THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
SOFTBALL | 6A
KU hopes to continue streak
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011
Jayhawks pile up victories with a 10-0 start to the season. Kansas is gearing up to continue its spotless record in Greensboro, N.C., for the UNCG Spartan Classic.
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PERFECT FIT
Self pieces it all together
Sophomore guard Elijah Johson fights for the ball against Oklahoma State junior guard Keiton Page. The Jahawks defeated the Cowboys 92-65.
Rearranging the lineup helps the Jayhawks succeed
BY NICO KOESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
Coach Bill Self knows what the month of February means to a team. He knows that it's key for the Jayhawks to be playing their best ball right now, not just for his team -- but for all teams going into March.
"We've been able to dodge some bullets having guys out," Self said. "I don't think that we would be dodging the bullets as much as we have if Brady and Tyrel were two of the components that were gone."
This year, like most, as February ends the team is looking to put the pieces of the team puzzle together. Although some pieces have fallen into place to form part of a picture, others remain to be found, mostly because they are not on the table.
The glue guys. They are the tabs of the larger puzzle pieces that interlock the whole picture.
"They're personalities are such that they allow the other players to be the best they can possibly be with no ego involved," Self said.
Heading into Oklahoma, the other pieces of the puzzle must find their spot, even if, for now, they are on the bench.
"When we get all the guys out there it'll be fun," senior Academic All-American Tyrel Reed said of the struggles the team has gone through with missing players. "But until then we're just going to have to do our best with the guys that are out there."
The sophomore guard Elijah Johnson made an argument for his
starting spot against Oklahoma State at home, making all of the threes he shot and only turning the ball over twice in 30 minutes. Self said that Tyshawn Taylor's absence has stabilized Johnson's confidence.
"I think that helps a lot, knowing that you don't have to look over your shoulder if you screw up," Self said.
Johnson should be able to carry that confidence for at least another game. Self said Taylor wouldn't play this weekend and didn't give a date for his return.
“Instead of going out there and watching Tyshawn do it for the first five minutes and trying to catch on,” Elijah Johnson said, “I have to set the tempo.”
That tempo is sure to increase
with the continuation of Thomas Robinson's rehabilitation.
After knee surgery, the sophomore forward returned to contribute ten strong minutes against Oklahoma State. Self said Robinson was mentally 100 percent ready to play his best, however his knee remains at 90 percent of its explosive potential.
Of course Self would like to
have his pieces all set by the end of February, but that's not reality. It never has been. He said the best way to continue to assemble a successful team heading into March is to just keep reminding the team:
"Iimagine how good we'll be when everyone is back."
Edited by Marla Daniels
Jayhawks look for redemption this weekend
Howard Ting/KAHSAN
Kansas baseaball coach Ritch Price speaks with freshman pitcher Alex Cox during Kansas' opening home game against Creighton at Hoglund Ballpark on Tuesday. Cox only allowed one earned run in 4 innings in his collegiate debut. However, Kansas still fell to Creighton 4-3.
PAGE 10A
Kansas was scheduled to play St. Louis at 3 p.m.on today, but the game has been postponed because of the expected storm.The two teams are trying to get the game rescheduled. No time had been set as of Thursday morning.
BY MIKE VERNON
mvernon@kansan.com
The Jayhawks will square off against St. Louis at 3 p.m. on Saturday and will
The Jayhawks hope to rebound from Tuesday's tough loss to Creighton in this weekend's Jayhawk Classic at Hoglund Ballpark.
The team, which is 1-3 after four games, needs a strong weekend to try to get back to .500 for the season.
The Jayhawks' lineup has struggled at the plate so far this season. In their four games against the tough arms of TCU and Creighton, Kansas
finish the weekend's games against Iowa at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
managed to score only nine runs while giving up 23. The Jayhawks hope that the strong pitching from two early season opponents will help them for the rest of the season.
"Seeing some of the best arms to start the season is a great way to prepare us."
"We've faced TCU and Creighton and they've got some great arms," senior outfielder Casey Lytle said. "Seeing some of the best arms to start the season is a great way to prepare us."
