Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Settlement records closed Documents of Mangino's departure are still unavailable. SPORTS | 11A
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Players awarded honors Soccer teammates all receive awards for efforts this season: SPORTS | 11A
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009
PAGE 12A
Search for the coach
Buffalo gives Perkins permission to meet Gill
Senior quarterback Todd Reesing is brought down while trying to complete a pass. Reesing was whistled for intentional grounding on the throw and left Kansas with a field goal attempt on fourth-and-21.
University at Buffalo Associate Athletic Director Paul Vecchio confirmed in an
Weston White/XANSAN
email that Buffalo granted Kansas Athletic Direcet Lew Perkins' request to meet
Gill
with Buffalo head coach Turner Gill.
Vecchio also confirmed that Buffalo does not know if that meeting has taken place. The Buffalo News reported that Gill met with Perkins on Sunday.
— Clark Goble
Ole Miss coachrumored to be interested in KU
Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt is interested in the vacant coaching position
at Kansas and he has talked with Athletic Director Lew Perkins about the position, according to a report by The Kansas City Star.
At 52, Nutt carries with him the reputation as a winner. In 10 seasons – eight at Arkansas and two at Ole Miss – Nutt has 92-56 record, including a 51-45 mark in the ever-tough SEC.
Nut is a three-time recipient of the SEC Coach of the Year
award.
Last season, Nutt's name was connected with the vacant Auburn position.
Nutt
But Nitt remained at Ole Miss and received a salary increase. Nutt currently is due to make $2.5 million this season.
In an emailed response to the Kansan, though, Ole Miss sports information director Kyle Campbell said,"At this time, Ole Miss has not received a request seeking permission to contact Coach Nutt."
Sticking to the Athletic Department's policy of no-commenting rumors, Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchioni declined to comment on the situation.
Jayson Jenks
FOOTBALL
A look back at a season of surprises, disappointments
BY JAYSON JENKS
iienks@kansan.com
For the final time in his career, senior quarterback Todd Reeing stood in front of reporters and answered questions after a game.
Moments before, Kansas suffered its seventh loss of the season — also its seventh consecutive loss — when rival Missouri kicked a last-second field goal, leaving Arrowhead Stadium with a 41-39 victory.
The layhawks opened the season with five consecutive victories, generally rolling through a non-conference slate filled with lesser opponents.
In some aspects, the ending seemed to be appropriate for a season that failed to materialize into the success preseason expectations predicted
Then Big 12 started and Kansas never found its footing in the conference, sneaking away with a close victory against Iowa State in the opener before losing seven straight.
In between, plenty of story lines grabbed the attention of followers.
Of course, the season ended with Athletic Director Lew Perkins' announcement of an internal inve
Against Texas Tech, Reesing was benched in the fourth quarter. In some games, the offense's turnovers resulted in a loss. In other games, the defense couldn't produce stops in the crucial, make-or-break stretches of games.
tigation of former coach Mark Mangino. That, in turn, led to an intense spotlight from national media regarding Mangino's future with the team.
Late last week, on a cold Thursday night, Mangino's departure from Kansas was finalized.
To say it was an eventful season would certainly be an understatement.
However, after Kansas' defeat at the hands of Missouri, Reesing provided what was perhaps the perfect summation of a season that many struggled to define.
"Things didn't work out for us so well this season and nothing went
MORE INSIDE
Jayson Jenks' review of the 2009 football season continues on page 10A.
our way" Reeing said, "Sometimes that's how things go."
Follow Jayson Jenks at twitter.com/JaysonJenks
In the interest of retention the Kansan looks back on the key moments and players from the lawhawks' 5-7 season.
Edited bv Abbv Olcese
ROAD WOES
Errors limit minutes for freshmen
Johnson's, Robinson's erratic play lands duo on bench against UCLA
I
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
A few key faces were missing in the jayhawks' victory against the Bruins Sunday.
Against Alcorn State, freshman guard Elijah Johnson and freshman forward Thomas Robinson were
stars, but against UCIA, the two played a total of five minutes.
Kansas coach Bill Self said his players were not great in adjusting to the gameplay on the road, which is one reason why Self essentially used a seven man rotation.
Aside from the five minutes from Johnson and Robinson, Self only used his starters and junior guard Tyrel Reed and sophomore forward Markieff Morris, who played significant roles off the bench.
