4B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KU76-BU61
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22. 2006
Baylor coach gives camper sweaty souvenir
BY RYAN SCHNEIDER
rschneider@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SWISSPORTWRIER
While camping Sunday night in Allen Fieldhouse for the men's basketball game against Baylor, Katie Marten, Wichita sophomore, had an unexpected visitor.
As Baylor finished practicing late Sunday night, assistant coach Matthew Driscoll spotted the list of campers hanging on a door and began look at the variety of group names. One name in particular caught his attention — "Baylor still sucks."
When he shouted out the name to find its camper, Marten got nervous.
"At first he scared me." Marten said. "His voice was very loud."
Driscoll called the name out several times, but got no response from campers.
Because she was reluctant to admit that it was her group's name, Marten quickly pulled down the sign with her group's name and covered it up. Driscoll velled the name again and there was still silence.
"He said. If you're man enough to make the name, be man enough to admit it." Marten said.
Finally, after a few yells of her group's name, Marten timidly raised her hand and immediately drew Driscoll's attention.
Marten said she immediately blurted out that she didn't hate Baylor and didn't come up with her group's name.
Driscoll just smiled.
"He was so nice," Marten said. "He was just laughing and smiling the whole time."
After the quick meeting, Driscoll disappeared back onto the court with his team, which was practicing at the time. He reemerged, but this time clutching a sweaty, black oversized Baylor T-shirt. Marten said he threw her the T-shirt, obviously fresh off the back of a Baylor player and ikingly told her to wear it to the game.
Driscoll brought other Baylor coaches out and spent time looking at the list of camping groups hanging on a door at the north end of the fieldhouse.
"They were laughing at all the group names," Dustin Groud, Milbank, S.D., freshman, said. "They really laughed at the one with the Micah Downs' name." Grorud, who was camping with his group, "Riptide Rush," said it was unusual to see opposing coaches visiting with campers. He said Driscoll had even joked with campers, saying they should come to Baylor, where they could walk up at tip-off and get good seats.
- Edited by Lindsey St. Clair
Anthony Mattingly/KANSAN
Freshman guard Brandon Rush protects the ball from Baylor defender Kevin Rogers during the first half of Tuesday night's game in Allen Fieldhouse. Rush had 11 points, three assists, five rebounds and two blocks in Kansas' 76-81 victory against Baylor.
Carly Pearson/KANSAN
Senior guard Jeff Hawkins sits on the bench Tuesday night at the Jayhawks game against Baylor in Allen Fieldhouse. Hawkins did not dress for Tuesday night's game because he was cited for leaving the scene of an accident and driving without car insurance on Sunday morning.
Boxscore
Baylor (2-11, 2-11 Big 12 Conference)
PTS REB AST
Bush, Tim... 5 2 0
Swanson, Tommy... 13 4 1
Diene, Mamadou... 0 6 1
Jerrells, Curtis... 17 1 4
Bruce, Aaron... 13 2 3
Dugat, Henry... 3 3 2
Fields, Patrick... 8 2 0
Rogers, Kevin... 2 2 0
Totals... 61 22 11
Kansas (20-6, 11-2 Big 12 Conference)
PTS REB AST
Wright, Julian'... 20 5 0
Kaun, Sasha... 6 3 1
Robinson, Russell... 9 2 9
Chalmers, Mario... 8 5 4
Rush, Brandon... 11 5 3
Stewart, Rodrick... 2 1 0
Case, Jeremy... 0 2 1
Vinson, Stephen... 0 0 2
Jackson, Darnell... 11 5 0
Giles, C.J... 10 6 0
Moody, Christian... 0 1 0
Kleinmann, Matt... 0 0 0
Totals... 76 38 20
Boxscore
Bears
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
"We have got to focus a lot more this week to get those little things out of the way. Just rebound, just do the little things because we are going to have to do every single thing just to get a good win against Texas." Giles said.
Kansas is 5-1 on the road this season, but the game will certainly have a postseason feel.
"This will be out young guys' first time playing in this kind of atmosphere," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "They need to go down there with poise and have the mindset that we have a job to do."
Kansas nearly overlooked Baylor last night, and Self attributed the sluggish play to playing them between Missouri and Texas.
"I think we did a pretty good job," freshman guard Brandon Rush said. "It was kind of shaky though. The offense wasn't flowing right."
The Jayhawks got great production from their front court, especially from Wright, who scored a career-high 20 points in just 22 minutes.
"The big thing for us was to just run the floor and try to get easy baskets," Wright said. "I credit Russell because he was really aggressive today trying to get to the basket."
Robinson finished with nine assists after finding Wright on many possessions.
Wright came up with acrobatic plays all night.
Whether it was a tip-in off a Kansas miss or a sky-
high dunk off a feed from fellow freshman Mario Chalmers, Wright made it look easy, missing just one shot.
Sophomore center CJ Giles was active during his 17 minutes and dropped in 10 points. It was his first game in double figures since a January match up with Kentucky.
With the conference title possibly on the line Saturday, Baylor coach Scott Drew had a clear answer as to whether he thought Kansas was the best team in the conference.
"Most definitely," Drew said.
For the Jayhawks and Longhorns, time will tell.
Baylor tried to slow down the pace of the game by running a motion offense and was successful in limiting Kansas possessions.
Neither team was able to get into any offensive rhythm. Every time Kansas built a lead of 20 or more, Baylor would respond and cut it. The crowd had little impact on the game.
"This is the worst outing that we've had from an energy stand-point in quite some time," Self said.
Kansas broke the game open in the middle of the first half, building an 18-point lead, but Baylor was able to get back into the game off Jayhawk turnovers and a 10-0 Bears run that cut the lead to eight at halftime.
— Edited by Matt Wilson
Hawkins
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
"When I found out, I didn't have any details," Self said. "I had not had any contact with the police department because of missed phone calls. I still haven't seen a report. Jeff told me there was incident, obviously. He didn't have a choice to admit what he did was wrong, it was pretty evident he did it."
This is not the first time Hawkins has been in the middle of a off-the-court incident. Hawkins reached a diversion agreement with the Lawrence city prosecutor's office in October 2005 after he was charged with using a stolen University parking pass.
Self said he did not expect this incident to affect Hawkins' diversion.
Sophomore guard Jeremy Case saw more minutes Tuesday night because of Hawkins' absence. Case played 15 minutes in the game. After the game he said he was aware he would play more minutes when he found out about Hawkins' incident.
"It hurt the team because we need him out there." Case said. "I feel sorry for him. I hate that he has to
Hawkins has averaged 20.2 minutes per game, scored 4.8 points per game and dished out 2.5 assists per game this season. He scored a season-high 19 points against Yale in January, and scored 17 points against Nebraska at home.
go through this his senior year. After coach told me, I knew I had to get ready to play more."
Self did stress, when talking to the media, that he expected this to be a one-game suspension, and said Hawkins would still contribute down the stretch.
"I would imagine he would play." Self said. "I'll put some stipulations on it. I don't need to see the report. All I know is he embarrassed himself and the program."
Hawkins did not talk to the press after the game.
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Staff writer Mike Mostafa contributed information to this article.
Edited by Kathryn Anderson
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