THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008
SPORTS
7B
DODD (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Best year ever. At least,according to numerous t-shirts.
It was a crimson and blue Christmas in January — and February and March and April and so on.
So now what?
Three years ago, Todd Reesing was just looking for a place to play. He had compiled outrageous passing numbers as a junior at Lake Travis High School in Texas. He flung the football around Texas high school stadiums like it was a Nerf Vortex, throwing for 40 touchdown passes.
He did the same his senior year. Still, nobody wanted him.
College coaches sighed. He didn't look like a Big 12 quarterback, and nobody wanted him.
The kid was just too small.
But he was smart too. He had good grades. He got some interest from academic powers Duke and Northwestern.
But Duke and Northwestern play football like the French swim Olympic relays.
And for a while it seemed like that was about as good as it would get.
"During that whole process, I was trying to get anyone's attention, really," Reesing says.
Luckily for Reesing — and Kansas — a highlight tape of Reesing ended up in front of Kansas coach Mark Mangino.
He saw a football player
As Mangino watched, he saw this little kid from Austin carving up defenses with his right arm and running circles around bigger, stronger defenders.
That's why you want to talk to Reesing. The kid was an epiphany last season, and his numbers were equally sublime. Thirty-three touchdown passes and just seven interceptions. At one point, the kid threw 213 straight passes without an interception.
So what's the problem? Reesing might have been too good.
How good is that? Kansas State's junior quarterback Josh Freeman has averaged one interception for every 29 pass attempts during his first two seasons.
Like a band that releases a classic debut album, or an actor who wins an Oscar in his first movie, Reesing may have nowhere to go but down.
So how will the kid handle a season where he throws only 25 touchdowns and wins only eight games?
And how will we handle it? How will we handle the losses? How will we handle it when the rest of the country points their snobby fingers towards Lawrence and says, "Told you so. Look what happened when Kansas played a tougher schedule."
--increased expectations. All of it. Fambrough lived it in 1969.
So here's the scene. On a sunny summer day in Los Angeles, Mario Chalmers is in his hotel room. He dresses himself in an expensive suit, hops a ride in a limousine, and drives to the Nokia Theater, the site of this year's ESPY Awards.
Ninety-nine days after Chalmers led Kansas to its third NCAA basketball title, Chalmers strolls down the red carpet and runs into former
"What up, champ? "Pierce says, smiling.
Jayhawk Paul Pierce.
Chalmers smiles back, a shy-kid smile.
Chalmers walks backstage and sees Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens. Owens wants to talk about "The Shot."
Chalmers smiles again.
A few feet away, Chalmers bumps into two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash. Nash congratulates Chalmers and asks where Chalmers is playing now.
"Miami," Chalmers says.
Of course, all this happened during a pre-packaged backstage segment for ESPN's broadcast.
But you get the feeling Mario deals with this a lot. All these people wanting to talk about "The Shot." His life has changed a lot in the past four and a half months. He's playing for the Miami Heat now. He's hitting South Beach with new pal Michael Beasley. He'll make more than $2.5 million during the next three years.
And that's why you want to talk to Chalmers. You want to ask him if he's tired of talking about "The Shot" yet. Is he worried that he'll never be able to escape the legacy he's created for himself at age 22?
Chalmers sat on that podium at the Final Four, just minutes after the shot that made him a college basketball immortal. He seemed so oblivious to history.
"It was just a lucky shot," he would say nonchalantly.
So you want to ask him. How is he going to handle playing 10 minutes per game this season as an NBA rookie? How is he going to handle being known forever as the guy who made that shot?
And how will we handle this basketball season? Kansas has seven newcomers. Five freshman and two transfers watched on television as Chalmers swished a three-pointer over the outstretched hand of Derrick Rose.
How will we handle it when they struggle, when they make freshman mistakes, when they play timid? How will we handle it when the young kids wearing the uniforms of the defending champs post a double-digit loss season?
