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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
g to me
h, it's g to 0, but a start an new mine
ansas
FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2005
FOR THE WEEKEND
WWW.KANSAN.COM
JOE BANT
jbant@kansan.com
Cursed: theides of March
Call it the Jayhawk Curse. For the past few years, March has rolled around: The month of spring break, rain showers and penciled-in brackets, and the Kansas men's basketball team has limped into the NCAA Tournament, seemingly with more questions than answers.
Three years ago, Kansas steamrolled through the regular season, going a perfect 16-0 in conference play. Subsequently, the team was thumped by Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Kirk Hinrich went down with a severe ankle sprain.
Two years ago the Jayhawks had to make their March run without then-sophomore forward Wayne Simien, who was out with a shoulder injury. And despite a 14-2 Big 12 mark, Kansas also got stuck with a No. 2 seed in the tournament in what many deemed the most difficult region of the bracket that year.
Going into this year's tournament, the word on everyone's lips is "Langford," as in Keith Langford, clutch scorer and slasher dynamo, who severely sprained his ankle in the opening minutes of last weekend's loss at Missouri. After playing with torn knee cartilage through much of last season, Langford had been healthy, more or less, through all of this year, starting all 27 games Kansas has played up to this point.
Of course, those years brought two Final Fours and an Elite Eight, so maybe the curse dies once the tournament gets under way. But at least in approaching March Madness, the ride just never seems to be that smooth.
And last March, the team played through injuries to key players like Simien, then-junior guard Keith Langford and then-freshman guard I.R. Giddens.
Enter the Jayhawk Curse. Last game of the regular season, and Langford goes down, and now his ankle is sports talk fodder for the rest of the month and another question mark for the team to ponder as the tournament draws closer. There's little doubt he'll play in the NCAA Tournament, but just how effective he'll be at slashing and pivoting — the kind of movement that is crucial to his offensive game — remains to be seen.
But it's more than injuries; it's momentum. Does anyone remember what it felt like three or four weeks ago when the team was 20-1, 10-0 in conference, looking at not just a No.1 seed in the tournament, but probably the No.1 overall seed? Fans were walking around with that smug "yeah, we're No.1 all the way to St. Louis" look on their faces, not a basketball care in the world.
SEE BANT ON PAGE 3B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Chance for three-peat
BY MIRANDA LENNING mlnending@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SPORTSWITTER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas assistant coaches Tim Jankovich and Kurtis Townsend were at Kemper Arena last night scouting out the Kansas State vs. Texas A&M game. They had bragging rights on who would advance to take on the lavhawks at 6 tonight.
Jankovich, a former K-State guard, thought the Wildcats would pull the off the upset. Townsend thought the Aggies would win.
So when the Wildcats won,
66-62, Jankovich flashed
Townsend the "I-told-you-so"
grin.
"He told me all the way here that K-State would win," Townsend said. "Now I'm going to have to hear about it all night."
On a more serious note, facing an opponent three times in one season is no joke — especially when you've already defeated them twice.
Kansas faced a similar situation last year. They defeated Missouri twice in the regular season and again in the Big 12 Tournament. The final victory came in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, just six days after Kansas defeated Missouri in the final game of its regular season. Tonight's match-up will be the second between Kansas and K-State in the last nine days, something the Wildcats think is to their advantage.
"It's hard to beat a team three times in a year," K-State sophomore guard Fred Peete said. "The dice don't always roll your way."
Kansas State senior forward Justin Williams said he wanted his team's play to make the third time a charm for the Wildcats.
"It's going to be tough for them to beat us three times because we are going to bring a lot of energy and we are not going to bow down just because it is Kansas," he said.
The Jayhawks will have to do a better job of containing Kansas State senior forward Jeremiah Massey if they want to advance to tomorrow's third
SEE CHANCE ON PAGE 3B
Kansas State's Jeremiah Massey gets past Texas A&M's Marion Pompey to put up a shot during the first round of the Big 12 tournament yesterday at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Massey scored 18 points leading Kansas State to a 68-26 win.
Dick Whipple/ASSOCIATED PRES:
PROFILE
Track star vaults hurdles to NCAAs
Senior Amy Linenne pole vaults
Wednesday afternoon in Anschutz Sports Pavilion. Linnen will join 16 of the nation's top pole vaulters at nationals tomorrow at the University of Arkansas.
Kelly Hutsell/KANSAN
BY PATRICK SHEHAN
pshehan@kansan.com
KANSAN SWITTER WRITER
For the six KU track and field members heading into the NCAA Indoor Championships, this weekend marks the moment they've been training for all year. For Amy Linnen, the road to the NCAAs was full of speed bumps, detours and pot holes. But she's ready. She's been there before. And for the past two years, she's worked from the ground up to try to make it back after injuries and changing schools.
The senior from Westhampton Beach, N.Y., automatically qualified for the National Championships at the Big 12 Championships February 26th with the jump of 13 feet, 9.25 inches. With one look at Linnen's resume, you wouldn't expect anything less.
Linnen qualified for Nationals in 2002 and broke the national women's pole-vaulting record with a jump of 14 feet, 10.25 inches.
As a high school senior she claimed the No.1 prep pole-
vaulter position, held the junior pole vaulting record and was heavily recruited.
"Being from New York, I wanted to go somewhere warm," Linnen said.
She signed with Arizona, where she met coach Tom Havs.
"He made me laugh, and we had a good connection," Linnen said.
She said he was the main reason she chose Arizona.
"I got an aggressive attitude towards the vault," she said. "All my timing was together."
After Hays coached Linnen to her record-breaking year in 2002, he left Arizona and became coach at Johnson County Community College. After he left, Linnen couldn't fill the void, she said.
"I was not happy with the situation with new coaches, and I missed him." Linnen said. "I was not happy going to Arizona".
Linnen coped with injuries as well. She tore her tricep during her sophomore year and tore a muscle in her foot during her junior year.
SEE TRACK ON PAGE 3B
FOOTBALL
Mangino's men to get on the ball
Mangino
While the Kansas men's basketball team is beginning its postseason play this weekend, the Kansas football team is beginning to prepare for next season. Kansas football coach Mark Mangino's spring practices will begin Sunday.
The team will practice until April 16, when the practice will end at the annual spring game held in Memorial Stadium. Wednesday's practice will be open to the public. The date and place of that practice have not yet been announced.
The spring practices will include many junior college players who transferred to Kansas for the spring semester
and will play for the team next season. Many are expected to shoulder a large load on the offensive and defensive lines.
Depth charts will also get a little clearer after practices finish, as many positions will be very competitive, including the quarterback position. Sophomore Adam Barmann, junior Brian Luke, junior Jason Swanson and freshman Marcus Herford will compete for the starting job.
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Ryan Colaianni
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