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

• It turns out Beasley really enjoys college life
  

  Michael Beasley would trade his life for yours, but only on a temporary basis.

  The Kansas State freshman star was allowed to speak to the media for the first time Sunday, the eve of the Wildcats' game against Florida A&M (3-6) at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Asked if he understood all of the fuss so far in this, the Year of Freshmen, about him, the nation's leading rebounder and its fifth-leading scorer, Beasley insisted he didn't have a clue.

  "Maybe if I was on the outside looking in," he said. "Maybe if I wasn't Mike Beasley for a day - maybe if we switched places for a day. I'm just a regular player, a regular person. I score baskets. I make mistakes. I get rebounds.

  "I don't think of myself as...."

  He altered the tone of his voice, sounding as if he was in awe.

• KC's final home game features familiar result
  

  Brodie Croyle faced the questions, his body intact but his ego and his outlook bruised. What are the Chiefs' problems? Why have they lost seven consecutive games? How can the team make it right? Croyle, the Chiefs' second-year quarterback, lost again Sunday. This time it was a 26-17 defeat against the Tennessee Titans at Arrowhead Stadium.

  The Chiefs have lost seven straight. Croyle is 0-4 since replacing Damon Huard in the starting lineup Nov. 18. It is a worst-case scenario for Croyle, a quiet youngster charged with leading the Chiefs out of their worst funk in 22 years.

  "I thought we would win by now, but we haven't," said Croyle, a third-round pick in the 2006 NFL draft. "It's reality. You deal with it.

  "This is extremely frustrating."

  Ask around. This season is lost. The Chiefs clung this past week to bright spots anywhere they could find them. Encouraging practices. Offseason changes. Next year.

• Football success meets expectations for KU's Perkins
  

  Lew Perkins' words were bold and direct, but no one ever accused the Kansas athletic director of being timid.

  So it shouldn't surprise you to know that Perkins looks down the road and doesn't see KU football slipping off the ladder that it has climbed to historic heights this season.

  "I see us doing all the right things," Perkins said. "I see us being in the position of being very good. And I feel very comfortable about saying that. Not cocky, comfortable."

  In these euphoric days surrounding KU football, it would be easy to overstate the value of what the Jayhawks have done with an 11-1 season and a trip to the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl.

  But was 2007 an aberration for a program that is so used to losing, that everything just happened to fall in place during a year when the schedule was soft?

• Shockers fritter away lead
  

  Wichita State needed a three-pointer to force overtime against UMKC.

  That situation, right now, ranks high on WSU's list of nightmare scenarios. The Shockers shoot them, they just don't go in often.

  Sure enough, the three-pointer missed and UMKC celebrated a 59-56 win over WSU on Saturday at Municipal Auditorium.

  WSU (5-3) has lost two straight for a variety of reason, none more painful than bad shooting. The Shockers are 8 for 46 from three-point range in their past two games. Coach Gregg Marshall gave a terse answer to fixing that problem.

  "Practice," he said.

• Kansas rolls to 10 wins
  

  It was midway through the first half before Kansas point guard Russell Robinson attempted a shot, which was also one-third of his total for the day.

  But when you're connecting with assists the way Robinson was in Saturday's 88-51 victory over Ohio at the Sprint Center, who has time to shoot?

  Robinson had a career-high 11 assists to give him 20 in the last two basketball games. His 2-of-3 shooting was also identical to the previous game.

  "This is the most unselfish I've been in my career," the senior from New York said. "It's all about winning right now."

  Now 10-0, the Jayhawks are doing plenty of that. They also have all their parts on the court for the first time this season. It's getting a little crowded for minutes, and a line is forming to take shots.

• Marshall wants a tougher WSU
  

  Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall examined his basketball team's knees and elbows and found them in good shape.

  He hoped for a few scabs and bruises.

  The Shockers don't show near enough wear and tear on their bodies, evidence to Marshall that they are not playing hard enough. That shortcoming was one of the focuses of practice this week in preparation for tonight's game at UMKC.

  "He looked at us, and said 'How many of you have scrapes and stuff?' A lot of us couldn't say we had any scrapes from playing tough and diving on the floor," junior Wendell Preadom said. "We all think we're tough; but when we watch the film, it's like, 'We got out of the way on that charge,' or 'We let him blow right past us.'"

  The Shockers started Tuesday's practice with a defensive drill designed to promote toughness. The defender takes a charge from a teammate, gets up, sprints and dives for a loose ball. Marshall wants his team to make those plays on a regular basis, in part to compensate for the inevitable poor shooting nights.

• Rush is a quick healer
  

  Brandon Rush jumped over everyone in traffic to grab a rebound, then later leaped off his right leg for a one-handed dunk in transition.

  In another recent basketball game, Kansas' junior guard used a quick burst for a steal and a layup.

  Does this sound like a guy who wasn't supposed to be 100 percent this year? That's what KU coach Bill Self was saying in mid-October, 4 ½ months after Rush underwent anterior-cruciate ligament surgery on his right knee.

  "Brandon is going to be physically 85 to 90 percent this year of what he was," Self said at the time. "He has to compensate for some things. He won't be able to use the pure athletic moves he used last year."

  So much for the conventional wisdom that it takes a full year for an athlete to reach 100 percent after ACL surgery.

• Drug report condemns baseball
  

  A 21-month investigation into use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball concluded Thursday that a culture of secrecy and permissiveness gave rise to a "steroids era" in the game that included some of its biggest names, most prominent among them superstar pitcher Roger Clemens.

  The long-awaited report by George Mitchell gave a detailed account provided by a onetime team trainer who told the panel that he injected Clemens -- a seven-time Cy Young award winner -- with steroids and human growth hormone while he was with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Clemens was one of 91 players named in the report, a list that included 33 all-stars, 10 Most Valuable Players and two Cy Young winners.

  The report criticized team officials across the league who did little to police their own clubhouses and high-ranking officials in management and the players' union which, the report said, had little motivation to interfere with the surging popularity and economic growth experienced by the game over the last decade. It spread blame for the rise of the use of anabolic steroids and HGH in baseball among the players, team officials, the union and Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig.

  "Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the players association, and players -- shares to some extent in the responsibility for the steroids era," the report said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on. As a result, an environment developed in which illegal use became widespread."

  Among the most prominent current and former players fingered in the report were Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettitte, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire.

• Thunder's Weingartner succeeds with hard work and grit
  

  In the news release announcing that he was the new coach of the team, former Wichita Thunder forward Rob Weingartner was described as a "star" player -- a flattering description that he may have greatly appreciated.

  And perhaps been a little embarrassed by.

  Because the modest Weingartner used decidedly less glamorous words to describe his style of play: gritty, energetic, hardworking.

  "I did the things a lot of guys didn't want to do," Weingartnersaid on Sunday, shortly after he was introduced as the replacement for the fired Mark French. "I was what we would all term an agitator. I wouldn't say I was a goon because I wasn't big enough or strong enough. But I certainly enjoyed the rough stuff.

  "I actually managed to score about 20 goals a year, but that was mainly due to the benefit of playing with players like Ron Handy, who was such a great centerman."

• Former WSU player Lansing on list
  

  Former Wichita State baseball player Mike Lansing is one of 80-plus players linked to performa