THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
KANSAS
218
CROSS COUNTRY | 6A Tough test ahead in Wisconsin race The men's and women's teams will face several ranked teams Saturday in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2010
The men's and women's teams will face several ranked teams Saturday in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 10A
BEAR SEASON
Jayhawks ready for showdown
Junior wide receiver Daymond Patterson eludes a tackle from several New Mexico State defenders during the Jayhawks 42-16 victory against the Aggies last weekend. Kansas will face off against Baylor tomorrow in Waco, Texas at 11 a.m. to open Big 12 Conference play.
KU to compete in first matchup against Baylor in three years
If the Kansas football team is to win its first game on the road this Saturday, it will have to come in a state more than a third of its players call home.
The Jayhawks (2-2) will make their first and only trip to the Lone Star State when they travel to take on the Baylor Bears in Waco, Texas at 11 a.m. Saturday at Floyd Casey Stadium. There are 38 players from Texas on the Jayhawk roster, including junior wide receiver Daymond Patterson, who hails from Mesquite.
"It's about an hour and a half drive from where a lot of us are from," Patterson said. "A lot of families are going to be coming for a lot of players."
Patterson, the Jayhawks' leading receiver on the season with 22 receptions for 206 yards, will see two very familiar faces across the playing field on Saturday. Baylor wide receivers Lanee Sampson and Krys Buercke both played
BY MATT GALLOWAY
mgalloway@kansan.com
twitter.com/themattgalloway
Patterson
with Patterson through high school and have known him since their Pop Warner days.
years and we're just read to get our first game against each other"
Baylor (3-1) is led by sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin III, a speedy player still trying to get his legs back after a serious knee injury last year. Containing the versatile quarterback will be a key to victory in the Jayhawks' first conference game of the season, said coach Turner Gill.
The Kansas pass defense is ranked sixth in the country, an impressive feat considering the amount of time opposing quarterbacks have had in the pocket. The Jayhawk defense has recorded only three sacks this season none from their front four and rank 114th in the nation in that statistic.
It is the lajhawks' first matchup with the Bears since
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 2
WHERE: Waco, Texas
TIME: 11 a.m.
TV: Fox Sports Network
"They're going to try and get him in a situation where he is one-on-one with somebody, and I'd say that more times than not, he's going to win that battle one-on-one." Gill said. "We have to try and prevent him from having that opportunity. We have to have at least, two, three or four guys around the ball and make tackles. When we have an opportunity to make that tackle, we need to make that tackle."
"We've been talking about this game since we both committed and signed," Patterson said. "We're just ready. It's been three long
Oct. 13, 2007, which was a 58-10 Kansas victory in Lawrence. While the teams play in the same conference, they have only played each other nine times. Baylor leads the all-time series 5-4.
"When I saw that I was overwhelmed but every time we always want to strive to be No. 1," said sophomore safety Lubbock Smith. "This week we are going to look out and try to excel and build every day."
SEE A BREAKDOWN OF KU AND BAYLOR ON PAGE 7A
Protecting freshman quarterback Jordan Webb will be a high priority for the offensive line with backup sophomore quarterback Kale Pick sidelined with a leg injury. The coaching staff feels new backup quarterback junior Quinn
Mecham can manage the game if called upon.
"I don't think he's going to be at the same level as Jordan Webb, but if the game provides him an opportunity to play, then I think he's going to be able to do some things." Gill said. "I think he's
similar to Jordan Webb in that he throws the ball very low. He probably doesn't have as strong of an arm as Jordan Webb, but he hasn't taken as many reps, so he's not going to be quite as sharp.
Edited by Michael Bednar
SOCCER
Squad to face two Texas teams this weekend
BY MIKE LAVIERI
mlavieri@kansan.com
The soccer team is looking to rebound after a disappointing opening to its conference schedule.
Last weekend, the Kansas (4-6 overall, 0-2 Big 12) lost to Missouri (3-4-2 overall, 1-0 Big 12) and Iowa State (6-3-2 overall, 1-0 Big 12).
Coach Mark Francis was not pleased with his team's play.
"Last week, practice was really bad, consequently we didn't play well on the weekend," Francis said.
Francis thought the team competed pretty well in both games, but thought the overall composition was poor.
Kansas opens up a four-game homestead when the Jayhawks play No. 10 Texas A&M (8-3 overall, 1-1 Big 12) on Friday and Texas (6-2-2 overall, 0-1-1), who also received votes in the NSCAA poll, on Sunday.
He said he was pleased with the team's session on Tuesday and thinks that if the team comes ready to play like it did in practice, it should be a successful upcoming weeken
Texas A&M started out a tough schedule with losses to then-ranked No. 1 North Carolina 3-0 on Aug. 20 in College Station, Texas, and then-ranked No. 3 Portland 1-0 in Portland, Ore.
