THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2012
VCAA BASKETBALL
PAGE 7B
'Tough love' relationship strengthens Jones
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — There's more to Terrence Jones than "The Rant."
Most fans assumed the talented forward was off to the NBA after Kentucky coach John Calipari's withering, 30-second tirade filled with cringe-inducing expletives was caught by cameras in a game last season.
Calipari apologized publicly, Jones stayed and the bond between the two is so tight now the sophomore calls his coach a "father figure."
"He's been tough on me since I first got here. It's just because he expects a lot from me. I know he loves me. I know how good he thinks I am, how much he believes in me." Jones said.
"When he doesn't see how he thinks I can perform, he tells me. He's a male father figure to me.
"So it's tough love sometimes. Sometimes it's good love. I take it all in the same way. I don't care how he says it; I just listen to what he's saying."
The episode toughened Jones, who has dealt with more criticism this year from fans for periods of poor play and a finger injury that cost him two games. Jones said he could have left last year after Kentucky lost to Connecticut in the Final Four.
Kentucky's Terrence Jones speaks during a news conference for the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball game as teammates Anthony Davis, left, and Doron Lamb, right, look on Sunday, April 1, in New Orleans. Kentucky plays Kansas in the championship game tonight
"I didn't want to leave losing," he said. "I wanted to win a national championship"
He's got that chance now.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kentucky (37-2) faces Kansas (32-6) on Monday in the national championship in New Orleans, but Jones will need to play a bigger role that he did in the national semifinals.
In Kentucky's 69-61 win over Louisville, Jones was hardly noticeable in the first half and finished with six points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes. Calipari sought out Jones repeatedly to howl at his play — including once when Jones attempted a weak layup.
Callpari mimicked Jones' effort and yelled: "Dunk it on him! Dunk it on him!"
Is Calipari ever wrong?
"I've been playing for him for two years, and I know when I'm explaining what I thought, if he tells me he's right, he's right," Jones said.
"After he watches tape sometimes," Jones said. "But not at the moment, no."
Calipari pretended that he didn't know about the January 2011 incident when he was asked about it Sunday. During a loss at Alabama, Calipari called Jones "selfish" amid a string of expletives as Jones turns and walks away.
"He knows how I feel about him. He's like a son to me," Calipari said. "This kid, what he's doing, what he done, how far he's come. I'm just proud of him. I mean, he more focused, he got a better skill set."
Jones shrugged off the encounter that defined their first year together: "If you saw it, I just walked down the court and kept playing. I didn't think it was anything wrong with it."
Teammate Doron Lamb said fones appears to bear more than his share of the coach's frustration.
"He's tough on everybody, but he's pretty tough on Terrence," Lamb said. "He wants Terrence to be the best he can be. He expects a lot of Terrence."
Jones wanted that pressure when he returned to Lexington for his sophomore season after averaging 15.7 points and 8.8 rebounds as a freshman.
"If I was ready for the draft, I would've gone," Jones said. "I was OK with where I was in the draft. It wasn't low."
Calipari challenged him early on to be one of the best players in the country and lead Calipari's newest recruiting class that included Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague.
"When he came in and told me, 'I'm coming back', I said, 'OK, but you're going to have to work your butt off because this is not going to be easy', Calipari said. "He says, 'It's what I need.'"
When Jones played his worst game of the season on Dec. 10 against Indiana with four points and six turnovers in a one-point loss, Calipari said, "he absolutely gave us zero."
And Calpari has been especially hard on him at times.
Jones dislocated his left pinky finger on his shooting hand in the next game, then missed two more. He hasn't had many poor performances since and can't afford to have one against the Jayhawks with so much at stake.
pari.
Jones said he'll be ready for Cali.
part.
"I want to win it for him," Jones said. "He deserves it."
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Baylor one victory away from NCAA title and perfect season
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — One win from perfection.
Brittney Griner was constantly hounded and double-teamed, scoring only one basket in the second half Sunday night. So the Baylor supporting cast jumped in and carried the unbeaten Lady Bears to the national championship game.
Griner finished with 13 points and nine rebounds to lead Bayton to a 59-47 win over Stanford and into the women's NCAA final against Notre Dame.
