Morning Brew: Is Travis Releford the new T.I.?

By Mark Dent

Monday, November 17, 2008

First off, props to my friend Tommy for coming up with this comparison. Freshman guard Travis Releford resembles rapper T.I., especially how T.I. looks in the movie “American Gangster.”

No word on whether Releford is a T.I. fan or not, but how could he not be? The rapper’s songs “Live Your Life” and “Whatever You Like” are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and feature a sample from the Numa Numa Internet phenomenon, choruses that stay in your head for days and an earnest attempt by T.I. to turn the word poverty into a verb. What more could you ask for?

Few artists have ever had the top two songs in the country at the same time, but considering T.I.’s circumstances, the feat is even more impressive. T.I. starts serving a one-year prison sentence in March for possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers. He’s definitely the most successful artist in music history who’s on the brink of entering prison.

Usually, impending prison sentences spell doom for musicians. Foxy Brown had to put an album on hiatus. Scott Weiland’s group The Stone Temple Pilots disbanded while he was in legal limbo.

Releford has a long way to go before he reaches a T.I. level of success, but he’s on the right path in the early part of the season. He’s averaged 6.5 points a game for the first two exhibitions, and earlier this fall led the team in scoring during its Canada trip.

ARE NON-REVENUE SPORTS RETURNING TO PROMINENCE?

A flurry of first-half kicks ended their season.

Stanford scored three goals in seven minutes and like that, the Jayhawks’ bid for an upset was finished. They lost. Badly. But this season was still a sign of progress for the soccer team and a much-needed boost for non-revenue sports at the University.

Lew Perkins has won awards, sat in a Super Bowl suite and gained national attention as an athletics director for building basketball and football champions, but he hasn’t built a solid stable of non-revenue sports.

Outside of men’s cross country and soccer this fall, non-revenue sports haven’t achieved success at a national level in the last two years. The baseball, softball, women’s basketball and volleyball teams have all finished at or near the bottom of the conference in that time.

The baseball and softball teams made the NCAA Tournament in 2006, but only after winning the conference tournament. Neither team has returned since. The last time the volleyball team made it was in 2005, and the women’s basketball team hasn’t made the tournament since 2000.

The soccer team’s NCAA Tournament appearance is a start for KU non-revenue sports to get back to prominence. Perkins and the Athletics Department had better hope it’s the start of a turnaround for several of the teams, because non-revenue sports need to improve.

— — Edited by Kelsey Hayes

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