•The country is still coming to terms with a Jayhawkless tournament, after the earliest exit for a No. 1 seed since 2004. I don't mean to brag, but I had this upset picked in my "who would win in a real life battle of mascots" bracket.

•Wladimir Klitschko dominated Eddie Chambers, retaining his heavyweight titles with a 12th round KO. Boxing's not even fooling me anymore, putting him up against worthless chumps I've maybe-kind-of heard of before. Now it's worthless chumps I've definitely never heard of.

•Joe Nathan announced not minutes ago that he will opt for Tommy John surgery, and will miss the entire season. The Twins are officially like my fantasy team: not willing to pay too highly for an elite catcher, and willing to punt the saves category altogether.

•Alex Ovechkin returned from his two-game suspension in style, with a gamewinning goal, his 45th of the year. That ties him with Sidney Crosby for the league lead, which, if I'm not mistaken, warrants another suspension.

•Mike Tomlin says he's highly concerned about Ben Roethlisberger. You would be too, if the only QB you had under contract was Dennis Dixon.

•••••

It's easy like Sunday morning. More basketball on today, I'm told.

Samantha Ryan is like any number of Kansas natives, in that she went to KU before moving west to follow her dreams. She's like a smaller number of Kansas natives, in that her dreams entailed starring in such films as "Lesbian Psychotherapists 2," "Butt Licking Anal Whores 5," and "Missionary: Impossible."

But she's a normal person too, and for her 32nd birthday, she just wanted to go to the Sunflower Showdown. What's a girl to do? Enter Kurtis Townsend, KU assistant coach and all-around pimp.

Were the seats good? How about on the floor? Looks like she had a blast:

We've put in queries with both Ryan and Townsend, and I'm actually curious which one gets back to us sooner. But I can't for the life of me figure out how these two have crossed paths. Does that look like the face of a man that would have anything to do with porn? (*Sees mustache*) Oh.

UPDATE: Aaaaand, we've got our answer. Turns out it was a "Strangers on the Plane" type of thing:

It's Not Easy To Do As A Missouri Guy, But I Tip My Cap To KU [InsideSTL]

Joe-College, an independent college gear retailer, has already run afoul of KU for stocking Jayhawk gear without a university affiliation. Now they're doing their best to piss off Kansas State, as well.

The store's website is chock full of "hilarious" shirt designs like "Carolina Blue Is Past Tense For Carolina Blows" and "I Love To Play With My Self." You get the idea. But the latest design raised a few eyebrows.

KSU fans are up in arms. Even KU fans find it in bad taste. Anything that can bring those fanbases together must be the greatest uniting force of our time.

Joe-College finally pulled the shirts, and owner Larry Sinks says there's a perfectly good explanation:

Well, I'm getting ragged for it but basically what happened is we decided to do the shirt – a college kid submitted it to me – then the next thing we know, somebody said it was racist," Sinks says. "I thought (Martin) was Italian but somebody said he's Cuban, so we pulled the shirt."

Oh, you thought he was Italian, and thought of that old stereotype of Italians mowing lawns. I see. Carry on then.

Joe-College Speaks Out on Frank Martin T-Shirt [KC Confidential]

I missed the Kansas-Texas broadcast last night so I don't know if her presence was specifically addressed on-air, but her all-too-snug t-shirt did seem to be perfectly positioned to catch the eyes of the Jayhawk bench. It would be hard for her not to stand out in that tiny sea of KU blue, but the Lawrence cagers were apparently not impressed.

However, she did tickle the fancy of at least a few Deadspin readers, one of whom saw fit to send us all six of these images, along with this uncomfortable mash note:

"A very good win made better. Not only did Kansas have to play on the road against a Top 15 team, they also had to overcome the distraction of this girl planted behind the KU bench. This girl needs some pub and an offer from Playboy."

How dare you, sir! That's America's new girlfriend you're talking about. If she (or someone who knows her) is reading this and would like to introduce herself, here's our number. I promise creepiness will be kept to a reasonable minimum.

