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/ **SPORTS** / FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"if you give in to your emotions after one loss, you're liable to have three or four in a row."
— Chris Evert
FACT OF THE DAY
Georgia Tech ran for 372 yards last weekend. The Yellow Jackets threw for just 12.
Kansas Athletics
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Only one team rushed for more yards last season than Georgia Tech. Who was it?
A: Nevada. The Wolfpack ran for 4484 yards to the Yellow Jackets' 4136.
Kansas Athletics
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Team to meet fans and sign autographs
The women's basketball team will be in the Hy-Vee Hawk Zone tomorrow before the 11 a.m. football game. The entire team will be present to meet fans and sign autographs.
The Hawk Zone is located on the football practice field up the hill from Memorial Stadium and will open at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The Hawk Zone is children-oriented, with different stations to amuse younger fans before the games.
The Jayhawks return seven letter-winners, including three starters, and welcome four new players. Kansas will start the new season with a pair of home exhibition matches on Oct. 31 and Nov.7 against Fort Hays State and Washburn.
- Kathleen Gier
Expect a loss, but have fun, too
MORNING BREW
I was worried about you, Kansas fans. I was worried that you might take last Saturday's loss and go into a funk.
No one likes a morose Lawrence, except Missouri and Kansas State fans, so I called the only person I know who has experience with what you are all going through: my brother Mike Dwyer. His initials, M.D., far surpass his education, B.A., but they lend to his nickname "Doc," which is close to the role he hoped he would play for you.
You see, Doc's college education came about 10 hours west of here in Boulder, Colo., and in his senior year, he saw current Colorado coach Dan Hawkins take the helm. Hawkins, like Turner Gill, lost his first game as coach in the Big 12. Also like Gill, he lost it in embarrassing fashion to an FCS (then-Division 1-AA) team from the seemingly endless wilderness a few states north and west of Kansas (Montana State, in that case).
So, I called my brother up, and the first thing he said — before he even said hello — was "Man. I know how much that sucks."
Or something vaguely similar to that.
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
Or something saggy similar. I went on about how Kansas fans would be in for a long season, going to every game with the knowledge, or at least the assumption, that the odds were stacked highly against them should the team perform as abysmally as it did Saturday.
And I said, "Doc, I'm worried about my readers."
And then Doc said something that surprised me.
"No, no," he corrected me. "You're right, there probably won't be many wins. But you're looking at this all wrong. I had more fun that season than any of my others at CU."
Naturally, I thought he was crazy. What? Come on. Losing can be more fun than winning. Where's the competitive spirit?
he then reminded me that he was a stud on the intramural dodgeball championship team that year, and that his competitive thirst was quenched through that pursuit.
Then he offered advice. It is easy, he said, to give up hope and stop going to games and generally not care about the prospects of your football team. It is way more fun, though, to give up hope, keep going to games, cheer desperately for your football team, but expect a loss each week.
If you win: awesome. Jubilation. Knock
yourself out, be embarrassingly proud of getting a tally in the win column. Charge the field and take victory laps. That's what Colorado did. They won two games that year, against Iowa State and Texas Tech. When the final bell sounded, fans charged the field and hoisted then-quarterback Bernard Jackson onto their shoulders both times. Jackson, coincidentally, wore No. 7.
There are two morals to this story, at least that I immediately picked up on.
First, if you expect the worst, you can't get let down. That doesn't work for everything, but in this case, it's applicable.
Second, booze helps.
— Edited by Abby Davenport
NCAA
Kansas graduate Lauren Bonds, who participated in cross country and track and
Bonds
held, is among the top 30 honores for the 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year award. This year 452 nominations
were submitted for the award. The top 30 nominees were
nominated by conference and independent members who represent different sports and all three NCAA divisions. Three finalists will be chosen from each division and the national winner will be announced at the 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year awards event Oct. 17 in Indianapolis.The winner will be chosen by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.
The award honors student athletes who have distinguished themselves in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, community service and leadership.
Bonds received the 2010
Prentice Gautt Scholarship and was named a 2009-2010 University of Kansas Woman of Distinction. The political science/international studies and history major moved on to law school at Duke University.
Bonds was a four-time Academic All-American and Big 12 All-American Team honorree. Bonds placed seventh in the 1,500 meter run at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and earned All-American honors.She was also the Big 12 champion in the 1,500 meter. Bonds holds five school records and is an 11-time All-Big 12 performer in indoor
and outdoor track combined. In cross country she led the team in all six meets as a three-year team captain and finished 61st at the NCAA Cross Country National Championships her senior year.
The Hutchinson native served as a volunteer at the Lawrence Community Shelter and worked with the Church World Services Immigrant and Refugee program. She also worked with Project Bridge: Translation Service, the Douglas County AIDS project and Coalition for Immokalee Workers.
NBA
— Kathleen Gier
Coach takes on disappointed team and fans
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
CLEVELAND_ The drive from Cleveland Clinic Courts to the Ritz-Carlton is typically brief and mundane, Except for the night of July 8.
While LeBron James was busy with his "Decision," Byron Scott had plenty of his own to make. The new coach of the Cavaliers was assembling a coaching staff, preparing for the summer league and temporarily staying at the posh hotel in downtown Cleveland. He had shut off the television in his office at the Cavaliers' facility a
few minutes after lames said he was leaving and hadn't thought much more about it.
