THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011
BASKETBALL WRAP-UP | INSIDE
Relive the Jayhawks'season
WWW.KANSAN.COM
The 2010-11 men's basketball team had another tumultuous season. Look inside for all of the highs and lows, including a look ahead.
KANSAS,3-CREIGHTON.5
Missed opportunities
BY MIKE VERNON mvernon@kansan.com
While maturing greatly over the course of the season, the Jayhawks showed that they are still an inexperienced ballclub after making mental mistakes throughout their 5-3 loss to Creighton.
Relying on young players the whole year has led to Kansas dropping nine of its 20 losses this year by one or two runs. The Jayhawks felt their game against the Bluejays in Omaha, Neb., provided the perfect opportunity to show off how much they've grown up.
Loss number 21 proved otherwise.
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"We did everything we didn't want to do," senior outfielder Jimmy
Waters said. I don't know if it's a lack of concentration, or maturity. I don't have that answer. I just know that you've got to be able to come in here and take care of yourself before you can take care of anybody else."
"We did everything we didn't want to do."
Kansas early in the game, particularly in a dangerous third inning situation.
After managing to hold Creighton to 1-for-12 at the plate with runners in scoring position for their first seven innings in the game, the Jayhawks finally caved in the eighth inning. Junior closer Colton Murray came out of the bullpen in a difficult situation, with Bluejays runners on first and second base with one out.
Murray appeared to be rattled in the nerve-racking situation, throwing three straight balls in his first three pitches. He walked the leadoff batter in five pitches, and nearly recovered. Creighton outfielder Jordan Makovicka later singled off of Murray's first pitch to him, scoring two runs on the play, giving Creighton a 5-3 lead.
Pitching in the nationally televised game and in front of a crowd of 4,309, freshman Alex Cox kept the damage to a minimum for
JIMMY WATERS
Senior outfielder
With Creighton runners at every base and nobody out, the Bluejays took a 3-2 lead off of a sacrifice fly from shortstop Jimmy Swift. Cox then limited the damage by forcing a fly out to left field, walking the following batter, and getting another fly out.
With the game tied at 1-1, Cox walked the Bluejay's leadoff batter off of a full count, and followed it by giving up a single to left field, in which the runner on first advanced to third. Creighton then loaded the bases after an error by Kansas first baseman Zac Elgie.
"I think he showed maturity getting out of those situations with
minimal damage, but I think the next part of his development is he can't let himself get in those situations." Waters said. "He's got to eliminate those if he's going to take another step."
Waters smacked a two-out RBI double down the left field line in the fifth inning, tying the game at 3-3. Junior first baseman Zac Elgie then gave the Jayhawks the lead by hitting an infielder single that brought in junior outfielder Jason Brunansky.
Freshman reliever Frank Duncan came into the tight situation in the seventh with Kansas leading 3-2. Duncan left a fastball that Creighton freshman Mike Gerber got a hold of, sending the ball to right-center for a triple. Duncan later gave up the lead by throwing a wild pitch that enabled Gerber to score from third on.
"I don't know if it's something that's going to be figured out this year, or maybe later on," Waters said. "Were close, but close isn't enough right now."
Edited by Corey Thibodeaux
Senior outfielder Jimmy Watches catches a deep Texas hit to the outfield Saturday afternoon in Lawrence. Kansas fell to Creighton yesterday in Omaha.
Aaron Harris/ KANS.
Aaron Harris/KANSAN
SOFTBALL
Team works toward chance of regional play
BY HANNAH WISE
Sophomore outfielder Alex Jones misses a diving catch Wednesday at Arrocha Ballpark. Kansas was defeated 3-0 and 4-2 by Tulsa
hwise@kansan.com
The softball team will play its final road test of the season tonight in Wichita against Wichita State. The Shockers are 16-31 overall and 8-11 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Jayhawks (29-20, 2-14) want to use momentum from their 8-6 victory in the weekend series against Iowa State to propel them through the remaining seven games of the season.
