Volume 124 Issue 87
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
kansan.com
During former coach Mark Mangino's early years at Kansas, the Jayhawks made a point to dig a trench of recruiting ties to help players frequently flow from Texas to Kansas. Now, Charlie Weis may be reversing the trend that Mangino relied heavily on.
Mangino's first full recruiting class came in 2003. He recruited 27 players. Only one called Texas home. His second class contained 21 commitments. 11 were from Texas. The next two classes followed suit with seven and 10 Texans, respectively.
Under the Mangino era, as well as the Turner Gill stint, Kansas football seemed to carry the perception — from the outside, at least — that it could not survive without Texas.
And with the way recruiting had gone, leading up to even this year's class, it would appear that Kansas believed in its reliance on Texas from the inside, too. The Jayhawks had 38 players on its 2011 roster from Texas.
It's easy to see why Kansas relied on leftovers from the University of Texas, Texas A&M, TCU and Texas Tech. After all, the two biggest stars from the 2008 Orange Bowl's winning team hailed from the Lone Star State.
Three of Weis' juco commitments have been a quarterback, running back and a wide receiver. They're from Connecticut, Washington and Washington D.C. The range is something Kansas football has never seen before.
The next Kansas coach may not have the connections to escape the all-Texas route. But for now, Weis and his staff have rid Kansas of its "Texas forever" ways, a change that is best for the program.
Edited by Gabrielle Schock
His big three — Dayne Crist, Jake Heaps and Justin McCay — are from California, Washington and Kansas.
And Charlie Weis has started to make sure the Jayhawks no longer rely on such chance instances. He won't allow the program's main course to be the small morsels of BCS-quality players who slide through the Texas panhandle and across the Oklahoma border.
That team boasted Texan quarterback Todd Reeing and cornerback Aquib Talib. But both players' crucial success was more of a well-timed fluke than a product of a successful recruiting machine. Both players were two-star players out of high school. A result of good scouting and luck.
COMMENTARY
So far, Weis has landed 12 commitments since he took over at Kansas. There is sure to be some shuffling with signing-day today, but so far, Weis has utilized, but not relied on, recruits from Texas.
While Kansas has landed four Texas players under Weis, it appears he's using the state's talents for depth purposes, while looking elsewhere to gain top-end players.
What happened in 2008 does not happen often in college football.
Weis has unique strategy
And when the Jayhawks do look to Texas, they boast three-time Super Bowl champion and former Dallas Cowboys head coach Dave Campo to help beef up the quality of players looking to leave the fertile southlands of college football and head to Kansas.
KANSAS 68, OKLAHOMA 74
HARD-FOUGHT LOSS
KATHLEEN GIER
kgier@kansan.com
This was Kansas' game to win or lose. Heading into overtime, the Jayhawks had the momentum after junior guard Monica Engelman ended regulation with a three-point shot at the buzzer. Junior forward Carolyn Davis scored the first points in overtime, but the Jayhawks slowed down.
Kansas dropped a 74-68 overtime loss to Oklahoma. This is the latest loss in a series of 14-straight nine of which came under coach Bonnie Henrickson against the Sooners. Kansas falls to 16-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play with the loss.
The Jayhawks were outscored 10-4 in overtime and were forced to foul when they found themselves down four with under a minute left.
"Unfortunately, our momentum kind of died off with them being more aggressive, but you have to learn from that," Engelman said.
After Davis' basket, senior forward Aishah Sutherland scored, but the remaining possessions consisted of missed shots and turnovers for the last 3 minutes and 24 seconds of overtime.
"We made some mistakes and it bit us, it really did," junior guard Goodrich said.
Goodrich led the Jayhawks with a series of athletic plays and 18 points followed by Davis with 17 and junior guard Engelman with 11.
Senior forward Aishah Sutherland and junior forward Carolyn Davis were on and off the bench with foul trouble, so junior guard
Angel Goodrich went to work. She finished with an impressive nine rebounds, six assists and a steal in 44 minutes of play.
