Kansas junior Thomas Robinson has been named to the CBSSports.com All-America First Team, the website announced Monday.

Robinson, a 6-10 forward from Washington D.C., provided valuable minutes off the bench throughout the 2010-11 season, averaging 7.6 points and 6.4 rebounds in 33 games in playing alongside NBA draft lottery selections Markieff and Marcus Morris. Robinson recorded four double-doubles during the year and had the second-best field goal percentage for Kansas at 60.1 percent.

Earlier this month, Robinson was a unanimous selection on the Preseason All-Big 12 team as selected by the conference coaches and he was named a John R. Wooden Award 2011-12 Preseason Top 50 candidate.

Joining Robinson on the CBSSports.com All-America First Team were Jordan Taylor of Wisconsin, John Jenkins of Vanderbilt, Harrison Barnes of North Carolina and Jared Sullinger of Ohio State. Sullinger will visit Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 10 when Kansas plays host to Ohio State at 2:15 p.m.

Kansas, which is ranked 14th in the CBSSports.com preseason poll, kicks off its season by hosting Pittsburg State in an exhibition game on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m.

— KU Sports Information —

The 2011 John Mackey Award midseason watch list has been released by the Nassau County Sports Commission, with Kansas senior tight end Tim Biere earning a nod on the list.

Biere leads Kansas with 21 receptions on the season. He has accumulated a career-best 246 receiving yards and one touchdown. Biere, a native of Omaha, Neb., had his best outing of his career versus Oklahoma State on Oct. 8 when he set career bests with seven receptions for 93 yards and a TD. For his efforts he was named the Tight End of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards. Additionally, he was listed as an honorable mention Tight End of the Week by the CFPA for his performance against Texas Tech on Oct. 1 when he had four catches for 48 yards.

Given annually to the best collegiate tight end, the award recipient is selected by vote of the John Mackey Award Selection Committee and the 2011 John Mackey winner will be presented live at the Home Depot ESPN College Football Awards Red Carpet Show on December 8, 2011 on ESPNU.

Other key Mackey Award dates include the announcement of the 2011 Mackey semi-finalists on November 14, 2011 and the announcement of the 2011 Mackey finalists on November 21, 2011.

The John Mackey Award midseason watch list is an update from the preseason watch list. This list is meant to draw attention to tight ends in contention for the annual award based on their performance in the first half of the active season.

— KU Sports Information —

Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self announced that freshmen Ben McLemore and Jamari Traylor have been declared by the NCAA as partial qualifiers and will not be eligible for competition for the 2011-12 season.

In this, McLemore and Traylor will not participate in practice or competition for the fall semester.

Both will be able to practice with the Jayhawks at the conclusion of the fall semester and will be eligible for competition for the 2012-13 season.

— KU Sports Information —

Kansas senior tight end Tim Biere has been honored by the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA), being named the National Tight End Performer of the Week Sunday.

The 6-foot-4 senior from Omaha, Neb., recorded career bests in catches (seven) and receiving yards (93), to go along with his first touchdown of the season in KU’s loss to No. 6 Oklahoma State.

Biere’s 19 catches this season match his season total from a year ago, while his 235 receiving yards this season are a career high. He was named to the CFPA Preseason Watch List in July.

The College Football Performance Awards are selected each year by a panel that uses a scientific ranking system which measures how an individual player increases the effectiveness of his team.

Kansas (2-3 overall, 0-2 in Big 12) will host No. 1/3 Oklahoma Saturday at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN2. It will mark KU’s first game against a No. 1-ranked team since it faced Nebraska in 1997.

— KU Sports Information —

Kansas junior forward Thomas Robinson has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list announced Monday by The Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Robinson, one of four Big 12 student-athletes on the list, is Kansas’ leading returning rebounder from last season when he averaged 6.4 rebounds per game. The 6-9 Washington, D.C., native also scored 7.6 points per game and had a team-best 60.1 field goal percentage and 22 blocked shots.

“This is based on potential and I am grateful to be named to the list,” Robinson said. “We have a lot of great players on our team, like Tyshawn (Taylor), that could be on the list just like me.”

Last year, KU’s Marcus Morris was named to the Wooden Award Preseason top 50 and later was on the 10-member Wooden Award All-American Team.

Transfers, freshmen and medical redshirts are not eligible for the preseason list. These players and others who excel throughout the season will be evaluated and considered for December’s Midseason list and the official voting ballot released in March. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA.  The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball.  Kansas’ Danny Manning was the 1988 recipient.

A complete list of candidates is available at http://www.woodenaward.com/.

