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2B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling."
Mark Twain
FACT OF THE DAY
So far this season, Kansas soccer has scored an average of 2.31 goals per game, while the team is allowing an average of 1.31 goals per game.
— Kansas Athletics
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Which Kansas goalie allowed the fewest goals against average?
A:Meghan Miller with an average 0.57 goals allowed per game in 2004.
Former Kansas player Tamecka Dixon is currently seeking her third WNBA Title, this time as a member of the Indiana Fever.
Kansas Athletics
BASKETBALL Former Kansas player seeks third WNBA title
Dixon previously won two championships as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks. She played for the Jayhawks from 1994-1997, notching career averages of 14.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals. In addition to helping Kansas reach four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, Dixon finished her career sixth on the all-time scoring list. She was also named a Kodak All-American her senior year and also took home Big 12 Player of the Year honors.
After leaving Kansas in 1997, Dixon was drafted with the 14th overall pick by the Sparks in the inaugural WNBA Draft. This year with the Fever marks her 13th season in the league, where she has been a three time All-Star with career averages of 9.7 points and 2.9 rehounds per contest
"This is a really exciting time of the year," Dixon said in a prepared statement. "I am thrilled just to be in the Finals, but to know we are only one game away from winning it all is an amazing feeling."
Dixon's Fever, up two games to one in the fivegame series, will look to close out the Phoenix Mercury in game four of WNBA Finals tonight at 6:45 p.m.
Ben Ward
Fantasy football is painful fun
MORNING BREW
Don't kick a field goal!
Pass the $# &@^ ball!
Wait, why is he being subbed for at the goal line?
These are just a few examples of the widespread abundance of fantasy football expletives. Every Sunday, fantasy footballers endure the most excruciating pains that are not only uncontrollable, but are also usually at least several states away from our clutches. We worship game logs and match ratings like hipsters and English teachers cherish "Catcher in the Rye." We study enough game film (SportsCenter, NFL Live, etc.) to rival Mark Mangino on a busy day. Finding the next great sleeper is not just a chore, it is a way of life. Yes, we fantasy (I cannot emphasize this word enough) footballers are pathetic.
So why do we do it? Why, if 80 to 90 percent of our fantasy-filled Sundays are barraged with inflammations of the soul, do we maintain the misery? No one knows for sure, but my best guess would be the joy that the 10 to 20 percent of success brings. Again, pathetic.
This weekend, with no previous knowledge or heads up, my brothers Alec, Troy and I all started the San Francisco 49ers defense against the lowly St. Louis Sheep — I mean Rams. One shutout and three defensive touchdowns later, the Rothman clan looks to be on its way to three victories. This creepy yet triumphant family moment made me wonder what this weekend in fantasy sports would have looked like with a few minor changes. Say Kyle Boller, a classic first
round quarterback bust, decided not to throw any passes across his body, across the field, into the hands of an angry Patrick Willis, and instead was still the backup to a healthy (never true) Marc Bulger. Would Troy be basking in the glorious sun rays of victory? What if Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk never suffered post-Super Bowl trauma, never left St. Louis, and it was them facing the 49ers defense instead of Boller and an uninspired Steven Jackson? Would my opponent still have posted an online message stating the following:
SF D
October 4 6:00 pm
F*ck
Chances are that if your team has been blessed with the super powers of Adrian Peterson, Maurice Jones-Drew or Peyton Manning, you might not agree with this article. You might say, "Hey Max, stop right there! My team is nasty. Fantasy football is nothing but sun-kissed daisies and peach cobbler-esque joy!"
Well skeptics, wait until the playoffs. Only one team can win.
Meanwhile, I'll be under a tunnel or in some dark corner weeping, pondering what a 1-3
team could have been. Don't bother bringing tissues. I'll have more than enough.
MUSIC FROM THE VAULTS
It starts with a delicately plucked stand-up bass. Then some nostalgia from the boyish voiced, self-proclaimed "abstract poet" Q-Tip: "Back in the days when I was a teenager, before I had status and before I had a pager." Then the drums kick. The paced storybook beginning of "Excursions" to A Tribe Called Quest's *The Low End Theory* lures the listener and never lets go. The rest of the 1991 classic is an honest bashing of the corruption of the rap game, an alternative answer for the right way to do it and a relaxed yet definite announcement of the Tribe's arrival.
