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TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010
Team finishes last in Big 12
WWW.KANSAN.COM
lavhawks lose 0-4 against Oklahoma for 1-11 season finish. TENNIS | 4B
SOFTBALL
PAGE 1B
Senior shares her passion for the game
Alicia Irwin has been dedicated to the sport since high school and will be finishing her career this month.
ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
Senior infielder Alicia Irwin has a passion for softball, and gives the game everything she has, Coach Megan Smith said.
Itwain's passion may be the most evident in high school when she had a hectic schedule with her competitive travel team. She would go to school at 7:30 a.m., have volleyball or basketball practice after class, then make an 80-minute drive from Salina to Wichita for softball practice. Many nights she would not get home until 11 p.m.
"If I had a lot of homework, my mom or dad would drive to practice while I did it in the car," Irwin said.
Although Irwin missed out on a lot of the typical high school
experiences, she said it was worth it to have a once in a lifetime experience to play softball all over the country.
"I wanted to be that be that girl that went as far away as possible," Irwin said. "So that is why Myrtle Bea was so appealing."
"I missed homecomings and all the fun dances because I was off playing softball." Irwin. "But people would be like 'oh, I went to this party over the weekend; and I was like, 'oh, I was off in Vegas."
Keeping with her adventurous side, Irwin originally committed to Coastal Carolina because she wanted to experience new things.
After a coaching change her sophomore year at Coastal Carolina, she decided to transfer to a school closer to home.
She began the season as a starter, but broke her hand in practice early into the season, which limited her play for five weeks.
Kansas State doesn't field a softball team, so Irwin decided to come to Kansas, much to the dismay of her Wildcat father.
"I'm slowly transforming him into a KU fan," Irwin said. "For Christmas I got my dad only KU things, like ties and polos. But my dad makes sure all his KU stuff says 'KU softball' because he just wants to be a KU softball fan."
Unsure whether she would be able to play softball if she transferred, Irwin went through Kansas walk-on tryouts and got a spot on the team. She eventually moved up and received a scholarship this season.
Smith said. "She decided to stay positive and help the team in any way she can."
Having recovered from her injury, Irwin will be playing the final games of her career this month. She said that after the season's over, the biggest difference for her will be having a lot
more free time.
"It's going to be different time management wise not having weights every day and curfews," Irwin said. "I think I'm really going to be confused what to do every day from 2 to 6."
She said one thing she's going
6 Infielder Alicia Irwin
SEE SOFTBALL ON PAGE 3B
Hometown: Salina, KS
Nickname: A.I.
Major: Psychology
Favorite childhood toy: Sit-N-Spin
Most memorable thing I have read: Anything by Dr. Seuss
Irwin
Favorite childhood memory: Fishing with her grandparents
grandparents
Favorite quote: "I'm not afraid, I was born to do this." —Joen of Arc
BASEBALL
junior pitcher T.1. Walz fires the ball against Iowa Friday. Walz went eight innings with only four hits against him in the 8-1 win
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Walz wins Big 12 Pitcher of the Week
Senior pitcher wins honor for second time, season continues for team after disappointing road series
BY BEN WARD
bward@kansan.com
twitter.com/bm dub
After his stellar outing on Friday night, junior T.J. Walz has been named the Big 12's Pitcher of the Week for the week of May 3. This marks the second time Walz has earned the honor in his career, and the first this season. Walz struck out a season-high 11 batters and took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Oklahoma State before surrendering a leadoff single.
With the impressive performance, Walz recorded his team-best seventh victory and stopped a string of three-straight blowout losses suffered by the layhawks.
Walz has now strung together two straight solid outings after struggling for the first time in his career in a defeat against Nebraska (April 16). In his last two outings, Walz has thrown 15 1/3 innings, allowing only four runs on eight hits while striking out 18.
"When you hand the ball to your best guy, he has to go up there and stop the bleeding," coach Ritch Price said.
