2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY JABY KANSAN
MOORE SPORTS
FRIDAY,MARCH 9,2007
'Hawks, sixth graders win with defense
Defense wins championships.
Coaches love to say it. Players hate to hear it. And even though the saying is more tired than media coverage of Tyler Hansbrough's broken nose, it's the truth.
BY C.J. MOORE
This has become even more apparent to me this year. A couple of buddies and I coach a sixth grade basketball team in Lawrence, the Blue Devils. The name was given to us — it wasn't by choice.
KANSAN SPORTS COLUMNIST
CJMOORE@KANSAN.COM
I've learned a few things this year. One, I'm convinced an entire generation has A.D.D. Two, nothing motivates sixth graders like a free Gatorade. And most importantly, defense does win championships.
Our team was the best defensive team in the league first semester. We held opponents to a league low 24.6 points per game. Our defense was so good that it brought tears to the eyes of several opposing teams' best players. You know your defense is good when it makes the other team cry. Just ask Kansas State's Jason Bennett.
In the second half of our sixth graders' championship game, we held the Terrapins to four points. That's the equivalent of Kansas holding Nebraska to 16 points in the first half in Lincoln earlier this season. We came from 12 points behind at the half to win the league championship.
After starting the second season this semester 2.0, the Blue Devils have lost five straight games. We're scoring at the same rate as last semester. We have the same play
ers. We're coaching the same way.
But our boys quit playing defense.
We've given up a league worst 39,1 points per game and I've gone from feeling like John Wooden to Ricardo Patton.
The only thing we do well anymore is take charges, and that's because we told our boys wed give them a Gatorade for every charge they took. I even taught them how to take a charge, how it sells the charge if you grunt when the offensive player runs into you. Now our boys grant more than female tennis players and were by far the best hydrated team in the league.
Coach Bill Self should use a similar tactic for his Jayhawks, who at times fall too much in love with blocking shots instead of taking the charge. But free Gatorade might not entice his players. He could try bottles of Cristal.
The Jahawks should also pay attention to the Blue Devils' triumphs and tribulations this year. Basketball is basketball no matter what level, even sixth grade, and championships at every level are won on the defensive end.
season and climbed to second in the national rankings because of its defense. Kansas is fourth in the nation in field goal percentage defense and is holding opponents to 37.4 percent shooting. According to www.ken-pom.com, Kansas leads the nation in defensive efficiency, which is calculated by taking the number of points allowed per every 100 possessions.
These stats aren't a coincidence. Bill Self is one of the best coaches in the nation when it comes to coaching defense. This hasn't always made him a fan favorite here in Lawrence, where everyone became spoiled by watching the fast-breaking, high-scoring Roy Williams teams. The Jayhawks during the Williams era scored a lot of points and won a lot of games. But Williams never won a national championship with the Jayhawks — Self will.
Kansas won the Big 12 title this
Williams's teams always had that one game in the tournament where their shots — or free throws — quit falling. It happens. Shots aren't going to fall every game, every half. Just ask Kevin Durant and the Texas Longhorns.
But defense doesn't have to come and go. It can compensate for an off shooting night. Defense, like rebounding, is about effort. It helps to be athletic, quick, lengthy and well-schooled: Sound familiar? Those are Self's layhawks.
Self has been criticized by some that he just recruits the best players available, doesn't try to build a team and just tries to accumulate as much talent possible. That's far
from the truth.
Self recruits guys that are talented on the offensive end but can also be molded into defensive specialists. Take Brandon Rush. When Rush arrived in Lawrence two years ago, he was regarded as a guy who could light up the scoreboard and didn't care much about defense. But Self saw that at 6-foot 6 with long arms and great lateral quickness, Rush had the potential to be a great defender.
During the beginning of Rush's freshman season, he looked lost on the defensive end. Then with some time under Self's tutelage, Rush has turned into one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the country. It was Rush's defense that held Durant to seven points in the second half last Saturday.
This year, Self's master plan is coming together. The Jayhawks' offenseteens off their defense. They don't have one player that is a defensive liability. They have bought into Self's defense-first mentality.
As a childhood teammate used to say, "If they don't score, they can't win." If the Jayhawks keep this mentality about their opponents through March, they'll find their way out of the first round and they might have a chance to win the whole dang thing. Just ask my Blue Devils.
Moore is a Shawnee senior in journalism.
NCAA
Edited by Kelly Lanigan
Selection committee ready for number games
BY MICHAEL MAROT ASSOCIATE PRESS
INDIANAPOLIS — Gary Walters and the NCAA selection committee will spend the rest of this week studying numbers, debating resumes and finding the 34 best at-large teams to put in the 65-team tournament.
