Kansas’ Stewart can only watch

SAN ANTONIO -- Kansas guard Rodrick Stewart can’t play in the NCAA title game tonight after breaking a kneecap during the team’s public shoot-around Friday, but he will be on the bench in his warmups.

“You prepare your whole life for this situation,” the transfer from USC said. “It was tough yesterday. Right with about one minute left in the game, I wanted to be on the court for just one second.

“The fans started chanting my name, wanting me out there. I was cheering, and I was over there in pain, crying.”

Stewart, who was averaging 2.8 points off the bench, said he has been pushing Coach Bill Self for one favor.

“I joked to him that I want to go out there and stand on the sideline and run one play and come out so I can say I played in the Final Four,” the senior said. “If he’d let me, I’d definitely do it.”

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NBA Commissioner David Stern and NCAA President Myles Brand, who have been working together on issues affecting basketball at all levels, will hold a joint news conference today.

Brand asked Stern during a recent issues panel conducted by CBS whether he thought it would be better if players stayed in college two years.

Stern agreed, but said NBA players would have to agree to it because it is a collective-bargaining issue.

Brand also addressed “one and done” players at an NCAA news conference Thursday.

“We think it’s better that they stay two years,” Brand said. “In fact, I would prefer they stay at least three and maybe four. That would be my preference.

“But there is conversation going on about staying an extra year.”

Brand also called summer basketball “chaotic and perverse” during the issues panel and said the NCAA would like to work with other organizations to improve the situation.

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ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, 68, will be in the 2008 class for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame that will be announced today, sources said.

The ESPN analyst also was selected for the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo., the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches Foundation announced Sunday.

Others among the 15 finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., include Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley.

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Kansas’ Rush said his brother, Indiana Pacers guard Kareem, planned to be at tonight’s game even if there is a financial penalty from the team.

“He’ll take the little fine,” Rush said.

Rush said he did not expect his brother JaRon, a former UCLA player, to make the trip.

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Memphis’ free-throw woes have disappeared lately.

They are shooting 61.3% this season, but since making 46.9% against Mississippi State in a second-round game, the Tigers have made 76 of 94 (80.9%).

Coach John Calipari attributed the improvement to making free throws fun.

He created a team free-throw challenge ladder, in which players would try to best each other on sets of five free throws.

The team also gave Joey Dorsey, a 37.8% free-throw shooter, a two free-throw head start.

“Then they got mad if Joey was shooting too good. And he’d say, ‘I won’t take any strokes.’ And I said, ‘That’s a mistake, son. That’s a mistake.’ ”

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Calipari admits he yells at Dorsey too much.

He yelled at Dorsey during the player’s 15-rebound performance against UCLA.

Calipari says it’s out of love.

“I know how good he is,” Calipari said.

Dorsey, a 6-foot-9 forward, doesn’t seem to mind.

“Coach yells at me on every possession,” he said Sunday. “I tell him whatever you want me to do, I will do. During my freshman year, he would yell at me even when I was not playing.”