Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Seniors boosted program Five seniors leave legacy of change WOMEN'S BASKETBALL | 5B
WEDNESDAY,MARCH 10,2010
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No Easy Buckets advances The CoRec intramural team will play the finals. CAMPUS CORNER | 2B
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
PAGE 1B
Kansas prepares for tournament
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
www.twitter.com/c _ thibodeaux
Standing at the podium during his Monday press conference, Kansas coach Bill Self started by joking about the lighting.
"These lights are getting brighter all the time," he said. "They haven't felt this bright since the day I took the job."
Maybe the lights were brighter than usual, or maybe Self knows he faces high expectations this year. Unlike in previous years, the Jayhawks are the top team in the NCAA.
"I'm ecstatic." Self said. "This may be one of the happiest days of my life."
Whether comparing the 2010 team to the 2008 or 2009 teams, one thing is the same: This year is different.
Self's sarcasm was palpable after he found out that his team regained the No. 1 ranking this week.
Senior guard Sherron Collins, a member of all three teams, said this was a more difficult year with the No. 1 target.
"Last year, we were supposed to lose but we kept winning," he said.
"That was the easy part. It was easy sneaking up on people and surprising them."
This year also produces another problem: inexperience.
There are several players who have never been past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA and this is the first time the freshmen will be presented with a one-and-done situation.
Freshman guard Xavier Henry said he was going to use the Big 12 tournament as preparation for the Big Dance. The only problem was he had no idea what to expect.
Weston White/KANSAN
He said he would approach each opponent like he had all season. Whether playing Kansas State or Colorado, the objective was the same.
"I look at everybody the same," Henry said. "It doesn't matter who they are; we just have to beat them."
Freshman center Thomas Robinson said that he had dreamed of being in the NCAA tournament ever since he watched it as a kid. The Jayhawks have cemented themselves into the tournament and don't have much to gain from the league tournament. Robinson said the only
SEE TOURNAMENT ON PAGE 4B
Kansas coach Bill Self talks to freshman Thomas Robinson after he was whistled for his second foul in a game against Nebraska. Self has high expectation for Kansas, especially after the team regained No. 1 ranking.
FOOTBALL
Meet recruiter Reggie Mitchell
BY JAYSON JENKS jenks@kansan.com
In the corner of recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell's office sits a row of small, inconspicuous boxes that might contain the next Todd Reesing.
school recruits around the country. And Mitchell watches each one.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Freshman infielder Kevin Kurtz scoops up the ball Tuesday at Hoglund Ballpark against Saint Mary. The Jawhawks gave the name 10-0.
"Every film that's over here," Mitchell said, grabbing a random
tape, "every one of these high school coaches said these kids can play in Division I football. And then some kids even send you the film."
bing a random
If it sounds overwhelming, Mitchell concedes that sometimes during the season it can be.
Each box is filled with DVDs featuring selected plays from high
Mitchell
But the hours of analyzing film
aren't the biggest grind in the demanding recruiting world. No, the hardest part is the close-calls - the recruits who seem destined to sign with a school only to change their minds.
What's often forgotten when a recruit declares his intentions by picking up a hat on national television is the man left behind the scenes: the other school's recruiter.
"You always think that you're in it," Mitchell said. "The hardest thing is you put all this time and effort into it, and then you lose a kid." "It's an emotional roller coaster."
This is the world Mitchell calls home. In recent years, as subscription websites such as Rivals, com and Scout.com have developed larger followings, recruiting has also grown in scale.
People track a recruit's official visits online, and nationally-televised press conferences are held when a highly regarded recruit
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
Jayhawks shut out Spires
BASEBALL
BY BEN WARD
bj b den wan
bward@kansan.com
twitter.com/bm dub
Only it wasn't baseball-related. Poppe was barely able to celebrate Kansas' 10-0 victory because he had to leave Hoglund Ballpark quickly to be on time for a tutoring session.
Freshman pitcher Tanner Poppe passed his test against St. Mary's, holding the Spires hitless through five innings of work. But it wasn't time to relax it was off to prepare for another one.
Schoolwork aside, Poppe's performance on the field was a marked improvement from last week's outing when he allowed four runs on four walks during a March 2 loss against Arkansas.
COMMENTARY
Graves said the plan for Poppe was to keep things simple during Tuesday's outing: having the freshman focus primarily on his rhythm from the mound, and on his control — specifically
"Hopefully this gets some confidence in him, and gets him around the zone a little bit more and we'll build off of that," pitching coach Gray Graves said.
throwing his fastball for a strike.
"He's got great stuff," Graves said. "It's just a matter of his pitch ability developing to where we can mix certain pitches."
And it's that control and variation of different pitches that coach Ritch Price said Poppe would need to succeed against Big 12 competition.
"Then he'll truly be a college pitcher." Price said.
Price didn't intend the comment as a slight to the youngster saving
Although Price viewed the outing as an opportunity for Poppe to "get his feet wet" - he didn't mean it in the literal sense.
Poppe's five shutout innings met and exceeded his expectations for the game against the Division II Spires.
Rain throughout the day almost cost the Jayhawks (8-3) yet another game, but because of one of Price's old sayings, they
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 6B
Still much to achieve in Big 12 tourney
Kansas awaits the victor of the first game of the Big 12 Tournament between Colorado and Texas Tech tomorrow with the mindset of a team halfway through the NCAA Tournament.
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
It may be tempting to think that this tournament really doesn't mean much to the Jayhawks. They already have a No. 1 seed locked for the Big Dance, as well as the regular season title for the Big 12. But the players are looking at the upcoming Big 12 Tournament games as vital to their improvement. It's just as important to them as it may be to teams such as Texas who want to earn a seed higher than eight.
"No disrespect to any of the other teams but, I mean, we're not playing to help anybody else's team out," freshman forward Thomas Robinson said of other teams having more to play for in the tournament.
Other teams in the Big 12 that desperately want to improve their chances in the NCAA Tournament include Baylor, Oklahoma State, Missouri and even Kansas State. The Big 12 has a total of seven teams looking good for spots in the NCAA Tournament. But the select few mentioned already have the most to gain.
Oklahoma State and Missouri are looking at being possible eight seeds. If they beat some ranked teams in the Big 12 tournament such as Kansas State or Kansas, their stock in the tournament rises. If even just by a single seed, that little boost improves their chances of making it further into March.
Kansas State, after fighting for a possible one seed then losing consecutively to Kansas on the road and Iowa State at home, might be watching its No. 2 seed dreams fade. That is why the Wildcats will come into the Big 12 tournament with the anger and determination of coach Frank Martin in every one of their players' eyes. If they win the tournament, they could fight their way back up to a possible two seed.
The Kansas players recognize what all the teams in the Big 12 Tournament are playing for, and the layhawks are looking at this tournament in the same way, especially after last year's loss to Baylor in Kansas' first game of the tournament.
"It stung; it was embarrassing; it hurt;" senior Sherron Collins said of last year's loss to Bavlor.
Coming into this year's Big 12 Tournament, Collins and junior Cole Aldrich have that extra year under their feet and are looking forward to bringing this year's younger players to the skill level that the 2008 team had reached by this point in the season.
"With this team, there is a little bit more youth," Collins said. "But I still see those same similarities, same depth of the bench."
The motivation is there. Now all the layhawk needs to do is play how they talk about playing, and bring in a Big 12 Tournament Title as well as victory number 2,000 for the program.
Edited by Megan Heacock