SPORTS
KU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU ANNOUNCES NEW DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR PAGE 3B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2008
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks narrowly evade Tigers
Mindy Rickerts/KANSAN
Missouri guard Keon Lawrence, forward Leo Lions and forward Darryl Butterfield watch the final seconds of Missouri's loss against Kansas. The Jayhawks beat the Tigers 67-70 at Mizzou Arena.
KU goes to 18-0 after defeating Missouri in last Saturday's game
BY MARK DENT
ndent@kansan.com
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Before Kansas took the floor against Missouri on Saturday, coach Bill Self told his team about a "crazy day in college basketball."
Hed just seen North Carolina fall to Maryland, K-State surprise Texas A&M and USC win the battle of Los Angeles against UCLA.
"Youd think Missouri would get their eyes wide open and think, "That could be us," said senior guard Russell Robinson. "So, it put a little more pressure on us, but we were able to handle business like we were supposed to."
The undefeated Jayhawks (18-0) hardly played perfect though. They missed free throws, picked up stupid fouls, and shot below average. They looked ripe for upset.
Missouri, a team of maddening inconsistency, gave the Jayhawks its best shot early in the game. They lead most of the first half, but late in the game, Mizzou pulled within three as guard Daniel Horton made some clutch shots. But, for the rest of the game, Kansas again showed it can win even when not playing at its highest level.
And, for a while, an upset looked likely.
As guard Brandon Rush said, "We dum play good at all. We had a lot of mental breakdowns, so it felt good to just get a win."
More than a month had passed since Kansas had played a game as close. Since a tight victory at Georgia Tech, Kansas had been steam-rolling big teams like Boston College, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Each game displayed crisp passing, relentless defense and sharp shooting. The Jayhawks looked unbeatable.
However, that team was gone on Saturday night. Kansas made just 40 percent
PAGE 1B
of its shots and
down the stretch.
Players whod
sizzled in earlier
games froze up.
Rush missed 12
of 14 shots, and
guards Mario
Chalmers and
Darrell Arthur
both got into foul
trouble.
Self gave Missouri's shifting defenses credit for
"The key to having a great season is winning games when you don't play like yourself."
the lajhawk problems. In fact, Self said held not since Chalmers and Robinson as fast on offense all season.
BILL SELF Kansas coach
Kansas held on -even after some Horton heroes helped Missouri to within five.
round three minutes remaining, Chalmers came up with a steal and found Rush in transition. Then, Matt Lawrence intentionally fouled him, which basically ended the game.
The game ended like the Georgia Tech, Southern California, and Arizona games did. Though the Jayhawks didn't look pretty in any of these, they still won. With this victory against Missouri, Kansas is developing a pan-
chant for winning—regardless if the team plays perfectly or not. It has a characteristic Self wants his team to have.
"The key to having a great season is winning games when you don't play like your
self." Self said. "That's going to happen nine or 10 times a year, and you have to figure out a way to go 7-2 or 8-2 in those to have a great season."
Despite the victory, Kansas dropped to number two after The Memphis Tigers blew out Southern Mississippi on Saturday. For now the Jayhawks will have to settle for second.
Self doesn't mind though, but Robinson thinks Kansas deserves recognition after beating its rival in a close game.
"I think we're the best team in the nation," Robinson said, "but until you get out there and play that game, you don't know who's best."
Edited By Nick Mangiaracina
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Kansas heads west to face Buffaloes
BY TAYLOR BERN tbern@kansan.com
With one conference win under its belt, Kansas will now try to add a second as it travels to Boulder, Colo., to take on the Buffaloes.
Colorado (12-5, 1-3) and Kansas (12-5, 1-3) both defeated Missouri for each team's only conference victory.
Colorado senior forward jackie McFarland, a 6-foot-3 Derby native, has
scored at least 17 points in the Buffs' four Big 12 contests this year. She ranks second in the conference with 18.5 points per game and third in the conference in rebounds, pulling down 8.1 per game.
