THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
Recapping a rough year for Kansas
FOOTBALL | 8A
The Kansan breaks down the key storylines in a disappointing first season for Turner Gill and the Jayhawks. Review the highs and lows of 2010, along with reasons to be optimistic for the program Gill is trying to build.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1,2010
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LUCKY NO.700
Jayhawks go for landmark win
BY KATHLEEN GIER kgier@kansan.com
As sophomore guard Angel Goodrich is confined to the bench, plagued by knee problems that have shortened her last two seasons, she is still able to sit in as an inspiration for freshman guard Keena Mays.
"Obviously, she knows what it is like and I look up to her," Mays said. "And anything she has to say I know it is up for my best interest and so I just trust her whenever she tells me something."
As one of five guards in the current rotation and one of five freshmen. Mays has been forced to mature into her role quickly.
"I think I was prepared for it, during practice we all work hard and go at game speed and everything, and my team is always there for me, especially Angel," Mays said. "She is always talking to me in my ear and letting me know that she is there for me whenever I need help."
After a couple games Mays embraced her new role as a leader, averaging 11 points per game during the Basketball Travelers Inc. Tip-Off Classic.
PAGE 10A
"I am comfortable, but we can't wait to have Angel back." Mays said.
Mays took the starting point
Kansas the game. With seven seconds left in regulation Mays fouled a Fordham player while the game was tied and sent the opposition to the line for a one-and-one. Fordham missed the free throw leading to an overtime victory for Kansas.
starting point guard position for the tournament, and was able to lead the lahaywhats to three more wins in their 6-0 season.
"Keena made a mistake, clearly she was confused, and that is why it is so important and I will take that, if that was not clear enough I will own that," Henrickson said. "You can create situations like that in practice, but you can't create how that feels."
"It's the same as it used to be, she has to play-make, she needs to take care of the ball and now
This success has not come without struggle, especially for Mays.
Another feeling that cannot be replicated is the emotions surrounding the first starting job of a freshman athlete. But this tournament saw the advance of Mays and Harper in the point guard positions. Henrickson said that Mays' job moving forward is pretty similar to what it has been up to this juncture.
After a refreshingly successful game against Memphis, Mays made an embarrassing mistake against Fordham, which could have cost
"I am comfortable, but we can't wait to have Angel back."
"It is good motivation for the rest of the season, we are undefeated and we have to keep going strong," Mays said.
"What I love about her is she attacks in the press when someone comes after her, but I told her 'you can't go for the jugular every single time, be opportunistic,' coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "Run good half-court offense for about three or four minutes and then try to drive the ball."
KEENA MAYS freshman guard
she is just start-
she is just starting and playing a lot more" Henrickson said. "It is great experience for her, and also great experience for CeCe at the point."
Harper has also had to step up her game in
the light of freshman guard Marisha Brown's and Goodrich's absences. Harper credited Henrickson with helping her adjust.
"She is teaching me to be more focused so I can be effective on the court," Harper said. "Everyone has to step up with Angel's loss and Marisha's loss also."
The Jayhawks will take the court again to face the 1-4 Maine Black Bears at 7 p.m. and defend their undefeated record. Kansas will also be looking for the program's 700th win.
"We just have to be more consistent and take what we did wrong in this game, fix it and beat Maine," Mays said.
Edited by Tim Dwyer
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Freshman quard Keena Mays drives for a layup against Fordham. The Jayhawks won in overtime,the 699th victory in program history.
Jayhawks to face another dangerous forward
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Junior forward Marcus Morris and sophomore center Jeff Withey jump to block the shot of Arizona forward Derrick Williams. Williams had 27 points in the game, and Kansas will face a similarly talented player in UCLA sophomore forward Reeves Nelson on Thursday night in Lawrence.
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Williams, a 6-foot-8 forward who dominated offensively both outside and inside, may wind up being the best player the Jayhawks face all year.
"He's a great player," Kansas' Thomas Robinson said after the Jayhawks escaped with a win Saturday. "I take my hat off to him."
