Jayhawk fans enjoy the ride
Dallas ? Brady Morningstar’s enjoying the ride.
The Free State High School junior drove in style Friday morning from Lawrence to Dallas, steering a massive Hummer H2 to the front door of the Wyndham Anatole, Kansas University’s team hotel for the Big 12 Tournament.
Morningstar figures that without making Sunday’s championship game, the Jayhawks would be sent to a far-flung NCAA Tournament site such as Milwaukee, Seattle or even Buffalo, N.Y.
And that would guarantee another high-riding road trip behind the wheel of family friend David Freeman’s brand new behemoth, a road tank whose 6-liter, V-8 Vortek engine purred all the way to Big D.
But a Big 12 Championship for KU likely would leave Morningstar at the curb. He figures the Jayhawks would be rewarded for their late-season surge with a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament’s St. Louis region and a first-round game in nearby Kemper Arena.
Farewell, Hummer. Morningstar would be stuck schlepping to the K.C. stockyards in his 1989 Chevy Lumina, a hubcap-hindered maroon machine peppered with peeling paint and pitiful power.
But he wouldn’t complain.
“Anything for KU,” said Morningstar, whose dad, Roger, played for KU in the early ’70s. “KU’s my team.”
- School’s out: Here’s a tip for students looking for an excuse to skip out on school: Have a brother playing Division I basketball.
Lauren Moody, 7, cheers from the shoulders of her brother Patrick, 17, during the Kansas University pep rally in Dallas. The Moodys traveled from Asheville, N.C., to see their brother Christian Moody play in the Big 12 Tournament.
Patrick, John and Lauren Moody all were taking a break from classes Friday, giving them a chance to fly into Dallas for the Missouri game.
With mom’s permission.
“I just told the teachers that they’re going to go see a KU basketball game and their brother, Christian,” said proud mother Mary Moody, who led the family trip from Asheville, N.C.. “The whole town just loves the Kansas Jayhawks.”
The Moodys — Patrick, 17; John, 13; and Lauren, 7 — intend to follow KU all through the NCAA Tournament, too. The more school missed, the better.
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KU sends Tigers packingThe crew wouldn’t need excuses for the ultimate prize.
“Spring break starts just before the Final Four,” Mary Moody said.
Added Patrick: “San Antonio would be nice.”
- Tension time-out: Not even the tension of a third clash with Missouri could shake the calm surrounding KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway as he strolled through the lower levels of the American Airlines Center.
Quite a change from last year.
“I’m losing less sleep going into the tournament,” Hemenway said, smiling as he grabbed an apple for a snack.
Last year, of course, Hemenway had a little on his mind: rumors swirling that North Carolina would make a run at hiring longtime KU coach Roy Williams, and alumni and donors clamoring for the dismissal of Athletic Director Al Bohl.
At season’s end, Hemenway fired Bohl and Williams left for Chapel Hill, N.C.
Hemenway’s pleased to have some peace, quiet and stability once again.
“I’m nervous (about the games), but I’m ready,” he said.
- Speaking of hiring: KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins is continuing his quest to hire a women’s basketball coach, a post vacated for the first time in school history with last month’s resignation of Marian Washington.
And Hemenway knows the search is in the right hands with the former AD from Connecticut, where the women’s team has made a habit of winning national championships.
“He’s working with me, and I have great confidence that Lew Perkins knows what a great women’s basketball coach is and will make a great appointment,” Hemenway said. “And there’s no shortage of coaches who would like to coach at the University of Kansas.”
Hemenway said that there was no firm deadline set for hiring a new coach.