Sports
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The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Defense hides kicking woes
By Ryan Greene rgreene@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
For the first time in the Mark Mangino era the buzz about the Kansas football team has nothing to do with hangovers lingering on Saturday's post-game festivities.
But as good as the team looked shutting down Brad Smith and Missouri, the coaching staff said there are still changes to be made before Kansas takes on Colorado in two weeks.
Atop the short list of improvements is something coach Mangino feels should be one of the most basic aspects of the game: the snap, hold and kick procedure on extra point and field goal attempts.
Kicker Johnny Beck has taken the brunt of the blame from fans for the Jayhawks' recent kicking problems. In the two games, Beck missed two field goals and one extra point. Mangino said he still had complete faith in Beck and did not plan on pulling the junior in favor of freshman Scott Webb. Instead, intense practice will be performed to address the issue until perfection is reached.
"There's one thing that I've got to get fixed here in my tenure at Kansas. I've got to get something done about the snap, the hold and the kick on extra points."
Instead of spending the week off focusing on the team's negatives, Mangino said he would reinforce what the team had done well to this point.
Mangino said. "I'll get that corrected this week, I promise."
the team that had done it. The defense's performance Saturday could have made any coach envious. After entering the Missouri game amidst speculation that they were incapable of stopping Smith, the Jayhawks kept him from executing the big play. While Missouri tailback Zack Abron was able to eclipse the 100-yard rushing mark, stopping Smith was enough to overshadow Abron's big day.
About a big day. A large part of Smith's ineffectiveness was the ability of the defensive line and linebackers to contain him in the pocket. Junior defensive ends David McMillan and Monroe Weekley continued to get the same pressure on the quarterback that the opposition has grown to fear in recent weeks. In the past three games the duo has combined for four sacks.
"Our defensive players played relentlessly." Mangino said. "We have been able to get through some games with pretty good offense and pretty good special teams, and now you add defense into the mix, it only makes us stronger."
Jayhawk safety Tony Stubbs took down Tiger tailback Zeek Abron during the third quarter of Saturday's game. Much of the Jayhawks' victory was credited to the defensive line's ability to contain the rush and stop Missouri quarterback Brad Smith.
SEE DEFENSE ON PAGE 6A
Sophomore forward and leading scorer Caroline Smith sat out part of Sunday's 3-2 loss to Texas Tech because of injuries sustained in a victory over Baylor Saturday. She is expected to start when the soccer team plays Texas at 4:30 p.m. Friday at SuperTarget Field.
Injuries sideline 3 Jayhawks; team splits conference games
Patchwork defense can't stop Texas Tech; record drops to 9-2
By Nikki Nugent
nnguent@kansan.com
Kansan Sportswriter
After an injury-riddled second half in Friday's game against Baylor, the Kansas soccer team was unable to fight its way to another Big 12 Conference victory against a sub-par Texas Tech team on Sunday.
Sunday. The 3-2 loss puts the Jayhawks' record at 9-2-0 and 1-1-0 in the conference.
Three Jayhawks missed the game against Toxas Tech because of injuries in the Baylor game. Senior Maggie Mason, a staple in the Kansas defense, and junior midfielder Gabriela Quiggle both sat out because of ankle injuries. Sophomore forward Caroline Smith was not in the starting lineup but came in as a substitute.
Kansas coach Mark Francis said the Jayhawks played well against Texas Tech, but the defense was disorganized because of the injuries. The Red Raiders took seven shots on goal and scored three of them.
Francis also said the offense was unable to finish scoring opportunities, a problem he noted in Friday's game against Baylor. Kansas took 17 shots in the game against Texas Tech, five of them on goal, and scored twice.
One positive note from Sunday's game was the play of the Jayhawk freshmen. Freshman midfielder Michelle Rasmussen assisted freshman midfielder Jessica Kilpatrick on the Jayhawks' first goal. After the team fell behind 1-0, 14 minutes into the first half, Kilpatrick fired in a shot from 10 yards out. The teams were tied at half-time.
The Jayhawks picked up their first- and-only lead of the game just over nine minutes into the second half on a Rasmussen goal. Texas Tech would go on to score two more goals to put the game away.
The Jayhawks will have to turn things around quickly. Kansas hosts No. 16 Texas and No. 3 Texas A&M this weekend. The Texas Longhorns, 5-5-0 on the season and 0-1-0 in the Big 12, are coming off of a 2-1 loss to un-ranked Oklahoma. Texas A&M is 8-1-0 on the season and 1-0-0 in the Big 12. The Aggies' only loss, 1-0, came from perennial soccer powerhouse North Carolina. Texas A&M plays Oklahoma State on Friday
Francis said the Jayhaws needed to get back on track after splitting the opening weekend of conference play.
"We can't just sit around and brood about it too long," he said.
about it too long. He said.
The Jayhawks tend to play to their opponent's level, Francis said. This may have been what hurt the team in the Texas Tech game, but Francis said he thought the team would step up to the level of Texas and Texas A&M. The Jayhawks play Texas at 4:30 p.m. Friday and Texas A&M at noon on Sunday. Both games are at SuperTarget Field.
before traveling to Lawrence on Sunday.
