilized Egg
The rare fossil embryo of an oviraptor is revealing a surprising connection between the hatching behavior of dinosaurs and modern birds, according to new research.