THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
SPORTS
3B
BIG 12FASTBREAK
Big 12 writer Mark Dent's take on the men's conference race.
BY MARK DENT
BY MARK DENT
KANSAN SPORTS COLUMNIST
MDENT@KANSAN.COM
RAISE YOUR GLASSES TO... Kansas (214-822)
It's almost impossible to ask for a better week after the disappointing loss to Texas A&M. The Jayhawks didn't just beat their rivals, they
absolutely annihilated them. Kansas defeated Kansas State 97-70 last Wednesday and bettered Missouri 92-74 last Saturday. Most importantly, these victories came at a time when Kansas fans were getting restless
According to coach Bill Self, the loss to A&M created a "sky is falling" feeling among the fan base. The two victories also gave confidence to the big fellas, Julian Wright, Darnell jackson, Darrell Arthur and Sasha Kaun all played well in at least one of the two games.
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Iulian Wright, Kansas.
Way to go Wright. Two weeks ago
he was in the 'Oh My Gosh' section for missing a wide open dunk and faking an injury. Now look at him. Wright dropped 33 points against Missouri on 14-for-21 shooting. He was able to get most of those looks because of eight offensive rebounds. Plus, he's came full circle since that missed dunk two weeks ago. He more than made up for it by knocking down Missouri's Kalen Grimes for a thunderous dunk.
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Run'em Cowboys
Oklahoma State has to be getting tired of these marathon games. It defeated Texas Tech in double overtime last Saturday. That victory came about three weeks after the Cowboys defeated the Longhorns.
triple overtime. But it doesn't stop there. Oklahoma State had to go extra minutes earlier this season to beat Missouri State. It's a good thing that the Cowboys (19-5, 5-4) are in good overtime, because if they weren't they would be 16-8 and on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament.
Third-rate third place
Kansas State and Texas are only one game behind Kansas in the Big
12 standings, but both teams are much further back in terms of skill. The Longhorns are talented, but their players stand around too much and wait for Kevin Durant to do something. The Wildcats don't have enough quality victories. They beat Texas only because they couldn't miss from three-point range and haven't defeated anyone else in the top half of the conference.
Streaking Sooners
For those who aren't familiar with the Dora watch, the Big 12 Fastbreak bet Darryl Dora, Texas Tech forward, wouldn't score in double figures for the rest of the season after scoring 18 against Kansas. This week, Dora once again kept pace. He came dangerously close by scoring nine points against Oklahoma State Saturday. But Saturday's high scoring output was understandable since he didn't even step on the floor last Monday against Nebraska.
KEEP A CLOSE WATCH ON THE RACE FOR IRRELEVANCE... The Big 12 Fastbreak apologizes
The Sooners have won four games in a row and should make it five at Iowa State Tuesday, Saturday. Oklahoma has a home date against Texas A&M and could alter the Big 12 race and give it a better chance for an NCAA Tournament berth.
The Dora Watch
for the lack of Colorado criticism in this section. Stay tuned for regularly scheduled Buffalo bashing next week. For now, let's turn our attention to western Texas. Bobby Knight haters received not just one, but two special treats this week. First there was Nebraska. Let's take some time to remember how mediocre the Huskers can be. Does a 14-minute scoreless stretch ring a bell? Well, last Tuesday that same team out scored the Red Raiders by 15 in the second half and won on a last second shot that only happened because Tech's Ball Burgess accidently gave the ball to Nebraskas Charles Richardson. Texas Tech followed up that loss by blowing a seven point lead in the last 1:30 of regulation against Oklahoma State. The Raiders lost in double overtime, Tech, team that upset Kansas and Texas A&M, has now lost five games in a row and is, to describe it in word: irrelevant.
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Kalien Grites Missouri
Julian Wright's dunk from tass Saturday's game was good, but it wasn't "Grimy." Before the Tigers fell off the face of the earth late in the first half, Mizzou fans were treated by getting to see this jam, Grimes received the ball in the lane and threw down a scary one-hander in Sasha Kaun's face. But poetic justice worked against Grimes. After all, he was the victim of Wright's dunk later in the game.
Kansan sportswriter Mark Dent can be contacted at mdent@kansan.com.
Edited by Sharla Shivers
Tiger's vacation gives others chance
DOUG FERGUSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
True, one victory by Phil Mickelson still leaves him six short of the PGA Tour winning streak Woods is riding.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For all the fuss over Tiger Woods taking another week off, perhaps the Nissan Open should consider this possibility: It still might have the hottest player in golf at Riviera.
And despite a five-shot victory at Pebble Beach, some perspective is in order.
Lefty usually wins at least once before leaving his native West Coast, and this was the 11th time in 15 seasons that he won before the PGA Tour reached Florida. Plus, the only serious competition he faced Sunday came from Kevin Sutherland and rookie John Mallinger, whose world ranking last week was, respectively, No. 256 and No. 454.
But there was something about Mickelson's game that indicated he is ready to step back into the rine.
In years past when his game has slipped a notch, Mickelson has devoted time to scoring shots — specifically, 150 yards and in — and sharpening his putting stroke by staying on the practice green until he made 100 straight putts from 3 feet.
