BASKETBALL TO TAKE ON SCRAPPY HUSKERS
KANSAS
4
The game is scheduled to tip off at 3p.m. Saturday. GAME DAY I 8B
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
WWW.KANSAN.COM
BASEBALL BEGINS SEASON AT AIR FORCE
Today's game will gauge where the team's new parts are. BASEBALL12B
PAGE 1B
PINK ZONE PLAY
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Team plays for cause close to heart
Andrea Hudy, strength and conditioning coach, remembers her mother, Mary Hudy, as a source of strength and inspiration. The elder Hudy died from breast cancer. March 8. 2008. 18 months after being diagnosed.
Wearing pink jerseys Sunday symbolizes hope for survivors, victims of breast cancer
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
Inside strength and conditioning coach Andrea Hudy's office hangs a framed pink Kansas jersey. Printed at the top of the Jersey is the name Hudy; below that is the number one.
The jersey is a gift — one that coach Bonnie Henrickson and her staff had specially made and delivered to Andrea's mother, Mary, before Kansas' Pink Zone game on Feb. 17 last season.
Each day, Andrea gets up from her desk and looks over the jersey, letting it serve as a constant reminder of the woman who used to
wrestle with her five children; the woman who showed Andrea the importance of overcoming life's obstacles.
Mary K.
Hudy lost
her fight with
breast cancer on March 8, 2008 - 18 months after being diagnosed. She was 69 years old.
"It shows people that they have support in their own rights."
"Oh my god, every day I think of her," Andrea said, her voice briefly fading. "It's got to be at least 50 times a day — at least. She was a big influence on me."
Growing up in a modest house
in Huntingdon, Pa., a rural town located 30 miles south of State College. Andrea and her four older siblings competed in everything
ANDREA HUDY Strength coach
- Who could make it to the fridge fastest; who could drink the milk the quickest.
And, with a mom who taught math and a dad who taught social sciences, everything had consequences. Learn the ways an
onion like an apple.
Those ideals — hardwork, competitive spirit and consequences quickly became implanted in Andrea.
"A lot of people say their parents
are their best friends." Andrea said. "Well, my mom wasn't my best friend. She was a disciplinarian. She was critical. She was my mom. But I'd say she is the most influential person in my world."
That's what made Mary's transformation from a water-skiing, sled-riding source of energy to an almost distant, helpless person so hard.
Listen to Andrea talk about her mother, even if only for a short time, and the strength, fight and confidence Mary possessed is undeniably evident. But in those 18 months, when the breast cancer began to take its toll, sapping the very confidence that Andrea so clearly remembered, Mary wasn't
DETAILS
**WHO:** Kansas (13-11, 2-9)
vs. Iowa State (19-6, 7-4)
**WHAT:** "Think Pink" breast cancer awareness night
**WHEN:** Sunday at 12 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse
**TV:** FSN (36)
the same.
"She had one of her episodes where the breast cancer went to her brain," Andrea said. "She was
SEE HUDY ON PAGE 7B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks approach another Big 12 title win
BY CASE KEEFER
ckeefer@kansan.com
Sherron Collins can talk about it now.
Collins, a junior guard, knows that a sixth consecutive Big 12 Conference regular season championship is within reach for the Jayhawks, who are currently 10-1 and in second place in the Big 12.
For Kansas, it's relatively simple. Win its last five conference games and Kansas will hoist its 52nd conference title.
"I think we've got a good chance." Collins said.
Although the Jayhawks identified winning the Big 12 Championship as their goal at the beginning of the season, the players haven't felt comfortable discussing it until lately.
Of course, the jayhawks are not relaxing their focus on the next game — a Saturday matinee against Nebraska at 3 p.m. But they're allowing themselves to think about the conference town.
The Kansas basketball team celebrates winning the 2008 Big 12 regular season title. The Jawhaws are only one game behind first place Oklahoma, who they play Monday.
Aldrich chuckles at the whole situation. A year ago, he was the one observing how the veteran Jayhawks fought toward the Big 12 championship. Now, Aldrich says he's allowing those lessons.
