THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
▼ MEN'S BASKETBALL: 83-73
PAGE 12A
JP Beato III/THE BATTALION
Freshman guard Brandon Rush leaps in the air to dunk the basketball in Wednesday night's victory against Texas A&M. Rush scored 22 points and pulled down six rebounds.
'Hawks slam past Aggies
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SPORTSWITHER
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Whether it was slarming home an ally-oop dunk over a Texas A&M defender or rolling in a clutch lay-up and picking up the foul with less than three minutes to play, the Aggie faithful saw it all from Brandon Rush.
Rush, freshman guard, sparked the Jayhawks in the opening few minutes of the second half — including that
monster dunk over Aggie Chris Walker — all part of a 16-0 run that Kansas used to build its way to an 83-73 victory against Texas A&M.
"We played great to start the second half, and I think we were pretty fortunate that they missed some shots, but we defended them a lot better," Kansas coach Bill Seid said.
Rush was aggressive throughout the game, getting to the basket and either dunking or pushing home short floaters from the lane.
ity to silence a crowd and score with acrobatic plays got his team going.
"It gives them energy and stuff which helps them play defense harder." Rush said.
Rush said he thought his abil-
Kansas needed that run to start the second half, after trailing 33-31 at halftime. Rush, with the help of freshman guard Mario Chalmers and sophomore guard Russell Robinson, were able to get the Jayhawks going and to silence a raucous Aggie crowd.
SEE ZONE ON PAGE 6A
TENNIS
Menan True/KANSAN
New facility curbs team travel
BY ERIC JORGENSEN
ejorgensen@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Indoor tennis will return to Lawrence on Monday when First Serve Tennis opens at 5200 Clinton Parkway.
Alvamar Racquet Club, the former indoor home to the Jayhawks, was bought out and turned into a private school, Bishop Seabury Academy, three years ago.
The arrival will also mark the return of an indoor tennis facility for the Kansas tennis team
Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said the Athletics Department would pay First Serve Tennis $10,000 per month for use of the facility.
He said the department could subsidize the courts for three to four months during the winter instead of being forced to build and maintain its own
facility for the entire year.
The new facility will create an opportunity for the tennis team that it didn't have in the other cities.
The University has eight outdoor courts, but no indoor courts of its own.
Since the departure of Alvamar's tennis facility, the team had been traveling to Topeka or Kansas City, Kan. for indoor courts on wet or cold days.
In return, Lawrence resident Mike Elwell has a guaranteed income to start and sustain his developing business.
"I think its going to help with getting more students out for support," Kansas coach Amy Hall-Holt said.
Marchiony said the local facility would also help Kansas recruit good players in the area.
This year's roster has five of its nine players hail from outside of the country. Only one player, sophomore Stephanie Smith, is from Kansas.
Hall-Holt said the local facility would be more appealing to local players than a facility 30-45 minutes away.
Liwell purchased the facility, formerly Sport 2 Sport, and remodeled the inside to accommodate tennis play. Currently there are three indoor courts. Liwell said he planned to add one more indoor court and six outdoor courts in the coming months.
He said many of the courts would be catered to fit the needs of the Kansas tennis team.
"Without KU's commitment I would not have tackled this," Elwell said.
The tennis team's first home meet this spring will be Saturday in Topeka against Drake.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: 69-63
— Edited by Cynthia Hernandez
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS mphillips@kansan.com KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Comeback falls short at K-State
MANHATTAN — It's not easy to fill the shoes of a legend.
Senior guard Erica Hallman tries to break away from Kansas State defenders during the second half of Wednesday night's game in Manhattan.
Kansas State freshman Marties Gipson ran onto the court underneath banners of Wildcat All-Americans Kendra Wecker and Nicole Ohlde.
She was introduced after video highlights of WNBA stars Wecker and Laurie Koehn.
During a time-out, the announcer reminded Gipson that Wecker and Koehn's teams never lost to Kansas.
The fans insisted on Jayhawk
blood, which Gipson delivered in the form of a 69-63 victory, the Wildcats' ninth straight against the Jayhawks.
Holding a two-point lead at halftime won Gipson no applause from a packed Bramlage Coliseum crowd.
Kansas' senior class of forward Crystal Kemp and guards Erica Hallman and Kaylee Brown will finish their careers winless in Manhattan.
"It hurts real bad," Hallman said. "We're good enough to beat Kansas State at Kansas State, but we came up short."
