The Daily Mauling 7.15.26

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Mar 19, 2026; San Diego, CA, USA; Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self speaks at a press conference ahead of the first round of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Viejas Arena. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

Kansas Jayhawks News​

Bill Self is a master at pulling a rabbit out of his hat late in the recruiting season and it appears as if he is attempting again with the addition of 7 footer Mihailo Musikic from Serbia. Not quite getting my hopes up on him being cleared by the NCAA after reading this:

Mušikić still faces a long road to gaining NCAA eligibility, especially given that he is 24 years old and has spent multiple seasons playing professionally. Still, the coaching staff likely would not have pursued him if it didn’t believe there was a realistic path to eligibility. If he is ultimately cleared to play, he would provide Kansas with another experienced frontcourt option for the 2026-27 season.

So we have a guy that has been playing professionally for years and is 24 years old. With the NCAA’s new eligibility guidelines maybe at 24 he has 1 year left? From ESPN on the new rule:

Under the new rule, athletes in all sports will be given five years of eligibility over five seasons once their college eligibility clock begins. The clock starts upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

Moving on, the only other interesting Kansas related piece comes from our friends over at the Smoking Musket. This may have been linked before but I’m including it again as I’m trying to get myself excited for the fall.

The natives are starting to get restless in Lawrence and season six could very well be his last.

Other Links!​

The Fried Egg has all the information you need for The Open Championship which starts tomorrow.

It’s easy to assign “this means the most” to a lot of players in the field, but for Scottie Scheffler, a player on a generational run, going through 2026 without a major feels like a disappointment. Two things are true: he unquestionably remains the best golfer in the world, and his golf has not been up to the standard he set the past few years. Royal Birkdale should set up marvelously for him, and he should be considered the favorite. But the defining storyline of Scottie’s year has been coming up short, repeatedly.

Major League Baseball’s All Star game was last night and the AL won 4-0 with their pitching dominating the NL hitters.

Eleven American League pitchers combined to allow three hits and strike out 15 National League batters in a 4-0 victory Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, the AL’s fourth shutout in All-Star play. It was arguably the most impressive team pitching performance in All-Star history, with the 15 strikeouts one short of the nine-inning record and the three hits allowed tied for second fewest.

How boring does that sound?

Adam Silver is hoping the investigation into Kawhi Leonard’s no-show paycheck to get around the NBA salary restrictions is completed by the start of the season:

The NBA instructed the law firm in September to investigate allegations that the Clippers funneled money to Leonard through his $28 million endorsement deal with now-bankrupt green banking company Aspiration, which also had a $300 million, 23-year endorsement deal with the team. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who invested $60 million in Aspiration, has denied he had knowledge of Leonard’s deal.

Speaking of no-show jobs, our likely next governor seems to have a pretty cushy arrangement with Wichita State:

No, I mean his role as director of “GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative” at Wichita State University, for which he collected a tidy $163,000 last year. New reporting from the Kansas City Star’s Matthew Kelly digs into Masterson’s role and uncovers the uncomfortable truth that no one associated with the university or the candidate can really explain what he does.

Or whether he even shows up all that often.

This is somewhat related to our newest commitment as a group of former athletes have won a judgement against the NCAA in a case arguing they should be granted a 5th year of eligibility:

Never — and I mean, never — has a group of judges enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame so judiciously. It almost makes you feel bad for the poor, misunderstood NCAA.

The latest absurd use of this judge shopping trend unfolded Thursday afternoon, when an Ohio judge granted a preliminary injunction for 24 men’s and women’s college basketball players in a direct rebuke of the NCAA’s new age-based model.

Long story short: 24 players completed their eligibility, and decided they, too, deserved to get in on the NCAA’s new standard of five years to play five seasons of competition.

QOTD: It’s July 15th and I’ve got a couple more weeks of summer until I have to go back to work myself. That’s when summer ends for me. For those of you not in education, when does summer end for you? Labor Day? Start of college football? Kids go back to school?

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