Kansas football head coach Charlie Weis announced the hiring of John Reagan as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Saturday evening. In addition to the hiring of Reagan, Weis also announced current KU linebackers coach Clint Bowen has added the title of defensive coordinator.

Reagan, who previously spent five years as an assistant coach at KU as the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator, joins the Jayhawk staff following the departure of offensive line coach Tim Grunhard who announced last week that he would not be returning to the KU staff to spend more time with his family.

“When Tim told me his thoughts, I started searching for a replacement with the hopes of finding someone with Kansas ties capable of coordinating an offense,” said Weis. “My search brought me to John Reagan. John not only coached at KU, but his kids still reside in Lawrence. He has a great reputation as an offensive line coach, but also has received accolades for coordinating the offense at Rice.

“John immediately takes over for Tim and will hit the recruiting trail for offensive linemen. He will serve as both the offensive coordinator and the offensive line coach. I would like to welcome John Reagan back to the Jayhawk family.”

Reagan comes back to KU after recently completing his fourth season at Rice, where the Owls defeated Marshall in the Conference USA Championship game Saturday. He has served as the Owls’ offensive coordinator for the last three seasons and under his guidance Rice has put up impressive offensive numbers. The Owls entered Saturday’s C-USA title game ranked 61st in the country in total offense averaging 420.5 yards per game, while ranking 58th in scoring offense at 30.5 points per outing. The Owls boast the country’s 17th-ranked rushing offense (239.5 yards per game).

In 2012, the Owls produced the second-most productive offensive season in school history, piling up 5,556 yards, 414 points and 306 first downs on their way to winning the last five games and capturing the Armed Forces Bowl championship.

Reagan has mentored several outstanding offensive linemen, including KU’s 2007 All-American Anthony Collins, a finalist for the Outland Trophy and a fourth-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals. Jeff Spikes and Jeremiah Hatch earned freshman All-American honors in 2008 under Reagan during his first stint at Kansas, while others earned All-Big 12 honors.

Prior to his first tenure with the Jayhawks, Reagan, a Syracuse graduate, coached at Air Force and Temple.

Bowen officially takes on the title of defensive coordinator with Jayhawks after calling the KU defense in 2013. He will continue to coach the Kansas linebackers.

“I like the way the defensive staff transitioned this past season from Dave (Campo) to Clint, therefore, Clint will now assume the title of defensive coordinator with Dave continuing to oversee the defense as the assistant head coach,” said Weis.

— KU Sports Information —

The 2014 Old Spice Classic field was announced Nov. 29 and will feature Kansas, Georgia Tech, Marquette, Michigan State, Rider, Santa Clara, Tennessee and Xavier. The ninth annual event will be held Thanksgiving weekend, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, Nov. 27, 28 and 30, at the HP Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla.

The 2014 Old Spice Classic, a bracket-format tournament, will feature 12 games over the three days. Each team will compete in one game per day, advancing through a bracket-tournament format. The two teams that remain undefeated throughout will face off in a championship match Sunday, Nov. 30.

Gonzaga captured the 2012 Old Spice Classic title, its second tournament championship (also 2008). Previous winners were Dayton (2011), Notre Dame (2010), Florida State (2009), North Carolina State (2007) and Arkansas (2006). Kansas has yet to participate in the Old Spice Classic.

For more information, including travel packages, visit the Old Spice Classic web site at www.oldspiceclassic.com.

The Old Spice Classic is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television, a subsidiary of ESPN.

— KU Sports Information —

Kansas sophomore forward Perry Ellis was named a nominee to the Allstate NABC and WBCA Good Works Teams, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced Tuesday.

The award, presented by the NABC and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), recognizes 201 nominees at all levels of college basketball. It honors college basketball student-athletes who represent the sport’s finest in the areas of leadership and charitable achievements amongst their peers. The student-athletes nominated for this honor embody the true spirit of teamwork and giving back.

From the 117 NABC men’s nominees and 84 WBCA women’s nominees submitted by sports information directors across the nation on behalf of their schools, special voting panels will select two 10-member teams comprised of five student-athletes from the NCAA Division I level and five student-athletes from NCAA Divisions II, III and the NAIA. The final roster of 20-award recipients will be unveiled in February.

A preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection, Ellis was named to the Battle 4 Atlantis All-Tournament Team at the conclusion of the event Nov. 30. The Wichita, Kan., forward is KU’s leading scorer at 15.1 points per game and second-leading rebounder at 6.6 rpg through seven games this season. He also earned co-Big 12 Player of the Week honors earlier this season (Nov. 18).