--increased expectations. All of it. Fambrough lived it in 1969.
Don Fambrough just got out of the hospital. His voice is scratchy and dried out. But he has a story to tell.
He's in his 80s now, and it's been more than 25 years since Fambrough was the head coach of Kansas' football program.
But 40 years ago in 1968, Fambrough was on the sidelines as Kansas greats John Higgins and Bobby Douglass led the Jayhawks to the Orange Bowl for the first time. That team finished 9-3, tied for first in the Big Eight. They were one play away from beating Penn State in the Orange Bowl.
Kansas coach Pepper Rodgers was doing the unthinkable. He was turning Kansas into a football school.
"We felt like we had it made," Fambrough, a line coach under Rogers at the time, now savs.
Fambrough knows what Reesing and the rest of his teammates are going through.
The newfound respect. The
Jon Goerina/KANSAN
Sure, Kansas lost Douglass, and a bunch of other players from the Orange Bowl team graduated and moved on. Still, Rodgers and Fambrough and rest of the coaching staff never anticipated what would happen in 1969.
They had done so much the previous year. They'd thumped Nebraska in Lincoln, they'd beat Missouri, who was ranked No. 13 at the time, and most thought they should have beat Penn State at the Orange Bowl.
But when Kansas lost at Texas Tech in week one, something didn't feel right. They shut out Syracuse the next week 13-0. But after a week three loss at New Mexico, the Jayhawks could never find the magic from the previous year.
They folded in close games, losing 26-22 to K-State and 21-17 at Nebraska in successive weeks. The losses kept mounting, and the season was punctuated with a humiliating 69-21 gutt-punch from Missouri on the last day of the season. They finished the season 1-9 after an eight game loss streak.
There were plenty of reasons for the meltdown in '69.
"We went from the castle to the outhouse in a hurry," Fambrough says.
Coaches were overconfident, some players felt satisfied after 1968, and they just didn't have the weapons.
Mario Chalmers makes a drive for the basket during a game last year. After helping his team win the national championship last year, Chalmers left for the NBA.
"We learned a great lesson." Fambrough says. "In football, or anything else, when you stop working you go to the bottom."
--title defense goes better than his.
How do you defend a title?
How do you climb Mt. Everest — two times in a row? How do you defend a title when your best player sprints off to the NBA? How do you defend a title when fans need to buy a program for the actual purpose of figuring out who's on the team?
Scooter Barry may be able to answer those questions. Barry is 42 years old. He lives in California now. But in 1989, Barry was a starting guard on a Kansas team coming off a national championship. Barry thought his senior year would be defending the title he helped win in 1988. But then the NCAA told Barry and his teammates they wouldn't be defending their title. They were getting banned from the NCAA tournament for recruiting violations, and it was all very confusing because nobody on the team had anything to do with any of it. Not the coach, not the players, not anybody.
That 1989 team didn't really look anything like the 1988 championship team.
All American Danny Manning was gone, off to play in the NBA. Senior Chris Piper was gone too. And maybe the biggest change was the guy on the sideline. Larry Brown, the architect behind the NCAA title, had skated off to coach the San Antonio Spurs, and in his place was a dark-haired, fresh-faced assistant from North Carolina named Roy Williams.
And things got real complicated when, just weeks after Williams replaced Brown, Barry found out Kansas was banned from the 1989 NCAA tournament because of some improper benefits given to former recruit Vincent Askew two years earlier.
But Williams rallied his team, and it won some games to start the season. But then came a rash of injuries, and it didn't help that Manning was gone, and Kansas finished 19-12. They missed the NCAA tournament, of course. They were the first defending champs to be banned from the tournament, and '89 was the last year Kansas didn't participate in the NCAA tournament.
"We had no idea what to expect," Barry now says.
So Barry would like to answer the questions about defending a championship. But he can't really answer them. He never got the opportunity.
