Brack·ins (v.)

brack·insed, brack·in·sing, brack·in·ses

1. To completely control or dominate, single-handedly. Ex: Iowa State forward Craig Brackins totally brackinsed Kansas last weekend when he scored 42 points on 11-for-19 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds.

Kansas got brackinsed by Craig Brackins this past weekend, that’s for sure.

The Cyclones’ lanky 6-foot-10 forward did all he could: He owned the glass, he showed off his range (3-for-5 on three-pointers), he got to the line (17-for-21 on free throws). But he didn’t win. Kansas left Ames, Iowa, with a fairly comfortable 82-67 victory for a few reasons.

First, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich are the best one-two punch in the Big 12 Conference. Second, in a game of one-on-everyone, Brackins could probably give his teammates — all of them put together — a run for their money. Diante Garrett managed two points on 0-for-5 shooting Saturday.

Lucca Staiger scored five on seven shots. Bryan Petersen probably came closest to helping his team, needing just two shots — in 23 minutes — to score two points.

Kansas has been thoroughly brackinsed before and escaped unscathed.

In 1992, Lindsey Hunter, the Jackson State guard with an ambiguously unisex name (I feel your pain, Lindsey), dropped 48 points on Kansas.

Hunter’s Tigers lost by eight to the Jayhawks, but the all-everything guard went on to the NBA draft and is currently in his 16th season in the league.

Oklahoma State guard Randy Rutherford played second fiddle to teammate Bryant “Big Country” Reeves for most of the Cowboys’ 1995 Final Four season. But he stood front-and-center in a March matchup in Allen Fieldhouse, scoring 45 points in a blowout Jayhawk victory.

Missouri guard Anthony Peeler exploded for 43 points in March 1992, but his Tigers fell short of defeating the Rex Walters-led Jayhawks in the season finale.

Peeler had a successful 13-season stint in the NBA, enjoying his best seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kay Yow’s legacy

When North Carolina State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow died Saturday after a 22-year battle against breast cancer, college basketball lost one of its most successful coaches.

Yow won 737 games in 28 seasons at Elon University and North Carolina State, and she was fifth on the all-time women’s basketball victories list.

Yow’s passing means the loss of an extremely charitable public figure. Nearly two years ago, Yow formed a cancer research support fund in partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

More than 700 women’s basketball teams, including Kansas, will don pink uniforms once this season as a part of the WBCA’s Pink Zone initiative to raise breast cancer awareness.

The college basketball landscape also lost a coach who made a good impression on everyone she met, according to Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson.

“I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about the woman,” Henrickson said. “And in this business, I promise you that doesn’t happen often.”

— — Edited by Carly Halvorson