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BASKETBALL TICKET PICKUP FOR KSU AND TEXAS TECH ENDS WEDNESDAY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008
VICTORY TASTES SWEET
Hawks soar over rival Mizzou
Sophomore guard Sherron Collins takes the ball to the basket against Missouri forward Leo Lyons during the first half. Collins finished the game with 12 points, four rebounds and four assists in 24 minutes. The Jayhawks led the Tigers 45-33 after the first 20 minutes.
BY MARK DENT mdent@kansan.com
Orange specks dotted the student section Monday night, an attempt at an orange out.
The fans who donned the orange shirts wanted to show their superiority over Missouri in football, to prove that Kansas had the better season even though it lost to the Tigers.
They don't have to resort to those gimmicks in basketball. No way. Kansas defeated the Tigers 90-71 Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse for its fifth victory in a row against its rival. It ties the amount of consecutive victories Kansas had against Missouri from 2001 to 2003 and is one less than the six straight the Jayhawks won from 1965 to 1967.
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This one came relatively easy.
That's when Kansas started to pull away. Rush made another three-pointer. Freshman center Cole Aldrich made a couple free throws. Sophomore guard Sherron Collins and junior guard Mario Chalmers scored on drives to the hoop. Soon, the Jayhawkes were up double digits and led 45-33 at the half.
Kansas showed no signs of offensive sluggishness as it did against Colorado. Junior guard Brandon Rush hit a contested three on his team's first possession. Sophomore forward Darrell Arthur slammed it home and hung on the rim on the next. The offense was so good that senior center Sasha Kaun scored by pulling on the rim and not even touching the ball. Twice. This was good old-fashioned athletic Kansas basketball.
But the offensive blitz and relentless crowd didn't frighten the Tigers at first. They were nearly a full team now, with everyone back from suspension except senior guard Stethon Hannah, and they played like it. Missouri responded to every KU basket with one of its own until late in the first half.
The scoring run impressed MU guard Keon Lawrence.
"They were able to do what they wanted to do," he said, "and were more physical than us."
"The shots were falling!" Kaun said. "That helps build up the confidence a little bit."
Perhaps other than Rush, no one may have been as important to the Jayhawks in the first half than Kaun. A couple of his baskets were lucky, but the rest of his game was legit. From the 17-minute mark to the 10-minute mark, he scored eight of Kansas' 16 points. Kaun finished with nine in the first half.
He was filling in for Arthur off the bench. Aldrich was doing the same. He grabbed nine rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass.
"Cole and Sasha really bailed us out offensively," Self said. "Collectively, those guys were terrific. They really rebounded the ball and went after the ball."
Kansas outrebounded Missouri 48 to 23 for the entire game. Senior Forward Darnell Jackson, Arthur, Kaun and Aldrich
all outperformed DeMarre Carroll, Vaidotas Volkus and Leo Lyons inside, Carroll led that trio in rebounding, and he had only three boards.
It would have been close to a perfect game for the Jayhawks if the guards had
played better. Self wasn't too happy with their defense. They let Keon Lawrence score 25 points and only got three steals. Self also said they were part of the reason Kaun and
SEE MISSOURI ON PAGE 4B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
BY RUSTIN DODD dodd@kansan.com
Rush gets aggressive midseason
Hoe-Hum.
Another double-digit performance for Brandon Rush. Another victory against Missouri.
All that was old news for Rush after Monday night's victory against Missouri.
Rush had bigger problems. He caught a few Tiger elbows and his face told the story.
"I'm all swelled up in the face," Rush said. "I don't get the girls."
FOOTBALL
Rush's performance against Missouri probably made the Kansas City, Mo., native feel a little better.
Rush scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and put together another strong performance against Missouri – he's now averaging 14.1 points per game in six career regular season games against the Tigers. Rush did something else on Monday night. He made more believers out of those people who've always questioned his aggressiveness.
Kansas coach Bill Self has been Rush's biggest critic. Self called Rush out earlier this season, asking for his junior guard to be more aggressive. Rush responded and came into tonight's game averaging 12.3 points per game. Still, those words Self ushered earlier this season might still be the biggest reason for Rush's consistent play.
"It has everything to do with it," Rush said about Self's comments. "I just don't want him saving that anymore."
