Sports
The University Daily Kansan
A Kansan photo gallery shows how senior quarterback Bill Whittemore injured himself, which coach Mark Mangino says could sideline him for the rest of the season. PAGE 7A
12A
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
sports commentary
Joey Berlin
jberlin@kansan.com
Jayhawks attack needs Padgett in starting role
The Kansas men's basketball team wouldn't have made the Final Four last year without the emergence of Jeff Graves. Graves transformed himself from Roy Williams' out-of-shape whipping boy to a space-filling, rebounding monster. He became not only a solid player, but also an inspiration to thousands of Jayhawk fans, myself included.
Which makes it a shame that Graves can't start this year. Or, at least, he shouldn't.
David Padgett, a 6-foot-11 center widely ranked as one of the top 10 freshmen in the country, has to start for Kansas to have its best shot at a national title.
That's not to imply Graves isn't a fine player, or isn't worthy of starting. He still brings the same strengths — dominant rebounding, solid low-post defense — and he's in excellent shape. If he can thrive under Williams, who originally tried to make Graves feel like Rush Limbaugh at a Grambling football game, there's no reason he can't thrive under Bill Self, who recruited Graves while at Illinois.
Padgett deserves the starting job for two reasons: Offense and fouls.
Offensively, Kansas needs to replace a chunk of the 35.8 points per game Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison took with them to the NBA.
If Wayne Simien's healthy the entire season — a huge "if" — he's capable of approximating Collison's 18.5 points per game. Simien's average over all of Kansas' games last year, not just the ones he played in, was 6.2 points, so if he turns into Collison — another big "if" — he adds about 12 points. Keith Langford will maintain his 15.9 points per game scoring average, but without defenses concentrating on Hinrich and Collison, he probably won't increase it much unless he develops a three-point shot.
Freshman J.R. Giddens will probably take Hinrich's spot on the perimeter. To not heap unrealistic expectations on him, mark him down for about nine points a game. Aaron Miles continues to be the quintessential pass-first, shoot-35th point guard and can't be counted on for more scoring.
So Simien, Giddens and Langford might make up around 23 points of Collison's and Hinrich's output. That leaves about 13 points a game for the fifth starter and any bench scoring increase. No disrespect to Graves, but he averaged just six points a game last year and isn't capable of scoring in double figures consistently.
Padgett averaged 27 points per game his senior year of high school. As one of the country's most sought-after recruits, it's reasonable to assume he's already a much bigger scoring threat than Graves.
Then there's the matter of fouls.
Graves' performance in Kansas' six NCAA tournament games illustrated perfectly what you get from him. He turned in two great games against Arizona and Syracuse; in each of the four other games, he scored in single digits and collected at least four fouls. Foulling was an issue for Graves all season long, and if he continues to pick up multiple fouls before breaking a sweat, Padgett will be taking his minutes anyway.
If Hinrich and Collison were still around to provide consistent offensive firepower, Graves' rebounding abilities would make him the perfect starter at center. But the Jayhawks now need more scoring out of their center than Graves can provide. If Padgett starts and Graves comes off the bench as a board-eating specialist, his foul problems would be minimized, and Self would have his ideal frontcourt rotation.
Berlin is a Loawood senior in journalism.
Soccer eyeing NCAAberth
Curtis Hiller/The Michigan Daily
Caroline Smith headed a ball past Michigan's Robyn Vince during Kansas' 2-1 defeat of Michigan Sunday. After trailing 1-0, Smith tied the score and added a second goal to improve the Jayhawk's overall record to 14-4-1. The team's ranked No. 21 in the National Soccer Association of America Poll, its first Top 25 ranking.
Jayhawk victory against Michigan puts Kansas in good position for tourney
By Nikki Nugent
nnugent@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas soccer team is playing its best soccer of the season right now, and not even an 800-mile road trip to play a non-conference opponent could slow down its assault on the record book.
With Sunday's 2-1 victory over Michigan, this year's Kansas squad (14-4-1 overall, 5-3-1 Big 12 Conference) set a school record with 14 single-season victories. The previous record of 13 victories was set in 2001.
With the victory against Michigan, a team that made it to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament last season, the Jayhawks may find themselves in their first NCAA Tournament since the 2001 season.
Kansas coach Mark Francis said the victory was important because it showed Kansas had done well against its strong schedule, both in the Big 12 and against non-conference opponents.
Francis said the Jayhawks started Sunday's game a little flat. The slow start, combined with the Michigan players being fired up about senior day, allowed the Wolverines to dominate the first half.
Michigan struck early when freshman midfielder Katelin Spencer put a rebound past Kansas junior goalkeeper Meghan Miller in the 10th minute of play. Miller saved the first shot by sophomore Katie Kramer but was unable to recover in time to stop the rebound.
Francis said the team started to get back in the game at the end of the first half. At halftime, Francis stressed the importance of the Michigan game to the team in terms of reaching the NCAA Tournament. Francis said he left the team with one question to answer in the second half.
