STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) – Oklahoma State and Kansas share the role of favorites to win the Big 12 basketball title in a preseason coaches’ poll.

OSU and Kansas each received five first place votes and 77 overall points in the voting by the league’s 10 head coaches. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team.

Baylor is picked to finish third in the poll released Thursday with Iowa State fourth while Oklahoma and Kansas State tied for fifth.

West Virginia, Texas, Texas Tech and TCU round out the poll.

 

All 10 members of the K-State Athletics Hall of Fame 2013 induction class will participate in a meet and greet for fans prior to Saturday’s football game against Baylor.

The session will begin at 11:30 a.m. in Cat Town and end one hour before the start of the 2:30 p.m. game. Members of the class will be located in the public tent of Cat Town.

The class is the first since 2008. It will be inducted the night before in a ceremony at the K-State Alumni Center.  The entire induction ceremony, which is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. will be broadcast live on K-StateHD.TV.

The class includes former student-athletes Roy DeWitz  and Steve Henson ( men’s bsketball ), Yana Dorodnova ( women’s tennis ), Lauren Goehring ( volleyball ) , Jaime Mendez ( football ), Tammie Romstad ( women’s bsketball ), Austra Skujyte ( track and field ), former Athletics Director Bebe Lee and long-time supporters Dr. Richard Baker and Jack and Joann Goldstein.

The 2013 Hall of Fame class will also be honored during halftime of Saturday’s football game vs. Baylor.

The Junction City Blue Jays will compete in a new Class 6A high school football district for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association has released the district football assignments for the next two years.  ‘

Junction City has been shifted to District 6 that will include Wichita East, Wichita North, and Wichita Southeast.  In the past and this year the Blue Jays have been in District 5 with Manhattan, Washburn Rural, and Topeka High.

Matt Westerhaus, JCHS  Athletic Director, said, “You know it’s going to be weird not having Manhattan in our district.” He added officials do not remember not being in the same district. “We’re going to be on the road a little bit more so there’s going to be more travel. I think it gives our program and our kids some exposure down south that we haven’t had in the past few years, which is good. So it’s kind of nice to see new venues and go new places.”

Westerhaus also released the 2014 Blue Jay football schedule. Junction City will open at Highland Park, host Emporia in week two, and then travel to Shawnee Heights and Seaman. Junction City will then host Washburn Rural in week five, and Manhattan in week six. In district play Junction City will play at Wichita Southeast, host Wichita East, and then play at Wichita North in week nine.  In 2015 that schedule will be reversed.

The top two teams in each district qualify for postseason play.

The change in districts means the Junction City – Manhattan game will have to be moved away from its current week nine slot in the final game of district play to week six.

Replacing Junction City in District 5 will be Lawrence Free State. They will join Manhattan, Washburn Rural, and Topeka High.

Fans can see the Kansas State men’s basketball team in action on Saturday, as the squad will hold an open scrimmage from 11:30 until 12:30 p.m. at Bramlage Coliseum.

Fans will also be able to purchase men’s basketball season tickets during the scrimmage at the Select-A-Seat event. Tags will be placed on available seat locations and ticket representatives will be stationed at the west concourse near sections 9 and 10 to process ticket orders or answer questions from interested fans. Current season-ticket holders are also invited to upgrade their existing seats or add additional tickets to their account.

The defending Big 12 champion men’s squad returns eight lettermen including four players with starting experience, Shane Southwell,  and Will Spradling.

The Wildcats host Pittsburg State in an exhibition game at 8 p.m. Friday November 1 before officially tipping off the season against Northern Colorado a week later on Friday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Bill Snyder is as frustrated as anybody at Kansas State’s disturbing trends of penalties and turnovers, yet he knows how quickly those kinds of things can turn around.

He pointed to the 2003 season, when a whole bunch of mistakes resulted in a two losses to open Big 12 play. The Wildcats turned things around and won the conference championship, and are hoping to do the same thing starting Saturday against No. 15 Baylor.

