SPORTS THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN PETER BROWN TOURNAMENT HYPE BEGINS WWW.KANSAN.COM PAGE 4B PAGE 1B THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2008 LADY RAIDERS 65 JAYHAWKS 61 Tech-nical difficulties Photo Courtesy of Texas Tech Grenadie Guard Danielle McCray shoots a jump shot over Texas Tech forward Ashlee Roberson in Lubbock, Texas last night. Texas Tech slipped away with a victory. The Lady Raiders capitalized on Jayhawk turnovers during the second half of the game. The score was 65-61. BY TAYLOR BERN thern@kansan.com Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry had a lot to say to her team at halftime after allowing Kansas to go up 33-21 at the break. Curry's pep talk was all the warm-up Texas Tech needed, though, as the team erased Kansas' lead with an 18-4 run and hung on to win 65-1. Curry felt her message was so important that she kept the Lady Raiders in the locker room longer than usual, preventing them from getting any practice shots before the second half began. The Jayhawks led by at least eight points for much of the first half thanks to solid three-point shooting, their ability to capitalize on turnovers and 13 points from center Krysten Boogaard. Kansas hit 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and scored 12 points off of 17 Texas Tech turnovers. "The first six minutes of the second half, we didn't have an answer to their run," coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "We just didn't play with the toughness that I thought we did in the first half." In the second half, though, the two teams seemed to switch uniforms because everything that Kansas was doing to Texas Tech early, Texas Tech did to Kansas late. Lady Raiders' forward Dominic Seals started to dominate the post, scoring 12 second-half points while the switch to a 2-3 zone defense nullified Boogaard. "The zone really got us out of rhythm." Henrickson said. "There was no purpose or intent to go away from her (Boogaard), but I thought we just lost our poise and started jacking up some shots." Kansas (15-10, 4-8) couldn't handle Texas Tech's pressure and turned the ball over six times in the first six minutes. The Lady Raiders (15-11, 3-9) were incredibly efficient with the Jayhawks' nine second half turnovers, scoring 16 points off of them. Texas Tech guard Maria Moore scored two of those points when she stole the ball and went the length of the court for a layup to put her team up 38-37 with 14:12 remaining. Kansas would never regain the lead. The Jayhawks did have a chance late in the game as freshman forward Nicollette Smith hit two free throws to pull the deficit back to three with 47 seconds on the clock. However, Lady Raider guard Jordan Murphey made a jump shot with 21 seconds left despite being surrounded by three jayhawk defenders. Sophomore guard Sade Morris was given an easy layup with 12 seconds to go, but Texas Tech pushed the margin back to four with a free throw and Kansas failed to get off a final shot. "We've got to grow up and show some toughness because everybody's fighting for something." Henrickson said. "It will come down to players making plays and playing with some toughness whether you're at home or on the road." In all, the jayhaws had four players score in double figures - Boogaard (17), guard Danielle McCray (15), Smith (11) and Morris (11) - but they also had six players commit at least two turnovers. "You've got to be able to sustain great effort, great focus and concentration," Henrickson said. "And we just didn't do that." Edited by Madeline Hyden BASEBALL Increase in pitchers to relieve team More players in the bullpen this season BY SHAWN SHROYER shroyer@kansan.com By the end of last season, Kansas had only three reliable arms out of the bullpen. That shouldn't be an issue in 2008. "Depth-wise, it's the best we've been in the six years I've been here," Price said. "We've obviously continued to up the amount of scholarship money that we spend on pitching." There are as many as six pitchers Price plans to call out of the bullpen, not counting the boost the bullpen will receive from the pitchers who don't make the starting rotation. Kansas' shortlist of relievers includes junior right-handed closer Paul Smyth, senior right-hander Hiarali Garcia and junior left-hander Daniel Manos. Beyond those three are a collection of promising underclassmen: sophomore right-handers Thomas Marcin and Brett Bollman and freshman right-handler T.J. Walz. In addition, whoever winds up starting mid-week for Kansas should also be at Price's disposal in relief during weekend series. Smyth was Kansas' saves leader last season with seven, but perhaps even more importantly, he proved he could be called upon as a work-horse to finish games. As a sophomore, he threw just 12.2 fewer innings than former Jayhawk Don Czyz did the season he set SEE BULLPEN ON PAGE 6B
ERAW-LSOIPSV
Paul Smyth1.603-44050.27
Hiarali Garcia4.550-02729.21
Thomas Marcin3.660-01619.2
Daniel Manos at Santa Ana College2.312-02223.1
T.J. Walz at Skutt Catholic (Omaha,Neb.)1.8111-113681
Paul Smyth, junior pitcher, practices with the team prior to the start of the 2008 season. Smyth led the Jayhawks in saves last season and is expected to do the same again this season. He'll be accompanied by a full bullpen of relievers at Coach Price's disposal. Weston White / KANSAN PROFILE Jon Goering/KANSAN Steve Welmer helps referee the Kansas game against Colorado on Saturday. Welmer has officiated seven Jayhawks games this season, and hit his 90th game on Wednesday night with Kansas State at Nebraska. Referee's love of game brings new meaning Have you ever wondered who that tall, balding referee is who always pulls his pants up and is on TV officiating a game seemingly every night? Well his name is Steve Welmer, the iron man of college basketball officiating. A quick look at Welmer's schedule since the Kansas-Colorado game shows just why he holds platinum status on six different airlines. After officiating the Jayhawks' victory on Saturday, Welmer flew from Lawrence to Detroit that night to get into town for Sunday afternoon's national CBS game between Michigan and Ohio State. From there, he traveled to Austin, Texas and worked ESPN's Big Monday game featuring Texas and Texas A&M. Tuesday night he officiated the Baylor at Oklahoma game in Norman, Oklahoma, and last night he worked the Kansas State at Nebraska game on ESPN2. Welmer, who has officiated seven Kansas games this season including Saturday's 69-45 victory against Colorado, called his 90th game of the season last night. He officiates five to six games a week, constantly traveling from city to city for the next game. "Arguably, there probably may never be a guy like me that is able to get a schedule that big," Welmer said. "I take pride in that because I guess that's the American way on everything. I guess it's kind of the male ego thing." During a span from Nov. 20 to Dec. 5, Welmer called a game 16 days in a row. After two days off to recharge his batteries, Welmer refted another 16 days in a row from Dec. 8 to Dec. 23. In all, Welmer refted 32 games in 34 days leading up to the winter break. Welmer is in his 34th year of officiating, including his 27th at the division I level. This will mark the 14th consecutive year that he has worked more division I games than any other official in the United States. Most college referees have worked between 50 and 70 games this year, with many not even coming close to Welmer's schedule. Welmer, who works games for 10 conferences across the country including the Big 12, Big 10, Conference USA, WAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and the Missouri Valley Conference, is assigned a full slate of games by each conference coordinator in August. He lays all of the games out and must choose which game he wants to officiate when multiple conferences assign him games on the same day. SEE RAINS ON PAGE 6B