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SPORTS
GOLFERS FINISH FALL SEASON
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
the Jayhawks concluded the fall portion of their season with a 10th place finish at the Baylor Intercollegiate. MEN'S GOLF |3B
TEXAS LONGHORNS SET TO PLAY RED RAIDERS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
This top-10 matchup is the marquee Big 12 game this Saturday as both teams vie for South Division supremacy. BIG 12 FOOTBALL | 6B
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2008
COMMENTARY
PAGE1B
Beautiful game meets video games for the club lacrosse team
or grass glisten while thousands of fans cheer on the action with maniacal fervor. For several Kansas club lacrosse players and fellow classmates, the games' outcomes have financial implications — or in other instances, a shot of liquor (or six) must be taken.
Their pitch is a virtual one. Minute details such as blades of grass glisten while thou-
More importantly, the FIFA soccer video game series has opened gamers' eyes to a world in which football as we know it shrivels in the shadow of international soccer, and to a sport that they would have otherwise remained apathetic toward.
"If not for FIFA we wouldn't give a shit about soccer," Ryan Mattie, Overland Park junior, said. "Before FIFA, I didn't think of soccer as a sport."
SEE COMMENTARY ON PAGE 8B
For Mattie a lacrosse goalie -- his love of FIFA was born in high school, playing with fellow lacrosse teammates and developing his awareness of soccer in the process. It was that newfound interest in the sport -- fueled by the video game and the electricity of the 2006 World Cup -- that grew into a regular occurrence among friends and recently catalyzed their current FIFA "league" where, for $5, competitors can choose a team to play as and compete as they would in any international league, with the winner taking all.
Feeding the intensity of their gatherings, another FIFA innovation was born: DRIFIA, or Drunk FIFA. Competitors will take a shot when they are scored on, two shots for a red card, one for a yellow card and one after a loss. Recently Mattie and a friend departed with three bottles of liquor when they staged a best two-of-three contest, one game going to
This first go-around has surprised Mattie — who plays as German club Werder Bremen — in how many players the tournament attracted, and he plans on establishing a second $5-per-head pot for the championship leg of the season in addition to holding these digital seasons once a semester with a "World Cup" held each spring break.
Comprised of roughly half lacrosse players, roommates, relatives and friends, the league follows the table concept instituted by international soccer in which each team plays one another four times — twice at home and twice away — with the standings charted on a large dry grass field.
- with the standings charted on a large erase desk in Mattie's living room
With games being held in various apartments and on a number of consoles, the league calls in each game and meticulously documents the results. On occasion, a player who lives out of town visits and knocks out all of his games in marathon succession.
“It’s more interesting playing with the FIFA league.” Mattie said. “The sport has become more relevant to us, and I follow various leagues now. I've also developed a hatred toward the Italian Serie A.”
Fellow teammate Mike Blackman, Overland Park sophomore, is in third place, with Mattie in first, and agrees with the notion that the video game and their subsequent league has done wonders in giving him incentive to follow the team he chose, Juventus of the Italian Serie A, and the actual league, not to mention a sport relatively low on the United States' sporting spectrum.
The game itself often does its best to capture the intensity of an actual match overseas. The cash on the line further stokes the madness. While Blackman admits to spouting his fair share of pleasanties through the course of a match, Mattie recently was involved in a contest so heated it culminated in him grabbing a bag and throwing it across the room, shattering its contents.
BIG CROWD, BIG WIN
Sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington comes up with a dig during the fourth set against Missouri on Wednesday at the Horesi Family Athletics Center. Kansas defeated Missouri to send the match to a fifth set.
Kansas beats Missouri in 5 sets
BY JOSH BOWE
jbowe@kansan.com
Normally, coach Ray Bechard stands up as he addresses the media after a match, but tonight he needed to sit down. And who could blame him?
Bechard jumped and fist-pumped more than he has all season after sophomore outside hitter Jenna Kaiser sealed the comeback in the Border Showdown. Kansas beat Missouri in five sets after trailing 12-7 in the fifth set.
It was a defining moment for the Jayhawks, and even more so for Kaiser. Kaiser's second consecutive kill came after her hitting error put Missouri up by one and serving for match point.
"Coach's always tell us to keep swinging, especially when it's match point," Kaiser said.
There was certainly no time to mull over a mistake in the fifth set; the set was tied seven times with two lead changes. The Tigers took their first lead at 6-5 and extended it to a five-point lead at 12-7. Bechard was proud of his players for keeping their heads up with Missouri so close to victory.
"It would have been easy to pack the tent at 12-7." Bechard said. "They got their very best server [Julianna Klein] serving for the match, and we passed a good ball and hit a good ball."
The layhawks had a picture-perfect start and ending. Kansas came out behind the energy of the home crowd to play its best set of the season, winning 25-12 in the
first set
set and an even worse -053 in the tmr
After set three, with all the momentum
riding with the Tigers, it looked as though
the Jayhawks were on their way to losing
their third match in a row.
"If we have a not-so-great set, we tell each other we get another chance to play right here," Kaiser said. "We each have a chance to do our own jobs and make our
Kaiser's teammates heard the message. Kansas dominated set four, holding Missouri to as many kills as it had errors in a 25-13 set victory.
team better."
