KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2010 / SPORTS
BASEBALL
Jayhawks will play season opener in Minnesota
Bad weather moves games to Metrodome
BY BEN WARD
bward@kansan.com
For a Jayhawk team that went 25-3 at Hoglund Ballpark last year, getting its home opener wiped out due to forecasts of inclement
weather was far from an ideal way to begin the 2010 season.
was scheduled to begin today at 3 pm, was essentially left without a venue because of predictions for inclement weather throughout the Midwest.
"We always hate to lose home games," senior pitcher Cameron Selik said.
But because of those forecasts, that's precisely what happened. After costing the Jayhawks valuable practice time over the past few weeks, the weather also had their season opening series against Eastern Michigan in serious jeopardy.
After a slew of back and forth phone calls looking for a viable
"...with the forecast for the weekend, it was the only intelligent thing to do."
The three game series, which
RITCH PRICE
Kansas Coach
location, Coach Ritch Price finally found a place to open the season - the Metrodome in Minneapolis. "Our thought process was that with the forecast for the weekend,
it was the only intelligent thing to do," Price said. "They've been great, they're absolutely wonderful to work with."
Though one game from the originally scheduled series will be lost, the layhawks will still open their season with a doubleheader
An accomplished player
An accomplished player
the national accolades continue to mount for junior third baseman Tony Thompson, who has been named to the Golden Spikes award preseason Watch List by USA Baseball.
The watch list features 50 of the nation's top amateur talents, and is a "rolling" list — which means that athletes can play themselves into consideration for the Award.
Joining Thompson on the 2010 watch list are six players who finished among the
30 semifinalists for the 2009 Golden Spikes Award, as well as five other Bio 12 athletes.
The Golden Spikes Award will be presented live Tuesday, July 13, at the Major League Baseball All-Star FanFest in Anaheim, Calif. 2010 marks the 33rd year the Award will be handed out.
Thompson, a junior from Reno, Nev., was a unanimous preseason All-America selection as well as the preseason favorite for Big 12 Player of the Year. He won the conference's
Ben Ward
Monday at 5 p.m.
Triple Crown last year, leading the league in batting average (.389), home runs (21) and RBIs (82).
It will be an uphill climb for Thompson to win the award, as he'll miss at least the first month of the season with a knee injury sustained during practice.
"We're excited to get started," Price said. "It will give us a chance to play two of the three games and give us a chance to play at game speed."
Some of the upperclassmen of the team have experienced the playing in the atmosphere of the Metrodome before, where Kansas
was forced to move a series with South Dakota State in 2007.
"It's a pretty cool park," junior pitcher Wally Marceli said. "It's an honor to play there and we're just happy to have the chance to play there and get those games in so we won't miss any."
Excitement about playing in the Major League stadium aside, the
team remains focused on starting the season off strongly.
"We still have to make sure we get these games in," Selik said. "The approach is still the same."
— Edited by Megan Heacock
BIG 12
Stock Report: tracking women's basketball
BY ANDREW TAYLOR ataylor@kansan.com
The Big 12 conference is one of the toughest in the nation with seven teams ranked in the Top 20, more than any other conference. Missouri, ranked last in the Big 12, proved when it nearly beat No. 3 Nebraska, ranked first in Big 12 Feb. 13 that any team in the conference can compete well on any given day. Because of this, it is often hard to tell how a team is doing just by glancing at the conference standings. A Wall Street method offers a much more informative way to see how teams are performing.
NEBRASKA (24-0, 10-0):
BUY
Despite two consecutive closer-than-expected victories on the road against Kansas and Missouri, No. 3 Nebraska is still unscathed.
teated record
put it atop the
Big 12 confer-
ence standings
with a three-
game lead over
- three teams tied for second. With only five games remaining on the Cornhuskers' schedule, they should have no problem capturing their first-ever Big 12 conference title. If any team is worth buying at this point in the season it's the Cornhuskers.
TEXAS (19-6, 8-3); BUY
No. 14 Texas has climbed back into a tie for second after start ing the conference season with two consecutive losses. Since that
- time, Texas
* has only one
* overtime loss
* to Iowa State
* on its resume.
Texas came close to suffering another defeat last week, but it survived a controversial double-overtime finish against Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse. Texas will likely not be able to make a run at the Big 12 conference title because that would require Nebraska to lose more than half of its remaining games. Texas will simply be playing for position in both the Big 12 tournament and NCAA tournament.
OKLAHOMA (18-7, 8-3):
BUY
No. 11 Oklahoma let a huge upset slip through its fingers in a Feb. 15 loss to No. 1 UConn. The defeat didn't affect the Sooners' conference standings because the Huskies are members of the
Big East conference. Leading up to that loss, Oklahoma had achieved three straight victories against top Big 12 teams like No. 17
four games come against teams ranked in the top 25. Regardless, Oklahoma is a smart buy as the team looks to finish second in the conference.
