Kansas City Kansas Community College guard Kellen Turner, left, and center Jon Murray, center, have been named to the NJCAA Division II All-Jayhawk Conference first team and guard Mike Lee Jr. to the second team for the 2016-17 season. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins) by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Three Kansas City Kansas Community College sophomores have been named to the 2017 Division II All-Jayhawk Conference men’s basketball team.
Center Jon Murray and guard Kellen Turner were named to the first team and guard Mike Lee Jr. to the second team in voting by conference coaches.
A 6-9 center from Macon, Mo., Murray was a runaway leader in Division II conference rebounding with 9.2 per game. Second in scoring at 14.3 points a game while shooting 47.4 percent from the field, Murray had 15 double-doubles in points and rebounds during the season.
Turner, a 6-0 guard from Liberty, Mo., finished second in the Jayhawk in both scoring (16.5) and 3-point field goal accuracy, converting 99 of 220 attempts for 45.0 percent. Turner was also second in assists (2.9) and third in rebounding (2.9).
A 6-2 guard from Durham, N.C., Lee quarterbacked a KCKCC offense that had the fewest turnovers in Region VI (11.9 per game). Leading the team in assists with 5.6 a game, Lee also averaged 12.2 points, led in steals (2.1) and had an outstanding 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio.
However, no member of the KCKCC women’s team earned post-season honors although Brooklyn Wagler finished third in Region VI in rebounding (8.3) and shooting percentage (.467) and Brie Tauai was fourth in scoring (14.9) and fifth in rebounding (6.4).
Joining Turner and Murray on the All-Jayhawk first team were Stephon Jackson and Dontre English of Highland, Frank Royals of Labette and Dametrius Walker of Fort Scott. Jackson was named both the league’s Most Valuable Player and Freshman of the Year while Highland’s Jerre Cole was voted Coach of the Year.
Austin Richardson of Johnson County was named the women’s Most Player Player and Highland Mariane Carvalho Freshman of the Year while Jeff Tadtman of Fort Scott and Ben Conrad of Johnson County shared Coach of the Year honors. Richardson and Carvalho were joined on the first team by Ky Essence Collins of Johnson County, Tyra Jones of Labette and Sonja Vukov and Jameka Dowell of Highland.
Buddhadeb Dawn, right, executive director of the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, talked with Rep. Les Osterman, far left, and David Prentice, center, of Charlotte Lozier Institute. Dawn provided an update on the center’s research Tuesday in Topeka. (Photo by Andy Marso, Kansas News Service) by Andy Marso, Kansas News Service
An adult stem cell center established by the Kansas Legislature in 2013 is almost ready for its first clinical trial.
Buddhadeb Dawn, executive director of the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, told legislators Tuesday that the trial will focus on treating graft-versus-host disease and will begin after final approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“Our goal was to do this (trial) in January, but we got delayed because of different things,” Dawn said during a hearing of the House Health and Human Services Committee. “So we are now hoping to start it perhaps in summer.”
Based at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, the stem cell center has analyzed trials done elsewhere and hosted a clinical trial sponsored by a biotech company that uses modified stem cells from bone marrow to treat stroke.
But the graft-versus-host disease trial would be the first homegrown one.
Graft-versus-host disease is a potential complication when a patient receives a transplant of tissue, like an organ or bone marrow, from another person.
The disease occurs when transplanted tissue fights the patient’s natural immune system, potentially damaging the liver, skin or other areas. It’s a rare illness, with about 20,000 cases in the United States each year.
Rep. Randy Powell, a Republican from Olathe, said the trial was a welcome and exciting development. He said his wife is at risk for the illness following treatment for leukemia.
“I know that graft-versus-host is a big thing,” Powell said. “I think my wife still has an annual checkup where they keep their eye out (to make sure) that’s not sticking its head up and causing issues.”
Dawn said the center would like to “take the next step” and move into clinical trials using adult stem cells to treat things like joint ailments, diabetes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
But the regulatory process takes time.
“We’d like to be able to offer a portfolio of different disease conditions that adult stem cells can benefit,” Dawn said. “I’m hoping that within the next five years we would at least have some FDA approval for treatment with adult stem cells for other conditions.”
Dawn said successful trials could lead to more private investment dollars “so we are self-sustaining at some point in the future.”
The center’s reliance on state funds has been a point of contention for fiscally conservative legislators in the past. Most of the facility’s budget still comes from the state’s payment, which was reduced by about $28,000 to $754,500 last year.
That’s far less than what stem cell research facilities in other states receive.
Doug Girod, executive vice president of the KU medical center, said that given the budget, Dawn and his small team have done remarkable work.
“We could be 10 times bigger than we are and doing 10 times as much if we had the resources,” Girod said. “But I think we’re maximizing every opportunity we can with what we have right now.”
The center was spearheaded by socially conservative legislators, including Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, to showcase adult stem cell research as an alternative to using stem cells derived from human embryos.
About $56,000 of its annual budget goes to educating the public about the differences between embryonic stem cells and adult cells and hosting an annual conference about advances in adult stem cell treatment.
