Baseball star Mark McGwire will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot this year, but his selection is uncertain.
6B
It's official: Priest Holmes will not return to the Kansas City Chiefs this season, although he might in 2007.
8B
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
PAGE 1B
》 SERENITY NOW
Mediocre performance inexcusable
KANSAS 83 DARTMOUTH 32
BY FRED A. DAVIS III
KANSAN SPORTS COLUMNIST
FDAVIS@KANSAN.COM
Football season is over.
Oh wait, I guess the Teriyaki Bowl still has a bid up for grabs, as long as the Chicken Fried Rices don't win this weekend.
GREEN LIGHT DARTMOUTH
What was supposed to be the year that Mark Mangino took the KU football program to another level has dwindled into waiting around for some sorry bowl game to come calling for a mediocre 6-6 football team to play against another mediocre 6-6 football team.
Seriously, 6-6? That's what we settled for this year, six wins and six losses in what has to be one of the easiest schedules a Big 12 team has faced since Bill Snyder was scheduling games. The only difference? Snider's teams won those games.
There's no excuse for this season's record. I don't want to hear that the team was young. I don't want to hear that KU was breaking in a new quarterback. And I don't want to hear that the team lost eight defensive starters from the year before. And for all of the above reasons, that's why the Jayhawks finished at .500.
Let me break down a few things that I learned during the season.
Kansas State brought in a new coach and finished with a better record than Kansas. Oh, and they beat Texas too. Yeah, I know we beat K-State, so what? Guess who's going to a bowl before we are? Purple Rain.
For starters, Todd Reesing is KU's quarterback of the future, not Kerry Meier. Reesing is cooler in the pocket, throws a better ball and brings a spark to the offense. Meier might be bigger than Reesing, but that's the only advantage he has over the Texan. Anyone who thinks Meier is the only quarterback; you've got another Dylan coming.
SEE DAVIS ON PAGE 38
Of course, it's hard to throw down field when it's a toss up as to whether your wide receivers are going to catch the ball. I suppose receivers coach Tim Beck told his guys not to worry, because the chances of the ball being thrown farther than 10 yards on any given play was slim.
Finally, the defense. Hey, it wasn't the greatest defense in the world, but it wasn't the worst. Sure the secondary gave up more yards than like Turner's given out beatings, but what's passing got to do with it? At least the running defense was solid. Next year's squad should be dangerous — provided all-World cornerback Agib Talib sticks around.
Second, Mangino needs to reconsider his offensive scheme, or lack thereof. Does offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro only have the Spark Notes version of the playbook? I'm wondering, because it doesn't seem that he has the full complement of plays to choose from. Or maybe the playbook has a full chapter dedicated to the wide receiver screen and why that play should be called 10 to 20 times a game. And who can't forget the shovel pass? The cornerstone of any stagnant passing offense.
And what if a receiver does drop a pass, as evidenced numerous times this season? Don't worry, Jon Cornish will more than make up for it until the coaching staff decides to mysteriously stop calling his number
— despite his rushing for more yards in a single season than any running back in KU football history.
Kansas earns easy victory against Dartmouth
BY SHAWN SHROYER
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Following a victory against the No. 1 team in the country, it would have been understandable if Kansas suffered a letdown against a winless Dartmouth squad.
That didn't happen, however, as Kansas coasted to an 83-32 victory.
"No letdown. Everybody was excited about the Florida game. We won, but it's over now," junior forward Darnell Jackson said. "Now we've just got to look ahead and play every team the same as we played Florida."
Kansas coach Bill Self said the game was actually helpful for Kansas because Dartmouth ran a 3-2 zone, which Kansas had previously struggled against. Freshman forward Darrell Arthur said the team usually didn't spend too much time scouting opponents like Dartmouth.
"We were just working on stuff we needed to get better on," Arthur said. "We weren't too worried about what they were going to do."
Mario Chalmers, sophomore guard, drives past Dartmouth's DeVon Mosley, sophomore guard, during the game Tuesday night in Allen Fieldhouse. Chalmers scored six points and had four rebounds Kansas beat Dartmouth 83-32.
Kansas freshman forward Darrell Arthur won the opening tip-off, and seconds later he put the Jayhawks on the board, slamming home an alley-oop from junior guard Russell Robinson.
In a total team effort, the Jayhawks dominated their inferior opponent from start to finish.
By the time Dartmouth made its second basket of the game, the team was already down 18-4. Kansas jumped out to the early lead as 6 minutes passed between Dartmouth's first and second baskets.
The Big Green didn't even reach double-digits until the 3:09 mark of the first half. Of course,
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 4B
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Henrickson: Jayhawks need to work on their rebounding
BY CASE KEEFER
Following an impressive 60-47 victory over Creighton last week, the women's basketball team had a lot to be proud of.
Poor rebounding, however, is what stuck out in coach Bonnie Henrickson's mind, and that is what Kansas will work to improve during tonight's game against the Western Illinois Westerwinds at Alen Fieldhouse.
"Giving up 19 offensive rebounds: that's disappointing," Henrickson said.
Creighton grabbed 12 more
Only sophomore forward Marija Zinic and junior forward Taylor McIntosh are averaging over six rebounds a game for the Jayhawks.
offensive boards than Kansas last Monday. The Bluejays also outrebounded the Jayhawks 44-29 overall.
Western Illinois junior forward Stephanie Lovingood is leading the Westwinds in both rebounds and points. Lovingood will be a challenge for a Kansas frontcourt that hasn't played as well in its last two games.
After averaging 15.5 points per game in the Jayhawks first two contests, Martija Zinic has only averaged seven points in the last two. She shot only 22 percent from the field during those games.
To account for Zincic's subpar outings, Kansas' perimeter shooting has picked up. Led by freshmae guard Kellie Kohn, the Jayhawks shot nearly 40 percent from three point range in victories against Creighton and UMKC.
"We've definitely matured there," Henrickson said.
SEE REBOUNDING ON PAGE 3B
Kohn has scored 23 points in