6B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Baylor battles high-scoring KSU duo
Beasley and Walker combine for 75 of Kansas State's 86 points in Saturday's loss
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Beasley reacts late in the second half of Kansas State's game against Baylor Saturday in Waco, Texas. Beasley had a game-high 44 points in Baylor's 92-86 win.
BY STEPHEN HAWKINS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO, Texas — Michael Beasley and Bill Walker are going to need some help if Kansas State is going to win its first Big 12 Championship.
The sensational high-scoring freshmen can't beat teams on their own.
Beasley set a big 12 record with 44 points and Walker scored 31 on Saturday night, and yet the Wildcats lost their fourth straight road game, 92-86 to Bavlor.
And the Bears didn't even mind watching what their coach Scott Drew called the best "two-man performance" he's ever seen.
"It's not difficult," said Kevin Rogers, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Baylor. "The final score shows that two people can't be a team. We came out and played as a team."
Curtis Jerrells scored 24 points, including some clutch baskets in the go-ahead spurt, to lead five players with double-figure scoring as Baylor (18-8, 6-6 Big 12) ended a four-game losing streak.
Beasley and Walker, the first Kansas State duo with 30 points in the same game, didn't get that kind of help. Only four other Wildcats scored, none with more than five
points and two with only a free throw.
"We felt like we had the game," Walker said. "We had some breakdowns on defense. Those guys shoot the ball pretty good and made some
"That doesn't change who we are or how we've got to play,or what our mind set has to be to win."
"We're not going to forget all the good things we've done to this
tough shots, and it's game over. We just made it a point to go out there and assert ourselves."
Saturday at Oklahoma State and in January lost to Kansas State for the first time in 20 games.
MICHAEL BEASLEY Kansas State forward
Despite consecutive losses that will almost certainly drop them out of the national rankings Monday, the Wildcats (18-8, 8-4) still have a shot at winning the Big 12 title.
"That doesn't change who we are or how we've got to play, or what our mind set has to be to win," Beasley said. "We've got the top two teams on our schedule so we control our own destiny."
K-State plays Monday night at home against league-leading Texas (23-4, 10-2) and next weekend at fourth-ranked Kansas (24-3, 9-3). The Jayhawks are coming off a loss
point," coach Frank Martin said. "We're a good team."
Beasley's two free throws with 1:56 left gave him 44 points, one more than the conference record, and made it 87-85. But he didn't score again and Kansas Stat
couldn't get closer.
It was the third 40-point game of the season for Beasley, the Big 12 leader in scoring and rebounding who made 14-of-25 shots. He also had 13 rebounds, his 23rd double-double to break Carmelo Anthony's NCAA freshman record.
Kansas State had a 66-65 lead left when Beasley made two free throws after being fouled inside. The Wildcats were even at 69 when Blake Young hit a three-pointer with 10 minutes left but never regained the lead.
Baylor responded with a 16-7 run, including two three-pointers by berries with the shot clock running down.
On both threes, Jerrells listened to the students counting down the expiring shot clock before taking his shot, the second one making it 85-76 with 3:41 left. In between the threes, Jerrells missed a running jumper with the shot clock at 1 second but grabbed his own rebound and went right back in uncontested for a score.
After Beasley's last points, Jerrells drove again with the shot clock running down. He missed, but was fouled and made both free throws.
Walker missed a couple of
three-pointers after that, and Beasley took only one more shot - a desperate three in the last frantic seconds.
Beasley had 28 points by halftime, matching his own Big 12 record for points in a half.
The previous game record of 43 points was shared by Missouri's Clarence Gilbert against Iowa State in January 2001 and Texas' Reggie Freeman against Fresno State in December 1996.
"Going into halftime, those two guys were beating us by themselves," Jerrells said. "It takes a team . . . We outplayed them as a team."
Walker had 12 by halftime, when the Wildcats led 44-38.
He had 28 points in the second half of a lopsided victory over Winston-Salem State in December.
LaceDarius Dunn had 16 points for Baylor and Tweety Carter 12. Aaron Bruce, the struggling senior guard out of the starting lineup because of his recent struggles.
"They started just throwing the ball up as high as they could and he would just go get it at the peak."
Kevin Durant had the previous scoring record for a half with 26 against Baylor in January 2007.
CURTIS JERRELLS Baylor guard
added 11 points on three-of-four shooting.
About the only thing Jerrells struggled with was trying to guard Beasley, an assignment he asked for after halftime.
"They started just throwing
the ball up as high as they could and he would just get it at the peak," said Jerrells, the 6-foot-1 guard who is nine inches shorter than Beasley. "As you could see, we kind of went away from that."
BIG 12 BASKETBALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colorado's Jermyl Jackson-Wilson, right, fights Missouri's Daryl Burterfield, left, during the second half of the basketball game in Columbia, Mo. Saturday, Missouri won the game 60-53.
Tigers add another loss to Buffaloes' list
BY R.B. FALLSTROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Darryl Butterfield has had such a spotty senior season that even the Missouri home crowd appears worried when he launches a shot.
Maybe they won't be so hard on the 6-foot-7 forward after Saturday night, when he led a strong effort from the Tigers' bench in a 60-53 victory over Colorado. Butterfield had eight points, five more than his total from the previous four games, and most of them coming in key spots.
