10B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY MARCH 23,2009
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Kansas plays Creighton tonight in second round of WNIT
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
Junior guard Kelly Kohn is greeted by junior guard LaChelda Jacobs after a victory in the 2008 WNIT against Evansville. The Javahaws play Creighton tonight in the second round of this WNIT
Photo by Jon Goering
Seated at a large table inside Hadl Auditorium, coach Bonnie Henrickson called this season a failure.
Moments before, up a winding flight of stairs and inside a basket ball office on the second floor, the Jayhawks watched as their NCAA tournament dreams were put to rest. For Henrickson, that alone deemed the season unsuccessful.
"Our goal is to make the NCAA tournament and you can't look at being 2-9 in the league at one point as being a success," Henrickson said. "Yes, they should take some pride away from it, but we missed opportunities earlier. If we play with that same sense of urgency earlier, we're having a different conversation."
Kansas' current conversation — that of a team having just missed the NCAA tournament — lends itself to introspection.
File photo by Jon Goering
For the second consecutive year, the Jayhawks finished nonconference play with an 11-2 record. But even that healthy start foreshadowed Kansas' problems this season.
WNIT SECOND ROUND
Kansas committed 28 turnovers in a loss at Marquette. In that game, the layhawks held a six-point lead at halftime. Two weeks later, Kansas never grasped control of a game at UCLA, letting another solid chance at a road victory slip away, 67-64.
"That's a big kick in the but when you lose to those teams and then those teams aren't even playing now," junior forward Danielle McCray said. "They're done with their seasons."
The Jayhawks began conference play 2-9 and all indications pointed toward a miserable end to a once-promising start. Yet, after
Kansas vs. Creighton
Tonight, 7 p.m.
Allen Fieldhouse
Admission is free for any KU student with a valid ID
Perhaps Catic's summation fits Kansas' season best.
Sure, the Jayhawks were deeply disappointed with being left out of the NCAA tournament — a fact Henrickson and her team blamed on themselves. But moments after learning the Jayhawks were destined for the WNIT, McCray stood and offered an optimistic assessment of the situation.
"In a micro season, the last five or six games we really turned the corner and played with a sense of urgency," senior guard Ivana Catic said. "Overall, I wouldn't say it's a failure or it's a success. There's always better. We didn't make the tournament but we did a lot of good things."
Kansas won five of its final seven games, including a blowout victory against then-No. 5 Baylor, a team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
losing four consecutive conference games, something clicked — or perhaps snapped — with Henrickson's team.
The layhawks will finally escape the grind of conference play, where every team knows every oppo-
"We can be in the WNIT, and it still means something." McCray said. "A tournament is a tournament. When you're playing for something, you might as well win it."
But, more importantly, the WNIT simply allows Kansas the opportunity to continue playing
"That's what I told Ivana and the seniors: There are a lot of seniors who have been done and crying for
meaningful games late in the season.
"Our team needed to hear that from someone!" Catic said.
nent's defensive scheme and offensive set.
the WNIT offers Kansas a fresh start.
And after the self-inflicted disappointment of being spurned by the NCAA selection committee.
a week already." Henrickson said. "We are fortunate to still be playing in a quality tournament."
— Edited by Realle Roth
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Michigan State squeaks past USC
The Spartans will face the third-seeded Jayhawks in the Sweet Sixteen at Indianapolis
Michigan State's Travis Walton, left, and Southern California's Leonard Washington go to the floor for a loose ball during the second half of a second-round men's NCAA basketball tournament game Sunday in Miamisburg. Michigan State won 74-69.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — An unexpected scoring binge from the Big Ten's defensive player of the year propelled Michigan State to a familiar place.
Travis Walton scored a career-high 18 points to lift the second-seeded Spartans to a 74-69 victory over 10th-seeded USC on Sunday in the Midwest Regional, putting Michigan State in the round of 16 for the eighth time in 12 years.
"I was shocked that he did make some of those shots," coach Tom Izzo said of Walton, who entered the game averaging 4.9 points and was shut out against Robert Morris in the first round.
Durell Summers added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Spartans (28-6), who have advanced to the regional semifinals more times in the last dozen years than any team besides Duke.
They'll play third-seeded Kansas on Friday in Indianapolis.
Dwight Lewis scored 19 points and DeMar DeRozan added 18 points for USC (22-13), which is starting to look like more than just a football school under coach Tim Floyd.
"You look at me as a defensive stopper, but I've been practicing my shot," Walton said. "Kalin put the ball in my hands. I had high confidence when I shot them and they went in."
Walton hadn't scored in double figures since he had 11 against Kansas on Jan. 10. But with the offense sputtering and the Trojans attacking, the senior could not have picked a better time to come through.