They're likely to spend the next week hearing everyone complain about it.
“There's no magic formula to this,” Walters said. “Just because a team has a solid record or is solid in league play or even has a 500 record in league play isn't enough. You have the unbalanced schedules, so some teams may have followed a different path.”
Walters acknowledged Wednesday that they'll also be watch scores from this week's conference tournaments to sort out the mess.
Among those fighting for No. 1 seeds are Florida and Wisconsin.
athletics calendar
But Walters knows one thing;
Some people won't be happy.
CBS commentator Billy Packer told a national television audience it was too high? Saint Joseph's coach Phil Marrelli fired back by questioning Packer's credentials, and his Hawks eventually advanced to the regional finals before losing to Oklahoma State.
But how the bracket eventually looks, even at the top, is anybody's guess.
Welcome to life as chairman of the highest-profile committee in college athletics, where the only thing everyone seems to agree on is that nobody gets it right.
"Having observed the criticism over the years from teams that didn't get in, I understand how difficult that is," said Walters, the athletic director at Princeton. "We're aware there will be some teams that are disappointed, so you have to have thick enough skin to handle it."
For the 10-member voting bloc meeting in Indianapolis this week, the decisions could be even tougher.
FRIDAY
Aside from choosing who's in and who's out, they must also decipher a seeding process that appears nearly as jumbled at the top as it does on the bottom.
While people like Walters often find themselves explaining the committee's decisions, it's not as if they have exclusive rights on being targeted. Remember 2004, when Saint Joseph's received a No.1 seed and
Track and Field at NCAA Indoor Championships, All day, Fayetteville, Ark.
With Florida's late-season strug-
gle, Wisconsin injuries and Kansas
less-than-spectacular power ranking
Swimming and Diving at NCAA Championships, All day, Minneapolis, Minn.
Indoor Championships, All day,
Fayetteville, Ark.
"The more we take into account, the better decision we can make." Walters said. "So I think we'll take into account the AP poll and the coaches poll, but it's certainly not driving the car."
Tennis vs. Nebraska, 11 a.m.
Robinson courts
Softball vs. New Mexico.
11:45 a.m. Arrocha Ballpark
Baseball vs. Arkansas, 12:05 p.m., Fayetteville, Ark.
Swimming and Diving at NCAA Championships, All day, Minneapolis, Minn.
Baseball vs. Arkansas, 1:05 p.m., Fayetteville, Ark.
Softball vs. North Dakota State, 4:15 p.m. Arrocha Ballpark
SATURDAY
Track and Field at NCAA
SUNDAY
■ Tennis vs. Louisville, 11 a.m.
Robinson courts
touchdowns. He was fifth in the AFC in receptions for tight ends and sixth in yards.
BY R.B. FALLSTROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
Men's basketball vs. Oklahoma, 11:30 a.m., Oklahoma City
Softball vs. TBA, TBA, Arrocha Ballpark
Softball vs. Drake, 2 p.m.
Arrocha Ballpark
Baseball vs. Arkansas, 12:35 p.m. Fayetteville, Ark
The reception and yardage totals were the second highest of his career.
St. Louis filled the position
ST. LOUIS — Tight end Randy McMichael, who has averaged 65 catches the last three seasons, on Thursday agreed to terms on a three-year free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams.
"This has been in the works
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Rams coach Scott Linehan was offensive coordinator at Miami before coming to St. Louis.
with 100 kookies last season and second-round pick Joe Klopfenstein, the primary starter, had 20 catches. A second rookie tightend, third-round pick Domique Byrd, was recently arrested on suspicion of DUI and also faces charges of assault and armed criminal action in a separate case.
"He is an every-down tight end and a proven starter in the league."
One works for a while," Linehan said. "We even considered trading for him.
SCOTT LINEHAN Rams coach
Tight end signs with St. Louis
>> NFL
"He is an every-down tight end and a proven starter in the league."
McMichael is the Dolphins' career leader for tight ends
The Rams also agreed to terms on a four-year contract with safety Todd Johnson, who spent the last four seasons with the NFC champion Chicago Bears and was a part-time starter last year.
McMichael, 6-3 and 255 pounds, spent the last five seasons with the Miami Dolphins and last year was second on the team with 62 receptions for 640 yards and three
with 283 receptions, and his string of 80 consecutive starts ranks second behind Ozzie Newsome for the most by a tight end to open a career since 1970.
McMichael was a fourth-round pick of the Dolphins in the 2002 draft out of Georgia.
UPCOMING
Johnson, a fourth-round pick in 2003 out of Florida, started six games and played in 12 regular-season games last year and finished with 34 tackles, one forced fumble and 10 special teams tackles.
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