/ NEWS / MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I just think that it just happened in a perfect way for us to get them in the Big 12 Championship and for all the marbles."
Junior forward Marcus Morris on play-
ing Texas in the championship.
FACT OF THE DAY
Marcus Morris is the sixth Jayhawk to win the Big 12 Championship Most Outstanding Player award.
— Kansas Athletics
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Name the other five:
A: Sherron Collins in 2010, Brandon Rush in 2008, Mario Chalmers in 2006, Jeff Boschee in 1999 and Paul Pierce in 1997 and 1998.
Kansas Athletics
Sports for the sports illiterate
MORNING BREW
I'm not a sports fan.
I care about and enjoy Kansas basketball, but I'll admit that the tiny amount about it I do know, I learned from years of being in the newsroom here at The Kansan. Even worse, when I do watch, I have to admit I'm horribly guilty of making terrible non-sports junkie comments such as my infamous line from Friday, "Oh, you rarely see Self in a gray suit."
BY ALEX GARRISON agarrison@kansan.com
I'm fully aware I'll probably never live that down.
It's not that I've never played sports. In fact, I'm a regional champion under-15 women's sabre fencer. (So don't try any Three Musketeers moves, but do feel free to make Princess Bride jokes.) I chalk up a lot of my ignorance of red-blooded American football to my teenage years, which were spent more in northern England than here in the wonderful land of Oz (and Dr. Naimsh).
In England, I fell in love with a lot of things. Most notably for the Morning Brew, I fell in love with soccer, with the woefully hopeful England team and with Manchester City, the blue-clad loveable underdog of the Premier League.
I saw at least snippets of every notable League match from 2004 to 2008, plus, of course, the terrible (for England) 2006 World Cup — which is as much a mandated religion as the U.K. really has. And in the years since, I've picked up following Man City here and there, and kept up with the other mandated spirituality, rooting against Nadal at Wimbledon, but have been very much a passive fan.
But something happened last week, I'm happy to report, that finally spurred me back out of my sports-ignorance funk. Sporting KC, formerly the Wizards, an equally bad name, announced it had sold the naming
rights of its still-under-construction stadium in Kansas City, Kan., to the Livestrong foundation.
Did I jump for joy because of corporate sponsorship of a sports team? No. Even I know that focusing on the business of sports completely misses the point of the bliss of being involved in the Beautiful Game (or basketball, the truly worldwide sport). What happened instead was that the news story caught my attention and got me thinking about Sporting's chances.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still very, very ignorant about the stats of the team, and about the mechanics in the passion of following it.
But I'm going to learn.
I think they're pretty good.
I'm going to learn because I'm excited about the possibilities of rooting for the home team, headquartered just a few blocks from my family's Wyandotte County home. The team that has now what the Wizards really didn't — a lot of support, and a lot of buzz.
It's not about Sporting's slightly botched rebandring (I recently overheard again the very good point that "KC FC" would have been the better choice, had it not already been taken by a youth team) to try to make it more European, nor about its branding of its stadium. Nor is it about jumping on the
bandwagon of fellowship — I've managed to live in the mecca of college basketball for four years without going to a single game, a sin! I know. It's about the personal reawakening of an interest, and a desire to get involved, because the excitement is genuinely beneficial for Kansas City — and by extension, those of us here in Lawrence.
Sporting KC may turn out to be terrible, new pitch or no new pitch, and I fear American soccer may always be painfully slow to my European-reared eyes, but I've decided I don't care. I'm going to throw myself out there and try to become a real human being — that is, someone who has the heart to unabashedly love at least one or two sports.
I plan to read up and get smart(er) about sports other than fencing (which is kick-ass, FV1, if you've never seen it done well) because I've tasted the fruit now. I'm incredibly excited about getting the kick of being at least a sports watcher, if not obsessive fan. I know I'm going to have the privilege of cheering on the home-town teams, which will forever be the best in the world in my fellow fans' eyes.
In the meantime, Rock Chalk Jayhawk. And live strong, Sporting Kansas City. Live and play — strong.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
There are no events scheduled for today.
TUESDAY
Baseball
vs. Arkansas
3 p.m.
Fayetteville, Ark.
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
There are no events scheduled for today.
Swimming NCAA Championships All day Austin, Texas
FRIDAY
Softball vs. Lipscomb University 9 a.m. Conway, S.C.
vs. Providence 11 a.m. Conway, S.C.
Swimming NCAA Championships All day Austin, Texas
TRACK & FIELD
Baseball vs. Oklahoma State 3 p.m. Lawrence
Six players return from Texas as All-Americans
BY GEOFFREY CALVERT
gcalvert@kansan.com
All six members of the Kansas track and field team who competed in the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend in College Station, Texas, were named All-Americans after finishing in the.
top eight of their events. The Jayhawk women tied for 30th with six points, while the men's team scored eight points, good for 26th place.
