Kansas
Houston has no answer for Kansas in road loss, but Kelvin Sampson says Cougars will respond in rematch at home
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kelvin Sampson never fails to deliver – postgame comments included. Four decades as a college head coach has given Sampson some perspective. There has been excellence in three Power Five conferences, a stay in NCAA jail, rebirth as an NBA assistant and spending the last decade raising Houston back to relevance.
So, a little thing like Saturday’s 78-65 potentially season-altering loss at No. 8 Kansas wasn’t going to change his outlook.
Or his candor.
“Sometimes,” Houston’s 68-year-old coach summed up following his team’s worst performance of the season, “you’ve got to give the other team some credit too. Excuse my French, but they shot the piss out of it.”
Rock Chalk, bladder control? Yes, there was that — for starters. Kansas shot 68.9% in one of the weekend’s four top-10 showdowns, running the No. 4 Cougars out of the gym. KU had two separate runs of making seven shots in a row. The 78 points scored by the Jayhawks are the most the nation’s No. 1 defensive team has given up this season. Houston’s 24 rebounds were its fewest by nine this season.
In short, the Jayhawks took one of the feel-good stories and rubbed it in mud deeper than what surrounded Allen Fieldhouse on a rainy Saturday. Well, figuratively.
Now, get out of the way for Sampson the historian. It’s been 18 years between visits here for the former Oklahoma coach. He still hasn’t won at Kansas (0-8 lifetime).
“You’re asking an expert [about playing here],” Sampson joked. “I’m the guy to ask on that one.”
Give the man credit, then, for knowing what was coming.
“Somebody made a mistake and told me we were actually favored in this game,” Sampson said. “That’s sacrilege. How is Kansas not favored in any game, especially here?”
That 1 ½-point spread at tipoff was a benchmark for both teams. On Saturday, Las Vegas recognized the job Sampson has done in his 10th season at Houston. Eight times the Cougars have won at least 21 games in that span. The last two seasons they’ve won 32 and 33 games. They have been to five NCAA Tournaments. The 2021 team went to the Final Four. If the tournament started Saturday morning Houston might have been a No. 1 seed.
Meanwhile, the Jayhawks were an underdog at home for only the second time in the Self era, and the first time in three years. Self is now an incredible 320-17 at Allen Fieldhouse since he took over in 2003.
“I didn’t know we were an underdog,” Self deadpanned.
Yeah, right.
“You challenge the Jayhawk pride, if you will, by telling them they’re not favored,” Sampson said.
And so when the decibel meter on the scoreboard measuring the crowd noise broke 123, you knew. When 7-footer Hunter Dickinson dominated inside against Houston’s (usually) stifling defense, you knew.
When the hottest thing to come out of Australia since surfing blew up, you knew. Guard Johnny Furphy dropped in 17, missing only one of his seven shots. With that charming accent and dead-eye shooting – 54% in 21 games – Kansas has itself a budding star.
“I know there’s some competitive dudes over at the Centre of Excellence in Australia, but I don’t think there’s anything like that.” Self said smiling.
The Centre of Excellence is essentially a training center for the Australian national basketball team. Furphy blew up last year at the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta. Neither of those settings matched what went on here Saturday afternoon.
Underdog status just doesn’t happen here. KU made 9 of its first 10 shots and the rout was on. Sampson’s quotes landed a lot louder than most Houston shots in this Big 12 showdown.
“I still feel like they scored 90,” Sampson said before ducking into his locker room. “It felt like they were getting 100.”
“They’re not going to play like this against everybody. But when you told them they were a 1½ point underdog …,” he continued. “I can’t get over the fact we lost by only 13. It felt like 110-40.”
A program with a thin bench (Kansas) found a good time to play its best game of the season. That says a lot for a team that had already beaten No. 1 Connecticut, No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Kentucky.
Houston’s only three losses have come in the Big 12 by 4, 1 and 13 points – all on the road. Conclusion: Both of these teams remain Final Four worthy. The tournament is all about matchups, anyway. This one didn’t go well for Houston.
But for one afternoon during the biggest weekend of the season to date, we do know this: Kansas out-Houstoned Houston – if that’s a verb, and of course it isn’t. But you get it.
Sampson is one of the game’s true survivors. A couple of run-ins with the NCAA at Oklahoma and Indiana eventually landed him outside the game’s circle of trust. He was handed a five-year show-cause order by the NCAA in 2008. That seems so long ago but deserves mention in this era when the NCAA suddenly seems on its last legs.
Sampson? Because he came back, that means the Cougars will be back even though his team playing suffocating defense left town unable to catch its breath. The team that leads the Big 12 in rebound margin was beaten on the boards 40-24. The team that leads in scoring margin (winning by 12.5 points per game) once trailed by 20. The Cougars hadn’t trailed by more than 14 all season until Saturday.
