Any time a new sports hall of fame is started, there’s close scrutiny of the first group of inductees along with immediate reaction about which stars were not included. Often the most glaring omissions are corrected in a few years — as probably will be the case with the new Kansas Relays Hall of Fame.

But then there are longstanding “halls” where a certain spin starts to prevail after an extended period and too many good people keep getting shortchanged — as in the case of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Five superstars and two coaches will be inducted into the Kansas Relays Hall of Fame next weekend; all of them deserve such — former coaches and Relays directors Bill Easton and Bob Timmons, flat-racers Glenn Cunningham, Wes Santee, Billy Mills and Jim Ryun and four-time Olympic discus gold medalist Al Oerter.

Purists can howl that these all have Jayhawk backgrounds and that the Relays has had plenty of non-KU luminaries. Let them scream. Non-Kansans can be honored as time goes by. KU people made the Relays a legendary program since the days of Glenn Cunningham because people don’t patronize the event unless there are local stars they can adore.

World record-holders such as hurdler Harrison Dillard and shot putter Chuck Fonville should be in the bin, and will be over time. Meanwhile, let’s take care of some home cookin’.

My first reaction was that Bill Nieder, the Lawrence product who won Olympic gold and silver medals, was slighted. Then there is the late Ed Elbel, the behind-the-scenes driving force for eons. How about Olympic metric hurdler Clif Cushman, who was the top honoree for the 1965 Relays? Later that year, Lt. Cushman was sent to Vietnam as a fighter pilot, right after the birth of his first child. He left us that inspirational “I Dare You” message and a lot more before he was downed in combat in ’66. He never has been located.

All in due time, planners tell me. Each year, there will be five living inductees and two posthumous honorees, in the current case Cunningham and Easton. Next year’s class will be quite interesting.

But the Relays Hall of Fame is new and finding its way. It’s that Naismith basketball hall that rankles me. KU is represented by more people than any other school, and the recent choice of Jayhawk Lynette Woodard is as good as they could ever make. But there is growing resentment that professional-linked people are taking precedence over the likes of college products who merit inclusion. For example, the selection of Phoenix magnate Jerry Colangelo and Drazen Dalipagic. Colangelo played his freshman ball at Kansas (1957-58), started at Illinois and made all-league and has been a pro sports fixture in Phoenix. So add another “KU kind of guy” to the list.

Still, there are so many more worthies than Colangelo, and Europe-spawned Drazen Dalipagic, over somebody like coach Jim Calhoun? The selection committee needs a reality check. At least they got it right with Woodard. But Dalipagic? How about Sacco and Vanzetti?

Blabber all you will about the merits of Cheryl Miller, Nancy Lieberman, Sheryl Swoopes or Diana Taurasi, but Lynette is the best female basketball player you’ll ever see. I watched her lead Wichita North to a state title as a sophomore; she was already phenomenal. Her list of accomplishments for high school, Kansas, the Olympics, the pros and the Harlem Globetrotters puts the pretenders to her throne to shame. She could still whip a lot of foes, men or women.

Now we’re getting the hype that Connecticut’s Taurasi may be the best ever. She’s truly great and you have to like her fire and desire, but advantage Lynette.

By the way, did else anyone notice after that one recent NCAA victory how Taurasi rushed to the sideline, hugged and lifted coach Geno Auriemma off his feet, then patted him on a bun when she set him down? Wanna guess how fast the Sexual Harassment Police would have swarmed the hall if Geno had been the exhuberant patter instead of the pattee? But nobody ever said Diana lacked guts.

Still, the growing pro and international aspect of the hall galls a lot of us. Hell, guys, America invented and perfected the game. Take care of the people who really made basketball what it is instead of getting so open-minded our brains are falling out! Good lord, Drazen Dalipagic?

• The situation with the Missouri basketball program just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. There is justifable wonderment over how the Tigers can continue their charmed life and escape without some harsh penalty zingers.

There’s the girl-beater Rickey Clemons fiasco (24 hours in summer school to get eligible?), money handout rumors, the status of coach Quin Snyder and his relationship with sugar-daddies like the Kroenkes and Lauries, the taped phone confabs with the wife of the school’s headmaster and the wife of an assistant coach. And more. How long can these striped jungle cats keep dodging bullets?

We continue to hear that Snyder will have to fire at least two of his assistants. Bingo! Word is that the guys most likely to walk the plank now are threatening to rush to the NCAA and spill their guts about various misfeasances and malfeasances on Quin’s watch. So will they keep their jobs to keep quiet?