NSAN 2009
Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAL
SOME RUNNERS HAVE ROUGH TIME AT MEET
A-ROD APOLOGIZES FOR USING STEROIDS
Yankees infielder admits transgressions to ESPN. MLB 18B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2009
MISSOURI MELTDOWN
Tigers set turnover traps
PAGE 1B
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Missouri's Laurence Bowers passes out of a trap from sophomore center Cole Aldrich and freshman forward Marcus Morris during the first half of Monday night's game. Bowers and Missouri escaped with a 62-60 victory.
Jayhawks let a victory in Columbia slip away in the final seconds
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
COLUMBIA, Mo. - No matter how imminent a Jayhawk victory appeared Monday night at Mizzou Arena, Kansas coach Bill Self always had a feeling it would end like this.
Missouri's 62-60 victory was far from a surprise to him. It wasn't that Self dreamed of fans clad in gold
and black rushing Norm Stewart Court or predicted Missouri guard Zaire Taylor's game-winning shot, but Kansas' turnovers certainly warned Self it might be coming.
Kansas committed 27 turnovers. Self blamed that for causing Kansas (19-5, 8-1) to drop its big Big 12 Conference game of the season.
"Obviously, that was a big deal." Self said.
"We did a pitiful job — pitiful
job — of handling any kind of pressure"
It was extra frustrating to the Jayhawks because of how well they followed the outline of winning a conference road game.
They took control early,leading by as many as 14 points in the first half. They weathered Missouri runs in the middle of the second half — Missouri went on two separate 8-0 runs without taking the
lead or tying the game.
Kansas lost in the details, the same ones Self stressed — turnovers and defense.
"We didn't play defense," junior guard Sherron Collins said. "There's not much else to say."
Still, Kansas led 58-51 with four minutes remaining after sophomore center Cole Aldrich made
MEN'S BASKETBALL
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SEE MEN'S ON PAGE 4B
For full coverage of the Kansas vs. Missouri men's basketball game, check out the Rewind on page 4B.
COMMENTARY
Same old bad feeling returns
COLUMBIA, Mo. We've seen this before. We've seen Missouri's
home floor spill over with kids in yellow T-shirts.
We've seen Kansas' players walk slowly off the floor, dazed in defeat.
And we've felt this before too.
We've felt that helpless feeling, that feeling of overwhelming numbness that accompanies a loss to your biggest rival.
It was all there on Monday night on the floor of Mizzou Arena. It all came out in a blur of scratches and sweat and those darn yellow T-shirts.
And Bill Self has felt this before too.
"It's one that we had in our grasp, and let slip away," Self said, minutes after Missouri handed Kansas a 62-60 punch to the gut.
Self was rather composed after this one. He'd watched his team cough up an 11-point lead in the final eight minutes of the second half, and you could tell the loss hurt.
Sometimes other teams make plays. And, of course, it hurts when you turn the ball over 27 times.
"We just didn't hold our composure," said Cole Aldrich, who finished with eight points and 15 rebounds.
Now you can add this game to the arrals. A memory that Missouri will relish, and a feeling that Kansas will try to forget.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Thousands packed Mizzou
Arena to see if Kansas and
Missouri could resurrect a
buried basketball rivalry. To see
if the Tigers could make this
SEE DODD ON PAGE 5B
Lack of low-post strength has Kansas struggling to score
Sophomore center Krysten Boogaard attempts to block a two-point shot from Kansas State's Marlies Gipson during a Jan. 24 game in Allen Fieldhouse.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
Twenty minutes or so after watching her team struggle inside for the third consecutive game, coach Bonnie Henrickson revealed a small scrap — or maybe more appropriately a scrap heap — of Kansas' offensive game plan.
"We haven't had a low post presence in two weeks." Henrickson said. "None. We don't even run the stuff we used to run because we've struggled so much."
A slight overstatement? Maybe.
An alarming development?
Definitely.
In Kansas' three games before playing Missouri on Saturday, the Jayhawks received partial contributions from low post players. Freshman forward Aishah Sutherland scored 12 points against Colorado and sophomore center Krysten Boogaard scored eight points in the first half against Texas A&M.
But the root of the problem
is consistency. Sutherland and Boogaard, Kansas' best two inside options, have played impressively for portions of games. Then, for somewhat murky reasons, Boogaard and Sutherland seem to fade.
In Kansas' 67-58 loss at Nebraska on Jan. 21, Boogaard scored 12 points, while nearly posting double-digits in rebounds. Yet, Boogaard managed just six second-half points and four of those points came in the game's final minute.
("Boogaard) has to sit down, work around the rim and get a high-percentage shot," Henrickson said. "She has to play like a 6-5 kid and get in front of the rim."
Kansas led by one at halftime and, not coincidentally, struggled with any production on the offensive end in the second half.
Without a consistent ability to score inside, the Jayhawks have relied almost exclusively on settling for jump shots and one-on-one drives by guards. Those options, while effective at times, leave little
To heap much of the blame on the post players, though, is unfair. While Boogaard, Sutherland and sophomore forward Nicollette Smith often don't demand the ball, Kansas' guards haven't made the situation much easier.
Missouri outscored Kansas
Missouri's two top inside players, forwards Shakara Jones and Jessra Johnson, combined for 35 points, six rebounds and made 13 of 18 shot attempts.
At times, the Jayhawks pass inside when the post isn't in favorable scoring position or, as was the case at Missouri, they simply make an errant pass.
"We were making passes we didn't make all season, just making bonehead plays," McCray said. "We didn't play our game the whole night."
room for error.
"Right about now, we can't rely on our perimeter," junior forward Danielle McCray said. "We have to go inside. And that's something that we're lacking right now."
30-16 in the paint, almost scoring at will inside.
Indeed, the Jayhaws appeared physically outmanned by the Tigers
"We needed to get stops and here we are letting them get easy buckets," junior guard Sade Morris said. "We have to box out and get the rebound. We weren't doing that (Saturday)."
— a drastic and distinct change from Kansas' 75-58 handling of Missouri earlier in the season.
In that game, Boogaard scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Sure, those numbers aren't staggering, but because of guards' inabilities to get her the ball or Boogaard's inability to create openings, she didn't get many touches.
For the past four games, those same problems have persisted.
"We get nothing inside," Henrickson said. "Guards don't look, but we don't have a post that says 'throw me the ball.'"
Edited by Melissa Johnson
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