6A the university daily kansan
thursday, december 4, 2003
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Royals need more to give up Beltran
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Los Angeles Dodgers still want to trade for outfielder Carlos Beltran, but don't have anyone the Kansas City Royals want in return for their leading offensive player, general manager Allard Baird said.
The Associated Press
to believe Carlos Beltran won't be the starting center fielder for the Kansas City Royals on opening day," Baird said. "And that's a good thing."
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term and in the long term."
"Right now, there's no reason
Angeles returned its attention to Beltran. The Dodgers pushed hard for Beltran last summer, who led the Royals in virtually every offensive category last season, but the Royals want more than lower-level prospects in return.
After failing to land either Derek Lee or Richie Sexson, both power-hitting first basemen, Los
With the departure of left fielder Raul Ibanez to Seattle and a hole at the catcher's position, Kansas City would find its offensive needs even more acute if Beltran were to be traded for someone with lesser offensive skills. Beltran becomes a free agent at the end of the 2004 season.
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"In our position, I have to be willing to listen," Baird said. "But for anything to happen, I need a return that helps us in the short
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FLAHERTY: Attitude, focus during losses shaped team into winner
CONTINUED FROM 1A
dwell on the losses and prepared them for the upcoming game.
Mangino knew when he came here that this would be a tough program to turn around. Kansas hadn't had a winning season since 1995, and it takes a whole lot more than one game to make or break a program.
Writers and recliner analysts everywhere coined the season opener against Northwestern a "must-win" game for a program attempting to rise.
Naturally, the Jayhawks dropped the game. They made ESPN's list of the top-10 worst teams in NCAA Division 1-A football for the week, and some fans even began to say that the
season, just one game in, was already over.
Apparently, somebody forgot to tell Mangino. The next week Kansas exploded in the third quarter to blow out a UNLV team, just a week before the Rebels downed Wisconsin in Madison.
This season was full of tough losses, and the team bounced back to play hard every game afterwards. That's coaching. While he will always be judged on his victories, it was his attitude and focus during the losses that have helped shape this team into a winner.
This season was filled with the dual-mannered Mangino handling mistakes and successes in stride.
Mangino was the first to yell at Moderick Johnson for a dropped pass on an otherwise sure touchdown against Missouri. But he was also the first to congratulate him after his fourth down, nineyard catch on a slant pattern, gave the Jayhawks a first down in the same game.
While mild-mannered most of the time, Mangino goes to war for his players if he feels they have been wronged. Late in the Oklahoma State game, Mangino drew two personal foul calls for yelling at an official when Brian Luke was hit out of bounds.
ments actually mean something.
He has his generic list of things to say at press conferences, but if you listen closely enough, you'll find that his clichés say something about his character. He'll often refer to players as "tough as nails," or say that if you tell that player to run through a wall for you, he's going to do it.
It's ironic how coaches can talk for an hour at a press conference without really saying anything, but Mangino's com-
Maybe that's because their coach is tough as nails, a real competitor and the players know that he would run through a wall for them if need be. That's the sort of coach players want to play for; that's what makes him a good players' coach.
Flaherty is a Lenexa senior in journalism.
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SELF: Confidence, variety of plays helps to improve team's toughnes.
CONTINUED FROM 1A
bringing the Big Ten's slow-it-down version of basketball to Lawrence. That is not the kind of toughness he is talking about.
Self's version of toughness is more mental than physical. It's not running through screens or making guys pay for every layup. It's about being first to loose balls or going after rebounds with two hands.
"The best way to run offense is that you have to defend all five spots and in the first three games opposing defenses didn't really have to do that as much." Self said. "At TCU, we made them pay for leaving guys open and now teams will start respecting that and it will open more things."
Against Texas Christian on Monday, Kansas won by playing completely differently than it played against Michigan State. Kansas' starting post players, Simien and freshman center David Padgett, combined for just two field goals, but the team managed to score 85 points.
"I despise excuses." Self said. "I have had teams complain about how tired they were, and I said 'If you are so tired then we will practice tomorrow.'"
No matter how many games his team wins, Self will continue to ask his players to be the toughest on the court. That is just the way he is.
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After the Michigan State win,
the coach said that he was happy with the way his team played. He called it a Big Ten-type of game where his post players excelled.
"If we continue to play like that, maybe we can make toughness our team's identity this season," junior forward Wayne Simien said after the game.
"We are not a tough team yet," he said, "But we are getting tougher."
Self said he hoped that the victory would give him and his staff more credibility with the players.
shot the ball consistently yet."
"Nobody is skeptical, but people want to see, 'Hey, does it work?'" Self said. "We won a muddy game. We've got to draw confidence in winning those types of games because we've not
It was the team's 10-21 three point shooting that helped win the game against the Horned Frogs. While he always wants to get his post players more involved. Self said that great teams were the ones that could score in a variety of ways.
Edited by Katie Nelson
$250 Cash Award HAWK WEEK 2004 LOGO COMPETITION
Sponsored by New Student Orientation
Pick up an application in 213 Strong or from our website www.hawkweek.ku.edu
Who can participate: KU students enrolled for both the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 semester.
Deadline for completion is 5 p.m. on December 19th in 213 Strong.