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MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FOOTBALL
Spring game shows defensive improvement
ETHAN PADWAY
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.
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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.
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.
Weis likes playing more versatile players at both positions because it allows him to learn his bad plays on
"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 Tony Pierson noon's Spring Game at Memorial Stadium
The zero on the board beneath the white squad's name is an impressive feat, but it must be noted that the team was not matched equally. The
COMMENTARY
Weis'infl
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.
MISSOURI 74, KANSAS 71
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 Tode
FEBRUARY 4, 2012
Junior forward Thomas Robinson shows his disappointment after losing to Missouri 74-71 at Mizzou Arena where Robinson had 25 points and 13 rebounds.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Taylor's late-game errors cost Kansas at Missouri
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
COLUMBIA, Mo., — Tyshawn Taylor carried the Jayhawks to the cusp of victory, then squashed it all.
With 41.3 seconds left and his team trailing 72-71, Taylor stood at the free throw line. The yellow blur of Missouri's student section boomed behind the hoop. His first shot was too long, bouncing off the back of the rim. Second attempt, same fate.
With 10 seconds left and the score still 72-71, Taylor darted from the left elbow of the three-point line toward the hoop. Missouri junior guard Michael Dixon planted his left foot, embraced Taylor's contact and flee back.
wards onto the hardwood, drawing a charge and clinching No. 4 Missouri's 74-71 victory over No. 8 Kansas.
"I feel like 1 cost us the game," Taylor said. "That's a sucky feeling."
Several Jayhawks and coach Bill Self disagreed with the referee's charge call on Taylor. A charge requires two planted feet from the defender. When Dixon halted his body to defend Taylor, his right foot slightly slid across the floor. The call was one of many that upset Self and the Jayhawks, who felt they had the game won but threw it away.
"I was told I don't want to see the tape." Self said of the charge call.
Just before Taylor's missed free throws, Missouri senior guard Marcus Demon, who
finished with 29 points, connected on two deep, contested three-pointers. His heroics led Missouri's 11-0 run to finish the game.
"He made two threes with his body turned sideways," Self said. "Those are big time shots."
In the first frame, Taylor scored 17; half of his team's points. When junior forward Thomas Robinson struggled to manage multiple defenders and produce with his back to the basket, Taylor relieved the layhawks with fearless attacks at Missouri's interior and calm, accurate jump shots.
"He's damn good," Self said of Taylor. "He is damn good."
Yet at the end of the game, Missouri's pressure rattled Taylor, who turned the ball over
twice in the final 1:15.
"We had a lead and we didn't want to play safe, but we wanted to still try to score," Taylor said. "We just turned it over."
With his team down three points, Taylor handed the ball to junior guard Elijah Johnson on the left side of the three-point line. Johnson dribbed to the center of the arc and pump-faked with 3.5 seconds left, his last chance at an open look. Now double-covered, Johnson hurled an off-balance shot and missed wide left.
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After the game, reporters flocked around a glossy-eyed Robinson.
"I don't want to lose anymore", he said.
"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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