BYU's Leif Arrhenius by only 4.5 inches.
Sophomor
Freshman Diamond Dixon competed in both the women's 400 meters and the 4x400 meter relay. Dixon broke the school record in the 400 meters for the third time in the Friday preliminaries with a time of 53.06
Sophomore Mason Finley was the highestplacing Jayhawk, taking second in the shot put and losing only 4.5 inches.
Sophomore Mason Finley was the highest- placing Jayhawk, taking second in the shot put and losing to
Morris, senior Kendra Bradley and sophomore Taylor Washington. They ran a school
seconds. In the Saturday finals, she ran her third best mark of the season, 53.32 seconds. On Saturday, Dixon anchored the 4x400 meter relay team with sophomore Denesha
Both the men's and women's teams improved on their final place at the 2010 Indoor Championships. Last season, the men finished in a tie for 40th and the women finished in a tie for 46th.
Sophomore Andrea Geubelle was the sixth All-American for the Jayhawks, placing eighth in the women's triple jump. Her mark of 42 feet, 8.75 inches was good for third best in school history.
record time of 3:34.05, finishing seventh.
The Jayhawks will begin their outdoor season this Saturday in Puerto Rico at the Mayaguez Spring Classic.
Edited by Amanda Sorell
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Duke wins third straight ACC title
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Add another Atlantic Coast Conference championship to fifth-ranked Duke's record haul.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nolan Smith had 20 points and the Blue Devils ended No. 6 North Carolina's run of big comebacks at the ACC tournament, beating the Tar Heels 75-58 in Sunday's championship game.
Kyle Singler added 11 points for the Blue Devils (30-4), who led the entire way for a record 19th tournament title. In the first meeting between the fierce rivals in the finals in a decade, second-seeded Duke led by 18 points in the first half and never let the top-seeded Tar Heels (26-7) build any momentum for a third straight tournament escape.
North Carolina had rallied from 19 down in the final 10 minutes to beat Miami on a last-play layup in the quarterfinals, then rallied from 14 down to force overtime and beat Clemson in the semifinals. This
time, however, the Tar Heels got no closer than nine after halftime as the veteran Blue Devils maintained firm control from the tip.
The Blue Devils won their third straight tournament and their 10th in 13 years, putting them two ahead of the Tar Heels in the all-time standings.
Smith was named tournament MVP after overcoming a jammed toe in the quarterfinals against Maryland and finishing with 10 assists, while Singler had a better showing after struggling mightily against the Tar Heels in the two regular-season meetings. But on Sunday, the supporting cast backed up Duke's senior stars in a way it had failed to do in last week's loss to the Tar Heels that gave North Carolina the ACC regular-season title outright.
Seth Curry had 11 points, including a crucial 3-pointer after the Tar Heels had pulled to within nine. Ryan Kelly added another 3 a few minutes later helped silence North
Carolina's last-gasp push to get back in it and finished with nine points.
Duke shot 62 percent in the first half and 50 percent for the game. The Blue Devils shut down North Carolina's offense and held the Tar Heels to 34 percent shooting in a dominant performance that could put the reigning national champions in line for a No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Harrison Barnes struggled to get things going a day after scoring a tournament freshman record 40 points against Clemson, finishing with 16 points to lead the Tar Heels.
Tyler Zeller had 14 points while John Henson added 10 points and 18 rebounds, but North Carolina never looked anything like the team that had won 19 of 21 games and handled the Blue Devils with relative ease in last week's 81-67 victory.
Then again, the Tar Heels never looked like themselves in Greensboro at all.
EXTENDED DEADLINES Visit studyabroad.ku.edu for 2011 Summer & Fall Semester program availability.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Kentucky defeats Florida 70-54 to win SEC once again
ATLANTA — The Kentucky freshmen donned their championship caps, cut down the nets and hopped around like this something new to them.
For the Wildcats, though, this was just business as usual at the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Brandon Knight scored 17 points, Darius Miller hit two crucial 3-pointers and No. 15 Kentucky cruised to another SEC title, routing regular-season champion Florida 70-54 on Sunday.
Which, of course, it was.
"The way my team is playing right now, let's have it! Come on! Bring it!" coach John Calipari said of the NCAA tournament. "This is a very smart team. The basketball sense of this team, the savvy."
The 12th-ranked Gators (26-7) had a miserable day shooting, especially guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker. They combined to go 7 of 26 from the field, their woes epitomized in the closing minutes when they put up back-to-back airballs trying desperately to bring Florida back.
Kentucky (25-8) streaked into the NCAAs with its sixth straight win, second straight SEC tourney crown and 27th title overall more than every other school combined.
Associated Press