6B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008
BEHIND THE SCENES (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
session for the pregame meal. The buffet again consisted of a big salad and fruit, along with strips of steak, chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables and spaghetti with meat sauce.
4:15 P.M. — The team checked out of the hotel, loaded the bus and made the eight-minute drive to the Ferrell Center for the big game. The players changed and headed out to the court to stretch and warm up, while Henrickson stayed behind in the locker room to write some final notes on the board.
5:20 P.M. - The team went into the locker room for its pregame talk
with about 43 minutes remaining on the clock. Coaches Henrickson and Lange broke down the keys to the game one final time. Some players munched on oranges to get some last-minute nourishment while others just sat and listened. After the coaches
"We made it easy for them. They were good, but we made them look real good defensively. We just stayed outside and didn't penetrate the three."
and preparation had paid off when they forced two early Baylor turnovers by anticipating paces. After a short shot by Jacobs, the Jayhawks trailed the No. 6 team in the nation by only six points. 15-9.
BONNIE HENRICKSON Kansas coach
were done talking about what the team needed to do to win the game, they joined hands with the players in a circle for a moment of silence. After days of preparation and hours upon hours of watching film and reading scouting reports, the moment they had been preparing for had finally arrived. It was game time.
6:05 P.M. — As Henrickson correctly predicted, Baylor's Jessica Morrow did not start, but she did enter early in the game as a substitute. It looked as if the Jayhawks' scouting
Things went downhill quickly when KU's leading scorer, McCray, went to the bench with two fouls just a few seconds later. The Bears put the game away with a 16-4 run with McCray on the bench to lead 33-13 at halftime. Even when McCray was in the game, she struggled to find a rhythm and made only three of the 15 shots she attempted.
The Jayhawks tried to mount a comeback early in the second half. They cut the lead to 14, but Baylor's balanced offense and a 21-of-24 performance from the free-throw line put the game out of reach. The Jayhawks fell 59-35 to the Bears, struggling to get
anything going offensively, despite the added screens to their offensive plays installed at Tuesday's practice.
CONTINUED PHOTO
Sophomore guard Lacchela Jacobs looks out the window of the team bus last Wednesday during their trip in Waco, Texas. The team was traveling to the Ferrell Center for their minnow shootout in preparation of Facing No. 6 Bavarri that night.
She also said, "We never took
"I'm not advocating playing anybody one-on-one because that's not how you beat Baylor, but when you have an offense that has six to eight different screens and at the end of that we still can't get a shot," Henrickson said. "We've got to be able to get in a seam, make a pass and take a shot. We never got inside of their man-defense."
advantage of them trying to switch some screens."
A key Henrickson had stressed multiple times during the trip was rebounding, and that turned out to indeed be a big difference in the game. Baylor had 25 offensive rebounds to the Jayhawks' 20 defensive rebounds. Counting the three misses at the free-throw line, Baylor rebounded more than half of its missed shots, a stat that didn't sit well with Kansas coaches on the trip back to Lawrence.
"It was offensive rebouncing and transition opportunities for them." Henrickson said. "We made it easy for them. They were good, but we made them look real good defensively. We just stayed outside and didn't penetrate the three."
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
9:05 P.M. — As a disappointed team boarded the plane for the flight home, a bag with a sandwich, chips and fruit was waiting. The food was the only way for some players to take their minds off the game.
Once the plane was airborne, most players slept or listened to their iPods. McCray, however, looked over the final stat sheet. She could only put her head down after the stat sheet confirmed the poor offensive outing.
"It's real frustrating," McCray said. "Our shots just didn't fall, I don't know why, but the offense just wasn't in sync. They were switching every screen, and we just couldn't find the right opportunities to score. We just couldn't knock down the open shot when we had it."
10:45 P.M. — As the plane approached Topeka, the captain announced that the weather conditions had changed and that it was snowing at the airport. As the plane
As the plane dipped below the clouds, players could barely see the ground because of the thick snow that surrounded them in the air. As the team began their final approach, they were told that the runway needed to be cleared and that they were being held up because of the snow. As the plane circled amidst the snow and wind, the pilot came back on and said that people were bringing de-icing equipment onto the runway
and that it would take an extra 15 minutes or so.
