2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008
quote of the day
"I would say so."
Junior defender Estelle Johnson responding to whether this was her biggest victory for Kansas soccer after Friday's 10-9 victory against Texas A&M.
fact of the day
trivia of the day
KU soccer is third in the Big 12 with 45 conference victories since 2001, Kansas won a share of the 2004 Big 12 regular season championship with an 8-2 conference mark.
Q: Who led Kansas in points in 2004 when coach Mark Francis' team captured its lone Big 12 title?
A: Forward Caroline Smith had 32 points that season on 11 goals and 10 assists.
ku sports this week
Wednesday
Volleyball: Baylor, 7 p.m. (Waco,
Texas)
Thursday
Swimming: Texas A&M, 6 p.m. (Lawrence)
Fridav
Saturday
Football: Texas Tech, Home-
coming, 11 a.m. (Lawrence)
Volleyball: Texas A&M, 6:30
p.m. (College Station, Texas)
Women's Golf: The Derby,
second day (Auburn, Ala)
Sunday
Soccer: Baylor, 1 p.m. (Lawrence)
Women's Golf: The Derby, final day (Auburn, Ala.)
Robinson and Taylor similarities startling
They're like Kennedy and Lincoln. Russell Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor have so much in common it's beyond coincidence.
They both play point guard. They're both from the New York City area (Jersey City for Taylor and the Bronx for Robinson). They both played for a high school basketball powerhouse (St. Anthony's for Taylor and Rice for Robinson). They both chose Kansas instead of Georgia Tech. Their first names are both composed of seven letters.
All they need is the rumor about a secretary.
But here's the real comparison:
Tyshawn Taylor played like the college version of Russell Robinson in high school, but now that he's in college, he'll play like the high school version of Russell Robinson.
Whoa. Did that make sense?
Probably not, so here's what I mean.
Robinson was a scorer in high school. A gunner. He wore No. 23, like MJ, and he shot the ball. A lot.
Robinson could make three pointers, and despite being 6-foot-1, he could bang inside with guys who were three or four inches taller than him. In his first year at Rice High School, he and Lincoln's Sebastian Telfair were the only freshmen in the Bronx to start. By his senior year, he was averaging 22 points and eight rebounds.
Somehow, the scoring and athleticism didn't make it to Lawrence on Robinson's trip west.
It might've been the injuries. Robinson played injured every year in high school. He broke both his wrists and both his ankles and suffered from chronic shin splints. By the time he got to Kansas, he was damaged goods.
"I'm not as quick as I used to
be," Robinson once said
Taylor
The other part was his team. His freshman year, Robinson was supposed to give the ball to Wayne Simien. The next thr
years, he had Brandon Rush,
Mario Chalmers, Julian Wright and
Darrell Arthur to feed.
So he adjusted. He showed his best trait was that ability to evolve as he turned from a scorer
into a defensive specialist and distributor.
Those words describe Taylor's job in high school exactly. He averaged 10 points and five assists a game for St. Anthony's, a team stocked with high-level prospects that won the mythical national championship last season. Coach Bob Hurley needed Taylor to pass. Not score.
It will be different in college. No legitimate scorer returns for the Jayhawks. Sherron Collins score but he's dealt with injuries and weight problems. Cole Aldrich hasn't proven he's ready yet.
Taylor is the one. He dropped 47 points in a summer league game, led the team in scoring in two out of three Canada exhibitions and at Late Night on Friday.
It's early, but Taylor has adapted like Robinson did. He shoots. He drives. He scores. He's the high
school version of Russell.
DECISION TIME 2008
Todd Reesing is a candidate for the O'Brien award, which is given to the nation's top college quarterback every year. As of last weekend, he was in ninth place. But you can change that. Visit voteobrien.org to vote Reesing as the winner.
CROSS COUNTRY
Edited by Arthur Hur
Both teams struggle at Pre-Nationals in Indiana
BY JASON BAKER
jbaker@kansan.com
Having run the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind., 10 times before, freshman Sam Bird has seen bad races. Unfortunately for the Kansas Cross Country team, they got the bad end of the deal as it faced some of the toughest competition they've seen all year at Pre-Nationals this weekend.
