SPORTS
BASEBALL FALTERS AGAINST VULCANS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 6B
FORMER JAYHAWKS ATTEND NFL COMBINE
WWW.KANSAN.COM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
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OKLAHOMA STATE 61,KANSAS 60
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Cowboys boot stumbling Jayhawks
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
STILLWATER, Okla. — With two seconds left in Kansas' 61-60 loss to Oklahoma State, junior Brandon Rush found himself with the ball in the corner. Rush head-faked once and hoisted up a last-second heave. Rush's shot drew nothing but rim.
"I thought it was going to bounce in." Rush said. "A miracle was going to happen."
Go figure. Kansas needed miracles to beat a normally toothless Oklahoma State team
Who would have ever thought that?
Certainly not the folks who witnessed Kansas' 20-0 start, and certainly not the Jayhawks themselves, who have now lost three out of the last four on the road.
And unlike in Kansas' first two road losses against Kansas State and Texas, which were deemed as excusable losses to good teams in tough environments, the Jayhaws looked shockingly ordinary on Saturday.
"We stunk, I mean, we stunk," Kansas coach Bill Self said.
Self was rightfully displeased. Kansas, which hadn't played in a week, played like a team in need of a spark.
Kansas air-ballied shots, racked up 21 turnovers on a number of errant passes and had costly mental breakdowns on defense.
"I felt like we were out of rhythm the whole game," senior Darnell jackson said.
Jackson, who led Kansas with 16 points and 10 rebounds, may have been on to something.
Senior guard Russell Robinson and sophomore guard Sherron Collins lead the rest of the Jayhawks off the court after losing to Oklahoma State 61-60 Saturday in Stillwater, Okla. Kansas fell to 9-3 in the Big 12 with the loss and dropped to second place in the conference behind Texas.
The first half had the rhythm of a tap dancing rhinoceros.
The two teams combined to shoot 35.9 percent from the floor, while racking up a combined 25 fouls in the first half. Three of those fouls came in a scuffle in the opening minutes. Oklahoma State junior Terrel Harris was assessed a personal foul, and Oklahoma State freshman Ibrahimia Thomas and Kansas sophomore Darrell Arthur were each whistled for technical fouls.
"It was nasty," said Oklahoma State guard Bryon Eaton, who led all scorers with 26 points.
It didn't get much prettier.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Arthur's technical gave him two fouls in the first half, and he played only 17 minutes, finishing with six points.
Kansas was also hamstrung by Sherron
"There's not many good players out there that can produce if they're only playing 15 minutes a game." Self said.
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 4B
Oklahoma State students storm the court after junior guard Brandon Rush's last-second three-point attempt rims out. "I thought they played good," Kansas coach Bill Self said after the game. "But we stunk, and you can credit that to OSU are large part of that to the crowd."
COMMENTARY
Hawks defeated in ugly battle
STILLWATER, Okla. — The janitors at Gallagher-Iba Arena may have spent extra time mopping the floor after Oklahoma State's 61-60 victory against Kansas because what happened on it was downright sloppy.
The game was ugler than Frankenstein's monster. From the beginning, it became clear that watching this mess unravel would be as difficult as reading Ulysse in one sitting.
Five of the layhawks' first six possessions ended in either a turnover or an air ball. The inefficiency continued for the rest of the day as Kansas committed 24 personal fouls, 21 turnovers and threw up plenty of shots that didn't even make contact with the rim.
"I don't know if we were distracted, but we certainly gave the appearance of being distracted and not as focused because we made a lot, a lot of mental mistakes," Kansas coach Bill Self said.
It's true, Kansas was Bad-News-Bears-awful, but the complete lack of any sort of pace in the game hurt it equally.
Bizarre circumstances in the first half made the flow dissipate to the point where it didn't even feel like basketball. It started when Oklahoma State freshman center Ibraima Thomas decided he was more interested in taking cheap shots than helping his team.
When Kansas senior center Sasha Kaun checked in and the referee turned his back, Thomas shoved Kaun for no apparent reason as a greeting.
Minutes later, Thomas incited a minor quarrel under the basket when he picked on Kaun again as he fought for a loose ball. The incident led to a delay as officials reviewed the tape and called a technical foul on Thomas and Kansas sophomore forward Darrell Arthur.
The distractions didn't end there. The arena became silent in confusion when an Oklahoma State booster sitting courtside was ejected after he apparently touched the referee, which resulted in another interruption.
