6B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2008
BIG 12 (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
1. Kansas (22-1, 7-1)
Brandon Rush acknowledged that Kansas caught a big break when Kansas State lost to Missouri on Saturday. He was right.
Now, Kansas has the best opportunity of any team to win the big 12. The Jayhawks have four
big games left on the schedule.
They play Baylor at home, at Texas,
at Texas A&M and against K-State
at home. Kansas needs to beat the
Wildcats to nullify the tiebreaker
they currently own. The Jayhawks
should also win against Texas or
Texas A&M to seal their spot on top
of the Big 12.
Two weeks ago, when Kansas was dominating conference foes, it would seem like a guarantee that the Jayhawks could win both of those games. Now, who knows? Kansas needs to increase its defensive pressure to return to its fold form. If the Jayhawks do that, they'll win the Big 12.
2. Texas (17-4, 4-2)
Believe it or not, the Texas Longhorses have been flying under the radar. With Kansas' 20-0 start, K-State's resurgence and Baylor's improbable turnaround, Texas
has been the forgotten team during the last two weeks. Part of that is the Longhoms own fault of
course. Texas was pummeled 97-84 at Missouri in its first conference game, and they didn't show up against Texas A&M either, losing 80-63. But don't forget, this is a team that won at UCLA and beat Tennessee by 19 points. Their schedule is daunting. They host Kansas and Texas A&M, and travel to Oklahoma, Kansas State and Baylor. Yikes. Fortunately, Texas sophomore D.J. Augustin might be the best player in the Big 12 not named Michael Beasley. The silky sophomore is averaging 19.9 points per game and passes the ball to teammates. If Texas can win on the road, and beat K-State in Manhattan, they'll be sitting in second place in the Big 12 by season's end.
the Wildcats would probably have to beat Kansas and only lose one
3. Kansas State (15-5, 5-1)
Odds: 3.51
Odds - 3.5:1
After Kansas lost to the Wildcats last week, Bill Sell said K-State was in the "driver's seat" for the Big 12 title. Not anymore.
4. Texas A&M (18-4, 4-3)
Odds - 5:1
First year head coach and former
K-State
other game the rest of the way. That's probably not going to happen.
K-State shouldn't have lost to Missouri last week. For one, the Tigers were playing at less than full strength. Plus.
Mizzu is just not that good. The loss moved the Wildcats to second place, where they currently reside. Now they face a big challenge to get back into first.
Kansas Jayhawk, MarkTurgeon, has
Their upcoming schedule includes three major games at Baylor, at Kansas and at home against Texas. K-State also has to play Iowa State and Nebraska on the road. Neither of those games will be easy, either. To win the conference,
had a chaotic first season in College Station, Texas. The Aggies started 15-1, and Aggie fans were already
starting to forget the name of Billy Gillippe – the former Texas A&M coach who moved to Kentucky in the offseason. The honeymoon was short-lived. Texas A&M started 1-3 in the Big 12, including a five-overtime loss to Baylor, and Turgeon started getting testy. "I'm in a no-flipping-win situation this year, and that puts me in a bad mood," Turgeon said to the hometown reporters after his rocky start.
"I've got no chance this year. If we win, it's because of Gillispie. If we lose, it's because of Mark Turgeon. So I can't win," he said.
Fortunately for the Aggies, things have calmed down a bit, and Texas A&M has won three straight. The Aggies still have important road games at Texas and Baylor and a home matchup with Kansas, but they should be able to settle in and make the NCAA tournament with a fourth place Big 12 finish.
5. Oklahoma (15-6, 3-3)
Odds - 8:1
Blake Griffin's knee injury couldn't have come at a better time.
The Oklahoma freshman forward hurt his knee during a loss to Kansas. The Sooners would
have probably lost the game even if he was healthy. Then, it got even better. Okla-homa happened to have
its by week, where it only played one game in a 12-day period. The Sooners won that game, and then Griffin returned to beat Baylor. Oklahoma's lucky schedule kept it in the thick of the Big 12 race.
The Sooners probably won't win the conference, but they have a great opportunity to finish in the top four. But to do that, they have to beat Texas at home tonight. This is a big game. Oklahoma has to play Texas and Texas Tech on the road later and winning home games is an absolute must to do well in this conference.
6. Baylor (16-4, 4-2)
Odds - 20:1
Welcome to relevance Baylor. The Bears have been the "biggest
surprise thats not really a surprise" in Big 12 history, Coach Scott Drew has been molding this
Who are these Bears? Well, start by getting to know junior guard Curtis Jerrells, because if Baylor makes the NCAA tournament, Jerrells might become a household name.
team together for years – it just took a while for people to notice. Baylor has one solid Big 12 victory, against Texas A&M in five overtimes. The other three came against Iowa State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Baylor still has to play Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma on the road. They also have home games against K-State and Texas A&M. If Baylor can win two of those games, Drew would probably be happy – although he probably wouldn't admit that.
