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MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boston Red Sox Will Middlebrooks celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run off Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Bush during seventh inning AL baseball action in Toronto yesterday.
Red Sox steamroll Blue Jays in shut-out rout
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO — Will Middle-brooks hit three home runs, two off NL CY Young Award winner R.A. Dickey, and the Boston Red Sox routed the Toronto Blue Jays 13-0 Sunday.
Middlebrooks went 4 for 5 with four RBIs. He hit two home runs off Dickey, a two-run shot to right in the first inning and a solo drive into the second deck in left in the fifth. He connected again off Dave Bush with a leadoff longball to left in the seventh, the first three-homer game of his career.
Middlebrook, who doubled and scored in the third, fled out to the warning track in his final at-bat in the eighth.
Mike Napoli added a two-run shot, and Jacoby Ellsburg and Daniel Nava also went deep as the Red Sox connected for six homers and set season highs for runs and hits (15), one day after getting just two hits in a 5-0 loss and set season highs for runs and hits (15), one day after collecting just two hits in
a 5-0 loss.
Nava went back-to-back with Middlebrook's in the seventh, a homer that bounced off the top of the wall in center field and went out. It's the first time this season the Red Sox have hit consecutive home runs.
Ellsbury had three hits, including a leaoff homer into the second deck in right in the eighth, his first. Three batters later, Napoli capped the rout with a home run to center, his second. He finished with four RBIs.
Boston jumped on Dickey in the first, scoring five runs before the knuckleballer had recorded an out.
Ellsbury led off with a double, Shane Victorino singled to center and Dustin Pedroia drove in a run with a groundball single through the right side.
Napoli hit a two-run double and Middlebrooks followed with a first pitch homer to right.
struck out to end the inning.
Even the outs Dickey got were loud. Nava and Jarrod盐alamachia each flied out to the warning track before Jackie Bradley Jr.
Dickey (0-2) allowed eight runs — seven earned — and 10 hits in four 2-3 innings. It was his shortest start and the most runs hed allowed since giving up eight runs in four 1-3 innings of a 14-6 loss at Atlanta last April 18, when he pitched for the New York Mets.
The five first inning runs allowed by Dickey matched the amount he gave up in the first inning in all of 2012, when he made 33 starts.
Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester (2-0) allowed five hits, all singles, in seven shutout innings. He walked none and struck out six, improving to 6-2 with a 2.13 ERA in his past nine starts at Rogers Centre.
Clayton Mortensen pitched the final two innings for Boston.
Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista was held out of the starting lineup, the third straight game he missed with a sore right ankle. The two-time major league home run leader twisted his ankle stepping on first base while beating out a double play in the eighth inning last Thursday.
Despite loss, Shockers reload for next season
NCAA BASKETBALL
ATLANTA — There's no way Wichita State is going to shock anybody next season.
The gritty team from the Missouri Valley was picked to finish somewhere in the middle of the conference this year, a fairly safe guess considering the Shockers lost all of their starters from a team that earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament last season.
But with an entirely new group running the show, coach Gregg Marshall's crew slowly came together this season, picking up steam once they got healthy late in the year and getting on the kind of roll that Butler and VCU made famous before them.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The result was Wichita State's first trip to the Final Four since 1965.
It ended with a blown second-half lead and a disheartening loss to Louisville on Saturday night, but with leading scorer Cleanthony Early and several other key contributors returning, it's a good bet the Shockers will be tough again next season. It's an even safer assumption that their opponents will be ready for them.
"But we didn't say, 'Good bye,' Marshall said. "We didn't say, 'This is it!' This is just the beginning. This is just a beginning for us. A lot of good players in that locker room, all they're talking about right now is working hard this summer and getting better."
"You know, it's hard to lose your last game. Everyone does it except for three or four tournament winners," Marshall said. "This one is especially hard because of the run we went on. We set a school record for wins, in the Final Four for the second time in school history.
The Shockers' tremendous run is sure to make Marshall a hot
coaching candidate, but the former coach of Winthrop has said repeatedly that he's happy in Wichita, and that it would take the right opportunity at just the right time to ever pry him loose.
Especially with the kind of momentum the Shockers are riding.
