8A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2003
Football team ready for contact
By Kevin Flaherty
kflaherty@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Brandon Baker/Kansan
Sophomore linebacker Brandon Perkins charges into a teammate during hitting drills. The Jayhawks began practicing this week without pads in preparation for the upcoming season.
One of the first tackles of the 2003 season came early in the seven-on-seven passing drill Wednesday.
Mark Simmons, sophomore wide receiver, caught a short pass near the sideline and turned up field.
Simmons broke away from a defender and was wrapped up by Nick Reid. The sophomore safety attempted to strip the ball away from Simmons. When the ball didn't come out, Reid slammed Simmons to the practice field grass.
Some chest-bumping and trash-talking later, play resumed as before.
It was the football team's first practice of the year, the players were not wearing pads, and the drill was supposed to be non-contact.
In just a few short seconds, Mark Mangino, Kansas football coach, was proven a prophet.
"Our players are tired of getting up at 5 in the morning to work out," Mangino said in last
Friday's press conference. "They are very anxious to hit somebody."
For the most part, the dummies were hit harder than the players. The first practice in full pads is March 24.
Mangino said the goal of the practice was to learn assignments.
"We had a very good first practice." Mangino said. "This is the most business-like practice I've seen in a couple of seasons—we worked hard to execute."
Execution may be key for a team that finished the 2002 season with a record of 2-10 including an 0-8 record in Big 12 Conference play.
The first practice featured several players in new positions.
Reid was the team's leading returning tackler and sacker after a stellar freshman campaign at linebacker, but problems at safety led to a position switch. Dan Coke, a former bruising running back is now at safety as well. Former tight end Adrian Jones now plays at left tackle.
Mangino said that Jones was a good fit at left tackle.
"Adrian has excellent feet and is very strong," Mangino said. "He needs to get his weight up a little bit, but he bench presses 400 pounds and could be good for us at that spot."
Quarterback Bill Whittemore and linebacker Banks Floodman, participated in limited drills. Both are recovering from knee injuries experienced last season.
the medical staff at the end of the week, they would fully participate after spring break, Mangino said.
If the players were cleared by
Two players, linebacker Glenn Robinson and defensive tackle Tony Strickland, did not participate in practice because of injuries.
The team's next practice is today, but is closed to the public.
Edited by Christy Dendurent
Basketball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12A
The Cyclones beat the Aggies 97-70 to get to the second round for the first time since 2000 when the Cyclones won the Big 12 regular season title and the tournament championship.
Eustachy said he was proud of his team, but he cautioned it after yesterday's game about playing Kansas.
"It was a great win and we'll get some pats on the back in the hotel lobby from some boosters, and that's fine," Eustachy said. "But we got possibly the best team in the country that we're playing tomorrow and they're a runaway freight train under control."
In two previous match-ups this season Kansas had little trouble defeating Iowa State.
The Jayhawks opened up conference play with an 83-54 victory over the Cyclones in Ames, Iowa, on Jan. 6. In the Feb. 16 rematch in Lawrence, Larry Eustachy was kicked out of the game after two technical fouls, and Kansas methodically won 70-51.
Kansas closed the season out after its second victory over the Cyclones winning five of six games putting the Jayhawks in position for a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.
continued from page 12A
Rankings
factors when making decisions and are the consummate bracketologists.
Perhaps the most well-known part of the decision making is the Ratings Percentage Index, or RPI. A complex formula, this is the mathematics portion of deciding who gets to go to the NCAA tournament. The RPI gauges Division I winning percentage (25 percent), schedule strength (50 percent) and opponent's schedule
NCAA Selection Shows
Men's Hoops: NCAA Selection Show at 5 p.m. Sunday on KCTV Channel 5 Sunflower Broadband, and 6 p.m. Sunday on ESPN
Women's Hoops: NCAA Selection Show at 4 p.m. Sunday on ESPN
strength (25 percent).
These factors are combined to create a decimal that is used throughout the selection process. The Big 12 has three teams in the top five in the RPI, with Kansas at No. 5. As a conference, the Big 12 has the second-
best RPI to the Southeastern Conference.
The RPI is used mostly for deciding between teams with similar records, it has been used since 1981.
Joe Lunardi, ESPN.com's resident bracketologist, said the RPI is not the most important part of the decision-making process.
"Three factors rise above all others—who did you beat, when did you beat 'em, and where," Linardi said.
There are 31 automatically qualifying teams who make the tournament by winning either the conference title, or if the
conference has one, the conference tournament.
After that, 34 at-large teams are invited to complete the 65-team tournament. The 64th and 65th best teams play each other for the right to play the best team in the tournament.
After picking the field of 65, the committee must then seed the teams, and several more factors arise. Sienna College, Texas San-Antonio, Minnesota, Boston College, South Florida, Vanderbilt University, Butler University, Utah State and Washington State all cannot play in certain regions because
The Final Four is on a three-year rotating cycle that decides which regional champions compete. This year's edition, located in New Orleans, features the East versus South and West versus Midwest. The winners meet in the NCAA championship game.
their home courts are hosting tournament games and the teams would have a home-court advantage.
Although the NCAA doesn't allow the home-court advantage for the tournament, other high-seeded schools compete close to home to give fans less travel time time.
kansan.com the student perspective
"You don't need as much time preparation for the conference tournament because you already know a lot about the teams," Williams said.
The only difference in this season's tournament is the change of venues from Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., to the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
— Edited by Amber Byarlay
Kansas coach Roy Williams said in his press conference on Tuesday that it is not difficult to prepare his team to play in the conference tournament.
The NCAA tournament selection show will be Sunday evening after the tournament games have been played. NCAA tournament play commences with the play-in game on Wednesday.
Bo Carter, Big 12 assistant commissioner, said this would be a good year for the Big 12 because there have been three teams in the top-10 for nine weeks. He said the conference should have six or seven teams in the tournament with possibly two No.1 seeds.
- Edited by Amber Byarlay
Senior forward Nick Collison said he thought the Jayhawks needed to focus on their play but could be considered with a lot of other teams as possibly getting the No.1 seed.
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