Notebook

¢ KU freshman Mario Chalmers is questionable for tonight’s game because of a sprained right big toe he suffered in Thursday’s loss to Nevada. Coach Bill Self stressed the toe was sprained, not broken. “It’s day-to-day, so hopefully he’ll play,” Self said.

¢ This is the first meeting between the two schools. Western Illinois receives $50,000 guarantee money for playing the game.

¢ KU is 12-3 versus teams from the Mid-Continent Conference.

¢ Western guard Troy Okeson is from Weskan and attended Dodge City CC. His brother, Todd, played on the Nevada team that beat KU during the 2003-04 season in Reno.

¢ Self is 2-0 versus Western Illinois, with both wins coming when he was head coach at Illinois.

¢ Western Illinois’ nickname of Leathernecks is unique. It seems 78 years ago, WIU became the only non-military institution to have the nickname attributed to a branch of the military service, a nickname it still holds today. The school received its current nickname, “The Fighting Leathernecks,” in 1927 when then-athletic director and baseball, basketball and football coach Ray “Rock” Hanson was granted permission by the U.S. Navy to use the official Marines seal and mascot (Bulldog), along with the nickname. Hanson was a colonel in the Marine Corps and served his country in both world wars. The Western Illinois mascot’s name is “Colonel Rock,” although the shortened form of “Rocky” is commonly used.

¢ Derek Thomas, a 1989 graduate of Missouri-St. Louis, is 16-44 in his third year at Western Illinois. The Leathernecks are 2-27 on the road.

¢ Western defeated its oldest rival, Eastern Illinois, 76-68, on Tuesday in Macomb, Ill. Western leads Eastern, 75-72, all-time.

¢ Tonight’s game is the start of a three-game road trip for WIU. The Leathernecks will travel next week to Loyola and Evansville.

¢ Marlon Mahorn, a 6-foot-7 junior from East Orange, N.J., competed last season at Coffeyville CC. He scored 17 points in a 102-79 home loss to Indiana on Saturday. Sammy Hunter, a 6-3 junior from Huntsville, Ala., played at Southeastern Illinois CC last year. He scored 12 versus Indiana.

¢ Western Illinois was tapped fourth in the Mid-Con preseason coaches poll. The Leathernecks were picked to place behind Oral Roberts, Valparaiso and IUPUI in the nine-team league.

¢ Sophomore guard David Jackson, the team’s leading returning scorer at 9.3 ppg, was voted second-team all-preseason. He had 32 points versus EIU.

¢ WIU’S roster contains no players with more than one year of Div. I experience. Eight players return from last year’s squad, all in the first year a season ago. Thomas added seven newcomers — five juco transfers, one true freshman and Xavier Price, a transfer from Purdue. Price can practice, but not play in games, this season in accordance with NCAA rules.

¢ WIU’S Fred Oguns and Eze Samuel were members of Nigeria’s junior national team.