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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
2B SPORTS
ERIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2008
quote of the day
"I'm looking forward to finally getting back out there and working with the team. I'm not used to watching games from the sidelines, in street clothes. Hopefully, now I can contribute to the team's success. It's going to take some time to get caught up and in playing shape."
fact of the day
— Kansas basketball player Mario Little
trivia of the day
Mario Little averaged 15.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game at Chipola College in Florida.
Q: What is junior basketball player Mario Little's middle name?
A: Deantwan
sports schedule
Today
Swimming & Diving: Kenyon
Invite, all day (Gambier, Ohio)
Track & Field: Holiday Preview,
all day (Ames, Iowa)
Saturday
Saturday
Men's basketball: Jackson
State, 1 p.m. (Lawrence)
Swimming & diving: Kenyon
Invite, all day (Gambier, Ohio)
Red Sox re-sign AL MVP Pedroia to new contract
BOSTON — AL Most Valuable Player Dustin Pedroia and the Boston Red Sox agreed to a $40.5 million, six-year contract which includes a club option for 2015.
MLB
Associated Press
Linebackers should bring back 'Decembeards'
The Jayhawks are two days away from finding out their bowl destination this season. For senior linebackers Mike Rivera and Joe Mortensen comes an opportunity to start preparing for the last game of their collegiate careers. Sure, these guys won't be reviewing game film of their upcoming opponent yet; but they can start working on their secret weapon: their beards.
Remember those beards that
they sported during the Orange Bowl? It's time to bring them back. When the two joined forces with the lumberjack look, they dominated Virginia Tech. Rivera had 12 tackles and a sack and Mortensen had eight tackles, a sack and a blocked field goal.
In the preseason, Mortensen and Rivera were on the national radar for the top defensive awards in college football. Mortensen, who was an All-Big 12 first team pick in 2007, was named to the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list and the Rotary Lombardi watch list. Rivera was named to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list.
This season, Rivera has 79 tackles, three forced fumbles and two
sacks. Mortensen has 77 tackles, two sacks and one forced fumble. While those numbers are not a disappointment, they have since fallen out of the spotlight. And that is precisely why the beards must come back.
Sporting the same goatees they've worn all season, the two paid a visit to KUJH-TV's Jayhawk Sports Talk on Tuesday and talked about their excitement for Kansas' upcoming bowl game. Kansas is predicted to play in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., against one of two Big Ten teams, Minnesota or Wisconsin. With that, the two line-backers talked about which team they would like to play.
"Wed want to play Wisconsin
because our old linebackers coach is over there, coach (Dave) Doeren, Mortensen said. "Also, if you guys remember, Kevin Kane. He used to play linebacker (here). He's an assistant over there."
"We want to play in Arizona
under that nice hot sun," Rivera said. "Either team we would play would be great."
Doeren, who was a co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Kansas, is currently Wisconsin's defensive coordinator. Kane played football for Kansas for four years and worked as a graduate assistant last season. Kane now works as a graduate assistant for Wisconsin.
Should the Jayhawks get selected to play in the Insight Bowl, Mortensen and Rivera have some serious beard growing to do. The game is scheduled for New Years Eve leaving them with less than four weeks to grow beards.
Edited by Brieun Scott
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Daniel still good sans Heisman hype
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Last year, Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel was a Heisman Trophy finalist. Heading into the Big 12 championship game this weekend, his senior season hasn't been quite so special.
At least not yet.
The 19th-ranked Tigers have the fourth-best scoring offense (45 points per game) and passing attack (344 yards per game) in the nation heading into Saturday's game against No. 4 Oklahoma. Daniel is still playing pitch-and-catch with his receivers, and has a 75 percent completion rate.
But he's thrown two more interceptions this season (13) than last year, with three of them
coming in a midseason loss to Oklahoma State. He struggled early in a loss to Texas the following week, but improved after the Longhorns led 35-0.
Last week, Daniel was 0-for-6 with an interception and a lost fumble in the first quarter against Kansas. The Tigers were forced to play catch-up after falling behind 19-10 at halftime in a 40-37 loss.
Tigers coach Gary Pinkel pointed out that Daniel did enough in the second half that Missouri could easily be riding a four-game winning streak. The Tigers led Kansas with 1:50 to go before allowing the go-ahead score, and with time running out Daniel got them back in position for a long field-goal attempt that could have overtired.
KICK THE KANSAN: WEEK 14
Pick games. Beat the Kansan staff. Get your name in the paper.