Off the court, Ellis recently represented the University of Kansas by posing for a poster photo shoot for KU Libraries. He also participates with the Kansas men’s basketball team in shopping for needy families during the holiday season, the annual Wilt Chamberlain Special Olympics Clinic, Ladies Night Out (which supports breast cancer research through Jayhawks for a Cure), autographs more than 1,500 basketballs (which generate funds for a variety of charities) and speaks regularly to youth at camps and clinics throughout the year.

No. 6/7 Kansas (6-1) is in action next at former conference foe Colorado on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2:15 p.m. (Central). The game will be shown on ESPN. CU was 7-1 on the season entering its Dec. 3 contest at Colorado State.

— KU Sports Information —

In blocking a Kansas freshman record seven shots in KU’s 67-63 win against UTEP, freshman C Joel Embiid was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week in a vote by a media panel which covers men’s basketball the conference announced Monday.

Embiid scored in double digits in two contests as the Jayhawks recorded a 2-1 record at the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas, over Thanksgiving weekend. The 7-0 Yaoundé, Cameroon, native also had 10 blocked shots while shooting 63.2 percent from the field and 71.4 percent from the free throw line. His seven rejections versus UTEP set the KU freshman record for blocked shots in a game, previously held by Nick Collison (six vs. Nebraska in 2000). Embiid averaged 9.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in the event.

Averaging 9.1 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds, Embiid leads Kansas in field goal percentage at 67.6 percent and is third in the Big 12 with 2.3 blocked shots per game. His 7.0 boards per game are ninth in the league.

Embiid joins sophomore F Perry Ellis and freshman G Andrew Wiggins who have also been named to weekly Big 12 honorees this season. Ellis was the co-Big 12 Player of the Week Nov. 18 and Wiggins the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week, also on Nov. 18.

Kansas (6-1) is in action next at former conference foe Colorado on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2:15 p.m. (Central). The game will be shown on ESPN. CU was 7-1 on the entering its Dec. 3 contest at Colorado State.

— KU Sports Information —

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Of the six halves Kansas played on its three-game trip to the Bahamas, Jayhawks coach Bill Self thought only one of them was any good.

The other five, he thought, were ”crappy.”

That’s the bad news. The good news is his team got two wins anyway.

Perry Ellis scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, Wayne Selden Jr. scored 14 and No. 2 Kansas survived a stiff challenge before beating Texas-El Paso 67-63 on Saturday night in the third-place game at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Joel Embiid came off the bench to add nine points, seven blocked shots – all in the second half, and the most in a game by a Kansas reserve since at least 1995 – and six rebounds.

”We have a long ways to go to become a good basketball team,” Self said. ”And that’s not all bad, either. We rarely have great teams in November. But we’re not as good as we were 17, 18 days ago. So that’s a little frustrating that we’ve gone backwards. We didn’t play well at all over here.”

Naadir Tharpe added 11 for the Jayhawks (6-1), who never trailed. The Jayhawks won despite Andrew Wiggins being held to six points, nearly 10 below the freshman’s season average.

McKenzie Moore scored 15 for UTEP (4-4), including three free throws with 6.8 seconds remaining to get the Miners within three. Justin Crosgile scored 14 points and Vince Hunter added 10 the Miners, who held Kansas to 39 percent shooting.

”Let me just say that we got beat by a fine team tonight,” UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. ”And they’re going to do a lot of things, I think, in the NCAA tournament this year.”

It was the second straight night where Kansas saw a big early lead, 11-2 against Villanova and 15-2 against UTEP, evaporate and the game turn into a struggle.

The finish was frantic, with UTEP scoring 13 points in just over a minute and carving away most of a late 14-point Jayhawk lead, but Kansas had enough.

Barely, but enough.

And if UTEP had been better from the line, it might have been a different story – the Miners missed 10 of 24 tries from the stripe.

”I was real pleased with the effort,” Floyd said.

Kansas led by 15 in the second half, and after a series of UTEP rallies, the Jayhawks were still up by 14 following Ellis’ jumper from the right wing with 2:21 left.

It was 59-45 at that point. It was 18-8 UTEP the rest of the way, a far cry from how the Miners started the night.

On UTEP’s first possession, Floyd – who isn’t exactly shy about going against convention, with his box-and-one and triangle-and-two defenses on display often in the Bahamas – did something hardly ever seen anymore, especially at the start of games.

He stalled, though said afterward that it wasn’t a true stall, just a set with hopes of creating 3-on-2 mismatches or open drives.

