MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2012
PAGE 8B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FOOTBALL
Spring game shows defensive improvement
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.
ETHAN PADWAY
epadway@kansan.com
"My whole coaching point to him is that he is one of the guys that can
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 linebacker 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 allows him to keep his best players on the field no matter how the onosine
Sophomore running back Tony Pierson moon's Spring Game at Memorial Stadil
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," Wets 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."
The zero on the board beneath the white squad's name is an impressive feat, but it must be noted that the teams were not matched equally. The blue squad clearly had more of the
COMMENTARY
Weis'infl
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
A TEAM THAT INSTILLED PRIDE
Moments after Kansas lost to Kentucky in the national championship game, the lajhawks pressed their backs against their lockers and thought about it all. Some eyes were bordered with redness and tears. Some heads drooped and faced the stable, plainness of the floor. No one spoke until questioned. An entire season was spinning through their minds.
Senior guard Conner Teahan was breaking down. He vocalized memories of boot camp in September and how this team came together by March. Then he dropped his head and bawled as reporters, rookies and veterans alike, just stood around him watching. Teahan then held it in and carried on.
"I don't think you'll be able to really put it into perspective until a couple weeks go by," he said. "Just because it's going to hurt."
This pain, a proof of humanity and genuine passion, was one reason why Kansas fans adored this team. From Teahan to junior forward Thomas Robinson to senior guard Jordan Juenemann, the members of this version of Kansas truly cared.
Unlike many of Self's teams in the past, this one had many steps to take before it could reach real success. While Robinson and senior guard Tyshawn Taylor among others had undeniable talent, most of the team had to work through inexperience. Junior forward Kevin Young had never seen a grand stage. Junior center Jeff Withey never had to produce for Kansas to win. In this season, that changed drastically.
In New York City and Maui, Hawaii, the jayhawks showed that they had some unique talents, but weren't yet elite. They hung around with Kentucky before a brutal second half and they were a few bad breaks away from beating Duke. These games proved that this team would go as far as Taylor could take them. It also showed that Withey could become a force.
Shortly after, all the hope was punctured with the loss to Davidson. Overreacting fans wondered if this team would miss the NCAA Tournament. Coach Bill Self said this his team just stunk. He wasn't sure what the future would hold.
But the Jayhawks marched through the Big 12 schedule like it was any other year. They had two instant classics with Missouri; the latter ending at Allen Fieldhouse with a monumental Robinson block and a sweet tasting victory.
As the victories piled up, it started to happen. These pieces pitched become players. Junior guard Travis Releford morphed from a robot to a defensive ace. Withey had his off games, but usually looked tougher as the season moved along. Taylor had one of the finest conference seasons in recent memory. Robinson became one of the best players in
countrv.
By Max Rothman
mrothman@kansan.com
They didn't win the Big 12 tournament, but going into the NCAA tournament, with junior guard Elijah Johnson starting to realize his potential and the rotation taking shape, the Jayhawks looked like a dangerous No. 2 seed.
The fact that the Jayhawks made it to the championship game, to some, was a great surprise. But the way they got there, slow, hard-to-watch comebacks, made sense every time. Purdue's Robbie Bummel nearly ended their season, but the Jayhawks found a way, North Carolina's size and speed nearly ended their season, but Self used some defensive tricks to stall his foe, one of the top offenses around. Kansas led Ohio State for about 10 percent of the game, but still won and made it to the championship.
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While Kentucky was supremely talented and deserved to win that game, Kansas proved that it could have done the same. A few more points, a few less turnovers and Massachusetts Street would have been hopping like it was 2008.
Perhaps easing the pain of what almost was, most Kansas fans I talked to handled the loss with class and understanding. This season, as a whole, was an incredible accomplishment. People around Lawrence understood this. When it started, few knew what exactly this team could do. By the end, every one knew what they were going to get. The question was: would it work?
In Allen Fieldhouse, they don't lift banners for tournament appearances, they lift them for championships. And while this team couldn't win it all, it did bring the best out of a fan base. Fighting through the hard times, an unusual phenomenon for fans of Kansas basketball. Testing your gut through times of uncertainty, such as both Missouri games, the Purdue game and the Final Four matchup with Ohio State. Sticking by your team, even if they couldn't fulfill a dream.