UPDATE: The images actually come from a Kansas hoops message board, where thousands of Jayhawk fans continue to be overcome by the vapors.

•Schefter reports that both Peyton Manning and Drew Brees will receive hefty raises this offseason. No! Terrible idea! You know how hard players play in their contract years? Now neither guy has anything to play for on Sunday.

•Kansas nearly falls to the curse of No. 1, but escapes Colorado in overtime. Which is sad, because Villanova was really looking forward to their chance to lose their first game atop the polls.

•Ottawa won its 10th game in a row, with Daniel Alfredsson scoring twice in the final minute. They've got all the momentum in the world; wouldn't it suck if something came along and shut down the NHL for a couple of weeks?

•Via Steinberg, Hugo Chavez has banned all non-sports related signs from Venezuelan baseball games. Would this cover those "spell 'ESPN' with one letter from each word" signs? If so, he can count on my vote! (Not that you have the choice of voting against him.)

•Animal Planet has released the starting lineups for Sunday's Puppy Bowl VI. Hey, I'm working Sunday...maybe you guys want someone to liveblog the Puppy Bowl? I could liveblog the Puppy Bowl. Please ask me to liveblog the Puppy Bowl.

(I'm told by the reader who sent in today's screengrab that this is something called Gino The Ginny. I have no idea what that is. Apparently a MySpace thing.)

•••••

It's Thursday, so wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.

•Life is better when Kansas is a two-team state, as long as we get games like last night's 81-79 KU win in OT. Sherron Collins was the hero, and the Jayhawks made a clear case for being No. 1 — which means they'll lose their first game after the polls come out.

•Speaking of Texas, they just can't seem to stop losing, falling in overtime at home to Baylor. Baylor almost beat K-State this week, and hung with KU last week, so you can't say this is a fluke. But then K-State topped Texas last week, before losing to Kansas last night. Complicated? After plugging this into the BCS computer, I'm pretty sure Drexel is leading the Big 12.

•It's not news when Roger Federer wins a major. It's news when Andy Murray loses in the final of one. And Murray did indeed fall in straight sets, though Federer was cruel enough to allow a 24-point, third set tiebreaker, just to rub salt in the wounds of the British.

•Let's break down Tim Tebow's Senior Bowl performance. Eight of twelve passing? Not bad. Fifty yards? Not great. Two fumbles after taking the ball from under center for the first time in his career? Not draftable.

•The Ravens name Jim Zorn as QB coach, because if there's one thing Baltimore fans have always said, it's that they wished Joe Flacco's career arc was more like Jason Campbell's.

•••••

It's Pro Bowl Sunday, the day I know you've all had circled on your calendar for months. I know I can't provide the Cohen/Bakes tagteam goodness of yesterday, but I'll do what I can.

•Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum says the match with Mayweather is off, after negotiations over drug testing apparently failed late last night. There is too much money in this fight for it not to happen, so Arum is lying. This is boxing; everybody is always lying about everything. We will bitch and moan and long for the good old days, and still pony up $49.95 when the fight actually happens. There: I just saved you about two months of stress.

•Cornell actually led with less than a minute left, but Kansas barely pulled it out. An Ivy League school. In Lawrence. Is it possible for a team to drop in the polls while staying undefeated?

•It took two OTs, but Dan LeFevour (that's French for "The Fever") and Central Michigan finally topped Troy in the GMAC Bowl. And that'll do it for this year's bowls where the outcome is in doubt, even a little.

•Tom Brady wins comeback player of the year. Considering he's got every other piece of hardware, I wouldn't be shocked if he faked last year's injury just to add this one to the mantle.

•Do you love schadenfreude? Then you'll love the top ten column predictions that couldn't have been more wrong. Some familiar writers on that list.

•••••

Whew, busy night. I'm glad the sports world is getting back to being an asylum after the usual holiday downturn. Let's keep it going.

