Friday, October 7, 2011
kansan.com
THE UNIVERSITY DARY GANSAN
Soccer team hopes for strong finish The team bids to make the NCAA Tournament field of 65 Page 6
COMMENTARY
The addition would renew old rivalries with Texas, Texas Tech and Baylor from when they were members of the SEC. However, TCU hasn't defeated Texas since 1978. The Longhorns hold a 61-20-1 record against the Horned Frogs.
TCU would rejuvenate the Big 12
Edited by Josh Kantor
The Big 12 will be happy if TCU joins. It will also be fine with Missouri leaving because the conference has multiple schools it can contact such as Louisville, BYU, West Virginia and Cincinnati.
have mixed feelings if Texas Christian University joins the Big 12. It keeps the conference at 10 teams after Texas A&M's departure to the Southeastern Conference. The Horned Frogs are the reigning Rose Bowl champions, which adds another Bowl Championship Series team to the conference. It also adds the Dallas TV market, which will help bring in more revenue.
What I don't like is how TCU is located in Dallas/Fort Worth area. It'll make recruiting in Texas that much tougher for Kansas. Players will want to go to TCU because it's in their backyard and in an automatic-qualifying BCS conference.
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Missouri has never been relevant.
It has a Napoleon Complex. It's been in the shadow of Kansas in basketball and Texas and Oklahoma in football.
Guess what Missouri? The same thing will happen in the SEC, except there are more schools than just Texas and Oklahoma that will bully you around in football. Also, Kentucky will overshadow Missouri in basketball.
While this is all driven by football, in a basketball sense, TCU adds nothing. It hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since the 1997-98 season. A season ago it finished 11-22 overall and 1-15 in the Mountain West. The MWC had San Diego State and Brigham Young University ranked in the top 10 and received a No. 2 and No. 3 seed in the tournament, respectively.
Get this week's podcast about Kansas football and TCU joining the Big 12.
GRAB AND GO
Senior linebacker Steven Johnson looks in ready to sack the Texas Tech quarterback Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Johnson led the Jayhawks with seven solo tackles.
I don't know what's going on with Missouri. It says it wants to go to the Big Ten, then is denied and pledges loyalty to the Big 12. After Texas A&M left, Missouri pledged its loyalty again, but now wants to go to the SEC. It's worse than a high school girl. Missouri just needs to make up its mind.
If you answered zero, you're correct (although it did capture a Big 12 North title in 2007 and 2008 in football and a Big 12 basketball tournament title in 2009, those aren't as noteworthy).
Quick, when was the last time Missouri won a conference championship in basketball or football since the Big 12 was formed? How many BCS games has Missouri won? How many Final Fours has Missouri been to?
Missouri won't have a fighting chance in football in the SEC. An SEC team has won the national championship for the last five years.
I think the conference would like Missouri to stay, especially since it would keep the rivalry with Kansas alive and the Big 12 basketball tournament in Kansas City, Mo., but at the same time could care less if it left.
TURNOVERS NEEDED
MIKE GUNNOE/KANSAN
MIKE VERNON
mvernon@kansan.com
If the lajawks want any chance of taking down the No. 6 Oklahoma State Cowboys, who have the nation's third-best offense, they need to capitalize on a simple strategy: Take the ball away.
Oftentimes, when a team enters a game expected to lose — such as Kansas, a 31.5-point underdog — its only shot will be to win the turnover margin. In playing a team like Oklahoma State, which ranks 41st in turnovers given up, there will be opportunities to take the ball away. It's just a matter of capitalizing on them.
Kansas, though, has had issues creating turnovers all season. Its defense ranks last in the country in turnovers gained, with just two. Cincinnati and Rutgers currently rank first with 18 turnovers gained, showing just how far behind this defense actually is.
Defensive coordinator Vic Shealy said that the defense is in fact improving, even though the numbers don't quite show it yet.
"I still think an area that we've got to continue to preach and teach is the creation of turnovers," Shealy said.