— KU Sports Information —

Seth Doege passed for 366 yards and three touchdowns and Eric Stephens rushed for 124 yards and scored twice, helping Texas Tech come roaring back from a 20-point deficit and beat Kansas 45-34 Saturday in both teams’ Big 12 opener.

Doege, who threw three touchdowns the week before against Nevada and set an NCAA record with a 90.9 completion percentage against New Mexico, was 29 for 46. The 6-foot-1 redshirt junior, playing his first full season since high school in 2005, was also intercepted for the first time this season but still turned in another virtuoso performance for the Red Raiders (4-0) to remain among the country’s top passers.

Kansas’ Jordan Webb, who also came into the game without an interception in his first three games, was picked off three times and each turnover led directly to a Texas Tech TD.

“They were fired up playing on homecoming with new uniforms and it seemed like we couldn’t stop them,” Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. “I thought our defensive coaches did a good job adjusting and we caused turnovers, which was a huge situation on the road. If you can stop the momentum with turnovers it is going to give you a big advantage.”

Doege connected with Eric Ward on a 40-yard scoring pass, found Jacoby Franks for a 13-yard TD toss and made it 45-27 late in the third quarter with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Ward, who had 71 yards on four catches.

Kansas paid homage to the 1961 team by wearing powder-blue throwback jerseys, but the magic from that season clearly didn’t rub off Saturday.

The 1961 Jayhawks only allowed 88 points in 11 games. This year’s squad has allowed 76 points in four third quarters.

The Jayhawks (2-2) parlayed a bevy of big plays into 191 yards and three touchdowns on their first 15 plays of the defensively challenged day.

But then Doege and the Red Raiders got hot, scoring 24 unanswered points before Kansas got a 19-yard touchdown pass from Webb to Rell Lewis to take a 27-24 lead after a first half that lasted just nine minutes short of 2 hours.

“The first quarter was probably as good a quarter as we’ve had, particularly for the receivers,” Kansas coach Turner Gill said. “It was good to see that.”

The Red Raiders, off to their first 4-0 start since beginning 10-0 in 2008, unleashed a 21-0 third-quarter blitz to salt away their 12th victory in 13 meetings with the Jayhawks.

“It’s not so much panic (of the 20-0 deficit) as it is a matter of getting enthusiastic, getting pumped up with each other offensively and defensively,” safety D.J. Johnson said. “We came out sluggish, not really excited. We were excited but we weren’t really showing it and it was just a matter of getting that going.”

Stephens tallied on runs of 8 and 1 yards before Ward’s final touchdown catch following Cqulin Hubert’s interception.

“We knew that the halftime score wasn’t going to be the end of it, but we knew we were going to have to score in the mid 40s, I thought it might even take the 50s,” Tuberville said.

D.J. Beshears got Kansas rolling with a 56-yard return of the opening kickoff. Four plays later, James Sims broke loose up the middle on an 11-yard TD run. Terrance Bullitt blocked the extra point, leaving it 6-0.

On the Jayhawks’ second possession, Brandon Bourbon broke into the Tech secondary on a counter play, slipped a tackle, and sped 51 yards into the end zone for Kansas’ longest run of the year. Bourbon had 101 yards on 10 carries and Webb was 16 for 22 for 239 yards and three touchdowns.

Doege, who had thrown 122 passes this season without an interception, was picked off by safety Keeston Terry on Texas Tech’s next possession and Kansas set up on its own 25. Beshears got 54 yards on a catch-and-run, then, from the 21, Webb connected with tight end Tim Biere.

He appeared to score, but fumbled at the goal line. Kale Pick recovered for Kansas in the end zone to make it three touchdowns on three possessions by the seven-point home underdogs.

DeAndre Washington got the Red Raiders’ comeback started with a 1-yard touchdown run, capping a 7-play, 52-yard drive.

Then Webb, who had not thrown an interception in 61 passes this year, was picked off by Johnson. A chop block penalty shoved Tech back 15 yards to the Kansas 40, but Ward took Doege’s pass at the 30 and weaved his way through a gauntlet of would-be tacklers for a second TD on the very next play.

Webb, who came into the game No. 2 on the Big 12’s pass efficiency chart, threw a second straight interception to Johnson on his next pass. The Red Raiders needed six plays to cover 45 yards, with Franks scoring on a 13-yard reception for a 21-20 Tech lead.

Donnie Carona’s 46-yard field goal put the Red Raiders ahead 24-20 with 7:54 left in a first half that saw the teams combine for 560 yards.

— Associated Press —