SPORTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
▼ WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
PAGE 1B
Actions speak louder
Brown leaves her mark though short on words
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS
mphillips@kansan.com
KANSTS ANSE WRITER
Editor's note: The Kansan will profile all three women's basketball seniors this week, leading up to Thursday's game against Kansas State.
Take another look, though,
and you'll find that there's more
to Kaylee Brown than meets the
eve.
When the women's basketball team takes the court for senior night against Kansas State on Thursday, Erica Hallman and Crystal Kemp will both be yelling out instructions and encouragement to their teammates. But Kaylee Brown won't be.
"She keeps to herself a little bit," Coach Bonnie Henrickson said.
The senior guard is listed at 5-foot-8 — "on a good day." Henrickson jokes — but often must defend players who are five or six inches taller than her.
"A lot of times she got the hardest defensive matchup on
Turn to page 3B for the latest on the women's basketball team and its possibilities for the post season.
Meuan True/KANSAN
the perimeter, and the majority of the nights she handled it pretty well." Henrickson said.
Overcoming that height gap is also important on the offensive end, because Brown's job is to shoot and make three-pointers.
Brown has proven that coach wrong, and has made almost 40 percent of her shots from behind the arc this season, resulting in her playing entire games.
"My high school coach said I couldn't do it, that I wasn't a Division I player." she said.
"We all have minutes for a kid who can shoot the three and make the three," Henrickson said. "What she's been able to do is find her niche here."
SEE ACTIONS ON PAGE 4B
Senior guard Kaylee Brown looks to pass the ball by Missouri's LaToya Bond Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Loss humbles young players
BY RYAN COLAIANNI rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SPORTSWRIVER
When Brandon Rush touched the ball against Texas on Saturday, he could tell something was different.
It was not the same type of ball that he was used to playing with. It was a Nike ball, and Rush said it was lighter.
Rush, freshman guard, struggled against Texas, scoring a career-low three points on just 1-of-8 shooting.
"I wasn't aggressive. I was settling for jumpers and they weren't falling. I was getting the shots I wanted, I was just having an off week I guess," he said.
Rush also played with a Nike ball at Colorado and at Missouri and attributed his shooting struggles — 10-of-24 in those two games — to the type of basketball he was firing toward the basket.
In order to help solve this problem, Rush, Kansas' leading scorer, practiced with a Nike basketball Sunday.
Rush, like his teammates, is
With the loss to Texas, Kansas fell one game out of first place. Coach Bill Self and the players said they understood that they must win out and hope that Texas stumbles in order to take the conference crown.
looking to rebound from a 25-point loss to Texas with a solid performance Wednesday against Colorado.
"We're at home. It will be a different atmosphere, a different ball," he said. "We had a little time off yesterday to regroup and shoot around."
The mood has been different for the Kansas team thus far this week following the big loss.
"just from being in the locker room for a little today, I would say guys know we have to get better," senior guard Jeff Hawkins said.
WATER POLO
SEE LOSS ON PAGE 4B
Woman leads club sport
BY ERIC AMMERMAN
eammerman@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Diane Basore, captain and president of the University of Kansas water polo club team, stands in the pool at Robinson Gymnasium where the team practices. Basore made a name for herself by being nine to the all-conference team in a sport dominated by men.
Her résumé is impressive — especially when you consider that Basore is excelling in the men's division.
The president of the Kansas club water polo team is not just one of the guys. In 2004, Diane Basore was nominated for the all-conference team.
"They think, 'she's just a girl, she can't play,' Basore said. "I like to take advantage of that view."
The reason for the junior's outstanding play may have something to do with learning the sport in the water polo capital of the world — Sydney, Australia. After being born in Ames, Iowa, and living in Albuquerque, N.M., for eight years, Basore and her family moved to Sydney.
Jared Gaby/KANSAN
"I had to give up surfing while I'm here," Basore said. "Wescoe Beach wasn't enough. So, I picked up water polo to get my water fix."
Basore said living thousands of miles from where she had called home for so many years had been difficult.
"It's hard. You grow up really quick without anyone here," Basore said.
