SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TOMMOROW IS THE LAST DAY TO PICK UP THE FINAL PACK OF BASKETBALL TICKETS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2007
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BCS
Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel, a Heisman look, buries his head after a Big 12 Championship loss to Oklahoma. The Titans are headed to the Cotton Bowl.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawks appreciate well-earned bid
BY ASHER FUSCO afusco@kansan.com
When the Kansas players addressed the media just minutes after receiving word of their invitation to the Orange Bowl, they swelled with pride as they approached the podium.
Senior defensive tackle James McClinton thanked the Lord for the postseason berth, sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing said he was "quite ecstatic" about the announcement, and coach Mark Mangino even shared a hearty laugh or two with his players.
But 165 miles east in Columbia, Mo., there were no excited players taking bites out of oranges and no talk of an upcoming trip to Miami. After losing in the Big 12 Championship game last weekend against Oklahoma, Missouri was not invited to a big-name, big-money BCS bowl. Instead, the Tigers are headed to the Cotton Bowl.
"Kansas is a one-loss team," Orange Bowl committee member Vance Carlton said. "When you play in a conference championship and you have a great
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
MANGINO FINALIST FOR COACH OF THE YEAR
football notes
Kansas coach Mark Mangino is one of 10 finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. He helped author the Jayhawks' five-game turnaround from a 6-6 campaign in 2006 to this season's 11-1 regular season finish. When the Jayhawks travel to Miami for the Orange Bowl Jan. 3, it will mark the third time in Mangino's six seasons at Kansas that the team will play in a bowl game. Other coaches nominated include BCS-bound Mark Rich of Georgia, Jim Tressel of Ohio State and Ron Zook of Illinois. Mangino
is the only Big 12 Conference coach among the finalists. Fans can vote for the finalists at coachoftheyear.com
Kansas junior cornerback Ajq Talb spent Sunday and Monday in Charlotte, N.C., and attended the Bronko Nagurski Award banquet and festivities.
ORANGE BOWL
Talib
TALIB ON VACATION
SEE NOTES ON PAGE 4B
Bragging rights on the line
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
If Oklahoma beats Missouri in the Big 12 Conference Championship, the Sooners would play the Jayhawks in the Fiesta Bowl. At least that was the widespread rumor a week ago.
An all-Big 12 bowl game would have brought intriguing questions. Could Kansas beat Oklahoma, the team that beat Missouri by double digits twice? How would close friends and former colleagues Kansas coach Mark Mangino and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops handle playing each other on one of college football's biggest stages?
But when BCS Selection Sunday finally arrived, Kansas accepted an Orange Bowl bid against Virginia Tech more than 2,000 miles away from the Fiesta Bowl and Oklahoma. Mangino likes it that way.
"When you go to play a bowl game, you like to play against another conference," Mangino said. "It's a conference pride versus their conference thing. That's what makes bowls a lot of fun."
Conference bragging rights will definitely
be on the line in Miami. The match-up between the Jayhawks and the Hokies is one of only two bowl games that pit the Big 12 against the Atlantic Coast Conference. The other will be held two days before the Orange Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., between Texas Tech and Virginia.
Further complicating the Orange Bowl plot is the fact that Kansas and Virginia Tech have never played each other. The Jayhawks and the Hokies also didn't share any common opponents this season. As Virginia Tech players celebrated the Orange Bowl announcement, they admitted their lack of knowledge on Kansas.
"I'm excited to be in the Orange Bowl but honestly I don't know much about Kansas besides the little packet of information that Coach Beamer just handed out," junior
SEE ORANGE ON PAGE 4B
QUOTES
Missouri coach
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel:
"We had a great year. You can never take away a division championship and playing in a championship game. Things will sort themselves out and (the Cotton Bowl) is where we are supposed to be."
Senior KU tight end Derek Fine:
"I like oranges. They taste better (than tangerines). They're bigger."
Kansas coach Mark Mangino:
"When you go to play a bowl game, you like to play against another
Pinkel
Fine
Mangino
conference. It's a conference pride versus their conference thing. That's what makes bowls a lot of fun."
"I'm excited to be in the Orange Bowl but honestly I don't know much about Kansas besides the little
Junior Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon
packet of information that Coach Beamer just
Glennon
handed out. The only game I saw them play was the game against Missouri!
"Kansas is a one-loss team. When you play in a conference championship and you have a great game like LSU did, look where it propels you in the BCS. The argument can be made that if the Big 12 Championship would have been a closer game we'd be sending Missouri today. That was a pretty impactful game when you go into that championship game and lose by what Missouri lost by. It definitely weighed on our decision-making process."
Orange Bowl committee member
Vance Carlton
Russell Robinson, senior guard, powers up the court during the lavhawk's game against Florida Atlantic last week.
SARAH LEONARD/KANSAN
BASKETBALL
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
Robinson steals defensive show
Opponents who have a size advantage don't bother the 6-foot-1 Russell Robinson. As long as the player is smaller than 6-foot-8, he's ready to defend the best player on the other team.
Robinson, a senior guard, has already guarded Southern California's O.J. Mayo. Now he wants to guard other top players such as Texas' D.J. Augustin and Missouri's Steffon Hannah. Kansas State's Michael Beasley, who listed at 6-foot-8, might also be a possibility, but he could be out of Robinson's range.
"That's a little bit too much right there," Robinson said. "You start getting into some power."
Last week, Kansas coach Bill Self said his team needed to find a lockdown defender until junior guard Brandon Rush could return to full strength. Robinson is ready to guard the top player for Eastern Washington when Kansas (6-0) faces the Eagles tonight at 7 in Allen Fieldhouse and for the rest of the season.
He sure looked like a lockdown defender Sunday against USC. Robinson stayed inside Mayo's jersey for all 33 minutes he played. Mayo, one of the top freshmen in the country and surefire lottery pick in next June's NBA Draft, shot just six of 21 from the field and turned the ball over five times because of Robinson's pressure. Mayo's miscues were a major reason the offensively challenged Jayhawks were able to escape with a four-point victory.
"That was the main thing, to wear him down," Robinson said about his job on Mayo. "We knew he'd take shots, but I wanted to make him work for it and think about it." Mayo, at 6-foot-5, had a four-inch size advantage on Robinson. Robinson said he could handle the bigger players by just fronting them in the post. He said his teammates could help if the ball gets thrown toward the basket behind him. Self is fine putting Robinson in that defensive role.
"To me," Self said, "if we have more than the other team and it's a big especially on the road, Russell's going to be a big reason why we won."
"I really believe it's much easier for a small
- Edited by Rachael Gray
Self just wants to see more defensive effort from Robinson like he saw on Sunday.
guy to guard a big guy than a big guy to guard a small guy," Self said. "I think he can. Now when Brandon comes back and Rod gets better then I think we could have three guys that could lock you up pretty good."
The defensive side is where Self wants Robinson to help the most. He said he didn't even look to see how Robinson performed on the offensive end and said Robinson performed better offensively if he didn't think about doing too much.
injury report
Sophomore guard Sherron Collins can't practice yet, but he is riding on a stationery bike while the team practices. Coach Bill Self said he hoped Collins could be ready within the next few days. Before he got injured, Collins was the team leader in scoring with 16 points
per game.
Freshman guard Tyret Reed, who sprained his ankle last week, is close to 100 percent. Self said. He should be ready to play against Eastern Washington tonight.
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