The player, Cory Kipp, sought out the Lawrence Journal-World to refute Mangino's claims that he has never mistreated his players during his time in Lawrence. "I'm doing this," he tells the paper, "because I've got proof how horrible a coach he is." His account:

Kipp began the crawl and, after moving several yards, felt a burning sensation in his hands. On multiple occasions, Kipp said, he stopped to complain that the turf was burning his hands - according to a University of Arkansas report, artificial playing surfaces have been documented at up to 199 degrees in temperature - but was ordered by Mangino, who was walking alongside the crawling player, to keep going.

By the time Kipp had finished, the skin near the heel of his hand had been completely seared, and photos provided to the Journal-World depict blistering and a sizable area of missing skin.

As a result of the injury, Kipp said, he was forced to undergo extensive treatment on his hand by then-head football trainer Carol Jarosky throughout the next three weeks, and although he said at least two members of the coaching staff were aware of the injury, he was told to practice through it.

"It wasn't like because my hand was burned, I took a couple days off," Kipp said. "They made me practice."

Kipp took photos of his hand after the incident, but he decided not to report anything lest he lose playing time or even his scholarship. Mangino will now no doubt lump in Kipp with the 1 percent of KU players who don't "appreciate" his style of coaching, which style includes: taunting a kid for having an alcoholic father; threatening to send a guy back to St. Louis, where he could get shot with his "homies"; threatening to send another guy back to Oakland, where he could spend the rest of his life "drinking out of a brown paper bag"; poking and grabbing players and occasionally making them crawl across 200 degree turf for the grievous crime of missing a weigh-in. He's basically Don Rickles meets Junction Boys meets Ponderosa. It sounds like he'll be fired very soon.

Ex-player accuses Mangino of mistreatment [KUsports.com]
News Flash: Mangino's fate awaits [Yahoo!]

Raymond Brown, a wide receiver who was a senior last season, said Mangino would "say personal, hurtful, embarrassing things in front of people," which kind of makes Jayhawk football players sound like sensitive little daisies. Until you learn that when Mangino wants to say something hurtful, the man cuts like a surgeon.

"One day, [Mangino] said in front of the entire team, 'Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your Dad?'"

Ouch. In another instance, when confronting a KU player who had received a "minor in possession" ticket, Mangino told him "You'll be drinking out of a brown paper bag the rest of (your) life." Brown, who had a brother that was once shot in the arm, says that Mangino once said to him, "If you don't shut up, I'm going to send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies." So basically, if Mangino ever learned about a painful incident from a player's background, he stored that little nugget away so he could break it out at the precise moment when it would do the most damage to the player's psyche. That's talent.

Several others also confess that Mangino occasionally gets physical with players, although it never seemed to rise above the level of poking or grabbing jerseys. And as at least one former player pointed out, it is curious that all these stories are flooding in now that Kansas football is having its worst season in years.

"I'm not going to deny that some of those things didn't happen," [former defensive lineman Russell] Brorsen said. "But I think part of the problem here is you have four or five years worth of stuff hitting the fan within a period of three or four days. I think [Mangino] could get pretty intense. And I think there was swearing. But my personal opinion is it's not much worse than what you would get at another university."

It is curious that no one seemed to have any complaints about Mangino's vicious temper when the Jayhawks were 12-1. But despite the program's "turnaround," they have only had 3 winning seasons since Mangino took over in 2002—and this year isn't one of them. His days are likely numbered.

Ex-Kansas players: Coach Mark Mangino said 'hurtful' things [ESPN]
Mangino confident probe will clear him [Fox Sports]
Not-so-gentle reign [KU Sports]

Mark Mangino seems very jolly, but according to KU's parking and transit authority, he used to have anger issues. And parking issues. In his first few years as the Jayhawks coach—before he was a national coach of the year with the pull to get his own private parking space—Mangino had a habit of parking in school loading zones (I know, I know) and then either not paying or getting the tickets voided. In 2007, he was issued eight tickets in a span of six months and when he received his last one, he blew up at the student who issued them.