Edited by Russell Davies
'Big challenge' is probably an understatement for the Big 12 as it's easily the top conference in the country. There are currently five teams ranked in the AP top 25 poll, and according to Charlie Creme's bracketology on espn.com, eight Big 12 squads will be dancing in March with two more close to getting in.
Henrickson says the reason for the Big 12's prominence has as much to do with its coaches as the players.
"I'd say that top to bottom the Big 12 has the best coaches in (the nation)," Henrickson said. "You don't go into games in this league and think you're just going to out-coach people because everybody does such a great job."
Creme has currently tabbed to reach the NCAA tournament thanks in large part to its strength of schedule and a ranking of 37 in the RPI.
There is great respect for the Big 12 amongst women's basketball analysts right now but Kansas will still need to get some wins down the road to go dancing. That won't be an easy task as two of its next three games are against Kansas State and Nebraska, who carry RPI rankings of 19 and 22, respectively.
Kansas is one of the teams that
"We definitely needed it," Boogaard said. "It's going to give us big momentum going into Kansas State.
The key to getting those wins, according to Henrickson, is avoiding turnovers and taking better care of the ball. Freshman center Krysten Boogaard said the victory against Iowa State puts Kansas in the right direction.
challenge ourselves in the nonconference," coach Bonnie Henrickson said, "But you have to be careful, because the league presents such a big challenge on its own, so it's a fine balance."
NYSTROM
-Edited by Daniel Reyes
(CONTINUED FROM 1B)
filet migon.
RPI (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
This year will probably be the highest ranked class Mangino has ever pulled in. As of Tuesday afternoon, Rivals, com had it rated as the 36th best in the nation. There are no one- or two-star recruits amongst the 20 Jayhawk commitments listed on Rivals. Instead, the class has 18 three-stars and two four-classs.
1. The Jayhawk coaching staff can now compete against schools like Arkansas and Texas A&M for recruits instead of merely picking from their lefters. An Orange Bowl will do that.
Don't fret. Mangino hasn't changed his stripes with success. My guess is the higher ranked class is due to two factors;
2. I truly believe that these Web sites are giving Mangino a high level of respect. It is well known that Web sites often boost a player's rating based on who is interested in him. That is the reason that Florida State had an incredible run of high recruiting classes when these Web sites came to prominence. The thinking went like this: if Florida State, a school that can choose from across the country what athletes they want, shows interest in a player, that must mean that player is good. This unfairly inflated recruiting rankings of several prestigious schools. Now we have a corollary. Guys like Mark Mangino and Wake Forest's Jim Grobe have proven they can win without four- and five-star recruits. This must mean one of two things: either these two guys are among the very best evaluators in the country or they are among the very best developers in the country. And the truth of the matter is that they are probably both.
That means that if Mangino shows interest in a guy that the Texas Longhorns bypassed, it is now less an indictment on the prospect than it is of the program. This player might have been a two-star recruit a few years ago, but now he is a three-star. This is precisely the reason that the Top 10 ranked recruiting classes today will not mirror the Top 10 final rankings in four years and why you shouldn't lament Mangino's fallings as a recruiter. Have some faith.
Edited by Patrick De Oliveira
》 NHL
Now New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are tied in points atop the Atlantic Division.
In other NHL games on Monday night, it was Edmonton 5, Calgary 0; and Phoenix 4, Colorado 3 in overtime.
"We played better at the end of the second," Langenbrunner said. "It gave us a little momentum, but we shot ourselves in the foot giving up the power-play goal right away. We showed a little character, battling back and playing our best period in a long time.
Devils come back win in overtime
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK, N.J. — In the closing minute of the second period, Jamie Langenbrunner finally gave the sluggish New Jersey Devils a long-awaited jolt.
Instead of heading to Buffalo on the heels of a 1-4 homestand, the Devils will carry a two-game winning streak into their one-game trip Wednesday before four more in Newark.
His goal cut the Devils' deficit in half with a period to go. The New Jersey captain felt that the tide was turning, but his coach still wasn't happy.
A power-play goal by Jordan Stal increased Pittsburgh's lead to 3-1 early in the third before Patrik Elias and David Clarkson scored less than two minutes apart to tie it. That set up Zach Parise's winner, off a feed from Elias, to win it 37 seconds into overtime.
"I didn't like the way we were playing in the second period, at all," said Devils coach Brent Sutter, who delivered a pointed message to his team before the third. "They responded the way you would like a team to respond and expect a team to respond."
And rightfully so. There was still some angst to come before a stirring rally lifted the Devils to an important 4-3 overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.
"It wasn't reinventing the wheel," said Parise, who had two assists to go with his 20th goal. "We had to put forth a better effort and we did in the third. Hopefully we saw the way we need to play."
Parise wore it by tipping Elias' drive past Ty Conklin on the only shot of overtime. New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia all have 63 points in the five-team Atlantic.
