MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale says he’s unsure of first-round draft pick Royce White’s future with the team.   White, a former Iowa State star, has been away from the team all season while sparring with the Rockets on how to treat his anxiety disorder. White has been vocal about the situation on Twitter, but has given no indication about when he will rejoin the team.

McHale was asked before the game against Minnesota on Wednesday when White would return to the team. He seemed genuinely puzzled, saying “that’s a good question. I don’t know.”  McHale is still getting back up to speed following an extended absence to deal with the sudden death of his daughter.

He says “as crazy as it sounds, you’re just kind of going with the guys who are there.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – An illness running through the Kansas City Chiefs the past few weeks kept running back Jamaal Charles, linebacker Tamba Hali and left tackle Donald Stephenson out of practice Wednesday. Coach Romeo Crennel said that Hali and Stephenson were sent home soon after arriving at the team’s practice facility. Charles was sent home a short time later.

Last week, wide receivers Jon Baldwin and Josh Bellamy, defensive backs Brandon Flowers and Neiko Thorpe and defensive tackle Jerrell Powe missed time due to illness. Safety Eric Berry and guard Jeff Allen have also been sick recently. Defensive tackle Tyson Jackson, left tackle Branden Albert, center Ryan Lilja, wide receiver Terrance Copper and tight end Tony Moeaki missed practice due to injuries Wednesday.

The Chiefs (2-13) finish their season Sunday at Denver.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The joke running through Jacksonville these days carries the same punch line as the one in Kansas City:  “Our team is so bad it can’t even stink in the right year.”  The Chiefs and Jaguars will vie for the top pick in the NFL draft in separate games Sunday. But the value of “winning” the race to the NFL’s worst record is debatable in a year without a clear, franchise-changing prospect.

The Chiefs and Jaguars are both 2-13, but the Chiefs hold the tiebreaker for the No. 1 pick because of their weakness of schedule. The only way Jacksonville can take it is by losing to Tennessee and Kansas City beating Denver. That would give the Jaguars the worst overall record.

The Iowa basketball team is enjoying a break from games after going 11-2 to open the season. Coach Fran McCaffery says his team has stayed resilient in the face of a tough early schedule. “You know we had six games in nine days, a trip to Mexico and then we come back and we go right down to Virginia Tech…and then we had the in-state rivalry games. You know a lot of teams play rivalry games, and most of the time it’s one,” McCaffery says. He says multiple rivalry games take an emotional toll.

“That’s very difficult on a team, you get rev’d up to play Iowa State, we have an emotional win and then we have to turn right back around and do it again. I don’t know if anybody realizes how difficult that is, and what an incredible accomplishment that was” McCaffery says. He says he is pleased with their resiliency, their unselfishness, their depth and leadership.

Iowa returns to action New Year’s Eve to open the Big Ten season against Indiana.

(Radio Iowa Sports)

The Iowa State football team arrived in Memphis Wednesday in preparation for the Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Cyclones also had their first practice at Rhodes College the same day. Cyclone Coach Paul Rhoads said there are various events scheduled for the team through the week along with the practices.  “The schedule by the Liberty Bowl is very accommodating, there are certain things that we’re involved with, but we practice in the morning to try and avoid those,” Rhoads said.

Today (Thursday) there’s an event that has them switching around the schedule. “So we’ve got to practice in the afternoon and have meetings in the morning, so there’s that kind of adjusting that you have to do. But our maturity I think will be able to handle that,” Rhoads said.

One event will have some players visit the St. Judes Research Hospital, while Saturday night the players will attend an NBA game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Denver Nuggets. The teams will wrap up practices with a walk-through and photo session at the Liberty Bowl Stadium on Sunday. Then it’s the game against Tulsa on Monday at 2:30 Iowa time. The 6-6 Cyclones got one of their victories against Tulas in the season opener in Ames. Tulsa went on to win 10 games and had only two more losses.

(Radio Iowa Sports)

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The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is offering several new options for fishing and hunting licenses in 2013. D-N-R Chief of Fisheries, Joe Larschied, says the new options were developed based on feedback from Iowans. “A lot of anglers came to us and said ‘you know we’d like to pay for the privilege to fish with three poles,’ especially bank anglers and ice anglers and things like that. So we’re offering that for the first time,” Larschied says. “The other things we’re offering are a three-year angling license, so you can lock current prices for three years…you gain some savings with administrative fees for each of those three years.”

There’s also what he calls the hunter’s special. “A three-year hunting license with the habitat stamp included, so again you can lock in the current years prices for three years. And then the other option is an outdoor combo license which combines the annual resident hunting, fishing and habitat combo for one year,” Larschied says. He says there’s a cost savings on the fees, but is mostly a convenience feature. Larschied says people who hunt and fish wanted to see the option tailored more like other licenses. He says you get a driver’s license and boat registration for several years and that’s why they decided to do the same for hunters and anglers.

Larschied says the program is self-supporting and hopefully making things more convenient will get more people involved. “The trust fund where all the license dollars goes is what allows us to hire game wardens, to hire the people to run the hatcheries and stock fish, and it is solely run on fishing and hunting license revenue,” Larschied says. “And so this just allows people to lock in for three years their commitment to shore up their trust fund, which is what we’re really trying to do.”

The cost of a bonus line fishing license is 12-dollars. The cost for an outdoor combo license is 47-dollars, a three-year fishing license 53-dollars, three-year hunting license 86-dollars. You can now purchase those new licenses and use them through the rest of this year up to their expiration date.

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Hawkeye Aaron White says he got his feet back under him this past weekend as Iowa cruised to a 30-point win over Coppin State. White had struggled a bit offensively in the previous two outings, but White wound up scoring 20 on Saturday, including six dunks. “It was good to get a game in like this right before we start Big Ten,” White says. Three freshmen are consistently part of the Hawkeye’s rotation this season and White – a sophomore — says the team “learned a lot” in their 13-game non-conference schedule.

“We beat some good teams. Iowa State’s a good team. UNI’s a good team and then, again, beat these teams that were on our schedule that you look at and we were supposed to be them,” White says. “…We weren’t perfect, but we had some slips that we came back from.” Iowa opens Big Ten play against Indiana. “You’ve got the previously number one ranked team in the country in Indiana and then you turn right around and a couple of days later you’ve got the number two team in the country,” White says. “…You’re just going to have to amp it up. You’re going to have to stay locked in and really buy into the game plan that our coaches are putting together for us you know. The whole staff has done great getting us prepared for every game this season and I think we’ve done a good job staying locked in, no matter what our opponent is, but it’s just going to be a little different challenge because we’re going again, you know, basically future NBA players…big, strong, experienced guys in the Big Ten.”

The Indiana game tips off at 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. They’ll play at Michigan on January 6th. White is from Strongville, Ohio. He played in all 35 of Iowa’s games last year, pulling down 199 rebounds and was named to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team.

(Radio Iowa)