THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012
PAGE 3B
FOOTBALL
Junior-college recruits to sign for 2012 season
MIKE VERNON
mvernon@kansan.com
If only for a few hours this afternoon, Kansas football will shift jayhawk fans' attention from basketball games to the future of the
orball program.
Today is national signing day, where recruits turn their verbal commitments to a school into a signed document. That document is a national letter of intent, which officially links a player to his school and vice versa.
Weis
Ford
And it also
marks Charlie Weis' first opportunity to show that he has started to find the answer to the simple rhetorical question he asked in his introductory press conference at Kansas.
"Why is the University of Kansas 2-10, and why is Kansas State 10-2?" Weis said on Dec. 9, 2011. "I don't have that answer, but that's what I'm here for. I'm here to figure out why that it is, and see what we're going to do to change that."
While Weis has only been on the job about two months, he has managed to bring in eight high school players — six of whom weren't committed when Turner Gill was at Kansas — seven junior college transfers and three transfers from other universities.
Weis worked quickly, gaining three five-star transfers, quarterbacks Dayne Crist and Jake Heaps, along with wide receiver Justin McCay. But the meat of his class will still depend on how the junior-college commitments pan out.
Just as Kansas State coach Bill Snyder tends to do, Weis has brought a load of high-level junior college players, a rarity for Kansas football. Aaron Cedeño of scout. com and phog.net said the juco commitments are huge for the Jayhawks.
"You have to trust the talent evaluation of Weis and his staff," Cedeno said. "Look all the guys that they've signed look like good prospects and high-character kids. I think they'll all be called upon from day one."
Of those seven junior college commitments, three are defensive tackles, a position Kansas desperately needed to improve after finishing last in the NCAA in total defense last season. The juco transfers will help the line since they can immediately play and
they have experience at a higher level than high school football
Along with the defensive tackles, Cedeno said his favorite prospect who has committed to Kansas so far is wide receiver Joshua Ford. Ford spent a year at Arizona Western Community College and picked the Jayhawks' offer over offers from Miami and Maryland.
According to rivals.com, the 6-foot-4-inch receiver runs a 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds and will be a valuable addition to a position that was hurting last year.
The addition of Ford shows that while Weis may not have fully answered his rhetorical question about Kansas' in-state rival, he has certainly gotten his start.
"When you're talking about getting up there with the recruiting battles, I think he's done about what I thought he would be, which is to say he's done very well," Cedeño said. "He's addressed the needs immediately. They've targeted juco guys to come in and help right away, and then they've addressed most of the major needs in the program, and I don't think they're done. On the surface, they're recruiting very well."
— Edited by Caroline Kraft
NBA
Griffin's dunk electrifies Clippers to beat OKC
LOS ANGELES — Blake Griffin's jaw-dropping one-handed jam over Kendrick Perkins sent Los Angeles Clippers fans into a frenzy, fired up his teammates and lit up the Twitter universe.
Griffin had 22 points to go with Chris Paul's 26 points and 14 assists in a 112-100 victory Monday night that snapped
the Oklahoma City Thunder's four-game winning streak in a matchup of division leaders.
Griffin downplayed his monster move after the game, a sly smile only briefly breaking his serious expression.
DeAndre Jordan grabbed Griffin from behind in a celebratory bear hug as the basket got replayed over and over in the third quarter. Jordan, who had 11 points and 11 rebounds, couldn't help himself.
"He armlocked me," Griffin said. "I couldn't breathe.
Paul had 26 points and 14 assists, Caron Butler also had 22 points, Chauney Billups scored 13 and Mo Williams 12 as the Pacific-leading Clippers dunked with high-flying abandon against the team with the NBA's best record at 16-4.
Associated Press
Team earns coveted Top 25 spot Kansas' ranking is first in 2 years
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
KATHLEEN GIER
kgier@kansan.com
The Kansas women's basketball team is nationally ranked for the first
time in two seasons. The Jayhawks moved to No. 25 in the ESPN/ USA Today Coaches' Poll released Tuesday morning. Kansas is receiving votes in the Associated Press poll
Goodrich
Davis
as well.
Kansas is 16-4 overall and second in the Big 12 at 5-3 with two wins over Top 25 teams in league play. Junior guard Angel Goodrich leads the nation with 7.7 assists per game and junior forward Carolyn Davis leads the nation shooting 62.8 percent from the field.
Baylor leads the rankings as the unanimous No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches' poll. Texas A&M dropped to 18 in AP and 16 in Coaches while Texas Tech is No. 25 in AP but dropped out of the Coaches' poll. Kansas State is receiving votes in both polls and Oklahoma is receiving votes in the AP poll.
— Edited by Ian Cummings
ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll
1 Baylor (31) 21-0
2 Notre Dame 21-1
3 Connecticut 20-2
4 Stanford 18-1
5 Kentucky 20-2
6 Duke 17-3
7 Miami (FL) 19-3
8 Tennessee 16-5
9 Green Bay 19-0
10 Maryland 18-3
11 Ohio State 20-2
12 Louisville 17-4
13 Delaware 18-1
14 Rutgers 17-4
15 Georgetown 17-5
16 Texas A&M 14-5
17 Purdue 18-4
18 Nebraska 18-3
19 Gonzaga 19-3
20 Georgia 16-6
21 Penn State 16-5
22 Georgia Tech 16-6
23 DePaul 16-6
24 North Carolina 16-5
25 Kansas 16-4
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