THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
FRIDAY, MARCH 18,2011
BASKETBALL | 7A
NCAA tournament updates
Learn about what has happened in the NCAA basketball tournament thus far. Flip to 7A for a rundown of the games that have been played.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 12A
MARCHING IN
The madness begins
Junior guard Tyshawn Taylor makes a layup in the second half of Saturday's game. Kansas defeated Texas to advance to a 32-2 record for the season
Top-seeded Kansas enters against bottom-seed Boston
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
History says the Boston Terriers don't stand a chance. A 16 seed has never beaten a one seed. Ever. And the Jayhawks don't look like the one seed to break that streak: too much depth, too much talent, too many Morrises.
Taylor will be key in the Jayhawks' chances to make a deep tournament run this year. The Jayhawks have had turmoil reign in the starting point guard spot, and Elijah Johnson started six games before Taylor took the job back in the Big 12 Championship game against Texas. How Self handles those two and freshman Josh Selby could be the difference between winning and losing in the second round and on.
"It's definitely a motivation for us," junior guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "I just don't want us to come out and fear that will happen again. We have to be loose, play, have fun and enjoy this time. We don't get this time too many more times."
History and reason say the Terriers don't stand a chance, but the Jayhawks don't. Not after last year, when everything would have said Northern Iowa was just a fly to be swatted by the mighty Jayhawks.
Self said he understood Tyshawn's importance to the team even when Taylor was on the bench. The importance of Taylor is that he's the best player on the team at running the point on a fast break, and he's quicker than most players.
"We get faster with Tysawn in the game," Self said. "Without him in the game we're not as fast of a team. One guy changes the look of who we are with his speed, without question."
Even Boston, which has no realistic chance to break the 0-104 streak 16 seeds entered the tournament on against one seeds, has steady point guard play in the form of D.J. Irving, a speedy freshman who averages just shy of eight points and four assists per game.
NO.1 KANSAS VS.
NO.16 BOSTON
**Where:** Tulsa, Okla.
**Time:** Today, 5:50 p.m.
**TV:** TBS
GAME DAY | 10A
Get tonight's inside scoop
Check out pregame analysis for Kansas' matchup vs. Boston.
"Their point guard is really fast, so we're up for a challenge, but we're ready," Taylor said. "We just want to go out there and play hard like we've been doing."
The Jayhawks are more than ready to put the Northern Iowa loss behind them, but not at the expense of taking a worthy opponent for granted. Senior guard Mario Little redshirted last season and didn't play in the Northern Iowa game, but he was one of the last Jayhawks to stagger off the court in disbelief
"That was last year," Little said. "We're moving on. We've got bigger and better things to accomplish right now."
Edited by Sarah Gregory
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Healthy Kansas hosts second round of WNIT
BY KATHLEEN GIER
kgier@kansan.com
Sophomore guard Angel Goodrich has been plagued with injuries through her career at Kansas and, for the first time, has avoided a season ending injury. Goodrich missed seven games early in the season when she had work done on her knee, but is feeling fine now and even playing without a brace.
The Jayhawks will host the winner of the Kent State and Duqense game on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.
"It is exciting and it gives me chills actually," Goodrich said.
Fredoahs "The more we move on, it is more exciting to move closer and closer to our goal." Goodrich said.
That goal of course is to return to the championship game they reached in 2008. Senior forward Krysten Boogaard and junior forward Aishah Sutherland are the only two players still remaining that played that season.
Sophomore forward Carolyn Davis and sophomore forward Monica Engelman are leading the team this year.
Davis led the team shooting 14-15 from the field for a career high 33
"I think it calms everybody down," coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "When you score high percentage shots, get in rhythm and score primary looks it makes everybody feel good."
points.
Engelman hit three shots from behind the arc and she shot 6 of 10 from the field.
For the fourth straight year Kansas advanced to the second round of the WNIT in front of a crowd at home.
"I think we need to be more consistent this next game." Davis said. "There were times when we let up in the game and did not keep going at them. We have been talking about this all year about not letting up on a team even when we have the lead."
"It definitely gets momentum, especially hitting a three because it is a big shot," Engelman said. "It just gets the energy flowing and it's another way for us to get the momentum going."
Though there was not much that the Jayhawks did wrong, they are still looking to be more consistent.
Edited by Marla Daniels
Travis Young/KANSAN
Wichita freshman center Shannika Bryant fouls Kansas sophomore guard Angel Goodrich Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse. Wichita had 15 fouls while Kansas had 10.
COMMENTARY
A different final four match-up
BY NICO ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
The only thing that matters happens on the court, right? With the NCAA tournament are students as well as admits. This week, the Knight Commission, along with support from Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, and Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, released a study on the 68-team field entering the NCAA tournament.
With the NCAA tournament begun and sports bars blaring college basketball games on every TV, people forget about most everything else, including the fact that the hundreds of athletes who will have airtime throughout the course of the tournament are students as well as athletes.
The study examined graduation rates as they relate to black and white student-athletes on each team. The Knight Commission argues that schools with graduation rates of less than 50 percent should be banned from post-season play, a move that would change the academic landscape of college basketball.
Their hope is that academic pressure on schools would raise graduation rates rather than undermine the quality of athletic performance the fans would see on the court.
Kansas' Academic Progress Rate (APR), a measurement used by both the NCAA and the Knight Commission in its new study, is one of the few 1000's on the list. Meaning we are on top of the list, along with Butler, Michigan State and Texas. A rating of below 925 means that a school's graduation rates for student-athletes are below 50 percent.
It's discrepancies like these that the Knight Commission is trying to eliminate from post-season play in order to place emphasis on education to improve the lives of these young adults.
"The vast majority of coaches are doing this the right way, and their behavior isn't rewarded while the guys that are doing it the wrong way, their behavior is rewarded," said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, University of Central Florida professor, and head of the Knight Commission's study.
On the other end of the spectrum are some schools that have run into widely reported NCAA violations. Schools such as Connecticut that graduate just 50 percent of their white basketball players and an even more disappointing 25 percent of their black basketball players.
Kansas State has an APR rating of 924 and an overall student-athlete graduation rate of just 40 percent compared to Kansas' 80 percent. Even more shocking is the fact that K-State graduates 100 percent of its white basketball players and just 14 percent of its black basketball players.
Kansas graduates 100 percent of its white basketball student-athletes and 67 percent of its black student-athletes. Those numbers do not include one-and-done athletes or athletes who transfer in good academic standing.
In a related study, Inside Higher Ed. released a bracket based off of each schools' APR and filled it out based on how each team would perform academically.
Kansas, Texas, Butler and Princeton made the final four. And if this year's national champion was decided by APR, Butler would repeat last year's championship appearance and win.
But don't let this adjust your own brackets. At least not yet. Because if the Knight Commission achieved its goal to bar underperforming schools from the tournament, 10 of this year's teams wouldn't be playing this weekend.
Edited by Helen Mubarak