Rebounding will be the focus Tuesday
The task of stopping her defensively will primarily fall to freshman Krysten Boogaard, who had one of her best performances of the year on Saturday. Boogaard finished the game with 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks.
night because Colorado sophomore forward Aija Putnina also averages 8.1 rebounds each game. Early in the season, Kansas struggled on the boards. Likewise, it will take every player to nullify the Buffs' resounding rebounding.
Sophomore Danielle McCray grabbed some key rebounds down the stretch against Missouri, and will need to find that groove again, as well as improve her shooting from the field.
It helps, though, that no matter who they
play. McCray and the Jayhawks think they have a chance to win.
"A lot of teams are stepping up in the Big 12 and no one know who's going to win, that's what I love about this conference," McCray said. "It's just whoever shows up that night."
Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Freshman sets pace for victory Tigers give Hawks first Big 12 win
BY TAYLOR BERN
tbern@kansan.com
She has shown flashes of brilliance in a few games this season, but never before was freshman Krysten Boogaard as dominant as she was in the opening minutes of Saturday's home tilt with Missouri.
"Out of the gate, nobody says 'We've got to rely on Krysten.' Henrickson said. "When Danielle [McCray] struggles or Sade [Morris] struggles, everybody's looking around because those are the two that score all the time."
Boogard scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots - all in the first nine minutes - to pace Kansas to a 66-60 win. its first Big 12 victory of the season. Coach Bonnie Henrickson noticed her team playing with more confidence after witnessing the freshmasters' hot start.
"When Krysten scores for us early, it boosts everybody else up."
Kansas forward Porscha Weddington also got into the action, engineering a 6-0 run.
Boogaard received a pass almost every possession of the 15 first-half minutes she played, sometimes putting on a post move for a laopy or drawing a foul to put her on the charity strip, where she finished 5 of 7.
"I said to her, 'You don't need to be fancy and you don't need to be fast. Just use your athleticism and go up and score," Henrickson said. "Those two, in particular, were fantastic in the first half."
The Jayhawks' big play down low was the main reason they went into half-time 38-25, but the Tigers wouldn't take a loss lying down.
Missouri came out firing in the second half to pull the deficit down to eight. From there it was a back-and-forth battle with Kansas trying to defend every Missouri advance.
"I think we should have the same amount of energy as we had in the second half [for the entire game]," Missouri forward Amanda Hanneman said. "We need to come out with that fire from the get-go."
The Tigers limited Boogaard to just five points in the second half, but every time it seemed they were ready to push for the lead, Kansas guards Morris and McCray hit key baskets to keep them an arm's length away.
Morris finished with 10 points - eight in the second half - four rebounds and seven assists, and despite shooting a 5 for 18 from the field, McCray made her presence felt
SEE WOMEN ON PAGE 6B
COMMENTARY
Football teams should look at coaches' abilities, not size
If you wanted a good meal, would it matter to you what the chef looked like? If your screenplay was being turned into a film, would it matter to you how much the director weighed? So why, pray tell, was Mark Mangino's door not knocked down by Michigan, West Virginia, UCLA or any of the other 15 schools that had coaching vacancies this offseason?
One other thing about him: his trophy case now features the 2007 Big 12 Coach of the Year award along with eight separate National Coach of the Year awards. Plus, he won an Orange Bowl at the University of Kansas, for crying out loud.
Because he is overweight, bald and considered at times to be surly.
Because there isn't great precedent for overweight coaches ascending to the peak of college football, maybe it's best to juxtapose Mangino's plight with that of minority coaches. Last season, only seven D-1A
schools employed minority coaches, less than 6 percent of total schools. This year, the number will slightly grow to eight after UCLA fired Karl Dorrell and Houston hired Oklahoma assistant Kevin Sumlin and Navy promoted assistant Ken Niumataolo.
It's always good to see progress. Kudos to the athletics directors. That's neither here nor there, though, because these guys aren't bigoted. Just amazingly short-sighted.
