2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY JARY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"McCray is a heck of a player, and she's going to be better every time she steps on the court."
— Houston coach Joe Curt after junior forward Danielle McCray scored 26 points in a 73-56 Kansas win.
FACT OF THE DAY
Bonnie Henrickson's team is first in the Big 12 and second nationally in three-point shooting percentage, making 40.8 percent of its attempts. Kansas has made 82 three pointers this season led by junior forward Danielle McCray, who is 27-70 beyond the arc.
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: How many games has junior forward Danielle McCray scored in double figures this season?
A: McCray, the Big 12's third-leading scorer at 18.1 points per game behind Oklahoma State guard Andrea Riley and Colorado forward Brittany Spears, has reached double digits in 12 of 14 games this season. She also leads Kansas in rebounding, averaging 8.4 per contest.
@KANSAN.COM
Courtside: Women's basketball exporters Jayson Jenks and
Courtside: women's basket
reporters Jayson Jenks and
Clark Goble
discuss last night's Kansas women's basketball victory against Missouri.
The Give'n Go: Jayson Jenks
brings you Bonnie Ball analysis at Kansan.com's newest sports blog.
BEWARE OF "THE BLOG"
"Blog"Allen: Kansas State double overtime. Case Keefer dissects Kansas' 87-71 Sunflower Showdown victory.
The Jay Report: Men's basket
ball reporters The Jay Robert
Case Keefer and Taylor
Bern break down the Jayhawks' play over winter break
The Full Monty: Want a college football The FULL MONTY playoff?
Do something about it, columnist Stephen Montemayor says.
TODAY (No events)
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
FRIDAY
Track
Missouri, all day
Lawrence
SATURDAY
Swimming:
Nebraska, 2 p.m.
Lincoln, Neb.
Men's Basketball Colorado, 2:30 p.m. Boulder Colo.
Women's Basketball Texas Tech, 7 p.m. Lawrence
SUNDAY (No events)
MONDAY
Men's Basketball Texas A&M, 8 p.m. Lawrence
COMMENTARY
Withey's transfer could be a giant gift
Christmas gifts are a funny thing.
For example, let's think about this. In order to get what you really want, you have to tell people what you really want. But then, of course, you know what you are getting. So then you sit down on Christmas Day, or Christmas Eve, or whenever your family decides it's proper to open gifts, and sure it's fun to rip open the presents, but there's not a whole lot of joy when you're not surprised.
In fact, there's always a moment during the holidays, a moment when I'm feeling very Scrooge-like, when I have this thought: What if, instead of buying gifts for other people, we all just took all that money and bought stuff for ourselves? You know, you would get exactly what you wanted.
But of course, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of the holidays. And I'm very glad we
don't do it like that.
And that's why I think the best gifts are the one's that we don't see coming. You might not have exactly wished for that runner's pull-over from T.J. Maxx, but then pretty soon you realize that you're wearing it everyday, and well, something pretty simple turned into quite a gift.
Where did all this gift talk come from? Well, I was thinking about gifts the other day when I was thinking about Bill Self and Jeff Withey.
As you probably know, Withey is a 7-foot freshman from Arizona
It's part blog, part column,
part pop-culture melting pot.
It's The Morning Brew. A daily dose of Kansas sports, college life and pop culture.
THE BREW GOES DIGITAL
You can read daily postings from The Morning Brew guys at www.kansan.com/blogs/morning_brew, and if you have any questions or comments, please give us a holler at morningbrew@kansan.com.
who announced that he would be transferring to Kansas right before Christmas. It was a pretty nice Christmas gift for Self, whose
squad had
just been
steamrolled
by Arizona on
Dec. 23.
The tale of Jeff Withey isn't particularly grandiose or exciting, but it's
Withey, a native of San Diego, has been through quite the odyssey trying to find a basketball home.
Withey
interesting nonetheless.
He visited Kansas as a junior in high school, but soon fell off the Kansas radar. He verbally committed to Louisville, before deciding to stay closer to home.
Then, of course, a bomb dropped this offseason when former Arizona coach Lute Olson announced he would retire for good. Just like that, all the coaches that recruited Withey to Arizona were gone. And Withey's mom, who had moved to Tucson, Ariz., to teach grade school, was teaching her students in a college town that her son didn't exactly want to stay in.
Now Withey is at Kansas. He'll
take classes this semester and practice with the team, and he'll be eligible in December 2009, after the conclusion of first semester classes. On the brightside, Withey never played at Arizona, so he'll be considered a freshman when he finally suits up for the lavahaws.