The two powerhouses got to halfway through the Big 12 schedule both 6-3. They meet again in 34 days at Houston in the regular-season finale. Near the end of Saturday’s game, the obligatory film clip from Apollo 13 played on the scoreboard with Tom Hanks saying, “Houston, we have a problem.”
Cue the decibel meter. Also, start the countdown to March 9.
“This old lady in here today was special …,” Sampson said of Allen. “[But] we weren’t playing at the Fertitta Center today.”
KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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A video shared by a viewer, shows a resident speaking at the Osawatomie, Kansas City Council meeting being escorted out by police on Thursday evening.
The video shows a man holding a “Hell No Alcove” sign, while commenting about a blighted property, which according to public records is owned by Pacific Apartments, LLC, operating out of the same address as Alcove Development in Lawrence, Kansas.
KSHB 41
Alcove Development is behind the effort to build a $1 billion, 283-acre data center development in Osawatomie’s northland property.
The video, shared by a viewer, goes on the show two law enforcement officers approaching the individual, who is Lee Brewer, at the podium, after he begins to yell, while the crowd joins in behind him. Lee Brewer reached out to KSHB 41 late Thursday night, identifying himself as the person who was escorted out.
Osawatomie, Kansas Police Chief Dave Stutteville is seen in the video also approaching the man.
Fabian Rosales/KSHB
KSHB 41 Miami County Reporter Ryan Gamboa reached out to the Police Chief, City Manager, and Mayor Nick Hampson for comment late on Thursday night and is waiting on a response.
Residents in contact with Gamboa attending the meeting shared the meeting was still in session after 9:30 p.m.
Thursday night’s meeting was the city and Alcove Development’s attempt at sharing potential benefits of a data center for the community.
Gamboa has long covered the data center project in Osawatomie, Kansas — and neighbors to the project have voiced their opposition to the proposed development.
Brian Luton/KSHB
This is the first time Alcove Development has approached the public, but not the first time it has worked with the city of Osawatomie.
In late 2025, Alcove Development approached the city with the project and weeks later, a pre-development agreement was signed giving Alcove exclusive rights to the development for three years.
But city council meeting records from 2023 show, the city of Osawatomie entered into a pre-development agreement with Alcove Development to redevelop a property known as Old Swenson School.
Alcove Development had six months to asses the condition of the property and determine a course of action for redevelopment, and the overall agreement would last 18 months, according to public records.
Will Shaw/KSHB
The pre-development agreements states, Alcove would consider asking for tax breaks on the project, including utilizing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
At the time, the property had sat in disrepair since 2016, according to the records, and was frequently found in violation of city code.
If the re-development were to fall through, the city would be on the hook to purchase the property from the developer for $25,000, with unclear total costs for infrastructure improvements.
KSHB 41
KSHB 41 will follow up on the status on this project at a later date.
Earlier this week, Miami County Reporter Ryan Gamboa, sat down with Donna Ingram who doesn’t live far from the data center site.
Ingram expressed her concerns about the amount of infrastructure that would be built to operate a data center, and how it might overtake the land around her home.
Ryan Gamboa/KSHB
She expressed concerns because the City of Osawtomie changed the public comment guidelines of a promise town hall with the developer.
“Watching this process play out is disheartening,” Ingram said in an interview on Monday. “A town hall was promised that didn’t come to fruition… I don’t believe it’s the definition. This is a city council meeting. We’re the ones that are gonna live next to it. We’re the ones that live in the path of the infrastructure.”
The city told KSHB 41 on Monday in a statement, they changed the format to prioritize the voices of city taxpayers, as county taxpayers have dominated the public comment periods over the past couple of months.
Brian Luton/KSHB
Mayor Nick Hampson also told Gamboa in an earlier interview he was hoping to have a productive “town hall” — instead, the first meeting with the public and the developer of the project was during a formal and regularly scheduled city council meeting.
The city also required residents to submit questions ahead of time, and the city would filter questions to the developer, while limiting public comment to three minutes.
“We have been and will continue to hear from the residents that are in the county and closest to this project,” Hampson told KSHB 41 in an email on Monday.
Miami County, Kansas
Residents shared a record to KSHB 41, submitted to the city for a formal investigation into 1009 Pacific Avenue in Osawatomie, which is owned by a company operating out of Alcove Development’s address.
The dilapidated property is the a former school house, that sits with broken windows, and other parts of the building breaking down.
The Miami County Republic reporting on Thursday, the city launched an investigation into the building.
Ryan Gamboa/KSHB
Residents cite the buildings deteriorating condition and potential danger to the public, and lack of property maintenance.
Lee Brewer issued a comment regarding the incident at Thursday night’s meeting, stating he was escorted out after the Mayor closed public comment, and he was not on the list.
Brewer told KSHB 41, he has a time -stamped email of pre-submitted questions ahead of the meeting. KSHB 41 asked Brewer to review the email, and is waiting for an answer.
