Archives for February 2021

Baylor has overshadowed nearly everything in the Big 12 this season as it tries to complete an undefeated season.

Oklahoma has been making a statement of its own.

With a win over then-No. 9 Alabama on Saturday, the Sooners became just the second team in 25 years to beat three straight top-10 opponents. Oklahoma also is the first team since 1974 to beat four top-10 teams in the same month.

The Sooners’ run led to a big jump in this week’s Associated Press men’s basketball poll. Oklahoma moved up 15 spots to No. 9 in the Top 25 released Monday, its highest ranking since reaching No. 4 in 2017-18.

“Any time you can win a game like that is big from a resume standpoint, big from a confidence standpoint, momentum,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said after the 66-61 win over the Crimson Tide. “It’s continuing to move in the right direction. Those wins, you never take those for granted.”

Oklahoma had to replace leading scorer and rebounder Kristian Doolittle this season and was picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll.

The Sooners got off to shaky Big 12 start, opening 2-3 after losses to Baylor and Kansas.

Oklahoma (11-4, 6-3 Big 12) has been on quite a run since then, taking down then-No. 9 Kansas, No. 5 Texas and Alabama.

The Sooners, who beat No. 17 West Virginia earlier this month, knocked off the Crimson Tide despite playing without Austin Reaves and starting guard Alondes Williams due to COVID-19 protocols.

“I thought these guys (Oklahoma), they play hard to begin with and then when they’re down two starters, they really bought in,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said.

AT THE TOP

Gonzaga and Baylor remained atop the poll for the 11th straight week.

The Zags (17-0, 8-0 West Coast) received 61 first-place votes from a media panel to hold at No. 1 after routing San Diego and Pepperdine last week. The Bears (16-0, 8-0 Big 12) received the other three first-place votes following wins over Kansas State and Auburn.

Villanova and Michigan remained at Nos. 3 and 4, with Houston rounding out the top five. The Cougars have their highest ranking since the Phi Slama Jama team reached No. 2 in 1983-84.

LOVE THE DRAKE

Drake won 24 games in its first season under coach Darian DeVries and had 20 last year before the pandemic canceled everyone’s season.

The Bulldogs have taken the next step this year, rolling through an undefeated season.

Coming off three wins last week, Drake was ranked for the first time since 2007-08 in this week’s poll at No. 25.

The Bulldogs (16-0, 7-0 Missouri Valley through Sunday) rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat Illinois State 78-76 in overtime over the weekend and are off to their best start in 13 years.

RISING

Oklahoma had the biggest jump by far in this week’s poll, but No. 7 Ohio State also cracked the top 10 by moving up six spots. The Buckeyes beat Penn State and crushed Michigan State last week.

No. 11 Tennessee climbed seven places after beating Kansas by 19. No. 12 Illinois also moved up seven spots following a five-point win over Iowa, which dropped three spots to No. 8.

FALLING

No. 17 West Virginia dropped six spots after a home loss to Florida and a one-point win over No. 13 Texas Tech. … No. 14 Virginia also fell six spots following a 14-point loss at Virginia Tech, as did No. 18 Missouri after losing to Auburn last week. … No. 19 Wisconsin dropped five spots after losing at Penn State.

IN AND OUT

Florida moved into the poll for the first time this season at No. 22 following its win over West Virginia. … No. 24 Purdue also made its season debut this week with win over Minnesota. The Gophers dropped out from No. 21. … Saint Louis fell out from No. 22 after a loss to Dayton and Louisville is out from No. 25 after losing to Clemson.

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Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill wants to be the Super Bowl halftime show.

Hill said Monday he’d be willing to race Tampa Bay receiver Scotty Miller during intermission at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

“Someone line that up for us,” Hill said.

Miller raised eyebrows last week when he said he believes he would win a one-on-one footrace with Hill, considered one of the fastest players in the NFL.

“I’m taking me every day of the week,” Miller told The Dan Patrick Show. “I’ll take me over anybody. Tyreek is unbelievable, super quick, unbelievable talent. But if we’re talking about a race, I’ve got all the confidence in myself going up against anybody.”

Hill was given several chances to challenge Miller’s assertion during a virtual media day, but he declined each time.

