Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
An undefeated second half?
With Big 12 half over, Kansas must keep its game up. MEN'S BASKETBALL | 4B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 11,2010
Kansas takes down UMKC
After Friday's home opener loss, team wins at new facility. TENNIS | 8B
NEBRASKA 67, KANSAS 60
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Freshman forward Carolyn Davis blocks Nebraska forward Kelsey Griffin during the second half. Davis had another double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds in the 67-60 loss to Nebraska.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Upset so close for Jayhawks
Kansas turnovers help Nebraska storm back late
BY MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
twitter.com/maxrothman
Directly after the opening tip, Nebraska senior Kelsey Griffin caught a darted pass, faked left and drove past sophomore forward Aishah Sutherland for a layup on the right side. After that, it seemed Griffin wouldn't need to do much else.
No. 3 Nebraska had beaten its opponents by an average of 23.6
points per game. After the first half, the game Wednesday looked to be headed down the same path.
Then an inexperienced Kansas team snapped back, pushing an undefeated Nebraska team until the final minutes before falling 67-60.
Kansas fell to 4-5 in the Big 12, but it gave a valiant second-half effort in a game that looked all but over by halftime.
Kelsey Griffin, a national player of the year candidate, played just nine minutes, and still the Cornhuskers slugged Kansas 30-20 in the first half.
"You're either dead or dying," coach Bonnie Henrickson said to her team at halftime. "If you're dying, you've at least got breath."
The Jayhawks responded to Henrickson's speech.
After missing nine of its last
10 shots and converting just one field goal in the final 11:40 of the first half, the Jayhawks started the second half by nailing their first 11
board, during the lead with 13:38 to go in the second half.
Griffin said sometimes people looked past unranked teams, but tonight was an example of why they shouldn't.
"Kansas did
a great job executing their sets throughout the game," Griffin said. "Our coaches prepared us for them, we knew them, and they were still able to execute."
vacant in Allen Fieldhouse, with an announced attendance of 3,156, but there was some raucous noise.
The seats may have been mostly
"It's gut-wrenching. It's a missed opportunity where I thought we beat ourselves."
Kansas again
BONNIE HENRICKSON Kansas coach
clawed back by way of its freshmen.
7-of-9 free throw attempts.
Freshman guard Monica Engelman converted 2-of-7 shots in the first half and said she was at first a bit nervous at the prospect of challenging an undefeated team.
But in the second half, Engelman glided her way to silky shots and finished with 13 points.
Henrickson said it was also a good defensive effort that helped spark the comeback.
"We got them to rush and pressure some shots," Henrickson said. "We were able to scramble out of some plays too."
But the absence of a true point guard stung Kansas. Playing out of her natural position, senior guard Sade Morris, who finished with seven turnovers, committed three of Kansas' four crucial turnovers in the final three minutes of the game.
SEE RECAP ON PAGE 6B
COMMENTARY
"It's just not making the right pass," Morris said. "It was there. I needed to go over instead of try to
Kansas proves it's still a threat
BY JAYSON JENKS
jjenks@kansan.com
In Kansas' 67-60 loss against No. 3 Nebraska in a game that seemed destined to turn into a route after a rather ugly first half — the Jayhawks did something improbable.
They dug themselves out of a steep hole against one of the best teams in the country — a team that, until this point, had run straight through every team in the Big 12. They cut a 10-point halftime deficit and quickly built a small lead.
And they did all of this with a cast of players that barely touched the court in the beginning of the season.
Sure, Kansas missed a perfectly available opportunity to shake the women's basketball landscape and polls. And sure, the Jayhawks looked sloppy and overmatched in the game's final minutes as Nebraska secured its 22nd consecutive victory this season.
But more important than any of that, at least in terms of the remaining seven games on Kansas' schedule, is this. The Jayhawks displayed that even without former starters Danielle McCrav and Angel Goodrich, they can still play a factor in the Big 12.
"The message to these kids is: We're talented enough," coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "Now we need to find some toughness to win."
After the game, a somber Henrickson said the game was "two fold," meaning she couldn't view it as mostly positive or most negative.
There was certainly a mixture of both.
SEE COLUMN ON PAGE 6B
SOFTBALL
New coach renews enthusiasm,plans to take Kansas in new direction
BY ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
twitter/zgetz
Senior shortstop Sara Ramirez knew right away that new coach Megan Smith was the right choice for the Kansas softball team.
"Her first statement was, 'Were turning Kansas softball around.' Ramirez said. "just to hear those words and to hear that we were going to win — everyone around the room was wide-eyed and all in."
Smith said she wanted to bring titles to Lawrence and wanted the players to think positively whenever they stepped on the field.
Smith replaced Tracy Bunge, who retired last season after 13 years as Kansas' coach. Smith was hired last fall, and this will be her first season coaching the lashawks.
Kansas finished 21-31 last season and went 6-11 in the Big 12. Kansas hasn't made the NCAA Softball Tournament since 2006. The Jayhawks open the season Feb. 12 in Houston at the Marriott Hobby In
vite against Louisville.
Smith doesn't have any timetables in place for Kansas, but she said she wanted the softball program to be turned around as soon as possible.
Smith brings a lot of enthusiasm to a program that placed ninth out of 10 teams in the Big 12 Conference last season and was also picked to place ninth this season in the coaches' preseason poll.
"Our success this year isn't going to be measured by wins and losses," Smith said. "It's going to be by how we approach things and what our demeanor is on the field and how we play as a team."
"She has an incredible amount of passion." Ramirez said. "You can just see the fire in her."
Smith said she also wanted to have a system that allowed Kansas to be highly competitive in both conference play and on the national scene. One of her goals is to improve recruiting.
First-year coach Megan Smith slaps with senior shortstop Sara Ramirez following a home run against Emporia State University on Oct. 3, 2009. Smith was previously an assistant coach at Louisiana State University.
"We want to create that charm pionship mentality, which is excit
ing for players," Smith said. "They want to come in and get a chance to do something special. It's hard for players not to fall in love with Kansas."
Ramirez said Smith expected big things from the team right away.
"She knows that this is a growing period together as a team with the new coach and staff." Ramirez said. "But to her that doesn't mean we can't win, and this isn't automatically a season we just throw away."
Junior outfielder Liz Kocon said that Smith did not accept anything less than perfection in practice — a fact that reflects on Smith's desire to slowly improve the Jayhawks in the minor, yet important, areas of the game.
Weston White/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
"Everything we do from fundamental work to scrimmage has to be our hardest work," Kocon said. "If she's not satisfied with our work, we'll be there all night until she is."
To be successful this season, Kansas needs to even out the inconsistencies that it has had in the past.
"We've always had good defensive players, we've always had good hitters, we've always had pitchers,"
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Kocon said. "But we've never had them working all together consistently."
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Edited by Katie Blankenau