Goodrich left the game early in the second half and went back to the locker room. She said after the game that she was feeling wooxy and was disappointed that she let that affect her game.
"I felt like I wasn't myself the first half and I can't let that get to me." Goodrich said.
Kansas built up an early 17-10 lead, but had to fight back by the end of the first half with a three pointer at the buzzer from Goodrich near the end of the Oklahoma bench to take a two point lead into the half. In the second half, it built up the lead again and led by nine with just under 10 minutes to play, but again relied on a huge shot, this time from Engelman, to send the game to overtime.
"For a team to make a run on you, you have to be like
and the lead changed 12 times throughout this battle of momentum.
The Jayhawks were out-rebounded and outscored in the paint. They were also held to shooting only 38.2 percent from the field.
"Both teams had a lead and had a chance to make a run; they had the last one and held onto it the longest," Henrickson said.
"On a positive note, think we competed," Engelman said. "We were very aggressive on both ends, defensively and offensively, and I think we just didn't get the result that we wanted."
Kansas will travel to No.18 Texas A&M at 7 p.m.on Saturday.The Jayhawks lost their previous match-up,76-65 in Lawrence.
— Edited by Caroline Kraft
The score was tied nine times
OK. We are gonna get our run back! We can't panic and we can't force stuff on the offensive end and fall apart on the defensive end just because they scored, 'Engelman said.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Junior guard Angel Goodrich brings the ball down the court during the second half of Tuesday's game against Oklahoma. Goodrich led the team in points, rebounds, and assists in the 68-74 overtime defeat.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Conference loss gives focus, energy
Junior forward Thomas looks over his shoulder while walking down the court during Saturday's game against Iowa State at the Hilton Coliseum. Robinson went 5 of 11 from the field for 13 points and snagged only seven rebounds in the 74-Kansas defeat.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
Kansas returns to action against Oklahoma tonight after losing its first conference game Saturday to Iowa State, 72-64. Before the loss, the Jayhawks were on a 10-game winning streak dating back to Dec. 19.
"Losses are okay as long as you learn from them," said coach Bill Self Tuesday before practice. "I thought our Davidson loss probably helped us for at least a month."
Self said his team had a long film session on Monday, and the problems the Jayhawks faced in the loss to Iowa State — mainly rebounding — are all correctable. The team just needs more energy against Oklahoma tonight, he said.
Junior forward Thomas Robinson had a quiet game against the Cyclones. He finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and five turnovers. Nothing to worry about. Self said. It just wasn't one of Robinson's best games. The team will work on getting its National-Player-of-the-Year candidate more touches in the next few games — starting tonight with Oklahoma— to get him back on track.
Kansas won the first meeting
"We're going to force-feed it to him over the next week or two to get him where he knows that that's where his bread is buttered." Self said.
with Oklahoma in Norman on Jan. 7, 72-61. The Sooners have gone 3-3 since then. They did sweep a ranked Kansas State team in that stretch, however, with a 63-60 victory in Manhattan Monday night.
"Being able to go into Manhattan and win is tough for a lot of teams to do," senior guard Conner Teahan said. "So if they can go do that, they can definitely come here and win, so we have to come ready to play tomorrow."
Self and Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger spoke after the Jan. 7 game, and Kruger said his Sooners needed to score more consistently, which Self believes they're doing now.
"They're playing better and scoring easier," Self said. "I think Osby and Clark have shot the ball well and have been much more aggressive. They're just a better basketball team."
With the first meeting with No.4 Missouri on Saturday night and all the hoopla that the Border Showdown brings with it, looking past an average Oklahoma could be considered a problem. But, Self doesn't seem concerned.
"I certainly believe the Iowa State sting should mean more than obviously looking ahead to what will be a big game on Saturday," Self said. "The way to make it a big game on Saturday is to take care of business on Wednesday."
Edited by Corinne Westeman