"You could just see the bounce in his step," coach Mike Anderson said. "You've got to find somebody to come off there and give you that lift, and he was that particular guy."
Keon Lawrence had 16 points for Missouri (15-12, 5-7), which needed 32 points from the reserves after squandering all but two points of an 18-point cushion early in the second half.
"Coach told us before the game that our bench had to bring it," said Butterfield, who averages 3.9 points. "He said don't think about playing, just play off instincts.
"That's what we did; that's what I did."
Marcus Hall had 17 points and Richard Roby 14 for Colorado (10-16, 2-10 Big 12), held without a free-throw attempt for the first time all season. Hall was held scoreless the final 11 minutes
as the Buffaloes lost their 19th straight conference road game, including an 0-6 record this season.
Anderson said he can't remember a game in which one team didn't make it to the line, calling it "mind-boggling." Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik chose his words carefully, while noting the Buffaloes scored 34 points in the lane.
"It wasn't like we weren't going to the rim," Bzdelik said. "There's nothing I can say that will be right."
Colorado was whistled for just 12 fouls and Missouri 11, with the Tigers going 4-for-9 from the line.
"I told the referee that we hadn't been to the line," Roby said. "I was hoping they would give us a break or something. They didn't realize it.
"And we took about four or five charges that didn't get called."
Reserve Leo Lyons had 10 rebounds and seven points for Missouri, which led 40-22 three minutes into the second half. Colorado cut the gap to 50-48 when Roby scored from the baseline with 4:02 to go, but Missouri scored eight of the next 10 points.
"I think we started trying to win with offense and we've got to be a team that's going to hang our hats on defense," Anderson said. "You've got to credit Colorado. They've got some seniors and they wouldn't quit, but we were able to find a way."
MLB
Royals players get a clue with quiz questions
BY DOUG TUCKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
SURPRISE, Ariz. — When you're sliding feet-first into a base, is your front foot straight up or sideways?
"Out of 50 questions, the guy got five correct," said Kuntz. "And this was a starting player in the major leagues, a very well known guy. I thought, 'Oh, my gosh. Oh, my goodness."
Before a game starts, what are the first two things a player should check?
Stumped? Don't fret. When first base coach Rusty Kuntz asked the Kansas City Royals to take his quiz on outfield play and baserunning fundamentals, there were quite a few "who didn't have a clue."
So Kuntz came up with a detailed list of written questions and tried them out on a number of players. The results were encouraging.
But that was better than the first player Kuntz quizzed a couple of years ago in Pittsburgh.
"By the end of spring training, I gave the same player the same test, along with a bunch of other guys,
and he got every one of them right. And I noticed that during the year, he responded quicker to certain situations. I thought if you can do that for outfield play, why not throw in some baserunning fundamentals?"
Now as first base coach on Trey Hillman's new staff in Kansas City, Kuntz's written quizzes have become a big feature of the first full week of spring training.
Even Hillman says he's benefited.
"We talk about wanting this to be a learning situation," said Hillman. "There's always things you can learn. I've learned from Rusty about things that were considered my areas of expertise. If you ever get to a point where you feel like you know it all, it's probably time to get out."
Not every player on the Royals was given the written quizzes. Among those who were, there was a wide range of success and failure.
Kuntz did not want to name the slackers, lest anybody be embarrassed. But getting a lot of the written questions incorrect does not necessarily mean the major leaguers have not been paying attention while playing the game for as long as most of them can remember. For a great many, it may be the first time they've ever been drilled in the finer points of the fundamentals of the game. Another possibility is that some players are not accustomed to written tests but have learned to react instinctively when situations arise during a game.
"Id say it was 50-50," said Kuntz. "Some of them did relatively well. Some did OK. And some had no clue."
"These guys are major league players, but they've got a couple of years of minor league experience, and before that they were in high school," Kuntz said. "I'm trying to get them out of the box. I'm trying to feed them bits and pieces so they can apply it once the game starts, such as can you have an infield fly rule on a bunt play?"
That's one most of the Pirates two years ago and most of the Royals this spring got wrong.
"They say you can," Kuntz said.
"The answer is no, you can't."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Another one that gives everyone trouble has to do with umpires. If the ball hits an amp on the infield grass, is it alive or dead?
Kansas City Royals infielder Billy Butler laughes with teammates during baseball spring training Sunday in Surprise, Ariz.
"I had experienced baserunners say it's live," said Kuntz. "Well, it's actually dead. But if the same ball hits an umpire on the outfield grass, then the runners keep running because that's a live ball."
A lot of players didn't know that the proper way to slide feet-first into a base was to have the front foot straight up, or that the sun and the wind should be taken into account as soon as a player leaves the clubhouse before a game.
One of the Royals who aced the tests was outfield prospect Chris Lubanski.
"The tests have been great because the ones you get wrong, now you know the situation," he said. "And the ones you get right, it refreshes your mind. At least now I know that I know what's on."
So which question was missed most often?
"When you're waiting on a fly ball, wi.at part of the ball do you look at, the top or the bottom?" Kuntz said. "Everybody said the bottom. But you've got to concentrate on seeing the top."
And the easiest question anyone missed?
"The distance between bases. It's 90 feet, of course. Some guys got that wrong."