Volume 126 Issue 65
kansan.com
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
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COMMENTARY
Kansas basketball shaped by difficult schedule
Kansas' schedule has been grueling, onerous and any other word you can find by searching "difficult" in a thesaurus. Instead of allowing the schedule and early setbacks to cripple his team, Bill Self has used the myriad of teaching opportunities to mold a Kansas team that may have more momentum than any other team in the nation.
The eighth century brought us Homer's The Iliad. The 17th
Each is an epic in its own right.
century gave us Paradise Lost. And the 21st century brought us the 2013-14 Kansas men's basketball schedule.
Let's put the schedule in perspective for a minute. Kansas' strength of schedule rating according to CBS Sports is .7033, which represents the most difficult schedule in the nation. The next closest at this juncture is Wisconsin, with a 6162 rating. The difference between the two statistics mirrors the difference between Wisconsin and Cleveland State, which checks in with the 108th hardest schedule.
Joel Embiid has been the poster child for Kansas' improvement, but he is not alone. Naadir Tharpe has had more confidence in his shot and the ball doesn't stick in his hands as long as it has in the past. Wayne Selden worked on his outside stroke, and if his shots aren't falling, he contributes through his hustle. Tarik Black no longer fouls every time he takes a breath, and Jamari Traylor has developed a 15-foot jump shot to couple with a quick first step. All of these players benefited from the trials and tribulations of the NCAA's hardest schedule.
Granted, there is still room for improvement. Kansas turns it over more than almost any team in the power conferences (only five teams
Kansas' opponents have an overall win percentage of .7719. That is 12 percent higher than its next closest competitor, Alabama, which sports an 7-9 record. If Kansas opponents' records were averaged to a 32 game season, it would have a respectable 25-7 record. Last year's 3-seed in Kansas' regional was Florida, which had a 26-7 going into the tournament. Put simply, Kansas' opponents have the average record, as of this moment, of a 3-seed.
Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are experienced teams, too. However, they had the misfortune of playing the Jayhawks a month too late. Experienced teams are no longer their kryptonite.
The schedule made for some tough losses and a difficult December. Villanova, Colorado. Florida and San Diego State were all experienced teams who were licking their chops at the idea of playing the fourth youngest team in America.
SEE COLUMN PAGE 8
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
ON THE OFFENSIVE
Freshman guard Keyla Morgan and junior forward Chelsea Gardner loom over an opposing player during the Jan. 19 contest between Kansas and No. 7 Baylor. Gardner had three blocks contributing to the 76-60 victory over the Bears.
Jayhawks face Big 12 leader Oklahoma State tonight in Allen Fieldhouse
KYLE PAPPAS sports@kansan.com
Fresh off undoubtedly their most impressive win of the season against the No. 7 Baylor Bears, the Kansas women's basketball team (9-9, 2-4 Big 12) immediately focus its attention on another formidable task in the No. 8 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (16-1, 5-1 Big 12).
The two meet in Allen Fieldhouse tonight at 7 p.m.
After struggling in Big 12 play to begin the season, Kansas had a stellar performance against Baylor on Sunday, who conceded its 44-game regular-season conference win streak with its loss to the Jayhawks. The Bears have looked unstoppable for much of the season, led by senior All-American Odyssey Sims, who leads the nation with 31.1 ppg. But on Sunday, Kansas' diamond-and-one defense forced the Baylor guard out of her element and limited her to an unremarkable 13-37 from the field.
On offense, the Jayhawks hope for another big game out of junior forward Chelsea Gardner. Gardner has led Kansas in scoring each of the last three games, averaging more than 18 points during this stretch. She also grabbed 13 rebounds against Baylor to lead all players. The Jayhawks will
look Gardner's way in the post often to try and gain any type of advantage against one of the nation's toughest defenses.
Kansas will also seek production from junior guards Asia Boyd and Natalie Knight. Boyd was instrumental in the Jayhawks pulling away from Baylor during a key stretch in the second half, scoring five straight points to increase the Kansas lead to six. She ended the game with nine points and 10 rebounds. Knight finished with 18 points on 6-11 shooting against the Bears, even while struggling from behind the arc. Knight is the Jayhawks top three-point threat and they'll need a good outing from her if they expect to stay in the game against Oklahoma State.