“I feel like Scotty answered that question the right way,” Hill said. “I feel like if someone asked Luke, ‘Hey, Luke, are you faster than Tyreek? Or, hey, Rob, are you faster than Tyreek?’ Your answer should be, ‘Yes, I’m that confident in myself that I’m faster than Tyreek.’ That’s any man.

“So Scotty answered that question the right way. But do I think he’s faster than me? I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe we can do something during halftime or something like that. Someone line that up for us.”

Hill came close to tipping his hand, though, when asked about any NFL cornerback being able to cover him.

“For me to just sit here and say someone can keep up with me would be, you know, I don’t know,” he said. “But I feel like in my heart no one can keep up with me. I’ve ran track. I’ve ran Olympics. Somebody in the NFL, nah, I don’t really believe so.”

AWARDS SEASON

NFL Honors, the annual primetime awards special that recognizes the league’s best players, performances and plays from the season, will be broadcast nationally the night before the Super Bowl.

The two-hour show airs Saturday on CBS with Emmy Award-winning entertainer Steve Harvey hosting for the third consecutive year. Grammy award-winning rock band Green Day will open the show, and Leslie Odom Jr. will perform during the in-memoriam segment.

The show includes the unveiling of the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year announcement and The Associated Press’ annual accolades that include the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and Comeback Player of the Year.

CHIEFS (ANIMAL) KINGDOM

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have a record-breaking connection on the field for the Chiefs. But, what if the quarterback and tight end had to choose spirit animals for each other?

Well, that question was posed to both during media day — and the answers, not surprisingly, drew laughs.

“Travis, man, it’s got to be something funny,” Mahomes said. “I think he’d be like a giraffe. He’s kind of just out there grazing around the field, trying to make something happen. Finding different things he can run around and do stuff with anything. He’s always a good time.”

Kelce was taken aback by Mahomes’ choice, saying he always thought of himself as more of a tiger.

“What is a giraffe good for other than eating trees?” an exasperated Kelce said. “What does he do? Does he run away from danger? I guess they do have a nice head whip as a weapon. I’ve got to do my research on giraffes now so I don’t sound silly.”

When told that the quarterback chose a wolf for himself, the tight end had another suggestion.

“I think he’s got a little frog in him, man,” Kelce said, laughing. “He’s already got the voice of a frog. Who knows? Maybe he’ll get a kiss from a princess and turn into a knight. Who knows, man? That guy’s nuts.”

WHAT DO YOU MEME?

Leave it to Mom to get a big chuckle out of Rob Gronkowski.

Diane Gronkowski Walters recently sent her son — the Buccaneers star tight end — a meme that featured Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes sitting on Tom Brady’s shoulders like a baby. It was captioned: “Take Your Son to Work Day — Feb. 7.”

That, of course, is the date of the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Buccaneers.

“It was just classic because Mahomes could really be Tom’s son,” Gronkowski said with a laugh. “Tom’s just such a legend and been doing it for so long, and their age difference is where (Mahomes) could be his son. So, that meme, that was a pretty good one that she sent.”

Mahomes, by the way, is 25. Meanwhile, Brady is 43. This is Mahomes’ second straight Super Bowl appearance, while this year marks the NFL-record 10th for Brady — and first with Tampa Bay after going with New England in the others.

During a day off Sunday, Gronkowski traveled down Interstate-75 for some mother-son time. He spent the night and returned to the team facility Monday in time for his question-and-answer session with reporters conducted via Zoom.

“I’m leaving her house this morning, and she’s got a whole bag packed full of drinks for me. She’s got a breakfast sandwich for me. She’s just still on top of her game. Just the impact that she has made on my life has been pretty incredible, and it’s just still going to this day,” Gronkowski said.

SUPER STREAK CONTINUES

The matriarch of the Kansas City Chiefs will continue her streak of seeing every Super Bowl in person.

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said Monday his 82-year-old mother, Norma Hunt, will make the trip to Tampa, Florida, to see Kansas City play the Buccaneers on Sunday. He added that she has been cautious all season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My mother’s very excited to be headed back to the Super Bowl,” said Clark Hunt, who serves as the face of the franchise’s ownership family. “Last year was a big one for her. It was her 54th but the first one she had been to in 50 years that the Chiefs were participating, so that was special.”

