Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Big 12 will test the Jayhawks Team can make it to postseason with good Bin 12 standing. VOLLEYBALL L38
Team can make it to postseason with good Big 12 standing. VOLLEYBALL | 3B
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
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COMMENTARY
PAGE 1B
Jayhawk fans make UTEP feel like home
ON THE SIDELINES
The Kansas football team traveled to play University of Texas, El Paso in
of Texas, El Paso, in the Sun Bowl on Saturday, but they did not travel alone. The Sun Bowl, scenically located in between two desert mountains, looked as empty as our football stands did about six years ago when we were revamping our football program. Yet, even with the lack of UTEP fans, Kansas fans had an assuring showing.
You could hear the crowd cheer through the TV when senior wide receiver and quarterback Kerry Meier launched his 56-yard pass downfield to newly-returned wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe. I was impressed at the support from so many Jayhawk fans at an opponent's home stadium.
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My mother's side of the family lives in El Paso, and I have made many visits to the enormous city of more than 600,000 people, which borders Mexico and the city of Juarez. Two kinds of football are popular down there: Dallas Cowboys football and futbol (soccer). Soccer is very popular in Mexico and among El Paso's residents, who are 76 percent Mexican, according to www. census.gov.
You could tell in the Sun Bowl on Saturday that, even although a nationally ranked team was in town, the fans didn't show up and fill the stadium. One of my only explanations for this is that a huge Mexican Soccer League tournament took place in Juarez over the weekend. Fortunately, the Jayhawk faithful made this away game seem a little more at home.
Seeing our fans so passionate in an opponent's stadium made me appreciate our great fans even more. One other element that may have contributed to the showing by our wonderful traveling troupe of fans might be that about 35 percent of our football team is from Texas. Senior quarterback Todd Reesing is from just outside of Austin, Briscoe is from Dallas and senior defense end Maxwell Onyebule is from Arlington.
The Miner's home crowd might not have been that big, but one thing in Texas sure is: the loyalty of Kansas football fans. I just hope our native Texans play as well as they did Saturday when they travel to Lubbock, Texas, on Oct. 31 to play the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Edited by Nick Gerik
These three players made some of the best plays of the game in their home state, and I would bet that their families had no trouble getting to the game to see their loved ones perform. Onygebule recorded two sacks and four tackles in the first half. Briscoe returned from his suspension, caught eight passes for 154 yards and extended his streak of 100-yard receiving games to five, dating back to last year. Reeing completed 25 of 41 passes for 260 yards and helped lead the team to 576 total yards of offense.
Senior Ryan Davis prepares for practice for the men's basketball team. Davis is known as "Frankie" to the team.
Senior Ryan Davis sets up for practice last Wednesday. Davis wants to be a coach and feels that being a manager is a great place to be.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Small jobs make a big difference
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
Normally, people know Ryan Davis simply as "Ryan." But as the men's basketball team manager, he's known by a different name: Frankie.
In Davis' first week on the job, assistant coach Kurtis Townsend called for a "Frankie" during warm-ups. No one knew anyone by that name, but Townsend had his eye on Davis and he was the one who replied.
"I guess since I responded to it, he thought 'I'll just keep calling him Frankie,'" Davis said. "He didn't know my name but that kind of stuck."
It also stuck with players, fellow managers and coaches. It has become more than just a nickname.
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"I'm not sure if all the newcomers know him as Ryan, because everyone calls him Frankie;" Kansas coach Bill Self said.
Davis, a fifth year senior, started as a manager with the Jayhawks during his sophomore year. Working at basketball camps during the summer before his sophomore year acquainted him with previous managers of the team. This, along with his basketball IQ and work ethic, helped him get a manager position.
Self said all the managers had
crucial roles that went unnoticed by all except the team and its staff.
"Managers are some of the
unsung heroes of any basketball program," Self said. "They put in such long hours — before practice, during practice, after practice and the same for games."
"Managers are some of the unsung heroes of any basketball program."
All facets
of the game — pregame, postgame and the game itself — are highly orchestrated by the managers. Pregame starts with the little tasks, such as getting Self a Diet Coke or getting senior guard Sherron Collins powder for his hands. If necessary, they will participate in drills setting screens or rebounding.
ritual as they enter the arena. The team's ritual consists of three fist bumps — top, bottom, middle
The managers also assist the Kansas players with the pregame
BILL SELF Kansas coach
— then a sniff to the fist. Originally, the Morris twins were fooling around with hand shakes, then everybody wanted in on it. It stuck like
"Frankie."
"They can't go out on the court until they do it," said Davis, who is last in line for fist bumps. "You look ridiculous doing it."
During the game, one group of managers sits behind the bench and the other behind the goal.
switching locations at halftime. However, their duties are the same — giving players towels and water and picking up items the players can't bring on the court.
Davis is studying sports management and even though he is using his job to graduate, he considers the hours a bonus for doing what he loves to do. He once dreamed of playing basketball for Kansas but realized long ago it was out of reach. The next best goal would be to coach, even if no one knew him by his real name.
"I couldn't see myself doing anything else than coaching," he said, "This is probably the best place I could be for being a non-athlete."
- Edited by Abby Olcese
FOOTBALL
Defensive line eager to shed last season's shortcomings
BY JAYSON JENKS
jienks@kansan.com
Senior defensive lineman Jeff Wheeler's hair flops and curls into a dark brown mop on top of his head. And that's a long way up.
The problem? Wheeler failed to distinguish himself on the football field. That's why coach Mark Mangino issued his tallest defender a challenge before the start of the season.
In an age of increasingly larger athletes, Wheeler, at 6-foot-7, is still stop-and-stare-at-the-sky tall. It's fair to say, then, that Wheeler tends to stand out in most situations.
"I told him at one time. You know you've had four years here where you really didn't break through," Mangino said. "This is your last year. This is your last
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writer Jayson
Jenks at twitter.
com/JaysenJenks
go-around to make a statement.
I think he has a chance to have a big year."
Playing in his first game of the season — he was suspended from the season opener for violating team policy - Wheeler validated Mangino's claim by totaling 1.5 sacks and routinely generating pressure.
And the theme behind Wheeler's story is one that flows throughout Kansas' defensive line.
The Jayhawks recorded just
SEEFOOTBALL ON PAGE 5B
Weston White/KANSAN
Senior defensive end Maxwell Onygebule fights USTEP tight end Elijah Goldtap. Onygebule was the co-winner of the Big 12 defensive player of the week after his performance against USTEP