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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2007 PAGE 1B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
SEASON OF THE SENIORS
Photos by Anna Faltermeier/KANSAN
Five upperclassmen lead team with guidance, motivation; Self says class has Final Four in mind for last year at Kansas
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
The hardest day of boot camp had just gotten under way. Lungs were burning, legs were aching and the players weren't finishing their sprints quickly enough.
Then, the group rallied.
"Some of the guys brought everyone together," freshman center Cole Aldrich said, "and said we have to suck this up and do this all together."
The speakers of that motivational speech? The seniors, of course.
Jeremy Case, Rodrick Stewart, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson form the largest senior class since Michael Lee, Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien and Keith Langford graduated in 2005. The Jawhaws hope the experience, leadership and desire of the seniors will help the team reach goals of the Big 12 championship and Final Four
No one would have given that boot camp
speech last year. No, sir, that team had no seniors. JR. Giddens, David Padgett, Omar Wilkes and Case were originally slated to be standing underneath a shower of roses on Senior Night, but something happened on the way to heaven.
Giddens ran afoul of the law, and Kansas coach Bill self kicked him off the team. Padgett and Wilkes transferred. Case redshirted for a year.
Kansas went 33-5 last year without a senior, but it came one game short of the Final Four.
"I feel like the urgency wasn't there." Case said. "I feel like people were like, OK, we got next year,' and this year we don't have that. I think that urgency we needed last year will be here this year."
The leadership problems started at the beginning of the year. Kansas lost to Oral Roberts and had trouble closing out opponents such as Ball State. Self asked for a leader to step up. Sophomore Julian Wright called a team meeting before the Florida
name, but no concrete leader ever emerged.
Now none of that is in limbo. Five seniors can lead, and judging by how they handled boot camp, they're ready to do it. Case said so far they had been leading by working hard in practices in hopes that the younger players would follow them. Jackson said every senior could also be a vocal leader.
"Sasha, he'll say something," Jackson said. "Jeremy, he'll say something. I'll say something. We all talk to each other. Everybody steps up to the stage and speaks. Nobody holds their tongue for anything. If somebody is slacking, Russ will get on them. If I did something wrong, Sasha will tell me I did something wrong. We all help each other out."
And when the seniors speak, the underclassmen would be smart to listen. This group of seniors has won three straight Big 12 regular season titles and two straight Big 12 Tournaments.
Each one of them can teach underclassmen valuable stories too. They've all been through
their fair share of difficulties. Robinson didn't play for a long stretch of games his freshman year and is now one of the team's most reliable players. Jackson has gone through family tragedies and an NCAA suspension. Kaurn had to adjust to college life after only a few years in the United States. Stewart dealt with a transfer. Case is still trying to showcase his outside stroke more consistently in games.
They're an accomplished group with only one year left to improve and build on earlier achievements.
"They know at Kansas, we're measured at a high level, and they want to go out as being recognized as one of the winningest classes," Self said. "It's hard to do that if you win Big 12 titles and don't go to a Final Four. I'm not saying that it's Final Four or bust, but in their minds, that's what we're striving for."
— Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
seniors on top
NCAA champions haven't always relied mainly on seniors, but they've always been on the team. Here are the NCAA champions since 2003 and the number of seniors they had on the team.
Florida 2007
**Florida** 2007
Three: Chris Richard, Lee Humphrey,
Brett Swanson
**Florida** 2006
One: Adrian Moss
**North Carolina** 2005
Three: Jawad Williams, Charlie Everett,
Melvin Scott
**Connecticut** 2004
Two: Shannon Tools, Taliek Brown
**Syracuse** 2003
Three: Kueth Duany, Ronnelle Herron,
Tyrone Alrone
FOOTBALL
2008 nonconference schedule ratchets up competition level
2008 KANSAS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Aug. 30 Florida International
Sept. 16 Louisiana Tech
Sept. 17 at South Florida (Tampa, Fla.)
Sept. 20 Sam Houston State
Oct. 4 at Iowa State (Ames, Iowa)
Oct. 11 Colorado
Oct. 18 at Oklahoma (Norman, Okla.)
Oct. 25 Texas Tech
Nov. 1 Kansas State
Nov. 8 at Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.)
Nov. 15 Texas
Nov. 29 Missouri at Arrowhead
Stadium (Kansas City, Mo.)
BY THOR NYSTROM
tnystrom@kansan.com
Future games:
Future games:
Duke in 2009-2010 (home-and-home)
Rice in 2010-2013 (two home, two road)
Critics of Kansas' nonconference football schedule might get some off time next year. The 2008 schedule will send the Jayhawks to South Florida to play the BCS No. 10-ranked Bulls.
Kansas also will have date dates against Louisiana Tech, a returning Florida International team and a game against FCS Sam Houston State led by former Oklahoma quarterback REBH Bomar
The season will open on Aug. 30 against Florida International. KU Senior Associate Athletics Director Larry Keating cut a deal two years ago to secure two games against the Golden Panthers, in 2007 and 2008, for $250,000 each. KU already had canceled a 2006 game between the teams.
The next week will bring Louisiana Tech to Lawrence for a $600,000 one-game guarantee. Keating originally called the Bulldogs
"Louisiana Tech is a pretty good name and that isn't a big trip." Keating said. "Believe it or not, I was shocked they said we would rather play a guarantee game, asking how much could you give us, rather than play a home-and-home. We had to make a big decision to even say we are willing to go home-and-home with them."
with a proposal of a home-and-home, which is an agreement that requires a trip of both teams.
The third game of the year will send the Jayhawks to Tampa, Fla., for a match with South Florida. The Jayhawks beat the Bulls 13-7 last year in Lawrence.
Keating and Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony expect the Sept. 13 game in Raymond James Stadium, a home the Bulls share with the NFLs Buccaneers, to be nationally televised. The Jayhawks will complete a home-and-home contract agreed to in 2005. Kansas will receive $150,000 — the same figure the University paid South
Florida in 2006.
Kansas will cap the nonconference slate with a $285,000 payment to Sam Houston State. The last time Kansas played Bomar, the then-Oklahoma freshman threw for 206 yards and a touchdown in a 19-3 Sooner victory in 2005 at Arrowhead Stadium.
Keating said he wanted to complete the 2009, 2010, 2011 and possibly the 2012 nonconference schedules by the end of the football season.
The Big 12 schedule will switch South division opponents. Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas &M move out of the schedule. Home games against Texas and Texas Tech and a road game in Norman, Okla., against Oklahoma move into the schedule.
Kansas has two finalized contracts currently. The Jayhawks will play Duke during the 2009-2010 season as part of a home-and-home deal. Kansas also agreed to a four-year series with Rice, which will include two home and two road games from 2010-2013.
Keating said he kept recruiting in mmu when scheduling.
"Houston is a big recruiting area for us," Keating said about the location of Rice. "That's the thing about playing away. South Florida — why is that a good game? Because we get to go to Florida, which is recruiting territory. It's the same in basketball. We try to go to the West Coast, and we try to go to Chicago."
Keating said he talked to coach Mark Mangino about future match-ups before signing contracts.
Keating would like to create a formula for the lahawks non Conference schedule each year; playing two teams from BCS conferences, one home and one on the road, and paying one-game guarantees for home dates against one lower-tier FBS team and an FCS team.
Edited by Jeff Briscoe