When coach Bill Self addressed the media Monday, everybody still wanted to talk about Arizona's Derrick Williams. Of course, when a player goes for 27 points and eight rebounds, it's hard to forget very quickly.
tdwyer@kansan.com
UCLA sophomore forward Reeves Nelson is most remembered by Kansas fans as the guy who took a Marcus Morris finger to the eye and stayed in the game despite his right eye being swollen shut during last year's Dec. 6 match between the two teams.
"There are some similarities; they have similar body types," Self said of Nelson and Williams. "Reeves has expanded his game, he can shoot the three now, and he can certainly drive it. So I do see some similarities. They are both undersized power forwards by the prototypical definition."
Or maybe just until Thursday.
"The only thing I remember about him," Morris said, "is that I kind of poked his eye a little and messed his eye up. I felt bad about that after the game."
Williams showed the holes in Kansas' post defense with his ability to drive the ball and take the outside shot. He was 2-for-3 from three-point range and got to the free throw line nine times by drawing foul after foul out of the Morris twins (both finished with four).
Just like Williams, Nelson doesn't have ideal size for a power forward, but he's a bruiser when he needs to be (take all of last season as an example) and has the ability play on the wing like both Williams and Morris.
Since then, Nelson, who finished that game with nine points and nine rebounds, has developed into an All-Pac-10 candidate.
It may be a good thing Morris doesn't remember too much about
Nelson, because the Bruins forward has uncovered a different game over the last season. His role has progressed from an enforcer on an undersized team to the team's top scorer and rebounder.
"He faced them off the block," Self said of Williams. "When that happened, he didn't bail them out by taking a jump shot. He either shot an uncontested three or he got to the paint, and he did a great job of driving it and forcing contact.
COMMENTARY
He is a bona fide All-Americ-
type candidate. I don't know if
SEE REEVES ON PAGE 7A
Reasons to hope for Hawks
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
nroesler@kansan.com
There were falls, there were Hail Mary balls, there were bad coaching calls and now there is waiting for a future that will clarify it all.
Coach Turner Gill's first season at Kansas is complete, and, despite the losses, observers of the Kansas football team should feel optimistic.
"I now know a whole lot more about our football team at this point in time," Gill said after the Missouri game.
And so the fans should too.
Kansas found its running back for the next three years in freshman James Sims, a young man whose potential might be as high as his flat top. Let's just hope he doesn't buzz it off.
The team found an offensive rhythm in the Colorado game that provided glimpses of what the team could be if they develop some consistency in the off season.
And the team found playmaking defenders in sophomore cornerback Greg Brown, sophomore defensive end Toben Opurum and freshman cornerback Tyler Patmon.
The offense started out crawling, but after the Georgia Tech upset win, the offense found more of a groove producing three games of 200 yards rushing or more. Sims ended the season with an impressive 749 yards for a freshman who broke out of nowhere in the Georgia Tech game. Oh, and nine touchdowns, which came in impressive fashion while bullong over top Big 12 defenders.
Shutdown Greg Brown showed the ability to play the ball in the air, batting the ball out of the air on two occasions when Blackmon looked like he could score. Brown also made one of the interceptions against Missouri to stop their momentum in the first half. He gives hope for a respectable pass defense next season.
Against Oklahoma State, which earned a share of the Big 12 Conference's South division title, he was able to lower his pads and pound out 86 yards and a hard-earned touchdown. It seemed that as the season went on, nobody could knock him backward. Hopefully, that power can become a metaphor for the offense as a whole next season, nothing but forward progress.
Another surprise stand out that rose to an Oklahoma State challenge was Brown. He was appointed to the job of covering the best wide receiver in the country in Justin Blackmon. Although not many people can stop him, Brown slowed him down impressively for a Kansas pass defense which gave up more than 2,000 pass yards this season.
"I saw them get a lot more experience this season." Gill said of both his young and veteran players after the Missouri game, "and then they're going to come back with a lot more confidence in what we want and how we want it done, and they'll be able to make more plays for us"
Despite the doubts in Gill's coaching after all of the Big 12 losses, and despite the shuffle board that was the Kansas depth chart, the future is nothing but bright after relatively as strong a finish as could have been expected from the rebuilding Jayhawks.
- Edited by Tim Dwyer
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