Kansas

HAVILAND, Kan. -- Steve Arnold is driving the yellow Hummer in circles around a Kiowa County wheat field, towing an 18-foot-wide metal detector. For an hour, nothing but silence. Finally, the detector whines, and Arnold slams the brakes. "That is so good," he says. Arnold jumps out, pinpoints the location with a smaller detector and starts digging. The renowned meteorite hunter is hoping for a big score. He has had three false hits today, unearthing a bit of barbed wire, a fragment of a plow, a squashed Dr Pepper can. "What's the definition of insanity?"

GREENSBURG, Kan. -- Anxiety mounted here yesterday as rescue teams continued combing through the ruins of this country town in a long-shot search for survivors, two days after a violent tornado took nine lives and leveled nearly everything. As more than 40 searchers scanned the heaps of bricks and wooden beams for signs of life, National Guard troops and state law enforcement officers barred families from returning to their former homes, frustrating many survivors eager to reclaim old scrapbooks and other priceless mementos.

Site -- San Jose, Calif. Time, TV -- 7:05 p.m., chs. 13, 9 Records -- Kansas 33-4, UCLA 29-5 Line -- Kansas by 2 How they got here -- Kansas def. No. 16 Niagara, 107-67; No. 8 Kentucky, 88-76; and No. 4 Southern Illinois, 61-58; UCLA def. No. 15 Weber State, 70-42; No. 7 Indiana, 54-49; and No. 3 Pittsburgh, 64-55 The buzz -- Kansas was held to its second-lowest point total of the season Thursday, but still prevailed. UCLA, meanwhile, was involved in its sixth consecutive game in which it didn't score more than 70 points.

There is one way for Kansas to look at a season that already includes losses at Saint Louis and Massachusetts, not to mention a rare home defeat to Iowa that broke a 62-game winning streak at Allen Field House.Nobody will be chanting "Rock, Choke, Jayhawk" at them if the Jayhawks do their now-expected cameo in the NCAA tournament. This is a season of lowered expectations in Lawrence, a season when few are paying attention to coach Roy Williams and his team."I said before the season that we were probably going to lose more games this year than we've had in a long time," junior guard Ryan Robertson said by telephone Tuesday.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Pitcher Kelly Shipman won her 31st game and drove in the game's only run with a single in the sixth inning last night, as Maryland defeated Kansas, 1-0, in the second round of the NCAA Division I softball tournament.Maryland (50-21) advanced to today's third round, where it will face Region 2's top seed, Arizona, which is ranked No. 3 nationally.Shipman gave up eight hits, struck out three and walked two. Sarah Workman took the loss.

THE STATE board of education in Kansas jeopardized the future of that state's children by censoring what they learn about the past. This will curtail their education and harm their opportunities as adults.If allowed to stand, the new curriculum would discourage parents of young children from moving to Kansas. The board could not have created a worse impediment to economic development.The board hired a panel of scientists to draw up a state curriculum required of all local schools. Three board members then rewrote the recommendation to banish evolution from the requirement, inhibiting the study of biology and harming that of geology.

I THOUGHT WE HAD settled this long ago. This creationism vs. evolution argument. I thought evolution, with dump trucks full of evidence on its side, had declared victory and left the creationists to rant among themselves and pull their children out of public schools.Apparently not.Having failed (thanks to the Supreme Court) to shoe-horn their theory into schools under some kind of misguided fairness doctrine, creationists have changed their tactics. They now aim to diminish the teaching of evolution, and in Kansas they have succeeded.

Royals: The paid attendance of 17,252 put Kansas City over the 1 million mark for the season.Pub Date: 7/28/98

Going to San Antonio: Kansas has been a top seed twice and a No. 2 once but has been stopped short of the Final Four in each of the past three seasons. But most of the competition here is shaky, and the Jayhawks haven't lost since Jan. 19.Team on the rise: Prairie View A&M, obviously. Three of the Panthers' 13 wins came in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. Team on the decline: Florida State beat UConn, beat Arizona and nearly beat Kansas during the first two months of the season.

WASHINGTON -- A day after Maryland disposed of one of the nation's premier college basketball programs, the Terps were unable to take care of business inside the Capital Beltway.An upset of Kansas had lifted Maryland to a No. 19 ranking and the championship game of the Franklin National Bank Classic at the MCI Center. The Terps might just fall out of the Top 25 next week, after last night's 70-66 loss to George Washington that included an MVP performance by Baltimorean Shawnta Rogers."We have to learn how to play with emotion on back-to-back nights," Terps coach Gary Williams said.