"By the way it started off, the scuffle, they thought they were going to come in here and push us around," Oklahoma State junior guard Byron Eaton said. "We had to let them know we're going to fight, you are in our house. You're not fixing to come in our house and take us off our court."
A first half with less rhythm than William Hung was devastating for Kansas, a team that thrives off a lethal pace and scoring transition points. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State gained confidence and embraced the slapdash nature of the contest.
And the layhawks didn't. In the second half, the Cowboys tried to lengthen all of their possessions by holding the ball until the end of the shot clock. The layhawks couldn't adjust and continued to look like they were trying to compile a bloomer reel.
Eaton called the game "nasty." But he knew the unpleasantness paid off for the Cowboys in the end and gave them their biggest victory of the season. It also gave the Jayhawks their most hideous defeat.
Senior guard Russell Robinson was the victim of two embarrassing blocks, junior guard Mario Chalmers fell on a fast break and junior guard Brandon Rush missed a wide open three-pointer by multiple feet.
Edited by Sasha Roe
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Turnovers costly for team at Mizzou
BY TAYLOR BERN
tbern@kansan.com
Not only was Kansas making these mistakes early in the year, but they're also the same problems that cost it a victory at Texas Tech on Wednesday.
COLUMBIA, MO - As the season progresses, so should a team.
Mistakes that cost Kansas a game in November should be long gone come February. However, the Jayhawks turned the ball over 19 times and came out flat in the second half Sunday afternoon, allowing the Tigers to go on a run and sneak out of Mizzou Arena with a 62-59 victory.
"I'm very disappointed," freshman forward Nicollette Smith said. "We've been
Wecton White / KANSAN
Freshman center Krysten Boogaard puts up a shot over Missouri forward Shakara Jones. Boogaard finished the game shooting 3-10 from the floor for six points and eight rebounds in a 62-59 loss Sunday at Mizzou Arena.
prepping and prepping, trying to finish off the season strong, and then we have these two hard losses."
Smith carried Kansas in the first half, shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and free-throw line to score 11 points. That wasn't enough as the Jayhawks trailed 31-30 at halftime. Coach Bonnie Henrickson credits that to an inability to grab offensive rebounds.
"I was disappointed in our lack of effort to the offensive glass," Henrickson said. "The shooter's got to think it's going in, but everybody else on the floor has got to think that's my chance at a shot."
Like Texas Tech, Missouri stormed out of the locker room with a 12-2 run - to which Kansas had no answer.
After Missouri's initial surge, sophomore guard Danielle McCray tried to pull her team back with back-to-back three-pointers.
Tiger guard Alyssa Hollins took over the game with 19 of her team's final 24 points to score a game high 27.
"She hit a couple of threes, got to the offensive glass, got fouled and put it on the floor," Henrickson said. "That's what she's capable of and that's where she's hard to guard."
Kansas kept up with Missouri down the stretch but turnovers prevented them from recapturing the lead.
McCray was tough defensively during that time too, knocking two passes out of bounds on one possession. However, Hollins ended that possession with a fade away trey to beat the shot clock and push the lead to 48-40 with 10:49 left.
"If we could cut our turnovers to 12 or 13, I don't know that there's anybody right now in the league that could beat us." Henrickson said. "We shoot the basketball
well once we get it, but we don't get enough possessions."
McCray thinks that her team's turnover difficulties are more mental than physical.
"It's not that we can't make the pass, it's just that we're not focusing and concentrating on how to make the pass," McCray said.
Despite their problems, the Jayhawks cut the lead to one with two minutes left, thanks to a shot clock-beating layup from sophomore guard Sade Morris.
With 26 seconds left and the Jayhawks down 60-57, Tiger forward Jessra Johnson missed a shot and freshman center Krysten Boogaard collected the rebound, but in the traffic she fell down and was whistled for traveling - the team's 19th and final turnover.
Hollins sank a pair of free throws then sophomore guard LaChelda Jacobs hit a layup with three seconds left to end the scoring.
This was Missouri's first victory in the past 11 games, but Kansas knew from experience that it wouldn't lie down.
"We were in the same position as them last year, so we knew what we were getting into," senior forward Taylor McIntosh said. "We knew they were going to be hungry for a win, and we didn't play like that in the second half."
The season wraps up in a hurry for the Jayhawks, and Henrickson thinks her team is eager to take it head on.
"We've got a stretch where we're going to play three games in a week, and I think wed all like to play tomorrow and get this taste out of our mouths, especially two games of it," Henrickson said. "We've been stewing on this for about six days now."
Edited by Daniel Reyes