In his written report, Walters said that Mangino had told him that he'd been unloading notebooks and had asked how he could unload without getting a ticket. [Ed note: Yes, yes. "Unload."] Walters responded that he should get a loading permit from one of the parking booths on campus or to contact the office.

"He got out of the car, slammed the door and came within about a half-foot of my face and started yelling at me, saying that I couldn't answer any of his questions and that he works 16-hour days and has no time to get a pass," Walters wrote, in his report ....

"This job gives you power, does it?" Mangino said, according to Walters. "You feel real f—-ing powerful walking around like a big shot, huh? … Why in the hell else would you be bothering me with this?"

No, Walters said, the office had told him to issue tickets for cars parked in the loading zone.

"So offices tell you what to do?" Mangino said, according to Walters. "F—-ing offices walk around telling you what to do all day?"

Mangino eventually got back into his car, Walters said, before continuing: "You just don't like talking to me because I'm ethnic, just because I talk with my hands."

This is just shocking. Mark Mangino is "ethinic"?

Also, this whole saga of Mangino's investigation is apparently happening because senior linebacker Arist Wright complained that Mangino—a noted disciplinarian and occasional hothead—"poked him in the chest." Seriously? He could lose his job for poking someone in the chest? Isn't that why football players wear pads? Even the freakin' baby thinks that's weak.

Probe aims to determine if Mangino went too far [Lawrence Journal-World]
Documents show what it looks like when Mangino loses his temper [KU Sports]
Kansas Jayhawks football coach thinks he's above, of all things, parking tickets [True/Slant]

•Twenty-four hours of basketball might be over, but Elliot Williams is going to be seeing this game for a long time. A contested 3 at the buzzer clanked off the rim, and Kansas escaped with their reputation sullied, but not their record. Memphis probably shouldn't get too excited, as within 5 years at least four of these players will probably be under investigation for some kind of violation. (Thanks to Russell for the screengrab.)

•With Larry Johnson gone, at least the Chiefs' skill players are all upstanding citizens now, right? Oh. Dwayne Bowe, four games for flunking a drug test. Gotcha.

•Here's a neat little list of the top 25 highest paid coaches. Some fun notes: four of them are college coaches, one of them a baseball manager, and of the top 11, only Phil Jackson isn't a soccer coach. You can click through, but you'll have to trust me they're not MLS coaches.

•Brendan Shanahan calls it quits after 21 seasons, leaving just one active NHL'er who played for Hartford's final season: JS Giguere. I guarantee you'll win a bar bet with that bit of trivia. It's what Shanny would have wanted.

•Puck Daddy finds some incredible video of a Swedish goal celebration going horribly wrong, with flying bodies and broken glass, and for all I know this is par for the course in Sweden. And holy cow, did the hockey fans all wake up from hibernation? Two hockey notes in a row. Let this be a lesson to you soccer fans, if you tip us, we will post.

•Elizabeth Lambert, who was public enemy number one for those two days we cared about women's college soccer, says she's sorry, and it wasn't pent-up sexual aggression. Seriously. She said that.

•Another day, another Volunteer arrested. This time it's Nyshier Oliver, busted for swiping a $110 polo from Dillards. Before you laugh at risking a scholarship on Dillards - The Style Of Your Life! - remember that this is Knoxville, and anything resembling luxury goods are at least two state lines away.

•••••

You might have noticed a new tag on this post. We're trying something different, so this is your new wake-up call. Not that I advocate any of you waking up at this hour; it's ungodly. But let's see what happens. Change doesn't have to be scary.

On Monday, KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins held a team meeting—without Mangino present—to discuss "concerns" about their coach. The meeting reportedly stems from an incident earlier this season that involved Mangino "yelling at and making contact with a player." Several players and parents are now involved and Perkins allegedly promised that an "unbiased person, who will have no opinions either way, will conduct the investigation." This is ... how you say? ... not good.