Self patrolled that sideline all year and on the way, squeezed all he could out of a hungry team with only so much skill. She said he never likes to teach effort, only execution. This thought meshed with this team. They always had an insatiable need to win, and so they gave it what they had. It wasn't enough for a championship, but it was enough to make layhawk fans proud.
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
I was a Monday or Tuesday afternoon in February. Kansas and Missouri would meet again a few days later in Allen Fieldhouse and I was in the media workroom after a Bill Self press conference.
The room was empty except for myself and Vahe Gregorian, the Missouri beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. We began talking about nothing in particular when the Tigers' move to the SEC was brought up. He immediately talked about how he was going to miss the old barn after visiting on a yearly basis for so long.
I then realized I had already witnessed 16 games in the Fieldhouse that season alone, maybe as many as he had seen while covering Mizzuo.
Then I made a newfound effort to soak up all of the atmosphere in the building every time I "had" to cover a game, because no matter how exciting a place or event is to a person, time seems to always drain that excitement, slowly and without fail.
Especially the excitement for the little things, like when the band started playing and you knew there was just an hour until tipoff. Or how I found it funny that the student section belted out the chorus of "Living on a Prayer" when the band played the song. It always seemed like a strange song to sing right before a home game.
There was also the spine-tingling pregame video and glancing over to the visitor's bench during the montage to see if any assistant coaches or players are peaking up at it.
There were usually three or four culprits.
In the early afternoon of Dec. 10, it was great. No. 2 Ohio State was in town and the buzz surrounded pre-season All-American center Jared Sullinger and his back spasms. He watched the game in street clothes and Kansas won, which isn't surprising because the lajhayes have had four undefeated home seasons in the last five years.
But, that wasn't what I remember most about that day. It was an encounter before the game between Bill Self and Buckeye coach Thad Matta.
"Merry Christmas early," Matta said he told Self guarding Sullinger's absence.
"I don't think his exact words were 'Merry Christmas." Self said after the game, smiling. "I think there were some other words in there, maybe describing the holiday"
Was it the most important part of that matchup of top 15 teams? No, but it's what I remember, and it reminds of the next time I ran into Gregorian. We were in the bowels of the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Self and a few players had just finished talking about their Elite 8 victory over North Carolina and the upcoming trip to New Orleans for the Final Four.
"The only bad thing about covering this
team," Vaha said. "Is that you might not ever have a better beat."
It's about a loss.
Time will tell, but the stories were great. The story I always come back to isn't about a great game or a road trip or the debauchery in New Orleans.
Junior guard Elijah Johnson slumped in his chair with his head down, talking to the media because that was part of the gig.
But he also talked about a shot.
"Kardiac Kansas" as CBS' Dennis Dodd had called them, were 30 seconds from flat-lining against Kentucky in the national championship game when Johnson had a three-point attempt in the corner to make it a one-possession game. National Player of the Year and shot-block extraordinaire Anthony Davis came flying down the baseline to contest his shot, and it worked. Johnson was in midair when he realized Davis' long arms would indeed swat the ball away so he tried taking an (illegal) dribble before landing on the hardwood floor.
He talked about missed opportunities and shattered dreams and Kentucky's dominance because the Wildcats were just that good. Buck was asked to pounce.
Travel. Kentucky ball.
Game over.
"That was big," Johnson said, shaking his head and half-smiling. "That was going to be the big shot, man."
Maybe Johnson sat there and grinned because Kansas wasn't supposed to be playing in April in the first place. The team raised more preseason question marks than Kansas teams are known to raise and they lived on a tight rope for five months, winning games with a bench that featured a former walk-on and a guy that didn't play basketball the previous year.
Maybe he smiled because he was thinking what I was thinking, that Kansas was playing with such toughness and resiliency that it could have beaten the 66 other tournament teams on that rainy Monday night in New Orleans, but it was matched up with No. 67, a Kentucky squad with enough talent and cockiness to fill Bourbon Street.
I'd like to think Johnson smiled because he realized what I realized, that you only get so many great opportunities in life and the moments you never forget are the moments you never thought you'd remember.
"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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