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SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN
MONDAY MARCH 9 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Nobody believed in us. We were underdogs a lot, but we didn't care. We just wanted to come out and show everybody that we were capable of doing it and I think we did that. We responded well to everybody's doubts."
- Sherron Collins after Kansas victory over Texas to clinch the Big 12 title outright
FACT OF THE DAY
Kansas will still have the nation's longest home winning streak when the college basketball season begins next fall. The Jayhawks have won 41 straight games in the house that Phog built.
A: The Jayhawks are a perfect 15-0 when they shoot at or above 50 percent. Kansas shot exactly 50 percent against Texas on Saturday.
— KU Athletics
Q: What is Kansas record when shooting 50 percent or better from the field this season?
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
The Give and Go: With a long, boring trip through Iowa ahead of them, the guys use the
@ KANSAN.COM
-KU Athletics
extra time to spice up their analy-
the give and go
sis with a little music
Courtside: How disappointing was this loss? What does it mean for Kansas' postseason? Find out the answers Courtside, the only KU women's basketball around.
COURTSIDE BLOG
The Full Monty: Columnist Stephen Montemayor provides instant analysis from UFC 96 on The Full Monty. Rampage Jackson topped Keith Jardine and engaged in a brilliant (and hilarious) trash talking session with his next opponent.
COMMENTARY
Mid-majors not as spoiled as Big 12
ST.LOUIS-This Morning Brew was supposed to be about former Kansas assistant basketball coach Tim Jankovich.Jank's Illinois State squad made the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Sunday in just his second season.
I perused through the media guide for his bio and stats and even had a few funny quips about
the awesome names on his team (Champ Oguchi, Osiris Eldridge and Dirma Odiakosa all belong in the Name Hall of Fame).
Jankovich
But as Sunday's championship game* drew to a close, I realized this was bigger than one coach.
"Despite 21 second-half points from Eldridge, the University of Northern Iowa hung on to defeat Jank's Redbirds 60-57 in overtime. The win put the Panthers in the NCAA Tournament for just the fifth time in school history.
jayhawk basketball fans are spoiled. That's not a bad thing, but Kansas is so good that conference titles pile up quicker than calories
at McDonald's and making the NCAA Tournament is a formality. It's awesome, but it's not the basketball I grew up with.
In the MVC. Final Fours and first round draft picks are foreign concepts, but the joy of winning the tournament in a one-bid league, which the Valley is this season, is second only to winning the National Championship.
Eldridge
The biggest difference between the BCS conferences and ones such as the Valley is attitude.
Traditional basketball powerhouses (Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, etc.) are so used to the Dance that they're only happy if they're the last ones partying at midnight.
However, for teams like UNI,
everything in that dance hall is
spectacular. The band rocks,
all the girls are beautiful and
the punch tastes like it was
squeezed from God's tit.
Only one of the teams in the Scottrade Center on Sunday was going to the tourney. A Big 12 final between Kansas
and Oklahoma may determine seeding, but those teams aren't playing for their lives.
After the game, Jankovich tried to find the perfect words for his team.
"I was searching for profound, and come to find out there was no profound today," he said. "If you haven't been through it. I don't even know how to describe the pain."
Most days the Jayhawks are better than their opponents. Everybody on the court knows it, and most of the time it goes as expected.
It hurts when you get turned down for a dance in that hall, but not nearly as much as it does when you're shut down at the door.
That's the feeling I've missed since turning my attention to basketball the Kansas way.
It's a great feeling, but I missed the joy of watching the team I'd
pulled for reach its ultimate goal without the
world coming to a halt.
Farokhmanesh
in St. Louis were even there to watch UNiFs Ali Farokhmanesh bury the deciding free throws on Sunday.
It's a simple joy, yet it means almost as much to the Panthers and their fans as the National Championship did to the Jayhawks. And that's pretty cool.
Edited by Realle Roth
You're out
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Panama's catcher Carlos Ruiz, tags out at home plate Dominican Republic's Willy Taveras as teammate Jose Reyes, right, and umpire Eric Cooper look on in the third inning of a World Baseball Classic game in San Juan, Sunday. The play came off of Dominican Republic's David Ortiz's single to right field.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Men's golf
Louisiana Classics
Lafayette, La.
TUESDAY
Men's golf
Louisiana Classics
Lafayette, La.
WEDNESDAY
Women's basketball Nebraska, 11 a.m. Oklahoma City, Okla.
Baseball
Wichita State, 6 p.m.
Lawrence
THURSDAY
Men's basketball
Baylor/Nebraska,
11:30 a.m.
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Softball
Missouri State, 2 p.m.
Springfield, Mo.
FRIDAY
Baseball
Arizona St., 5:30 p.m.
Surprise, Ariz.
Swimming & Diving Zone Diving Championships
Tennis
Nebraska, 3 p.m.
Lincoln, Neb.
Track
TRACK
NCAA Indoor Championships
College Station, Texas
TENNIS
Roddick chalks a win for United States Davis Cup
TENNIS
Roddick's 31st Davis Cup win moved him past Andre Assgi into second place on the U.S. list, 10 behind John McEnroe.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Andy Roddick again closed out a victory for the United States Davis Cup team.
The No. 6-ranked Roddick swept past Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka to give the U.S. an opening round victory in the best-of-five series with his second straight-set win in a row Sunday. He is now 11-0 with a chance to close out a Davis Cup series.
Associated Press
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LEADERSHIP COURSE FOR FALL 2009 JUNIORS OR FIRST-YEAR GRAD STUDENTS
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SOCCER
But it's going to cost Beckham to stay overseas. He and AC Milan are jointly paying the Galaxy in a "multimillion dollar deal" to extend his loan, the Galaxy said in a statement issued late Saturday.
Beckham returns to Galaxy
The English midfielder will stay through the end of the Italian team's season, which concludes May 31. He'll be available for England's two World Cup qualifiers in June before taking a few weeks off and rejoins the Galaxy on July 1.
"A lot of players show their affection just with words. David Beckham is one of the very few who has shown it with deeds", AC Milan chairman Adriano Galliani said Sunday on Italian state television.
The player pays out-of-pocket to stay on AC Milan before L.A. return
LOS ANGELES — David Beckham is spending his own money to remain on loan with AC Milan before he returns to the Los Angeles Galaxy in July.
"I won't cite any numbers, but I can say that the player will stay with us until June. He has made an incredible economic commitment, paying a lot of money from his own pocket."
BY BETH HARRIS Associated Press
Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed. The Galaxy had sought at least $10 million for the outright purchase of Beckham, but AC Milan officials had offered $3 million.
The two sides were negotiating for weeks and agreed on the loan extension hours before it was due to expire after AC Milan's game Sunday.
J V
BA
"The obvious (reason for staying at Milan) is giving me the chance to play in the 2010 World Cup." Beckham told SNTV. "I personally have to do everything I can do to be involved in that. Everyone knows how passionate I am about playing for my country and, if it gives me a better chance of being involved in that squad, I'll do anything possible to make that happen."
At the time, Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of the Galaxy's parent company AEG, had said the negotiations were over and that Beckham needed to return to Los Angeles and end the distraction.
The announcement came three weeks after Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber's Feb. 13 deadline to resolve the situation.
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