Kansas.com: Sports
News, sports, and entertainment from Kansas.com

• McAnderson draws inspiration from brother's fight with illness
  

  After classes and before Kansas running back Brandon McAnderson heads to football practice, you can find him spending the early afternoons during the week at his parents' home talking with his older brother, Devin, playing video games with him or just hanging out.

  That's the way it's been all fall, even through December as the Jayhawks prepared for their Orange Bowl date with Virginia Tech.

  The brothers have always been very close. Devin was always the quarterback on their football teams, including during Brandon's sophomore year at Lawrence High.

  "We're a football-oriented family," Devin said. "Football is our glue."

  But now more than ever Brandon wants to squeeze in every moment he can with Devin.

• Not your average tough guy
  

  Every interview with Tyler Hanchuck ends the same way.

  I thank the Thunder tough guy for his time, and he says, "It's my pleasure."

  It's his pleasure?

  Hockey fans might find such courteous and gentlemanly behavior odd from a player like Hanchuck, given that the 6-foot-3, 235-pound intimidator makes his living, in part, by dishing out punishment with his fists.

  (From a reporter's standpoint, I'm simply grateful he doesn't take offense at a dumb question, strip me of my pocket protector and start throwing haymakers in my direction.)

• Never a dull moment with candid Austin around
  

  Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of "Year's Best" columns, in which the Eagle's reporters write about the best story of their beat during 2007.

  One of the tricks of this trade is to take a story that has global or national interest and see if can be localized.

  Sometimes it's difficult. Other times, you get somebody like Woody Austin to take care of it for you.

  Austin's 2007 season on the PGA Tour was an hour-long DVD begging to be made. The Derby resident won the Stanford St. Jude Championship in June, took his infamous Presidents Cup plunge in September and notched a silly season victory with Mark Calcavecchia a few weeks ago on his way to almost $3 million in earnings.

  Victories are great. But to personally witness Austin's roller-coaster ride to a career-best, second-place finish at the PGA Championship gave me a greater appreciation for the Wichita area's adopted golfing son.

• Huard's solid day not enough for KC
  

  Freed weeks ago from the burden of lugging around the lifeless Chiefs offense, Damon Huard played like a quarterback with nothing to lose.

  Huard replaced injured Brodie Croyle in the second quarter of Sunday's game against the Lions with the Chiefs seemingly behind by the hopeless margin of 19-0. If he failed at that point, so what? The damage had long since been done before he ever got off the bench.

  Except Huard didn't fail. Far from it.

  He couldn't quite lift the Chiefs to a victory. They fell 25-20 to the Lions for their eighth straight loss.

  But the Chiefs, for a refreshing change, showed some signs of a spark, and Huard might have reclaimed some of the good name he lost when he quarterbacked the Chiefs early in the season.

• Shockers hold off UAB
  

  Call them Christmas threes, or whatever holiday term fits. They worked for Wichita State on Saturday night.

  The Shockers continued their dramatic change from a stumbling unit into a competitive bunch with a 61-52 victory over Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday at Koch Arena.

  Three-pointers may have buried Wichita State in disappointing losses to UMKC and Texas-Arlington. Saturday, the threes carried the Shockers when they needed points desperately. P.J. Couisnard and Gal Mekel sank crucial three-pointers in the final moments to hold off a rally.

  WSU, 10 of 65 for three-point range in the three previous games, made 6 of 13. The Shockers get three days off for the holiday with good feelings from a 20-point win over LSU and Saturday's win over UAB.

  That is a much better taste than the two losses.

• K-State's Beasley gets 40
  

  Jamal Durham spouted off, and Michael Beasley went off.

  Durham, a Winston-Salem State forward, blocked a Beasley shot midway through the first half. At halftime, as Beasley walked to the locker room, Durham shouted, "Beasley who?"

  "We made sure Mike knew that," Kansas State coach Frank Martin said.

  He was aware.

  "That kind of upset me," Beasley said.

