SportsBeat KC

It’s one thing to watch a college basketball game but if your team is having a good season, you want to know where it might stand in the NCAA Tournament selection pecking order. That’s where Joe Lunardi comes in. Lunardi has been projecting brackets since the mid-1990s and has helped turn bracketology into its own sport for ESPN. Many project brackets. No one is more popular than Lunardi, How does...

With Tuesday’s heart-stopping triumph against Mississippi, Missouri has won three of four and is playing its best basketball of the season. Reasons for the improvement? Start with the terrific play of point guard Xavier Pinson, who has scored 60 in the previous two games. On the opposite track is Kansas State, which can’t buy a victory these days. The Wildcats take a five-game losing streak into W...

As Herbie Teope likes to call it, “speculation season” in the NFL as commenced. As Sam McDowell responds, “When is it not speculation season?” But free agency for the Chiefs has been a popular topic since their Super Bowl victory, and the Chiefs beat writers join SportsBeat KC host Blair Kerkhoff and discussing the futures of players like Chris Jones, Bashaud Breeland, Sammy Watkins, Laurent Duver...

The latest AP basketball poll is out with no change at the top. Baylor is first, Kansas is third, meaning their meeting on Saturday in Waco will be the biggest game of the college basketball season. The Bears are bidding to become the first 18-0 team in Big 12 history, while the Jayhawks also are having a FInal Four-type season. How did they get here, and what does their success mean for the Big 1...

A baseball milestone birthday was celebrated this week. The Negro Leagues turned 100, and the occasion was recognized in the place of its birth. On Feb. 13, 1920 the Negro National League was formed at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, and this week that’s where baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, Royals owner John Sherman and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick joined others to celeb...

After trailing for most of the game, Kansas picked up a huge victory on Wednesday, defeating West Virginia 58-49. The Jayhawks dominated down the stretch getting get play from Marcus Garrett, Isaiah Moss and Devon Dotson. KU beat writer Jesse Newell breaks down the game and discusses the Marcus Morris jersey retirement on Monday on SportsBeat KC, The Star’s daily sports podcast. Story links: KU’s...

Chiefs are the topic for Star sports columnists Sam Mellinger and Vahe Gregorian. Last week’s Super Bowl championship held deeper meaning for the city than just a championship celebration, and is there a way for the Chiefs to be financially creative and not only sign quarterback Patrick Mahomes to the NFL’s most lucrative contract but also find a way to give defensive lineman Chris Jones a deal he...

Sporting KC finds itself in an odd position, entering the season as the hunter and not the hunted. For the first time in nine seasons, the club missed the postseason and finished with more losses than victories. A new season dawns and Manager and Sporting Director Peter Vermes sat down with The Star’s Sam McDowell for a revealing conversation about what went right and wrong last season and prospec...

Baseball’s moment of full confidence arrives this week with the opening of spring training camps. Everybody has pennant hopes in the spring. Royals’ pitchers and catchers arrive on Wednesday and the full squad is scheduled to report to Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 17. Royals beat writer Lynn Worthy breaks down the known (most of the lineup and batting order) and unknown (starting pitching spots) for t...

What goes into planning a Super Bowl parade? We get insight from Kathy Nelson, president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission. Her office helped put together the show through downtown Kansas City on Wednesday, three days after the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers. Where did Kansas City get those double-decker buses, and where were they parked before the parade? Were other dates and...

One place that is not accessible to media during a game is the field itself, and the sidelines. But there’s no escaping NFL Productions’ microphones, and this week a wonderful 40-minute program — Super Bowl 54 Mic’d Up — was released on Youtube. You hear what players and coaches think about plays, big moments, winning and losing during Super Bowl LIV Feb. 2 in Miami. We bring you some of the best...

On Wednesday, Kansas City and the Chiefs let loose. The Super Bowl parade motored down Grand. According to the schedule players were supposed to ride in busses. But that didn’t last long. Soon they were on the streets, greeting fans, and in the case of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tossing footballs. When the Chiefs got to Union Station, Travis Kelce stole the show. Here’s the recap, plus discussio...

Let’s keep talking Super Bowl shall we? Yahoo Sports reporter Terez Paylor, who used to cover the Chiefs for The Star, joined his old friends for some late night Chiefs chatter. Paylor joined Herbie Teope, Sam McDowell, Vahe Gregorian and Blair Kerkhoff talking the victory over the 49ers, Patrick Mahomes and even how the Chiefs might shape up for 2020. We keep the Chiefs coversation alive between...

