The Iowa State men's basketball team's trip to the Phog in March 2027 is going to get an even bigger spotlight.
The Cyclones are slated to make one appearance on ESPN's "Big Monday" during the upcoming season, when they go on the road to Phog Allen Fieldhouse to face the Kansas Jayhawks on March 1, 2027. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT in Lawrence.
ESPN started its "Big Monday" showcase in 1987. This season, beginning Feb. 1, 2027, ESPN will highlight some of the top matchups in the ACC and Big 12 through the final Monday of the regular season. The Iowa State-Kansas game at Allen Fieldhouse will round out the "Big Monday" slate for the 2026-27 season.
Last season, the Cyclones and Jayhawks split the regular-season series. Kansas won the first meeting at Allen Fieldhouse, 84-63, on Jan. 13. The Cyclones comfortably evened the series with a 74-56 victory on Feb. 14 at Hilton Coliseum.
Kansas is coming off of a 24-11 season. It lost on a buzzer-beater in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to St. John's. The Jayhawks reloaded through the transfer portal and secured the No. 1 overall high school recruit. Freshman 6-foot-7 wing Tyran Stokes was the consensus top recruit for the 2026 class and he's already on the top of several 2027 NBA mock drafts.

#season

After a two-year wait, Theo James is back on our screens in the highly-anticipated second season of Netflix's The Gentlemen.
The 41-year-old actor stars as Eddie Horniman, the new Duke of Halstead who inherits the family's sweeping estate and discovers an industrial cannabis empire operating beneath it. The second season reunites viewers with faces old and new, including Kaya Scodelario, Vinnie Jones and newcomer Benedetta Porcaroli.
Theo has become a well-known face thanks to his roles in The Time Travellers Wife, Sanditon and plenty more – but did you know he has a wife who is pretty famous too? The actor married his wife six years ago and the pair are even proud parents. Here's all you need to know…
Ruth Kearney and Theo James in 2023 (@ Dave Benett, Getty)
Theo James is married to Irish actress Ruth Kearney. Ruth has a number of credits to her name that fans may recognise her from. In 2010, she began starring in ITV drama Primeval before going on to land parts in Casualty and American political drama Tyrant.

#james #wife

Lauryn Hill defended her former partner Rohan Marley on Instagram after a social media influencer dubbed the businessman a "tyrant."
Last week, influencer Mayowa posted an Instagram reel breaking down the past relationship between the eight-time Grammy winner and Marley, with whom she shares five children. The exes dated from the mid-90s until roughly 2009. In Mayowa's reel, she referenced Marley marrying his second wife, Barbara Fialho. Marley, who's the son of late reggae icon Bob Marley, was previously married to Geraldine Khawly and divorced Fialho in 2020 after one year of marriage.
"I've always felt like Lauryn Hill's music felt so incredibly sad," Mayowa said, adding that it seemed like the vocalist was "trying to make up for something."
"Her music sometimes seemed self-flagellating, like she was trying to hurt herself to be deserving of love," she continued, adding that Marley "destroyed" Hill.
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#lauryn

Hill and Marley dated for about a decade and have five children together. Despite never marrying, the two have remained co-parents to the children, each of whom had a moment during Hill's BET Living Legend Award performance at the 2026 BET Awards.
Despite being apart for more than 15 years, Lauryn Hill will still go to bat for Rohan Marley.
Last week, Nigerian influencer Mayowa shared a reel breaking down the relationship between Fugees singer and Marley, including their split and Marley's marriage to his second wife, Barbara Fialho. Mayowa referred to Marley as a "tyrant" and wondered whether he was the reason Hill's music sounded "so sad" to her, later uploading a video of her 2001 "MTV Unplugged" performance, focusing on a clip in which Hill is visibly crying while performing.
The video caught Hill's attention and she responded in the comments.
"I might agree with some of the self-deprecation part, there are reasons for that, but while Rohan and I were in relationship I was NOT being done dirty," Hill wrote.

