THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012
PAGE 5B
TENNIS
Unranked Kansas struggles to beat ranked teams
CORBIN MIHELIC
cmihelic@kansan.com
The Kansas women's tennis team has already face two ranked opponents this season, and the schedule will only get harder this weekend.
The team played No. 13 Baylor and No. 18 Texas Tech last weekend, but the layhawks will need to regroup quickly for this weekend's action. By Sunday, the team will have played its fourth top-20 team in a row, after it travels to play No. 10 Texas today and No. 16 Texas A&M on Sunday.
"It's so much different because our conference is pretty tough," junior Monica Pezotti said. "All
the teams have been ranked except for us and Iowa State, so it's a really hard challenge for us to do well."
Texas comes into the match fresh off a 4-3 loss to No. 21 Illinois and currently holds a 9-5 dual match record in 2012. The team's other four losses came to teams ranked No. 12 nationally or better.
The Longhorns have two nationally ranked players, led by No. 25 junior Aerial Ellis and followed by senior Krista Damico at No. 58. Today's match is set to begin at 2 p.m.
Texas A&M, which is moving to the Southeastern Conference next year, has won 11 straight matches
after opening the season with a 4-3 loss to No.17 Mississippi. The Aggies face Kansas State today, before the Jayhawks travel to College Station for the 1 p.m. Sunday match.
Temperatures are forecasted to soar into the upper 80's for both matches this weekend, but the team should be fairly wellconditioned to play in the heat, as recent temperatures have been well-above average in Lawrence. Both the Baylor and Texas Tech matches were played in 80-degree heat.
"The weather has been hard on us all," sophomore Dylan Windom said. "I had like a two-and-a-half hour match against Baylor and
have been cramping unbelievably. I think it has taken a toll on our bodies, because we are used to playing indoors and 70-degree, not 80-degree, weather."
Kansas (9-7) has lost seven of its past nine dual matches, including a winless record in conference play. All of the team's remaining regular season matches will be played on the road before the Big 12 tournament begins on April 26.
"The girls know if they get out and compete and play hard. Mentally they have to keep pumping themselves and stay on top of their games," coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "We're playing hard. We're right there and hopefully eventually it's
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
Junior Victoria Khanevskaya returns the ball in her singles match against Oklahoma State Sunday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. Khanevskaya was defeated 6-4.
FOOTBALL
Judge delays Sandusky child sexual abuse trial
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing boys, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa on Dec. 13, 2011. A psychologist who looked into a 1998 allegation against Sandusky told police at the time that his behavior fit the profile of a likely pedophile, NBC News reported Saturday.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The judge overseeing former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse case on Thursday delayed the start of the trial by three weeks to early June, and prosecutors filed a lengthy court document that said the case should not be dismissed.
Judge John Cleland said the additional time was needed "to accommodate various logistical contingencies that have arisen", and the attorney general's office supported the postponement.
The prosecution's 21-page answer to a catch-all pretrial motion that Sandusky's lawyer submitted a week ago said the commonwealth had "broad latitude" to establish the dates of allegations in child sexual abuse cases. Sandusky has asked for more specifics about when the alleged crimes occurred.
Ohio State forward Deshaun Thomas talks to reporters during a news conference in New Orleans, Thursday, March 29, 2012. Ohio State is scheduled to play Kansas in an NCAA tournament Final Four semifinal college basketball game on Saturday.
"Defendant cannot exploit the appalling breadth of his own criminal conduct by claiming it encompasses so long a period as to hamper his defense," wrote chief deputy attorney general Frank Fina.
The 68-year-old retired defensive coordinator faces 52 counts involving 10 alleged victims over 15 years. He remains confined to his home to await trial. Prosecutors have accused him of engaging in a range of illegal behavior with the boys, including sexual assaults, allegations he denies.
Fina disputed Sandusky's argument that witness Mike McQueary will not be able to prove the charges involving a young boy allegedly seen by McQueary being sexually abused by Sandusky in the Penn State showers in 2002.
"The defense appears to argue that an eyewitness who sees an adult man having sex with a child cannot provide sufficient evidence of the conduct of crimes." Fina wrote. "It is noteworthy that the defense provides no legal support for such a specious assertion."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cledland said a hearing remains scheduled for April 5 in Bellefonte to argue over the pretrial issues.
Fina wrote that the prosecution agreed with Sandusky's request to have prospective jurors questioned individually, and to sequester them at trial.
In Sandusky's omnibus pretrial motion last week, defense lawyer Joe Amendola argued some allegations were not sufficiently specific, others lacked evidence and the statute of limitations may have run in some cases.