Following in the trailblazing footsteps of jazz-rap revolutionaries De La Soul, the Tribe perfectly meshed funky cadences with cooled-out rhymes and an unparalleled laid-back swagger. "Verses from the Abstract" features legend Ron Carter on his bass and Q-Tip jogging through his intellectual frame of mind. "The world is kind of cold and the rhythm is my blanket," spits the philosophical lyricist. "Check the Rime" flexes possibly the hardest beat on the album, with pounding horns and a jazzy, repetitive bass line. Then Q-Tip and Phife exchange reminiscent tales "back on the boulevard of Linden." "You on point Phife?" "All the time Tip!" The two MCs complement each other perfectly with symmetrical flows,
channeling future grouped acts like Jurassic 5, Black Star and The Roots. The album concludes with "Scenario," immediately heaving a b-boyish chorus at our ears, "Here we go you! Here we go yo! So what's so what's the scenario?" The pinnacle of the track is at the end, showcasing a youthful, freewheeling Busta Rhymes, trading verses with the polar opposite words of a chilled Q-Tip. Busta shouts, "Powerful impact, BOOM! from the cannon." Then he proceeds the insanity with hilarious nonsense. "Raowww, raowww like a dungeon dragon" and "Chuckity Choco the chocolate chicken!"
With funky jams, refrigeratorcool rhymes and endless shoutouts. A Tribe Called Quest tossed guns, chains and the degradation of women out the window. The result is immaculate, founding the most fluid, jazzy album in hiphop history.
Edited by Tim Burgess
Follow Max Rothman at twitter.com/maxrothman
NFL
Limbaugh, Checketts bid for Rams
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS — The lowly Rams have someone who loves them.
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFLs longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.
In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.
Limbaugh also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the bid, but said he and Checkketts would operate the team.
"Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.
Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.
Frontiere's children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, inherited 60 percent of the Rams
when their mother died in January 2008. Billionaire Stan Kroenke of Columbia, Mo., owns the remaining 40 percent. It wasn't clear if the Limbaugh/Checketts bid was for 100 percent of the Rams or just
"Our strategic review of our ownership of the Rams continues," Rosenbloom said in a statement released late Monday. "We will make an announcement upon the completion of the process."
"Dave Checkets and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process."
the share owned by Rosenbloom and Rodriguez.
Checkets and the Blues declined comment.
Limbaugh is a native of Cape Giradeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among conservatives — fans
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. Spokesman
inner circles — laws of his show call themselves "dito-heads" — that he has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.
royals and is an avid sports fan.
In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.
Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City
Checkets, 53, and his SCP Worldwide and Towerbrook
Royals and is an avid sports fan.
Capital Partners purchased the Blues in 2006 from Bill and Nancy Laurie. The Blues have been gradually rebuilt under his leadership and made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2004.
Checketts first approached Rosenbloom in early 2009 about possibly buying the Rams. Eric Gelfand, a spokesman for Checketts, said in June that Checketts had put together a group consisting of local and outside investors.
An NFL rule allows ownership of NFL teams and teams in other sports, but only if they are in the same market. That would be a problem if Kroenke wanted to become majority owner of the Rams because he owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.
Checkettts' company owns Utah's Real Salt Lake of the MLS. But an NFL spokesman has said the cross-ownership rule does not apply to the MLS.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Volleyball at Nebraska 7 p.m.
THURSDAY
No events scheduled
FRIDAY
Swimming Intrasquad, 4 p.m.
SATURDAY
Soccer vs. Texas Tech, 4 p.m.
Softball
vs. Johnson
County CC,
11 a.m.
vs. Butler County
CC, 1 p.m.
Rowing
Sunflower
Showdown,
Manhattan
Time TBA
Volleyball vs. Iowa State,
6:30 p.m.
Football vs. Iowa State,
11:30 a.m.
SUNDAY
Softball
vs. Johnson
County CC,
11 a.m.
vs. Cowley
County CC,
1 p.m.
Soccer
vs. Colorado,
1 p.m.
NASCAR
NASCAR Championship leaders pass second car inspection
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The cars of championship leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson have passed a second NASCAR inspection.
NASCAR inspected both the Hendrick Motorsports-owned cars after Sunday's race in Kansas for a thorough inspection after the Chevrolet squeaked through a week earlier.
The teams were warned they had nearly failed and were to not bring the cars to the track again.
Team owner Rick Hendrick said he had no problem if NASCAR inspected his cars every week.
The sanctioning body took him up on the offer when series officials took the cars back to its research and development center.
Associated Press
EXTENDED DEADLINES
Deadlines for most 2010 Spring, Spring Break and Winter Break Programs
STUDY ABROAD @ KU:
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
KU OFFER OF STUDY ABROAD
Office of Study Abroad, 160 Lippincott Hall / 785.064.3742 / www.studyabroad.ku.edu / osakku.edu
BASKETBALL Late Night in the Phog marks 25th annual event
The 25th annual Late Night in the Phog will showcase the men's and women's basketball team Friday, Oct.16.
Allen Fieldhouse will open at 5:30 p.m. and the event runs from
Corey Thibodeaux
As is tradition on Late Night, fans are encouraged to bring nonperishable food items for donation to local pantries.
The event is free, but it is first come, first-served and doors will close when the arena is full.
6:30 p.m. to roughly 9:30 p.m.
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