THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
TRACK | 8A
Ready to begin the indoor season
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2010
The men's and women's teams have been preparing all summer and fall for the first indoor meet on Saturday. It will be the debut for many freshmen and transfer students as Kansas athletes.
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PAGE 10A
A LITTLE LUCK
Revised call leads to last-second free throw
Senior guard Mario Little is fouled as he shoots by UCLA guard Malcolm Lee with 0.7 seconds left in the second half and the game tied at 76.Little then went to the free throw line where he made one of two free throws, winning the game for Kansas 77-76.Little scored nine points and had eight rebounds, and the Jayhawks improved to 7-0 on the season.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
BY TIM DWYER
BY TIM DWYER
tdwyer@kansan.com
twitter.com/UDKbasketball
Kansas couldn't hit a free throw to save its life for 39 minutes and 59 seconds.
But a bizarre foul call with the game tied with 0.7 seconds left on the clock gave Mario Little a chance to send the sins from earlier in the game to the wayside.
Little knocked down the first before a timeout.
Miss the second and let the loose ball run the clock out. Exhale. At least, that was the plan for Kansas fans. Little wasn't even breathing hard, or so he said.
"Nah," Little said, when he was asked if nerves were an issue. "I wasn't playing real good, so I was just trying to do something out there. Maybe it was a state-of-mind thing. It was free throws. We've been practicing free throws all week."
sink the first one and let them deal with it" Little said.
"Certainly, if we made some free throws," Kansas coach Bill Self said, "it wouldn't have come down to the last possession."
It didn't show, as Kansas shot 53 percent from the line, and in turn gave the Bruins the ball with a chance to tie with 29 seconds left on the clock and the score 76-73 in the Jayhawks' favor. Lazeric Jones missed a free throw for the Bruins, but Tyrel Reed turned the ball over before the Jayhawks had a chance to put the game on ice.
It should have been overtime, but Malcolm Lee fouled Little on a loose ball for a chance to win the game.
"It was just a loose ball and I was going for it," Lee said. "I barely heard a whistle, but I looked at the ref and he signaled a foul and I was just shocked."
"Really, really a poor way to end a game," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "Not a foul that's usually called."
The controversial call essentially gave the Jayhawks the win, and Lee and UCLA coach Ben Howland were understandably less than thrilled.
Lee made no secret of the fact that he was upset about the call.
of a tacky foul and then free throws at the end, that's kind of hard. You might as well lose by 30, because that's just crazy. But credit them,
did get fouled at the end," Self said
"But that was very fortunate."
"They outplayed us, that's evident. We were fortunate, and I havent seen the play yet but Mario said he
because I guess they played a better game."
that there was actually a foul.
"When you just lose a game off
Edited by Alex Tretbar
Self said he hadn't looked at the tapes yet, but was taking Little's word
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Kansas wins tournament, looks to next game
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Freshman guard Brooke Jelniker is fouled while bringing down a rebound Wednesday. Kansas outrebounded Maine 45 to 25 in the Jayhawk victory.
BY KATHLEEN GIER kgier@kansan.com
"We were focused from the start right after the tournament and knew that we had to get in and play a good Maine team
The Jayhawks have not had many open days in the past week, with tournament games Friday, Saturday and Sunday and a game this Wednesday.
so we couldn't really worry about the tournament; we had to keep moving on," freshman guard Keena Mavs said.
Sophomore
f o r w a r d
Carolyn Davis
found this
schedule difficult
"It is tough," Davis said. "This past weekend was tough playing those three games. We were really tired, but we took care of ourselves."
"I think we work really well as a team and that can only get better as we play more games."
Senior forward Carolyn Davis was honored to be involved with the record-breaking night but knows how important it will be to keep moving forward.
"It is good to have a big win like this, but we cannot dwell on it," Davis said.
BROOKE JELNIKER Freshman guard
Kansas won the last game against Maine while setting a school record for scoring and getting the program's 700th victory.
Kansas will travel to Dallas and face Southern Methodist University on Saturday at 2 p.m. Henrickson noted that there are
excited on a Wednesday night that people wanted to come out and share that with us," coach Bonnie Henrickson said.
"We have played a lot of games in a short period of time. I was
some players on the SMU team who were recruited but not offered scholarships by Kansas which will make the game difficult as well.
"We talked in the locker room after the game about recognizing the hornet's nest you will walk into at SMU," Henrickson said. "All those kids are there to prove that they deserve to play in the Big 12."
While only eight players
Freshman guard Brooke Jelniker talked about how well the team works together and how they will improve.
"I think we work really well as a team and that can only get better as we play more games," Jelmiker said.
suited up for the game against Maine, all eight scored and played at least 20 minutes, giving the rotation more experience as it heads forward in the season.
Freshman guard Keena Mays talked about the biggest strength of the team right now being the play of the forwards.
"I would say our depth and our post players, they aren't like average post players, and they can get out and run," Mays said.
Mays also credited the other guards. Regarding the victory, Mays has high hopes for the continuing the season.
COMMENTARY
"I wanna go out and break it again." Mays said with a smile.
— Edited by Abby Davenport
Bruins fall to dominant Fieldhouse atmosphere
BYNICOLAS ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
There is a concrete feeling of nostalgia whenever the sky-blue-and-gold UCLA Bruins face the crimson-and-blue Kansas lavhawks.
Even for those who have only seen the last 20 years of the 52-year-old storied history between the schools, there always seems to be a battle when the two shades of blue clash. Example: last night.
Despite Kansas' long distance shooting finally touching nylon, the lack of rebounds and postgame passivity made the last-second finish worthy of a shoulder shrug to luck.
"We were very,very fortunate," coach Bill Self said after the game. "I think that they controlled the game and certainly outplayed us."
That groove was found down low with the Morris twins and a stick of dynamite named Thomas Robinson. But throughout Kansas' seven-game win streak this season, the long-range attack has never caught fire.
UCLA came into Allen Fieldhouse unranked, already having lost two games and facing a Jayhawk team that seemed to finally have found a groove in the Las Vegas tournament over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Playing a rival, who Kansas has seen five times in the NCAA National Tournament, proved the perfect time to hit more than 45 percent from three-point range. And that may have saved the game this time around for Kansas because there was virtually no support coming from the usually dominant Morris twins.
Of Reed's career high 17 points last night, fifteen of them came in the first half. Nine of those points came off of big threes to send daggers into the occasional momentum UCLA built with its consistent scoring.
Although Reed said after the game that his shot percentage this season hasn't bothered him because of his confidence in the shots eventually falling, his performance in last night's first half must've made him think more of its importance.
Self knew this was a lucky win, but it was a valuable lesson for his players.
"I think we learn a lot more by playing teams that are certainly capable of beating us." Self said.
"He carried us the first half," Self said of Reed.
Teams will beat Kansas if the offense has to rely on only its guards for over half of its points. The Kansas guards outscored the UCLA's guards by 29 points last night with a total of 50. Yet UCLA took the game down to the wire with the play of its big men.
In these historic games, which include two teams with incredible winning traditions, there is usually an x-factor. This time, it wasn't wearing a sky blue jersey or one with the classic, circuslike font of Kansas.
"The crowd won the game for us." Self said.
— Edited by Abby Davenport
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