Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KAN Battling some familiar faces The annual alumni game starts the season for the volleyball team. SPORTS | 6B Kicking it into high gear Soccer team drives to a victory in its season opener against Drake SP
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2009
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BACK IN THE SHADOWS
PAGE 1B
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Wide receiver Jonathan Wilson looks to his right after catching one of 10 passes in last season's game against South Florida in this file photo. The game marked his best performance of the season, with two touchdowns and a total of 179 yards. Wilson has been voted surprise play of the year by his teammates for two years in a row, but is ready to make a name for himself as a top offensive player this season.
Wide receiver ready for recognition
Wilson eager and ready to shed title of 'surprise player' this season
Junior receiver Jhnathain Wilson drives into an oncoming tackler during the 2008 Insight Bowl against Minnesota. Coach Mack Mangino said he expected big plays from Wilson this season.
Weston White/KANSAN
jjenks@kansan.com
BY JAYSON JENKS
On an offense filled with proven players and exciting playmakers, it's often difficult for recognition
Then, serving as the third wheel on Kansas' most stacked unit, there's junior wide receiver Johnathan Wilson.
Sometimes, he says, it's hard no to feel overshadowed. The fans love senior Kerry Meier; the highlight reels love junior Dezmon Briscoe.
to be evenly spread.
Sometimes - rarely -
Wilson notices.
"Yeah, sometimes it's hard," Wilson said.
"Last year it was a little hard for me. But at the end of the day, it's all about winning. If I can do anything to help the team win, that's what I'm going to do."
Sure, Wilson may not equally share the spotlight with Kansas' other receivers. But that doesn't diminish the role he plays offensively.
After catching just three passes as a freshman, Wilson developed into the third-leading target for
Follow Kansan football writer Jayson Jenks at twitter.com/ jaysonjenks.
quarterback Todd Reesing last season, often providing an option when defense's eyes focused on Meier or Briscoe.
"He cares about his performance, he cares about getting better," coach Mark Marko said. "And he's going to be an important guy. He will be a guy that's going to have to be able to make plays $^{e}$
"If i can do anything to help the team win, that's what I'm going to do."
JOHNATHAN WILSON
-Junior wide receiver
to make plays for us to have a good
During the third game of the season, with the college football world focused on Kansas' game at South Florida, Wilson delivered the biggest performance of his
season. He caught 10 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns.
Wilson enters this season having shed the unproven label he carried with him at the beginning of last season. Still, for the second consecutive year, teammates voted Wilson the surprise player of the year.
us to have a good offensive team."
It's a title Wilson is eager to shed.
"It's an honor to be the surprise player of the year," Wilson said. "I'm proud that my teammates voted me that again. But it's not a surprise for me. I expect that from myself. I expect to go out there, make big plays and help the team. I just want to do that this year."
Added Meier: "I think John's ready to make a name for himself."
Without Kansas' big-play threat on the field. Wilson slid into Briscoe's shoes, something Meier said he thought would only make Wilson better this season.
That process started this spring, when Briscoe was suspended from the team.
"I mean, in the offseason, I feel like John is one of the hardest working players we have on this team," Briscoe said. "He went to the weight room and felt that he needed to get stronger and he did. His blocking on the perimeter — I'm telling you he got stronger, and I feel like he's gotten better as a player."
He finished the day with 133 receiving yards.
In the spring game, Wilson looked to be one of the fastest players on the field, continually creating openings for quarterbacks to throw him the ball.
Now that Briscoe has returned, Kansas' offense is once again loaded at the wide receiver position. And it creates an interesting questions for defenses: Focus on a certain individual, such as Briscoe, or attempt to slow the unit as a whole, a move that carries the risk of thinning out the coverage?
"This year is going to be exciting to see what happens because last year, to me, was Dez's breakout year," Wilson said. "I'm going to be excited to see what defenses do and how they guard him. Maybe that opens me up for a couple more passes or opportunities."
If there's any aspect of Kansas'
offense that's certain, it's this: There will be plenty of opportunities for wide receivers to make plays. With Reesing and his top targets all back this season, the Jayhawks high-powered attack could actually improve this season.
And although Wilson was voted as the projected surprise of this season, the label seems misleading.
