THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
KANSAS
LU
VOLLEYBALL|6B
Volleyball team loses big to Baylor
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18,2010
The Jayhawks had 33 attack errors that hurt their chances for a win against a Baylor team with a No.2 ranked defense. Kansas drops to No.7 in the conference with this fourt-set loss.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
KANSAS 85, TEXAS A&M CORPUS CHRISTI 44
Despite win, turnovers high
Sophomore forward Carolyn Davis goes for a shot in the game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Kansas will face Wisconsin Sunday at 5 p.m.
Evan Palmer/KANSAN
BY MEGAN RUPP mrupp@kansan.com
"I didn't care what the score was," Henrickson said. "It was about execution, about effort, about how we're supposed to play."
Maintaining their four-game winning streak, the Jayhawks came out strong. But what seemed like a strong start quickly translated into a series of sloppy offensive and defense possessions.
Still, it was Davis' 22 points that led the lavhaws.
With this kind of offensive production, KU's 85-44 victory wasn't shocking. Still, coach Bonnie Henrickson was unsatisfied. Plain and simple, she said the Jayhawks' performance was "just uelb."
With 13 minutes left on the clock before halftime, senior guard Marisa Brown ended that trend when she grabbed a steal and finished on the other end. In her first career start, Brown finished with eight points, five rebounds and two steals.
"I want to carry my team," Davis said. "I know what I can do inside and I want to make my teammates better."
Henrickson said her defensive and rebounding aggressiveness made her ready for the starting spot.
Hallway through the first half, Davis headed to the bench. As the islanders edged closer, coach Bonnie Henrickson called on Davis' offensive production to recover the lead. The energy she added to the court was palpable. She ended the half with 20 points and helped the layawks hold a 44-26 halftime lead.
When Carolyn Davis stepped on the floor, her mission was clear: exploit her height and size advantage against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Just seven minutes into the game, she had already scored 14 points and nailed all six of her shots.
That's not to say KU's offensive play was perfect, or anything close to it. The Islanders took advantage of the Jayhawks' 13 first-half turnovers, converting them into 14 first half points.
Kansas finished with 29 turnovers in the game.
What seemed like a different team at the start of the half ended up no less sloppy than before the break. The Jayhawks started the second half with an 8-0 scoring streak that forced visiting coach Robert Robinson to call a timeout less than three minutes into play.
rebounds and had two blocks and three steals.
"We got it to her pretty quick," Henrickson said. "I was like, 'Throw her the play until you can't get it to her anymore.'"
Davis had just a few touches in Sunday's game against the University of South Dakota and refused to allow that happen again. She demanded the ball inside and her guards got it her.
"The last game I let my player get a few shots off, so I've been working on making sure that doesn't happen again," Sutherland said. "I've always been a rebounder, but this time I made sure to go to the boards every time."
The Jayhawks maintained a steady lead, despite the fact that they hit their first shot from behind the arc with only six minutes left in the game.
The team's outsideshoot, sophomore guard Monica Engelman, scored only six points in the first half, but finished with 10 by the end of the game. Henrickson said she was confused by her hesitance to shoot, something she doesn't see in practice.
The self-proclaimed "inconsistent" player, Aisher Sahaher didn't show that side against the islanders. In just 21 minutes, she scored 13 points, grabbed 13
"We got down early and that kind of destroyed our confidence," Robinson said.
"I got myself in a funk that I had no business being in." Engelman
REWIND | 4B
See pictures from the game in the rewind
Check out key stats and player of the game from the women's victory against Texas A&M CC
Engelman said she hoped the team would improve offensively both inside and outside. She said it would be important to do both
said.
against tougher teams, like the Wisconsin squad the Jayhawks face at 5 p.m. Sunday.
- Edited by Michael Bednar
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Home win streak a source of pride, motivation
Junior forward Marcus Morris slams down a two-handed dunk against V帕萨塔. Morris said he's determined not to let Kansas' home win streak break while he is on the team.
Jerrv Wang/KANSAM
Friday's game gives Jayhawks chance to match home win mark
Marcus Morris, before the season started, said that he had two goals in his career. The first was one that any basketball player will give you: Win a national championship. The second was a bit more unique.
