Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL REVIEW ON THURSDAY
Pick up tomorrow's Kansan for player grades and more season analysis.
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BASEBALL DEFEATS IOWA IN NINTH INNING
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009
5-4 victory came after a two-run single from Zac Elqie. BASEBALL 18A
NO ROOM FOR REGRETS
PAGE 1B
Graphic by Nick Gerik/KANSAN
Beyond all expectations
Self and young team pleased with progress, have high hopes for next year's tournament
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
Perspective is hard to find in the loser's locker room after a season-ending defeat.
Players talk about what could have been. They stammer. They mumble. They look down.
Kansas' locker room at Lucas Oil Stadium after losing to Michigan State two weeks ago definitely fit that description. For 30 minutes after the loss, junior guard Sherron Collins struggled to find the right way to wrap up Kansas'
SEASON IN REVIEW
Check pages 4B and 5B for player grades, stats and a roundup of the season's highs and lows.
2009 season.
In the end, five of Collins' words turned out to be the most telling.
"It was a fun ride," Collins said.
Fun, according to Collins, because the layawks were able to get to the second weekend of the
NCAA tournament. They became the 26th team in school history to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
But Collins' best memory from this season will be Kansas' winning its fifth consecutive Big 12 Conferencechampionship. Despite being picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 at the beginning of the season, Kansas won its 52nd conference championship.
"To come to the Sweet Sixteen and win the league with the team we had," Collins said, "no one expected it."
Not a bad haul for what some called a rebuilding year after Kansas lost seven of its top eight players and all five starters from 2008's national championship team.
awards to commemorate this season. The Associated Press named Collins, who averaged 19 points and five assists per game, a third-team All-American. Sophomore center Cole Aldrich, who averaged 15 points and 11 rebounds, received honorable mention. It also awarded Kansas coach Bill Self with Coach of the Year recognition.
Kansas gathered plenty of
"I don't have any regrets at all about this team's season," Self said.
Neither do the rest of the Jayhawks. Aldrich, freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor and freshman forward Marcus Morris all gave the same response to what they would remember best about this season: how far they came.
All three of them mentioned the beginning of the year, when Kansas went on a Labor Day weekend trip to Ottawa, Canada.
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 4B
TENNIS
Freshman Ekaterina Morozova and senior Edina Horzatr encourage each other between points during a March 22 doubles game against Missouri in Lawrence.
K-State match crucial to Big 12 finish
BY JUSTIN HILLEY ihillev@kansan.com
The Jayhawks will be facing their rival, the Kansas State Wildcats, today at 3 p.m. in the Sunflower Showdown.
Ryan McGonanov/KANCAN
Kansas State is on a nine-match losing streak and has a conference record of 0-7, and today is almost a must-win if the lajayhaws plan to achieve coach Amy Hall-Holt's goal of finishing in the top half of the conference. Last year this was accomplished with a conference record of 5-6; the squad is now 3-5 with three Big 12 matches remaining. The other two are against No. 31 Texas and No. 33 Texas A&M.
"Defeating Kansas State will be a great Big 12 win for us," Hall-Holt said. "It is something that the girls take great pride in. Hopefully, they'll take a lot of pride in the match against K-State."
The lajayhs should be fully aware of the fickleness of tennis.
They have lost to teams that statistically they should have defeated, but have also been on the edge of defeating some of the best teams in the nation.
"K-State is a tough team," Hall-
Holt said. "They've been struggling a little bit, but they always bring their A-game when they come out to play us. We definitely
SOFTBALL
SEETENNIS ON PAGE 6B
BYTOM POWERS
tpowers@kansan.com
Hawks need victory before tough stretch
For the Jayhawks (12-24 overall, 2-4 Big 12) time is running out to make a push for the NCAA tournament. The two games against Nebraska mark the seventh and eighth games of conference play for Kansas, which is at nearly the halfway point in its Big 12 regular season.
Today's doubleheader against Nebraska is pivotal for the jayhawk softball team and could be the turning point for the 2009 season.
And the toughest challenges might lie ahead, as the Jayhawks have yet to face No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 20 Texas and a surging 26-14 Baylor team. But the Jayhawks need to take it one game at a time.
KANSAS VS NEBRASKA
WHAT: Doubleheader
WHEN: Today.
4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
WHERE: Arrocha
Ballpark
Admission is free with a valid KUID.
COMMENTARY
"This team doesn't need to worry about any game but the one that's in front of us," Bunge said. "We need to focus all of our
SEESOFTBALL ON PAGE 6B
Home run shortage is hurting the Jayhawks
Chicks dig the long ball. Having a grand total of zero home runs in my little league career, I certainly don't know from personal experience.
But despite a lack of first-hand knowledge, I know this to be true. Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux told me so in a late '90s Nike ad. And the first thing they teach you in journalism school is that you can always trust everything you're told in commercials.
But, true as the ad may be, it could have taken things even further. Other demography love home runs as well. Like, oh, I don't know, Kansas baseball coaches named Ritch Prize. Like the aforementioned trio of then-Braves pitchers, Price would probably like to see a few more balls leave the yard. Not so he can get a date (at least I don't think so), but so his Jayhawks can register a few more victories.
Not that there isn't value in playing small ball. And of course, every old-timer will swear by the truism that pitching and defense win championships. That's all well and good, but that tried-and-(maybe not so)-true phrase omits one fact: No matter how well your pitchers perform, you still have to put runs on the board. Kansas, currently sitting at 20-12 (4-5 in Big 12 play), illustrates that point quite well.
Of course, all the numbers in the world don't count for jack if they don't factor into wins and losses. Thankfully, there's a pretty direct correlation to be found between Kansas hitting home runs and Kansas winning. When Kansas fails to leave the yard, it's 10-8. Admittedly, that's pretty good. Credit the layahawk pitching staff and bulpen on that one. But when Kansas does manage one homer or more, its record improves to 9-4.
And yes, there are other ways to score runs. If Kansas was excelling in those, there wouldn't be cause for concern. But that isn't happening. The Jayhawks have scored five runs or less in 11 of their 30 games. In college baseball, where the bats go ping, not crack, that kind of production doesn't cut it.
Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for Kansas in Big 12 play. With nine games and 298 at bats in the books, conference play has yielded only two Jayhawk home runs and four wins.
The offense... not so much. Kansas' 17 home runs (eight of which have been provided by sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson) sit firm in the bottom half of the NCAA rankings and fall well behind what the elite teams produce. Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the Big 12 right now, has 57.
Which is why — all due respect to Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux — no one digs the long ball more than managers whose teams hit them. Price would probably like to dig them a lot more often.
As of Sunday, Kansas had the 28th-best ERA in all of college baseball at 3.96. Although a recent pummeling by Baylor helped bump that number up, Kansas' hurlers have generally performed well.
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- Edited by Brandy Entsminger
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