The Rock Chalkboard

Kwamie Lassiter gives breakout WR candidates for Kansas football
“The young guys, I like Steven McBride of course,” Lassiter began. “We’ve got a young freshman, Kelan Robinson, I actually like him a lot. He’s a real worker, real mature for his age. All he wants to do is get better at his game. He wants to improve every part of his game on and off the field. You don’t really see that too much out of an 18-year old, but he’s real mature.”

Kansas football DBs room to feature new faces in 2021
Following the most-recent departure of Prunty to South Carolina, the Jayhawks will be tasked with finding new names to step up. That could include freshman Jacobee Bryant, who had a pick-six in the spring game, or Jeremy Webb, a transfer who chose the Jayhawks out of Missouri State.

CBS Sports releases new Top 25 and 1
I'll save you the click:

1. Gonzaga

2. UCLA

3. Texas

4. Kansas

and it doesn't matter after that

Adidas 3SSB: Class of 2023 five-star Elijah Fisher talks recruitment
“Playing for team Canada was a different experience for me. It really opened my eyes and showed me who's in my back pocket and who got me as a player. It really humbled me and showed me some things.”

Lance Leipold OK with Oklahoma drill being phased out of football
“I can’t tell you the last time I did one of that nature,” Leipold said. “[With] all decisions, you go back from the elimination of two-a-days — or no two-a-days two days in a row — to whatever, I personally think we do a lot of things about the amount of live tackling. They make all these rules of percentages and then you get in a room with head coaches and everybody’s looking around going, ‘Who is going live this much that these rules [exist]?’ Because nobody is doing it. Nobody has been doing those things.”

Lance Leipold reveals biggest issue for Kansas currently
“Where we struggled in our early days in Buffalo, was stopping the run sometimes,” Leipold said on Sports Radio 810-WHB’s The Program on Thursday. “And we felt once we can start winning first and second down a little bit better, then you become, you know, your offense, your opponent becomes a little bit more predictable. Then, you can kind of open up that defensive playbook a little bit more and get after people. Right now, we haven’t done a great job here at Kansas, slowing people down, especially in the early downs of a series. So, that’s going to be a priority for us.”

Bits o Chalk

U.S. men's basketball team builds momentum with win over Spain in final game before Tokyo Olympics
"We're getting better with each passing day," said Popovich, who will fly across the Pacific Ocean on Monday with a team that has had just six practices and four games. "Less is more. Reinventing the wheel is the worst thing you could do with this group."

United States vs. Canada - Football Match Report - July 18, 2021 - ESPN
Moore's goal was the fastest in Gold Cup history and the fastest for the U.S. since Clint Dempsey scored in 30 seconds against Ghana in the Americans' 2014 World Cup opener.

U.S. women's gymnastics alternate tests positive for COVID-19 ahead of Tokyo Olympics
"One of the replacement athletes for the women's artistic gymnastics team received a positive COVID test on Sunday, July 18. After reviewing the implemented COVID protocols with members of the delegation, the local government determined that the affected replacement athlete and one other replacement athlete would be subject to additional quarantine restrictions," the USAG statement said. "Accordingly, on Monday, the Olympic athletes moved to separate lodging accommodations and a separate training facility, as originally planned, and will continue their preparation for the Games. The entire delegation continues to be vigilant and will maintain strict protocols while they are in Tokyo."

Fan who hit Alex Verdugo with baseball at Yankee Stadium banned from all MLB parks for life
NEW YORK -- The fan who hit Boston Red Sox left fielder Alex Verdugo with a baseball thrown from the Yankee Stadium stands has been banned for life from attending major league games.

U.S. women's basketball team earns first exhibition win, routs Nigeria
LAS VEGAS -- The U.S. women's Olympic basketball team was in unfamiliar territory after dropping two exhibition games in a row for the first time in a decade.

Eraser Dust

Biden Administration Moves First Prisoner Out of Guantánamo After Trump Delay
A Moroccan man who has rotted in Guantánamo Bay despite being primed for release five years ago has been repatriated. The move, reported by The New York Times, is the Biden administration’s first step toward reducing the population of the wartime prison. Donald Trump reversed Obama-era policies on repatriating detainees after he was elected in 2016, leaving several inmates who had never been charged with a crime in limbo. They included Abdul Latif Nasser, 56, who was handed back into Moroccan custody in the early hours of Monday after being held since May 2002. According to the Times, Morocco has agreed to keep Nasser under strict security measures as a condition of his release. His lawyer, Thomas Anthony Durkin, described the final years of his client’s detention as “collateral damage of the Trump administration’s and zealous Republican war-on-terror hawks’ raw politics.” An Biden administration official said Nasser’s release is the first step toward “responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.”

Dangerous conditions complicate wildfire fight in western US
The destructive Bootleg Fire, one of the largest in modern Oregon history, has already burned more than 476 square miles (1,210 square kilometers), an area about the size of Los Angeles. The blaze just north of the California state line was 25% contained.

Food trucks proliferate across Flathead Valley | Daily Inter Lake
Though the trend isn't new to the Flathead Valley, there are more mobile kitchens on local roads than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic was the impetus for many entrepreneurs to set up shop inside the tiny trailers.

US to Accuse China of Microsoft Hacking - The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday formally accused the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world’s largest companies, governments and military contractors, as the United States joined a broad group of allies, including all NATO members, to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' lyric mystery over dress is over
Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" lyrics debate is over. So climb in, because it's a town full of losers, this story is pulling out of here to win.

Montana teacher shortage 'crisis' escalates | Daily Inter Lake
Montana faces a worsening teacher shortage "crisis" even as education officials worry that a key support for students — mental health care through the Comprehensive School and Community Treatment Program — remains in limbo.

Beth Brenneman, with Disability Rights Montana, said parents of roughly 4,500 children who receive mental and behavioral health services in schools through CSCT don't know if the program will continue, and she requested lawmakers give families assurances.