Think the old North Carolina ”four corners,” or something akin to it, anyway. That’s what the Miners did in the opening minutes, running an average of 30.1 seconds off the 35-second shot clock on their first nine possessions. Simple logic, really – the fewer possessions Kansas had, the fewer chances it would have to score.

It only sort of worked.

After 5 1/2 minutes, Kansas had only two points.

In that same span, the Miners had zero points.

”It was different … but I thought we adjusted well,” Ellis said.

The Miners missed their first six shots and didn’t get on the board until 12:35 remained in the half, a drive by C.J. Cooper snapping an 0 for 6 start by UTEP and cutting Kansas’ lead to 7-2. By the time UTEP scored again, Kansas had already pushed the lead out to 15-2, running off eight straight. And along the way, UTEP ditched the ploy and just started playing.

That’s when it became a game, for really the first time. UTEP went on an 18-11 spurt, getting within 26-20 late in the half. Wiggins – who had been scoreless until then – scored six straight to give Kansas a 12-point lead with 1:30 left, and Selden’s acrobatic drive gave the Jayhawks a 34-25 lead at the break.

But UTEP hung around, all the way to the end.

”We didn’t want to leave here without getting better for the rest of the season,” Hunter said. ”I believe we did. I believe we got better, playing the No. 2 team in the country.”

— Associated Press —

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Ryan Arcidiacono had not made a shot all night. So naturally, he was Jay Wright’s choice on the play that wound up deciding Villanova’s fate.

And it was the right choice.

Arcidiacono’s 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left put Villanova on top for good, and the Wildcats upset No. 2 Kansas 63-59 in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday night.

”We had a choice who we were going to run that for,” said Wright, the Villanova coach who’s now 4-1 in last five games against teams ranked in the top five. ”And we picked Ryan. I don’t think there’s a guy on our team who would doubt that. … Everybody just knows he lives for that. When we practice end of the game situations in practice, he always makes the shot.”

Sure enough, he delivered. Arcidiacono had missed all five of his previous shots, but made the one that counted – the only field goal for the Wildcats in the final 7 minutes.

”I thought I was wide open, so I just pulled the trigger,” Arcidiacono said.

Arcidiacono got it off in plenty of time, even as Kansas’ Perry Ellis – listed as 5 inches taller – charged his way.

”Almost,” Ellis said.

Darrun Hilliard and Dylan Ennis each scored 14 for Villanova (6-0), which meets Iowa in Saturday night’s championship game. JayVaughn Pinkston scored 13 and James Bell added 10 for the Wildcats.

Frank Mason scored 12 for Kansas (5-1). His three-point play with 34.2 seconds left gave Kansas its first lead in more than 25 minutes, but the Jayhawks couldn’t hold on in the final moments.

”It was not a pretty game,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. ”Certainly, I hate that it came down to one possession like that.”

Ellis scored 11, while Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid added 10 each for Kansas, which plays Texas-El Paso in the third-place game Saturday.

Villanova led 57-46 with just over seven minutes left, then got outscored 13-1 to lose the lead – and then found a way at the end to cap a wild night where one team would go on a run, then the other would follow.

It held true to the end, with the Wildcats having the last run.

Pinkston’s layup made it 36-26 early in the second half, before Kansas ran off eight unanswered points in a flash – four of them by Ellis – to get within two.

Villanova was undeterred.

The Wildcats answered with a 12-2 run, capped by Ennis’ 3-pointer with 12:44 remaining to give Villanova what was its biggest lead, 48-36. The margin was still 11 with 7:19 left, but the Jayhawks just kept coming. And after Villanova went more than 4 minutes without scoring, Kansas was back within 57-54 with plenty of time left.

Mason’s layin off a lob cut Villanova’s lead to one, and the converted ballroom serving as an arena this weekend was simply rocking. Kansas fans had filled the building, and they weren’t quiet.

That is, until Arcidiacono rendered them silent and gave Villanova a huge early win.

”He seemed like a tough kid to me,” Self said. ”Usually, in a game like this, the tough guy is the one making plays. It didn’t surprise me at all that he’s the one who took the shot.”

For the first 6 1/2 minutes, Villanova made nothing. Literally, outside of a couple free throws, nothing.

It was 11-2 Kansas out of the gate, and Villanova was looking wholly overmatched in the early going. The Wildcats missed their first seven shots, not getting anything from the field to drop until Hilliard – who had scored 12 by intermission, seven more than anyone from Kansas to that point – hit a 3-pointer with 13:14 remaining.

Just like that, everything changed.

Villanova scored 27 of the next 35 points over a stunning 12 1/2-minute stretch, turning that 11-2 deficit into a 29-19 lead, the last point coming when Arcidiacono made one of two free throws awarded after Self was protesting a bit too much with one of the referees during a time-out. The shot by Arcidiacono capped a 12-0 burst by the Wildcats.