An indicator of that improvement came when Kansas forced its first interception of the season against Texas Tech, when freshman safety Keeston Terry jumped a route and made the play.
Terry's play showed that the Jayhawks' work throughout the week paid off on game day.
"It was a route concept we saw a lot in practice," Terry said, "I just read the play. I was excited, it was the first turnover I caused since last year in the Georgia Tech game."
Oklahoma State senior quarterback Brandon Weeden will make Terry and the rest of the Kansas secondary's day a long one if the defense can't disrupt Weeden's rhythm. He has completed an astronomical 75 percent of his passes thus far, but he has also thrown six interceptions.
Even still, the Cowboys boast the seventh best turnover margin in the
country.
Oklahoma State's defense has been a machine in forcing turnovers, gaining the ball back for the offense through five fumble recoveries and eight interceptions.
"Defensively, the thing that jumps out at me are their stats,"
coach Turner Gill said. "They have caused 13 turnovers, so we have to make sure that we have extremely good ball security. We also need to take care of the ball as far as not throwing any interceptions."
The Kansas offense has done a good job protecting the ball this
season, only turning the ball over five times on the year. But three of those came in the first Big 12 game against Texas Tech.
In its first conference game on the road, Kansas will face its toughest challenge of the season. For the Jayhawks to have any hope against
the Cowboys, their offense will have to hold onto the ball, and the defense will have to get it back more.
"We've got our work cut out." Gill said.
Edited by Jason Bennett
VOLLEYBALL
Jayhawks seek first conference win
MATT GALLOWAY
mgalloway@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDK_vball
With their backs against the wall in the Big 12 conference, the players on the Kansas volleyball team are treating tomorrow's game against Texas A&M as the biggest game of the season.
"We look at every game we play as the biggest game of the season," junior defensive specialist Morgan Boub said. "We have to go into it with a good mindset, and we need to play our hardest every time out."
But that is not an uncommon mindset for the Jayhawks.
The Jayhawks (12-4, 0-3) will look for their first win in conference play when they square off with the Aggies (13-4, 2-2) at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Horesei Family Athletics Center.
After starting this season with their best record since 2002, the Jayhawks have struggled in the Big 12, going 0-3 for the first
"We've got the most tightly bunched, from a competitive standpoint, league we've ever had," coach Ray Bechard said. "The top is good, but the bottom is closer to the top than it's ever been. Each and every night is going to be a real struggle, a battle and a challenge for us."
"They've got Kelsey Black, who is one of the better players in the league and we'll have to be mindful of," Bechard said. "They're really balanced and they've got some good wins this season."
time since 1997.
Senior outside hitter Allison Mayfield had a double-double in Tuesday's home sweep against Nebraska-Omaha, recording 14 kills and 16 digs. She said Tuesday's third set rallied from a 20-
The Aggies and their stand-out senior outside hitter Kelsey Black look to rebound from a sweep at the hands of Texas on Oct. 5, a loss that dropped them to 2-2 in conference play.
24 hole showed the team's never-sav-die attitude.
"It really showed that even it looks like it might be over, you can't give up," Mayfield said. "If we keep pushing and working hard, we can come back from deficits like that."
The Javahawks as a unit may have struggled to open Big 12 play, but they are getting strong individual performances. Mayfield is ranked second in the conference in kills and points per set, averaging 4.26 and 4.71, respectively. She said Tuesday's comeback against Nebraska-Omaha was a great feeling, but the team can't make a habit of falling behind late.
"Hopefully we won't put ourselves in situations like that in the future," Mayfield said. "But we know if we do there is still hope that we can make a comeback."
MIKE GUNNOE/KANSAN
Edited by Mike Lavieri
Junior defensive specialist Morgan Boub bumps the ball to a teammate Tuesday at Horeisi Center against Nebraska-Omaha.
JAYHAWKS FOR A CURE
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Tomorrow's match against Texas A&M is the sixth annual "Jayhawks for a Cure" game in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In addition to collecting pledges for breast cancer research, the team is also offering $3 admission to fans who wear pink.