CASEY LYTLE
Senior outfielder
One Jayhawk who has been struggling from the plate is true freshman Kaiana Eldredge. Eldredge is 0-for-12 at the plate with seven strikeouts this season. Price has little concern that the freshman will get out of his early-
St. Louis pitcher Alex Alemann is hoping to keep the Kansas bats cool on Saturday. In the Billikens' season opener against Illinois-Chicago, Alemann threw five innings and gave up only one earned run.
season funk and end up becoming a big contributor to the team.
"He's just to get some game reps and relax and play," Price said. "He's got tremendous talent."
The Billikens went 33-29 last year and won the Atlantic 10 Tournament, sending them to their third ever NCAA Tournament appearance. St. Louis, picked to finish fourth in their conference, currently sits at 2-2 after opening their season against Illinois-Chicago and UT-Pan American.
Kansas' Sunday opponent, Iowa, is looking to rebound after starting the year 0-3 in the season opening— Big 10/Big East Challenge. The Hawkeyes finished third in the Big 10 last season, their strongest finish
since 2005. The coaches of the Big 10 expect a drop-off for Iowa this year though, picking them to finish fifth in their conference.
The Jayhawks will start senior T.J. Walz on the mound Saturday. Walz, the Jayhawks' ace, has had an atypical start early in his season after getting hit hard at TCU and giving up the game-winning run in the 10th inning against Creighton.
This will be a big weekend for Kansas baseball, which has an opportunity to get back on track after not starting the year as if they had hoped.
- Edited by Tali David
COLUMN
Heartfelt reactions in poetry and sports
BY NICO ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
Wednesday, the World Champion Slam Poet, Anis Mojgani, visited the Kansas Union and put on a show full of laughter, lyrical beauty, and moments where his words made peoples' eyes water (I'm not afraid to admit it happened to me).
His powerful words got me thinking. Poetry and sports are not so different.
A crowd gathered in Woodruff Auditorium to see this man perform, just as crowds gather at Allen Fieldhouse to watch those men perform. Then, Mojgan approached the mic and spoke words that hit me like a colorful wrecking ball.
One line, although probably not holding the most poetic weight, caught my attention.
caught my attention "I can feed a grape to an ant," Moigani said halfway through one of his poems about self-empowerment and identity.
That is exactly what he was doing to us in the audience. Poetry is this immense, often weighted form of art that people see as a realm they can only scratch the surface of, but not fully understand. Honestly, poetry can seem daunting.
Sports aren't any different. If sports touched your life in any way, especially growing up, you know the feelings that a poet describes about anything in the world. Both poetry and sports are this juicy grape, and we are the ants trying to sink our teeth into these enormous concepts. Once the juices run into our mouth, we want more.
Like feeding a grape to an ant.
I get this image of an ant sinking its mandibles into this huge purple grape, liking what he tastes, but cannot get past the outer skin to the inner juices unless he dedicates serious time to the fruit.
Sports are such a simple thing, ideally made up of honest competition, sportsmanship, and love of the game. But yet there is an aspect to sports that none of us can completely wrap our head around, or sink our head into in the case of the grape.
In a poem where Mojigani described how his lady made him feel inside, I couldn't help but connect those feeling not only to love, but to sports. The wave like impulses traveling through his veins, the feeling that his heart was too big for his chest so it left his body.
How about Mario's Miracle? Or Thomas Robinson's return after his family tragedy? These moments strike my spirit just as strong as the perfectly placed words in Mojgani's poetry.
Sports heads may never understand just how much money is involved with everything in sports. There are inner workings of organizations that nobody will ever get a clear glimpse of. And of course there is this universal feeling that someday, your respective team will win a championship.
Remind you of anything?
Who drives this machine? Or rather what drives it?
It is the feeling inside all of us. It is the goose bumps you get when watching the Kansas Basketball pregame video. It is the tears streaming down the faces of fans every senior day. It is the feeling that despite hundreds of lines of poetry, one will strike a chord inside you and stay with you the rest of your life.
Edited by Marla Daniels