The Rock Chalkboard

Bill Self, Kevin McCullar discuss recent team meeting
Following that meeting, KU faced a two-day turnaround and faced a top-five team in Texas. That meeting evidently made a difference as the Jayhawks defeated the Longhorns 88-80 to move within a game of the top of the Big 12 standings. KU also scored 88 points, the second-highest point total in conference play behind 90 points scored against K-State and did so with First Team All American candidate Jalen Wilson scoring a season low in points. The energy and intensity that KU played with looked much different, too.

Notebook: Bill Self provides injury updates, talks Rice, Udeh and more
KU basketball played its game against Texas with eight scholarship players and it appears there is a chance the Jayhawks could be at the same number of healthy and available players when it travels south for Saturday’s game at Oklahoma. the Jayhawks were able to defeat the Longhorns on Monday with just Joseph Yesufu, MJ Rice and Ernest Udeh Jr. as the available bench options for Bill Self. Kyle Cuffe Jr. (knee), Cam Martin (shoulder), Bobby Pettiford (hamstring), Zach Clemence (knee) and Zuby Ejiofor (foot) were all unavailable due to injury.

Texas, Oklahoma to join SEC for 2024 season after Big 12, TV partners reach deal
"As I have consistently stated, the Conference would only agree to an early withdrawal if it was in our best interest for Oklahoma and Texas to depart prior to June 30, 2025," Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. "By reaching this agreement, we are now able to accelerate our new beginning as a 12-team league and move forward in earnest with our initiatives and future planning."

WATCH: Bill Self, Kevin McCullar discuss KU's road trip to Oklahoma
KU basketball will look to snap its road losing streak in the Big 12 on Saturday with a road game against Oklahoma. The Jayhawks have lost their last three road games, which have come against Kansas State, Baylor and Iowa State. The last time KU beat a Big 12 team on the road was back on Jan. 7 when KU beat West Virginia. KU does enter the game off of a win over Texas on Big Monday, which means the Jayhawks will have extra prep time compared to Oklahoma, which lost to Baylor on the road on Wednesday night.

Bits o Chalk

Patrick Mahomes is named the NFL's 2022 Most Valuable Player : NPR
Patrick Mahomes won going away.

In an early matchup between this weekend's opposing Super Bowl quarterbacks, Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs was named this year's Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player, easily outdistancing the Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts.

NBA trade deadline: sorting the winners and losers from the chaos | NBA | The Guardian
Kyrie Irving to Dallas. Then came Kevin Durant to Phoenix. Brooklyn’s spectacular loss was the Western Conference’s gain. And that was only the start of one of the most chaotic NBA trade deadlines in recent memory, with all but two of the league’s 30 teams getting into the action. Here’s a quick survey of the most notable winners and losers.

NFL Honors 2023 voting results: List of every NFL award winner - NBC Sports Chicago
Those were just a handful of the several award winners announced on Thursday. From Offensive Rookie of the Year to Bud Light Celly of the Year, here's a full look at the results for every award:

Bills athletic trainer who performed CPR on Damar Hamlin receives 5th-place vote for NFL MVP
It was Buffalo Bills assistant trainer Denny Kellington, the man recognized for performing life-saving CPR on Damar Hamlin after the Bills safety went into cardiac arrest on the field last month.

Eraser Dust

No room for the dead as cemeteries in earthquake-hit Turkey and Syria fill up | Turkey-Syria earthquake 2023 | The Guardian
At the Nurdağı cemetery in the Turkish province of Gaziantep, on the Syrian border, there will soon be no more room for the dead. The freshly dug graves are marked with blank headstones, with only pieces of ripped cloth gathered from the victims’ clothing to identify them. The frayed ends of the cloth blow slightly in the frigid air.

Pence subpoenaed by special counsel investigating Trump | CNN Politics
The subpoena marks an important milestone in the Justice Department’s two-year criminal investigation, now led by the special counsel, into the efforts by Trump and allies to impede the transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election. Pence is an important witness who has detailed in a memoir some of his interactions with Trump in the weeks after the election, a move that likely opens the door for the Justice Department to override at least some of Trump’s claims of executive privilege.

Long-lost prison letters from Mary, Queen of Scots decrypted by codebreakers : NPR
"Due to the sheer amount of deciphered material, about 50,000 words in total and enough to fill a book, we have only provided preliminary summaries of the letters, as well as the full reproduction of a few of them, hoping to provide enough incentive to historians with the relevant expertise to engage in in-depth analysis of their contents, to extract insights that would enrich our perspective on Mary's captivity during the years 1578-1584," they wrote.

Larry The Cable Guy Defends Joke About GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
The comedian, real name Daniel Lawrence Whitney, tweeted four photographs of Greene heckling Joe Biden during the president’s State of the Union address this week and wrote:

“This pic reminds me of every comedians x girlfriend coming to their show and sitting in the back 6 days after the breakup.”

Obi-Wan & Anakin's Mustafar Duel Was Almost Completely Different
"But we had a different version of that where that didn’t happen and Obi cut his arms and his legs off a different way...straight away, Anakin just grabbed him by the - he disarmed him, grabbed him by the throat, you know he’s got him and Obi’s saber is down on the ground, and Anakin says, ‘I’m sorry it has to be this way, my master,’ and actually lets (the lightsaber) go. Obi hunches to get away from it, sucks his saber up, as he pulls his saber up he cuts through Anakin’s arms, almost by mistake, and then chops through his legs almost by mistake, and the whole body fell off of his legs. It was more of a defense-gone-wrong kind of move. It was strong."

Montana bill would let students misgender classmates
Montana schools would not be able to punish students who purposely misgender or deadname their transgender peers under a Republican-backed legislative proposal that opponents argue will increase bullying of children who are already struggling for acceptance.

The proposal, co-sponsored by more than two dozen GOP lawmakers, would declare that it’s not discrimination to use a transgender classmate’s legal name or refer to them by their birth gender. Schools would be prevented from adopting policies to punish students who do so.

New Flathead brewery gives veterans, first responders a place to connect
That dream has become a reality in Flathead County as Matt and his wife Josie opened Patriotic American Brewery in Evergreen.

Matt, a U.S. Army Combat veteran, plans to make his brewery a haven for all veterans and first responders looking for a place to connect.

Biden wants to bring back expanded Child Tax Credit | Fortune
In a State of the Union address that focused largely on economic and pocketbook issues, President Joe Biden once again called on Congress to revive the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), a policy from the first year of his presidency that significantly cut the child poverty level in the U.S.