THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2013
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
PAGE 7
Kansas ends with 1-2 record in Virgin Islands tournament
STELLA LIANG
sliang@kansan.com
sliang@kansan.com
Going into the tournament over the holiday break, the Kansas women's basketball team (4-3) looked to its veterans for leadership. The upperclassmen led the team while in the Virgin Islands, but their effort was not enough as the team left with a 1-2 tournament record.
The Jayhawks opened with a Thanksgiving win against Central Michigan 68-63. They lost a close game to Xavier 59-64 despite leading for much of the game, and ended with a blowout loss 40-73 to No. 2 Duke. In the last two games of the tournament, seniors CeCe Harper and Markisha Hawkins were in the starting lineup for the first time all season following their strong efforts in the match against Central Michigan. Harper was named to the All-Tournament Team for the Island Division.
"I'm just really happy for her because she played her tail off [Friday] and really the first two games," coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "I thought she was the most consistent of our group over the three-day tournament."
Against Xavier, Harper led the team in scoring with 15 points and dished out six assists. The previous afternoon she scored nine points against Central Michigan.
Hawkins had a career game against Central Michigan when she scored 16 points and had four assists. She contributed eight points in the loss to Xavier in her first start of the season.
The victory against Central Michigan was hard fought. The Jayhawks were off to a slow start, and after five minutes of play they were down 3-11. They spent most of the first half chipping away at the deficit. The Jayhawks took their first lead with six minutes left after junior Asia Boyd hit two free throws to make it 26-25, but the teams went to halftime tied at 32-32.
"We weren't very focused and didn't have much energy," Henrickson said. "I said, 'We've got to
change the momentum."
Hawkins made a couple of driving layups to keep the Jayhawks in the lead in the final minutes, but the game wasn't decided until there was less than a minute to play. After junior Natalie Knight hit two free throws to make the score 68-63, Central Michigan couldn't find a way to add to its score. In addition to Hawkins' 16 points, junior Chelsea Gardner also scored 16 points and Knight added 10.
The next afternoon, Kansas and its opponent, Xavier, also went into halftime tied. This time Kansas had led for most of the first half. In the second half, the two teams battled for the lead. The Jayhawks had the lead 59-58 with about a minute left after Harper drove into the basket, flipped in a shot, was fouled and made the ensuing free throw.
Xavier made a layup on the next play to take a one-point lead. After a missed shot by the Jayhawks, Xavier made two free throws to bring its lead up to three with less than 15 seconds to play. Knight took a three-point shot to tie, but didn't make it.
The matchup against Duke was a disjointed game with many foul calls. Kansas was down by nine at halftime, and Duke drove its lead up early in the second half to put the Jayhawks away for good. The Jayhawks held Duke to 73 points; the Blue Devils had averaged 89.9 points a game before this matchup. Freshman Keyla Morgan was the bright spot for the Jayhawks. She scored a career-high 11 points in her third appearance of the season. No other Jayhawk scored more than five points.
Duke ended up 3-0 in the round-robin tournament between these four teams in the Island Division of the Paradise Jam tournament. Kansas, Central Michigan and Xavier all had 1-2 records.
— Edited by Paige Lytle
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
CeGe Harper, senior guard, looks down the court during Kansas' 84-62 victory over Oral Roberts on Nov. 11. Harper is averaging 9 points per game and 23 minutes on the floor.
FOOTBALL
Jayhawks' season concludes with questions on offense
CHRIS HYBL
chybl@kansan.com
Improper sendoff
Senior running back James Sims, who is perhaps the best player to come through the Kansas football program since Todd Reesing, ended his season with an unfortunate performance. Sims was responsible for two of the six turnovers in Saturday afternoon's Sunflower Showdown against Kansas State, and was unable to find the endzone during his last game in crimson and blue.
Unluckily for Sims, a 9-39 record will overshadow his record book accomplishments. In his college career, Sims rushed for the third most yards in school history and is second in the Kansas record books for career rushing touchdowns and 100-yard rushing games.
"Without knowing all the candidates in Kansas history, he's probably one of the better running backs that's ever come through." Weis said. "But because the team hasn't won very many games, he'll be underappreciated. I'm a big fan of James Sims. I feel bad for him."
"He came up to me after and I said 'Don't even start. I don't want to listen to you start apologizing.
Sims has apologized to Weis after games in which he fumbled in the past, and after Saturday's game he went to apologize to Weis again.
We're not going there. You got a lot of football to play yet. So you can feel sorry for yourself for a short amount of time, but let's pick it back up and get ready to go.' Like I said, I'm a big fan of James Sims and I don't think you've seen James Sims play football for the last time." Weis said.
Not much progress
season like this one should put Weis on the hot seat.
Another horrid, losing Kansas football season is in the books. The rough ride is over, and Kansas has three wins to show for it. And anyway you slice it, wins are the only way to compare seasons. So for Kansas, that means progress from a year ago. It makes for four total wins in the Charlie Weis era, but Kansas and Weis are a bit off pace on turning the program around. Four wins in two years isn't exactly what most fans had in mind when Weis came to Lawrence two seasons ago, and he hasn't managed to build much confidence in the program since he arrived either. Kansas athletic director Sheahor Zenger was adamant that the program will "stay the course" with Weis and the rebuilding process, but the pressure on Weis is mounting. Two seasons down and "one Big 12 win" is about all that can be written on Weis' body of work at Kansas. Weis deserves at least one more season, there shouldn't be a question about that, but another
Offensive line coach out
After two years as the offensive
line coach, Tim Grunhard has
stepped down from the position.
The former Bishop Miege Catholic
High School head coach cited the
job as being too demanding for
him.
"With the time commitment and challenges of major college football, I felt I was being delinquent in my responsibilities to my family," Grunhard said in a statement released Wednesday night.
Weis has confirmed the hiring of a replacement.
"We have already hired a replacement for Tim. When that coach becomes available, we will provide more details," Weis said.
On Wednesday, the Lawrence Journal-World reported that Kansas has plans to hire current Rice offensive coordinator John Reagan to assume the role as Kansas' offensive coordinator. At Rice this year, Reagan helped coach the unit that ranks 53rd in the country for total offense, averaging 431 yards per game. That's plenty more than the 301 per game that Kansas averaged this season.
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Edited by James Ogden
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