kansan.com
Thursday, November 3, 2011
COMMENTARY
Time for Zenger to recruit a coach
there are things about Kansas football that most fans have some
Nissan football that most fans have come to terms with: When you play Texas schools and the majority of your recruiting is done in Texas, you'll never beat out Texas or Oklahoma for a recruit and you'll be in a dogfight with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech as well. So while Mack Brown can bring five-star recruits to the University of Texas, the coaching staff on the sidelines of Memorial Stadium are figuring out how their three-star cornerback is going to stop that wide receiver who's on the fast track to playing on Sundays. That's just the way it is.
At some point this season it became clear that Turner Gill and his staff don't know how that 3-star kid can stop that future NFL player, or at least slow him down. And as Kansas State dismantled the Jayhawks the last two years with the combined score of 118-28, this showed that going toe-to-toe with a great coach and a similarly talented team would end in ugly losses for Gill.
— Edited by Lindsey Deiter
Fortunately, athletic director Sheanon Zenger didn't hire Gill. I doubt he feels any loyalty to the hire and probably wants to find his one guy for the job. And as a former assistant under Bill Snyder at Kansas State. Zenger knows football. In his search for a new head coach at Illinois State as athletic director there, Zenger once told a central Illinois newspaper that he consulted a number of former colleagues while searching for a head coach. That included the aforementioned Snyder, Mark Mangino, and former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach. That's an impressive group of football minds to get advice from. Zenger knows what he's doing, and if he can somehow get out of thatorrendous contract handed out by his predecessor, Kansas football will be in good shape.
It's like what golf fans say about tournaments—you can't win the whole thing on the first day, but you sure can lose it. Gill wasn't going to turn Kansas football into Big 12 champions in two years, and most of us knew that. But at what point does a 43 point shutout by Texas in a six-game losing streak become something bigger than a young coach trying to elevate his program? The lack of any shadow of success has gotten so dark that if the opposing team doesn't set some sort of school record against the Jayhawks, it's seen as a success by Kansas fans.
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'TEAM FIRST' PAYS OFF
KANSAS 83,EMPORIA STATE 61
Junior guard Angel Goodrich tries to keep possession of the ball from opponent senior guard Heather Robben of Emporia State. The Jav Hawks won the game. 83-61
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
KATHLEEN GIER
kgier@kansan.com
Junior guard Angel Goodrich took the Jayhawks' first game of the season into her own hands from the beginning. She scored eight of the first nine points, grabbed a steal and drew a foul.
Goodrich continued in similar form, finishing the game with 16 points and four assists. She hit two early three-pointers and shot six of 11 from the field. Goodrich said she leads by example and hopes the others follow.
"I am looking to do what's best for the team," Goodrich said. "Team first!" — that's our motto.
Goodrich and the other older players controlled the first 10 minutes of the game, giving the younger players a cushion to work under when they subbed into the game.
Junior forward Carolyn Davis had a similar start, shooting five of six from the field for 12 points in the first half.
"I always say it starts with us," Davis said. "We have got to set the tempo and show the freshman what kind of game we are gonna play. We set the tone early and our freshmen knew they had to stick to that."
Balanced scoring from Jayhawk veterans led the Jayhawks to an 83-61 victory against Emporia
State in their first exhibition game. Goodrich led the team in scoring followed by Davis, who added 14 points.
Coach Bonnie Henrickson is looking for consistency on defense this season and two slips by the Jayhawks had her hesitant to praise the team's success: penetration in the middle of the lane and effort on the defensive glass.
Emporia State only scored 24 points in the paint compared to 50 from Kansas, but Henrickson said that moving forward, the team needs more of a defensive presence.
The Jayhawks worked into a successful rotation with all five freshmen seeing time on the court and all but one player scoring. However, one familiar face was missing on the court as Keena Mays sat out. Mays started all 34 games for the Jayhawks last season, but Henrickson sat her out of the game.
be a consistent presence for the Jayhawks.