Yes. I know what you are wondering. Does the kid have game? Well, he was rated the No. 36 overall player in the Class of 2008 by Rivals.com, he's 7 feet tall and Self says he needs to put on some weight.
But right now, that doesn't really matter. The kid has 12 months to work out and prepare for next season. Self got a 7-foot Christmas gift, and most importantly, hopefully Withey finds a home in Lawrence.
THURSDAY
YOUTUBE SESH
We all have our favorite sports movies. Maybe you're a "Hoosiers" and "Rudy" type of person, or maybe you are more into "BASEketball" or "Mighty Ducks."
I am, of course, talking about
Whatever you're into, there's a new sports movie coming to local theaters this month that looks like it could be an all-timer.
Bruce Springsteen wrote a new song for the movie — it's featured in the trailer — and if it doesn't make you a little emotional, well, then you're probably not as much of a sap as I am. Secondly, be on the lookout for some of the most cheesy movie lines since the speech in Rocky IV. You know, the one where Rocky ends communism. Type "The Wrestler trailer" into your YouTube search and enjoy.
"The Wrestler." Ironically, it stars washed-up movie star Mickey Rourke playing a gritty, washed-up professionally wrestler. We'll save the full review for when the Morning Brew actually has time to see the full feature, but for right now, go to YouTube.com and check out the trailer.
Rowdy rematch
Edited by Chris Horn
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southeast United's Lee Barrard, left, battles for the ball with Chelsea's John Terry during the third round FA Cup play soccer match between Southeastern United and Chelsea at Roots Hall Stadium in Southeastern-Orlanda. On Wednesday
NFL
New Chiefs GM Pioli will consider Edwards
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If Herm Edwards is on his way out as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, his new boss isn't saying.
In his first news conference since being hired as the final authority on all Chiefs football operations, new general manager Scott Pioli would go no further Wednesday than to say he intends to visit with Edwards
"I have a lot of respect for Herm. I had a chance to visit with Herm today," said Pioli, who spent the last nine years helping Bill Belichick build a dynasty in New England.
Edwards and his staff were 6-26 in their last two years, the worst span in team history. They have been waiting to learn their fate since Dec. 15, when Carl Peterson resigned after 20 years
as president, CEO and general manager.
"Contrary to reports that were out there, we're going to spend some time talking about Herm," said Pioli. "I'm actually looking forward to it."
Chiefs board chairman Clark Hunt, who has openly said he liked Edwards and thought he might be the best man to continue the organization's rebuilding project, said only that he and Pioll would openly discuss the situation and that it would be a "joint decision."
Now that Hunt has hired Pioli to head football operations, he will go about putting someone in charge of business operations. He declined to say whether Denny Thum, a longtime team employee, would be given top priority, or even if he would interview other candidates.
Associated Press
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Lyons was arrested late Sunday in Columbia for failure to have his lights on and failure to display proof of insurance, team spokesman Dave Reiter said. Police then learned there was a warrant for Lyons for an unpaid fine for making an illegal turn in 2006, Reiter said.
BIG 12 BASKETBALL
COLUMBIA, Mo.— Missouri forward Leo Lyons was suspended indefinitely on Monday, a day after his arrest on traffic charges and for failing to pay a traffic fine from 2006.
Mizzou's Lyons suspended
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Calls to Columbia police were not returned.
Coach Mike Anderson had not determined how long Lyons will be suspended, saying only that he won't play against Colorado on Wednesday.
in both scoring (14.6 points per game) and rebounding (6.2 per game) and led the Tigers with 12 points against Nebraska after a scoreless first half.
"The theme here is responsibility," Anderson said in a statement. "Leo failed to meet his
The loss of the 6-foot-9 Lyons would be a big one for Missouri. He's second on the team to D.M. Gracey.
to meet his
"We preach responsibility to our young men every day and we are going to help Leo learn from this mistake."
MIKE ANDERSON Coach
responsibilities as a driver and it led him to this unfortunate situation. We preach responsibility to
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our young men every day and we are going to help Leo learn from this mistake. We'll continue to monitor the situation and once
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Lyons was a freshman when the original driving offense occurred.
we feel comfortable that we have all the facts and Leo meets his obligations, then we'll move forward."
Lyons has been suspended by Anderson twice before.
Last January, he was one of five players disciplined
for curfew violations after an altercation at a Columbia night-club. And soon after Anderson arrived, he suspended Lyons for both exhibition games prior to the 2006-07 season for violating team academic policy. Lyons later called that suspension "a wake-up call."
"It's one of those misfortunate things where it might not be that serious, but its one of those lessons that needs to be learned by him especially with him going out into the real world," Carroll said. "You've got to take care of your business. I think he'll grow from it and come back from it."
A