Oklahoma State and No. 19 Baylor.
There is a little reason to worry in
Sooner Nation as the Sooners' final
IOWA STATE (19-5, 7-4):
BUY
After a tough game against No. 3 Nebraska Wednesday, Iowa State could reasonably make it through the rest of its conference
season on cruise control. Four of the Cyclones' five remaining games come against opponents dwelling in the bottom half of the Big 12 conference standings. For that reason alone, the Cyclones are an excellent buy. If they are not careful, though, they could lose several of those games, as evidenced by their Jan. 31 defeat at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats.
TEXAS A&M (18-6, 6-5):
SELL
The No.15 Aggies have lost four of their last six games and have fallen to a distant fifth place in
the big 12 standings. Texas A&M has only won two of its six games against ranked conference foes. With that statistic in mind, the
rest of the season looks pretty bleak for the Aggies, who were once ranked as high as No. 5, as they have two more games against ranked teams. The Aggies did beat a reeling Oklahoma State team on Wednesday. However, that hope isn't enough to justify buying any stock in the plummeting Aggies.
OKLAHOMA STATE (187, 6-5): SELL
11 Oklahoma.
Its loss to Texas
Tech, a team
that had only
two Big 12 wins,
was thoroughly
It was a little surprising when No. 17 Oklahoma State lost consecutive games against top conference foes like No. 3 Nebraska and No.
unexpected. The key to the victories of the Cornhuskers and Red Raiders involved holding Big 12 leading-scorer Andrea Riley well below her season average. The latest defeat put the Cowgirls lower than second in the Big 12 for the first time all season and gives investors all the right reasons to sell.
in the Big 12, because in four of the last five NCAA tournaments, the Big 12 has qualified six or fewer teams. Freshman Brittney Griner, who earned two straight triple-doubles, will be an essential piece of the Bears' hope to once again ascend to the upper realms of the Big 12.
BAYLOR (18-7, 5-6): BUY
KANSAS (15-9, 5-6):
HOLD
given investors plenty of reason to sell their stock. This doesn't bode well for the
Two straight losses against ranked conference foes have set the No. 19 Baylor Bears back and
With Carolyn Davis and Monica Engelman leading the way, Kansas
Bears, who now sit in eighth place
Engelmith has crawled to within one game of .500 in the conference standings. If the Jayhawks had finished two recent
close games with wins instead of losses, they could be sitting at 7-4 in conference and would be of extreme interest to potential buyers. Instead, with Kansas' next contest coming against a rejuvenated Texas Tech team, Kansas needs to be wary as it could risk falling to 5-7 in conference play. A victory could go a long way toward an NCAA tournament bid for the Jawhawks, but a loss could end their hopes entirely. Every game will be a battle for Kansas, though, as it has an extremely tough remaining schedule.
KANSAS STATE (12-13,
4-7): SELL
COLORADO (12-12, 2-9):
After storming out of the gates with consecutive conference victories, Kansas State has dropped
six of its last eight games, makingany investment in this team extremely unwise. In games against Missouri and Texas A&M
SELL
TEXAS TECH (15-10,
3-8): BUY
senior forward Ashley Sweat struggled. During that stretch, she averaged just eight points. That's down almost 10 points from her season average of 17.7. Sweat will need to turn things around in a hurry as K-State follows up its game Wednesday against No. 14 Texas with a match-up against No. 11 Oklahoma.
Texas Tech has potentially turned its season around by win-
ring two straight games against No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 17 Oklahoma State. Those two victories tripled the amount of the
Eight consecutive losses are bad no matter what conference a team is in. That's exactly what the Colorado Buffaloes have done
en route to an abysmal 2-9 conference record in the powerful Big 12. Although Colorado does have two potential victories remaining on its schedule with games at Missouri and against K-State, investors should still sell any and all stock in this team as it looks to finish next to last in the conference.
Red Raiders' conference victories. Despite having a tough game last night against Baylor, Texas Tech next faces off against Kansas at home. That, in conjunction with the Red Raiders' remaining schedule, gives them a strong opportunity to finish the season with a respectable conference record.
MISSOURI (11-13, 1-10):
CELL
SELL
Missouri followed up a surprising Jan. 23 victory against Baylor with six straight losses. That has put the Tigers in last place in the
conference with little hope of recovery. Their losing streak has occurred despite losing
four of those games by an average of less than four points. The Tigers don't have much to play for the rest of this season, and because of that, they have snuck up and almost defeated several of the top ranked teams in the conference.
Edited by Kelly Gibson
Brown was Speaker of the California State Assembly for an unprecedented 15 years. He was Mayor of San Francisco from 1996-2004.