"We need to be a little more consistent in front of the goal and be a little more dangerous," Francis said.
The Aggies are led by senior midfielder Alyssa Mautz, who has eight goals this season. Mautz
WHEN: Today, 5 p.m.
WHERE: Lawrence
NEXT GAME
Kansas vs. Texas
WHEN: Sunday, 1 p.m.
WHERE: Lawrence
"Everyone needs to show up for every game, and we haven't been doing that," sophomore mid fielder Whitney Berry said.
Junior forward Emily Cressy dribbles the ball against Missouri last weekend. Missouri outshot Kansas 25-6 in the Jayhawk loss.
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
"Last week, practice was really bad, consequently we didn't play well on the weekend."
MARK FRANCIS
Soccer coach
The Longhorns will come to Lawrence on Sunday looking to win their first conference game of the season.
Texas is led by freshman forward Leah Fortune
is a member of the Under-23 Women's National Team.
KANSAS VS.
TEXAS A&M
and sophomore goalkeeper Alexa Gaul.
Fortune leads the team with four goals and three assists and Gaul has been the only keeper in
Fortune was a member of Brazil's Under-20 Women's FIFA World Cup squad and participated in the Brazilian Women's National Team training camp in preparation for the 2011 World Cup. Gaul is a member of the United States Under-23 Women's National Team that won the Four Nations Tournament in July. She was the starting keeper in all three matches and posted two shutouts.
net for the Longhorns this season, who has posted a 0.96 goals against average with 36 saves.
The offensive attacks for both Texas teams will pose a difficult threat to the Jayhawk defense this weekend.
Francis has been pleased
"Game in, game out, you pretty much know what you are going to get from those guys," Francis said
with defenders senior Geneva Magness and sophomore Shelby Williamson's play. He says they have been consistent all year.
the team goal of winning.
Magness has been focused on
r
She thinks consistency will come by practicing well.
"We need to stay positive and it will spread throughout our team," Magness said.
Edited by Abby Davenport
COMMENTARY
Recruiting misses no problem for Self, KU
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDKbasketball
Cross another name off the list. For a little while it looked like Kansas had a legitimate shot at a John Calipari good recruiting class. (I'm not saying I like the guy, but his recruiting classes are insane.)
But then the big-name recruits started choosing other schools. Bradley Beal, a St. Louis native and the No. 8 prospect in the country, started it off 10 months ago when he picked Florida over the Jayhawks.
Then, in the last couple weeks, two more top-10 recruits have turned their backs on the Jayhawks. No. 1 overall recruit Austin Rivers was always a Duke lean, but he had been very complimentary of Kansas, especially recently. On Sept. 18, Bill Self visited Rivers in his Winter Park home and Rivers told Rivals.com that they had a great time. He assured Rivals.com's Shay Wildeboor that he would be visiting Kansas before he made a decision. He set the visit date for homecoming weekend. Oct. 22.
Then he committed to Duke Thursday morning.
Naadir Tharpe, the 91st-rated recruit in the country, can expect a visit from Self as soon as Monday, Wildeboor said. Tharpe plays his high school ball at Wolfeboro in New Hampshire, the same school sophomore Thomas Robinson graduated from.
Point guard Josiah Turner, the No. 10 player in the class, was always supposed to be a Kansas lean. He was supposed to be the guy that stepped in after Josh Selby (assuming Selby does what every other No. 1 overall recruit has done and goes pro as soon as possible). He won't be, Turner committed to Arizona a little more than a week ago.
Wildeboor said assistant coach Kurtis Townsend visited Cook last week and was there either yesterday or would be again soon.
There's also plenty of talent left on the board. Sure, it would have been nice for the Jayhawks to bring Rivers or Turner to Lawrence, but they're getting serious looks from a lot of the top talent still around.
Remember the class of 2008?
There wasn't a single five-star recruit in the group. Now there's a legitimate candidate for the Naismith Award (Marcus Morris) and two other potential first round draft picks (Markieff Morris and Tyshawn Taylor). Mario Little and Travis Releford will see serious playing time this year and could see their stock rise high enough to get drafted as well.
Quinn Cook, a point guard ranked No. 28, is late to the party — the Jayhawks only jumped on his recruitment when Turner chose the Arizona variety of Wildcat — but is reportedly listening very hard to Self's sales pitch.
This isn't to say Kansas is cooked in the recruiting market this year. The Jayhawks, quite to the contrary, should be expected to pull off a top-20 class, like they do seemingly every year. Bill Self is notorious for snagging late commitments from quality players (Selby, Xavier Henry, etc.) and I'd be surprised if he didn't again this year.
LeBryan Nash, a small forward ranked No. 4 nationally, put Kansas in his final three recently.
That's a heck of a worst case scenario.
Edited by David Cawthon