THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VIEW FROM PRESS ROW
PAGE 10A
KELLL ROBINETT
KRIBINETT@KANSAN.COM
NCAA snubs Kansas
Caroline Smith silently walked out of Memorial Stadium on Monday with her head hung low, unwilling to talk about what had just occurred.
The senior forward was followed by junior defender Holly Gault, who walked away in similar fashion.
Eventually, the entire Kansas soccer team filed out of the room where it just learned the team was denied a third straight trip to the NCAA Soccer Tournament.
Everyone was in shock. They deserved to be.
The Jayhawks being left out of this year's NCAA Tournament was a crime.
Five teams from the Big 12 Conference got in, and Kansas was overlooked despite finishing the conference season in a four-way tie for second place.
Logically, if five teams were to be selected from the Big 12, the top five teams would deserve bids.
But the group in charge of selecting the 64-team field for this year's NCAA Tournament was obviously more interested in other factors.
Texas A&M, which won both the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament, received a four seed and the chance to play host to the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Colorado, Iowa State and Nebraska, the other second place teams in the Big 12, also received invitations. That's fine.
Kansas gets left out of the tournament entirely, while Texas gets the ultimate advantage of playing postseason games at home. What part of that makes sense?
But Texas, which finished Big 12 play in sixth place and lost to Kansas head-to-head was somehow selected over Kansas. Making matters worse, Austin, Texas, was chosen as a host site for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Excuse me?
Texas owns an impressive victory against Texas A&M, but that alone isn't enough to merit leapfrogging Kansas.
Perhaps the NCAA tournament selection committee wanted to take advantage of Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium & Soccer Field, which holds more than 20,000 people.
Why else would third-seeded California be sent across the country to play there?
The selection committee had three other head scratchers, sending second-seeded Florida State on the road to play rival Florida, fourth-seeded Pepperdine across the country to play at Vanderbilt and top-seeded Portland to Nebraska.
If this happened in the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament, people wouldn't stand for it. Can you imagine the reaction if Kansas was overlooked in March after finishing second in the Big 12?
It would be an ugly scene to say the least.
Obviously, the soccer tournament has different rules and factors to consider, but putting together the best possible field should be the top priority. That didn't happen Monday.
Robinett is an Austin, Texas senior in journalism. He is Kansas sports editor.
NCAA denies tourney bid
SOCCER
KU soccer players, from left to right, Lacey Novak, Michelle Rasmussen and Afton Sauer react to not being named to this year's NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks received the news Monday afternoon in the Law Peninsula suite at Memorial Stadium.
Jared Soares/KANSAN
BY ALISSA BAUER
abauer@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
A spot in the field would have been the fourth in five years for the Jayhawks (11-7-2, 6-4-1 Big 12), but instead the Kansas soccer team's season is finished.
For a second, silence. Then emotions filled the room. The NCAA Tournament denied Kansas a bid into its 64-team tournament.
"It's just a crappy way to go out," Kansas soccer coach Mark Francis said. "I thought we'd be in for sure. I'm disappointed, especially for the seniors."
Players were not available for comment.
Kansas ended the regular season with a 6-3-1 Big 12 Conference record that tied the team for second place with Iowa State (11-6-3), Colorado (12-7-3) and Nebraska (13-7-1).
FOOTBALL
Even the Texas Longhorns (11-8-1), who finished the regular season with one more
Every other second place finisher made the cut.
SEE BID ON PAGE 8A
Defender wins weekly Big 12 award
BY RVAN COLAIanni
rcolaiani@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The Kansas defense was strong on Saturday in its victory against Nebraska, and one lineman's efforts were rewarded.
Senior defensive end Charlton Keith anchored the Kansas defense with a sack and eight tackles, including three for a loss. The performance earned Keith SBC Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors, the Conference announced Monday.
"I come out and play hard every play," Keith said. "As a team, it was the best game we've played all year, and it was very satisfying."
Kansas football coach Mark Mangino said that Keith came off the ball like a rocket against the Nebraska offensive line.
"He uses his hands better
The Jayhawks came into the game ranked second nationally in rush defense, behind only Oklahoma. After holding Nebraska to 21 yards rushing, and an Oklahoma bye week, Kansas is ranked first in the nation, holding opponents to an average of 64.1 yards rushing per game.