#relationship

The announcements of Tigers finding their way on to watch lists continued on Friday. Princewill Umanmielen, Whit Weeks, and DJ Pickett were each named to the Bednarik Award preseason watch list.
The Chuck Bednarik Award is given annually to college football's best defensive player. The honor is presented by the Maxwell Football Club, the same club that bestows the Maxwell Award to the top overall college football player. Both are two of the most distinguished honors in the sport.
Named after Chuck Bednarik, a former All-American at the University of Pennsylvania and Pro Football Hall of Famer, the award is chosen by a wide variety of voters including NCAA head coaches, sports writers, sports casters, and the members of the Maxwell Football Club. It was established in 1995 and was won most recently by linebacker Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech.
Only two players in LSU's program history have earned the honor and they came in back-to-back years. Patrick Peterson won it in 2010, followed by Tyrann Mathieu in 2011.
Princewill Umanmielen came over with Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss and is poised to give Blake Baker a legitimate pass rusher, which they were missing a year ago. The senior defensive end was #3 in the SEC in 2025 with 9.0 sacks. The last time LSU had a player record at least 9.0 sacks was 10 years ago when Arden Key set the program's single-season record with 12.0. Umanmielen is also a force against rushing attacks, finishing #8 in the conference with 13.0 tackles for loss. He was a Third-Team All-SEC selection last year and has already been named to the Preseason Coaches All-SEC Team.

#Football #club

Kansas Jayhawks News
The NCAA filed a formal response to Melvin Council Jr's request for an unifying
Through the Phog notes that Bill Self gave a couple of interesting player comps for Tyran Stokes
ESPN'S FPI gives a probability of winning for each Kansas football game this year
Links!

#council #tyran

Patrick Mahomes has been taking part in pre-season training with the Kansas City Chiefs this summer after suffering an ACL injury back in the 2025/26 campaign.
The Chiefs, who lost Mahomes after week 15, failed to make the play-offs for the first time in a decade, ending the regular season with a 6-11 record.
But the QB is on his way back to fitness and has been among those in training ahead of the first set of games getting underway in the coming weeks.
Mahomes gave an injury update on his knee recently, while former player Tyrann Mathieu has also shared what he's seen from his ex-teammate during the Chiefs' training camp.
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

#training #injury #patrick #city

The 2021 season for the Kansas City Chiefs was the final year of safety Tyrann Mathieu's run with the team. It was also the rookie year for linebacker Nick Bolton.
The second-round pick from Missouri was just a part-time playmaker for the defense that year before ascending to the full-time middle linebacker position in 2022. Now a pillar of the unit that Mathieu was when he first arrived in the league, Bolton draws from that year together to lead his young teammates.
Nick Bolton hopes to elevate his leadership with lessons from Tyrann Mathieu | The Kansas City Star
When mentoring second-year linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, Bolton relayed a message that the "Honey Badger" gave him as a rookie.
"You have to take advantage of every opportunity you get," Bolton said. "You can't count how many you're going to get, but every one that you do get, make it count.

#nick #mathieu #rookie

Signing day for the class of 2029 is a long way off, but Danny Sprinkle and the Washington Huskies have already established an in with the nation's No. 1 overall player, JJ Crawford.
The son of Seattle legend and three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford holds over 20 offers after just his first season of high school basketball playing for his father at in-state Rainier Beach High School, where he won a state championship alongside the nation's top prospect in the 2026 class, Tyran Stokes. Even with a long way to go in the recruiting process, several programs have made an early impact in his recruitment.
In an interview with Rivals' Jamie Shaw, Crawford named Alabama, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Michigan (his father's alma mater), North Carolina, and USC, alongside the Huskies, as the early standouts in the process.
"At the end of the day, the decision was to go with Crawford as the initial No. 1 player," Shaw wrote in his reasoning for making Crawford the nation's top prospect. "A quick snapshot of Crawford's summer, playing with the NW Rotary Rebels club on Nike's E16 EYBL Circuit, he averaged 17.2 points on staggering 50/50/100 splits—55.4 percent from the field, 56.9 percent from three (5.8 attempts), and 100 percent from the free-throw line."
"He has a way of getting to his spots with excellent balance and a consistent shot load and release. Crawford was equally effective shooting off movement as he was off the dribble or with the feet set. And it was his shooting prowess that also helped him make the USA Basketball team for the U17 World Cup. Crawford battled through an ankle injury and played limited minutes in five games, but still shot 41.7 percent from three on 2.4 attempts for the event, earning his first FIBA gold medal."

