TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2005
SPORTS
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BY KELLIE ROBINETT
krobinett@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
NORMAN, Okla. — When Kansas took the floor to start the second half it was losing to the Oklahoma band.
The Sooner's fight song "Boomer Sooner" was played 13 times in the first half, while Kansas made only nine field goals.
The first half featured 11 assists by Oklahoma and 11 turnovers by Kansas, resulting in a 37-22 lead for Oklahoma at the break.
The Jayhawks made a game out of it in the second half, but the Sooners' overall team effort was just too much to overcome, costing Kansas its third straight game.
The top scorer for the Sooners was junior guard Terrell Everett, with 19 points, but two other Oklahoma players also finished the game in double figures.
Freshman guard David Godbold added 15 points, and senior forward Johnnie Gilbert chipped in 12 of his own.
Every Oklahoma player who entered the game ended up with points except senior guard Jaison Williams, with seven Sooners scoring at least five points.
"Everybody on our team is a role player." Oklahoma coach
Oklahoma confused Kansas' offense, and seemed to find the open man every time by making an extra pass.
Kelvin Sampson said, "We tried to spread Kansas and beat them off the dribble. We just made plays."
Oklahoma's guards continually drove toward the basket and forced Kansas' big men to go airborne. This made it easy to dish the ball to another player.
The Sooners finished the game with 14 assists.
"We didn't do a good job on keeping them out of the lane in the first half," Kansas coach Bill Seif said. "We knew before the game when Oklahoma plays their best is when their guards play well, and their guards played very well today."
The Sooners also played solid team defense against the Jayhawks. The defense forced the Jayhawks to earn every bucket.
Oklahoma junior forwards Kevin Bookout and Taj Gray combined for seven fouls, but their tough defense eliminated Kansas' ability to attack the basket, and held Kansas to only five offensive rebounds.
Kansas had such a difficult time against Oklahoma's inside defense that Self played a small line-up in the second half. Senior forward Wayne Simien
"We tried to spread Kansas and beat them off the dribble. We just made plays."
Kelvin Sampson Oklahoma coach
was the only forward who did anything productive against it; he ended with 17 points but had only six rebounds.
Sue Ogrocki/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The other three big men who entered the game for Kansas, freshmen forwards Sasha Kaun, C.J. Giles and Darnell Jackson, combined for two points in 19 minutes of action.
"How do you stop Wayne Simien? You just try as hard as you can," Sampson said. "Bookout is a big guy, 260 pounds, you know, it's pretty difficult to move him around."
Kansas players are surely left with more questions than answers after last night's game. They can take solace in at least one thing though, they finished last night's contest with 23 field foals, bettering the Oklahoma band by two.
Sue Ogrrok/ASSOCIATED PRESS Oklahoma guard Terrell Everett shoots over Kansas guard Keith Langford in the first half of last night's game.
- Edited by Lori Bettes
Trampled
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
able deficit in the first half. Five minutes into the first half, Oklahoma went on a 23-7 run spanning 10 minutes and putting the team up 30-13.
Credit Oklahoma's defense for the team's 37-22 halftime lead. The tenacious man-toman defense was just too much for Kansas. Kansas turned the ball over 11 times in the first 20 minutes, and Oklahoma converted 14 points off Kansas' mistakes.
The Jayhawks looked flustered and unconfident. The Sooner's perimeter defense was so good, that on numerous occasions the Jayhawks weren't
able to penetrate inside the three-point line.
"We were pitiful all the way around," Self said. "They did a good job of not letting us get the ball in tight, but we were just horrible."
What looked like an Oklahoma blowout going into the locker room, slowly evolved into a ballgame in the second half. The Jayhawks gradually chipped away at the fifteenpoint halftime lead. A 14-4 Kansas run in the first four and a half minutes of the second half tightened Oklahoma's lead to 41-35.
Kansas pulled within a onepoint lead with just less than 10 minutes to play when sophomore guard J.R. Gidddens hit a three-point shot. The Jayhawks
went back and forth with the Sooners, but they never got closer than one point.
"When you get down 17, it's tough to come into someone else's house and like that," Langford said.
Self said it was the worst 48 hours of basketball his team had played all year. Prior to the Iowa State game, he said the team was playing well, but two poor performances later, the Jayhawks will have to look to find ways to fix the daunting problems that have cost them three straight games.
But it's not like the Jayhawks didn't have opportunities. The Jayhawks pulled within a point twice late in the second half, but both times they failed to get a defensive stop at the other end.
As the end of regulation approached, the Sooners' lead widened. A 6-0 Oklahoma run that started with about four minutes left in the game, gave them a 60-52 lead. That run could have been eliminated had Langford hit the front end of a one-and-one, but for the second straight game, the sen-
Last night, Self made it clear who the process starts with. The seniors.
♦ The trip got off to bad start long before the Jayhawks' loss to the Sooners. At 2:20 a.m. yesterday, a fire alarm went off at Kansas' team hotel. Apparently, a dryer caught fire at the Holiday Inn in Norman, Okla., forcing all of the people
inside to evacuate. Kansas players and coaches sat in the parking lot until 3:45 a.m., when they were allowed back into the building.
Despite the abrupt wake-up, the team still had its scheduled 10 a.m. wake-up call.
Self said he was hopeful that junior forward Christian Moody would be available for Sunday's match-up against Oklahoma State. Not only is Moody's presence in the Kansas' offense missing, Self said the team was just better with him on the court.
Weinstein
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18
"We need him to play because he is the one big guy that can feed the ball to Wayne," Self said.
Edited by Lisa Coble-Krings
Self said he wasn't sure why one of his best scorers couldn't quite put it all together.
So, Keith, what is it? Don't feed me that "button" line. As far as I'm concerned, it should be on all the time, but it's clearly not.
"I don't really know what it is with Keith. We've had numerous talks about it."
Langford is a Division I, scholarship basketball player at one of the most storied programs in the sports' history. He shouldn't need to flip a switch to put in his best performances.
When the "button" is off, his intensity level is clearly not the same in the first half as it is in the second. He hasn't demonstrated the urgency or the killer instinct to stick it to an opponent early in the game, and it's starting to hurt his team. The Jayhawks got away with a few wins during some of Langford's poor performances, but it's clear now, after consecutive losses, that they need him to step up more than ever.
"We need him to be very energetic and hitting on all cylinders if this team has the best chance to be as good as it can be from the beginning of the game," Self said. "It's just something that he's going to have to get into his mind, that his team needs him to be a source of energy for 40 minutes and not just 20."
Fellow senior starters Wayne Simien and Aaron Miles have been consistent for the most part this season, turning in strong performances nearly every night. Langford is the question mark.
It's up to him as to whether this team can reach a championship level. Without him, this team can go nowhere.
Keith, do your coach,
your teammates and your a
fans a favor. Flip the damn
switch and stop changing
your shoes.
- Weinstein is an Overland Park senior in English.
The Lied Center of Kansas www.lied.ku.edu
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the student perspec-
Chancellor's Student Awards Committee
kansan.com The student newspaper of the University of Kansas
The University of Kansas
The Agnes Wright Strickland Award
The Donald K. Alderson Memorial Award
is accepting nominations and applications for the following graduating senior awards:
The Class of 1913 Award
The Alexis F. Dillard Student Involvement Award
- The Rusty Leffel Concerned Student Award
Applications must be received by 5:00 pm, March 4
Nominations must be received by 5:00 pm, February 18
The Caryl K. Smith Student Leader Award
- The Leffel Award is not limited to graduating seniors
Forms available online at www.deanofstudents.ku.edu/awards or from 113 Strong Hall