SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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WWW.KANSAN.COM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1,2008
BASEBALL
PAGE 1B
IN THE PROS
New rules reduce team's practices, games
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Kansas baseball played its 2006-2007 season opener on Feb. 1, 2007. Under new NCAA regulations the Jayhawks were unable to begin spring practice until today, and can't open their season until the third week of February.
NCAA rules nuisance in spring, benefit in fall
BY SHAWN SHROYER
shroyer@kansan.com
This time a year ago, the Kansas baseball team was nearly 4,000 miles away, soaking up some sun, preparing for its season opener against Hawaii-Hilo. Today, however, three weeks stand in the way of Kansas' perennial season-opening series on the Big Island.
What gives? The NCAA, of course - as in the NCAA giveth and the NCAA taketh away.
This season, the NCAA implemented new rules in college baseball, regulating when teams can begin practicing in the spring, when teams can begin regular season play, and how often teams can practice in the fall. Under the new rules, teams can't begin spring practice until Feb. 1 and can't open their season until the end of the third full week of February. So, whereas the lajayhaws had weeks of practice under their belt at this point last year, today marks their first practice as a team since the fall - a change the team is neither accustomed to, nor fond of.
"it's weird," junior first baseman Preston Land said. "My first year I was back like Jan. 4, my second year I was back like Jan. 7 and wed been practicing four times a day until school started. I think it's a little bit of a disadvantage."
Junior outfielder Nick Faunce shared Land's sentiments.
"I think it's a disadvantage," Faunce said. "Normally we would have come back two weeks before we started school and started doing multiple practices per day, which you get a feel for your team in that sense and you get strengthened."
According to the NCAA Baseball Issues Committee's final report on the rule changes, the uniform start dates would be "more reflective of baseball as a truly national sport." While this may prove to be the case, the new rules have put Kansas coach Ritch Price in a bind.
NCAA rules also prohibit teams from missing more than 10 days of class for games. In the past, Kansas was able to utilize weekends for road trips to the West Coast to minimize class days missed. Now, with three
fewer weeks to play the maximum 56 games, Kansas had to shift many non-conference games to the midweek, making it harder to stay within the class-days-missed limit.
"I do think it will level the playing field as far as the difference between the warm-weather states and the cold-weather states being able to get outside." Price said. "The drawback is we're geographically challenged. It's three hours to Wichita, and it's three hours to Creighton, which are our nonconference opponents. We're not in Dallas or Miami or Los Angeles, where you can go to school, drive across town and play different schools. It's impossible for us to do with our 10-day miss class time."
To stay within the class-days-missed limit this season, Price had to cancel a series at Clemson, which is known around the country as one of the best college baseball venues.
"It was unfortunate because that was my favorite place to play since I've been in college." Land said.
Not counting spring break, the jayhawks have 14 midweek games this season. Price is concerned that playing five games a week throughout the season will be counterproductive for college players.
"That's going to be difficult on our pitching staff." Price said. "The second thing it's going to do is it won't allow us to practice enough to keep improving our players."
So why don't teams schedule fewer games? Well, if the NCAA gets its way, that's probably where this is headed.
Considering how college football has added games to its regular season in recent years – not to mention the games it will add if and when a playoff system is put into place – and that college softball teams have been practicing for weeks and will begin regular season play next weekend, it's hard to deny
"They're talking about reducing games, which that's one of the things they told us, when the coaches agreed to have a national start date, was they wouldn't reduce games." Price said. "Now the first thing they want to do is reduce the number of games."
Major League play
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 5B
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Mike Zagurski, a Kansas pitcher from 2003 to 2005, made his way up to the Major Leagues and is now playing for the Philadelphia Phillies. Zagurski was injured on Aug. 18, 2007 but hopes to get healthy for this year's season.
Former Jayhawk pitcher goes professional for Philadelphia Phillies
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
Mike Zagurski walked into the visiting clubhouse at Turner Field in Atlanta on May 25, 2007, and found his way to his locker. The stitching on back of the Philadelphia Philles jersey spelled a familiar name. Z-A-G-I-R-S-K-I. That's when the realization set in for the former Kansas baseball player. Zagurski was now a Maior League Baseball player.
"There's a sense of accomplishment when you see that name on your jersey," Zagurski said. "You know that you did finally make it."