Rep. John Wilson, a Democrat from Lawrence, said he initially was skeptical about the facility because he thought the Legislature was inserting itself into a religious or philosophical fight. But he said his attitude has changed.
“I’m glad that despite my opposition to it the state has gone forward with funding some really terrific research,” Wilson said. “My concern now is how do we take it to the next level so all of this hasn’t been for nothing.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org. See more athttp://kcur.org/post/kansas-stem-cell-center-close-first-clinical-trial.
Eight sophomores have closed out their basketball careers at Kansas City Kansas Community College, from left, Brie Tauai, Brooklyn Wagler, Kylia Jarrett, Millie Shade, Kayla Horn, Aeriel Holiday, Whitney Hazlett and Brooklyn Bockover, who played as a freshman but served as student assistant this season. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins) Wagler, Tauai finish among Region VI leaders in scoring, rebounding, shooting
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Defensively, Kansas City Kansas Community College’s defending NJCAA Division II national champions gave up only 64.4 points a game during the 2016-17 season. However, the Lady Blue Devils could average only 67.0 points offensively.
Nevertheless, playing in arguably the toughest conference in the nation, the Blue Devils finished 18-14, only the 11h KCKCC team to win as many as 18 games in 39 years of women’s basketball.
“Region-wise, we did what we were expected to do,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “We won the games we probably were favored to win and lost the games in which we would not have been favored to win although I thought we had an opportunity to win both Labette games,”
The three teams that finished ahead of the Blue Devils in the Region VI standings all finished in the top 20 nationally – Johnson County No. 3, Highland No. 8 and Labette No. 15. It’s the same region that produced the 2014 national runnerup (Highland) and the 2015 and 2016 national champions, JCCC and KCKCC. In the region, KCKCC finished in a tie for fourth with Fort Scott at 5-7 but as the No. 5 seed defeated the Greyhounds in the first round of playoffs at Fort Scott.
Inability to score was clearly the Blue Devils’ No. 1 problem.
“We struggled to score baskets all season long and had a lot of stretches when we went several minutes without scoring,” McKinstry said. As a team, the Blue Devils shot just 36.9 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from 3-point line. Defensively, the Blue Devils limited opponents to 38.5 percent from the field and 30.1 from 3-point.
The only two players who saw heavy playing time in last year’s drive to the national championship led the way in 2017. Brie Tauai, a 5-11 forward from Blue Springs, led the scoring with 14.9 points a game along with 6.4 rebounds; Brooklyn Wagler, a 5-8 forward from Shawnee Mission Northwest, led in rebounding with 8.3 per game along with 11.5 points and 2.7 assists.
Wagler finished third in Region VI in rebounding and fourth in field goal accuracy (.467) and Tauai was fourth in scoring and fifth in rebounding but according to conference coaches, it wasn’t enough to earn all-conference honors for either.
“I understand where we finished in the standings but compared with the statistics of some of the others on the team, they were both most deserving,” McKinstry said.
In their two years, Wagler, Tauai and backup forward Kyliea Jarrett of Bonner Springs won 51 games against just 17 losses.
“Brooklyn Wagler is exactly the kind of a player coaches ask for,” McKinstry said. “She came here as a guard and started 67 of 68 games as an undersized forward. She was someone I never had to call plays for because she knew where she needed to be and because of her effort on every play. No one played harder.
“From a toughness standpoint, you could never question Brie Tauai’s toughness, She played her entire freshman season with a significant shoulder injury and was slowed the second half of this season by a back issue. A very skilled player. Undersized as a post player, she has great hands, great footwork and is a pure shooter.”
Jarrett averaged 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 points.
“Kyliea put her dreams of being a nurse aside for a year so she could be a member of the team one more time,” McKinstry said. “She worked her tail off every day and had a great attitude.”
Others who will be lost are Millie Shade, a 5-11 forward from Lawrence Free State who was fifth in the region in 3-point accuracy (.371) and second in KCKCC scoring (12.0); 5-7 guard Kayla Horn, the assist leader (3.5) who averaged 7.4 points; 5-10 forward Aeriel Holiday, who averaged 8.8 points; and 5-6 Whitney Hazlett of Mill Valley, who averaged 4.0 points.
“Millie Shade, who started at Butler before being injured and missing a season, grew more and evolved more than anyone in the program over the last two years, not only as a player but in all aspects of being a young adult,” McKinstry said. “If I’m in this job 30 years, I won’t have as talented a guard as Kayla Horn, who worked hard at all aspects of her game and understanding management from the point guard position. She came a long way in one year.
“Aeriel Holiday shot the ball well from 3-point (.337) and almost singlehandedly beat a No. 7 ranked Des Moines Area team (27-4) with 30 points while Whitney Hazlett probably had the most growth and positive productivity over the course of the year after sitting out a season with a torn ACL. She gained a lot of confidence and was an important part of our team.”
The loss of the sophomores leaves McKinstry with just one returnee, 5-9 guard Alix Wilson of St. Joseph (Mo.) Central, who averaged 2.3 points in 32 games including eight as a starter.
“We’ll bring in a lot of new faces, players who can play right away,” McKinstry said. “Being the No. 5 seed is not where I want this program to be.”