So Barry, a captain on the '89 team, was stuck trying to defend a championship he couldn't defend.
But he can feel for the returning players on this year's team. And the new ones.
"They're starting over and they have to carry the burden of a title," Barry savs.
It's a burden that will be thrust on a group of five freshman and two transfers. The new guys have to defend a title they didn't win.
If nothing else, Barry hopes this
--football team and the 1989 basketball team are still lorking on Mt. Oread.
So what's it all mean,all these little stories?
It's tough defending NCAA championships. We all know that. Heck, it's tough enough winning one.
And sustaining football success at Kansas has never been easy either. There's a reason the Jayhawks have never gone to bowl games in consecutive seasons.
Maybe it's that Kansas has such a poor history of following up championship seasons.
Maybe it'd be nice to see Mario Chalmers walking around campus, his hat slightly askew, just like it was at the Final Four.
Maybe the ghosts of the 1969
Maybe tic be nice see Aqib
Talib lined up at cornerback in the football team's home opener on Aug. 30.
But Mario's in Miami, and Brandon, Darnell, Sasha, Darrell, and Russell are gone too.
And Talib's in Tampa, playing in the NFL with Derek Fine, Marcus Henry and Anthony Collins.
The best year ever is over. And all that's left are the T-shirts.
Maybe that's the problem. If last year was as good as it gets, then what do people have to look forward to?
And that brings us back to Reesing, standing on that 45-yard line.
Because people want to believe there is more to look forward to. People want to believe that there's more magic left.
Hey Todd, you're up
PHONE785.864.4358
And right now basketball is months away, so people look toward Memorial Stadium, and they look to Reesing, Kansas' quar terback funsler.
Edited by Mark Dent
HAWKCHALK.COM CLASSIFIEDS@KANSAN.COM
FOR RENT
CHILD CARE
Montessori Discovery Place now enrolling ages 3-6. Small montessori pre-school, individual attention/kindergarten preparation. 785-865-0678
SERVICES
FOR RENT
THE BIGGEST POSTER SALE. Biggest and best selection. Choose from over 2000 different images. FINE ART, MUSIC, MOVIES, MODELS, HUMOR, ANIMALS, PERSONALITIES, LANDSCAPES, MOTIVATIONALS, PHOTOGRAPHY. MOST IMAGES ONLY $7, $8 AND $9. SEE us at Kansas University Liberty-Level 4 On Sunday, Aug. 17th thru Friday Aug. 22nd, 2008. THE HOURS ARE 9 A.M. M TO 5 P. M THIS SALE IS SPONSORED BY SUA and Union Programs.
TRAFFIC-DUISI-MIP'S PERSONAL INJURY
Student legal matters/residency issues
The law offices of
DONALD G. STROLE
Donald G. Strole    Sally G. Kelsey
16 East 13th     842-5116
Initial Consultation
Free Initial Consultation
TRAVEL
Spring Break 2009. Sepi Trips, Earn Cash and Go Free. Call for group discounts.
Best Deals Guaranteed Jamaica.
Cancun, Acapulco, Bahamas, S. Padras, Florida. 800-648-4849 | www.sttravel.com
Free months rent with '08-'09 12 month lease!* *Restrictions Apply*
Pool
Hardwood Flooring Indoor Basketball Court Flat Rate Utilities Gated Community Semester Leases
We Understand Student Living!
BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL
Tired of crowded work out facilities and waiting in line for equipment?
Tired of being bothered by others while working out?
Tired at being bothered by others while working out?
Then break away from the Rec Center! When you show your KUD at the Lawrence Athletic Club you can purchase a membership for $24.95 a month or you can purchase unlimited tanning for $19.99 a month!
OR
A club membership and unlimited tanning for $32.50 a month.
3201 Mesa Way Lawrence, KS 785-842-4966
1202 E. 23<sup>rd</sup> Street
Lawrence, KS
785.842.4966
Lawrence Athletic Club