The weekend series refreshed the team's NCAA Regional hopes. It needs to win these last seven games to even be considered by the NCAA selection committee. Picking up the victory against Iowa State Saturday was the first step toward that goal.
"We are going to keep fighting," coach Megan Smith said. "We have got to take care of the rest of our season."
The rest of the season consists of tonight's doubleheader against WSU, then a week-long home series against Texas A&M, Drake and UMKC. The team has been focusing on themselves and what they can do to react to teams rather than preparing for a certain play style.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
A focus on fundamentals is what the team used to gain its historic 26-3 start to the season. Every week, when asked what the
"We are going to work on the little things to be fundamentally sound." junior outfielder Liz Kocon said.
Since beginning conference play, the team lost its fundamental focus. It has been wrapped up in
team was going to work on, Smith said something to the effect of, "We are going to focus on the little things. We are going to focus on ourselves."
track. It is a non-conference game.
It is on the road, something that has played to the team's advantage this season. There is no pressure to pull out a victory at home.
This doubleheader against the Shockers is the perfect opportunity to put the Jayhawks back on
the level of opponents that it is facing, an easy thing to do considering eight of its conference opponents are ranked in the top 25 nationally.
Sophomore outfitter Maggie Hull said it best: "We can go to regionals. We have $ \mathbf{a}_{2} $ chance of
going. All we have to do is get some more wins. We are on the bubble. We are a really good team, and we can do this."
Edited by Sarah Gregory
COMMENTARY
One week can change everything
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDKbasketball
F funny how it all plays out sometimes.
About a week ago, and about seven months too early to say, Kansas looked like quite the long shot for an eighth-straight Big 12 title. Texas was too good, Kansas was losing too much, and the Kansas math looked even more implausible than it did heading into this year.
Then Jordan Hamilton announced his decision to enter the draft, along with Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph, all in one fell swoop. And the Longhorns went from presumptive Big 12 favorite and national preseason top-five team to maybe outside the top-five of the diminished Big 12.
So who remains? Baylor will be good, with the unexpected return of Perry Jones adding to the formidably lengthy frontline of Quincy Acy and Anthony Jones. Texas A&M returns super-soph Khris Middleton, and Mark Turgeon is as good a coach as any not named Bill Self in the league. Missouri, too, will be loaded, assuming Kimmie English and Laurence Bowers do the smart thing and return to school.
That leaves Missouri, which just hired a coach who didn't have a winning season in the ACC in seven years at Miami. He's got all sorts of talent, including maybe the best back-court in the league, but if new coach Frank Haith couldn't win in the top-heavy ACC, the Big 12 shouldn't be any easier.
Texas A&M is essentially the exact opposite of Baylor. The Aggies lack the talent, outside of Middleton and David Loubeau, to be a top contender even in a weak Big 12. Turgeon keeps on winning even without it, turning them into a perennial NCAA Tournament team. But they're still not at the level where they can actually win the league.
But Baylor, for all its returning talent and remarkable freshman class, had even more talent last season and crumbled like feta cheese. Coach Scott Drew has struggled to maximize the incredible potential he pulls into Waco on a yearly basis. Barring a dramatic turnaround in that regard, Baylor's finishing no better than second or third in the league.
So Kansas, despite losing the Morris twins and the unlimited potential (and limited production) of Josh Selby, looks like the early favorite once again. If the Jayhawks are good enough to back it up, the world will know early with the tough non-conference schedule on deck. But even if they lose that second game to Kentucky, and fall to 1-4, worst case scenario, at the brutal Maui Invitational, they'll have lost maybe their four most difficult games of the year. The Big 12 lacks the talent of the majority of schools in the Maui field, and Kentucky and Ohio State are the best two teams on the Kansas schedule. So Kansas could still be the favorite, even if they had five non-conference losses.
Funny how it all plays out sometimes.
Edited by Dave Boyd
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