PAGE 8B
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 backlack.
"He could very easily be at 230 with a couple of cheeseburgers," Weis said. "That's what were going to have to decide, what weight we want him at, but you can see he has some natural running instincts."
Sophomore running back Tory Piper noon's Spring game at Memorial Stadl
The zero on the board beneath the white squad's name is an impressive feat, but it must be noted that the team must be matched equally.
COMMENTARY
Weis'infl
MARCH 8 2012
BIG 12 TOURNAMENT: KANSAS 83, TEXAS A&M 66
New quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps showed off their extraordinary passing ability that Kansas fans haven't seen since Tod
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.
On a day when the University honored one o its football program's mos significant figures, former coach Don Fambrough, it embarked on a new era.
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Johnson leads Jayhawks in Big 12 tourny victory
NADAMS
Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor drives toward the basket from the tree-point line during the first half Big 12 Tournament match-up against the Texas AM Agnes.
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MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Junior guard Elijah Johnson's uncle passed away last week and services were held Tuesday. Johnson was away from his teammates for three days, spending time with family. When he returned, coach Bill Self took notice of something.
In practice on March 7, in preparation for the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Mo., Johnson's shot just looked right.
"It looked as pure as it looked all year long." Self said. "I told him that."
Johnson took the words to heart and scored a career-high 26 points on Thursday afternoon, as No. 3 Kansas defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 83-66.
"I think coach kind of gave me a couple of words I needed to hear after going what I went through," Johnson said.
If only Johnson could face the Aggies everyday. When the Jayhawks last faced them on Feb. 22 in College Station, Texas, Johnson scored 18 points in the first half and energized a stagnant bunch with his quick scoring. But in that game, Johnson scord much of his points with laysups. On Wednesday afternoon, he thrived by way of the long ball, knocking down five of seven three-point shots and eight of 11 shots overall.
"You can't really double the post like you want to because he'll just kick it out every time," Aggies forward Khris Middleton said. "We just wanted to try to make it hard on the post and contest their threes, but they made most of those."
Junior forward Thomas Robinson, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds — his 23rd double-double of the season — made both of his two three-point shots. It was the first game of Robinson's career that he made more than one three-pointer.
Despite a sloppy start that included a badly missed layup, senior guard Tyshawn Taylor turned it on as the game progressed. He hit three of four three-pointers and finished with 16 points.
With Johnson, Robinson and Taylor firing away, the lajhayks hit 10 of 15 threes.
"When they make ten threes and Robinson hits two threes," Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. "they're a very difficult team to beat by anybody."
the team's best rate of the season.
Johnson said that after he made his first three-point shot midway through the first half, he hit another one after a referee's whistle. It didn't count, but he knew that he was starting to feel it. He told Taylor that "it felt great," and from then on, the Jayhawks fed Johnson the ball. Self said that after he saw Johnson make a few he knew "he really had a chance to have a monster game."
"Everything I let go just felt like it was going in, nowhere else," Johnson said. "Even off balance or however it went."
The Bears are led by Perry Jones III, who recorded a mealy five points and three rebounds on Feb. 8 in Waco, Texas, the last team he faced the Jayhawks. However Jones III, an NBA talent, torched Kansas State for 31 points and 11 rebounds just hours before Kansas defeated Texas A&M.
With the victory, the Jayhawks advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament, where they'll meet the No. 12 Baylor Bears.
"I opened up my whole arsenal," Jones 111 said after the game.
After defeating the Aggies, Johnson said that beating a team three times in one season can be easy or difficult; all that matters is the approach.
Going into the March 9 matchup with Baylor, he may consider his own words.
"If you pay attention to how you played them the first two games," Johnson said, "it can be quite easy."
"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?
(BONUS QUESTION)
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?
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