#crawford #shaw #high #class

Mariner High School (Cape Coral, Fla.) has fired four football coaches and put two others on administrative leave as it investigates events that occurred during a recent lock-in at the school.
The school sent a letter to parents on Aug. 4 stating that it relieved head coach Tyran Jones and ***** istant coach Kaycie Zorbas of their coaching duties due to a lack of supervision by the staff during the gathering. Four other ***** istant coaches who were not school district employees were fired.
While it's unclear what exactly happened during the team-building event, principal Tom Michel confirmed that no hazing took place. However, students who violated the school's expectations will be held accountable for their actions, as stated in the letter.
"While student privacy laws prevent us from disclosing specific names or consequences, please be ***** ured that no hazing took place and every individual involved is being held fully accountable," the letter read.
The news comes just one week before the Tritons kickoff the 2026-27 season. Mariner fell 3-7 last season under Jones, who spent just one season at the helm. Jones previously coached two seasons at Island Coast.

#assistant

Every offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles are linked to some of the NFL's biggest names. Most of those rumors never materialize into anything. Rarely does smoke lead to an actual fire, but every so often a player reveals there was more substance to the speculation than fans ever realized.
Former All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu recently did just that. During the 2022 offseason, Mathieu became one of the most intriguing free agents on the market after his three-year stint with the Kansas City Chiefs ended.
The Eagles were looking to bolster their secondary, and yes, some conversations mentioned the City of Brotherly Love as a logical landing spot. He and Philadelphia's leadership even enjoyed a virtual interview once, but it wasn't meant to be. Mathieu ultimately chose to return home, signing a three-year, $28.3 million contract with the New Orleans Saints. Philadelphia ultimately pivoted, adding C.J. Gardner-Johnson instead. There isn't anyone in the Delaware valley who doesn't know how all of that worked out in the end.
Matthieu is now retired and co-hosting the In The Bayou With Tyrann Mathieu podcast. He admitted that joining Philadelphia was something he seriously considered before deciding on New Orleans.
The decision appeared understandable at the time. Returning to Louisiana allowed Mathieu to play for his hometown team, while the Saints believed they could remain competitive in the NFC.

#mathieu #orleans

LAWRENCE — As Bill Self reflected Wednesday on the run the Kansas basketball alumni team was making in The Basketball Tournament, he did so before JHX Hoops suffered a 78-65 defeat against La Familia.
JHX Hoops, KU's team, lost in the finals of the alumni portion of the bracket against La Familia, Kentucky's team. The defeat ended a run that saw JHX Hoops eliminate both Kansas State's alumni team and Wichita State's before reaching that point. JHX Hoops just fell short of being able to play for the TBT's $2 million prize, set to go to the winner of the matchup between the winner of the alumni side of the bracket and the winner of the non-alumni side of the bracket.
But Self, who coaches Kansas basketball, did provide some insight into JHX Hoops' TBT run that remains worthwhile to dive into. Self, who coached Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor when they played at KU, followed what the alumni team was able to accomplish this year. Collins was listed as the team's head coach on the TBT website, while Taylor was listed as a player/GM/owner.
RELATED: Here's what's impressed Bill Self about Tyran Stokes, and what's next
Here are a few takeaways from what Self had to say:

#kansas #bill

LAWRENCE — Former Kansas basketball coach Ted Owens is going to be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, according to a KU release.
The ceremony will take place later this year in October, in Kansas City, Missouri. Owens, 96, spent 19 seasons at the helm for the Jayhawks, from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. He won numerous conference ***** les and made a number of NCAA tournament appearances, including two Final Four runs in 1971 and 1974.
RELATED: Will Kansas basketball's Tyran Stokes be No. 1 pick in 2027 NBA Draft?
"We're all so happy for Coach to receive this honor," current Kansas coach Bill Self said in the release. "In my opinion, it's been overdue. Considering not only what he did for his respective employers, what he has done for the game overall has been terrific. I have become very close friends with Coach and he's one of the most unselfish leaders I've ever been around. I don't know that I've ever met a coach who is as proud of his past players as Coach is. I am so happy for him, and I can't wait to celebrate with him and his family."
Owens finished with a 348-182 record. His 348 wins place him as the fourth-winningest coach in program history. That's behind Self, Phog Allen and Roy Williams.

