Old-school news, just in time
by Kevin Burton Ukrainian Center Kate Koval has signed with Baylor basketball, after leaving LSU and tone-deaf coach Kim Mulkey. Mulkey, a four-time national championship coach, signed Russian center Anna Minaeva for the 2026-27 season, creating obvious tensions within the LSU locker room. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 without provocation and …
Continue reading “Ukrainian Center To Baylor After LSU Exit”
by Kevin Burton I list these songs below, and chances are you’ll pick up right away where I am going with them: “Laughing” and “Undun” by the Guess Who, “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel The Earth Move” by Carole King “Who’ll Stop The Rain” and “Travelling Band” by Credence Clearwater Revival, “Something” …
Continue reading “Quibbles And Bits: B-Side Fortune Cookies”
by Kevin Burton Perhaps you noticed that all the teams in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament this year were from the Big Four conferences. That and Kansas losing in the second round has dialed my enthusiasm down very close to zero. A pox on all 16 of their houses …
by Merriam-Webster Dictionary Cinderella is arguably the most iconic of fairy tales, an archetype of what is known as the rags-to-riches story. You know how it goes: living under the oppression of her evil stepmother, she finds her chance at happiness and fortune only after a fairy godmother makes her over for the …
Continue reading “How Sports Underdogs Became ‘Cinderellas’”
by Kevin Burton My underdog heart beat just a little bit faster Wednesday, thanks to Miami of Ohio winning a play-in game. I would love the RedHawks to have a nice long run in March Madness, beginning with their 3:25 p.m. matchup with Tennessee today, but I’m happy with what they have done …
Continue reading “Miami Of Ohio Strikes A Blow For Underdogs”
by Kevin Burton Tomorrow Mike Kennedy will call his final regular-season game after 46 years as the voice of Wichita State basketball. This is one of those blog ideas that showed up on the spreadsheet long ago. But it keeps moving down the page. I’m having trouble delivering it. I don’t want …
Continue reading “Mike Kennedy, Forever Voice Of The Shockers”
by Kevin Burton Well, at least it’s over. The 2024-25 version of Wichita State basketball bowed out yesterday, when the Shockers lost an American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal game to Memphis 83-80. The team went 19-14 this year and will not go to a post-season tournament. They were far from sublime, not …
Continue reading “Deflated Wichita State Program Limps Offstage”
by Kevin Burton I need to correct an error today, an egregious error. Last month I wrote a post about my favorite sports teams in the various college and professional sports leagues (“My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances,” March 27). Somehow I got all the way through that post without writing a single …
Continue reading “Adding Indiana Fever To My Sports Landscape”
by Kevin Burton Time and location, location, location, can change even the most fervent loyalties when it comes to sports fan allegiances. On ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption, Tony Kornheiser talks about the New York Mets as “the team of my youth” to differentiate it from his current favorite, the Washington Nationals. That is …
by Kevin Burton Ron Baker, the shooting guard who helped usher in the greatest era of basketball at Wichita State, turns 30 tomorrow. Some of us may not be ready to hear that. Some of us overlooked, downtrodden people clung tightly to those Wichita State teams, underdogs who routinely slayed giants (I’m …
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