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Crowd boos The Bulls
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010
Cavalliers use homecourt advantage to win 112-102. **NBA** | **5B**
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PAGE 1B
AN IRISH TALE
From handball to chemistry
Exchange student Marina Kilduff balances a busy University life with her favorite sport
BY CLARK GOBLE
cqoble@kansan.com
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Marina Kilduff, a junior exchange student from Ireland, plays handball at The Ambler Student Recreation Center. Kilduff is a student with the EU Atlantis program studying chemistry. She has competed in two World Collegiate Hnadball Championships, and last year she made it to the semifinals of the "B" Bracket.
"Well, you can't slack off in either," Kilduff said. "You can't just get by. You have to work hard in training or in studying for chemistry. In handball, you can't go in without having done a sufficient amount of training."
Marina Kilduff runs her hands through her long brown hair and plays with her purple scar as she tries to relate her two biggest passions: handball and chemistry.
HANDBALL
So Kilduff, a junior exchange student from Roscommon, Ireland, talks about the goggles first.
The ones she wears for handball don't have frames. They're thick and tight-fitting, preventing the tangerine-sized blue ball from striking her in the eye.
While Kilduff is here, she's still pursuing the sport she grew up with in Ireland. She went to the World Collegiate Handball Championships at Arizona State University in February, representing both her home school, Dublin City University, and Kansas. After winning a lower bracket at last year's championships in Minnesota, Kilduff made it to the semifinals of the 'B' bracket before falling.
She says the ones she wears for her West Campus chemistry research are dorky. They cover the whole upper half of her face.
Finally, Kilduff comes up with a relationship between the activities.
Played with two to four players, handball is very similar to raquetball and squash. However, instead of using a raquet, players use their hands. It originated in Ireland and Scotland and was later brought across seas by Irish immigrants.
"Oh, she loves to talk about handball," Duffy said. "It's obviously one of her biggest hobbies. I wouldn't say she's obsessed, but I know a lot about it just because she
Emer Duffy, a junior from Ireland who came to Kansas with Kilduff, said she still goes to coffee with Kilduff three times a week and handball often dominates the conversation.
SEE HANDBALL ON PAGE 4B
BASEBALL
Younger players to test skills
Freshman baseball players will hop off the bench against Benedictine
BY BEN WARD
bward@kansan.com
twitter.com/ben_dub
For shortstop Kevin Kuntz, sitting on the bench for most of this season has been a major adjustment, as he was a standout during his time at Union High School in Tulsa, Okla.
But Kuntz, who was drafted out of high school by the Royals, isn't discouraged - he knows it's all part of
"I think it's just part of the process for me," Kuntz said. "I've just got to be patient."
his transition to Division I baseball.
When Kansas (21-13-1, 5-6-1)
Kuntz
COMMENTARY
hosts NAIA opponent Benedictine College tonight at 6 p.m., Kuntz and many other young players will get the opportunity to start. The contest is a makeup developmental game for the April 2 contest against Missouri Valley College that was rained out.
Division 1 programs are allowed to play four 'developmental' games
GAMEDAY
each season that don't affect their RPI. In these games, Division I teams bring in lesser opponents in order to give younger players extended playing time and valuable at bats.
WHO: vs. Benedictine
WHEN: Today at 6 p.m.
Kansas has crushed the opposition in each of their three developmental games: winning 10-0 (March 9) against St. Mary College , 16-0 (March 10) against Tabor and 16-0 (March 24) against Baker.
Aside from Kuntz, sophomore first baseman Zac Elgie and freshman catcher Alex DeLeon are other young players who are likely to be in the starting lineup against Benedictine College.
"It would be a success for me just to get the privilege to go in there and play, hopefully for the whole game," he said.
Kuntz, who has hit .294 in 11 games this season, said he views these games against smaller schools as part of becoming an everyday player.
Despite not playing on a regular basis, Kuntz said staying prepared hasn't too been hard because of how much he's learned during his time on the sidelines. And regardless of the level of competition he and his teammates will be facing tonight. Kuntz simply cherishes the opportunity to be on the field.
Because hitting is so dependent on constantly seeing live pitching , such struggles at the plate can be attributed to infrequent at bats against live pitching.
While Kuntz and freshman third baseman Jordan Dreiling - who is hitting .300 in 16 games - have had success in limited time at the plate, Elgie and DeLeon have mostly struggled. Elgie has made strides since he began the season with a 3-for-31 slump, but DeLeon is still only hitting at a .100 clip for the year.
"The hardest part is staying on top of your hitting," Kuntz said. "You've got to mentally prepare yourself and stay ready over the course of a game."
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
"It's still good, because you're at least getting experience," he said. "It doesn't really matter who you play."
Keepin' it Rell
Junior running back Rell Lewis completes a drill while maintaining possession of the ball. The spring football game will take place Saturday afternoon and the Kansas football players will be available for autographs after the game:
Edited by Allyson Shaw
See a photo gallery of this week's practices at kansan.com/photos.
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Don't set the bar too high for Selby
BY MAX VOSBURGH
E everyone take a collective deep breath and let's relax a second.
As we all know, Bill Self just received a commitment from Josh Selby, the Rivals.com fourth overall ranked player in the 2010 class. However, before we go and start christening him as the next Sherron Collins or at least as the guy who will fill his shoes, let's take a step back and calm down.
Putting Selby on that kind of pedestal is just setting him up for disappointment.
Although Kansas as a team didn't reach every one of its goals, Henry was talented enough to play past criticism and still put together a very productive season. He averaged 13.4 points per game last year which was the second highest total on the team.
Now it's very likely that Selby will start next year in the same position as Collins, but Selby is no Collins. He is a freshman and lacks experience.
Whether he can do that or not is yet to be seen, but anointing Selby as the second coming is not the right move.
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If Selby truly wants to fill Collins' role, he will have to figure out a way to convince a large number of upperclassmen that he is the one they should defer to when the game is on the line.
A lot of people were thrilled to get Xavier Henry and rightfully so. He had one of the best freshman years in Kansas history. At the same time however, he faced a lot of criticism at some points during a midseason slump. Whether you thought the criticism he received was fair or not, is irrelevant at this point — it was there. But why was it there?
Before the season even started Henry was established as the missing link. He was the player that was going to put a team who returned every key player a notch above where they were the year before and into the national title conversation.
Not everyone is able to do that. Not every top-ten recruit pans out into a NBA draft pick a year after their freshman season. Henry was able to handle the pressure. On the other hand, being anointed as such an important player at such a young age creates really unnecessarily high expectations.
So why do the same to Selby when not everyone can handle that much pressure?
Selby's athleticism would make anyone excited, but there's no reason to seriously expect a current high school senior to come to Kansas next year and fill the hole left by one of the best guards to ever play for the lavwhaws
There is a way a lot of people measure the success of athletes and that is how they preformed relative to their expectations.
Let's take a different approach with Selby. Let's enjoy watching a good player but at the same time keep in mind that Selby is only a freshman. That way, if he does take over this team next year, it's more than what we asked for.
— Edited by Kristen Liszewski