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MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FOOTBALL
Spring game shows defensive improvement
ETHAN PADWAY
epadway@kansan.com
In one of the Kansas football team's practices last week, sophomore linebacker Michael Reynolds had three different coaches talk to him about running the play full speed.
At the end of practice, coach Charlie Weis called him out for it, trying to explain to him that they are going after him because he is one of the few players on the team who can make that play.
points per game in the NCAA Division I last season.
Reynolds, along with fellow line-backer senior Toben Opurum, played a hybrid linebacker/defensive end position normally seen more in a 3-4 defensive scheme than in the Jayhawks' 4-3.
"I'm very comfortable with it because it gives me the chance to stand up and rush the passer and also play in coverage." Reynolds said.
Weis likes playing more versatile players at both positions because it
what his role will be in the fall. Because of Jackson's bigger build, he has the ability to play in the traditional halfback position as well as a bulkier fullback.
"He could very easily be at 230 with a couple of cheeseburgers," Weis said. "That's what we are going to have to decide, what weight we want him at, but you can see he has some natural running instincts."
Sophomore running back Tony Pierson noon's Spring Game at Memorial Stad
The zero on the board beneath the white squad's name is an impressive feat, but it must be noted that the
COMMENTARY
Weis'inf
APRIL 2, 2012
NCAA TOURNAMENT: KENTUCKY 67, KANSAS 59
On a day when the University honored one of its football program's most significant figures, former coach Don Fambrough, it embarked on new era.
An estimated 15,000 Jayhawk fans caught a glimpse of the new Kansas football team under the leadership of new coach Charlie Weis during the spring game Saturday.
New quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps showed off their extraordinary passing ability that Kansas fans haven't seen since Toc
NOT ENOUGH
Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor and junior forward Kevin Young consolidate junior forward Thomas Robinson after teh Jahwakks fell to the Kentucky Wildcats in teh NCAA Championship, 67-59.
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
NEW ORLEANS — You can grow into the best player you can be, figure how to make it work with your teammates and take this progression all the way to the championship game.
Sometimes, it just doesn't matter.
On a night when the Kansas Jayhawks had to play just about perfectly to defeat the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats, in many ways, they did themselves in.
Kentucky was brilliant early, but some Jayhawks in the locker room said that they were their own undoing in Monday night's 67-59 loss in the championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
"You make it to the national championship," senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said, "and it still feels like you lose in the first round."
After all the games they should have never won, but did, and all the steps it took to get this far, it's over now.
"When you get a puppy and you watch that puppy grow up and die," junior guard Elijah Johnson said, "that hurts."
Kentucky forward Anthony Davis was forceful as expected, swatting and retaining just about every shot that approached him. When he wasn't blocking, he was driving the Jayhawks away from where he stood, forcing long shots that have never been their forte. In the first half, the Wildcats scored with grace and efficiency as expected, knocking down dagger three-pointers and throwing down momentum-draining dunks.
But in the second half, the Jayhawks clamped down and allowed just 26 points. Their defense revived their spirits. The same heads that hung dejectedly in the first half were facilitating runs. Despite trailing by 14 points at halftime, they fully believed that they were going to win this game. They brought the deficit to just five points with 1:37 to play.
"No one could tell us that we were going to lose except for the scoreboard," he said.
"If they were going to beat us, they were going to remember us," Johnson said. "They were going to feel the last of us."
But it wasn't enough. They routinely missed layups and dunks. They turned the ball over, into a Wildcat's hands or soaring out of bounds, just when they seemed poised for a comeback. When they finally seized momentum, they were out of time.
"We've been working on this since October," Johnson said, "just dreaming about it."
And now it's over. This surprising team that rallied behind Self's system and its trust in one another made it to the championship game. It just wasn't enough.
The Wildcats were fully expected to win this game. Their talent-stacked rotation had consistently blown opponents away. But on Monday night, this wasn't the case.
Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor's hands, the magnets of fate, catch comeback teases with quick dribble drives, then eluded victory with five turnovers, one that was in the final minute of the game.
"I can't get this back," Taylor said. "That was my last time putting on a Kansas jersey."
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It seems that junior forward Thomas Robinson, through that the tragedies and familial support from loving fans, has also played his last game as a lajhyawk.
Now all that's left is time to reflect. Coach
Self, take it away.
"From start to finish, there's no team I've been around compete this hard. There's been no team I've been around that was able to take whatever situation dealt them and respond to it favorably. And there's no team I've been around that represented our University or ourselves, or their families, any better than this one has."
"William Faulkner was a Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) Member." What other English Literature courses and assigned novels were written by fraternity men and sorority women authors?
Which KU fraternity man was founding editor of the Book of the Month Club and ran for Kansas Governor on an Anti-Klu Kux Klan Ku Platform?
(BONUS QUESTION)
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