Basketball prospect Lance Stephenson told SNY.tv this week that Maryland is still in the running. Stephenson said he will attend either "St. John's, Maryland [or] Kansas" and talks with coaches from each every day. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/recruiting recruiting)

8 p.m. [ESPN2] The Cardinals moved this game to a Wednesday because the Ryder Cup is being played nearby this weekend. Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman has completed 76 percent of his passes, throwing for five touchdowns, in victories over North Texas and Montana State. Though the Wildcats averaged 57 points in those two wins, Louisville (1-1) ranks fourth in the nation in total defense, allowing 193 yards per game.

Bill Self, the Kansas basketball coach who guided the Jayhawks to their first NCAA men's title in 20 years, signed a 10-year, $30 million contract yesterday. The deal had been in the works since April, when the Jayhawks came from nine points down in the final minutes to beat Memphis for the title and he subsequently turned down an offer to return to Oklahoma State, his alma mater. Kansas and Self, 45, said in April he had agreed to the deal while the details were worked on. Kansas also agreed to big raises for his staff as well as improvements to the school's basketball facilities.

SAN ANTONIO -- Sometimes a tie isn't a tie, but a loss. Thus it was at the Alamodome last night, when the first overtime in the national championship game in 11 years tipped off. The score was 63-63. But Memphis had lost. Kansas had already won, and the only question remaining in the final five minutes was how much the final margin would be. And whether this was as much of a miracle, as much an astoundingly unexpected event for the program than its last national title 20 years earlier.

Memphis 78, UCLA 63 Star freshman Derrick Rose put on an aerial show, and Memphis flew past UCLA to reach the championship game. Rose finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, and the Tigers won their 38th game of the season, a major college basketball record. Kansas 84, UNC 66 Brandon Rush scored 25 points to lead Kansas as the Jayhawks thwarted North Carolina's furious comeback attempt. The Tar Heels rallied to within five points in the second half after falling behind 40-12 in the first, but it wasn't enough for coach Roy Williams to avoid losing to his former team.

The art of filling in a bracket you can be proud of is all about picking the right upsets. Take at least one No. 11 seed and probably a No. 12 seed in the first round, right? Probably find a sleeper that could go deep. Maybe the key is restraining yourself and not thinking too hard, letting your basketball mojo flow, as you go from line to line. But after last season, a different question needs to be asked - will the Cinderella team even return this season? The 2007 NCAA tournament was seriously lacking in major surprises.

Villanova @Georgetown 7 P.M. [ESPN] Mr. Flip knows his college hoops, so he's telling you there's no way Villanova, with guys like Pinckney and Jensen, can beat the mighty Hoyas of Ewing and Williams. Kansas @Texas 9 P.M. [ESPN] The Jayhawks are No. 4, the Longhorns No. 12. Texas has beaten Kansas in the past two games played in Austin, but those games were played in 2004 and 2006.

College football Orange Bowl 8:15 p.m. [chs. 45, 5] When last we saw No. 8 Kansas (11-1), it was ending an 11-game winning streak and squandering an opportunity for a shot at a national championship in a 36-28 loss to Missouri. Conversely, No. 5 Virginia Tech (11-2) salvaged its season with a win over Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, avenging an earlier loss to BC and punching Virginia Tech's ticket to this game. In the X's and O's matchup, it'll be Kansas' prolific passing attack vs. Virginia Tech's tough defense, which includes All-America cornerback Brandon Flowers.

Orange Bowl No. 5 Virginia Tech (11-2) vs. No. 8 Kansas (11-1) Site -- Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Time, TV -- 8:25, chs. 45, 5 Line -- Virginia Tech by 3 Outlook -- The Hokies lost twice to No. 2-ranked teams - LSU and Boston College - then beat Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference cham pionship, while Kansas lost to then-No. 3 Missouri and didn't play for a conference championship. Both of fenses can score, but Virginia Tech is fifth in the nation in total defense, giving up 293.3 yards per game, and second in scoring defense, giving up 15.5 points per game.

Who's better than the New England Patriots? Kansas. At least against the point spread. All season, we've marveled at the Patriots' demolishing the point spread week after week. The Pats are 9-1 against the line. Well, sports gambling expert R.J. Bell pointed out to us that Kansas is 10-0 against the spread. In real life, Kansas is 11-0, but its early-season game against Southeastern Louisiana wasn't on the board. Kansas won, 62-0. The Jayhawks, ranked No. 2, play No. 3 Missouri on Saturday with the obvious implication for a shot at the national championship game.