The Wildcats opened up the second half with a 16-4 run, tear
ing up the Jayhawks over a stretch of seven minutes. They constantly found teammates in the paint for easy baskets.
It wasn't an easy victory, though.
"Coach told us we weren't playing with enough intensity." Gipson said. "We came out in the second half fired up and ready to go."
After Gipson left the game due to foul trouble, the Jayhawks responded with a 17-4 run of their own, bringing the game as close as two points with 20 seconds remaining.
Kansas State Junior guard Claire Coggins stepped up to the freethrow line three times in the final minute of the game. She hit 5-of-6 shots on those three trips.
Toward the end of the game, Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson went to her bench, something she's been hesitant to do in Big 12 competition. Freshman guard Sophronia Sallard played 15 minutes and provided Kansas with a four-guard set.
Hallman initiated the comeback, using screens to find open shots. She finished the game with 18 points, second only to Kemp's 20.
Henrickson said she played Sallard because Kemp was often double-teamed. The Wildcats were left with only three defenders to guard four Kansas shooters.
Junior guard Shaquina Mosley played only 13 minutes, but a majority of them were during the Kansas run. She was conscious of the ball on every possession and did not turn the ball over as she did earlier in the season.
"I think it was hard for her at the beginning of the season. I think now she's getting the hang of things." Brown said, pointing to her head to indicate Mosley's mental progress.
SEE COMEBACK ON PAGE 10A
LIFE OF BRIAN
Underclassmen aren't to blame for slow start
If the most fashionable thing to say about this year's men's basketball team is "not playing well enough," as my colleague Jimmy Chavez suggested on Monday, then certainly the second most fashionable thing to say is "it's OK because this team is young."
A 12-6 record is certainly not what Kansas fans have grown accustomed to, but you certainly can't blame the underclassmen. It's scary to imagine where this team would be without its studfilled freshmen and sophomore classes. Kansas could easily be under .500.
It was a freshman, guard Brandon Rush, who brought Kansas back into the game against Arkansas in Maui. His three-pointer with less than three minutes left actually gave the Jayhawks a one-point lead.
The question to ask is where would Kansas be — or rather, how much better would Kansas be — without the upperclassmen.
It was a freshman, the nowdeparted Micah Downs, who kept the Jayhawks alive against Nevada. His three-point shot with 0:17 left brought Kansas within a point. His shot was the most clutch of any Jayhawk this season.
But it was a senior, guard jeff Hawkins, whose late turnovers and ill-advised, blocked three-point attempt with 0:12 left cost the game.
But when Nevada missed
BY BRIAN WACKER
bwacker@kansan.com
one of two free throws on the ensuing possession, it was a senior, Hawkins, who cost the Jayhawks a game. Coach Bill Self took Downs out of the game and let Hawkins wildly dribble the ball coast-to-coast. He nearly stepped out-of-bounds before forcing a pass to sophomore CJ Giles, whose subsequent shot was blocked.
Sure, the block was probably a blown call, but Self should know as well as anyone that he can never depend on getting a foul called at the end of the game. Plus, does anyone actually believe Giles would have made his free throws had the foul been called?
It was two seniors, Hawkins and forward Christian Moody, who logged a combined total of 30 minutes against Kansas State but came away with zero points and six personal fouls for their time. I guess their "senior leadership" wasn't enough to crack the simple 2-3 zone the Wildcats played.
And it was a senior, Moody,
who couldn't come through
in the clutch against Missouri.
I doubt I need to tell
you, but any player playing at
Sophomore Darnell Jackson is proving to be a force down low, and until last night was perhaps the only steady free-throw shooter (24-32) on the team. And sophomore Russell Robinson was huge last night with 24 points, going 12-of-13 from the charity stripe.
Kansas — walk-on or otherwise — must be able to knock down a single free throw in that situation.
Last night, Self started five underclassmen while Moody and Hawkins combined played for a total of 20 minutes, taking only one shot.
All the while, it has been freshmen and sophomores who have kept Kansas afloat. Despite an off game or two, Rush has assumed the role of the go-to scorer quite well. Freshman Mario Chalmers is averaging 14.6 points per game over the last five games, including a refreshing 8-of-8 from the free throw line Wednesday night.
The result: A huge road victory at a crucial point in the conference season.
Here's to hoping that Self continues to trust his younger players to step up and assume the roles that his seniors haven't been able to fill.
T
+Wacker is a Chesterfield, Mo., senior in journalism and pre-law. He is Kansan.com editor.
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