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Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009
Soccer focuses on home games to get ahead in Big 12. SOCCER | 5B
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FANTASTIC FOUR
Sophomore Ekaterina Morozova returns a serve from an opponent Friday, Sept. 25 during the Jayhawk Invitational tournament. Morozova is one of four Jayhawks invited to play at the ITA central region tournament in Oklahoma. Weston White/KANSAS
PAGE 1B
Jayhawks headed to regionals
Kansas players invited to play at tournament
BY ANDREW POSCH
aposch@kansan.com
Four members of the Kansas women's tennis team have been selected to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association central region tournament later this month in Norman, Okla.
Vika Khanevskaya and sophomores Kate Morozova and Erin Wilbert were chosen by a regional committee to represent the University in the ITA and Wilson-sponsored event from Oct. 22 to 25.
Freshmen Sara Lazarevic and
Coach Amy Hall-Holt said that each team registered for the tournament automatically received bids for one singles player and one doubles team.
Lazarevic and Morozova earned the doubles spot, while Lazarevic also won the singles position.
The two remaining layhawk qualifiers relied on early-season results to get themselves in.
The selection committee filled
out the brackets with players that have excelled in past seasons or have shown impressive records so far this year.
Wilbert, Khanevskaya and Morozova were selected to play singles after picking up three singles victories apiece at the team's home tournament Sept. 25-27. Wilbert and Khanevskaya were also named as a doubles team.
eliminated before making it into the main draw of the bracket.
"We were only expecting Sara and Kate to get in since they're our top players." Wilbert said. "But Vika and I were lucky enough to be chosen."
Wilbert attended the tournament last fall, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, but was
Morozova, last year's only other competitor on the current Kansas roster, advanced to the round of 32 before being defeated by McCall Jones of BYU.
Assistant coach German Dalmagro said that about 25 teams will be represented in the tournament this year and the competition will be extremely tough.
"There will be teams from the SEC, Big Ten and the Big 12," Dalmagro said.
The other conferences represented will be the Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Great West,
Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley,
Southland, Sunbelt and the
Summit League.
The winners of the single-elimination tournament will continue on to nationals later in the fall.
Kansas will also host its second home event of the season over the same weekend at First Serve in Lawrence.
The four remaining team members - senior Kuni Dorn, junior Kate Goff and Maria Martinez and sophomore Alie Dzuba - will compete at home.
Edited by Tim Burgess
FOOTBALL
Aggressive tactics keep kicker on the sidelines
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
On fourth down, with a team deep inside its opponent's side of the field, the generally accepted action dictates that the offense trudges off the field while the kicker slowly jogs in to attempt a field goal.
This season, junior Jacob Branstetter has faced that same situation and, at times, bucked the trend, opting to remain on the sideline instead of preparing to take the field.
Freshman running back Bradley McDougald fights off a Southern Mississippi defender. The Jayhawks have been aggressive on fourth downs, opting for another chance for the offense to move the chains instead of kicking a field goal.
"There are times when I'm on the sideline and it's fourth down and I don't even walk out there because I know the confidence we have in our offense," Branstetter said. "I know the ability they have. I watch these guys every day. That's just our team. That's how we're built."
He says that in those select moments he knows what's coming; Mangino's decision to forego the field goal attempt in order to allow the offense one more chance at picking up a first down.
So far this season, coach Mark Mangino has opted to leave his offense on the field for six fourth downs. In turn, the lajhayes have converted four of those
Follow Kansan writer Jayson Jenks at twitter.com/JaysonJenks.
"We don't know whether we're in fourth down territory but we trust ourselves enough that if you just give us one more down we think we can move the chains," junior offensive lineman Brad Thorson said. "I love it. I love the aggressive mentality."
Kansas, by no means, makes an exceptionally high number of fourth down attempts. But only one team ranked in the top 30 of fourth down attempts has a higher conversion percentage than the Jayhawks.
attempts into first downs.
Essentially, the philosophy of going for it on fourth down parallels a major theme for Kansas' football program: playing aggressively.
The Jayhawks, from coaches to players, consistently talk about attacking and dictating on both offense and defense. At times that means leaving the kicker on the sideline and the offense on the field.
"You guys know that I like to go for fourth downs," Mangino
+
said. "I think to be an aggressive football team you have to do that."
Mangino certainly picks his spots carefully, but even recently
the results of Kansas' aggressive mentality on fourth down can be seen.
converted on fourth down. The Golden Eagles failed on both of their fourth down attempts.
Twice against Southern Mississippi two weeks ago Kansas
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 3B
COMMENTARY
Suspension will hurt individual, not team
Well, you can't say it's been a boring offseason for Kansas basketball.
Then there's the fighting. The media has covered every angle of that ordeal, but the long-term ramification is that guard Tyshawn Taylor, likely a starter, is missing four weeks of practice because of a dislocated thumb.
First, we had the Henrys committed, then decommitted, then apprehensively recommitted and then, finally, fully committed. Xavier and I are our mini-Brett Fayres.
Finally, junior Brady Morningstar's DWI on Saturday morning — what do we make of that?
Actually, very little.
He may never be a starter again.
His suspension for a semester will not affect the team's success in March, but Morningstar should still be very upset with himself for making such a mistake.
He may never be a starter again.
Coach Bill Self always likes to give his new recruits a few games to adjust to college basketball before throwing them into a serious fire. With Morningstar suspended, however, Self will be forced to look farther down his bench for minutes.
Certainly a lot depends on what happens in the weeks before the season starts, but Self will probably plug three or four players into Morningstar's starting spot and see how they fare. Freshmen Elijah Johnson and C.J. Henry and junior Tyrel Reed will all see time at off guard.
If one of them snatches the spot, I can't see Morningstar coming back in January and grabbing the spot back
I realize that Morningstar is one of Self's favorites because he plays tough defense and provides a shooting touch from beyond the three-point arc, a skill mostly missing from last year's team. He played the second-most minutes on the team and started every game except Senior Day.
But this year's team will be significantly deeper than last year's, especially at guard.
So while we might see a sloppier scrimmage at Late Night and less-than-impressive performances against mediocre non-conference programs with Morningstar on the sidelines, the games will be a good barometer of where the freshmen stand.
If Morningstar can only get a bench role, that doesn't mean he won't be a huge factor in Kansas' success this season. Against zone defenses and teams that clamp down on Cole Aldrich, Self will look to Morningstar to drill a few trey balls. He is completely capable of doing that.
Games in November and December are when we learn about the team. They matter little in tournament seeding or success.
Morningstar's mistake will hurt Kansas in the short run. But in the long run, it's Morningstar who will be hurt most by his poor decision-making.
Edited by Samantha Foster
Follow Kansan writer Clark Goble at twitter.com/cgoble89.