"I can't, can't. CAN'T go out saying that they lost at home when I was here," he said. "Can't do that. My senior year, too. I can't. There's no way. I've got to win every game here. I've got to."
tdwyer@kansan.com
BY TIM DWYER
PAGE 1B
Sixty-two games. It's enough to be two full seasons. And if Kansas wins Friday against North Texas, it'll be how many games in a row Kansas will have won at Allen Fieldhouse, which ESPN ranked as the loudest arena in all of college basketball this offseason
So far, so good. Through 57 career home games Marcus has yet to stumble, and the Jayhawks' home winning streak has run for a total of 61.
It doesn't count for anything official, of course, but coach Bill Self, who has lost six home games in his seven years at Kansas, said he is "pretty proud" of the streak.
For the players, the streak seems to play the role of both an accomplishment to be proud of and a cross to bear. Morris, Mario Little and Tyshawn Taylor
"It's not the most important streak," Self said. "Id rather win six in a row in March and April than 60 in a row at home, there's no question."
all responded to questions about the streak with the same basic formula: Yeah, it's something we take pride in, but we do not want to be the guys who screw it up.
Brady Morningstar is the only Jayhawk who has lost on James Naismith Court.
The last time Kansas lost on its home court, it was to a Texas A&M team with a coach, Billy Gillispie, who left to coach another team and is now unemployed and a star player, Acie Law IV, who is now a three-year veteran with his second NBA team.
"I can't, can't, CAN'T go out saying that they lost at home when I was here. Can't do that. My senior year, too. I can't. There's no way."
that streak to end while I'm here. I don't want it to be like, 'Aw, it ended during the Morris twins era.'$^{40}$
"I don't want to be a part of the team that breaks it," Taylor said. "I don't want to be around when that happens."
MARCUS MORRIS Junior forward
Morris painted the same picture.
The Jayhawks give credit to
"I strive day in and day out to make sure that streak continues," he said. "Because I don't want
the fans, as well. Marcus Morris said the Fieldhouse has the best home-court advantage in the country, and Bill Self said there were some games that Kansas never would have won on
"We've had some wins that you'd think that there was no way we could pull off without the sixth man." Self said, "The crowd made the difference."
Edited by Joel Petterson
another floor.
COMMENTARY
Tweets put athletes in hot water too often
BY MIKE LAVIERI
mlavieri@kansan.com
I was upset to see the error message, "Sorry, that page doesn't exist" when I went to check junior guard Tyshawn Taylor's twitter account, @tytocool10. But the more I think about it, I need to give kudos to Taylor. It took some personal willpower to get off Twitter. A year ago, Taylor was at the center of the confrontation between the football and basketball teams and posted several statuses on his Facebook. Taylor deleted his Facebook back in January and recently reactivated it right before the school year started.
When asked why he got off Twitter, Taylor said, "Just 'cause, man." He said that he has to stay off for a little while. I am hoping he gets back on after the season starts because his tweets are entertaining, but Taylor isn't sure if he will. He is thinking about it, but he may just stay off for a while.
I think it's good for athletes, especially college athletes, to deactivate their accounts. I sometimes procrastinate from important work because I am too busy tweeting and reading others' tweets. A student athlete's focus is to be a student first and an athlete second.
Recently, Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villaneueva tweeted that Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett called Villaneueva a cancer patient. The Boston Celtics' director of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, said on Boston sports radio station WEEK1 that the tweet from Villaneueva didn't make light of the situation, but rather called unnecessary attention to himself. I agree with Ainge, and knowing the clean track record of Garnett, I wouldn't suspect him of calling Villaneueva a cancer patient. Besides, Garnett said in an interview with ESPN Boston, "My comment to Charlie Villaneueva was in fact 'You are cancerous to your team and our league,' I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball."
Of the players on the basketball team, seven have Twitter accounts. I don't know how much the players check what their followers say to them, but I can just imagine it being a distraction if somebody says something negative. I think there is too much attention drawn to some of these athletes.
Twitter just gets players in trouble. Last season, former Chris running back Larry Johnson had tweets toward coach Todd Haley saying that Johnson's father had more credentials to coach and that Todd Haley had no football experience. There is a reason that leagues like the NFL and NBA banned players from ttesting during the any part of their games, including halftime. It is a distraction to the player and to teammates.
As a journalist, I love that players have Twitter. It allows the media some access to their thoughts when we can't talk to them in person. But I would love to see the NCAA make a rule that puts a limit on social media, because the players are playing for the name on the front, not the back.
Edited by Joel Petterson