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February 20-26

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Last week brought KU sports fans reasons to cheer and jeer. It also found one murder suspect in handcuffs, and another some time in the courtroom. Here's what's happened this week in KU news.

As March Madness approaches, the KU men's basketball team had a rollercoaster week, posting both a solid win and an ugly loss that brought its winning streak to an unsettling halt.

Last Tuesday night, the men's basktball team brushed past the Baylor Bears 76-61 at the Allen Fieldhouse. In a breakout performance, freshman forward Julian Wright scored a career-high 20 points in 22 minutes of playing time as the Jayhawks notched their tenth win before heading to Austin Saturday.

Jeff Hawkins was benched against Baylor because of a citation he received after he struck another vehicle attempting to cut in line at a local McDonald’s drive through lane.

Coming off of a confidence-boosting victory and hoping for an eleventh straight win, the Jayhawks prepared for the Texas test. However, the Longhorns gored the 'Hawks winning streak, defeating them 80-55 and securing the top spot in the Big 12 conference.

The KU women's basketball team had similar results this past week. They fell to Texas Tech 62-50 in a well-fought road game Wednesday, but redeemed themselves on Saturday in a Border Showdown overtime victory against Missouri, defeating them 81-71. Kansas women improved to a perfect 3-0 in overtime games this season.

In other sports news, after four days of battling Missouri for third place in the Big 12 Championships, the Kansas swimming and diving team fell just short in College Station, Texas. The second day of competition started with the Jayhawks in third and was highlighted by a school record-breaking performance by Gnatzig in the 500-yard freestyle. Kansas finished in fourth.

The Kansas tennis team could not keep its four-game winning streak alive, losing to No. 60 Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Ark., and the men’s track and field team placed sixth at the Big 12 Indoor Championships on Saturday while the women’s team placed ninth.

But KU sports wasn't the only big news last week. Rashawn T. Anderson, an 18-year-old Topeka resident, was charged with the murder of Topeka resident Robert E. Willliams. The shooting occurred just south of the Granada on Feb. 5. The shooting was not gang-related, but police said gang members were involved in the shooting.

Also in Lawrence news, testimony began Monday in the preliminary trial of Jason Allen Rose, charged in relation to the Boardwalk Apartments fire. Police and former tenants of the apartments testified about the events.

And in response to an international ethical issue, Moussa Elbayoumy, director of the Islamic Society of Lawrence, offered the Muslim perspective of the controversial Danish cartoons that depicted the prophet Muhammad with a turban shaped as a bomb, among other things, Thursday night at the KU Edwards Campus.

Stay tuned for the next Week in review.