The Rock Chalkboard

Devonte' Graham lights up Roundball Classic, drills 3 over Svi Mykhailiuk
Devonte’ Graham stole the show with a game-high 19 points and knocked in five 3-pointers — including one from way downtown while his former teammate Svi Mykhailiuk was guarding him.

'I try to stay Switzerland': Lance Leipold brings unique approach to Kansas camp
Lance Leipold is a coach of substance. He doesn't like to throw out individual praise where it isn't earned. For instance, the Kansas coach hesitated to list a singular highlight from the first fall camp practice, yet he broke into detailed explanations when asked about specific drills or the types of things he wants to see in general.

Silvio De Sousa aggravated battery charge: jury finds not guilty
The original charge against De Sousa — which came on October 28, 2020 — dated back to an incident that occurred on January 1, 2020, at Brother’s Bar & Grill in Lawrence, Kansas., according to The Star. It was alleged that De Sousa struck 32-year-old Shawnee native Grant Davis hard enough to result in Davis’ left eye blindness, per the report. Newell tweeted that the jury in the case had three different levels of battery that it could have chosen to find De Sousa guilty of, but chose not guilty as the outcome.

Lance Leipold, Bill Self comment on conference realignment
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold and KU basketball coach Bill Self addressed the topic of conference realignment for the first time this week. The topic has been a popular one around college athletics with Texas and Oklahoma headed to the SEC out of the Big 12 — though a specific timeline for that movement has not been established.

Countdown to KU football (29): Step inside fall camp practice No. 1
Kansas football's first fall camp practice under Lance Leipold took place on Thursday. The Kansas coach joked with media after the practice that he was just glad to get to see his players in person, which was the case for the first time in a formal practice setting on Thursday.

Bits o Chalk

Houston Texans' Jonathan Owens 'sick' over girlfriend Simone Biles' saga
"I was sick for her, just because I can see her face, I kind of know her facial expressions, I can kind of read her lips and kind of know what was going on and kind of what she was telling her coach," Owens said Thursday. "I kind of already knew what was going on beforehand, so I was just really hoping she was going to get over it and be able to go out there and perform. So I was sick to my stomach because she wasn't able to go out there."

Americans April Ross, Alix Klineman win women's beach volleyball gold
TOKYO -- April Ross won the Olympic gold medal that completes her set, and when she stood on the top step of the podium at the Shiokaze Park beach volleyball venue on Friday she had with her the perfect person to hang it around her neck: teammate Alix Klineman.

U.S. women's basketball team routs Serbia, advances to gold-medal game
SAITAMA, Japan -- With smooth execution that has gotten more impressive as the Tokyo Olympics have gone on, the U.S. women's basketball team earned a chance to play for a seventh consecutive gold medal with a 79-59 victory over Serbia on Friday.

PSG contact Lionel Messi, eager to make a deal happen - sources
Paris Saint-Germain have made contact with Lionel Messi over a potential move, sources have told ESPN, and the former Barcelona star's arrival could have an impact on the futures of Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba.

Allyson Felix claims 10th Olympic medal as Shaunae Miller-Uibo defends 400-meter title
Allyson Felix set the Olympic record for women's track and field medals when she won her 10th with a bronze in the 400 meters Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.

Bits o Chalk

Michael Che: How The ‘SNL’ Cast Reacted To Simone Biles Jokes Backlash – Hollywood Life
“Nobody with the show and fellow cast mates are mad at Michael for trying out his Simone Biles jokes,” a source told HL. “You have to realize that the writer’s room at SNL is devoted to ideas no matter how stupid, clever, or cringe-worthy the material; it all needs to be addressed because the best joke wins.”

Star Wars Clearly Explains How Palpatine Survived Return of the Jedi
In a new Star Wars Inside Intel feature on StarWars.com, Lucasfilm junior creative executive Emily Shkoukani has given the full account of Palpatine's survival, as well as his plans for the foundations of the First and Final Orders. The piece compiles all the information provided so far on the Contingency -- the official name for Palpatine's grand plan to cheat death and return to power -- tracing it from its origins in early novels from the new canon, such as Star Wars: Lost Stars and the Aftermath trilogy, all the way to its fruition and ultimate undoing in The Rise of Skywalker. The piece joins the dots between these various accounts of Palpatine's plans for the event of his death, creating a comprehensive picture of the Dark Lord of the Sith's designs on the galaxy beyond the end of the Empire.

DeSantis Threatens School Funds If Florida Districts Require Masks : NPR
DeSantis cited a study, conducted in part by Brown University researcher Emily Oster, that did not find "a correlation between mask mandates and COVID-19 rates" in schools in Florida, New York and Massachusetts. Other researchers have pointed out that the study had a big caveat: The data didnt look at whether students contracted COVID-19 in or outside of school. Oster herself has said that the data sets were collected before the spread of the hyper-transmissible delta variant, according to The Associated Press.

Senators struggle to amend, finish $1T infrastructure bill
“We’ve worked long, hard and collaboratively, to finish this important bipartisan bill,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., just before midnight. In announcing Saturday’s schedule, he said “We very much want to finish.”

Kalispell man arrested following standoff with law enforcement
Deputies attempted to talk with Spills but “but he escalated his behavior and threatened to shoot at law enforcement,” a news release states. The Flathead Regional SWAT team responded to the scene and Spills was safely taken into custody at approximately 9 p.m.