Knight started the game and stayed in for 23 minutes. Though Knight did not score, she led Kansas with five assists as she took turns working the point.
"She needs to compete everyday," Henrickson said. "That was a little message from me and she understands that. There should be no reason for her to not get back in the rotation and do what she can do for us, but this will always be team first. It has to be."
Freshman guard Natalie Knight earned her first start in the game in front of family and friends from Olathe. She showed her ability to
"She makes the right passes; She doesn't take bad shots," Henrickson said. "She normally hits open shots, but she has been consistent, and for a young kid that is hard to do at that position."
The Jayhawks will continue exhibition play against Pittsburg State at 2 p.m. Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse.
— Edited by Jennifer DiDonato
After late rally, season ends in penalty kicks
SOCCER
RYAN MCCARTHY
rmccarthy@kansan.com
rmccarthy@kansan.com
After exerting themselves for 110 minutes, Kansas' soccer season came down to five shots in penalty kicks.
Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, the Aggies were too much in the penalty kick round as they defeated Kansas 5-3 at Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio last night. At the end of regulation the score was tied at 3-3.
Attempting to stay poised in a stressful situation like this is key for the Jayhawks.
"I think you just have to keep it together and when something like that happens you need to be confident," junior midfielder Whitney Berry said.
Kansas forward Ingrid Vidal was stopped in the fourth round of penalty kicks, putting the game out of reach. However, many factors led to the result coming down to penalty kicks.
Kansas coach Mark Francis said it was frustrating for the match to come down to penalty kicks because the team should have won the game when they had a 2-0 advantage.
expired.
The jayhawks eventually were down 3-2, but when all hope seemed lost, the jayhawks made one final charge before time
Kastor said Vidal made a great kick and that the ball just deflected into the net.
After several solid attempts, junior forward Whitney Berry finally broke through with a goal in the 35th minute, giving Kansas a 1-0 lead. The strike was her eighth of the season. The assist on the play was from junior midfielder Shelby Williams.
The ball bounced around in front of the goal where sophomore forward Caroline Kastor knocked it home with three seconds left.
Kansas was the aggressor for most the first half, pushing the tempo on Texas A&M.
The Jayhawks continued to put out an aggressive defensive effort, only allowing six shots and one goal shot for the Aggies in the first half.
Kelley Monogue, a freshman from Texas A&M, then lined up for the penalty kick and striped a ball into the right corner of the goal. However, Kansas freshman goalkeeper Kaitlyn Stroud grasped the ball before it could touch the end line.
The Aggies came out in the second half with a purpose, and eventually drew a hand ball in the box when it accidently hit a Jayhawk defender's hand.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Freshman defender Caroline Van Stambrouck covers her face in disappointment after a foul against Missouri that would lead to a penalty kick. Last night, the Jayhawks lost the game to penalty kicks in the final moments.
In the 75th minute, Texas A&M tacked on another goal when Annie Kunz found a ball near the net, tying the game.
After stretching the lead to two, the Aggies came back with three goals of their own in less than five minutes.
Kansas continued to find its spots in the defense. In the 73rd minute Kansas found an opening when Fletcher crossed a ball to Liana Salazar. She then struck another shot that deflected off Aggie defenders into the net.
The Aggies then went on and scored for the third time when Big 12 scoring leader Monogue made a goal in the 79th minute.
"They scored three really good goals," Francis said. "They'd been attacking us out wide all day and we did a great job defending it, but we didn't on those three occasions."
The first came in the 74th minute when Allie Bailey completed a cross to Merritt Mathias, putting the Aggies on the scoreboard.
In the second half the wind also began to blow violently against the Jayhawks, but the team realized that was nothing they could control.
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Francis said it was a little factor that allowed the Aggies keep the pressure on the Jayhawks end of the soccer field.
Now the Jayhawks hope the effort on Wednesday will be good enough for them to get an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
"I think we just try to keep our heads up" Kastor said. "This team
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deserves to go to the NCAA. I'm hoping we're going to keep playing."
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Edited by Sarah McCabe