THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
23
NFL | 8A Vick dominates in D.C.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16,2010
Quarterback Michael Vick scored six touchdowns in the Philadelphia Eagles' romp of the Washington Redskins to move into a tie for first place in the NFC East with the New York Giants.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
INCREASE THE D
COMMENTARY
PAGE 10A
Reed takes early lead with threes
BY MAX VOSBURGH myosburgh@kansan.com
Last week against Longwood, Bill Self expressed his confidence in senior guard Tyrel Reed's outside shooting, despite making only two of seven shots beyond the arc.
"He's not a good shooter, he's a great shooter," Self said.
Yesterday in Kansas' 79-44 win against Valparaiso, Reed backed up Self's praise with a hot start that helped the Jayhawks on their way to a comfortable 44-27 halftime lead.
"They're very good players and then they started hitting three's early," Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said. "I thought when Reed hits a couple three's, and then that helps them get going, then that really hurts us."
going, then into the game. Reed, who finished the game with 11 points, ended up making three of eight three-pointers, but it was his efficiency to begin the game that delivered an early punch to the Lancers. After feeding the ball to junior forward Marcus Morris to earn a couple of assists, Reed swished the team's first three-point attempt. Four minutes later, he made another three-point attempt that put the layhawks up 17-11.
"We got off to a good start," Self said. "And of course Tyrel making three's helps."
Edited by Leslie Kinsman
All weekend the Jayhawks had been anticipating having open three-point looks because of the defense the Lancers play. Kansas' game plan included Valparaiso leaving the team open for three-pointers.
"Just have confidence in your guys and just let them shoot it," junior forward Marcus Morris said. "In pregame and in practice, we knew we were going to have a lot of three's because they were trying to protect the paint with the zone."
The Jayhawks' preparation paid dividends early in the game as nine of the first 10 points that Kansas scored came via three-point shots.
Reed's final successful threepoint attempt came with 8:38 left in the first half. It pushed Kansas' lead to double digits for the first time in the game.
Despite the hot start for Reed, his early three-point success faded in the second half. After starting the game 3-3 from three-point range, he went 0-5 the rest of the game. However, the Kansas lead he helped build was large enough that the Jayhawks were never in serious danger of being upset at home.
Instead, Kansas collected its 61st straight win at home, one win away from tying a school record of 62-straight wins at Allen Fieldhouse, which occurred between 1994 and
Self pursues improvements in defense
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
Bill Self wasn't happy with the defense after Kansas topped Longwood 113-75 to start the season. In both exhibitions and the season opener, the opposing team had shot over 40 percent in the Jayhawks building.
"Teams have been coming in here shooting 50, 40 percent," senior guard Mario Little, "that doesn't really happen the last couple of years. That doesn't really happen to us and we let it happen to us the last three games, so we're really trying to defend and show people that we can."
Early victories mask some issues
Three days later, the Jayhawks held a Valparaiso offense coming off a 111-point showing in its season debut to 27.4 percent shooting in a 79-44 win. The Crusaders scored only 17 points in the second half, two in the last nine minutes and 17 seconds and zero in the last 5:11. Self had to be happy with that, right?
"I don't think we're a good defensive team yet, at all." Self said. "I think we were better tonight than we have been the first three games of the season, so that's a positive."
Talk about damning with faint praise.
The Crusaders are known for their threepoint shooting, but managed only two threes in 19 attempts on the night, good for an abysmal 10.5 percentage from outside. The second half, when they missed all seven of their attempts, was even worse.
"That 17 points was more like 30 or 35 points," Self said. "We did some good things."
I thought we could've played better, because
they had a couple shots that they missed when they were just wide open," junior forward Marcus Morris said. "I thought we defended real well, and I thought we chased them out to the three-point line because that's what they wanted and that's where their players were going."
Markleff Morris said pretty much the same thing. Sure, the Jayhawks played all right defensively, but holding a team to 20 percentage points less than what they averaged last year and 67 points less than they scored just a game before wasn't all that impressive. Like Self and his brother, he was happy with the effort, but far from saying it was a complete defensive performance.
mance.
"We defended well enough to miss a couple shots tonight."
Not that the Jayhawks did a whole lot of missing. The Jayhawks shot 53.4 percent from the field in what was by far their most complete game of the season.
"KU, with always challenging the shot, having a high hand and just the quickness of the game allowed us not to be able to get our feet set and we rushed some shots," he said.
"It was a step in the right direction," Self said. "It wasn't a gigantic step, but certainly I feel better walking out of here than I did the other night from a defensive standpoint."
About the only person who had nothing critical to say of Kansas' stifling defense was Valparaiso coach Homer Drew.
Edited by Michael Bednar
It sounds like he, at least, was a little more impressed than Self.
Junior forward Marcus Morris puts up a three-pointer during the first half. Morris recorded a double-double with 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the 79-44 victory at Allen Fieldhouse. Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Jayhawks prepare for tough road ahead against ranked Oklahoma State, Missouri
BY KORY CARPENTER
kcarpenter@kansan.com
Freshman quarterback Quinn Mecham tries to elude a sack during Kansas' 20-3 loss to Nebraska in Lincoln Saturday evening. Kansas faces three of its toughest opponents in the last three games of the season, including Nebraska, a home game against Oklahoma State Saturday, and the annual Border showdown on Missouri next weekend at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
The scheduling gods did no favors for Turner Gill and the Jayhawks this season. After a rough start in conference play, the team ends the season against three teams in the BCS top 25. Nebraska was the first, Oklahoma State comes to Lawrence Saturday, and the Border Showdown against Missouri finishes off the season in Kansas City.
Nebraska is eighth in the latest BCS rankings, Oklahoma State is 10th, and Missouri is currently 15th. That might be the toughest three-game streak to end the year in the country.
The loss to Nebraska officially knocked the team out of bowl eligibility, as the Jayhawks needed to win out if they wanted to finish 6-6 and make a possible bowl appearance this December.
The conference record doesn't tell the whole story, however, as the team has shown small signs of improvements the last three weeks. Defense has played well since halftime of the Colorado
Rvan Waagooner/KANSAN
question. "I think our last two or three games there's been definitely consistent improvements, and that's all we want to do, is to continue to get better."
game, and Gill looks to see more improvements, even though post-season play is out of the question.
Gill went on to say that these last two games will be used for continued evaluation for next season, but he's not changing any game plans to win the next two weeks.
"You don't want to get caught up with the name of the school," he said. "You're just trying to focus on what we need to do as a football team, and to give us the best chance to be successful in each game."
the 20 points given up to Nebraska could be considered a success for Carl Torbush's defense, which has struggled to stop teams not nearly as well as Nebraska earlier in the year. The defense will be tested more this Saturday, as Oklahoma State is third in the nation in scoring, averaging 45 points a game.
Then comes Missouri, whose spread offense is always a threat. The Tigei are scoring 31 points a game, and their defense is even
better, allowing only 17 points per contest.
— Edited by Leslie Kinsman
.