But after the debacle at Winged Foot — not just the double bogey
on the 18th hole, but hitting only two fairway in the final round of the U.S. Open - he was consumed by becoming a better driver off the tee.
Mickelson hit 81 percent of his fairways in two rounds at Pebble Beach and one each at Poppy Hills and Spyglass. PGA Tour statistics show him missing only one fairway in his final round of 66, although he said he also missed the fairway at No. 9 by a foot.
Don't get the idea Fred Funk, a guy who picks out stripes left by the lawn mower, has anything to fear.
"I will never lead the stat in driving accuracy. Let's not overdo this." Mickelson said, "But if I could improve 20 or 25 percent in my accuracy, that's going to make a big difference in my scores."
His score at Pebble Beach was 20 under 268, tying the tournament record set by Mark O'Meara in 1997 when he won by one shot. Mickelson won by five, matching the largest margin of victory at Pebble.
Sutherland is good friends with Mickelson and sees him plenty. And he was impressed.
the longest club in his bag than he used it on the short fourth hole, which plays uphill with Stillwater Cove on the right and bunkers on the left. That's where he tried his latest shot, a low draw, and it twice set him up with the perfect angle into the green for a short wedge.
"He drove it for the most part on a string, right down the middle of the fairway." Sutherland said. "If he is driving the ball like that, there's not a player in the world that is not going to have a hard time beating him."
This is the first time he can remember hitting a tee shot and not being overly concerned when he looked to see where it was headed.
"Ive never had this type of feeling on the tee box," he said. "I just feel so confident right now."
Mickelson is so confident about
Mickelson has not played Riviera since 2001, and he hasn't played it very well. The classic design of Sunset Boulevard has tight fairways, not necessarily of the U.S. Open variety, but tight to have an optimum angle into the green. Lefty has been there eight times, never finished in the top 10 and went home four times before the weekend.
But he was so excited about his game that he said after Thursday's round of 65 at Poppy Hills that he might add the'Nissan Open to his schedule, and by Friday morning at Pebble Beach, it was a done deal.
Never mind that it will give him six straight tournaments.
"I wanted to play a little bit more competitive golf with the way I'm playing before I start my run up for Augusta." Mickelson said. "I'm looking forward to playing at Riviera. It won't be a similar style golf at Augusta, but it's pretty close to a U.S. Open."
Strangely enough, the U.S. Open is where it all started.
Mickelson didn't linger on Winged Foot because he had two majors still to play in 2006. But once he shut it down for the year, right after going 0-4-1 in the Ryder Cup, he allowed himself to reflect on his collapse and fix the problem.
Still no answers in Texas A&M ticket incident
>> 'HORN BORN, 'HAWK BRED
Officials need to clear up confusion
BY TRAVIS ROBINETT
KANSAN COLUMNIST
TROBINETT@KANSAN.COM
It's been nearly a week and a half since the Texas &M student ticket incident and
"We had the same number of people in Wednesday night as we did Saturday night. ...What we didn't do was a good job of managing the crowd when they came in. ...People were trying to get in through the vomitors and they couldn't because of the number of people trying to get in at the same time. So because of that log jam we had to shut the doors." Marchiony said.
the mother takes incarnation and the story has only gotten hazier. The more people I talk to about what happened, the more confused I am.
At least one thing is certain: The testimony from student eyewitnesses and Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony don't corroborate.
But Mission Hills senior Sam Stepp was outside when he and the other students were told the game in fact was oversold.
Marchiony claimed the game was not oversold.
"It took them at least 45 minutes to address the crowd. Finally they said the reason why we couldn't come in was because they had oversold the game by about, well they said several hundred tickets," Stepp said. Many other students confirmed that this happened.
If the game was not oversold, why were the students told otherwise?
"I don't know who made that announcement," Marchory said in a follow-up interview. "If it was made it was incorrect."
Stepp, who ended up inside Allen Fieldhouse after waiting in Hadl Auditorium, thought the
game was definitely oversold.
“There were no seats in that place, and considering about 200 kids had already gone home, you know that they didn't have seats for everyone.”
University Fire Marshal Bob Rombach makes the recommendation for when to stop letting people in, and he said it's not an exact science.
"For 10 years I've tried to figure out the count and I can't do it, there's no way to find out how many seats athletics sells," he said.
If the Fire Marshall doesn't know Allen Fieldhouse's limit exactly, how would Marchiony know whether they oversold that limit?
It doesn't stop there. Another of Marchiony's statements couldn't be confirmed. He later said to have "misspoke" about this, but at the time of the interview he said, "we gave an option of a refund or a GA ticket to another game. Between students and GA's we gave about 140 refunds."
With all these contradictions, do anyone know anything? Really, everyone involved, including Marchiony, is confused. The students were hoarded together, cold and angry. They were at the game, but were far from in charge of the situation. They couldn't say the reason why it all happened.
"You never want this to happen," Marchiony said. "No one wants this to happen. We hope the students realize that this has not happened before and we took immediate steps to make sure this won't happen again... It's the student's school. We can't forget that. That's why we feel so sorry about it."
After all this talk, does anyone, and I mean anyone, really know what happened that night? Apparently not.
Robinett is an Austin, Texas seniior in journalism.
Edited by Joe Caponio
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