Finally, after circling above the airport in the storm for more than 45 minutes, the team was able to land safely.
12:55 A.M. — Back in Lawrence, players slowly walked back to their apartments at the Jayhawker Towers as coaches and team personnel got in their cars to drive home.
Teams spend hour after hour preparing for each team they play. Whether it's the No. 6 team in the
country or a 2-11 nonconference foe, coaches and players work tirelessly to make sure they are as prepared as possible to win each game. The game itself is made of days of preparation and practice that led up to that point. So the next time you see a team take the field or court, take a second to think about what they did to get there. Or what it took just to get home.
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
SUPERBOWL
Patriots aim for post-season perfection after undefeated season
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Even by Super Bowl standards, this one has it all. Unbeaten team vs. unpredictable team. Most valuable player vs. least likely Manning. New York vs. Boston. Plus a supermodel, to boot.
Who needs Xs and Os, anyway?
Bring on Gisele!
And kicking off the hype, Tom Brady's burn foot.
Two weeks before the big game has barely begun, and already the buzz is brewing over the New England Patriots and New York Giants. Off the field, especially.
Fine by the NFL. In a league that
loves attention and promotes itself with a TV network that provides 24-hour coverage, this is more perfect than the Pats. Besides, isn't this exactly why they have the extra-week break before the game?
Been a while since Joe Namath lounged poolside with the blondes and promised a win, or Jim McMahon paraded down Bourbon Street. Neon Deion Sanders and Terrell Owens were rank amateurs, by comparison.
If Super Bowl XLII publicists needed any more eyeballs, they've found them in XL fashion.
Funny thing, the epicenter of the football world — for the moment, anyway — isn't a snow practice field in Foxborough, or an indoor bubble
at the Meadowlands or a giant dome in the Arizona desert.
Nope, it's a neatly appointed, brick town house on a quiet, quaint street tucked away in the old, historic section of Greenwich Village. That's where the NFL's All-American boy — the dimple-chinned Brady
— limped around with a walking boot on his right foot, spending time with girlfriend Gisele Bundchen.
The Patriots quarterback also showed up with a bouquet of flowers. Nice for her; nice for the New York Post head writer, too.
"FLOWERY TOM A POSY PATSIE," the newspaper blared Tuesday.
OK, hardly the Ickey Shuffle or
the Super Bowl Shuffle. But a glam start building toward America's No. 1 sporting event, a game on Feb. 3 in suburban Phoenix that's expected to attract 1 billion viewers all over the globe.
Then again, maybe it's all a ruse. The conspiracy theorists were out in full force Tuesday on WFAN, the all-sports radio station in New York, suggesting that the 18-0 Patriots put Brady in a soft cast merely to confuse the Giants. In fact, there are pictures aptly on the Web, showing Brady squirring Bundchen from her West Village pad to an East Village hotspot minus the boot.
Brady isn't addressing whether anything is seriously amiss. The two-
time Super Bowl MVP simply, said he was "a little nicked up" and that "I'd have to be on a stretcher to miss this one."
David Letterman, meanwhile, offered his own plan. The "Late Show" host suggested the Giants might consider slipping last year's Super Bowl MVP, Peyton Manning, into the No. 10 jersey worn by his brother, Eli.
Eli may not have the cachet of his older brother, but at least he did not make the same mistake that Brett Favre did, throwing an interception that cost the Green Bay Packers a chance to beat the Giants in overtime last weekend.
After that victory in the NFC championship game, the brothers talked on the phone.
it's great to hear it from him. I'll take all the advice I can set."
Hes sure to hear plenty. Over the years, the break between the league conference games and the Super Bowl has varied between one week and two weeks. The coaches and players usually want to get going; NFL handlers like the anticipation to percolate.
It's bound to happen, particularly with a built-in rivalry. Beantown vs. the Big Apple once again, this time on the gridiron instead of the diamond.
Leave it to Red Sox star Curt Schilling to throw out the first pitch. Many Yankees rooters still think his famous bloody sock in the 2004 postseason was a stunt, and he knows exactly how rival fans feel about the perfect Patriots.