"That's our main focus — to win the Big 12," freshman forward Marcus Morris said. "That's what we're trying to do, but we can never skip
The youngsters like Morris look to Collins and sophomore center Cole Aldrich — the only players who were part of the rotation on last year's national championship team — for leadership.
COMMENTARY
"We learned so much from those guys last year," Aldrich said. "We're just trying to teach these young guys everything we learned from those guys to make it a great year in Kansas basketball history again."
DETAILS
an opponent."
**WHO:** Kansas vs. Nebraska
**WHEN:** Saturday at 3 p.m.
**WHERE:** Allen Fieldhouse
**TV:** Channel 8, 15
If Kansas wins another conference title, it will be one of the most improbable ones in school history. Most preseason polls picked Kansas to finish fourth in the Big 12 — behind Oklahoma. Texas and Baylor.
The layhawks have already exceeded those expectations. Collins isn't surprised. He never let the preseason hype bother him.
"We knew if we do what we do, wed be sitting at the top of the conference where we are right now," Collins said. "It wasn't a big deal to
Check Kansan.com for live commentary throughout the game.
me"
Kansas coach Bill Self had figured the jayhawks needed to be 9.1 going into the final three weeks of the season to be in a position to win the Big 12.
Yes, though Self urged his players never to look ahead of the next game, he had formulated where his team needed to be four months later.
"I think every coach does that a little bit." Self said.
Mission accomplished, anyway. The Jayhawks are right where Self envisioned them and three days away from playing in a showdown that could decide the conference champion.'
Kansas takes on Oklahoma, the only team ahead of it in the standings at 11-0, Monday in Norman, Okla. If Kansas beats Nebraska Saturday, this game will determine who is the top team in the Big 12.
"Hopefully, we can be one game behind," Self said, "or if we get lucky, maybe be tied going into that game."
Either way, the game Monday will decide first place in the conference. Either way, Kansas controls its own destiny in playing for a Big 12 championship.
Oklahoma plays at Texas Saturday at 8 p.m. If the Longhorns upset the Sooners, the Jayhawks will be tied for first place entering Monday night's game.
Edited by Justin Leverett
Will this game be just like football?
In recent years, the layhawks have had some success against Nebraska in football. After a winnless drought that went on far too long, KU has defeated Nebraska twice over the past four years. In those two victories KU piled on the pain with margins of victory of 25 and 37 points.
Those scores led right into a perfect basketball chant. "Just like football," echoed in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse in the victorious years. Nebraska was a cakewalk game for the Jayhaws in basketball, so when the football scores mirrored the basketball scores, it became a perfect method of humiliation.
All that leads up to a bad omen for Saturday's game. Jayhawk fans better hope the game is the polar opposite of this year's football game.
There is some symmetry in Helu's speed on the football field and Nebraska's team speed on the basketball court, which almost gave Nebraska an upset victory against the Jayhawks in Lincoln, Neb., earlier this season.
That game was an eye opener for most fans and showed this team has some vulnerability. Now, Nebraska has seen Missouri's up-tempo game throw off the Jayhawks. Nebraska will take what they can from that and bring it to Allen Fieldhouse.
They play a smaller lineup that favors their speed and creates matchup problems for the Jayhawks.
Kansas has the longest home winning streak in college basketball right now. They always have an advantage playing at home, but Nebraska will pressure them.
Kansas' post players aren't the fastest at getting set on the defensive end and Nebraska will try to take advantage of that. Ade Dagunduro has the potential to pour in a lot of points for Nebraska and Steve Harley fuels the intensity of the team. Both had big games against Kansas in Nebraska and both will be a big factor in Saturday'same.
This can be looked at as a typical trap game. The Jayhawks go on the road at Oklahoma for Big Monday right after the Nebraska game. Will they get caught looking ahead? It's possible, and if they do, Nebraska will make them pay.
Nebraska is on the rise in the Big 12. They won three straight conference games before falling to Missouri last weekend. They just toiled through a brutal matchup with Colorado and won what was an ugly game. Kansas fell into a lull at times against Iowa State, and if they do that Saturday, Nebraska will take advantage with their speed.
This game will test KU's focus and, just like football, it could be a deadlock through most of the game and be decided in the final minutes.
Edited by Liz Schubauer
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