They beat VCU early in the year, knocked off Creighton — the pride of the Valley most of the year — in
a mid-season tilt at Koch Arena in Wichita, and then squeaked into the tourney as a No. 9 seed paired in the same region as Gonzaga, the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 at the end of the regular season.
The Shockers wound up losing 72-68, sending Louisville into the title game against Michigan.
Wichita State managed to take a 26-25 lead over Louisville at half-time and extended it to 12 in the second half, only for the Cardinals' intense full-court pressure to finally set in.
They rolled through Pittsburgh, and then raised eyebrows when they busted brackets with a win over the 'Zags. They headed to Los Angeles for the West Regional semifinals and took care of La Salle, and then held off Ohio State down the stretch to reach the Georgia Dome.
The Shockers were never intimidated, though, and they proved the stage was never too big for them.
It looked for a while as if their dream run would continue, too.
But there's plenty of production coming back, led by Early, the junior forward who made just about every power conference coach look silly for overlooking him coming out of junior college when he had 24 points and 10 rebounds against the Cardinals in the national semifinals.
"We have to be appreciative and understand what it takes to get here," said Fred VanVleet, who along with fellow freshman Ron
Baker was critical to the Shockers postseason charge.
GREGG MARSHALL Wichita State coach
stead — whose poise was so crucial in March — will be gone. Role players Ehimen Orukpe, Demetric Williams and Kadeem Coley will also move on with their lives.
Baker finished with 11 points and eight rebounds for the Shockers, Tekele Cotton — just a sophomore — had nine points, and VanVleet wound up playing 23 minutes in the Final Four.
The Shockers' heart and soul, all-energy forward Carl Hall, will have graduated, and senior guard Malcolm Arm-
It's a huge stepping-stone and something we can look back on and work for", VanVleet said. "Guys that are coming back, now we have motivation for next year because no matter what, we can sit back and say. 'We didn't make it.' So that will be good motivation for us"
There will be pieces to replace, of course. There almost always is.
All of them will be back, none of them sneaking up on anybody.
"We're still not satisfied," Cotton said. "We're going to come back next year, come at it again, and work hard during the summer and get better. We'll get right back here next year."
NBA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Brandon Knight scored 20 points Sunday night to help the Detroit Pistons snap an 18-game losing streak against the Chicago Bulls with a 99-85 victory Sunday night.
Jonas Jerebko added 17 points and a season-high nine rebounds for the Pistons, who ended an eight-game home skid.
Pistons break 18-game losing streak in 99-85 victory over Bulls
The Bulls led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter but Detroit gradually caught up and took the lead in the second half after starting the period on a 12-4 run.
Carlos Boozer had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the postseason-bound Bulls, who are fighting to secure the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Nate Robinson added 18 points and Jimmy Butler scored 14 as Chicago's two-game winning streak ended.
The Pistons took a 50-46 lead to intermission and pushed it to as many as 10 in the third quarter. Knight scored a dozen points in the period. Detroit scored the first four points of the fourth and never let the Bulls get closer than 10 points the rest of the night.
Rodney Stuckey had 14 points and rookie Andre Drummond added 10 rebounds for Detroit.
Laul Deng, the Bulls' leading scorer and the NBAs leader in minutes per game, missed the game with a sore hip. Coach Tom Thibodeau said the decision to bench him was "precaunition"
Chicago's Joakim Noah, who missed eight games with an injured right foot, and Marco Belinelli, who was out seven with an abdominal strain, each returned Sunday night.
The Bulls were aiming to match
the franchise record for consecutive victories over an opponent, which also was against the Pistons. Michael Jordan's 1990s teams won 19 in a row against Detroit.
The Pistons treated home fans to their first win since the All-Star break. They hadn't won at the Palace of Auburn Hills since Feb. 13.
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THE LANGSTON HUGHES VISITING PROFESSORSHIP COMMITTEE
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
Invite you to
OCCUPY THIS:
Presidential Rhetoric, Prophetic Voices, and the Contested Rhetorical Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement
A lecture presented by
DAVID HOLMES
Spring 2013 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 @ 3:30 pm.
in the Kansas Room at the Kansas Union
A reception in the Kansas Room will immediately follow