Zagurski, a 2003 to 2005 Kansas left-handed
pitcher, was one of two former Kansas baseball players to make Major League Baseball debuts during the 2007 baseball season. The other, Travis Metcalf, a 2005 graduate, made his debut with the Texas Rangers.
Zagurski made his first Major League appearance on the day he was called up to the Philadelphia Phillies. Zagurski pitched a scoreless inning against the Atlanta Braves on May 25, 2007, in front of family and friends. But Zagurski was never a cinch to pitch at the Major League level. No Major League organizations drafted Zagurski out of high school and no Big 12 schools recruited him.
So after graduating from Millard North
High School in Omaha, Neb., Zagurski continued his playing career at Hutchinson Community College. Zagurski spent two years in Hutchinson and earned All-Conference honors in the lajhawk Conference. He then transferred to the University before the 2003-04 school year. Zagurski still has a special fondness for Lawrence.
"I love Lawrence, there is no other place like it. It's a place I like to call home;" Zagurski said.
Zagurski pitched well during his first year at
SEE MAJOR LEAGUE ON PAGE 5B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks look forward Self tells players to keep their heads up
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
Bill Self's message to the players after Wednesday's loss to K-State was short and simple.
"He just told us to keep our heads up," junior guard Brandon Rush said, "and not make it two."
Self probably won't have to worry about that. For one, Kansas' next game, Saturday at 2:30 p.m., is against Colorado. The Buffaloes, at 1-5 in conference play, aren't exactly the team to beat in the Big 12. But that's not the only reason. Losses have usually brought out the best in the Jayhawks since Self has been coach.
Look no further than this year's 20-game winning streak to start the season. It came after a crushing loss to UCLA in the Elite Eight last year. That loss to UCA? I答
the first one since Kansas lost to Texas A&M nearly two months earlier. During that time, the Jayhawks won 14 straight games and clinched a Big 12 regular season and tournament championship.
Maybe, but Kansas needs to learn from its mistakes. The lajahwaks looked like the inferior team for the entire 40 minutes against the Wildcats. They got outhustled, outbounded and overall outplayed.
During the 2005-2006 season, Kansas also put together a remarkable streak. The Jayhawks started Big 12 play 1-2 and lost consecutive games to their rivals that year. They responded by winning 10 straight and 15 of 16 games.
Could this loss to a rival cause a similar spark?
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 5B
Loss to K-State revitalizes rivalry
The bus ride home on I-70 across the plains back to Lawrence Wednesday night may have felt like the men's basketball team's longest of the season. There was a certain feeling in the air, one very unfamiliar to this year's jayhawks: defeat.
COMMENTARY
It was a feeling that the returning players from last year's Elite Eight finish and coach Bill Self can relate to after their 55-68 loss to UCLA. There wasn't a group of fans waiting in Lawrence to greet the team upon returning to Lawrence, but it was the closest this year's Jayhawks can relate to last year's tournament loss.
Wednesday's 75-84 loss to Kansas State snapped Kansas' fourth-longest winning streak in its storied history and the longest winning streak of the Bill Self era. This loss was not about the winning streak but something much more.
"It didn't sting because of the (winning) streak. It stings because it's our rival," Self said after the game Wednesday. "I could care less about the streak, but I do care about
Though the rivalry hasn't been a factor for many years, this year's Wildcat team is different because of two freshmen phenom-
beating our rivals."
During the regular season, losing to a rival is the closest thing to losing in the NCAA tournament. Kansas' loss to Kansas State re-established a rivalry that lay dormant. Since Self began coaching at Kansas, the Jayhawks were 10-2 overall against the Wildcats. Kansas State hadn't won in Manhattan since 1983 and defeated Kansas just twice since the 1990s.
"I'm not scared to say it," Bill Walker told reporters on Big 12 Media Day. "I'm saying we'll beat them."
enons, Michael Beasley and Bill Walker. Both players guaranteed victories against Kansas before the season even started, which is quite a tall order against a jayhawk team that was ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press preseason poll.
Before Michael Beasley had even played a game for Kansas State, and perhaps even looked at the schedule of where the Wildcats were going to play Kansas, he confidently boasted his team.
"We're going to beat KU at home. We're going to beat 'em in their house. We're going to beat 'em in Africa," Beasley said. "Wherever we play, we're going to beat 'em."
Wednesday night, the Wildcats lived up to the first part of Beasley's guarantee. Beasley and Walker combined for 47 points and 11
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