"Everybody does their job well and knows their role that they are given in that defense, and performs it flawlessly," Mangino said. "We're accustomed to seeing great play from our linebackers and great sacks
than any defensive end that I have been around, and there are some of them that are playing in the NFL." Mangino said.
Kansas produced its first defensive touchdown of the season on Saturday, when senior linebacker Kevin Kane scored on a 40-yard interception return.
from our defensive linemen."
"It's an exclamation point. We pride ourselves on defense," Kane said. "One of our goals every week is to score on defense. Finally we got one. We just have to continue to do that."
Mangino said that an ensemble, collective cast has fueled the defense this season.
Kane nearly fell before reaching the end zone, but kept his balance for the final 10 yards of his run. Kane had a similar return last season against Tulsa, but fell just before reaching the goal line.
"That was one of the first thoughts that came to my head, that I wasn't going to get caught this time," Kane said. "Brandon Perkins laid out a nice little block for me. Thank God he was there."
"I'm very proud of our defense," Mangino said. "They have played like the No. 1 defense against the rush in the nation this year."
Edited by Erick R. Schmidt
Josh Kirk/KANSAN
Senior defensive end Charlton Keith tackles Nebraska junior quarterback Zac Taylor. Keith led the Kansas defense with eight tackles, including one sack and three tackles for a loss. Kansas beat Nebraska 40-15.
CLUB SPORTS
Josh Kirk/KANSAN
Chris Hidalgo, Shawnjee junior, performs a routine during the KU Capoeira Club practice. The club practices the Brazilian martial art on Wednesdays.
Students fight to the music
BY ERIC AMMERMAN
eammerman@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Capoeira is played by capoeiristas, in a circle called a roda. The roda is supposed to reflect the world and the people in it.
An art of extreme concentration, acute movements and skillful stunts, capoeira is becoming popular in modern culture.
Slaves uprising against their masters, underground street-streets, back flips and handstands. It sounds like an action movie, but it's actually part of a martial art called capoeira.
Created in Brazil by African slaves during the 1500s, the name capoeira means "bad grass" or "weed" in Portuguese.
the capoiristas call their art a game, but when watched it looks like an acrobatic, yet smooth dance.
The fighting usually involves two people within the roda using kicks and various acrobatics to throw the opponent off guard hoping to land a hit.
At Kansas, there is a thriving capoiera club. With 20 members, the club loves its art. Lawrence senior Christian Hidalgo has played for three years.
"For me, it is a lifestyle, not
Hidalgo became interested in capoeira in an unusual way.
The art wasn't always as available to those interested, however.
"Originally, I was interested in break dancing, and I realized that it has many ties to capoeira." he said.
Music is also crucial to capoeira. It dictates the type and speed of fighting that occurs in the roda.
Over time, two forms of capoeira have developed: regional and Angola. Regional capoeira is considered the more traditional form, while Angola capoeira has a more intense fighting style.
When the slaves of Brazil were freed, many were homeless and without jobs so they started to form roaming street gangs that fought with capoeira. This caused the Brazilian government to prohibit the practice of capoeira in 1892.
Capoeira is such a lifestyle that eventually capoeires take part in a batizado or baptism into the art. At these events the person involved in the batizado is often given an apelido, or capoeira nickname.
Hidalgo said other martial artists thought of capoeira as more of a dance.
In recent years, capoirea's influence has been seen in movies, music and video games. In the popular Tekken video game series, characters Eddie Gordo and Christie Monteiro are capoireistas.
just a sport or a dance," Hidalgo said.
This certainly didn't stop people from playing capoeira, it simply just took the art to a more underground level.
But capoeira isn't all about kicks and cartwheels.
During the 1940s, the Brazilian government lifted the prohibition on capoieira, thus opening the door for the art to come to the United States in the 1960s.
"Within a roda group, it is important to have a sense of family." Hidalgo said. "It's about all the different aspects: music, acrobatics, history and tradition."
{
With the club at the University and other schools in the area, it is easy to get involved with the art.
"It is a lifestyle I adopted," Hidalgo said. "Every class I go to and every roda I'm in, I learn something new."
Edited by Ty Beaver
---