THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
2016.05.10
CARLISLE
MEN'S GOLF | 3B Kansas gains second place finish Barbee leads Jayhaeks with first individual tournament victory at the Bill Ross Intercollegiate
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 20, 2010
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TOUGH BREAKS
PAGE 1B
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Sophomore center jeff Withey walks on crutches after being introduced at Late Night in the Phoo Fridav evening at Allen Fieldhouse. Withev has been unable to practice since breaking his right font on Sent 4. one of several injuries he has sustained since inning the team in 2008.
Withey wants to be done with injuries
The sophomore center has broken three body parts while at Kansas
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
twitter.com/c_thibodeaux
Without the presence of Jeff Withey's seven-foot wingspan at practice, the Jayhawk big men are getting spoiled.
"it's kind of a wake-up call when he comes back," sophomore center Thomas Robinson said. "You're not going to run into many seven-footers that can move like jeff."
Withey, a sophomore center, recently had the cast removed from his right foot, which he broke Sept. 24 during individual workouts. He is now wearing a protective boot and is on crutches.
It's just one of many setbacks that have kept the seven-footer off the court since he came to Lawrence.
“it's really frustrating.” Withey
“All I can do is be optimistic.”
When Withey moved from Arizona to Kansas in December of
2008, he couldn't play until after the fall 2009 semester because of transfer rules. In October of 2009, he suffered a stress fracture in his right knee, shelving him for about six weeks.
Just before the start of summer break this year, he broke his hand. Still healing from his most recent injury, the broken foot, Withey said he would try his best to emulate the intense boot camp he missed.
His time spent watching practice hasn't been wasted, at least not mentally.
"I'm just trying to get the game through a mental state," Withey said. "It's a different way of looking at practice."
Coach Bill Self said last week that Withey was progressing just as the doctors said and would be close to full strength by Nov. 1.
Until Withey gets back up to speed, Robinson and junior forward Marcus Markieff Morris will be making the best out of having no one to block their shots.
"We're all pretty much the same size, so there's not that many blocked shots," Robinson said of himself and the twins. "When Jeff comes back and uses the same moves, the shot ends up in the second row."
Marcus said Withey's abesence had made the team move up and down the floor more, improving
the team's speed. But there is no replacing the luxury of practicing against a guy who can defend the rim as well as Withey can.
"I haven't seen too many people dunk on Jeff since I got here," Morris said. "Maybe Keef once, maybe I did once. I think that's it."
Last season, Withey's absence wasn't asnoticeable because the Jayhawks had current Oklahoma City Thunder center Cole Aldrich owning the paint. If the team wants to perform well against the other big men in the country, Robinson said, they need someone who can do it.
In the grand scheme of this sea
leff Withev is that guv.
son, Self said he doesn't know who his two bigs were going to be. Here what he does know: Aldrich was one of the best big men in the country last season and he is no longer with the team.
"I don't know if we can replace that." Self said.
The closest thing the layhawks have to Aldrich's inside presence is Withey, but he needs to be on the court long enough to show it. He knows that more than anybody.
"You can't do anything but sit over there and wish you were playing," he said.
Edited by Dana Meredith
FOOTBALL
Senior running back Angus Quigley is tackled by Kansas State defensive end Jordan Voelker during the fourth quarter of the Sunflower Showdown at Memorial Stadium Thursday evening. Quigley said the team still had faith in their ability to turn the season around.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
After painful losses, Kansas focus only on the positive
BY KORY CARPENTER kcarpenter@kansan.com
Coach Turner Gill and his coaching staff have spent the last two weeks working on a unique kind of jigsaw puzzle. They have moved players around, set up different rotations, and changed schemes on both sides of the ball, still trying to capture that elusive first Big 12 win. With all
the different problems the team has faced, that puzzle has been anything but easy to put together. Players who were on last year's squad haven't won a conference game since Oct. 10, 2009. A drought that long could cause some players to panic, but senior running back Angus Quigley said that pressing the panic button is the last thing this team needs right now.
"Panic's not going to help
anyone. It will just spread like a virus through the team," he said. "This is a time when leaders, as captains — everyone will look up to us."
Quigley has been on the team since 2005, and he said that listening to sports radio or listening to reporters won't help either, whether the team is winning or losing.
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
COMMENTARY
One season isn't enough time for Gill to prove his worth at Kansas
W ith six games left in coach Turner Gill's first season, the
spotlight is burning on his back to show a final sign that the Kansas football program will not take a stage dive into the pit of the Big 12. Despite the negativity pointed at Gill after the recent losses, people need to remember that most coaches need more than six games to build a program.
There is talk from the media and fans questioning Gill's job security if the season turns out to be one huge blowout like the last two games. There is finger pointing from everyone who witnessed Kansas' shining moment three years ago when it won the Orange Bowl as to whose fault it is for this embarrassing season.
Many of the fingers point to Gill, and with the Athletics Department in search of a new athletics director, the fingers are starting to press on Gill.
But Gill remains positive, as usual, in his outlook on the future of Kansas football. In a press conference yesterday, Gill emphasized his belief in his staff's ability and experience, as well as in his players' resilience and talent.
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
He also defended the slow start to the season and his role in it as a coach.
"I think there are opportunities that have been proven all over the place across the country where you do have things that don't start off very well and your program is able to turn it around." Gill said of other schools that have hired a new coach to resurrect programs.
This has been seen in our very own state. Former coach Mark Mangino, in his first year as Kansas football's coach, led the team to a 2-10 season. But the pressure on him to perform wasn't as great considering he was taking control of a team that had shown no success since the 1995 Aloha Bowl.
In that first season, Mangino lost three games by more than 50 points. Six years later he had an Orange Bowl ring on his finger
Kansas State's Bill Snyder led the Wildcats to a dismal 1-10 record in his first season at Kansas State in 1989. It took him four years to get the Wildcats to a bowl game.
that he could point at people.
But now more than ever, the need to win weighs heavy on every coach at every Big 12 school. Coach Gill is working with a group of players that Mangino recruited. He is simultaneously converting them from a spread offense to a balanced run-focused attack. Some might call those excuses, but the timeline for excuses to become fixes is dwindling.
Gill said things will turn around at Kansas — he just doesn't know how long it will take.
"We have faith in what we're trying to do offensively and what we're trying to do defensively," he said in yesterday's press conference. "Again, you're trying to put all of those pieces of the puzzles together to try and make sure you get the mesh."
The spotlights will burn brighter during the next six weeks, but it is too soon to put on the search lights for a new coach.
Edited by Joel Petterson