But the main reason it came down to a fifth set were the atrocious sets two and three. After hitting 424 in the first set, it looked as if someone switched the uniforms. The Layhawks hit .118 in the second
"Sets one and four we played about as well as we played all year," Bechard said. "Then you gut it out in set five."
"It was a Jekyll-Hyde match from the standpoint that we controlled the begin-
SEE VOLLEYBALL ON PAGE 8B
Coaches weigh in on three-point line shift
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Then freshmen Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed celebrate a three-pointer during last year's Big 12 championship against Texas. Texas coach Rick Barnes said he is not worried about the new three-point line this season, which is moved back to 20 feet, 9 inches. Mario Chalmers hit eight three pointers in that game, leading the Jayhawks to their third straight Big 12 title.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
BY CASE KEEFER
ckeefer@kansan.com
Texas coach Rick Barnes has bad news for the rest of the Big 12 Conference: The Longhorns can still shoot three-pointers as effectively as ever.
Texas led the Big 12 last season with 309 three-pointers — 34 more than the second place team, Baylor. But that was from 19 feet, 9 inches away from the basket. The NCAA decided to move the three-point line back to 20 feet, 9 inches for the upcoming season.
And Barnes figured it would have an effect on his team going into the season. Not yet, Barnes said. Longhorns such as A.J. Abrams and Connor Atchley — the two leading long-range snipers returning from last year's Texas team — aren't bothered by it. "After being in practice with it," Barnes said. "I'm not sure it will make that big of a difference."
The NCAA Men's Basketball Rule Committee, whose chair was Kansas associate athletics director Larry Keating, voted in favor of moving the line for the 2008-2009 season in May 2007. The committee listed numerous benefits that would come as a result of pushing the line back a foot. First of all, it would free up space between the inside players and perimeter players and unclog the middle of the court.
The committee had researched moving the line for more than a decade and concluded that shooting percentages would not drop significantly.
Players are even more adamant that they can still make three-pointers consistently. Kansas sophomore Conner Teahan, who made 12 of his 20 three-point attempts last
Now that the change has been implemented, coaches agree. Most of the Big 12 coaches at Big 12 Media Day in Oklahoma City last Thursday said the new line wasn't a major concern.
season, said the move was insignificant.
"I don't even know how much farther back it is," Teahan said. "It's rare to have somebody shooting right on the threepoint line anyway. Usually, you're a couple of inches back."
Kansas coach Bill Self isn't so convinced that the new three-point line won't change the game. He said he thought it was a necessary adjustment and would be good for college basketball in the long run.
In the meantime, however, Self thinks it will make players more susceptible to stepping out of bounds when they're getting set to shoot a three from the corner. Because the line is further out, there is less space between it and the sideline. That's not his only concern.
"I think it's going to affect all teams." Self said. "I think you're going to see more teams take bad shots this year, because they're going to take it just inside of the new three."
Self likes to refer to these shots as "two-and-a-half pointers" because they are in between the old three-point line and the new one. He said the Jayhawks took plenty of them during their Labor Day trip to Ottawa, Canada, to play three exhibition games — and they need to learn to refrain from that before the season starts.
But Baylor coach Scott Drew thinks the new line could actually cut down on bad shots. Drew said it might force coaches to ban certain players from taking three-pointers.
"A lot of coaches have front-line players that can flirt with the old college three," Drew said. "But now, we might not allow them to shoot that because of that extra foot."
Self said Kansas probably won't rely as much on three-point shots this season. As for Texas, well, that's a different story.
- Edited by Becka Cremer
FOOTBALL
Reesing spurned K-State offer, joined Kansas instead
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
The legend of the Todd Reesing video-tape has many versions. Some say he hailed it to coach Mark Mangino himself. Others say his high school coach mailed it in. Some even say that Reesing gave it to a friend on campus who walked it down to the office himself. Mangino doesn't even know how he got the tape — but he's glad he did.
"I've heard 10 different versions."
Mantino said. "I never really asked him
how I got the tape. The bottom line is, the tape got to me, which is good."
Reesing's tape was sent after his junior year of high school and contained highlights as well as a full half of a game. He sent it out to several schools around the country but received offers from only Kansas, Kansas State and Duke.
While attending a football camp at Kansas State, Reesing arranged to stop by the KU campus on his way back to Austin. Texas.
"It was interesting because the first time I had ever been to Kansas was to come look
at both the schools that were in Kansas," Reesing said. "I never thought that I'd end up going to school in Kansas growing up, but its working out pretty well."
Reesing and his father met with Mangino
"You could see that he was not a really big guy on tape, but boy, he made plays," Mangino said. "He made play after play after play"
Mangino and the coaching staff had already watched the video when Reesing stopped by the campus, and they were impressed with what they saw.
in his office, and Reeing impressed the coach with his confidence and the way he handled himself. The two then went on a campus visit while Mangino talked with his assistant coaches.
"I remember exactly what I said,' Mangino said. "I said, 'He's small, but I like him. I want to offer him a scholarship."
Reeing had been offered a scholarship by then-Kansas State coach Bill Snyder. But after two weeks of thinking it over
SEE REESING ON PAGE 8B