Kansas State (2-3, 0-2) has already committed 14 turnovers this season, two more than it had all of last season. The Wildcats have also been penalized 28 times, 20 of those coming in losses to Texas and Oklahoma State to start conference play.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Former Missouri coach Norm Stewart has a hard time believing it’s been 20 years since he and his wife Virginia, founded Coaches vs. Cancer.

The organization has grown into a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and has raised more than $100 million to support the American Cancer Society’s mission of eradicating the disease.

Stewart was joined at Coaches vs Cancer’s annual tipoff event at Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium on Tuesday night by a litany of fellow coaches, including Bill Self of Kansas, Frank Haith of Missouri, Gregg Marshall of Wichita State and Bruce Weber of Kansas State.

The tipoff event is designed to help raise money for the organization.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Marcus Cooper may be the embodiment of the Kansas City Chiefs.

He was drafted in the seventh-round by San Francisco, cut late in training camp and signed by the Chiefs, where he’s proven to be an important part of their stalwart defense.

Cooper recovered a fumble for a touchdown and also intercepted a pass in the Chiefs’ 26-17 win over Tennessee on Sunday. The victory left the Chiefs 5-0, one of three unbeaten teams left in the NFL and the first to win its first five games after winning two or fewer the previous year.

So how is Cooper the embodiment of the Chiefs? Well, it’s just as surprising that the former Rutgers wide receiver is making it in the NFL as that Kansas City is still undefeated.

 

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota’s starting quarterback this week will be Matt Cassel or Christian Ponder, not Josh Freeman.

Beyond Sunday, there’s no guarantee.

The Vikings were finalizing Freeman’s contract Monday. He didn’t make it in time for practice but was scheduled to arrive later in the day. Coach Leslie Frazier said there’s not enough time for Freeman, a former Kansas State University quarterback,  to learn the offense and play this weekend at Carolina, but the Vikings didn’t sign him just for depth. They’re trying to save the season after losing their first three games.

Frazier said Ponder is still the starter if he’s healthy, but he’s recovering from a broken rib that kept him out of the win over Pittsburgh Sept. 29. Cassel played that game and will keep the job if Ponder isn’t cleared for action.

Rosie Hollis was the top finisher for the Junction City Lady Jays varsity squad in the JCHS Cross Country Invitational at Milford State Park Saturday.

Hollis finished 11th in 15:59.87.  She said the cold weather made it tough. “But it also helped that this is our course, and we practice on our course so it made it go by faster. ”

Hollis was followed closely by her teammate, Deisjambra Bisio, who finished 13th in 16:10.44.  Autumn Sifuentes of Junction City finished 19th in 16:29.57, while Deidra Walker of Maize took home first place honors with a time of 14:45.77.

Maize claimed top team honors with the low score of 39 points. Junction City finished fifth out of 10 teams with a score of 120.  Manhattan was second with 52 points.

In the boys varsity competition Junction City was led by Stephen Deveau and Nick Arneson. Deveau finished 20th in 17:39.36, while Arneson was 21st in 17:43.45.

Chris Melgares was the meet champion with a first place finish in 16:13.34.

Manhattan captured the team championship with the low score of 17 points. Junction City finished fifth out of 10 teams.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger has revived plans for a major renovation of the University of Kansas football stadium.

The Kansas City Star reports (https://bit.ly/18xUVTs ) that Zenger acknowledges a Memorial Stadium project would require a massive fundraising effort.

No budget or timetable for the renovation has been set. But Zenger says Kansas began the design process for an eventual renovation last month.

The early work on the project comes as construction continues on a new, $39 million complex in west Lawrence for soccer, softball and track and field. The complex is expected to host the Kansas Relays in the spring, and its opening would allow Kansas to remove the track around the football field at Memorial Stadium, a possible first step in a larger project.