In Super Bowl LX, the Seattle Seahawks did something that made absolutely no sense — and it worked like a charm.
Against a New England Patriots offense that had specialized in the power run game throughout the 2025 season, Seattle played base defense exactly 1.5% of the time. The Patriots played into that by using 11 personnel on 79.1% of their snaps, but still… when you play nickel (five defensive backs) on 44.8% of their snaps (14.2% below the NFL average) and dime (six defensive backs) on an astonishing 53.7% of their snaps (43.9% of the NFL average), something was afoot — and it made all the difference in Seattle’s 29-13 win.
The name of that something was Nick Emmanwori. The 35th overall pick in the 2025 draft out of South Carolina, the 6′ 3⅛”, 220-pound Emmanwori (who completely dominated the 2025 scouting combine) became head coach Mike Macdonald’s multi-position enforcer, in many of the same ways Kyle Hamilton filled that role back when Macdonald was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023.
“We’ve had him at 9-technique, 5-technique, he’s playing the slot,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said of Emmanwori last December. “We’re putting a lot on his plate. That’s part of my message to him, ‘You’ve got a lot on your plate, there’s a lot of expectations, and rightfully so, you’ve earned those opportunities. Go prepare your tail off so you can play the brand of ball you want to play. Then go let it rip, and if something happens throughout the game, we’ll fix it or we’ll put you out of that situation, but just go to the next one and keep rolling.'”
Overall, it worked very well. Emmanwori played 51% of his snaps last season in the box, 45% in the slot, 2% in the deep third, and 2% as an overhang defender. His success was the latest in a long line of do-it-all safeties that goes back to Charles Woodson, through Eric Berry, Tyrann Mathieu, Derwin James, and Hamilton. These types of players have never been more relevant in the NFL, and that proved itself out in the 2026 draft.

Since taking over as LSU's athletics director in November 2025, Verge Ausberry has become a key voice as the school navigates the ever-changing college sports landscape. But he also made clear his desire for clarity with regard to rules and structure.
Throughout the NIL era, there have been comparisons between the college game and the pros. Not only can athletes earn money through their name, image and likeness, but the transfer portal has created a sense of "free agency" and player movement.
[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]
To Ausberry, though, there are differences because of how staffs are built. But as college athletics navigates so many changes, he stressed the need for clarity. In the meantime, he said LSU will continue to work within the parameters in place, using Will Wade's roster construction as an example.
"College athletics is in a different realm," Ausberry said on In The Bayou with Tyrann Mathieu. "Professionals are set up for it. You have the **** ytics, you have the **** ysts, you have all those people. That's all they do. Player personnel, they're watching guys in college, they're watching guys on other teams. They do that every day. That's all new to us here in this system we're in. And then, we're just trying to figure out from the NCAA, what's the rules? We'll live by the rules. Right now, there's really no rules and we don't know them. So that's the hard part for us, trying to figure out what we do and how we remain competitive.

Jul. 2—Illinois ******* istant coaches Geoff Alexander and Orlando Antigua have reached the "travel abroad" portion of their summers. Both were in Turkiye at the end of June for the FIBA U17 World Cup, and other FIBA events will have the two cycling back and forth between Champaign and The Continent.
Alexander and Antigua got a look at a pair of Illinois recruiting targets in the Class of 2027 during their time in Istanbul, with Team USA guards Cayden Daughtry and NaVorro Bowman Jr. playing key roles in another dominant performance by the U.S.
Wednesday's 141-85 win against Cameroon pushed Team USA to Friday's quarterfinals where they'll meet ******* XXX. The 56-point margin of victory has been fairly standard for the U.S. since a 115-84 win against France on the opening day of the tournament. The U.S. also beat ******* an 128-66 and Italy 131-80 in pool play.
Eight players putting up double digit scoring averages has helped Team USA average just shy of 129 points as a team thus far in its tournament run. Daughtry and Bowman are part of that high-powered offense. Daughtry is averaging 11.5 points, 5.8 ******* ists and three rebounds as the backup to starting point guard Beckham Black. Bowman is also averaging 10.8 points, 3.3 ******* ists and 2.8 rebounds off the bench.
Team USA, which is 55-0 all-time in FIBA U17 World Cup action, is now just three wins away from its eighth straight gold medal dating back to 2010. The most recent, in 2024, was led by four recent first-round NBA draft picks (AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, Chris Cenac Jr. and Koa Peat) and four of the top 2027 draft prospects (Caleb Holt, Jordan Smith Jr., Brandon McCoy and Tyran Stokes).

