The Associated Press has reported that Kansas University Athletics Director Lew Perkins has "locked down" football coach Mark Mangino for the next six days. The unprecedented move, with Perkins signed in to effect late Monday night, forces the Kansas football coach to remain in what is essentially a house arrest for the next six days. Perkins said the move is not a disciplinary action or in any way punitive, but is rather an effort to secure the portly coach prior to the Jayhawks crucial basketball game against the Texas Longhorns on Saturday evening.
"Coach Mangino is not being punished or reprimanded for anything," Perkins said in a written statement. "We simply feel, with the enormous importance of this Saturday's basketball game in Austin, we wanted to ensure that Coach Mangino was kept away from the basketball team. Not only do we want to surround the basketball players with people and ideas associated with winning, but we want to ensure that Coach Mangino doesn't eat Mario Chalmers."
Kansas wants to make sure Mark Mangino doesn't eat the hoops team.
Perkins went on to say that Mangino's track record with Texas athletics led him to impose the six day ban. Mangino was notably loud in his criticisms of Vince Young and the Texas football team.
"In our experience, providing bulletin board material for the Texas Longhorns is not a good idea," Perkins said. "Coach Mangino has made that mistake once. We wanted to ensure it didn't happen again."
Perkins said he will not impose a similar ban on student and fan-related publications, though he urged both the student newspaper and the fan site Phog Blog to carefully consider calling out the Horns. Perkins noted that Mark from the Phog Blog made a Mangino sized mis-analysis during football season, too.
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