Kansas

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Arron Afflalo knows athletes are never supposed to look beyond their next postseason game. On Selection Sunday, he did it anyway. When the West Regional brackets came out, he immediately noticed his Bruins' path back to the NCAA title game went through Kansas. The Jayhawks were the top seed, perhaps the nation's best team entering the NCAA Tournament -- and the team Afflalo had watched warily on television since Thanksgiving weekend, when the Jayhawks beat defending national champion Florida.

TOPEKA, Kan. - A man wielding a knife broke into a Kansas television station Wednesday morning and stabbed two sales employees. WIBW-TV in Topeka reported the man eventually was tackled and held down by several employees until police arrived. While restrained, the man threatened to kill the staff and bit some workers. The suspect and two people who were stabbed were taken to a hospital for treatment. None of their injuries were considered serious. Police spokeswoman Kristen Veverka told the Associated Press that the suspect was expected to be transferred shortly to the Shawnee County...

SAN JOSE -- The Kansas Jayhawks knew they had to abandon the beautiful game they usually play to beat Southern Illinois. The Jayhawks admit they don't like winning ugly -- but they like losing even less. When the Salukis slowed their NCAA Tournament run to a crawl, Brandon Rush and his Kansas teammates adapted and overcame for a win that put them on the brink of the Final Four. Rush scored 12 points without missing a shot, and Kansas eked out a 61-58 victory over Southern Illinois in the West Regional semifinals last night.

Plenty of Kansas legislators' fingerprints are on the aggressive income tax cuts signed into law this week by conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, including those of some GOP moderates now describing it as a budget crisis in the making. But Brownback now owns the legislation, even though it strayed significantly from the tax plan he outlined in January and he and his allies sought less aggressive alternatives in the legislative session's final days. He not only signed the bill, but he pushed for the debate making it possible and ultimately embraced what passed.

ST. LOUIS — Nothing personal, Roy. Tyshawn Taylor broke out of his slump in a big way Sunday, scoring 22 points and leading Kansas back to the Final Four with an 80-67 victory over former coach Roy Williams and top-seeded North Carolina. The second-seeded Jayhawks (31-6) will play Ohio State on Saturday in their first appearance in the Final Four since 2008, when they won the national championship. And how's this for symmetry? Kansas began this year's tournament in Omaha, Neb., same place as four years ago. As the game ended, Taylor — much maligned for his shooting struggles during the...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Doron Lamb scored 22 points, and Kentucky won its eighth national championship, holding off Kansas for a 67-59 victory Monday night. The Wildcats (38-2) led by as many as 18 points in the first half and were still up 15 with 5:13 to play. Kansas (32-7), a team which rallied from several big deficits this season, was able to get as close as 62-57 with 1:37 to play. Kentucky closed the game by making five of seven free throws over the final 1:11 and that set off quite a celebration in the Superdome.

DETROIT - Kansas toyed with Villanova, throwing alley-oop passes off the backboard and raining 3-pointers from all over the court without breaking a sweat. Brandon Rush scored 16 points, Russell Robinson had 15, and top-seeded Kansas routed the 12th-seeded Wildcats, 72-57, last night to earn a spot in the NCAA Midwest Regional final. Tomorrow, the Jayhawks (34-3) will be a huge favorite to end 10th-seeded Davidson's stay in the tournament and advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2003.

Seeing "Kentucky" on the opponent's jerseys was motivation enough for Brandon Rush. Knowing Michael Jordan was watching made it a day to remember. Rush was a career-best 6 of 7 from long range yesterday, including 4 for 4 in the second half as top-seeded Kansas romped past Kentucky, 88-76, in a West Regional matchup in Chicago of two of the game's most storied programs. Rush finished with 19 points, and Chicago native Julian Wright scored 15 of his 21 in the second half.

Royce White had 18 points and nine rebounds and hit two big free throws to lift Iowa State to a 72-64 upset of fifth-ranked Kansas yesterday in Ames, Iowa, snapping the Jayhawks' winning streak at 10 games. White, who entered shooting an abysmal 39 percent from the line in Big 12 games, hit a pair that rattled in to put Iowa State up, 64-59, with 1:47 left. Kansas then threw the ball away and Chris Babb drained a backbreaking three to give the Cyclones an 8-point lead with 55.6 seconds left.