10 predictions for 2026 NFL season: Division winners, trades | ESPN
The Chiefs will miss the playoffs again
Two things I think are equally true. First, the Chiefs got better this offseason. Second, it isn’t going to be enough.
Kansas City’s roster is once again quite shaky. The Chiefs did a commendable job of building around their tentpole players (Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones) for a while. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s uncanny ability to turn middle-round defensive backs into viable starters allowed them to endure the departures of Charvarius Ward, L’Jarius Sneed and Tyrann Mathieu. Offensive linemen were acquired — Joe Thuney and Orlando Brown Jr. — then quickly replaced.
But the well eventually runs dry. Jawaan Taylor was supposed to be a cornerstone at right tackle. Safety Chamarri Conner was supposed to be another Spagnuolo success story. Felix Anudike-Uzomah would bring much-needed juice on the edge. Wide receiver Hollywood Brown would alleviate the lost effect of Tyreek Hill. Contenders with pricey rosters must be constantly innovating in scheme and finding low-salaried contributors in both the draft and free agency. General manager Brett Veach failed to do his part, while coach Andy Reid’s offense grew stale.

The Kentucky Wildcats and Mark Pope spent a good part of the past year trying to recruit top overall player Tyran Stokes to Lexington. At times, they were the favorite to land him, but in the end, he committed to Kansas. Along the way, though, **** istant coach Mo Williams made an error which, as it turns out, was a violation.
Late in his recruitment, Stokes posted on X the time of his announcement, to which Williams responded "Let's gooooooooooo." Since coaches are not allowed to mention recruits by name if they're unsigned, he broke an NCAA rule.
As reported by Jon Hale , it wasn't a major violation, so there isn't a major penalty involved. Kentucky self-imposed two, with the first being a 45-day ban on contact with Stokes, and the second being a 14-day ban on electronic communication with Stokes if he were to request a release from Kansas. The NCAA added an additional 7-day ban on written or electronic contact with all recruits. It was a level III violation, which is the least serious.
Williams claimed that he thought he could respond to social media posts, but he deleted the post.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky self-reports violation stemming from Tyran Stokes pursuit

LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball’s offseason, following the 2025-26 season, has by no means been a quiet one.
There was the early speculation surrounding a potential retirement from coach Bill Self, before the revelation he would be coming back to KU. There have been the various departures from this past season’s roster, whether to the professional ranks or the transfer portal, and the many additions that have been made. Kansas also earned the signing of 247Sports No. 1 prospect in the class of 2026 Tyran Stokes, who’ll look to help the Jayhawks reach the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since the team won a national ***** le in 2022.
But after all of that, where is KU projected to start in the top 25 for the 2026-27 season? Is it projected to start in the top 25 at all? Is it viewed as a national ***** le contender?
RELATED: Team Algeria held community event at KU's Rock Chalk Park
Here’s a look at a few projections from earlier this month:

In 2025, scientists have named several new dinosaur species and are learning new facts about the remarkable lives of dinosaurs.
Paleontologists have found a 'Dragon price' dinosaur — which may be a missing link in the Tyrannosaurus family tree — and a dinosaur with its skeletal remains covered with remarkably long spiky bones that reach several feet. These are just some of the new discoveries found by researchers this year.
Here are a few of this year's most unexpected and fascinating discoveries, ranging from the social lives of dinosaurs to still-undiscovered giants.
In June 2025, researc

Dec. 4—WINONA, Minn. — It was a dinosaur that once roamed the earth 66 million years ago, and now a big piece of its sits housed in a lab at Winona State University in one of the rarest and largest fossil discoveries in recent memory.
It was called Edmontosaurus. And the duck-billed dinosaur was really big. From the tip of its snout to the end of its tail, it was as big as a city bus. And it lived alongside its contemporaries Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops and existed just before all the large dinosaurs were wiped out in a mass extinction.
Its bones sticking out of the ground in the North

Clint Boyd, North Dakota state paleontologist, shows off a mammoth tusk discovered at a coal mine near Beulah in 2023. He presented the discovery during a Nov. 25, 2025, North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting. (Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)
The North Dakota Geological Survey has found a new Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at a dig site in southwest North Dakota.
Researchers first discovered the bones in September 2024 while searching for crocodile fossils in Bowman County, according to State Paleontologist Clint Boyd. Tuesday was the first time the find was publicly announced.