It was his only point until the 3-pointer in the final moments.

Kansas went into the locker room down only 29-22. It could have been so much worse – after holding Villanova without a field goal for nearly seven minutes to start the game, the Jayhawks went the last eight minutes of the half without one of their own, going 0 for 7 from the floor with five turnovers during that dismal stretch.

Combined, the teams were 14 for 53 in the opening 20 minutes. Villanova shot 29 percent, Kansas 24 percent, but the Wildcats held a 28-15 rebounding edge in the half.

”We’re a long ways to go,” Self said. ”I love our talent, I love our players and all that stuff. But the thing is, there’s a difference between trying hard and actually competing. And we have to learn how to compete. And it’s not going to happen overnight.”

— Associated Press —

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Freshman Grant Rohach passed for a season-best 300 yards and two touchdowns and Iowa State beat Kansas 34-0 on a frigid Saturday night for its first Big 12 victory.

James White and Shontrelle Johnson each ran for a touchdown and Cole Netten kicked two field goals for the Cyclones (2-9, 1-7), who broke a seven-game losing streak at home and sent Kansas to its 24th straight road loss.

Just one week after breaking a 27-game conference losing streak, the Jayhawks (3-8, 1-7) failed to capitalize on some early scoring opportunities and never got much going in the second half, either.

Rohach, who had not thrown a touchdown pass in his five previous games, finished 15 of 20 with one interception and scoring throws of 58 yards to Aaron Wimberly and 15 yards to Quenton Bundrage.

It was the coldest game in Jack Trice Stadium history – 8 degrees at kickoff and 3 by the start of the second half – and the field was frozen and slick. But it didn’t bother the Cyclones, who amassed a season-high 502 yards and recorded their first shutout since beating Northern Iowa 27-0 on Sept. 25, 2010.

Iowa State had not blanked a conference opponent since a 41-0 victory over Baylor in 2001.

Kansas’ James Sims rushed for 114 yards in 21 carries to run his season total to 1,028 and become the first Jayhawk player with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

But freshman quarterback Montell Cozart was ineffective in his second start, completing just 4 of 12 passes for 20 yards and one interception. He was replaced in the third quarter by previous starter Jake Heaps.

Iowa State led 10-0 at halftime and put the game away with 17 third-quarter points.

Netten kicked a 21-yard field goal and Iowa State got the ball back at the Kansas 38 after a short punt. Six plays later, Rohach hit Bundrage on the right sideline and the sophomore wideout broke a tackle and fought his way into the end zone.

After a Kansas three-and-out, Rohach completed passes of 18 yards to Justin Coleman and 42 yards to Bundrage before White burst up the middle on a 5-yard touchdown run to make it 27-0, a safe cushion on a night like this.

Johnson added to it with a 23-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter.

Iowa State, which has struggled to get its offense going early in games, struck on its second possession.

Wimberly slipped behind the defense and no one was near him when he caught Rohach’s pass and turned it into a 58-yard touchdown, the longest play of Rohach’s young career. Netten added a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-0.

Kansas had nothing to show for three drives into Iowa State territory in the opening half.

ISU’s Nigel Tribune stopped receiver Christian Matthews well short of a first down on fourth-and-4 at the Cyclone 26 on the Jayhawks’ first possession. Later, two nifty runs by Cozart got the Jayhawks to the ISU 13, where a horde of tacklers stuffed Sims for no gain on fourth-and-1.

Late in the half, the Jayhawks reached the 37, only to be frustrated by a holding penalty and Jansen Watson’s interception of Cozart’s heave to the end zone.

The coldest game at Jack Trice Stadium previously was a 17-14 loss to Colorado on Nov. 23, 1991, when it was 17 at kickoff and blowing snow obliterated the yard lines and numbers.

This season also had the warmest game in stadium history. It was 92 when the Cyclones opened the season against Northern Iowa on Aug. 31.

— Associated Press —

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Every time that Towson missed a shot, it seemed as if somebody from Kansas was there to corral the rebound, throw an outlet pass and start the Jayhawks on the fast break.

Usually it ended up with a dunk.

Andrew Wiggins and the high-flying Jayhawks put together a highlight reel in the first half Friday night, rolling to a big lead over the overmatched Tigers. The nation’s No. 2 team cruised in the second half to an 88-58 win in its opening game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

”When we’re playing our game, no one can stop us,” said Wiggins, the star freshman who led the Jayhawks (4-0) with 16 points. ”When we play in the flow of the game, no one can stop us. We have too many tools to use. When we’re playing like we did today, nobody can stop us.”

