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8B SPORTS
I will wait for you to finish.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
THE UNIVERSITY OF DARY KANSAN
MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009
Kansas expects top ranking after recruiting hype settles
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
Is there any better way to describe the recruiting saga of Xavier Henry? There was his original commitment to Memphis, his decommitment from Memphis, his thoughts of choosing Kentucky or Kansas or staying with Memphis. There were rumors about pro ball in Europe. There was his commitment to Kansas. There was an article in the Kansas City Star questioning the reasons behind
Xavier and his brother C.J.'s arrival ed to immediately contribute for
at Kansas that led to both nearly reneging on their commitment to become layhawks for a couple days before — finally — the circus died down. Now all that left is in
if both Henry brothers can live up to the hype.
There is a strong chance that... Kansas will be unanimously voted to the top spot in both the AP and Coach's polls.
Lost in the Henry hoopla are elite recruits Elijah Johnson and Thomas Robinson. Both Rivals, com top-30 recruits, Johnson and Robinson, like Henry, are expect-
Kansas. Also inbound is jeff Withey, who will be able to suit up for the second semester after transferring from Arizona and will give Kansas a 7-foot complement to Cole Aldrich in the paint.
TOPPING THE CHARTS
No official polls have been released yet, but several prominent members of the sports media world have released their own selections
for a top-25. Andy Katz, senior college basketball writer for ESPN. com, pegged the Jayhawks for the top slot, as did colleague and famed college basketball analyst Dick Vitale.
They are among the many who, since the announcements that Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich would return, have speculated that the Jayhawks will be the team to beat.
There is a strong chance that, like eventual national champions North Carolina last year, Kansas will be unanimously voted to the top spot in both the AP and Coach's polls.
ROCKY ROAD
For the Jayhawks to hang on to their presumptive post at the top of the rankings, they'll have to knock off plenty of solid competition along the way.
Of the Jayhawks' 14 games before conference play begins, more than half are against 2009 NCAA tournament teams, including road games at UCLA and Tennessee and a neutral site battle with Memphis in St. Louis.
Once conference play begins, however, things may just get tougher.
Once conference play begins, however, things may just get tougher.
Two conference games stand out on the schedule as perhaps the toughest tests of the season
— at Texas, which looks to be nothing short of dominant in the South, and at Missouri, where the Jayhawks will try to avenge last year's heart-stomping buzz.
er-beating loss at the hands of Missouri guard Zaire Taylor.
Edited by Megan Morriss
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Reed ready for what season will bring
Jayhawks welcome new players and prepare for the pressure of a possible No.1 ranking
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
The University Daily Kansan sat down with Tyrel Reed to see where his head was at as he enters a pressure-filled season.
Your role will likely change with being a leader and also with some new players coming in to fill different spots on the team. How do you handle those changes?
Tyrel Reed: It's going to be a different team this year. I mean, we've got a ton of returning guys that already know the system, but we've got some new guys coming in who are going to fit in well. You just have to know your role. I think the biggest key to being a leader is to just know what your role is and be able to help the young guys out when they need it.
Have you had a chance to play with the new guys and see what they bring to the table?
TR: Thomas and Elijah were there all summer. They're both going to be great players. They're both extremely athletic and Thomas is a work horse and he's just going
to be big in there for us this year, and Elijah is just a great athlete who's going to distribute the ball and just do whatever Coach asks.
What has it been like with the Henrys when they almost quit and all the drama? With the guys on the team already here, did it affect you at all not knowing whether or not they would join
they would join you?
TR: Not at all. We can only control what we can control. They had some stuff going on and we understand that. They're going to be good players regardless. We just can't let them being away
experienced it before. We know we're going to have a target on our back, but, being Kansas, you always do. It's just a little bit higher and more expectations when you're No. 1.
affect us as a team and it didn't.
"We know we're going to have a target on our back, but, being Kansas, you always do."
TYREL REED Junior guard
It looks like you guys are going to be preseason No. 1 pick coming into the year. What's the pressure like dealing with that?
TR: For some of us we've dealt with that before. My freshman year when we had a great team, won a national championship. We kind of dealt with that pressure. We've
Like you said, you guys have a target on your back. Are there any names that it goes the other way,
that you have circl on the schedule?
TR: There are certain games that are looked at as the bigger games. We play Memphis one of our first regular season games, so that will be big for us. Any game during our conference is big because we're trying to win a
conference title, but I don't think we have any games circled right now. We just have goals of winning a Big 12 Championship, a Big 12 Tournament Championship and then, hopefully, a National Championship.
Are there any games from last year that still sting? Is there still motivation that you take from
those?