Edited by Scott Christie
New York prospect verbally commits
By Chris Wintering
cwintering@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The University of Kansas men's basketball team received a verbal commitment from one of its prospects while another is thought to go elsewhere.
Russell Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound guard from New York, called Jayhawkslant.com editor Shay Wildeboro to inform him of his decision to choose Kansas.
"He said he was really blown away with the family atmosphere of Kansas," Wildeboor said. "He knew the team was looking at other guards and did not want to miss out on an opportunity to play at a great place."
Robinson is rated 31st overall and eighth at his position by the Rivals recruiting service. He averaged 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals per game as a junior at Rice High School in New York.
Robinson received many offers from universities such as Connecticut, Florida State and Syracuse. He took his official visit with his dad to Kansas last weekend with his father.
weekend with the other guards Kansas recruited
One of the co-
was New York point guard A.J. Price. Soon after Robinson's decision, Price announced that he would have a news conference today to name his school. Rivals.com is reporting that Price will choose Connecticut. Price is rated 29th in the nation and the
sixth point guard in the country.
Robinson
Kansas was originally interested in Price, but because of Robinson's commitment the Jayhawks are now thought to be out of the running. Price took an official visit to Lawrence on Sept. 5.
Additional visit to Lewiston More announcements are expected
this week, including a decision from Alexander Kaun. The 6-11,245-pound center from Florida is rated by Rivals as the 23rd best player in the country and is the fifth-rated center. He is expected to choose between Duke and Kansas.
Robinson joins Darnell Jackson as the two basketball recruits verbally committed to Kansas for the 2004 season. Jackson is a 6-7, 230-pound power forward from Oklahoma City. He is rated as 52nd overall and 13th at his position by Rivals. Kansas has one more scholarship available for the 2004 class.
Edited by Ehren Meditz
men's basketball
Basketball kickoff renamed 'Late Night in the Phog'
The season of changes for the Kansas basketball team continued this week with the announcement yesterday of a new name for the team's late-night kickoff celebration.
night kickoff sucess The event, which had been called "Late Night with Roy Williams" during his entire tenure as basketball coach, will now be named "Late Night in the Phog."
The event will take place Oct. 17 in Allen Fieldhouse. Doors will open at 7 p.m., and seating is first-come, first-serve. Admission is free, but fans are encouraged to bring canned foods, which the Athletics Department will donate to area food shelters.
"Late Night in the Phog" features skits and entertainment by the Kansas men's and women's basketball teams and music by the KU pep band.
Pre-show entertainment will run from 7:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m., and the teams will begin the performances at 10 p.m. The men's team will hold a brief scrimmage at midnight.
Chris Wintering
Camping fans show Kansas can embrace football
Ask any University Daily Kansan reporter, and they'll agree that every once in a while, we need a reminder that we are still, in fact, college students. Friday night — well, actually Saturday morning — was my occasional moment.
My Friday night started pretty slow, as I anticipated a night of just staying in and watching television so I could get up early Saturday and be ready to head to Memorial Stadium for Kansas' game with Missouri.
Around midnight, my roommate Bob and our buddy Pat decided to walk across the street to the student entrance at the stadium to see if the rumors of people camping out were actually true. Shoot, I had nothing better to do, so I
Ryan Greene rgreene@kansan.com
sports commentary
decided to tag along. And what do you know, as we came around the corner, we could see the tents, miniature bonfires and sleeping bags.
My reporter instincts told me to go home and grab my recorder and notebook because it would make an interesting story, but instead of grilling the campers with questions about the game, we had more of a regular conversation.
There were three camp groups when we arrived. One group had been there since Thursday night, and a group of friends from Ellsworth and McCollum Halls had pulled out all the stops, with tents, chairs and enough food and drink to keep Sally Struthers content for a month.
It was the type of setting that only college students could create.
In the shadow of Memorial Stadium, and at the foot of the hill with the Campanile lighting up the sky, the smell of burning leaves and optimistic conversation about the game, more than 10 hours away, made the time fly by.
Just as the group from Ellsworth and McCollum welcomed me and my friends to join them, they were just as open to anyone else who came by, especially the inebriated students who came to be sauntering by after a night at the bars.
After sitting out there in the cold for a while, playing football in the dark and fraternizing with the KU football faithful, I realized that this town really can embrace football.
Former Kansas coach Don Fambrough has always said that Jayhawk football players have long been neglected in this town, but this could be the start of something beautiful.
More than likely, the number of student campers will at least double, or maybe triple, when the Jafhawks return home to play Baylor in three weeks. After Kansas' 35-14 thrashing of Mizzou, students were able to do what for years they had seen only on ESPN's College Game day at other schools - tear down the goalposts after a huge victory.
For the first time in a long time, both in the still of the night and after a monumental win, Jayhawk fans showed that Lawrence can provide a football atmosphere to compete with any other school in the nation.
Greene is a Vernon Hills, Ill., senior in journalism
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