"I asked them if they thought they could win, and they said 'yes,'" Francis said.
Kansas sophomore forward Caroline Smith started the Jayhawks on the road to victory in the 60th minute of play, scoring
SEE SOCCER ON PAGE 9A
Missouri resurrects bowl hopes
By Kevin Flaherty
kflaherty@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
just a month ago Missouri Tigers football fans were writing off this season's bowl aspirations after an upset loss at Kansas. But after pulling off the weekend's most surprising victory in the Big 12 Conference, downing Texas Tech 62-31 at Faurot Field, the Tigers have reentered the Top 25 and rekindled dreams of the team's first bowl game since 1998.
Brad Smith ran for 291 yards and five touchdowns, three of which were in the
fourth quarter when Missouri scored 28 points to seal the game. Tech's B.J. Symons passed for 408 yards and four touchdowns, but he also threw a season-worst three interceptions. The game put both schools at 2-2 in Big 12 play and made Missouri eligible for a bowl.
Pinkel said Smith deserved to be named this week's Big 12 offensive player of the week.
"He's the first one to mention he's surrounded by a great supporting cast," Pinkel said. "Overall, it was a good win for our program."
Unlike Missouri's big victory over
Texas Tech, the heavily-favored and top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners needed big plays at the end of the game to defeat Colorado in Boulder, Colo. Sooner QB Jason White hit Mark Clayton on a 59-yard pass in the fourth quarter to seal Oklahoma's 54-20 victory against Colorado. Colorado used two fourth quarter scores to trim Oklahoma's lead to 27-20 before the Sooners scored the game's final touchdown. White had 248 yards passing for Oklahoma, while Renaldo Works ran for 130 yards.
Oklahoma State blasted Texas A&M 38-10 behind Tatum Bell's 196 yards
rushing. In doing so, Bell became just the third player in Cowboy history to run for more than 1,000 yards in two consecutive seasons. Rashaun Woods caught two touchdown passes to break out of a slight slump where the senior wide receiver went three games without a touchdown.
The Aggies have struggled so far this season, garnering just one Big 12 win in four attempts and winning only three games this season. This next week they will prepare for a Kansas Jayhawks team that enters College Station, Texas, lick-
SEE BIG 12 ON PAGE 9A
Golf team finishes fifth at Nelson
By Ryan Colaianni
rcolaianni@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Ryan Colaianni
"It was a great feeling to be under par as a team in each round," freshman Tyler Docking said. "The only other time we did that was in our home event, and this proved that we could go out and play well on another course."
Consistent play helped the Kansas men's golf team piece together three straight rounds under par to finish eight under. But it was not enough to win as the team finished in fifth place at the Nelson Invitational in Stanford, Calif., this past weekend.
The team finished just one shot behind the fourth place team, Colorado State, and two shots off third-place Colorado. Duke continued its dominance at the Nelson as it won the tournament for the third time in four years. The Blue Devils
finished at 18 under par, 10 shots better than the jahawks.
"It was a disappointing finish, especially since we were in such good position after the first day," junior Kevin Ward said.
After the first two rounds, the team was in third place and only
Price
five shots off the lead, but many of the teams shot low final rounds to jump over the lavwhaws.
The Jayhawks were led once again by junior Andrew Price, who was even par or better in each of his three rounds and finished seven under for a tie for fifth place. Price started the tournament strong with a four-under 67 in the first round and a three-under 68 in the second, and was in a tie for second place. He finished his tournament with an even-par 71 on Sunday.
The team played at the 6,786-yard Stanford Golf Club. According to Ward, the conditions were perfect for low scores, and most of the players took advantage.
"All you had to do was hit your driver and wedges well, and if you did that you were going to make putts," Ward said.
Docking shot a final-round 66 to help propel him up the leader board into a tie for 10th place at four under, his best career finish. Docking entered the final round in a tie for 38th place.
Docking birdied the third hole in his final round, a hole that he had struggled with in the first two rounds, which helped begin his stellar final round. He concluded his round with an eagle. The
66 in the final round was Docking's first collegiate round in the 60s.
"I just gave myself better opportunities to make birdie, and it gave me a ton of confidence," Docking said. Docking had a birdie putt on 14 of his 18 holes in the final round.
Ward shot a three-under 68 in the first round but was a combined five over in the final two rounds to finish in a tie for 39th with freshman teammate Gary Woodland. Sophomore Ryan Rainer struggled in his final round and finished in a tie for 58th.
"We played better in that we didn't count any scores in the high 70s, and that was one of our goals coming into the tournament." Ward said.
TALK TO SPORTS: Contact II Henslev and Shane Meti!en at SPORTS@KANSAN.COM
The team finishes its season at the Presc
te 2003 in La Quinta, Calif., Nov. 3 to 4.
Edited by Joey Berlin
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