Notebook

¢ Stewart eligible: USC transfer Rodrick Stewart, who learned he was definitely eligible for second semester at 3 p.m. Monday, entered his first KU game with 1:24 remaining.

“Rodrick’s not been out there in situations. It wasn’t a 20-point game. With five minutes left we were doing things to win the game,” Self said when asked about Stewart’s minutes, adding, “I was hoping everybody could have played more.”

¢ Sick point: Senior point guard Jeff Hawkins, who had four turnovers, one assist and two points in 18 minutes, has been suffering from the flu bug.

¢ Recruit on hand: Alex Tyus, a 6-foot-8 forward from Harmony Community School in Cincinnati, attended on a recruiting visit. The 210-pounder, who attended Hazelwood Central in St. Louis last year, is a member of the recruiting class of 2007. He’s considering KU, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Memphis and others.

¢ Unlikely threes: Christian Moody, who entered with one career three pointer made in four tries, hit two threes without a miss. “We’ve been telling him to shoot it,” Self said.

¢ Rotation talk: Self used a lot of combinations Monday, prompting media to ask Russell Robinson and Brandon Rush about sticking with one rotation:

“I’m fine with the rotation. It’s just um, I don’t know. You’ve just got to get the right people in at the right time. Sometimes the rotation messes up the whole team and it goes downhill,” Rush said.

“That’s one thing about our team, you know every day it’s a different lineup. That maybe could hurt us in the future, but I think it’s going to start to come together,” Robinson said.

¢ Lineup change possible: Self was asked about perhaps changing his starting lineup.

“I don’t know. We may need to shuffle some things around,” he said, adding, “I get sick and tired to be candid with you about people’s opinions on starting lineups. A coach’s job in my opinion is do what’s best for his team. We’ve done what’s best for our team because nobody knows about practice and intangibles. People get hung up on all the wrong things. Starting is not what you should be hung up on. Our best team is usually when Stephen (Vinson) is on the floor. That probably will not be our best team come February.

“I think I know in my mind what I’d like our best team to be. That team right now is not ready to play,” he added, noting it could be a different six or seven guys emerging as key factors on a given night.

¢ Grad rates discussed: KU’s graduation success rate fell eight points below the national average in figures released Monday by the NCAA.

KU had a graduation success rate of 68 percent of all athletes who entered school in 1995, ’96, ’97 and ’98. The national graduation success rate was 76 percent.

In men’s basketball, KU’s graduation success rate was 43 percent, compared to the 58 percent national average. In football, KU’s graduation success rate was 46 percent compared to 65 percent national average.

A year ago, KU had an overall graduation rate of 62 percent. This, however, is the first year schools were no longer penalized for having students transfer to other schools.

“The goal is 100 percent graduation rate,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said. “Lew (Perkins, AD) said since he arrived this is a priority for us. Learning exactly what the system means and do what we need to do to move our score up. We’ve increased the number of academic coordinators, doubled the budget for tutors. Our goal is to improve every semester.”