How did the Chiefs do it? How did they for the third straight playoff game overcome a double-digit deficit to win the game, this time the Super Bowl? The Star’s Sam Mellinger, Vahe Gregorian, Herbie Teope and Sam McDowell join SportsBeat KC host Blair Kerkhoff in a breakdown of the Chiefs’ amazing 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. There were plenty of heroes, starting with quarterback Pa...

Super Bowl 54 edges closer and the A-Team of Herbie Teope, Sam McDowell, Vahe Gregorian and Sam Mellinger breaks down the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. What to look for, who to watch, Patrick Mahomes vs. Jimmy Garapollo, what are the X-factors? We discuss it all on our pregame show, which began as a Facebook Live and now presented as a SportsBeat KC podcast. Story li...

Kansas City Chiefs broadcasters bring voice to the team, and those voices shared in the celebration of the franchise’s first AFC championship in half a century. In this daily episode of the SportsBeat KC podcast, current Chiefs play-by-play man Mitch Holthus, national broadcaster and former Chiefs voice Kevin Harlan and Tom Hedrick, who called Chiefs games in the 1960s and was the national radio b...

How did the Chiefs defense come together this season? General manager Brett Veach explains on SportsBeat KC at the Super Bowl. Also, Patrick Mahomes meets the media and expresses his desire to play his entire career in Kansas City. And can the Chiefs become the most popular team in North America? They’re off to a good start in Mexico and Canada with a quarterback who ranks among the game’s best, a...

Let’s get to the questions. The Star’s KCQ has hooked up with SportsBeat KC to answer your Chiefs questions from the Super Bowl. We cover Chiefs topics past and present, like handling the hoopla, what’s happened to LeSean McCoy and Patrick Mahomes’ odds of being the game’s MVP. After a break, Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, who doesn’t often speak publicly, opens up to a small group of reporters about many...

Opening Night at the Super Bowl was quite the spectacle. The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers met the media and others with credentials with fans looking at Marlins Park. The A-team discusses what they hear and saw, and you’ll hear some of the best comments from such Chiefs as Frank Clark, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Story links: “That one hurt:” Super Bowl approaches but Chiefs still...

“Party in the city where the heat is on ... Welcome to Miami.” The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers have arrived at the Super Bowl host city, and we get a jump on the conversation with The Star’s former Chiefs beat writer Terez Paylor, now a national football reporter for Yahoo Sports. Oh, and no chat with Terez would be compete without Terez’s own bagging on his hometown Lions. Also, ne...

Some trivia: Between Len Dawson’s last start and Patrick Mahomes’ first, there have been 29 starting quarterbacks for the Chiefs. Taking a team to the Super Bowl is such a rare thing, and we get Mahomes’ first thoughts on the task ahead since winning the AFC Championship. Also, two defensive players who will play critical roles in the Super Bowl, lineman Chris Jones and defensive back Kendall Full...

The San Francisco 49ers rolled through the NFC playoffs to reach the Super Bowl meeting with the Chiefs. They did it with a powerful running game and great defense, and The Star’s Herbie Teope and Vahe Gregorian join host Blair Kerkhoff in a first look at the Niners on SportsBeat KC. Story links: Strange by true: Chiefs’ Coach Andy Reid’s future was shaped at San Francisco State Chiefs improved de...

For 39 minutes and 59 seconds, Kansas’ 81-60 victory over Kansas State was about the outstanding play of KU freshman guard Christian Braun. Then the last second happened. A benches clearing brawl ended the action. The fight spilled into spectators who sit in the end zones, including some in wheelchairs. Beat writers Jesse Newell, Gary Bedore and Kellis Robinett discuss what went wrong. KU, K-State...

Royals outfielder Alex Gordon is closing in on a one-year deal with the club. The seven-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star is a rarity in today’s game, playing his entire career with one MLB team. Also, the Royals re-signed Jorge Soler to a one-year deal. But what does that mean for the home run champion after 2020? And we remember the late Royals owner David Glass with beat writer Lyn...

The Super Bowl is set and for the first time in five decades it includes the Kansas City Chiefs. Confetti was still on the field when the A-team of Herbie Teope, Sam McDowell, Sam Mellinger and Vahe Gregorian broke down the Chiefs’ 35-24 victory in the AFC Championship Game and take a first look at the Super Bowl foe, the San Francisco 49ers. Story links: Super Bowl-bound Chiefs return to football...