Rush's aggressiveness was on display Monday night. Rush scored 19 points, but many of those points came on plays that would hardly be described as Rushesque.
Rush hit a three-pointer to start the game, then hit sophomore forward Darrell Arthur mid-stride for transition dunk to give Kansas a 5-1 lead. Then Rush did something a little more out of character. He attacked the basket. With 3:16 to play in the first half, Rush drove the baseline and scored, giving Kansas a 38-26 advantage. He finished the first half with 10 points.
"To me, he's played pretty good ever since he's been here." Self said. "He's averaging a little over 15 and a half a game {in conference play}, and he's only led us in scoring twice. When you talk about con-
SEE RUSH ON PAGE 4B
Football fans still in the game
College teams announce their player picks for 2008 on Wednesday
The sounds and smells of late September tailgates on the Hill have been exchanged for Allen Fieldhouse campouts. Kansas fans have turned their collective ice from Lee Corso to Digger Phelps. Memories of bowl season have been replaced with the anticipation of brackets full of March madness.
When each team formally announces its 2008 recruiting class Wednesday, diehard fans won't lack for knowledge of the high school seniors pledged to become Jayhawks, Wildcats, Sooners or other college teams. CSTV is planning seven hours of programming full of signing day information. ESPNU is devoting all of Wednesday afternoon to covering the commitments. And yes, some people care intensely. When I tried tracking down some further info on ESPNU's recruiting info, its Web site read. "This site is temporarily too busy to process your request. Please try again later."
By all indications, it's basketball season. But for those who insist on a February football fix, there's signing day - the most overhyped and overanalyzed day of the college football calendar.
Can't log on over at ESPNU.com? No worries. Web destinations such as Rivals.com and Scout.com are devoted almost entirely to recruiting news - at this time of the year, mainly football. Rivals.com boasts message boards, national team recruiting rankings, lists of the top prospects at each position projected through 2011 and individual biographies of countless high school players.
This would all be great if the whole process wasn't an educated guessing game at best and a crapshoot at worst. Recruiting services can't possibly watch in person each and every high school player they "evaluate." Web sites are notorious for granting players better rankings on the basis of which schools are interested. A glance through some players' biographies would have you believe every kid in America runs no slower than a 4.55 second 40-yard dash and can bench press 325 pounds.
To see the guesswork and inaccuracy that goes into scouting the multitude of prep football prospects, one doesn't have to look any farther than Kansas' commit lists from the past few seasons. The jayhawks' 2004 class was a real bummer according to Rivals.com. Kansas didn't snag any four-star recruits, out of a possible five stars. Of the 21-player class, 14 were two-star kids - players destined for mediocrity. Turns on the recruiting service was wrong because the 2004 class turned out to be more than average.
Junior Aqib Talib was one of those two-star recruits, and the cornerback is now headed for a gigantic pay day and the first round of the NLA Drift. Junior offensive lineman Anthony Collins was a two-star guy, too. He's also headed to the NFL after an
All-American season. Dexton Fields, junior wide receiver, who led Kansas with 63 receptions last year, earned just two stars. Junior Jayhawks' tackling leader, Joe Mortensen, also got the two-star tag.
The 2007 Kansas Jayhawks managed to finish 12-1 and capture an Orange Bowl victory with no players Rivals.com deemed five-star prospects and just two four-star players
- freshman wide receiver Ryan Murphy, who didn't play a single down all season, and sophomore cornerback Anthony Webb, who became more famous for his refusal to call for a fair catch than for any of his positive attributes. That fact speaks more to the failure of the recruiting service than it does the quality of Kansas' players, who were able to match up favorably across the board against the highly touted Virginia Tech Hokies in last month's Orange Bowl triumph.
If you flip on the TV Wednesday afternoon or stumble onto some recruiting rankings in the paper later this week, remember to take everything you hear with a grain of
Recruit Web sites ranked Agib Talib with two stars but now he has been recruited by the NFL
Jon Goering/KANSAN
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salt. The too-small, too-slow, two-star player who goes unmentioned could be an eventual Orange Bowl MVP and the uber-prospect
who earns five stars and endless accolades could end up an afterthought.
Edited by Mandy Earles
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