/ SPORTS / TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds."
— Wilt Chamberlain
FACT OF THE DAY
As of Monday afternoon, Kansas leads the Big 12 in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense.
Big 12 Sports
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Who has been named Big 12 Men's Basketball Rookie of the Week the most times this season?
A: Iowa State senior forward Marquis Gilstrap. He has won the award four times, including Monday's co-Rookie of the Week with Colorado junior guard Marcus Relphorde.
-Big 12 Sports
NFL
Nolan leaves Broncos as third coach departure
DENVER — The Denver Broncos and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan have agreed to part ways.
Nolan becomes the third member of coach Josh McDaniels inaugural staff to depart following a disappointing 8-8 finish. Offensive line coach Rick Dennison left for Houston's staff and longtime running backs coach Bobby Turner was reunited with Mike Shanahan in Washington. Both Dennison and Turner were holdovers from the Shanahan era.
Nolan, who engineered the Broncos' switch to a 3-4 defensive alignment, was McDaniels' first hire.
McDaniels said in a statement released Monday by the team:"I have great respect for Mike and wish him success in the future."
Associated Press
'Any given Sunday'revealed
MORNING BREW
It's no revelation that the NFL is the towering monolith on the American sports landscape. The frequently cited reason for this fact is a phenomenon called the "any given Sunday" effect (no relation to the film). The phenomenon deals with the impossibility of predicting league games. Whenever two teams take the field, the result is very much in question. This truism would seem especially pertinent come playoff time, when everyone still playing is doing so for a reason.
Until now. You see, after this weekend's NFL games, I have done the impossible. I have cracked the code and deconstructed the "any given Sunday" myth.
What revolutionary metric have I uncovered that allows for such brilliant insight? It is not derived from watching hours of film, nor is it an unsolvable arrangement of numbers plugged into some unwieldy formula.
Even in this age of Sabermetrics, my revelation deals with the exceedingly intangible and unique human concepts of motivation and respect.
Basically, it boils down to this: In the playoffs, the victorious team will be the one that feels most disrespected by the media, pundits and fans in the week prior to the game.
Not buying it?
BY ALEX BEECHER abeecher@kansan.com
Take the Vikings and the Saints, for instance. Both were the higher seed this weekend, by virtue of stellar regular seasons. But in both cases, their regular seasons had less than pristine endings. That, combined with the fact that the Cowboys were coming off of several dominant performances, left the Vikings as less than media darlings. The Saints limped to the finish line to an even greater extent, and faced an Arizona Cardinals team that demonstrated the year before, its ability to make a run in the playoffs.
Both the Saints and Vikings felt the need to prove their mettle and seeding, and both did just that.
The Colts, on the AFC side of things,
provided a similar story. They too entered
the playoffs as a top seed, but also lost
late. Even worse, the Colts - gasp! -
seemed to have lost their games almost
by design. Enter the Ravens, fresh off a
demolition of the New England Patriots.
Baltimore would come in to Indianapolis,
find a rusty Colts team, and tear them apart. Or not.
As it was, the San Diego Chargers were the only favorites who actually played the role their seed had indicated. The Chargers, of course, were also the only home team to lose.
That's all well and good, but hindsight is only so valuable. What does this tell us about predicting games? This early in the week, nothing. But come Friday, and moreso the mornings of the games in question, things will become clearer.
Whichever team should be the angriest should also be the favorite.
Edited by Kristen Liszewski
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
No events scheduled
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
Women's basketball at Iowa State, 7 p.m.
Men's basketball vs. Baylor, 8 p.m.
FRIDAY
THURSDAY
No events scheduled.
SATURDAY
MIDAY
No events scheduled.
Men's basketball at Iowa State, 1 p.m.
Women's basketball at Oklahoma, 2 p.m.
Women's swimming vs. South Dakota/ Northern Iowa, 3 p.m.
SUNDAY
No events scheduled.
MONDAY
SOCCER
Men's basketball vs. Missouri, 8 p.m.
Senior defender Johnson selected in third round
Senior defender Estelle Johnson was selected in the third round of
the Womens Professional Soccer league draft by defending champion, the Los Angeles Sol. Johnson was the 25th overall pick.
Johnson
"This is something that I've been dreaming of since I started playing soccer," Johnson said in a press release.
Johnson played in all 22 matches for the Jayhawks this season. With 82 starts, she finished her career, tied for the most games started in Kansas history.
"She definitely deserves this," Kansas coach Mark Francis said in the release. "I think back to her freshman season, when she came here she was obviously very talented, but raw. With the improvements she's made in the past four years, she's a completely different player. We're all really proud of her."
The 2010 WPS season is scheduled to begin in April.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols passes through a red curtain to enter the area where he will sign autographs for fans at the Cardinals' annual Winter Warm-Up event Monday in St. Louis. Earlier, the National League MVP offered his support to the Cardinals' new hitting coach Mark McGwire, who admitted a week ago that he used steroids while breaking the single-season home run record.
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Pujols supports McGwire
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Albert Pujols supports Mark McGwire, both for acknowledging his use of steroids and in his new role as hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals.
"I told him I'm proud of him for admitting what he used." Pujols said Monday at the team's Winter Warm-Up. "Everybody makes mistakes."
Puijols angrily rejected the notion that McGwire made the admission to revive his chances of getting voted to the Hall of Fame. Despite hitting 383 horse runs, tied for eighth of the career list, McGwire has received less than 25 percent support in four appearances on the ballot.
"I don't know what else he can say. How many more times does he have to apologize? How many more times does he have to admit he made a mistake?" La Russa said.
McGwire's first news conference in St. Louis since 2005 was to be behind a podium Sunday but was shifted to a crowded hotel hallway. The session lasted just over six minutes and opened Big Mac a convenient escape route via a service entrance while surrounded by security personnel.
Still, the Cardinals feel that's enough, and manager Tony La Russa warned that Big Mac's first spring training as a coach will focus on work.
La Russa maintained his
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Oakland teams would have been big winners even without steroids use by McGwire and Jose Canseco, dubbed the Bash Brothers.
He reiterated he had no suspicions regarding McGwire's dramatic improvements until after Big Mac dodged questions at the 2005 Congressional hearings.
2 for 1 admission tonight
La Russa said he suspected a third, unidentified Athletics player, of using performance-enhancing drugs during his decade in Oakland. The manager cleared many of PED use, mentioning Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson, third baseman Carney Lansford and setup man
Rick Honeycutt by name, and the rotation and closer Dennis Eckersley by mentioning those positions.
Cardinals players during the La Rusa years from 1996 to the present linked to steroids use include McGwire, Rick Ankiel, Troy Glaus and Ryan Franklin. The team has not been reluctant to obtain players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, acquiring Glaus and Franklin after the fact.
"If that's a taint to some extent with people, or whatever, large extent, this is America," La Russa said. "You're free to your opinion."
As for McGwire's qualifications as a hitting coach, he has no experience beyond one-on-one work with players during the offseason, although Matt Holliday and others spoke highly of their time with him.
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