Andrew White III finished with 13 points, Wayne Selden added 12 and Perry Ellis had 10 for the Jayhawks, who used a 22-2 run to take a 49-16 lead by halftime. From there, they might as well have started to look ahead to their game against Wake Forest in the Bahamas on Thanksgiving Day.

The Jayhawks are scheduled for three games in the rest of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

”Hopefully this will be a good stretch for us to start putting some stuff together,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. ”We’re making steps in the right direction.”

Jerrelle Benimon had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead Towson (3-2), the favorite in the Colonial Athletic Association. Rafriel Guthrie scored 15 points off the bench.

”They’re deep, they’re athletic, and unfortunately for us, they were locked in,” Towson coach Pat Skerry said with a shake of his head. ”If there’s a better team in the country, I’d like to find out who they are, and I certainly don’t want to play them.”

After stumbling a bit out of the gate, the uber-athletic Jayhawks reeled off 11 straight points to seize control. Six of the points came on rim-rattling dunks, two of those by Tarik Black.

Towson quickly became rattled and started to settle for a cacophony of quick 3-pointers, ill-advised shots in the paint and tightly contested jumpers. All of its misses only served to fuel the Kansas fast break, which piled up 22 points in the first 20 minutes.

”All of them run,” Benimon said. ”They just get up and down.”

The Tigers were still within 27-14 with 7:42 left in the half, but they only managed one field goal from there as Kansas used a 22-2 finishing flurry to blow the game open. Wiggins scored nine of his 14 first-half points during the run, and was involved in both of the highlights.

The first came after a miss by the Tigers’ Timajh Parker-Rivera. The ball ended up with Frank Mason, whose pretty one-bounce, cross-court pass to Wiggins resulted in an easy dunk.

The second highlight came after Mike Burwell missed and Mason again got the ball in the open court. He fed it to fellow freshman Conner Frankamp who, rather than take a mildly contested layup, added one extra pass like a seasoned veteran that Wiggins slammed with two hands.

By the time White was fouled in transition and made the second of two free throws with 1.4 seconds left on the clock, the Jayhawks had built their huge halftime advantage.

Kansas wound up shooting 69 percent from the field over the opening 20 minutes, had a 23-11 advantage on the boards and outscored the smaller Tigers 26-10 in the paint.

Towson shot 20.7 percent from the field and missed all 10 of its 3-point tries.

The Jayhawks didn’t slow down much in the second half, racing up and down the court like it was a YMCA pickup game. Black had another big dunk during one stretch, Frankamp curled in a 3 and Kansas coasted to its 66th consecutive non-conference win at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks won’t return to the friendly confines of the Phog for close to a month. After the Bahamas, they visit Colorado and Florida along with playing New Mexico at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. They return home to play Georgetown on Dec. 21.

”I think potentially we could be one of the better teams, no question,” Self said. ”I think by the end if our young kids get better, we have a chance to be in the conversation. … There’s a lot of nice teams out there but certainly when we play with energy we can be one of the better ones.”

— Associated Press —

Kansas sophomore Perry Ellis and freshmen Wayne Selden, Jr., and Andrew Wiggins have been named to the Naismith Trophy Early Season Watch List the Atlanta Tip-Off Club announced Thursday.

The list consists of 50 men’s basketball players who have captured the attention of the Naismith Trophy voting committee early in the season. Kansas’ trio made up half of the Big 12 Conference contingent on the list.

Through three games, Ellis leads Kansas in scoring with 19.0 points per game, which is fourth in the Big 12. The 6-8 Wichita, Kan., forward has scored 21 or more points in each of his last two games, including a career-high 24 in KU’s 94-83 win against then-No. 4 Duke on Nov. 12. The performance earned him co-Big 12 Player of the Week accolades. Ellis is tied with freshman center Joel Embiid for the team high in rebounding at 8.0 boards per contest, which is tied for fourth in the conference.

Selden is third on the KU team in scoring at 10.0 points per game and ranks sixth in the Big 12 in assists with a 4.3 average. The 6-5, Roxbury, Mass, guard scored 15 points in the Duke victory and his 4.3 assist-to-turnover ratio is fourth among the Big 12 leaders.

Wiggins was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after scoring 22 points and pulling down eight rebounds against Duke. The 6-8, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, guard is second on the team with a 17.0 scoring average, good forsixth in the Big 12. He also ranks among the league leaders in rebounds (tied for 16th at 6.0), field goal percentage (ninth at 54.5) and steals (sixth at 1.7)

— KU Sports Information —