"Johnathan has been a steady hand here now," Mangino said. "He's a guy that's kind of been back in the shadows a little bit, but he's made some big plays for us. He continually gets better."
— Edited by Amanda Thompson
Courtside seats sold in Allen Fieldhouse
BASKETBALL
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
In an effort to raise funds and increase the fan experience, season tickets for courtside seats in Allen Fieldhouse were sold for the first time, Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchionv said Friday.
For $15,000 per seat, the top donors to the Williams Fund were able to purchase an enhanced view
This decision is good for some fans, but the media will have to make adjustments in losing the spots they held for decades. With the exception of radio and televi-
Besides making games more fun for the fans, Marchiony said, the income helps the Williams Fund operate the Athletics Department and give scholarships to athletes.
previously available only to the media. Forty seats sold in a couple of months.
Media members will now sit in the two end zones in addition to Section 13A in the upper southwest corner reserved for overflow media. Television and radio announcers will be among the few media members to retain their spots along the court.
sion broadcasters for the Jayhawks and the visiting team, most of the media will be moved.
There has not been any feedback regarding this new arrangement,
Marchiony said, as the announcement was made just last week. Marchiony also said he thought the $15,000 price tag was a fair deal.
"We thought it was reasonably priced" he said.
"There was no special thing about this year," Marchiony said. "We just thought it was time to try it."
Earlier this year, the UCLA basketball program said it would sell courtside seats in its new Pauley Pavilion (opening in 2012) for $500,000. The half million is mainly to compensate for the $185 million the school is paying for renovations
to the current arena.
So why did the tickets in Allen Fieldhouse start selling this year? No particular reason.
Kansas is the last Big 12 school to offer some form of courtside fan seating. Now all conference schools offer courtside access to fans.
Edited by Abbey Strusz
COMMENTARY
Talib takes opportunity for granted
To Aqib Talib.
One question. Have you
lost your damm mind?
Before you were selected 20th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2008 NFL Draft, your school - our school - hadn't had a first-round draft pick since Dana Stubblefield 15 years before.
Furthermore, you are more than just a first-round draft pick. You hold the potential to display your college's - our college's - resurgence as a football program on an even bigger stage. You can be the first player from the Mangino Era to consistently make a mark on Sundays.
Just last year I watched you tie Ronde Barber to lead the Buccaneers in interceptions ... as a rookie.
Nineteen months ago, I watched you return an interception 60 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of the 2008 Orange Bowl. A game you probably recall fondly as your team won its first BCS game. You were the MVP.
Alas, with your arrest last week for punching your cab driver in Tampa, Fla., and resisting arrest, you've now committed three transgressions as a professional football player. Since you've left campus, there's been little about your demeanor that one could deem professional.
So again I ask, have you lost your damn mind? Are you so disconnected with reality that you haven't noticed how your commissioner treats repeat offenders like yourself?
Sure, you haven't yet popped yourself in the leg with a firearm. You haven't yet allowed your boys to coax you into staging underground animal combat rings. You haven't yet mowed down a pedestrian while driving home after a night of burning herb and getting sauced.
But let's be real here. Are you really far off from that? You can't possibly be aware that these repeat offensives add up over time and become far more devastating. But they do. Keep at it and you too can gain media coverage from outlets that shouldn't have to write about you in the first place.
Three positive marijuana tests at Kansas. Rolling with a former teammate who runs over a man allegedly pointing a gun at you two at a Lawrence club. Fighting a former Tampa teammate at the NFL's rookie symposium. Busting open another Tampa teammate after a helmet you threw at another teammate struck him. Now this. You probably don't see where this is all going, but many of us do.
You obviously have trouble controlling your chemicals. And hey, you're 23, why not have a good time every now and then? Just Google Todd Reesing and you'll find no shortage of booze-infused escapades. Difference is, he's been able to balance work and play.
My horse is not high by any stretch. I imbibe across the spectrum from the lightest wheats to the darkest porters. And don't get me started on tequila — I could write a book.
I'm just trying to say that when you were drafted in the first round last year we were proud of you. Now you're blowing it.
I'm just trying to say it's not too late to change ... yet.
Edited by Amanda Thompson
Follow Kansan Stephen Montemayor at twitter.com/ smontemayor.