Additionally, she leads the team in points per game (14.3) and Kansas' success will likely lie in whether or not they can contain her. Bias is one of the best guards in the conference and expect the Jayhawks to treat her like one.
The Cowgirls' offense isn't especially intimidating (68 ppg
They come to Lawrence sitting atop the Big 12 standings and lost just one game this season. In its last contest, Oklahoma State recorded a 82-56 defeat of Texas Tech, a game in which they shot over 50 percent and allowed only one Red Raider to score in double digits. Junior forward Liz Donohoe recorded a double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) as Oklahoma State cruised to its fourth straight Big 12 victory.
Tiffany Bias, a senior guard who currently ranks eighth in the nation averaging 6.9 assists per game, leads the Cowgirls.
in Big 12), but their elite defense (59 opponent ppg in Big 12) is. Ranked fourth in the nation, Oklahoma State has held their opponent to 60 points or less in 14 or their 17 games this season. Against a Kansas offense that has at times had trouble on offense, on paper, the matchup appears to favor
the Cowgirls.
The last time these two met, Oklahoma State prevailed 65-52 on Jan. 26, 2013 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Edited by Jamie Kozial
Athletes named to Bowerman Watch List
TRACK AND FIELD
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Junior Lindsay Vollmer competes in the triple jump in the women's pentathlon where she won the event with a score of 3,841 points. Because of her success last year, Vollmer has been placed in the official Top 10 of the Bowerman Watch List.
BEN BURCH sports@kansan.com
Prior to the start of the 2014 track and field season, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association recognized two Kansas female athletes, Junior Lindsay Vollmer and senior Natalia Bartnovskaya, and one Kansas male athlete, junior Michael Stigler, by placing them on their respective women's and men's preseason Bowerman Watch Lists. The Bowerman Award, considered the 'Heisman of Track and Field', is awarded at the end of every season to the most outstanding male and female track and field athletes.
The heptathlete, Vollmer, finds her name on the list after her historic season for last year's NCAA National Champion women's outdoor team, which included being the first female in Kansas track and field history to win an Individual Outdoor National Championship after she took the heptathlon title last June. Vollmer also took home Big 12 titles in the indoor pentathlon and the outdoor heptathlon at the respective Indoor and Outdoor Conference Championships last season. Vollmer's success over the course of last season caused Bowerman Watch List voters to place her on the official Top 10
Bartnovskaya also claimed an Individual National Championship last year after taking home the indoor pole vault title at the Indoor National Championships last March. Her outdoor pole vault mark also gave her runner-up honors at the Outdoor National Championships. The marks she set at the respective Indoor and Outdoor Championships were both University records. Although Bartnovskaya did not make the official top 10 of the Bowerman Watch List as Vollmer did, she was added as part of the 'Also Receiving Votes' list.
of the watch list.
Stigler, the only male Kansas athlete to make the list this year, is a two-time First Team All-American in the 400-meter hurdles, and his performance in the event at last year's Outdoor National Championships earned him runner-up honors. He is also the two-time defending Big 12 champion in the event.
Other than his success in the individual 400-meter hurdles, Stigler was also a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that took home the Big 12 title last season.
Like Bartnovskaya, Stigler made this year's Bowerman Watch List as part of the 'Also Receiving Votes' list.
Because this year's Bowerman Watch Lists include only 16 men and 18 women respectively, track and field Coach Stanley Redwine is excited to have three athletes who are talented enough to make these selective lists.
"Any time you have three athletes on your combined team that are in the Bowerman Watch, it's a great thing," Redwine said. "Having those athletes on our team will never hurt."
But while he is happy to have these highly-touted athletes, Redwine is also conscious of the potential drawbacks that can come with so much outside attention.
To combat this, Redwine has been trying to keep his athletes focused on hard work and team goals instead of winning individual awards.
"Our job is to do the work that we have to do to get there [and] let the voting take care of itself," Redwine said. "As Coach [Bill] Self has done an excellent job with [Andrew] Wiggins and all of the freshmen, it's the same thing. We're going to make sure our athletes are taking care of business first and whatever people have labeled our athletes to be, we'll let that take care of itself."
—Edited by Kate Shelton
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