Then he tried to get back to his hotel room. The James banner that covered the side of the Landmark Office Tower, across the street from Quicken Loans Arena, had suddenly become the target of Caws fans' venom.
Scott drove by in awe at a line of police cars protecting the banner _ and the building _ as angry fans cursed, hurled rocks at and gave the finger to James' picture.
ward position of balancing the bittersweet past with a painful present. Fans are still stunned and sick over James' departure. Interest in the Cavs is suddenly lower than it has been in at least seven years.
Scott, the Los Angeles native with three Lakers championships, has arrived to the party as the janitor is folding up the chairs and sweeping away the confetti.
Now, as he prepares to open his first training camp at the end of this month, Scott is in the awk-
"I wasn't emotionally attached because I never coached LeBron," he said. "The people here had such an investment in him that I could understand their feelings. I think most people here felt like it was a kick in the teeth. I could totally
Scott, 49, led the New Jersey Nets to consecutive Eastern Conference championships. He was the NBA's Coach of the Year two years ago with the New Orleans Hornets.
understand that."
Now he is faced with the difficult task of making basketball matter again in Cleveland. Soothing the hurt and bringing fans back to Quicken Loans Arena won't be easy.
"The way we get the fans back is by what we do on the court," he said. "If we go out there and we play hard every single night and give 110 percent and they see that, they see the energy every night,
it gives them hope of being a much better team from start to finish."
than walking around the city you grew up in and people calling you champ." Scott said. "He lost all that. He'll probably win a championship or two, but coming back here, it won't be the same. No matter what he says right now, 20 years from now, he'll look back, and this is something he'll think about."
Scott was introduced as the Cavaliers coach July 2. He knew full well that it was a risk, that there was no guarantee James was coming back. Scott could have waited another week for James to decide before choosing whether to take the job.
Scott worked as an analyst at ESPN so it was his job to critique the Cavaliers' performance in their playoff loss to the Boston Celtics.
He says the Cavaliers didn't quit; the Celtics were simply the better team. But he also knew the early exit meant Mike Brown had little chance of surviving.
"As good a job as he had done, the bottom line here at that time was to win championships," Scott said. "I know first-hand, the coaches go first."
Without James, the Cavaliers seem closer to rebuilding than winning, but Scott still believes he took the right job at the right time.
Without James, the Cavaliers are viewed as hopeless. Dime Magazine recently compared the Cavaliers to the Toronto Raptors as the worst teams in the Eastern Conference.
Scott points to Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison as former All-Stars, the growth in J.J. Hickson and the hustle of Anderson Varejao as reasons to believe the Cavaliers are still playoff contenders. He gets upset reading predictions of how awful they will be this year. The players do, too.
"Damn right we get (mad)." Williams said. "But at the same time, we understand the reality of the situation. We lost a big piece."
Volleyball vs. Winthrop 12 p.m.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Soccer
at Cal State Northridge
6:30 p.m.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Volleyball Northern Iowa 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
KDAY
Football
vs. Georgia Tech
11 a.m.
Volleyball vs. Arkansas-Little Rock 4 p.m.
Cross Country
Missouri Cross Country
Challenge
TBA
Columbia, Mo.
SUNDAY
Soccer
Oregon
12:30 p.m.
Las Vegas, Nev.
MONDAY
Women's Golf Chip N Club Invitational All Day Lincoln, Neb.
Men's Golf
Fairway Club Invitational.
All Day
Nebraska City, Neb.
Women's Golf
Chip N Club Invitational
All Day
Lincoln, Neb.
TUESDAY
Men's Golf Fairway Club Invitational All Day Nebraska City, Neb.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Heisman winner still not ready to play
In listening to Penn State players talk this week about Alabama's running game, they made it clear they were treating running back Trent Richardson with the same respect as 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram.
Ingram is likely out; coach Nick Saban said Wednesday he was "probably not going to be ready to play" against the 18th-ranked Nittany Lions as he continues to recover from left knee surgery
That will come in handy for Saturday night's game between the two prestigious programs.
"We'll continue to (monitor) him day-to-day," Saban said. "He hasn't had any swelling or problems. If he can continue to progress ... he might be ready by the game but he won't be able to practice enough."
Ingram underwent an arthroscopic procedure on Aug. 31 to repair an injury suffered in practice the previous day. He was not at practice Wednesday during the time the media were allowed to watch, but he did some running the day before.
The top-ranked Crimson Tide doesn't lose any speed with Richardson, who is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. The 5-foot-11, 224-pound sophomore, who gained 751 rushing yards and scored eight touchdowns last season as a backup, ran for 66 yards in 10 carries in Saturday night's opening win over San Jose State.
However, the absence of Ingram doesn't necessarily mean the Lions are breathing more easily.
1.
"He's a great back, real fast," Penn State defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu said. "He's just like Mark Ingram. There's really no difference. We'll have our hands full Saturday and hopefully we'll be up to the challenge."
The Crimson Tide also will have redshirt freshman Eddie Lacy ready to give Richardson a rest. Lacy rushed for a team-high 111 yards Saturday night.
McClatchy-Tribune