Norma Hunt was working as a schoolteacher and hostess for the Dallas Texans when she met Lamar Hunt in 1964, five years after he and other members of “The Foolish Club” founded the AFL. Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs and the upstart league eventually merged with the NFL.

Lamar Hunt, who died in 2006, also coined the term “Super Bowl” for the league’s championship game.

The Chiefs lost to the Packers in the first Super Bowl, then beat the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth one. That was their last Super Bowl appearance before last season, when the Chiefs rallied to beat the San Francisco 49ers.

HIT ‘EM, JOIN ’EM

Defensive end Frank Clark is glad Mahomes is his teammate and not his opponent even though Clark hit the Chiefs QB three times in the Seattle Seahawks’ 38-31 win over Kansas City in a Week 16 matchup in 2018.

After the season, Kansas City sent its first-round pick in 2019 and a second-round pick in the 2020 draft to Seattle for Clark.

“It was almost like a ‘Thank you, God’ type of thing because I knew what was coming,” Clark said. “I knew I didn’t have to game plan against him anymore. So, I was kind of thankful, like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”

While Clark has only had 14 sacks in two seasons in Kansas City after having 13 in Seattle in 2018 alone, he’s added seven sacks in the playoffs with the Chiefs, including two this postseason.

REFLECTIONS OF A PIRATE CHIEF

Kevin Ross spent the first 11 seasons of his 14-year NFL career in Kansas City, where the seventh-round draft pick made five playoff appearances, became a fan favorite and earned two trips to the Pro Bowl.

The standout cornerback never made it to the Super Bowl, though.

It took Ross joining Bruce Arians’ staff in Tampa Bay — he’s the team’s defensive backs coach — to finally make it to the final week of the playoffs.

“It’s unreal, really,” said Ross, whose name was added to the ring of honor inside Arrowhead Stadium in 2011. “To watch them last year winning, I was very happy for them, and now to play against them in the biggest game I’ve been involved with is special. I hate that someone has to lose.”

Ross has his hands full this week preparing for Mahomes, who had 462 yards passing and three touchdowns in their Week 12 matchup.

“If we had Mahomes back then,” Ross said of his playing days, “I’d probably have four rings at least. Our defense was very dominant back then, with a very solid running game. We just didn’t have the firepower they have at that position now.”

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AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell, Josh Dubow, Mark Long, Dave Skretta, Arnie Stapleton, Teresa Walker and Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed to this report.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s beloved badger statue will stay at least two more years outside the governor’s state Capitol office after the Navy announced Monday it has paused plans to move it to an East Coast museum.

The statue, crafted from melted-down cannons seized from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, was affixed to the first USS Wisconsin prior to World War I. The U.S. Naval Academy loaned it to the state in 1988. It has sat outside the governor’s Capitol office since 1989.

The academy museum contacted state officials last March seeking the statue’s return so it could be loaned to the nonprofit Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is berthed as an exhibit.

State historians balked at the request. Academy museum director Claude Berube last week consulted with U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and former Marine. Gallagher’s spokesman, Jordan Dunn, told The Associated Press in an email Monday that the academy museum had decided to extend the statue’s stay at the Wisconsin Capitol for two more years but hadn’t made any decisions about its future beyond that.

“I’m grateful that the US Naval Academy Museum has extended this loan for two more years so Wisconsinites of all ages will continue enjoying and learning from this unique piece of our history,” Gallagher said in a statement.

Cmdr. Alana Garas, a spokeswoman for the academy, confirmed in an email that the academy agreed to the extension “after further discussion.” She did not elaborate and did not immediately return a follow-up message. Berube did not return multiple messages Monday. The state historical society’s Overland also didn’t return a message.

Rehn West, development director at Nauticus in Norfolk, said the museum was aware of the decision but declined further comment.

The Wisconsin Capitol has been closed to the public for almost a year to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but the statue was a literal touchstone for hundreds of thousands of visitors before the pandemic took hold. The badger is the state’s official animal and one of its most beloved symbols; so many people have touched the statue’s nose for luck that they’ve rubbed the finish clean off, revealing a brassy sheen beneath.

The academy museum previously extended the state loan until mid-September due to COVID-induced closures in Norfolk. In October the Wisconsin Historical Society’s director, Christian Overland, sent a letter to Berube asking for a two-year extension on the loan. He said 100,000 people view the statue annually and Capitol tour guides use it to teach children about Wisconsin’s role in Great Lakes water commerce.

