Notebook: KU band doesn’t travel to Champions Classic

Chicago — Kansas University’s band did not make the trip to Tuesday’s Champions Classic, where the Jayhawks lost 79-73 to Michigan State.

MSU’s band was on hand. It was explained that the Jayhawk band has attended just two of the five Champions Classics.

Game organizers indicate the game will be run like an NBA game during timeouts. The Jayhawk administration deduced it was not worth missing class and taking the bus to Chicago for the game with limited playing time available.

Scouts galore

More than 60 NBA scouts were on hand for the Champions Classic to watch the likes of Kentucky’s Skal Labissiere, Duke’s Brandon Ingram and Kentucky’s Jamal Murray, projected by draftexpress.com to go Nos. 1, 3 and 6 in the 2016 NBA Draft. KU’s Cheick Diallo is projected at No. 11 and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk at 17.

This, that

KU coach Bill Self said Hunter Mickelson’s lack of playing time (three minutes) was because Landen Lucas (seven boards, two points) was more suited to style of play in the game.

“Michigan State three-quartered on the post,” Self said. “If they do that it’s Landen’s best game. He plays to getting angles. I thought that was the percentage play for us to play that way.” … Don Jackson, the agent for Cheick Diallo’s guardian, texted the Journal-World a message that indicated Diallo was watching the game alone in his dorm apartment. He cannot travel while ineligible unless he receives an NCAA waiver. “He deserves to be on the court in Chicago tonight and not in a dorm room in Lawrence. So much for the idea that this organization (NCAA) values the student-athlete,” Jackson said to the J-W.

— See what people were saying about the game during KUsports.com’s live coverage