It was the best atmosphere that Kansas coach Bill Self could remember. Thomas Robinson said the Jayhawks rose to another level. Tyshawn Taylor simply smiled, shook his head in disbelief, and tried to describe his emotions. "I'm so proud of my teammates," he said finally. "They stuck it out, man. " In the final scheduled game between Kansas and Missouri, it was only fitting the two bitter adversaries would need five extra minutes to decide it. Robinson's 3-point play in the waning moments of regulation kept their 105-year-old rivalry alive, and Taylor's foul shots with 8.3 seconds remaining...

Kansas legislators' tax cut negotiations quickly halted Tuesday when senators realized that the best offer they could get from the House was one they've already seen. Three senators and three House members reviewed a new proposal from the Senate, with the House rejecting the offer. Negotiators are trying to draft an alternative proposal that would replace one approved last week and sent to the governor. The previous plan cuts individual income tax rates and eliminates income taxes for 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses.

Ron Luce didn't recognize the voice of the woman who phoned Friday to say his daughter Hannah was with her, and was fine. Her words didn't make any sense to the Texas minister and founder of a Christian organization that reaches out to troubled youths. How could Hannah be with this woman when she was on a plane, headed to a Christian youth rally in Iowa? "The way I discovered about my daughter and the plane accident was probably the most unscripted way you could imagine," Luce said Sunday during a news conference at University of Kansas Hospital, where his...

TOPEKA, Kan. - A bill designed to prevent Kansas courts or government agencies from making decisions based on Islamic or other foreign legal codes has cleared the state Legislature after a contentious debate about whether the measure upholds American values or appeals to prejudice against Muslims. The Senate approved the bill Friday on a 33-to-3 vote. The House had approved it, 120 to 0, earlier in the week. The measure goes next to Republican Governor Sam Brownback, who hasn't said whether he will sign the measure.

A small airplane that crashed in southeast Kansas was carrying five people with connections to Oral Roberts University to a Christian youth rally in Iowa, a friend of three of the victims said Saturday. The Kansas Highway Patrol reported that four of the passengers died in Friday's crash and one was badly injured. Those killed were identified Saturday as pilot Luke Sheets, 23, of Ephraim, Wis.; Austin Anderson, 27, of Ringwood, Okla.; Garrett Coble, 29, of Tulsa, Okla.; and Stephen Luth, 22, of Muscatine, Iowa.

The Kansas Department of Revenue believes a state law allowing oil company TransCanada Corp. to avoid paying nearly $19 million in property taxes has been misinterpreted, but the company said Thursday that it is simply following tax rules approved years ago by the state and noted its large investments in Kansas. The department recently filed a petition asking the state Court of Tax Appeals to reconsider its decision to approve Calgary-based TransCanada's exemption from state property taxes in 2011.

A bill designed to prevent Kansas courts or government agencies from making decisions based on Islamic or other foreign legal codes has cleared the state Legislature after a contentious debate about whether the measure upholds American values or appeals to prejudice against Muslims. The Senate approved the bill Friday on a 33-3 vote. The House had approved it, 120-0, earlier in the week. The measure goes next to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who hasn't said whether he'll sign or veto the measure.

NEW ORLEANS — Same story, new night for Kansas. The team that's been teetering on the edge of the tournament since before it even began is now one of the last two left. Tyshawn Taylor made two big free throws late, and Thomas Robinson finished with 19 points and eight rebounds Saturday night to lift the Jayhawks to a come-from-behind 64-62 win over Ohio State in the Final Four — a game Kansas led for a grand total of 3 minutes, 48 seconds. After scoring the first bucket, Kansas didn't lead again until Travis Releford made two free throws with 2:48 left.

A plan to cut income and sales taxes would leave Kansas with a budget shortfall exceeding $700 million by mid-2018, according to a new state Legislature estimate circulated Wednesday, contradicting a recent forecast that projected a gap less than a quarter of that size. Lawmakers in both parties have sought assurances that the tax cuts wouldn't create a shortfall, and critics predict the plan could force cuts to spending on public schools, social services and other programs. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and many members of the GOP-controlled Legislature believe cutting taxes will...