Berube told The Associated Press last week that he never saw the letter and seemed to resist the request, stating “a loan is a loan” and children in Norfolk would enjoy the statue as much as children in Wisconsin.

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Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1

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OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly proposed Monday that Kansas should legalize marijuana for medical purposes and use the revenues to expand Medicaid health care for low-income residents, a top priority that the GOP-controlled Legislature has blocked over cost concerns.

Kelly’s plan is sure to further rile the conservative Republicans who lead both legislative chambers, but it could make Kansas the first state to use revenues from legalized marijuana to expand Medicaid coverage. The National Conference of State Legislatures said it knows of no state that has done so.

The Democratic governor said during a news conference at a Kansas City-area health care software company’s headquarters that she was making the marijuana proposal to counter GOP arguments that Kansas can’t afford Medicaid expansion. She and other expansion supporters have dismissed those concerns because the federal government has promised to cover most of the costs, but the issue remains a key obstacle.

Kelly also is linking two issues that she argues have widespread appeal to voters ahead of her run for a second term in 2022 in her GOP-leaning state. Kelly championed Medicaid expansion in her first race in 2018 and promised to sign legislation legalizing medical marijuana, though she has not pushed that issue aggressively so far.

“I’m hoping they will set aside the political party differences and recognize that both components of this bill, Medicaid expansion and medical legalization are extraordinarily popular among their constituents,” Kelly said during her news conference.

Kansas does not allow groups to put initiatives directly on the ballot, so supporters of legalizing marijuana and expanding Medicaid must go through the Legislature. Elections last year not only preserved Republican supermajorities in both chambers but left them more conservative.

And House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who’s long opposed Medicaid expansion, said Kelly is “focused on high hopes and pipe dreams.”

“Governor Kelly envisions a Kansas where you can choose not to work and taxpayers will foot the bill for you to stay home and smoke supposedly medicinal marijuana,” Hawkins said in a text to The AP.

But University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller said he wonders why any Kansas politician still opposes medical marijuana. He said legalizing it has support across the political spectrum.

He said Kelly’s plan could help her win over some swing voters and mobilize younger ones. In fact, he said, it’s cautious on marijuana.

“She could probably put her neck out and support recreational weed and probably get a bigger payoff out of it and be fine,” he said.

The Legislature has taken only relatively small steps toward legalizing medical marijuana even as most other states have done it.

Missouri and Oklahoma used ballot initiatives to approve it in 2018, and other states — including Colorado — allow adult recreational use. Thirty-six states allow medical marijuana use and 15 allow recreational use by adults, according to NCSL.

Kansas legislators in 2019 created an industrial hemp research and production program and approved a law to protect from prosecution people who use cannabidiol oils to treat children with debilitating medical conditions. Later that year, a legislative study committee recommended considering a measure like a 2016 Ohio law that allowed treatments for about 20 conditions if the marijuana cannot be smoked, but the idea didn’t get traction last year.

Esau Freeman, a longtime Wichita legalization advocate and co-founder of the advocacy group Kansas for Change, said he and other backers of legalizing marijuana have reached out to Kelly repeatedly. He called Kelly’s plan “a great place to start” even though he had not thought of linking legalization to Medicaid expansion.

“Perhaps the governor is seeing two very popular issues that will continue to put pressure on the rest of the Legislature to enact the will of the people,” he said.

Kelly’s proposed $19.9 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 assumes that Kansas expands Medicaid for as many as 165,000 additional people at the start of 2022. Her spending plan projects that Kansas would spend $19 million and receive $541 million in federal funds to cover the costs of the first half-year of the expanded program.

She said legalizing medical marijuana could raise up to $50 million a year and her proposal “eliminates the argument” that Kansas can’t afford Medicaid expansion.

Democratic legislative leaders immediately endorsed Kelly’s plan, with Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, from the Kansas City area, calling it “sensible.” Backers of Medicaid expansion reiterated their support for it, without endorsing the medical marijuana proposal.

But Republican lawmakers remained skeptical that medical marijuana could raise much money or cover Medicaid expansion costs.

“It’s nice to see that she’s finally admitting that it is going to cost money to expand Medicaid,” said Senate health committee Chair Richard Hilderbrand, a Republican from southeast Kansas.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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