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TUESDAY,OCTOBER 27,2009
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COMMENTARY
PAGE 10A
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE PRIZE
Bradford's injury may hurt NFL prospects
Let there be no more doubts as to whether a college football player should go back and play another year for his college or go to the NFL if he is ready for pro competition.
Oklahoma's quarterback Sam Bradford will have shoulder surgery Wednesday to repair the damage to his throwing shoulder that has been inflicted this season. This injury has ended Bradford's career at Oklahoma and has possibly lowered his draft stock, despite news from the New York Times that he may still be in the top ten.
Bradford had the opportunity to enter the NFL Draft after last season, in which he enticed NFL scouts with his arm and football intelligence. However, maybe because of hurt feelings after losing the National Championship game to Florida, Bradford decided to return to his Sooner family and try for a National Championship ring.
The sports world is now wondering if this could have been avoided, and yes it could have
It was admirable to see a player give up however much money would have been thrown at him by the NFL. But, in hindsight, it was not the most intelligent decision. Not only did Bradford miss out on money that could have been made this year, but he has also put his throwing shoulder through two similar injuries and a surgery that requires a four-to-six-month recovery time.
That means Bradford's shoulder will just barely be healed in time for the April draft workouts. But how can anyone expect a newly-rehabbed shoulder to perform at the level it used to be at so soon? Bradford will have potentially gone from a top five draft pick to a middle-of-the-round pick up
Now future NFL hopefuls will be even more skeptical about risking another year outside of the NFL. This season two quarterbacks opted to return to the college spotlight, Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow, and both have suffered serious injuries. Tebow has been able to recover from his frightening concussion earlier this season and is still in the hunt for the Heisman Trophy. Bradford hasn't been so lucky.
This issue has been around in college basketball for years now too. Kansas State would have loved to have Michael Beasley for four years, but that would have involved many more negatives for Beasley's personal career than positives. Kansas fans couldn't have been happier to learn that Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich were coming back for this 2009-2010 season. Although college football and basketball are two different animals, athletes could have the same thoughts.
And what goes through the minds of these athletes is bound to change after what has happened this year in college football.
Edited by Abby Olcese
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Roesler at twitter.
cn/noresler8.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Freshman forward Aishah Sutherland struggles for a rebound during the WNIT Championship game against the University of South Florida. Kansas is hoping to make it to the NCAA tournamet this year.
Women's basketball hopes for Big 12 title
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
Deep inside Allen Fieldhouse construction workers and their materials dot the floors and hallways.
For the first time since the start of Kansas' $7.8 million renovation project, the Jayhawks wandered through and admired the nearly-completed improvements.
They marveled at the players' lounge with flat screen TVs and leather couches, and sat in a locker room that featured freshly-printed Jayhawks on chairs, cabinets and the floor.
Last week, Kansas' locker
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Jenks at twitter
.com/JaysonJenks
room was still hosting tools and equipment. But the idea — the larger picture represented by the manual labor and physical construction — was perfectly evident.
"It feels like everything is at the tip of our hands right now," senior guard Kelly Kohn said. "We've built up this team, we've built up experience, we're building from what we did last year and we're stepping into a
brand new facility. It's all fitting together."
That's evident in the goal that
That's evident was verbally, and publicly set by Kansas' players and coaches. The Jayhawks want to compete for the Big 12 championship. Coach Bonnie Henrickson and her players expected to
Without an apparent clear-cut favorite entering the season, the Big 12 appears open for
the taking. Kansas, meanwhile,
returns four starters from last
year's team, including preseason
"It feels like everything is at the tip of our hands right now,"
KELLY KOHN Senior guard
Big 12 player ot the year Danielle McCray.
"I think in our huddle, realistically, we should expect to be in a position to win a conference championship." Henrickson said. "We could finish sixth or maybe seventh and
still go to the NCAA tournament, but no one wants to finish sixth or seventh. No one would be excited about finishing sixth."
Last season, Kansas' players and coaches gathered in the Wagonn Student Athlete Center in late March and watched the NCAA Tournament selection show with a faint hope that Kansas might pop onto the screen.
That never happened, and the Jayhawks found themselves in the Women's National Invitational Tournament attempting to salvage a season that Henrickson described before the WNIT as a "disappointment."
Now, in a rather large leap from hoping to make the tournament to fully expecting to
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 8A
FOOTBALL
Defense improving despite mistakes Near misses, penalties contribute to loss against Sooners at home
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Senior safety Darrell Stuckey sacks Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, causing a fumble. The Jayhawks recovered the fumble, but the play was negated due to an offsides penalty on lineman Jeff Wheeler. The Jayhawks打 35-13.
BY JAYSON JENKS jjenks@kansan.com
Junior kicker Jacob Branstetter sprinted while the rest of his teammates jogged into the locker room Saturday trailing by just eight points. After a rough opening 30 minutes, things could have been much worse.
game. They had scrapped and overcome three turnovers to
  make it close.
The layhawks were one possession from potentially tying the
And, after Branstetter's 57-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter, Kansas seemed
"You look at the overall performance of the defense: Not bad — at all."
to have corralled the game's momentum.
Then the third quarter started and Oklahoma marched down the field before scoring a touchdown.
"We did it; we allowed them to do it ourselves," senior安全 Darrell Stuckey said. "It was penalties and bonehead mistakes that allowed them to get there."
MARK MAGINO Head coach
But in the grand scope of the game, Kansas' defense turned in
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It was a progressive step for a defense that has found itself
one of its better performances this season. The Jayhawks stifled the revamped Sooners, holding Oklahoma offense to just seven first-half points.
under fire at times this season. After Kansas' defense allowed Iowa State to score 36 points, coach Mark Mangino vowed that changes could be made.
He held true to his words the next week when Kansas
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 8A
Still, Kansas' meeting with Oklahoma was filled with near misses and game-changing
"You look at the overall performance of the defense: Not bad — at all," Mangino said. "We're much improved."
trotted out three new players against Colorado. The Jayhawks kept that same lineup intact against the Sooners.
FOOTBALL
.
Teammates chosen as candidates for awards
For the third consecutive year, senior quarterback Todd Reesing has been named a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien national quarterback award. The 15 semi-finalists were announced yesterday.
BY JAYSON JENKS jjenks@kansan.com
This season Reeing has completed 65 percent of his attempts for 2,240 yards and 15 touchdowns. He has also thrown seven interceptions.
Junior wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe, meanwhile was named one of 10 semi-finalists for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to the nations top wide receiver.
Finalists for the award will be announced Nov. 23.
In six games this season Briscoe has caught 45 passes for 731 yards and four touchdowns.
Senior wide receiver Kerry Meier, who was named a semi-finalist for the award last season, didn't make this year's list despite ranking second nationally in receptions.
Edited by Megan Morriss