No one is very big on the details here, but at a press conference today, Mangino said, "I haven't lost the team one bit. I may have lost some people around here, but it's not players. Take that for what it's worth, you decipher it." I presume that the "some people" includes the AD and since he cuts the checks, I would say that losing him is much worse for Mark than losing players. Speaking of losing, Kansas has done a lot of that this year so if the school was looking for an bigger excuse to dump their formerly beloved head coach, this could be it. (Bastion of truth Wikipedia already has him listed as fired.)

Of course, the real tragedy here is that if Mark Mangino is no longer allowed to coach, then will we be allowed to continue using this picture to illustrate stories about Kansas, college football, and/or fat guys? Aren't Bode Lubber and his legions of fans the real victims here?

On the plus side, this story does give me an excuse to post this video from the Nebraska-Kansas game on Saturday. I mean, Baby Mangino has heart, but this video has a football in the groin.

Mangino: I may have lost some people around here, but it's not the players [Lawrence Journal-World]
Kansas Jayhawks program faces internal investigation [ESPN]
What Do Kansas Jayhawks Make of Secretive Meeting? [Bleacher Report]

Jimmy Tucker, better known to the rest of the country as "that guy with the beard who really likes Kansas athletics," has been a fixture on KU's quad since time immemorial, but students have noticed his recent absence.

Seems Tucker, 62, has repeatedly violated a restraining order taken out by his 23-year-old ex-fiancée, and was arrested last week for failing to show up for a court date.

That's not the only run-in with the law Tucker has had. He's scheduled to appear in court on a theft charge after stealing three books from the student library, and has yet another court appearance for a marijuana possession charge.

I wouldn't expect anything less from a man who named himself after a blunt.

‘White Owl' Held In Jail In Connection With Protective Order Case [Lawrence Journal-World]

Kansas is No. 1 in the first college basketball poll and apparently first in insane full back tattoos. This isn't even the only outrageous Jayhawk-themed tattoo on this KU Sports page right now, as a commenter entered the fray with her own bleeding Kansas tribute. The things we do for the love of hoops.

Seriously, this young lass must really care about her Jayhawks to sit still long enough to have the Bayeux Tapestry of Midwest hoops painted on her shoulder blades. Unfortunately, she's out for the rest of the season after deciding to get that Danny Manning tattoo on her knee cap.

[Photo via KUsports.com]

* * * * *

There will be peace when Friday is done.

However, Taylor did give some warning on his Facebook page:

"keep my name out ya' mouth for you get smacked in it," he wrote at 11:12 a.m. Tuesday, and 30 minutes later he posted, "never get outta character .. I'm always a G about it."

About 4 p.m., Taylor posted, "(racial slur)s be muggin me ..you know I'm mugging back."

(Racial slur)s, huh? I wish those people would just (derogatory remark.) Taylor later admitted to dislocating his finger "throwing a punch," which will be very helpful to authorities should they decide to press charges. This is at least the third high-profile fight in the last year between athletes from rival teams at the same school. (Michigan and Michigan State have both had notable football-on-hockey violence.) Can't they all just agree to stick together and beat up on the kids from weaker D-III schools instead? You're tearing us apart!

At least Taylor did provide this blogger with a new motto about old media, warning folks not to believe everything they read in the papers—even when the papers report exactly what happened and what you confirmed on Facebook.

"don't let the news paper gas yall up aite!"

Consider myself ungassed.

Fracas sends KU guard Tyshawn Taylor to hospitals [KU Sports]
In Facebook post, Kansas player Tyshawn Taylor says he dislocated finger throwing punch [KC Star]
Tyshawn Taylor injured in a fight with KU's football team [Ballin Is A Habit]

UPDATE: More fighting today! Police broke up an "altercation" between hoops and football players who may or may not have a "beef" with Sherron Collins. Developing? [Daily Kansan]
Witnesses report second altercation between basketball, football players [Lawrence Journal-World]

UPDATE 2: Yep, it was over a woman. [KUsports.com