THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
NCAA BASKETBALL | 2B
Duke, Kansas hold positions in AP poll
the Blue Devils earned the No. 1 spot with a unanimous vote for the second straight week in a row.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 7, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
DEFECTIVE DEFENSE
Junior forward Marcus Morris and junior guard Tyshawn Taylor try to stop UCLA guard Tyler Lamb during the first half of the Jayhawks' game against the Bruins last week at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas will face off against the nationally-ranked Memphis Tigers tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Jayhawk weakness lies in defense
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
Bill Self knows his team has a weakness. Anybody who's watched the last two games knows, as a matter of fact.
Find a long, athletic wing, get him the ball, and have him either take an uncontested three or drive straight at the Morris twins, or whoever happens to be playing post for Kansas.
"I if I was coaching against us," Self said, "I would attack our bigs every position. I'm just going to put that out there because everybody can see it."
That plan of attack worked brilliantly for Arizona's Derrick Williams and UCLA's Tyler
Honeycutt, who knocked down threes when Kansas' typically stellar perimeter defense failed, and barring that forced Kansas' bigs, notably Marcus and Markieff Morris, into four trouble. Williams finished with 27 in Arizona's loss, while Honeycutt finished with 33.
"It doesn't take a guy who studies a ton of tape to know, 'just throw it to the big guys,' because our big guys don't guard very well," Self said. "If I was scouting us right now, I would say throw it at Marcus' and Markieff's and Thomas' man every possession."
fouled out in just 19 minutes of action. Marcus has been better, but in the last two games has picked up his fourth foul with the game still on the line.
Five times this year Markieff has been limited to less than 20 minutes in a game because of foul trouble, including both of the last two games. Against UCLA, he
"I thought about 'what if we had these guys in when the game was tough?' junior guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "They have to play with their hands up so they can be aggressive without fouling."
Memphis lacks the big-bodied post that UCLA had in Josh Smith (the 305-pounder finished with 17 points and 13 boards against Kansas), but has two prime candidates to do what Williams and Honeycutt had such great success doing.
Wesley Witherspoon, a 6-foot- 2 swinger who leads the Tigers
with 13.7 points per game, has the same ability to either stretch the floor with his outside game or put the ball on the floor and attack the paint.
The second option will be 6-6 freshman guard Will Barton, Rivals' No.1 player in the class of 2010. Barton scored just five total points in the Tigers' first two games, but he's scored 20 or more in three of five games since.
Self's faith rests mostly in Brady Morningstar defensively (he said Morningstar did a nice job against Honeycutt, while the others didn't guard him "worth a flip"). Morningstar, at 6-foot-4, is the tallest of the Jayhawks' trio of starting guards, but he still gives five inches to the length
Witherspoon.
Self has said several times that the Jayhawks' third in-the-nation scoring offense was partially to blame for the lax defense.
"When you start hitting shots," Self said, "the tendency is to relax on defense."
But the jayhawks may finally be facing an opponent that they can't outscore.
"These two games have helped us moving forward, I think," Self said after the UCLA game. "But we'll need to play a lot better against Memphis on a neutral court on Tuesday.
Edited by Roshni Oommen
VOLLEYBALL
Departures and arrivals will change next season
Freshman libero Brianne Riley digs the ball against Colorado Saturday. Riley led the team with 18 digs in the 3-0 victory.
PAGE 1B
BY IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
Junior outside hitter Allison Mayfield has seen this before.
The layhawks, left out of this year's NCAA tournament, are already beginning to prepare for the 2011-2012 season. In the meantime, the team will be transformed by departures and new arrivals that change the equations of both the offense and defense.
"It's always a drastic change," Mavfield said.
2010
2010 wasn't a bad year for the Jayhawks. They started off undefeated for the first seven matches, and the 17 wins they recorded was their best since 2004. Kansas scored victories over five of the teams that are in the tournament now.
Coach Ray Bechard said making or not making the tournament came down to a narrow margin this year. One or two road games in the first half of the season, or a couple of home games later on, he said, could've made the difference.
Mayfield said one lesson the team could draw from the season was that every match was important.
Mayfield said she thought, over
"You can't overlook anyone," she said.
"We had some big wins; we also lost some games we didn't think wed lose," she said.
all, the season went well.
DEPARTURES, ARRIVALS
Among the four outgoing seniors are two outside hitters — Karina Garlington and Jenna Kaiser — who played important roles in the Jayhawk offense over the past season. Another — Mel Townsend — is one of the team's top defensive specialists. But Kansas has also signed two new freshmen.
Garlington led the team in kills in 21 matches in 2010, and her career total of 1,309 kills is the second highest in program history. This year, her season average of 3.51 kills per set was No. 8 in the conference. The league named Garlingen to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention Team at
SEE VOLLEYBALL ON PAGE 3B
COMMENTARY
Memphis brings the heat
BY MAX VOSBURGH
mvosburgh@kansan.com
For the third time in four years, Kansas will face Memphis tonight when the two teams tip-off in one of the grandest basketball arenas in the world. Madison Square Garden in New York.
Of course, it was Memphis that Kansas defeated to win the National Championship in 2008. Although there are still players left who were on the roster for that game, no one who played in that game is left from either team.
Last year,the two teams faced off in the first 2008 National Championship rematch. The game featured a Memphis team that was almost completely different than the team that the Jayhawks had faced two years prior. Coach John Calipari was gone, replaced by his assistant coach Josh Pastner, and the majority of the stars who helped Memphis reach the title game in 2008 had also moved on.
Six-foot-eight forwards Derrick Williams and Tyler Honeycutt both scored 33 and 27 points respectively, against the Jayhawks. Honeycutt, who made 11 of 15 field goals including five of six threepointers, was held in check two nights ago by Montana. He scored 11 points on three of 12 shooting in a game at UCLA.
This year, a Memphis team that is more experienced and is currently undefeated at 7-0 and ranked in the top 15 in the country should again be able to compete and give Kansas a close game.
Six-foot-nine forward/guard Wesley Witherspoon averages 13.7 points per game, who leads the Tigers who as a team average 85.3 points per game. This type of player has given the Jayhawks trouble the last two games.
Consequently, last year Memphis was a young team with a new, young coach. That didn't stop the Tigers from looking to avenge their school's title loss, showing up ready to compete. Cole Aldrich led the Jayhawks with 18 points and the 2008 National Champions were able to win a close game in St. Louis, 59-57. In fact, Kansas and Memphis have historically played close games. Kansas leads the all-time series 5-2 and every game but one has been decided by a score of five points or less, or has gone to overtime.
So in what could be the best team Kansas faces in the non-conference season this year, look for the Jayhawks to attempt to fend off the Tigers in what could be another close game between the two schools.
Edited by Leslie Kinsman