LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Kansas coach Bill Self was asked not long ago about the Jayhawks early schedule, and he wryly gazed across the room at several school administrators and responded with his own question.Who thought this was a good idea? he said.Few teams play tougher nonconference schedules than the third-ranked Jayhawks, which is a big reason why their RPI is always among the best in the country. But theyve taken it up a notch this year, playing No. 11 Indiana in their opener Friday night before facing top-ranked Duke on Tuesday.Oh, and those two games will take place 5,000 miles apart.I think to get a couple of blue-bloods to play, I think it will be a great game, said Self, whose Jayhawks face the Hoosiers in Honolulu before turning around to play the Blue Devils in New York.Self may have poked fun at school officials for their brutal first week, but in reality he wouldnt have it any other way. The game in Hawaii is part of the Armed Forces Classic, and roughly coincides with the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, while the game at Madison Square Garden is part of the Champions Classic doubleheader that also features second-ranked Kentucky and No. 14 Michigan State.These are the kinds of games that top-rated recruits want to play, and the kind that give Kansas the national exposure that it takes to reel them in.I mean, its hard. You play national, traditional powers, the league will be great, all these things, Self said. But when it was brought to me to have a chance to play in kind of the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and what that could mean from an educational standpoint with our guys and everything, I think that was something like, `Yeah, emotionally weve got to do that.Of course, then he realized how the flight itinerary will look.Were taking three planes over there. Weve got to take three planes back to New York. We cant even travel together, Self said. And its certainly not going to be easy coming back to play after that trip, and all we did was set ourselves up to have a tough opening start.At least Spartans coach Tom Izzo can commiserate.Michigan State plays No. 10 Arizona in the other part of the Armed Forces Classic on Friday night, then will take a similar trip to New York for its game against the Wildcats.In fact, the Spartans may have an even more daunting November than Kansas. They return from New York for two games at the Breslin Center before visiting the Blue Devils in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.Weve never had a November where we played three or four top teams, opponents. This year were going to probably have a minimum of four, Izzo said. I dont know what that means. It means that were going to find out early exactly where we are, like we always do. The travel makes it a little more brutal, a little more concerning with the number of young guys.Likewise, Hoosiers coach Tom Crean welcomes the challenge of facing the Jayhawks to start the year.Were going to go against one of the hardest-nosed, toughest-minded, best-coached teams in the country, he said. And really, what it does is it just kind of increases your urgency a little bit in the non-season. And theres not a day that goes by that I dont reference one of those two teams at least four or five times in something that were doing.Two teams? Oh, right. The Hoosiers wrap November by playing sixth-ranked North Carolina .But the marquee nonconference matchups are part of college basketballs appeal. Even a team that loses one -- or all -- of its high-profile games wont hurt its chances of making the NCAA Tournament, while a similar loss or two in college football can end a teams championship hopes.Rather, the games serve as an early barometer for where a team stands, exposes flaws that can be addressed before league play, and toughens teams up for the brutal grind of March.I think our guys will rally around that, Self said of the grinding start to the season, and certainly if they are fatigued, they wont play fatigued.---For more AP college basketball coverage:
http://collegebasketball.ap.org/ Nike React Womens Nz . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium.
Nike React New Zealand . There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me.
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Nike React Discount Nz . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. DALLAS -- More than 7,400 original negatives by baseball photographer Charles Conlon have sold at auction for nearly $1.8 million.Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Sunday announced the sale results for the images, from 1904 through 1942, including some of baseballs greats -- Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.The auction house declined to identify the winning bidder in Saturdays sale. The archive became the property of The Sporting News not long after Conllon died in 1945.dddddddddddd. The images were purchased by collector John Rogers.The Charles Conlon Baseball Photographic Archive includes 7,462 original negatives, many only surviving on glass plates. A Heritage statement says Conlons photographs were syndicated in newspapers worldwide and used on the very first tobacco and baseball cards. ' ' '
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