I remember what an ESPN football analyst said of the process of drafting quarterbacks, "If you are going to miss, miss big." The premise being that if you are going to make a mistake, make it on someone who has all the measurables — the height, the rocket arm, the athleticism, etc. That way, if the player is a bust, it is his own fault for not taking advantage of God-given abilities and the executive dodges all criticism.
The NCAA's motto could be, "If you are going to miss, miss white and marketable." That is why Al Bohl, KU's athletic director from 2001-2003, should have received a nice fat royalty check from whatever tidy profit the football team brought in this year. Bohl, in his last major hire, swung for the fence and hit a grand slam with a coach who wasn't good looking or marketable. Instead of pleasing the boosters with a slick-talking, slick-haired hotshot, he brought in someone who speaks in clichés and hasn't been able to spike his bangs in a while.
Instead, he was a coaching genius: Novel
searching concept for a school winn an atrocious football program. Mangino was among the coaches who resurrected K-State from the depths as an assistant coach from 1991-98. He won the Frank Broyles Award as the country's top assistant coach in 2000 during a three-year stint at Oklahoma.
Bohl had the courage to push all his chips into the middle because he saw great potential and was desperate. Which brings us to the original question: After Mangino proved
he was among the country's elite coaches, why wasn't he inundated with coaching offers this off-season? Most everyone else was.
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchionny said he couldn't disclose whether a school had asked to speak to Mangino but said he had "expected more" interest
Tom Keegan,
Lawrence Journal-World sports editor, said he didn't know of any school that had an interest in Mangino and said he wasn't surprised that the elite schools with openings didn't come after Mangino. He said this was because the coach was "new on the scene as an elite guy."
Instead of pleasing boosters with a slick-talking, slick-haired hotshot, he brought in someone who speaks in clichés and hasn't been able to spike his bangs in a while.
the season at his previous job as coach for the Atlanta Falcons (Bobby Petrino). UCLA hired a coach who has had problems follow him at every stop and was essentially blackbailed from college since 2002 (Rick Neuheusel). West Virginia hired a coach who used the "n" word when referring to a player at his previous head coaching stop (Bill Stewart). And Michigan hired a guy who promptly shredded documents at his old school and is trying to dodge a contractually
I'm not sure that was the case. Arkansas hired a con man, who couldn't even finish
obligated $4 million buyout (Rich Rodriguez). It's pathetic. These bastions of higher learning are willing to roll the dice on candidates with character concerns for their head coaching positions but not on men with impeccable character whom the boosters' wives won't snoon after.
Bohl defied a social stigma by hiring a man
whose appearance seemed to suggest he couldn't motivate college athletes. Bad assumption. Paradoxically, Mangino has won by recruiting athletes whose appearances seemed to suggest they couldn't win.
Prime on that list would be Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp and James McClinton. Reesing was the pint-sized Texan quarterback who wasn't even wanted by Baylor. Sharp was the
Mangino won with these players because he is these players. The athletics directors at the big boys, the Texas A&Ms, the Michigan's, the Nebraskas, don't want to defy conventional wisdom because it could cost them their seven-figure salaries if it fails. It is the reason we still have Mangino in Lawrence.
A.
Still, a part of me wanted to see the big guy "date Cindy Crawford." This was former Utah basketball coach Rick Majerus's apt metaphor for coaching at a prestigious school. Majerus is another coach who never got the opportunity because of body issues.
white running back (how many are there in football's highest division?) who, with a different skin pigmentation and bigger hometown, would have had every school in the nation after him (seriously, check out his high school stats and measurables). And James McClinton was the wrecking ball who was too small. I could go on: Bill Whittemore was too small with no arm strength. Brandon McAnderson was too pudgy. Charles Gordon was too small and slow. And Jon Cornish was too Canadian.
I can't imagine what Mangino could have done with four- and five-star recruits. He won the Orange Bowl with a roster full of one-, two- and three-stars. Maybe he would have stayed that route. Those are his guys.
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Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
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