SPORTS
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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | THURSDAY, NOV.19, 2015
Maicke: NCAA should give players more leeway with fouls
MIKE MAICKE
@MJ_Maicke
The 2015 Champions Classic tipped off Tuesday night and pitted both historic and elite programs against each other in two games with highly-ranked teams.
The second game of the night featured a battle between Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks and Tom Izzos' Michigan State Spartans. Kansas fell to Michigan State, 79-73, behind a triple-double outing from Michigan State senior guard Denzel Valentine.
To put it bluntly, the game was horrible to watch.
This is not from the perspective of a pouting Kansas fan; this is from the perspective of someone who appreciates the sport of basketball and wants to see it played well and officiated well.
By the NCAA's standards, the game was probably considered well-officiated. The problem doesn't necessarily lie solely on referees (even though I have some gripes with them, too); the problem lies with the NCAA rule changes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an advocate of the reduction from a 35-second shot clock to a 30-second one; in fact I want to see it dropped to 26 seconds. But there are some things that need to be modified right now.
Let's start broad. The fouls being called have gone out of control. In last night's game, there were 43 fouls called. 43 fouls in a 40-minute game. That's over a foul per minute.
I'm not sure how many people turn on a game to see nothing but free throws (there were 46 last night), but I am certainly not one of them.
The last significant gripe is the terrible lack of any continuation calls on what should be) shooting fouls. A player has to literally be in the air and a half-second from shooting the ball for an and-one to be called. The only problem is that that's not when a shooting motion starts.
If a player on the perimeter beats his primary defender with a move, is beginning a layup motion while still on the ground and then gets fouled by a big man playing help defense; that offensive player needs to be going to the free-throw line.
College basketball gives players only five,personal fouls until they have fouled out of the contest. The NBA gives players six fouls. This is something that doesn't make any sense as college basketball is clearly officiated tighter than the NBA, so why are players given less personal fouls?
All this is doing is putting good players in foul trouble early, and then containing them to the bench in fear of fouling out of a game prematurely. People are drawn to watch a basketball game to see the best players face off, not to see mid-to-low level role players step in for a star who can be nothing but frustrated and stuck on the bench.
I get that no game can be officiated perfectly, but the NCAA needs to change these rules right now. The way college basketball is played and currently set up will drive more players to play overseas for a year, like Emmanuel Mudiay, the Denver Nuggets guard who played in China after high school.
It isn't the players' fault. It's the NCAA's move.
— Edited by Dani Malakoff
Beer and football may go together on gamedays, but not in Memorial Stadium
DEREK SKILLETT
@derek_skillett
Kansas football fans tailgate outside of Memorial Stadium before a game on Oct. 31.
CAROLINE FISS/KANSAN
Beer and football. On gamedays, the two seem to be inextricably linked. This is especially true in the world of college football, as students those who are 21 years old or older, of course - enjoy their favorite beers while watching their school compete on the gridiron.
At the University, much of that alcohol consumption is done outside of Memorial Stadium, as the sale of beer inside the facility is not allowed, save for special occasions.
According to the University's alcohol policy for events, the "use of alcohol is permitted only for approved events held in... Anderson Family Football Complex (Chancellor's Lounge, Wagnon Family Room and Gridiron Room)." The use of alcohol is also permitted for approved events at home games, including Memorial Stadium and designated parking areas.
However, it wouldn't be easy to get that policy changed.
"I think it would take some more conversation before we're sure that the current policy should be changed," said Jim Marchiony, the associate athletics director at Kansas. "Any kind of change in University policy would only come after some pretty thorough discussion that would involve [University administration], would involve Athletics and various entities around the campus."
West Virginia's policy changes in 2011 also allowed
for strict enforcement of ID checks, and they assured that alcohol would not be served near student sections.
As of now, West Virginia is the only school in the Big 12 Conference to allow beer to be sold at football games. During the proposal of the policy change in 2011, Oliver Luck, West Virginia's former athletic director, cited a need to improve public safety, which led to the implementation of a policy that forbade re-entry into the school's stadium after halftime.
"I think every school needs to decide for itself whether [selling alcohol at football games] is the right thing to do for the school," Marchiony said.
Attendance at Kansas football games has been considerably low this season. That fact could be because of a winless football team that takes the field at Memorial Stadium during a few Saturdays in the fall. Or it could be because of the idea that some students or fans may find it more enjoyable to watch the games at house parties around the stadium or sports bars around Lawrence.
That said, Marchiony said he doesn't see serving alcohol as the best way to fill the stands to capacity.
"We're disappointed with any crowd that's below capacity," Marchiony said. "Wed love to see sellouts [at the stadium] whether we win or lose, but the reality is that the best way to guarantee a full stadium is to win."
"We have not had any issues with beer sales," Mullineaux
A good case study for what allowing beer sales at football games could look like at Kansas lies about 1,000 miles east of Lawrence. This season, the University of Maryland decided to start selling alcohol at its stadium. A decision that, unlike its 2-8 football team, has turned out to be fairly successful.
"Our beer sales per person in attendance has been slightly higher than anticipated, and the beer has been well received as an enhancement to the game day experience," said Joe Mullineaux, the associate director of dining services at Maryland, and one of the people who is heavily involved in beer sales at football games.
said. "In fact, alcohol-related incidents within the stadium are lower than in past years, and there have been no incidents related to sales within the stadium."