2. No. 17 Boston College vs. No. 25 Virginia Tech
3. No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Florida
1. No. 12 Ball State vs. Buffalo
4. No.5 USC at UCLA
5. No. 20 Missouri vs. No. 2 Oklahoma
6. No. 13 Cincinnati at Hawaii
9. No. 23 Pittsburgh at Connecticut
Submit your picks either to KickTheKansan@kansan.com or to the Kansan business office, located at the West side of Stauffer-Flint Hall, which is between Wescoe Hall and Watson Library.
7. East Carolina at Tulsa
8. Navy vs. Army
Name:
Hometown:
2) Give your name, e-mail, year in school and hometown.
3) Read the page.
1) Only KU students are eligible.
3) Beat the Kansan's best prognosticator and get your name in the paper.
4) Beat all your peers and get your picture and picks in the paper next to the Kansan staff.
5) To break ties, pick the score of the designated game.
KICK THE KANSAN: WEEK 14
Think you can pick better? Join next week's competition and prove yourself.
Ball State at Buffalo
Boston College at Virginia Tech
Alabama at Florida
USC at UCLA
Missouri at Oklahoma
Cincinnati at Hawaii
East Carolina at Tulsa
Navy at Army
Pittsburgh at Connecticut
Drew Bergman
Design Editor
(90-40)
Boston College
Pittsburgh
Florida USC Oklahoma Cincinnati Tulsa Navy Pittsburgh
Case Keefer Basketball (84-46)
Buffalo
Boston College
Alabama
USC
Oklahoma
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Navy
Connecticut
Andrew Wiebe
Sports Editor
(88-42)
Ball State
Boston College
USC
Oklahoma
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Mark Dent
Managing editor
(85-45)
Bell State
Boston College
Alabama
Cincinnati
Matt Erickson
Editor
(82-48)
Ball State
Boston College
Florida
USC
Oklahoma
Cincinnati
Tulsa
Navy
Pittsburgh
Rustin Dodd Sports Editor (80-50)
Pittsburgh
Virginia Tech
Oklahoma
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Kelsey Hayes Managing Editor (82-48)
Navy
Connecticut
Virginia Tech
Oklahoma
Cincinnati
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Pittsburgh
Discrepancy in conference postseason awards confusing for some
BY JAIME ARON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Picking the top quarterback on the All-Big 12 team was about as difficult as figuring out the South division champion.
Monkey Around
But the result was the same. Oklahoma.
Although Texas' Colt McCoy was chosen offensive player of the year by the 20 voters in balloting conducted by the Associated Press, the same group picked Oklahoma's Sam Bradford over McCoy for the prized first-team spot on the all-conference squad released Thursday.
Bradford's victory was by a single point and the details are a
— First, the ground rules: The AP uses a panel of writers who regularly cover the Big 12 for newspaper across the conference's seven states; 10 are based in the Big 12
bit mind-numbing, like the BCS formula that vaulted the Sooners over the Longhorns and into the Big 12 title game.
So, take a deep breath and perhaps grab some scratch paper to follow along on how this played out.
Like the Big 12 race, Texas Tech was the spoiler.
North, 10 in the South. Each gets to pick one first-team quarterback and one second-teamer. The first-team vote is worth two points, the second-team vote is worth one.
— Bradford got nine first-team votes, 10 for second team and was left off one ballot. That's 28.
—McCoy got 10 first-team votes, seven for second teams and was left off three. That's 27.
To emphasize how big of a difference that was, consider that Bradford and McCoy were both named on 16 ballots. Nine favored McCoy over Bradford, seven went
Graham Harrell was the only other quarterback to get a vote. He picked up four, one for first team and three for second team. Thus, the race swung on whether the Harrell supporters picked McCoy or Bradford as their other choice. Three went with Bradford and one with McCoy.
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the other way.
McCoy became the front-runner for this award and many others after leading Texas past Bradford and Oklahoma in mid-October. His campaign lost some steam when Harrell and the Red Raiders knocked off the Longhorns. Around that time, Bradford and the Sooners were getting on a big roll of their own.
Bradford guided Oklahoma to 60 points in each of its last four games, including a romp over Texas Tech. Bradford also finished the season with an NCAA-best 46 touchdowns and 300 yards passing in 10 games.
The Sooners, Longhorns and Red Raiders finished in a three-way tie atop the Big 12 South. The first four tiebreakers didn't settle anything, so it went to a fifth option, the BCS rankings. That favored Oklahoma, sending Bradford and his pals into the conference title game Saturday against No. 19 Missouri. If the Sooners win that, they'll be headed to the national championship game, likely against the winner of the SEC championship game.
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