Remy Martin (11) of Kansas walks past Max Christie (5) and Tyson Walker of Michigan State in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 in New York City. (AP Photo / Frank Franklin II)
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The Kansas Jayhawks will help name a new venue Friday night when they play in St. John’s in the first game of basketball at the recently completed UBS Arena in Elmont, NY
The coming week will also bring the return of the Kansas City Chiefs, bowl offers for Mizzou and K-State, a potential work stoppage in Major League Baseball and the final high school football games of the 2021 season.
A big battle Big East-Big 12
After taking on the Iona Gaels in Florida on Saturday, the Jayhawks will then hit the road in New York, where they will play in St. John’s on Friday night at a newly built arena in Belmont Park on Long Island.
The state-of-the-art facility is the future home of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League.
Opposing coach former Mizzou coach Mike Anderson is no stranger to KU coach Bill Self’s schedule. This week’s game will be KU’s 14th all-time game between KU and the Johnnies, with the Jayhawks 8-5 in 13 previous games. The most recent match between the two schools was in 2000 at Madison Square Garden during the Coaching Classic Against Cancer.
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The return of rested chefs
The Chiefs are back next Sunday after taking a break around Thanksgiving.
It wasn’t some kind of special vacation for the Chiefs because of the vacation, but rather their week off in the NFL – commonly known as the week off. And we all know how good Chiefs coach Andy Reid has generally been after weeks off. He is 20-3 in his career after those open dates on the calendar.
The Chiefs got a perfect 4-0 in November after starting the season with a dismal 3-4, so things are definitely looking up at 1 Arrowhead Drive.
Final preparation for the football finals
Most of Missouri’s high school football championships – the annual Show Me Bowl games – will be played on Saturday at Faurot Field in Mizzou.
The state finals for classes 2, 4 and 5 will take place on Friday. The finals for classes 1 and 3 will take place on Saturday. (And the 8-player State Championship game will be played even earlier on Thursday.) The Class 6 Championship game took place this weekend in Columbia, with Liberty North facing the Christian Brothers College of St. Louis. .
Waiting for offers of bowls
The Missouri and Kansas State football teams have crossed the six-game winning threshold this season and are now awaiting petanque invitations.
This year, the annual college football ‘selection weekend’ will take place next Saturday and Sunday, December 4-5.
The 2021 Bowl season kicks off on December 17 with the Bahamas Bowl in Nassau and the Cure Bowl in Orlando. The grand finale, the National College Football Championship, is scheduled for Jan. 8 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
A baseball lockout?
This would be news that no baseball fan wants to hear: There is a real possibility that Major League Baseball will experience its first work stoppage since 1994 when the current collective agreement between its owners and players expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
The expectation coming in this weekend was that the owners of all 30 MLB clubs would immediately block players when the current CBA expires. At this point, only the 11th hour negotiations between the owners and the MLB Players Union could avert a work stoppage before the scheduled start of spring training in mid-February.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed so that something acceptable to both sides can be worked out before things get out of hand in public.
