Kansas
Dan Skillings Jr. scores 25, Cincinnati beats short-handed No. 16 Kansas 72-52 in Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cincinnati coach Wes Miller admitted he was up late preparing to face No. 16 Kansas in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, and a big reason why was he didn’t know how the Jayhawks would play without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr.
The conference’s two leading scorers were out with injuries Wednesday night.
“It was hard. You take out two guys who have done so much all year, both ends of the floor, you don’t know how they’re going to adjust. That part is difficult,” Miller said. “I thought our guys did a nice job with the game plan.”
So nice, in fact, the Bearcats were able to empty their bench in the final minute.
Dan Skillings Jr. poured in 25 points, John Newman III added 12 and the No. 11 seed Bearcats rolled to a 72-52 victory, picking up another important win for their resume as they try to elbow their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Up next for Cincinnati (20-14) is No. 14 Baylor — the third seed in the league tourney — in the quarterfinals Thursday.
“We didn’t start the year to say, ‘Hey, the goal is to get to 20 wins.’ We’re not popping champagne or anything like that,” Miller said. “You do recognize things that have value, and getting 20 wins is something.”
Dickinson missed the game after dislocating his shoulder in a 30-point loss to Houston last weekend, while McCullar has been dealing with a knee injury. Coach Bill Self expects both to practice Monday ahead of the NCAA Tournament, but that didn’t help the 12-time Big 12 Tournament champions when they stepped on the floor against the Bearcats.
In fact, the situation grew more dire for the Jayhawks when, trailing 43-38 with just over 10 minutes left, they watched Elmarko Jackson come up hobbling, then saw KJ Adams Jr. crash to the floor defending a fast break and briefly leave the game.
Adams returned to lead No. 6 seed Kansas (22-10) with 22 points. Jackson also was able to finish and scored five.
“Obviously we were bad offensively and didn’t make shots — didn’t make any shots,” Self said, “and today was a night that things had to go a lot better for us shooting the basketball to have a chance.”
The fact that the Jayhawks were close at all in the second half was noteworthy.
Day Day Thomas, who hit seven 3s and scored 29 points in Cincinnati’s opening win over West Virginia, remained hot from behind the arc in the first half. Simas Lukosius, who also had seven 3s and scored 31 a day earlier, did some damage at the rim. And by the time the Jayhawks came up empty on a final possession of the first half, they were facing a 38-25 hole.
Kansas dug out by holding the Bearcats to a 1-for-13 start from the field in the second half, and they were helped by a heavily pro-Jayhawks crowd inside T-Mobile Center that roared when their team closed within 40-38 with 13:30 to go.
But Kansas kept missing open looks, and that gave the Bearcats an opportunity to rebuild their lead.
“That start of the second half, we just got really stagnant. We had some good looks early, they didn’t go, and we got a little tight and stopped playing aggressively,” Miller said. “I thought our guys looked around and said, ‘We’re going to go do it,’ and we got aggressive again, and then we had some good things happen.”
SILVER LINING
Self was back on the sideline after missing last year’s Big 12 tourney when he was hospitalized with a heart issue. Kansas went to the finals without him, losing there to Texas, before playing without the Hall of Fame coach in the NCAA Tournament.
“Yeah, a year ago today I was messed up,” Self said. “So yeah, from that standpoint, I feel a heck of a lot better than a year ago, and today I’m not exactly happy or feeling great.”
UP NEXT
Cincinnati lost 62-59 at Baylor on Jan. 13 when Lukosius missed two 3s in the closing seconds. The rematch will be even tougher with the Bears rested and the Bearcats playing for the third time in three days.
Kansas was once considered a potential No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Now, it could be looking at the No. 4 or 5 line on Selection Sunday. The big question is how much the selection committee will weigh the Jayhawks’ injuries.
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Kansas
Salvador Perez attended the Ecaudor-Curaçao match at Arrowhead. So did other royals — from the Netherlands
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Royals captain Salvador Perez, along with teammates Starling Marte and Carter Jensen, attended Saturday evening’s World Cup match at Arrowhead Stadium.
So did some other royals!
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands began Saturday by cheering the Dutch past Sweden in Houston.
The monarchs ended the day by watching Curacao make some history against Ecuador in Kansas City.
The small island nation of Curacao is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that makes King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima the heads of state. So, after a quick flight north Saturday, the royal couple dutifully swapped out their bright orange scarves of Het Oranje Legioen they wore to their earlier match with bright blue ones for The Blue Wave.
Curacao, the smallest World Cup team in population and size, made its tournament debut last Sunday in a 7-1 loss to Germany. But it bounced back from that defeat to earn a 0-0 draw with La Tri and earn its first-ever point in the tournament.
“It is an extra-special World Cup because we have both the Netherlands and Curacao,” Willem-Alexander told RTL-TV. “So we have twice as many teams to cheer for. A great opportunity to cheer on both the Blues and the Oranges. All in all, it will be a special World Cup for me with two teams, and I naturally hope they go extremely far.”
The Netherlands moved one step closer to the World Cup knockout round after a 5-1 win over Sweden.
Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo scored two goals apiece to help coach Ronald Koeman’s team bounce back from a disappointing draw in its opener and move atop Group F. The Netherlands concludes group play against Tunisia on Thursday in Kansas City.
Curacao is still alive, too, after Eloy Room made 15 saves — one off the World Cup record — to earn a draw with Ecuador. It concludes Group E play on Thursday against the Ivory Coast in Philadelphia at the same time Ecuador is playing Germany in New York.
It is quite rare for sitting monarchs to come through the area. Queen Ann of Romania attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial, which is where Kansas City is holding its World Cup FanFest, in the 1920s, while King Gustav XVI of Sweden made a stop in the small Kansas town of Lindsborg when he was passing through the Midwest in the 1970s.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Kansas
1 man dies after being shot June 9 in Kansas City, Missouri; police working to identify person of interest
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is working to identify a person(s) of interest in a June 9 shooting that led to the death of one victim.
Police were called around 6 a.m. on June 9 to the area of Independence and Monroe avenues in Kansas City, Missouri.
Responding officers found an unresponsive man behind a residence in that area. He was transported to the hospital for life-threatening injuries, per KCPD.
Police were notified Friday night that the shooting victim died.
KCPD said Saturday “detectives have made headway identifying subject(s) of interest.”
Anyone with information on the incident is encouraged to call KCPD Homicide detectives directly at 816-234-5043 or the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline at 816-474-8477.
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If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
Kansas
1 man killed, 5 others wounded in mass shooting Friday night near East 19th and Vine streets in KCMO
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One person was shot to death and five others were wounded by gunfire Friday night in the 18th and Vine Historic District in Kansas City, Missouri.
Police said officers were in the area of East 18th Street and Paseo about 10:30 p.m. when they heard gunshots.
The officers moved to East 19th Street between the Paseo and Vine Street to check for shooting victims, according to a police department news release.
They found one man who had been shot and was unresponsive, along with two women who had been shot.
The man was declared dead at the scene.
One of the women suffered serious gunshot wounds and the other woman suffered non life-threatening wounds, according to the police department news release.
Officers at the shooting scene were notified three more shooting victims from the same area had been taken to a hospital by a private vehicle.
An adult male and female were reported in stable condition late Friday, while a second adult male suffered critical gunshot wounds, according to police.
Police said their preliminary investigation revealed the victims were standing on 19th Street between Vine and Paseo when people began shooting in several directions.
All the shooting victims were hit by gunfire in that area, according to police.
No word on what led to the mass shooting and at least one murder.
This is a developing story and will be updated when new information is available.
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If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.
Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.
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