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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.
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.
points per game in the NCAA Division I last season.
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 backback.
"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
Sophomore running back Tony Pierson moon's Spring Game at Memorial Stadium
"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."
COMMENTARY
Weis'infl
The zero on the board beneath the white squad's name is an impressive feat, but it must be noted that the
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 of its football program's most significant figures, former coach Don Fambrough, it embarked on a new era.
New quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps showed off their extraordinary passing ability that Kansas fans haven't seen since Tode
KANSAS 87, MISSOURI 86
FEBRUARY 25, 2012
THE FINAL BORDER SHOWDOWN
Coach Bill Self is surrounded by the media and fans as he walks out for a press conference after winning the rivalry against the Missouri Tigers at Allen Fieldhouse.
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
It may become, quite possibly, one of the most epocal plays in Kansas basketball history. The kind of play that shows up with Mario Chalmers and Wilt Chamberlain on the pre-game videos. The kind of play that, years from now, helps people remember this rivalry when it lived. And he did it, so he says, with his eyes closed.
The game, the last of its kind, the final Border Showdown with conference title implications, was tied at 75 when junior forward Thomas Robinson blocked the shot.
Robinson abandoned senior guard Kim English in the right corner after sophomore guard Phil "Flip" Pressey ignored a screen and dashed for the hoop. With two seconds to play in regulation time, Robinson hung in the air and swatted Pressey's layup attempt with a hammering right hand, denying the Tigers a victory, sending the game into overtime and riling the Fieldhouse crowd to a volume that was deafening.
"Thomas isn't a shot blocker," coach Bill Self said. "That was a big-time play from a
big-time player."
The No. 4 lajahaws trailed by 19 points with 17 minutes left, but erased the deficit in an arduous second half and won 87-86 in overtime, clinching at least a share of an eighth consecutive Big 12 title.
"Revenge, payback," Robinson said. "It definitely feels good. It felt like someone just jumped us and ran away and we finally caught up to them."
With Robinson and Withey on the bench,
Self played junior forward Kevin Young for
28 minutes and senior guard Conner Teahan
for 37.
"Missouri players played with house money," Self said. "We came out there trying to protect as opposed to go take"
For a 15 minute span, Missouri hit 17 of 23 shots while Kansas' offense spatred. Robinson and junior center Jeff Withey, who turned his ankle early in the game, both picked up two fouls in the first half. The silent fear of the Fieldhouse, from the Kansas bench to the student section, was tangible.
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"Who would have ever thought that that would be what we needed to do to win?" Self said.
Young, who finished with eight rebounds, five points and four blocks, energized a stagnant Fieldhouse with dunks and hustle plays. However, it was senior guard Tyshawn Taylor who once again took nothing and turned it into points.
With his team down 19, Taylor hit a three-pointer, but was quickly answered with a three from senior guard Marcus Denmon. Taylor then found junior guard Elijah Johnson for two more threes in a 65-second span. Teahun hit two of his four threes after that to help carve into the Missouri lead.
Taylor hit a quick three for the first points of the overtime period and drained two free throws with eight seconds left to win the game. All this comes after Taylor missed two free throws in the final minute of the 74-71 loss at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 4.
Down 75-72, Johnson skipped a bounce pass to Robinson, who finished a layup with a Dixon foul, knocking him to a sideways landing on the blue paint. Robinson hit the free throw, then sent the game to overtime with his block.
"I feel good," Taylor said after the victory.
"Words can't even describe I feel."
After Taylor's free throws, the Tigers had one more chance, but Johnson blanketed Dixon, who zipped a pass to Denoman as the clock expired. Denoman's shot bounced around the rim and fell in, but it was just too late.
As the buzer sounded, Self walked on the court, the furor of the crowd swirling around him as he pumped his hands in the air.
"I'm not the most emotional guy" Self said. "But that was as good as it is ites."
"We had the game in our hands." English said. "We gave them a gift."
It was over. The final edition of the Border Showdown with everything on the line.
The comeback tied for the largest in Allen Fieldhouse history and gave fans of both sides a spectacle to witness before Missouri departs for the Southeastern Conference.
If it has to end, if these seemingly perfect foes must never again face off in an important game, at least it ended like this.
"We're never going to be a part of something." Robinson said, "as big as this game was tonight."
"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?
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