THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012
PAGE 7
BASKETBALL
Taylor defends his game to fans on Twitter
1. Taylor sits on the bench during the Jayhawks game against Oklahoma at the Lloyd Nobel Center in Norman, Okla. This is the second game that Taylor sat out because of his suspension.
KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
You would be hard pressed to find a more polarizing Kansas player in recent memory than Tyshawn Taylor. Certainly not in the Bill Self era. Maybe not in the last 20 years. There have been players with more illustrious careers and there have certainly been players with more off court issues than Taylor. But the senior guard from Hoboken, N.J. has combined the two in a way that has made his time in Lawrence eventful more often than not.
He's a fourth-year starter who has been on three Big 12 championship teams and is working on a fourth. He's only lost 17 games in a Jayhawk uniform but is one of the most criticized college basketball players in the country. The root of those criticisms — however fair or unfair — is easy to find. Taylor has the athleticism of an NBA guard. He makes plays that leave you scratching your head trying to figure out how he pulled them off, and he blows by defenders with a lightning-quick first step.
"That dude can get to the paint," coach Bill Self said.
Self said Taylor can get to the paint better than any player he's had at Kansas, even Sherron Collins.
But Taylor's speed, athleticism, and knack for jaw-dropping plays are oftentimes teamed with stretches of bone-headed mistakes where his passes find the third row of seats rather than his intended target.
"He makes plays you can't coach," Self said. "And then he makes plays where it looks like he's never been coached."
And that might be where the criticism begins. Fans see a player with NBA talent commit mental errors and can't figure out why, and Taylor forgets that being the starting point guard at Kansas means everything he does and says is magnified intensely. Throw in social networking sites like Twitter that allow fans and players to interact through a computer screen or cell phone, and sometimes bad things happen. Taylor isn't always able to ignore angry fans — a term
that can sometimes be used loosely in a world of complete anonymity — and while the unknown critics are forgotten, Taylor's words are plastered on message boards and newspaper headlines for all to see.
After receiving a handful of unflattering messages on Twitter
a few weeks ago, Taylor responded
Friday night before playing
Oklahoma on Jan. 7:
"If half (the people) that talk about ball could actually ball ... I'd appreciate y'all comments and criticism more but y'all can't. You stuck to being a fan.
"Once again I repeat ... if you can go out there and lace 'em up ... I'll accept the constructive criticism ... but since v'all can well ... yeah."
Taylor has said he's done arguing with fans on Twitter and has played four games since doing so. He's averaging 20 points, 5.7 assists,
and just 3.7 turnovers, a far cry from the 8 turnover performance against Kansas State to open Big 12 play. Most importantly, the Jayhawks are 5-0 in the conference, and Taylor may have found a way to quiet those critics better than a 140-character response.
"The turnovers don't come up too much when we're winning," he said.
Edited by Katie James
SPORTS
Senior swimmers hold back their tears and top Nebraska
Jayhawks take top three in 200-yard individual medley
ALEC TILSON editor@kansan.com
That decision proved important as Kansas defeated Nebraska 155-145, just three days after returning from a tough eight-day training trip in Mayaguez, Puerto
Instead of letting the emotion of last Saturday's Senior Day dual meet against Nebraska affect their performance, the four seniors on Kansas' swim and dive team talked days before their last competitive meet in Robinson Natatorium and agreed to hold back the tears.
"It wasn't our last meet of the season so it's not emotional," senior Shannon Garlie said. "It was more a celebration, so it helped that we didn't cry."
Even after a difficult training camp, travel days and little rest, the team found the energy it needed to win the meet against the Cornhuskers.
a short, three-team meet with LaSalle and St. Michaels.
With two events remaining in the meet, coach Clark Campbell knew the team needed to take the top three spots in the 200-yard individual medley to get to 151 points, the minimum score to win the 300 point meet, and put the match out of reach.
Sure enough, junior Brooke Brull took first, senior Stephanie Payne second and junior Brittany
Prior to the meet, the team traveled to Mayaguez and trained, two times on most days, in the Puerto Rican sun to prepare for the second half of the season. There, the team participated in and won the Mayaguez Invite:
Rospierski third as the Jay hawks ensured a victory over Nebraska.
"They were running on fumes anyway and sometimes
On top of her finish in the medley, Payne took first place in the 200-yard butterfly and third place in the 100-yard butterfly.
emotions can run high when you're tired," Campbell said. "We had to dig deep to pull out the victory."
"As a team just coming off of our training camp, which had been consistently hard practices with no day off except traveling, I think we all did really well considering we beat them, which was the goal." Payne said.
Garlic took second place in the 200-yard freestyle and third place in the 100-yard freestyle.
Hettenbach placed second in the 200-yard freestyle relay, and Liggett took third place in the 200-yard medley relay.
Kansas travels to Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend to face a top 20 program, the Arkansas Razorbacks. Campbell looks for his team to stay within themselves and focus on their own races.
Seniors Sarah Hettenbach and Kath Liggett also competed for the final time at home.
"Our kids have got to keep the race in their lane," Campbell said. "If we focus on being the best we can be, we'll be OK."
Edited by Bre Roach
Voluteer assistant coach accepts new job
ADMINISTRATION
Five years of volunteer work for the Kansas volleyball team has paid off fo; Dan Georgalas.
Georgalas, a volunteer assistant coach for the Jayhawks, accepted a full-time assistant coaching position with Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday
morning. He spent four of his five seasons as a team manager and last season on the coaching staff.
Stephen F. Austin, located in Nacogdoches, Texas, is led by coach Debbie Humphreys, a 23-year coaching veteran. Humphreys' squad finished last season with a 14-18 record.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Senior Stephanie Payne launches herself through the water during the women 200-yard butterfly during Saturday's meet against Nebraska at the Robinson Natatorium where Payne finished first with a time of 2:04.11.
During his time at Kansas, Georgia-
las handled all travel arrangements, assisted with video operations and directed the Jayhawk Juniors Volleyball Club. In addition to his coaching duties, Georgalas will teach kinesiology electives for the university.
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