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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014
PAGE 3B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
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Wiggins proves himself, earns career high
When Andrew Wiggins chose to come to Kansas, there
was excitement and anticipation because of the unknown.
to be?
Would he be able to score at will? Can he set any freshman records? What's his highlight dunk going to look like? What's his career high going
On Saturday we got our answers.
Yes, he can score at will.
Yes, he'll certainly hold a few freshman records, his high-light dunk is going to look something like him floating over the paint at West Virginia. His career-high is 41.
It wasn't so much a question of "would it happen?" as "when would it happen?"
Good luck remembering if Kansas won that game or not.
Not that it makes a difference either way. There were numerous reasons why a loss didn't matter at West Virginia.
But the most important answer that most Kansas fans received had nothing to do with individual accomplishments.
"I just tried to play very active because we were down the whole game," Wiggins told the media after the 92-86 loss.
It did have everything to do with Andrew Wiggins.
Now we know just how far he can be pushed.
With Andrew Wiggins on the floor, the Jayhawks are seldom out of game.
Not when they're far from home, not when they are down by 20 points and not when the rest of the team is having an off night.
NCAA Tournament teams be warned, this is the Andrew Wiggins you were looking for. This is why every school in the nation would've traded its roster to get the Canadian pro
And there will be off nights. No team in America wins six in a row without finding a way to win a game it shouldn't — it's a staple of coach Bill Self's philosophy.
prospect. This is what's going to give Kansas its best chance to win a National Championship.
The actualization of Wiggins' takeover was in some ways the missing piece for these Jayhawks. Sure he was counted on to make it happen before, see Texas Tech, Kansas State and Florida for further examples, but he had never been able to do it with so much stacked against him.
But then the shots kept falling, his confidence kept growing and his team kept coming back.
Whether or not Joel Embid will be healthy enough for the Jayhawks to play him significant minutes in the next few weeks suddenly seems a little less troublesome.
"There's nobody in America that will have a better game than what Andrew had," Self told the media.
And no one is going to remember if Kansas won or lost
It took the entire regular sea son for "The Andrew Wiggins Game" to materialize. And really there couldn't have been a better time for it to happen.
at least not against West Virginia.
Edited by Amber Kasselman
BASEBALL
Senior catcher Ka'iana Eldredge braces for the impact at the plate during last year's game against Texas. Kansas suffered its first series loss of the season this weekend against Stanford. "Anytime their guy is throwing his off-speed stuff for strikes, he's hard to hit," said Eldredge, referring Stanford's Quantrill who threw a complete game shutout yesterday.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Jayhawks face their first series loss of the season
sports@kansan.com
I BEN FELDERSTEIN
Pitching was the theme in yesterday's final game between Kansas and Stanford. Freshman Cal Quantrill got the start for the Cardinals while Kansas senior Frank Duncan looked to keep his strong start to the season going.
The game was scoreless until the Cardinals broke the tie in the fourth inning when freshman outfielder Alex Dunlap drove in senior first baseman Danny Diekroeger with an RBI single.
Duncan had another strong outing, pitching eight innings and allowing only one run. He
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allowed four hits while striking out four and only walking one. Duncan's strong efforts came up short as he recorded his first loss of the 2014 season.
"I'm just filling up the zone," Duncan said. "I'm putting myself in good positions and throwing strikes."
Quantrill threw a complete game shutout allowing only four hits while striking out seven.
"He was throwing his slider for strikes," senior catcher Ka'iana Eldredge said. "Anytime their guy is throwing his off-speed stuff for strikes, he's hard to hit."
The freshman entered the game with a 6.75 ERA and a
1-2 record in four appearances. Quantrill was able to neutralize the strong Jayhawk lineup, handing them their third loss on the season.
"He was dominant," coach Ritch Price said. "We had a chance late and just couldn't get the clutch hit. He was as advertised."
Kansas' offense was silenced at the plate yesterday, as they were only able to rack up four hits. The Jayhawks entered the series against Stanford with one of the more high-powered offenses in the country. They were batting .335 and scored 108 runs on 141 hits.
Junior outfielder Connor McKay is tied for the Big 12
lead in home runs (four) and leads the conference in RBIs (24). The slugging outfielder combined for five RBIs and five hits in the first two games of the season, but was held hitless in yesterday's game.
The Jayhawks entered the series with four players in the top five in runs scored amongst the 10 Big 12 teams this season. Sophomore infielder Tommy Mirabelli lead the way with 15 while fellow infielder Justin Protocio entered the weekend series with 14. Protocio crossed home plate twice this weekend and passed his double-play partner for number one on the list.
"The whole team feels good,"
Duncan said. "We feel like we're in a great position and we can beat any team in the country."
The Jayhawks were not able to get the big hit they needed on Sunday. Kansas left eight men on base throughout the game compared to only three by Stanford.
The weekend series against Stanford was a tiring one. Kansas won its first game of the series, which was a 13-inning thriller that ended in the early hours of the morning.
said. "The whole weekend went that way, we could have came out with a sweep."
Saturday, the Jayhawks rallied from five runs down only to come up short and fall 5-4.
Sunday's loss gave Kansas their first series loss of the season and dropped their record to 12-3.
"We were one or two big hits away from a win," Eldredge
Kansas will play their first home game of the season tomorrow against Oral Roberts University. First pitch is at 3 p.m., and the forecast finally calls for playable weather.
"We're excited to play in front of our home crowd," Duncan said. "We've been on the road for so long, and we're ready to come back home."
Edited by Kaitlyn Klein
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