"We're not the Brittney Griner show," Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey said. "Brittney Griner is the face of women's basketball, and she deserves to be, but this team is bigger than Brittney. She will tell you that. Brittney Griner double- and triple-teamed allows other players on her team to have opportunities."
Baylor (39-0) is one victory from becoming the seventh women's team to finish undefeated and has a chance at being the first squad in NCAA history to win 40 games in a season.
The top-seeded Lady Bears will face another No. 1 seed and a familiar foe Tuesday night for the title. The Irish beat UConn 83-75 in an overtime thriller in the first semifinal.
Baylor and Notre Dame met in the preseason WNIT final, with the Lady Bears winning in Waco 94-81 on Nov. 17.
"It's going to be a good game," Griner said. "We beat them earlier in the season, but we've got to erase that. This is the game everybody wants."
The Cardinal refused to let the 6-foot-8 Griner beat them, collapsing on her in the paint. The strategy worked for the first 20 minutes before the other Lady Bears started making shots.
Stanford (35-2) fell short in the Final Four for the fifth straight season, ending its school-record 32-game winning streak.
And those players took advantage of them.
Trailing 31-29 early in the second half, the Lady Bears went on an 11-1 run keyed by Jordan Madden. The junior guard had an acrobatic three-point play and then a layup that made it 40-32. Griner followed with her only basket of the half, hitting a tough baseline turnaround that capped the burst.
The Cardinal could only get within six the rest of the game despite Nnemkadi Ogwumike's best efforts. The senior led the Cardinal with 22 points and nine rebounds. Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer took her out with about 30 seconds left and gave her a long embrace.
"No one feels good after a loss, especially if its in the Final Four," Ogwumike said.
SOCCER
Kansas remains perfect after 4-1 home victory
Kansas also defeated South Dakota State in the fall season with a 2-1 home victory.
Saturday's victory helped Kansas remain undefeated in the spring with a 3-0 record.
Facing a familiar foe that had already been vanquished in the fall, the Kansas soccer took down South Dakota State Jack Rabbits 4-1 at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex on Saturday.
Sophomore forward Caroline Kastor got into the mix when she knocked in her fifth goal of the spring off a nice pass from junior Sarah Robbins.
Berry struck first on a penalty kick in the first half to give Kansas a 1-0 advantage heading into halftime.
Kansas' spring season continues when the team travels to Iowa City, Iowa for a pair of games on Sunday, April 15. The Jayhawks will face host Iowa and Minnesota on that day.
Like many games last fall, junior midfielder Whitney Berry led the charge for the Jayhawks with two goals and an assist to help them stomp the Jack Rabbit.
Ryan McCarthy
Berry ended the scoring on the afternoon with a 25-yard strike that put the game out of reach for the jackrabbits.
Women's relay team shines in Texas Relays
TRACK AND FIELD
The Kansas track and field teams produced some encouraging results in both the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays and the Arkansas Spring Invitational.
The women's relay runners set a new school record in the 4200-meter relay and entered a top five all-time University mark in the distance medley relay. In Arkansas, it was the throwers that came away with top finishes for the Jayhawks. Senior Alena Krechyk took first in the hammer throw while junior Mason Finley continued his recovery from an injury that kept him out for all of the indoor season.
It appeared as if the night would be
a disappointment for Krechyk after fouling on the first of three hammer throw attempts. On her final throw, under the pressure of fouling yet again, she launched the best throw of the competition.
Finley set his best mark of the day in both the discus and shot-put with his first throws.
Freshman spinner Alisha Keys was excited to get back to the outdoor track, which she has more experience on and feels more comfortable with than the indoor tracks. She helped the Jaywhak run from a time of 1:34.74 in the 4x200 along with teammates junior Paris Daniels, Taylor
At the end of the day, those throws would hold up as the event winners.
The women's distance medley relay team ran its way to fifth place at the Texas Relays. For senior runner Shayla Wilson, it is the indoor track on which she feels more comfortable, and the flat outdoor track that she is still getting familiar with. It seems that yesterday was a step in the right direction. Along with teammates seniors Rebeka Stowe and Cori Christensen and sophomore Maddy Rich, the relay team ran a time of 11:33.06, the third-fastest time recorded in the event at the University.
Washington and Denesha Morris. It was a seventh place finish against very good competition, Keys said.
Max Goodwin