Mullineaux noted that Maryland's decision to allow beer sales at football games started as a sort of "grassroots" movement from the Student Government Association as a tool to reduce pregame binge drinking.
All of the money from beer sales at games goes to Maryland, with a large part of the
While there's some opposition to Maryland selling beer at football games, Mullineaux also said the school's new alcohol policies are extremely restrictive and aimed at preventing any underage drinking.
"Anyone who misrepresents their age to get beer, or who provides beer to anyone under 21, will receive a criminal citation," Mullineaux said. "If the person is a student, they will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct."
profit being used by the campus to promote responsible drinking initiatives and education for students.
Marchiony said that while potential profits from selling beer at Memorial Stadium would play a big part in a potential policy-change decision, there are more factors involved.
"It's not an easy decision because there's [many] factors involved," Marchiony said. "If it were just a revenue decision, we would have done it already. It is a hard discussion because there's more than revenue involved."
The University administration also agreed with these sentiments. Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, the University's director of media relations, said in an email that that Marchiony's opinions on the subject echo those of the administrative staff, but she did not explain further.
Marchiony's concerns with permitting alcohol at football games also concern the behavior of students and other fans. He noted that there could be a learning curve involved with the decision, especially considering how some Lawrence residents celebrated the Kansas City Royals' World Series victory.
"We certainly saw that there is a segment of the population in Lawrence that has trouble controlling itself, even with an event that has nothing to do with [Kansas]," Marchiony said.
A decision to sell alcohol at football games would not happen overnight. It would require long hours of conversation between the Kansas Athletics and the University, if it happens at all.
Until that decision gets a resolution, boosts in attendance at football games will have to come from coach David Beaty and winning football games.
"It takes time. It's a process. And we believe in the process that [Beaty] and his staff have begun," Marchiony said. "We've seen improvement, and we believe that improvement will continue."
KU is still learning how to play with Perry Ellis
Perry Ellis, left, looks to the basket as Michigan State forward Javon Bess guards him.
CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP
SCOTT CHASEN
@SChasenKU
On Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Athletics Club announced Kansas senior forward Perry Ellis had been named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50. On Tuesday night, against the Michigan State Spartans in the Champions Classic, the stage was set for him to show exactly why.
Ellis carne out of the gate firing away. He recorded the first three made field goals of the
Ellis came into the game 10 points off of Aaron Miles for 36th all-time in scoring at Kansas. He easily passed that mark in the first half, and the team was rolling.
The Jayhawks jumped out to a double-digit lead, and it seemed like there wouldn't be an answer for Ellis all night.
game for Kansas, and he had at least half of the team's points for nearly 12 minutes in the first period.
However, down the stretch that was not the case.
The Jayhawks went away from Ellis as the game went
"We weren't throwing it in there "to the big men." It's really on me, Frank [Mason II] and Devonte' [Graham]," said Kansas guard Wayne Selden Jr. "We've got to get up in there, and we've got to find the bigs."
This was especially true as the game went on. Ellis had one made field goal in the flow of the offense in the last 18 minutes of the game; he was
held scoreless over the final nine minutes, and while he wasn't getting the ball as much as he did in the first half, he also wasn't converting when he did get it.
Ellis missed four shots in the second half, along with a free throw, which was part of why, after the game, Kansas coach Bill Self said he wasn't really upset with how much the ball went into the posts. He also highlighted junior big man Landen Lucas getting touches, in addition to Ellis's struggles finishing, as evidence — perhaps — of things not being as bad as they seemed in terms of throwing the ball inside.
"We went to Perry early a lot, and he delivered ... [but] we didn't come away with as much as what we hoped," Self said. "They did such a good job of jamming it up."
However, somewhat of a problem remains, and it's one that won't be going away anytime soon.
Self has lamented that the team needs to play through Ellis, but it seems as though game after game, down the stretch, the ball ends up in the hands of the perimeter players more often than not.
Even though in this case Self did say his team threw the ball inside a fair amount, Ellis isn't getting the touches that he probably needs to truly be the focal point of the offense. And one would think, with it being his senior year, that would be something the team had figured out by now.
After all, any quick Twitter search would tell you that
And that makes some sense.
there are people out there who say it feels like he's played at Kansas for a long, long time.
It's rare for a player as good as Ellis to stay in college for all four years, regardless of NBA potential. And talking to the players and coaches, it's clear that they trust Ellis; it's just that, for whatever reason, the team won't stick with him down the stretch.
Part of that may just be who Ellis is. He's quiet by nature, and even when he posts a dominant performance, his performances are often classified as such (quiet). It seems that more often than not he spreads his points and rebounds throughout the game, and never really has one stretch where he just absolutely takes over.
But when he gets the ball, good things happen.
Even when Ellis isn't scoring, defenses have started to collapse and send extra help to simply get him to give up the ball. And in many cases, that's as good as any other result that would come from throwing the ball inside.
However, until that stays the case for an entire game, the Jayhawks will keep running into the problems they ran into on Tuesday night; at some point the offense is going to falter, and they'll need something on offense to fall back on.
Who or what is going to be that thing? As of now, there's really no answer.
Edited by Amber Vandegrift
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