TR: We were undefeated in the league and losing to Missouri at their place, that really stings. We play them the last game of the season at their place and that's always a big game for us with Missouri being our rival. Then Michigan State last game of the year, in the Sweet 16 we just kind of gave it away at the end. Those two don't sit well with us.
You didn't play a huge role a couple years ago on the national title team, so if you guys advance to the Elite Eight, Final Four, it'll be the first time you've done so playing a major role. What's that like for you looking forward to that?
TR: That's why you come to Kansas, to play in big situations—you want to make it to the Elite Eight, Final Four and be a part of that. My freshman year we had some great guys that I was able to play behind, sit on the bench and really learn from them. Hopefully this year I'll have an opportunity to play, and I'm just looking forward to it. That's what you dream about as a kid.
- Edited by Megan Morriss
Weston White/KANSAN
Junior Tyrel Reed vells to his teammates after a Cole Aldrich dunk at a January game.
FOOTBALL
BCS system not going anywhere...yet
BY FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Barton had a plane to catch, but he wanted to give college football officials a warning before leaving the highly publicized hearing.
Peering down from the podium, the Republican said in his Texas twang that unless the officials took action toward a playoff system in two months, Congress would likely move on his legislation aimed at forcing their hand.
More than three months have passed, and Barton's bill hasn't moved. Such is the way with college football and Congress.
For years, lawmakers have railed
against the Bowl Championship Series, calling it an unfair way to select a national champion. A lot of righteous thundering, however, has not yielded anything on the legislative front.
President Barack Obama joined the fray last year, saying shortly after his election that there should be a playoff system.
"I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit," he said. "I think it's the right thing to do."
But now that he's in office, the recession, two wars and health care reform have taken him away from football, at least so far.
The current college bowl system features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS
standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings. After the title game, eight other schools fill in the remaining slots for Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.
Under the BCS, six conferences get automatic bids — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC, in states from Massachusetts to Florida to California to Washington to Illinois. Those conferences receive far more money than the conferences that don't get automatic bids.
"There are just too many senators and congressmen who represent districts where major BCS schools have a very dominant influence," said Gary Roberts, dean of the Indiana University School of
Law-Indianapolis and an expert on sports law.
"So you're not going to get any senators from Louisiana or Alabama or Florida or Georgia or Tennessee or Ohio — those are all states with major state universities that are major BCS powerhouses."
There's been no bill introduced in the Senate this year to revamp the BCS, although GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he's looking into it. Mountain West Conference champion Utah was bypassed for last season's national championship despite going undefeated.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The BCS championship trophy sits on display in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
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Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is one of several House members who has authored legislation aimed at forcing a playoff. His bill, which has four co-sponsors, would ban the promotion of a post-season NCAA Division I football game as a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff.
California Republican Gary Miller has three co-sponsors for his bill that would deny federal funds to schools in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision unless the championship resulted from a playoff system. And Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, from Hawaii, has a nonbinding resolution calling for a playoff system and for a Justice Department investigation. He's got five co-sponsors.
Roberts says it's not enough.
"Sure, you've got Orrin Hatch from Utah who's unhappy," he said. "There are a handful of congressmen and senators from districts or states that feel like the BCS disadvantages them and their constituents, but they're a small minority of the overall Congress."
Barton insisted in a telephone interview that there's a good chance his bill will pass the House this year.
"The key is finding a place on the agenda" in a year crowded with high-profile issues, he said. "We'll keep plugging away."
Hatch, who held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights last month, has focused more on getting the Justice Department to investigate the BCS for antitrust violations. He told the AP he's working on letters to both the department and Obama making that case.
Stephen Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research, and a former lawyer for the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the department will likely look into Hatch's request — but more as a senatorial courtesy than anything else.
"Like I've said in the past, I'm not real anxious to get the government involved in regulating college football, but those who have the power to fix the system should do so — and they should do so voluntarily." Hatch said. "The BCS people don't appear too willing to consider any alternatives."
He said the department generally takes the position that its resources should be devoted to actions that can't be brought by a private party, and would be unlikely to launch a full-blown investigation into the BCS. Someone other than the department could bring a lawsuit challenging the BCS.
Congress has given the issue a high-profile look this year with a pair of media-generating hearings, but it also held them in the past — including a couple in 2003 that didn't lead to any legislative remedy.
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That year, the House and Senate Judiciary committees both held hearings—the latter one requested by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now vice president.
"What about the teams that aren't in these conferences and the fans that aren't in these conferences?" he asked at the time. "It looks un-American. It really does. It looks not fair. It looks like a rigged deal."