I am severely disappointed in our Mayor and the city council. They told us we were required to send in an email with our questions and our address to prove we were citizens of the town by Wednesday the 24th at noon. I have my email which is timestamped at 10:26 a.m. Wednesday the 24th. They shut me down and first told me I didn’t put the email in and then once I was kicked out of there I was told by people coming out that they were told I turned in my email too late. I’m not a math teacher but last time I looked at my clock 10:26 a.m. falls just over an hour and a half before noon. I mean correct me if I’m wrong. I thought because the mayor and I were having decent conversations on Facebook Messenger, whereas I would ask him questions and he would answer to the best of his ability. And I would thank him I thought we were pretty cordial. So to basically call me a liar in front of the entire town on video recording, take away my freedom of speech My first amendment right, and have me removed from a public building was completely wrong I am very disappointed in our city council and mayor. When I approached the podium all I was trying to do was point out that resolution number 1169 in Osawatomie Kansas refers to Alcove development LLC being the owner of the old Swenson School at 1009 Pacific. As I pointed out in these earlier messages to you Alcove has left this building dilapidated in ruins and a danger to our community. Our great city council and mayor seem to have other plans for me being able to speak though.
Lee Brew, via Facebook to KSHB 41 News
KSHB 41 reached out to Alcove Development late on Thursday night, and is waiting on a response.
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Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify information about cleanup information.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A tanker transporting 8,000 gallons of ethanol crashed in El Dorado on Thursday.
It happened at the intersection of Kansas Avenue and South Main Street.
According to dispatch, the vehicle overturned, causing the fluid to leak out and spill into the storm sewer system.
City Manager David Dillner said traffic is being diverted in the area while crews work to clean up the ethanol.
Nearby residents have been evacuated to the El Dorado Civic Center due to the pungent smell of the fuel, Dillner said.
No injuries have been reported.
This is a developing story.
For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.
Kansas
Body believed to be Kansas City highway shooting suspect found in burned home’s basement by family: police
Manhunt for Kansas City shooting suspect enters seventh day
A large-scale manhunt for Oscar Sanchez-Munoz, 22, continues in Kansas City, Missouri, entering its seventh day. Sanchez-Munoz is suspected of killing one person and injuring four others in a recent shooting spree. His family reports he was exhibiting signs of schizophrenia as the FBI offers a $25,000 reward for information.
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Police told Fox News on Wednesday that a body believed to be Oscar Sanchez-Munoz, the 22-year-old suspect in a deadly string of highway shootings near the Kansas City World Cup venues, was discovered by his family in the basement of a burned home.
Officials said the family contacted police at about 2 p.m. local time after finding decomposing remains hidden beneath piles of debris.
While the family had visited the home several times since it caught fire during an overnight police standoff, police said they only discovered the body after removing debris and noticing a distinct odor.
MANHUNTS ACROSS AMERICA IN 2025: FIVE CASES THAT LEFT CITIES, CAMPUSES AND TOWNS ON EDGE
Oscar Sanchez-Munoz was wanted in connection with at least six shootings across multiple states. (FBI)
Previously, investigators, federal partners and K-9 units had repeatedly searched the Independence, Missouri, property without success.
Authorities said the basement partially collapsed, flooded with water, and was filled with a large amount of “clutter,” which complicated the search.
The discovery brings a presumed end to a massive multi-agency manhunt that began after Sanchez-Munoz allegedly fired at vehicles along Interstate 70, just miles from Arrowhead Stadium where FIFA World Cup matches were being held.
MANHUNT INTENSIFIES FOR ARMY VETERAN SUSPECTED OF KILLING 4 IN BAR SHOOTING AFTER TRUCK FOUND ABANDONED
The FBI released a wanted poster seeking the public’s assistance in finding suspect Oscar Sanchez-Munoz. (FBI)
The spree of half dozen shootings left one person dead and several others seriously injured, including an Uber driver who was shot while transporting soccer fans.
During the search for Sanchez-Munoz, the FBI offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, warning the public that he was “armed and dangerous.”
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche had publicly speculated that the suspect might be dead inside the Missouri home, though police were unable to confirm it at the time.
MANHUNT UNDERWAY AFTER MISSOURI DEPUTY SLAIN, SUSPECT’S TRUCK SPOTTED HEADING TOWARD ARKANSAS BORDER
FBI officials said suspect Oscar Sanchez-Munoz had visible acne scars and is 5 feet 8 inches tall. (FBI)
Officials said investigators are currently operating under the assumption that the deceased person is Sanchez-Munoz, noting clothing on the body matched what the shooter wore during last week’s attacks.
A medical examiner will confirm the identity and determine the cause of death.
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Officials assured the public there is no threat to the community, and added that all surviving victims are expected to recover.
Fox News Digital’s Kelsie Cairns contributed to this report.
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