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Crooked innings, defensive gaffes bury Jayhawks
▶ MITCH GEORGE
@MitchLGeorge
in a game where the entirety of the scoring was done in just three innings, the Jayhawks came out on the losing end Tuesday after a 5-2 game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Missy Minear/KANSAN Freshman pitcher Ryan Zeferjahn throws a pitch in Kansas' first game in a series Minnesota on March 28. Kansas lost to Minnesota, 5-2.
Entering the day with a record of 14-8, Minnesota sent starting pitcher Reggie Meyer to the mound to counter Kansas freshman starter Ryan Zeferjahn. Although he only registered a pair of strikeouts on the day, Meyer efficiently carved his way through the Kansas lineup, allowing just three hits and two runs in his six innings of work.
When you're trying to fight your way into the win column, you just can't make mistakes on routine balls."
Ritch Price Kansas coach
Zeferjahn, on the other hand, labored through
four innings before he was was taken out in the fifth. A three-run second inning was his only misstep in the contest, but after 89 pitches and 4.1 innings on the hill, he was replaced by junior left-hander Chase Kaplan.
At the time he was removed from the game, Kansas was only trailing by one run.
In the top of the sixth inning, two seeminglyidentical fly balls were hit to the corner outfield positions, which were manned by sophomores Devin Foyle and Ty Denzer. Both balls appeared to be routine, with both fielders camped beneath them, but both fell to the turf as errors. As a result, the Golden Gophers pushed across two unearned runs.
"I was really disappointed on the two defensive miscues," Kansas coach Ritch Price said. "When you're trying to fight your way into the win column, you just can't make mistakes on routine balls."
Although the game was a losing effort, sophomore right-hander Zack Leban provided a silver
lining with three one-hit scoreless innings in relief.
This lengthy relief outing lowered his season earned run average to 1.69.
The scoreboard yielded just two runs for the Jayhawks, but their bats were far from absent. Kansas batters struck out just three times on the day and squared up pitches, but occasional weak
contact and ill fortune did away with the hopes of a win.
One such occurrence of a well-struck ball took place in the bottom of the fourth inning when junior first baseman Owen Taylor stroked an 85 mph offspeed pitch to right field for a single that plated the Jayhawks' only two runs.
"Our bats are starting
to get better," Price said. "We're trying to stay positive and trying to grind through it because there's so many young guys playing that are struggling a little bit, but you can tell by the number of strikeouts being down today that we're making progress."
Kansas' Wednesday game against Minnesota
was canceled due to weather. A makeup game has not been scheduled.
Kansas' next matchup will be on March 31, when the Jayhawks host Texas for a three-game weekend series in their second bout with a Big 12 opponent.
- Edited by Frank Weirich
Maicke: Here's how to fix the NBA's player-resting issue
Associated Press
Associated Press
San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard guards Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James during the first half of an NBA game on Monday, March 27, in San Antonio.
▶ MIKE MAICKE
@MJ_Maicke
If you've been watching ESPN this last month, you'd think that the biggest crisis facing the entire world is NBA players resting during regular-season games.
Golden State and San Antonio wrecked a nationally televised game earlier in March, LeBron James thinks the whole league is being unfair to him and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver remains as undecided as ever on a pressing issue.
It doesn't matter that the Spurs have been resting players for years; James and the Warriors sat out so it's now officially unacceptable.
Not only unacceptable, Silver went as far as to call it, "An extremely significant issue for our league."
And quite frankly, it is.
It's a job and a damn good job at that. As an NBA player, you are under contract to play basketball games. If you do have a legitimate injury that is keeping you from doing that, then by all means don't play.
But, being tired isn't a legitimate excuse to not play.
Imagine if an electrician, plumber or hell, almost any other job except professional athlete, missed a day of work because they were tired. It would be completely unacceptable and often times grounds for dismissal.
A firefighter has strenuous, back-to-back days of work that put a lot of strain
on the body, but firefighters can't take days off so they can walk better later in life.
And the money, oh my, let's talk about the money. NBA games are not cheap. Sure, I come from Chicago where it would cost me more than most markets to go to a Bulls game, but even in a market like Memphis, you're paying around $100 to $150 for a lower-level seat. You're also paying to park the car. You're paying $9 per beer and $7 for a hotdog or burger.
You get the point. You're paying a lot.
I'm fortunate enough to have been to a lot of NBA games in my life. Have I encountered players resting? Of course (thanks for that, 2015 Christmas Kobe), but for families who save a whole year to go to one really quality matchup, only to see that all the stars are resting, is just not right.
But, on the flip side, it gets sketchy if the league is going to start doing injury witch hunts, and questions who is actually injured as opposed to who is simply resting.
So, check this out, Commissioner Silver: What if we approach the problem like this. If a coach chooses to rest a player, then that player should have to remain benched for three games straight, essentially taking the player out for a week.
This makes it more interesting. If a coach feels the need to rest a star, the team will hurt from the absence for multiple games, which could have significant seeding implications for the postseason.
Problem solved, how 'bout dah?
Silver is right, something has to be done about
resting players. So if that player wants to rest, make him rest for a whole week.
That is how you make prime time great again.
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