"Guys weren't playing well." Self said. "I was going to play the guys I felt would give us the best chance to win the game."
Self said the slow pace of the game held most of his young players out of the game. He also said that Johnson had not learned to slow the game down yet. His erratic play limited him to two fouls in four minutes.
Robinson, on the other hand, made Self upset when he tried to dunk the ball with one hand instead of two. The ball slipped out of Robinson's hands and he only played one minute just one game after his first career double in his breakout game against Alcorn State.
"I was going to play the guys I felt would give us the best chance to win the game."
As a guard, Johnson said he didn't care what he did offensively — passing is his passion — but he said he appreciated how Self was grooming him as a true point guard early in his career, not as a shooter.
most about the game."
"At the next level, I would definitely have to be a point guard, and with my mentality," Johnson said. "I think that's what I enjoy
"There are still things I need work on coach showed me," Robinson said. "There are still a couple things but I'll get better."
Thomas said one of his biggest weaknesses is his perimeter play.
BILL SELF Kansas coach
Against UCLA, Henry admitted he only looked good during the game because he didn't have a lot of contested shots.
"As athletic as I am, I need to learn how to do that," Robinson said.
Xavier Henry only shot 3-for-11. Robinson played just two minutes and Johnson committed three turnovers in seven minutes.
The young players also played poorly in this season's only other game away from Allen Fieldhouse, the Nov. 17 game against Memphis in St. Louis. Against Memphis, freshman guard
Henry is laid back when it comes to his play and said all he did was help the team win. He said that he didn't focus on the No.1 ranking, and that he didn't mind being a highly-touted freshman.
Even though he had four 3-pointers,he had four turnovers in the game and most of those threes were wide open.
"I was fortunate Sherron found me open a couple times and Cole found me open." Henry said. "I just had to knock shots down."
"It's just like an AAU tournament you go to," Henry said. "It's not a big adjustment."
Follow Corey Thibodeaux at twitter.com/c_thibodeaux.
- Edited by Nick Gerik
Weston White/KANSAN
UCLA sophomore guard Malcolm Lee passes around freshman Eliah Johnson in Kansas' 73-61 victory Sunday in Los Angeles, Calif. Johnson and fellow freshman Thomas Robinson played only a total of five minutes against the Bruins.
COMMENTARY
The game shouldn't lose its grit
From Vince Lombardi to Boise State's annual argument to play in the
argument to play in the national championship game, football has been a stable and important part of American culture.
And just like the quality of the TV's fans watch the games on, the game is evolving — but it's losing the grittiness and the toughness it once had.
Watching the NFL has become a headache for any fan of good defense. There are penalties for hitting a quarterback low and there are penalties for hitting a quarterback high. There are some new rules that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has put in place that make perfect sense: Players need to be careful with concussions and not lie to team doctors. On the other hand, there are new rules that are obviously just put in place to protect the most popular players of the game — the quarterbacks.
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After the Chiefs ruined the Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's season a year ago, Goodell implemented a rule that said defenders could not hit a quarterback below the knee. But football became popular because of its roughness. People respect these players because of their heroes on the field in sacrificing their bodies every play. The game is going to lose some of its luster if players have to restrain themselves on tackles that aren't dirty. Kansas City's Bernard Pollard did not mean to injure Tom Brady on that season-ending play. He was simply doing anything he could to get to the quarterback.
All of the one-time football players know that there was a certain amount of fear you had for the head football coach. If you did something wrong, you felt his wrath. But it was good for you because you learned. Granted, the means by which a coach inspires his players cannot go so far as what was alleged against Mangino, but coaches cannot be afraid to put their hands on plays at all.
But football isn't just chang ing on Sundays. The college football world is changing, too, and Kansas students have seen that in the last month. The investigation of former coach Mark Mangino has not only hurt the reputation of Mangino, but it has hurt how some coaches will try to motivate their teams in the future.
If every coach gets scared that old players might call in and report that they were mistreated by being grabbed by the face mask, coaches could lose that fear factor. Players must be willing to accept discipline if they want to get better.
We can only hope that football will not progress into an elaborate form of flag football and that players will accept the coaching methods of respectable coaches. There are going to be injuries, there are going to be hurt feelings — but that's why we don't watch chess tournaments on Monday nights.
Follow Nick Roesler at twitter.com/nroesler8.
— Edited by Amanda Thompson
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