After another disappointing road series, Kansas is now one of the first 10 teams left out of Rivals.com's latest NCAA Regional projections. Only 64 teams from Division I make one
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
Junior center fielder Brian Heere is one of the hottest hitters in the Big 12, and is currently in a three-way tie for the conference lead in hits with 72. Heere is also riding a 10-game hitting streak, and has recorded multiple hits in seven of those contests.
ROUNDING INTO FORM
of 16 regional tournaments, and to get back into the playoff field, the Jayhawks will quickly need to improve their 7-10-1 conference record starting on Friday, when they host the Missouri Tigers.
HEERE-YE, HEERE-YE!
third baseman Tony Thompson has also been on a tear of late at the dish. Thompson went 0-for-2 in Sunday's finale in Stillwater, but, before that, he hit safely in 11 straight games, with two home runs and 13 RBI.
Heere isn't the only l Jayhawks to currently take a hot bat. Junior
Junior shortstop Brandon Macias continues to excel as Kansas' leadoff hitter, hitting at a .342 clip with eight RBI and eight runs scored in the eight games since he was moved to the top of the lineup.
A PAINFUL RECORD
Junior right fielder Casey Lyle
surpassed Ryne Price's all time
record (of 19) for times being
hit-by-pitch in a season with 20.
As a team, Kansas is also close
to a school record for HBP in a season with 73. The Jayhawks only need to record 18 in their 10 remaining games to tie the school mark of 91 set in 2005.
Edited by Anna Archibald
KANSAS ON THE TOURNEY BUBBLE
The NCAA might look at a strong out-of-conference schedule to let the Jayhawks in. PAGE 5B
COMMENTARY
Kentucky basketball reports low team GPA
BY MAX VOSBURGH
mvosburgh@kansan.com
twitter.com/MVSport
ball court
T the duty of a college basketball coach extends far beyond what happens on the basket-
When high school players come to schools such as Kansas, many of them are coming from places halfway across the country and might be leaving behind lives that are drastically different than what they will experience at big time college basketball schools.
Head coaches at these programs become the father figure for many of these athletes. The coaches are present ed with the task of making sure these kids are in a position to excel at the reason they're there in the first place, basketball, but also at numerous other things, like academics.
On Sunday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the University of Kentucky men's basketball team had a cumulative grade-point average of 2.025 during the fall semester. In John Calipari's first year as head coach, the men's basketball team achieved the lowest grade for their program since 2002. Of the nine SEC men's basketball teams that the paper was able to obtain records for, Kentucky's was the worst.
In fact, of the three other 2010 NCAA Tournament participants that reported their grades to the paper, all three had fall semester grade-point averages nearly an entire letter grade higher than Kentucky. Tournament champion Duke had a 3.01 cumulative grade-point average. Kentucky's in-state rival, The University of Louisville, had a 3.0 average. Kansas, where Cole Aldrich was the Academic All-American of the Year, had a 2.95 average.
Coaches make in-home recruiting visits to these high schools and aside from convincing that particular player their school is the best place for them to come play, they must also convince the parents of these athletes that they will take care of their kid.
Players have to achieve at least a 1.8 average in the fall semester to play in the spring, though this doesn't apply to first year players because the Herald-Leader reported that reported two players, which it inferred to be freshmen, had GPAs of 1.667 and 1.765.
Recruits deserve a coach that is going to teach them more than how to just be a good basketball player. They deserve a coach who will make them better people. That includes teaching them how to behave at practice and in the dorms, how to respond to criticism and the importance of attending class and doing well in school.
Clearly, not every school considers the importance of academics by their student-athletes the same.
You could speculate that because Kentucky had so many freshman that their grade-point average was naturally lower. But the average GPA for all freshmen at the school was 2.818, so why were there such a big difference?
Perhaps it was a coach not living up to the responsibilities that head coaches at big-time college basketball programs should have. Whether or not you're coaching a team full of upperclassmen or a team full of freshman, coaches have an obligation to make sure the kids they took under their wing are better people when they leave.
Some coaches are just missing the point.
Edited by Jesse Rangel
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