SAN
2008
SPORTS A GREAT NIGHT Kansas swimmers set season- and career bests on Friday night. SWIMMING | 3B
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2008 PAGE 1B
COMMENTARY
NEBRASKA 45, KANSAS 35
Soccer finds self in similar situation
SAN ANTONIO — As odd as it sounds, the painful scene that unfolded Friday had a strange familiarity to it, almost like a home video.
Kansas had just lost to Missouri in penalty kicks, and goalkeeper Stephanie Baugh sat in the corner of the goal, cradling her legs and facing the right post. She finally got up after a few teammates and trainers comforted her.
At midfield, a minute after she missed a penalty kick, Julie Hanley sat there helpless, head in her arms. She was the last one to walk off the field and join the postgame huddle.
"It sucks to lose like that," Francis told his players, a few of them crying.
The grief was real. But ordinary. This routine scene of tears and disappointment happens too often for Kansas soccer. For the third time in four years, the Jayhawks sustained a crushing loss in the Big 12 Tournament and will have to wait to find out if their season will continue.
Right now, this year's team is nearing the end of the waiting stage. They waited at their hotel in San Antonio on Friday night, on the plane ride back home on Saturday, on their day off on Sunday.
Now it's Monday. The day they find out, Tonight the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee decides if it wants to give Kansas its first spot in the tourney since 2004 or if it wants to leave the team feeling more heartbreak than it did on Friday.
The layhawks deserve a bid. They beat Texas A&M twice and won at then-ranked Central Florida, and played in one of the top leagues in the country. They had an RPI of 40 as of last week, before they beat Texas A&M a second time and got their 12th victory.
Yes, the all-important 12th victory. It's a magic number for Francis.
"I'll be very surprised if we don't get in the tournament, very surprised," Francis said. "It would be a travesty if we don't."
He spoke Friday a few minutes after the loss to Missouri. Like the scene of tears, his words were an echo from the past.
Three years ago, he was sure his team would make the NCAA Tournament. They were 11-7-2. They tied for second place in the conference. Theyhad Caroline Smith, a senior All-American and the greatest player in KU history. He was so sure they'd make it that the team had a watch party for the selection show.
So on a Monday evening in November, reporters and players crowded into the Memorial Stadium press box. They watched as the Selection Committee made its picks. Five teams from the Big 12 got their name called — Texas A&M, Iowa State, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas, which lost its only meeting with Kansas and finished with a worse record.
Francis would tell reporters that up until the final choice, he believed. Then reality set in. Kansas didn't make it. The team filed out in silence.
The next year the Jayhawks went 11-7-2 and lost in penalty kicks in the first round of the conference tournament. Francis didn't bother to schedule a watch party. He alerted the team by text message, saying they didn't make the tournament. That was it.
Now the Jayhawks are back on the bubble, in that place where one opinion on the Selection Committee can mean the difference between tears and joy. They're the sixth best team in the conference. No more than five Big 12
SEEDENT ON PAGE 7B
A PAINFUL LOSS IN LINCOLN
Sophomore receiver Dezmon Briscoe makes a leaping catch on Kansas' second drive of the game which set up a Kerry Meier touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-1. Briscoe had 176 yards receiving on six catches for one touchdown. Kansas lost 45-35 Saturday afternoon against Nebraska.
Weston White/KANSAN
After Saturday's defeat, Kansas loses grasp on Big 12 North Title chase
BY B.J. RAINS rains@kansan.com
LINCOLN, Neb. — Trying to win in Lincoln for the first time in 40 years, Kansas did on Saturday what it did in several of the 19 straight previous losses — let it slowly slip from its grasp after entering the fourth quarter with a chance to win the game.
In the end, it was a crushing 45-35 loss to the Cornhuskers that dropped the Jayhawks to 6-4 overall and 3-3 in conference play.
So the streak continues, but the Jayhawks' realistic chances of a Big 12 North title do not.
"We could have made it a whole lot easier on ourselves if we could have won this game," wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe said. "We still have a shot if we beat Texas and Missouri, but we just made it tougher on ourselves."
Indeed, Kansas will need to defeat both Texas and Missouri in back-to-back games and then hope that Nebraska loses one of its final two games to sneak into the Big 12 title game — a pretty improbable task considering the layhawks' inability to stop almost anyone right now and with two of the nation's top offenses waiting in the distance.
A week after limiting Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman to just 207 passing yards, the Kansas defense again looked like the one that gave up record breaking days to both Oklahoma and Texas Tech in recent weeks.
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Self predicts foul trouble, Marcus Morris proves him right
Self predi Coach plans to work on team's problem before Tuesday's game
BY CASE KEEFER ckeefer@kansan.com
Marcus Morris once fouled out of a Pennsylvania high school playoff game because the referee erroneously credited him with a foul his twin brother Markieff committed.
Unfortunately for Marcus, referee Steve Welmer and his crew didn't make any identity mistakes in Kansas' 98-79 exhibition victory against Washburn last Tuesday. Marcus fouled out in only seven minutes all by himself.
Fouling five times in seven minutes may have surprised Marcus, but Kansas coach Bill Self knew it was going to happen. In the two weeks of practice leading up to the game, Self told the Morris twins repeatedly they could foul out quickly in the game.
"I felt like I played so much longer," Marcus said.
"I didn't believe him," Marcus said. "Until the game, after the game."
Self suspected his team was ignoring the message. He was right.
There was no denying it then. Marcus said he thought he put his hands on the Ichabod frontline players too often. Or maybe, he was just too physical in general.
"I think it was kind of humbling to see that it happened exactly the way that we warned it would," Self said. "I think it's a great teaching point."
Whatever it was, Marcus couldn't believe he fouled out that quickly. It certainly never happened in high school or last season at prep school.
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 7B
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Sophomore center Cole Aldrich steps out to defend Washburn forward William McNeill during Tuesday night's game at Allen Fieldhouse. Aldrich finished with three fouls.