Despite competing with the men, Basore said she wasn't asking for anyone to feel sorry for her. She said she welcomed the challenge. Basore has also earned the respect of her teammates. Matt Royal, Des Moines, Iowa, senior, is Basore's coach, teammate and roommate.
"She's pretty fun. During practice we give each other a hard time, but we push
Basore said the water polo team
Royal said that having Basore on the team was no different from any of his male teammates.
each other pretty well," Royal said
acted as her social group. Just because her teammates see her as equal doesn't mean they don't give her a hard time. Basore said.
"I've never worried about a player being a guy or a girl, just how well they play." Royal said.
"When someone is nominated for allconference, the conference gives them a special-edition Speedo, so when I was nominated and got mine, my teammates
joked around a lot about it."
Basore also shared her advice for any females looking to excel in a predominantly male sport.
"Don't let the guys push you around and don't give up," Basore said.
- Edited by Gabriella Souza
▼ ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
3 Kansas sports post poor grades
Athletes at the University of Kansas are meeting the NCAA's academic progress requirements in all but three sports, school officials said Monday — and the school is appealing its possible loss of scholarships in two of them.
The NCAA is scheduled to release the Academic Progress Rate numbers for all but eight member schools on Wednesday. Kansas is one of those eight because its waiver request is still being processed — but elected to release its numbers to selected media representatives on Monday.
Football, baseball and women's basketball all failed to meet the minimums for athletes' retention and eligibility, but women's basketball is not in danger of losing scholarships because it falls under an exemption for sports with few team members.
APR, which the NCAA is phasing in over four years, tracks retention and eligibility rather than graduation rates. Each player is worth four points per academic year: one point per semester for being on scholarship and one more per semester for being academically eligible. The minimum passing grade is 925, meaning that a program has accumulated 92.5 percent of its possible points for the two-year evaluation period.
"NCAA statisticians have calculated that a 92.5 percent progress rate is a predictor of a 50 percent graduation rate down the line," said Paul Buskirk, the University's associate athletic director for student support services.
Teams not meeting the requirements would lose scholarships received by any ineligible athlete but could not lose more than 10 percent of scholarships for a given year. The low percentage in women's basketball can be attributed to a coaching change before last season, the University said. The University plans to argue that there were unavoidable reasons for players to leave the football and baseball teams.
"There were health-related issues in one case and family issues in another," Buskirk said.
The Associated Press
THE COLUMN
Look beyond Texas loss to young team's solid base
AUSTIN, Texas — I love living in Kansas and listening to Kansas basketball fans after games. You could imagine the interesting comments I heard after the "game of year" turned into the beating of the year after a 25-point Texas victory against Kansas.
I heard KU fans who said the Jayhawks were exposed and the Longhorns were on their way to a national championship in basketball.
JIMMY CHAVEZ
jchavez@kansan.com
For Texas fans, basketball is viewed in Austin, Texas, as entertainment before spring football begins. Saturday's game wasn't sold out until last Wednesday.
It's a bit different in Lawrence. This was the second time KU fans pressed the panic button. The first time was in December when the team started the season 3-4.
But we must all remember that this team is still comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores — 10 to be exact. The youth is as talented as any young team in the country. The 10-game winning streak Kansas carried into Texas is proof of
that.
Fans need to be reminded that Saturday's game wasn't the main objective of the season. Rather, it was a litmus test to the atmosphere of playing in the "College GameDay" spotlight. Now they know what it's like.
You have to realize that a blowout like Saturday's game occasionally happens to young teams.
In coming to terms with this,
we also learned about two specific KU freshmen on this youthful team.
Expect Rush to stay at least
I think we can all be sure that freshman guard Brandon Rush will not jump to the NBA after this year, based on his three points and four rebounds in the national spotlight. This might be the best thing to happen to him and a young Kansas team that will build for the future with this foundation of freshmen and sohomores.
one more year, unless he scores 81 points in an NCAA Tournament game. I have no doubt that Rush will see better days and fully expect him to have his day in the sun sooner rather than later.
We also learned that freshman forward Julian Wright could become one of the most dynamic players to ever put on a Kansas uniform.
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SEE CHAVEZ ON PAGE 4B
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