• Offensive coordinator to leave K-State
  

  Kansas State offensive coordinator James Franklin will leave the Wildcats football team and return to Maryland, according to a story on the Web site Gopowercat.com.

  Franklin coached at Maryland before joining the K-State staff. The Web site said Franklin will have the opportunity to become the successor to Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen.

  Franklin helped recruit Wichita Northwest quarterback Chris Harper, who made an oral commitment to K-State on Monday.

  On Saturday night, Harper told The Eagle that Franklin's departure could cause him to reconsider his choice.

  "Yeah, I talked to him and (head coach Ron) Prince," Harper said by text message. "I'm unsure on my commitment (because) Franklin was the biggest reason."

• Jayhawks keep things tidy in quick victory
  

  For such a messy day outside, Kansas played about as neatly as it could inside. Literally. Forward Darrell Arthur didn't hang around Saturday after the Jayhawks' 78-54 victory over Miami of Ohio to talk about his second double-double of the season. He was in a hurry to beat the snowy weather so he could catch a flight home to Dallas for the Christmas break.

  But Arthur's teammates were there to poke fun at on how he went about getting those 10 rebounds to go with his 14 points.

  "Totally unfair," forward Darnell Jackson said.

  In a span of just a few seconds, Arthur had three rebounds off game's first possession before he finally put away a layup on his fourth attempt. But that was also a microcosm of the No. 3 Jayhawks' day, when they did pretty much whatever they wanted and did it well as they ran their record to 12-0.

  KU had only six turnovers and 17 assists, shot just under 58 percent and had 13 fouls. Along the way Miami's 44-game streak of not giving up 70 points was also broken.

• Kingman revels in Hartley's success
  

  Chet Hartley has always been big in his hometown, at least physically.

  There wasn't a sudden growth spurt that transformed him into a 6-foot-4, 310-pound starting right guard at Kansas. He was a big toddler, big in grade school, big in high school.

  But these days, Hartley's bigness has a different meaning in Kingman, the community of about 3,300 located 40 miles west of Wichita. Hartley, who played two seasons at Butler Community College, is one of the rare Division I athletes the town has produced.

  And with KU preparing for its first Bowl Championship Series appearance in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3 against Virginia Tech, the locals are reveling in it.

  "I keep trying to tell him you just don't understand the impact here in town of not just one or two people," said Hartley's mother, Kay, a lifelong resident. "It's a lot of people.

• Music's loss is WSU's big gain
  

  Not long ago, J.T. Durley saw his future on the drum line as part of Prairie View A&M's Marching Storm showband. It's the kind of flashy, energetic band that overshadows a college football game, and Durley loved the look and the music.

  "He was into the band," said Juanita Durley, his mother. "We would take him to the games, and he would watch the band more than the football."

  Then Durley started to grow, and basketball became his goal at Pittsburg (Texas) High. He traded his drums for dunks.

  "The band director hated to lose him," Juanita Durley said.

  J.T. Durley's growth spurt is music's loss and Wichita State's gain. Durley (6-foot-7, 237 pounds) gives the Shockers their most reliable scorer off the bench entering tonight's game against Alabama-Birmingham. He averages 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 16.3 minutes.

• KU content sharing the scoring
  

  In Kansas' 11 basketball games this season, seven players have led the Jayhawks in scoring.

  "No one else in the country has that," KU coach Bill Self said. "That's the strength of our team."

  So it would seem, since the No. 3 Jayhawks are undefeated going into today's game with Miami (Ohio) at Allen Fieldhouse. Five players are averaging between 10.5 and 13.2 points.

  Florida made balanced scoring an art form last season in winning the national title. The Gators also had five players averaging in double figures, ranging from 10.3 to 13.3. Corey Brewer (13.2), Al Horford (13.2) and Taureen Green (13.3) were within a tenth of a point of each other.

  But if all that balance isn't handled right in clutch moments, it can also be a negative. Like just who is the go-