Messages seeking comment on the prosecution's filing were left for Amendola on Thursday evening.
Fina noted that Sandusky waived a preliminary hearing that would have allowed him to test some of the evidence against him.
"He cannot now be heard to complain the information is insufficient, having conceded the ability of the commonwealth to
prove each count if submitted to a fact-finder." Fina wrote.
Fina told Cleland that prosecutors expect to disclose additional information to the defense as the investigation continues. He asked the judge to allow Amendola to amend the omnibus pretrial motion two weeks after that additional information is received.
"It is denied that the interceptions were in any way illegal or improper," Fina said. "It is absolutely admitted that the defendant 'was unaware of and did not consent to the interceptions.'"
The prosecution filing said a search of Sandusky's home in June was authorized by a valid warrant, and that investigators legally intercepted conversations between Sandusky and two alleged victims, identified as Victim 1 and Victim 9 in court records. They include a seven-minute conversation with Victim 1 in June 2009, and a conversation with Victim 9 about four days after Sandusky was arrested in early November.
BASKETBALL
Buckeyes in Final Four after proving themselves to coach
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The season was spiraling away, the players didn't seem to care and Thad Matta had had enough.
So, as he watched his team stumble lackadaisically through practice on the eve of a big game, the Ohio State coach snapped. Stop, day's over, head home, he told them.
Not so fast, coach.
Led by William Buford, the team's lone senior, the Buckeyes pushed back, decided to finish practice on their own.
"I didn't let us leave," Buford said Thursday. "I told them we need to stay here and keep practicing, that's all there was to do. There was no sense in going home. We needed to stay together and show coach that we really wanted to be here"
They sure did.
Sparked by that we'll-show-coach moment of solidarity and buoyed by a refresher-course team meeting, the Buckeyes have made an unexpected run into the Final Four.
Following a loss to Wisconsin the day after Matta's outburst, Ohio State (31-7) has won eight of nine games and is playing its best basketball at just the right time.
The young Buckeyes face Kansas in Saturday's Final Four in the Big Easy and have found the confidence that was missing during an ugly stretch in February that had Matta wondering if his team could even get past the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"There was a lot of finger-pointing going around. There was some adversity; we weren't playing as well as we thought we should be," point guard Aaron Craft said. "There were guys just not taking responsibility for their actions, and he tried to kick us out. I think we did a good job of fighting back. Since the last week of the season, it's been a better team mind-set, and we've dealt with adversity a lot better."
The Buckeyes opened the season with some decent expectations, thanks to Jared Sullinger's decision to return for his sophomore season. Still, they were young and inexperienced, with 11 underclassmen on the roster, leaving Matta unsure of where the team was headed.
Ohio State was a smooth-shifting machine early in the season, playing with poise and efficiency while getting scoring from Sullinger and Buford and steady play from Craft at the point.
Ohio State's only losses were on the road to Kansas — without Sullinger — Indiana and Illinois, and it had moved up to third in the rankings.
Then, the Buckeyes seemed to get discombobulated.
Sullinger started complaining about the way officials were calling games and seemed bothered by teams playing physical defense. The entire team became more selfish, sometimes not even knowing what play was being run or where to be on the court.
In position to take a two-game lead in the Big Ten with six left on Feb. 11, the Buckeyes labored in a 58-48 loss to Michigan State, shooting 26 percent while scoring 29 points below their average to see a 39-game home winning streak end.
The Buckeyes bounced back with a road win against Minnesota but followed with a 56-51 loss at Michigan and still seemed to be in a funk despite beating Illinois.
Facing a huge game against Wisconsin the next day, one that could determine the Big Ten championship, the Buckeyes should have been focused and ready for an intense practice on Feb. 25.
Instead, they labored through it, prompting their coach to blow his stack and tell them to go home.
It was a big risk with a crucial game the next day, but Matta couldn't sit around and watch his team fritter away what he thought could be a good season.
"We've always tried to set the stage of how we practice is how we play — at high speed, we don't stop. It takes guys a little longer to get the intensity and what we're trying to get," Matta said. "And it took this team took a little while to understand."
The Buckeyes stumbled after Matta's gamble, losing to Wisconsin 63-60 the next day. They rallied after that, though.
Sullinger, who had just eight points and six rebounds against Wisconsin, shook off his midseason funk and concentrated just on his game, not outside influences like officials or what people were saying about him.
Deshaun Thomas, Ohio State's second-leading scorer in the regular season, picked his output in the NCAA tournament, leading the Buckeyes with 21.8 points per game while giving the Buckeyes' a tough, who-do-you-stop combination with Sullinger.
-Associated Press
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