"We let that extra point slip away and it feels like we gift-wrapped two points for them," Conklin said. "It's not something you want to do, especially against a divisional opponent."
Martin Brodeur earned his 28th win of the season and was credited with an assist on the winning goal. That made up for his tripping penalty in the third period that led to Staal's power-play tally.
a quick comeback in the third that they didn't seem to have in them.
"We got outcompeted and outworked in the second period." Sutter said. "In the third we played the way we need to play and the way we expect to play."
After Staal pushed Pittsburgh's lead to 3-1 4:30 into the third, Elias and Clarkson connected 1:44 apart.
That gave the crowd of 13,012 fans — the smallest crowd in the short history of Prudential Center — something to cheer about. Until then, the loudest roar was in the first period when the Devils posted a congratulatory message on the scoreboard to the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
Each club had 10 shots in the third period and both seemed content to play conservatively and get to overtime.
"We definitely played the third period and overtime like we cared and wanted to win," Sutter said.
Petr Sykora and Ryan Malone also scored for the Penguins, who fell to 3-2-2 since captain Sidney Crosby's ankle injury. Sykora's goal was the 600th NHL point for the forward, who spent his first seven seasons with New Jersey.
"It's unacceptable to lose a hockey game like this," coach Michel Therrien said.
Evgeni Malkin's two assists tied Crosby for the team lead with 63 points.
Oilers 5, Flames 0
At Edmonton, Alberta, Mathieu Garon made 24 saves for the Oilers.
Fernando Pisani, Dustin Penner,
Ales Hemsky, scored for Edmonton in
Garon's fourth shutout of the season.
Curtis Joseph made his first start in goal for the Flames after signing with the team last month. He made 23 saves.
Calgary has dropped two in a row after winning four straight.
At Denver, Radim Vrbata scored late in the third period then added the winner 3:23 into overtime to give Phoenix a come-from-behind win.
Coyotes 4, Avalanche 3, OT
Vrbata's deciding goal came during a scramble in front. Shane Doan was initially credited with poking the puck between Peter Budaj's pads.
The Coyotes forced overtime when Vrbata scored into an open net with 3:11 left in regulation.
It looked as though the Avalanche were headed to victory when T.J. Hensick scored his second goal midway through the third period to give Colorado a 3-2 lead.
BASKETBALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bob Knight's midseason retirement surprising
The Hall of Fame coach stayed true to his word Monday.
"He's ready," successor and son Pat Knight said during his weekly radio program. "He's tired."
LUBBOCK, Texas — Bob Knight promised that when he finally decided to call it quits at Texas Tech it would be hard to find him.
After telling his sons, his bosses and his team of his resignation, Knight spoke only to one local newspaper about his shocking departure in the middle of his seventh season in West Texas.
Knight left during his 42nd year as a head coach with more wins than any Division I men's coach. Pat Knight inherited a team that is struggling at 12-8 and has 10 games remaining.
"This is my team, that's what he told me. He's done." Pat Knight said on his radio show. "He's got a lot of life left to enjoy."
Almost a decade after he was fired by Indiana, the school he led to three national championships
— one an undefeated season not since matched — Knight walked away from college basketball.
It was a stunning midseason move by Knight, who gave no hint a change was coming.
"There's a transition that's going to take place here from me to Pat and I've dwell on this all year long ... how it would be best for him and for the team and for what we can do in the long run to make this the best thing for Texas Tech," Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, which first reported the resignation.
Pat Knight, whose personality is more subdued than his father's fiery temperament, has been a head coach twice, a partial season with the USBL Columbus Cagerz and a full season leading the Wisconsin Blast, which went 19-15 under him.
He played for Knight at Indiana and has been with his father since his arrival at Tech in 2001. He was chosen as his father's successor in 2005.
Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said Knight told the team before practice Monday. Though Knight won't be part of the program, his input will be available.
"If Pat wants to talk to him and to run something by him, I'm sure he will accommodate him," Myers told The AP. "Pat's ready to be head coach."
The 67-year-old Knight told Myers of his decision in a noon meeting Monday, Tech chancellor Kent Hance told The Associated Press. Knight then called Hance and told him.
"I think Bob is through with coaching. I think he got to the point where it wasn't fun for him," Hance said. "He thought about it Sunday all day and talked to his wife and decided "This is something I want to do."
The Red Raiders beat Oklahoma State 67-60 on Saturday, giving Knight his 902nd victory. He earned No. 900 last month against Texas &M.
Texas Tech next plays Wednesday night at Baylor.
"I guess you can never be surprised at some of the things Bob does," former UCLA coach John Wooden told the AP. "I don't think there's ever been a better teacher of the game of basketball than Bob. I don't always approve of his methods, but his players for the most part are very loyal to him. I would say that no player that ever played for him would not say he did not come out a stronger person."
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