The women's team placed 23rd out of 41 teams and the men placed 36th out of 40 teams as the Jayhawks competed against top-ranked Division I schools across the country, including teams from the Big 12 Conference. Because of the number of schools entered in at Pre-Nationals, the competition was divided into two races: the blue race and the white race.
Washington took first place overall with many of its runners finishing in the top 10. KU finished in 23rd place, with the help of junior Lauren Bonds and sophomore Amanda Miller finishing in the top 100. Bonds finished first for the Jayhawks for the fourth consecutive meet and took 64th place with a time of 21:24. Miller finished second for the team and 94th overall with a time of 21:47.
Miller felt like the team could have had a better performance.
"If we took the same thing that we did at Oklahoma State to Pre-Nationals, we could've been in a better position." She said.
One factor in the team's performance was the absence of freshman Laura Nightengale. Nightengale was dealing with a leg injury and stepped out of
competing to make sure that she was ready for conference play.
With Nightengale out, it gave senior Megan James a chance to step up for the team. James finished in 146th place and third for the Jayhawks. "Megan starred on and helped
"Megan stepped up and helped us out a lot," Miller said of James.
Another factor was that this was the first time the team competed in the seated race. For the past two years, the team competed in the open races. The blue race consisted of 280 runners, which was new to the freshman.
"It was different because I'm not used to that many people in one race," freshman Rebeka Stowe said. "I wasn't as mentally prepared for it as I should've been."
Next was the men's 8K. The men competed in the white race, where Stanford took first place overall. The Jayhawks took 36th place, with freshman Donny Wasinger being the frontrunner
for the Jayhawks and taking 160th place overall with a time of 25:21. It's the second race this season the freshman finished first for the team since the Bob Timmons Invitational back in August.
"I don't think our race results reflect how well we perform," he said.
"We need to get all the guys to run a good race at the same time"
Wasinger said the team needed to work on consistency.
Wasinger said he consciously tried blocking out the hundreds of competitors in his field "Seeing that many people ahead can wear on you mentally", he said. "But I tried to remain calm and collective and run my own race."
Some of the runners thought Wasinger ran a smart race. "Donny ran the smartest time," junior Isaiah Shirlen said. "He was our seventh man through the first 2K. By the end of the race he was our number
team results
KU Women: 23rd, 20:4.2
Lauren Bonds-64th-21:24.9
Amanda Miller-94th-21:47.7
Megan James-146th-
22:19.6
KU Men: 36th,25:43.4
KU Men: 36th, 25:43.4
Don Wasinger-160th-
25:21.1
Bret imgrund-183rd-
25:36.2
Isaiah Shirlen-187th-25:37.4
one man by 15 seconds."
Shirlen said he went out too strong and it affected him throughout the race.
"I went though the first mile at 4:41, which you shouldn't do. I pretty much drug along the rest of the way."
- Edited by Arthur Hur
Pick games. Beat the Kansan staff. Get your name in the paper.
KICK THE KANSAN: WEEK NINE
This week's games:
1. No. 8 Texas Tech at No. 19 Kansas
2. No. 7 Oklahoma State at No.1 Texas
3. No.9 Georgia at No.11 LSU
4. No.14 South Florida at Louisville
5. Virginia Tech at No.24 Florida State
6. Baylor at Nebraska
7. Colorado at No.16 Missouri
8. Wyoming at No.14 TCU
9. No.3 Penn State at No.10 Ohio State
10. No.6 USC at Arizona
Name:
Name:
E-mail:
Year in school:
Hometown:
1) Only KU students are eligible.
1) Only KU students are eligible.
2) Give your name, e-mail, year in school and hometown.
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.
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
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WEEK EIGHT RESULTS
Congrats to Nathan Locke, WaKeeney junior. Locke is the University Daily Kansan's Week Eight Kick the Kansan winner. Locke, a winner for the second time this year, successfully predicted nine of 10 games last weekend. His only slip-up was predicting North Carolina to beat Virginia. Locke also bested all comers from the Kansan staff. Design editor Drew Bergman fared best among the Kansan staffers. He went 8-2 on the week. Bergman only picked incorrectly in the North Carolina-Virginia game and the Wake Forest-Maryland game.