Floyd worried that the lack of depth -- three Troians played all
40 minutes and star Taj Gibson played 36 against Boston College -- would hinder them against Michigan State, which goes 10 deep. Gibson fouled out with 5:38 to play, but these kids showed plenty of California cool even without their leader on the floor.
Lewis scored six straight points for the Trojans, including two free throws that tied the game at 69 with less than 4 minutes to go.
Walton drilled his third tie-breaking jumper of the final 10 minutes on the other end. After Daniel Hackett lost the ball on a drive to the basket, Nikola Vucevic was whistled for a questionable* foul on Goran Suton. Floyd flopped to the court in fury, but Suton made both free throws for a 73-69 lead with 1:19 to go.
Lewis and Hackett missed 3-pointers on the other end and
After going a perfect 10-for-10 with 24 points and six rebounds in the Troians' opening-round victory over BC on Friday, Gibson scored just three points with no rebounds and five blocks in 23 minutes.
With USC out, the Pac-10 only has one team remaining in the field in Arizona, California, Washington, UCLA and Arizona State also failed to make it out of the first weekend, making it the first time since 2004 that at least two Pac-10 teams aren't in the round of 16.
the Trojans missed their final nine shots from the field to help the Spartans survive.
But the best may be yet to come for these Trojans, who have appeared in a school-record three straight NCAA tournaments. DeRozan, Leonard Washington (10 points, seven rebounds) and Vucevic (six points, four boards in 22 mim-
"I'm really proud of them," Floyd said. "We're a team that has talent, and it's young talent. .. If there's some way we can keep them together, we have a chance to be a very special team."
utes) are freshmen. If Hackett, Lewis and Gibson return for their senior years and DeRozen sticks around, the Trojans will be loaded.
For Walton, there is no next year.
In the last 12 years, every Spartan who has stayed four years has played in a Final Four.
Now, thanks to his 8-for-13 shooting, Michigan State has a chance to keep that impressive and treasured statistic going.
"I was surprised. I am sure Tim was," Izzo said. "I am sure their players were. I am sure, if you are honest, our players were. Because he really hasn't shot the ball well lately."
NFL
BY BARRY WILNER
No proposals to change overtime regulations
Associated Press
Overtime isn't likely to be discussed at the league meetings that began Sunday after the NFL competition committee came up with no proposals to change it. The players themselves support the current system — coin flip and all — so the owners will consider other issues; rules changes regarding player safety; the collective bargaining agreement with the players; and the state of the economy.
DANA POINT, Calif. — Fans overwrought by the NFL's overtime system won't be getting any relief this year.
Those aren't hot-button topics for most NFL fans, who saw 43 percent of overtime games won on the first possession by the team that won the coin toss in 2008.
Ray Anderson, the league's vice president of football operations, believes overtime and player safety are interconnected.
"I was a bit surprised at how adamant the players were with not wanting to change the system," Anderson said. "They were pretty adamant an extended playing time would expose you to injury risk. If you can't win it in regulation, you take your chances in overtime."
With the NFL considering extending the regular season by one or two games once it reaches a new CBA with the union, the possibility of overtime stretching beyond one extra period — yes, Donovan, there are ties after 15 minutes of OT — does not appeal to the union.
That might disturb fans who wonder about the fairness of the current format, particularly when their team loses the coin toss to start overtime, then never sees the ball.
But as Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian said about his team's 23-17 loss at San Diego in a wild-card game that finished with exactly that scenario: "We had our chances to win the game and our chances to stop them."
As for an eventual extension of the regular season, something commissioner Roger Goodell champions, it would not alter the 20-game format currently in use (16 regular-season games, four exhibitions). The league would eliminate one or two preseason matches to accommodate more "real" games.
Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, a longtime co-chairman of the competition committee, recognizes there has been an undertow for overtime change among certain constituencies.
"That has drawn a lot of attention from the media and is brought up a lot by our fans," McKay said. "Talking to the players union and advisory council, we have no proposal at this time. Overtime achieves the major goal in that it breaks ties. And it is extremely excited."
But with significant improvement in field goal kicking accuracy and distance, McKay isn't so sure such a move would work again. He also noted the average distance of successful overtime field goals last year was 37 yards, which means teams were able to move the ball well before sending in the kicker.
The owners will be given information this week by the competition committee regarding competitive issues with a 17-game or 18-game regular season, but Anderson contemplates no action until a CBA is reached.
"I think everyone feels comfortable with the system," he said.
One change that McKay suggested could make overtime more equitable would be moving the kickoff back 5 yards. When the NFL moved the kickoff back to the 30 several years ago, it had a definite effect on field position.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have proposed reseeding the playoffs so that a wild-card team with a superior record to a division winner will be at home in a first-round matchup between those teams. Last season, the Colts (12-4) played at the Chargers (8-8) and the Falcons (11-5) were at the Cardinals (9-7). Both home teams won.
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