The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 27

'1 LTRiBU EtOlACCE 900'MlHlO BID OR PUR A EO EJ EC I AG OCUBSTTd 1 Draft lacking sackers NBA-READY FRESHMEN NOT AS NUMEROUS Freshman hava dominated the first two NBA drafts tinea the nim requiring playars must be at least one year removed from high school before enteringtha (haft But thafsnot expected to 2009 FIRST-ROUND DRAFT BREAKDOWN JlnlarKU SfniorcS lDerrickRoea Memphis ZMichaai Beasley K-Styrta A Qi Mayes USC Karin LovAUCtiA 1 Erie Gordon Indiana 11 Jenryd Baytare Arizona 14 Anthony Randolph LSU -rmMHcloniNCStaMi' 1 23 KdtaKoufoii Ohio State 28 DonteGreene Syracuse Sealants Juniors: 3 2007 FIRST ROUND 1 Greg Oden Ohio State 2 Kevin Durant Texas 4 Mika Conley Ohio State A Brandan WrigtAN Carolina lOi Spencer Hawes Washington 12 ThaddeusYoung6a Tech IB JavarisCrittentonGa tech 21 Deequan Cooit Ohio State Juniors: 8 SMiorcfi li Eiimiimtsu If the Chiefs decide to go for a much-needed pees rusher It probably wont tie with the third pick In the first round By ADAM TOCHER The Kansas City Star MOOLE Ala As they attempt to fix moat' feeble pass rush the Chiefs can take heart by looking at a-Ust of this season's NFL sack leaders Many enter the NFL as early draft picks Miami's Joey Prater agd the New York Justin Tick were picked in the third round Jared Alim in the fourth and Indianapolis' Robert Mathis in the fifth James Harrison of Pittsburgh wrfsnt drafted at alL That can provide some hope for the Chiefs in their attempt to add some punch to their pass rush because this draft contains if any top-shelf defensive ends hard to label groups but this doesn't appear to be a good draft far pass ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper said of these guys are going to be really good and you expect them to be at this point Who would have thought Jared Allen would turn out to be this kind of player? He a fust-round pick He wasn't a second-round pick trick js to find those guys There are no guaranteed stars in this group as far as pass rushers go If you need one free agency might be a better way to ga" As usual free ageing is lean on too pass rushers other than Julius Pepper? SEE CHIEFS IDS parachute is golden settlement with Its former AD pay nearly $2 million plus perks By JEFFREY MARTIN The Kansas City Star Given the fact that former Kansas State athletic director Tim Weiser and university President Jon Wefald had their differences it's unusual to expect Kansas State to embrace the opinion and thoughts of its former athletic director But that's exactly what K-State is doing by paying Weisei as part of a separation settlement $19 million over the next five years for "consulting and future services" that Weiser says he cant specify An agreement signed by Weisei now the Big 121 deputy commissioner and current athletic director Bob Krause on Feh 14 2008 states will perform mutually agreeable work on behalf of KSU primarily related to fundraising and die analysis of national trends policies and issues in NCAA Division I Athletics" Krause said he usually seeks Weiser for advice he and we Krause said SEE WEISER I D4 NICK WASS I THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Freshmen have been plentiful lately In the NBA draft but Greg Monroe who leads Georgetown In blocks and steals Is one of the few fbstyeaf players projected to go In the first round this year Now with a few exceptions there many impact players" Check out the top six teams Among Wake Forest Duke Connecticut Pittsburgh North Carolina and Oklahoma only two freshmen start: forward Al-Farouq Aminu fix Wake Forest and guard Willie Warren for die Sooners The starting fives for group of top teams include 10 seniors and 11 juniors SEE FRESHMEN OS Freshmen made as big an Impact on college basketball as In previous seasons By BLAIR kerkhoff The freshmen are well what Tha Kansas cay star freshmen traditionally have been ollege basketball star- first-year players trying to fig-dam revolved around ure things out at the college level freshmen the previous and not playing like sure bets at two seasons the next Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in Not that this rookie downturn 0 2007 then Derrick Rose and Mi- was unexpected chad Beasley in 2008 with many could see this coming two others filling die NBA draft ranks or three yean ESPN analyst asone-and-dones Fran Frakhilla said had an This season is the flip side extraordinary couple of years The club NASCAR officials empathize with race turns and fan of their iport whllo trying to buck powerful economic forces ByJBtPEDLEY ThsKaniws Gty Star concord NjCI A half dozen or so of die executives dunged with making NASCAR function sat in chairs on dais at the organization's Research and Development Center on Thursday afternoon and fielded questions Their answers contained words and phrases familiar to many Americans these day terms like and times and "sombec NASCAR AND THE ECONOMY tbs tough economy having on the NASCAR Sprint Cup seriaS? This Is thsfourth story inasarie Lik others who have used those words NASCAR officials issued pleas for patience and promised to SECNASCARIM HAROLD HWSONI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Chairman Brim France presides ovaf a sport seen phenomenal growth But ItV not Immune to the tssuef most Americans face y-rf.