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Jacobs, Jayhawks eat Hawkeyes’ lunch
LaChelda Jacobs had 18 points and six assists as Kansas University’s women’s basketball team beat Iowa, 76-55
Big 12 football notebook
Kansas is bowl-eligible, but only one of the Jayhawks’ six victories has come against a team with a winning record. Louisiana Tech, a team KU blanked, 29-0, in the second week of the season, is 6-4. Sam Houston State and Florida International are both 4-5, Colorado is 5-6, Kansas State 4-7 and Iowa State 2-9.
KU prepared for early start
Brunch basketball may be out of context, but Kansas University’s women’s basketball players aren’t likely to be out of sorts. “We’ve had 5 a.m. practices and 7 a.m. practices,” junior guard Kelly Kohn said. “We’re used to a lot worse conditions than an 11 a.m. game.”
McCray keys KU to opening rout
Slow down, Danielle McCray, you’re moving too fast. McCray eased up on the pedal and matched her career-high with 29 points as Kansas drubbed Sacred Heart, 106-64, in women’s basketball on Friday night in Allen Fieldhouse. “She’d been exceeding her speed limit,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said about the 5-foot-11 junior guard/forward. “Not on defense, but on offense, and I said, ‘Let the game come to you.’”
Sacred Heart up next for KU
Not often does Krysten Boogaard face anyone nearly her size on a basketball floor. Not with the Kansas University sophomore standing 6-foot-5. But Boogaard will be facing one of the best tall players in the country tonight when the Jayhawks open the regular season against Sacred Heart and 6-4 center Kaitlin Sowinski, who averaged 17.2 points and 7.4 rebounds last season.
Big 12 football notebook
Nebraska nose tackle Ndamukong Suh may have been the first Big 12 football player ever to earn defensive player of the week award for a game in which he also scored an offensive touchdown. Suh had a career-high 12 stops in Saturday’s 45-35 win over Kansas, including 2.5 sacks. Suh also plays fullback in goal-line situations and caught a two-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
Woodling: Woodling: Familiar faces for KU
I’ve been asking around for months now and nobody can come up with an answer. Bill Self, as you know, has zero starters back from the NCAA championship team, and no one can remember the last time a Kansas University men’s basketball coach faced that situation. On the flip side, there’s KU’s women’s basketball program. Whereas Self has so many new faces it may be January before fans sort them all out, Bonnie Henrickson has just one.
Sophomore center keys KU women’s victory
When Krysten Boogaard is good on a basketball court, she is very, very good. But when she is bad, she is : Well, Kansas University’s 6-foot-5 sophomore center isn’t ever horrid, but she definitely has some bad days. Both phases of Boogaard’s up-and-down game were on display Sunday afternoon when the Jayhawks toppled Washburn, 67-51, in an exhibition game in Allen Fieldhouse.
KU women expect stiffer competition
Little doubt Kansas University’s women will face a different species of table fare in their second exhibition basketball game.
Baker to face unbeaten MANU
How sweet it is for Baker University football. Six consecutive wins have propelled the Wildcats into the No. 15 slot in the weekly NAIA poll, and now they have a shot at the Heart of America Athletic Conference championship. Clearly, though, it won’t be easy, not with unbeaten and No. 5-ranked MidAmerica Nazarene on tap today.
Firing of KSU’s Prince, KU’s Allen comparable
The athletic director at a major university in the Sunflower State fires his football coach with three games remaining in the season. Did this week’s action by Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause sound familiar? Seven years ago, Kansas athletic director Al Bohl did the same thing.
KU women make short work of FHSU
A scrimmage is a scrimmage is a scrimmage. Unless it’s listed on the schedule as an exhibition game. So it was officially a contest - although not much of one - as Kansas University’s women’s basketball team trounced Fort Hays State, 93-37, on Sunday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.
Baker has opportunity to make ‘statement’ today
Is Baker University’s football team a contender? Or are the Wildcats merely a pretender? The answer is only hours away. Perennial NAIA powerhouse Missouri Valley will be in Baldwin City today, and BU has an opportunity to make a statement.
Big 12 football notebook
¢ QB cornucopia ¢ J.J. joins the fray ¢ Griffin clickin’ ¢ OU-NU Days of yore ¢ The eyes have it ¢ KU’s Meier near record ¢ Grounded Gobs
History of struggles motivates KU women for ‘08-‘09
Bonnie Henrickson couldn’t vote for her own team in the Big 12 Conference preseason women’s basketball poll. Yet if the Kansas University coach could have ranked the Jayhawks :? “I wouldn’t have picked us ninth,” Henrickson said. In other words, Henrickson believes her team will finish higher than the league coaches predicted. And, in truth, even a .500 record would look good to Henrickson who in four seasons on Mount Oread has compiled a lackluster 18-46 record against conference foes.
Big 12 notebook
Iowa State coach Gene Chizik is keeping his fingers crossed now that backup quarterback Phllip Bates has quit the team. The new No. 2 is true freshman Jerome Tiller, but Chizik doesn’t want to burn Tiller’s redshirt. He’ll have to, however, if starter Austen Arnaud goes down.
Kansas University notebook
Little doubt the biggest mystery surrounding the Kansas University football team has been the sudden disappearance of its kick-return game in general and Marcus Herford in particular.
Woodling: Woodling: Women get rare early tip
So I was glancing at the Kansas University women’s basketball schedule a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed a 1 p.m. game on Nov. 18. Hey, wait a minute. That’s a Tuesday. KU doesn’t play weekday games in the afternoon. Must be a typographical error. Then I learned the KU women’s game against Iowa was part of an ESPN package featuring 23 consecutive televised hours of college basketball on that day. Moreover, KU-Iowa is the lone women’s game included in that hoops marathon.
Big 12 notebook
Kansas State should be delighted to face punchless Texas A&M on Saturday. After giving up a total of just 16 points in its first two games (North Texas and Montana State), the Wildcats’ defense has been riddled for 133 points in the last three. K-State ranks No. 94 nationally in scoring defense.
Woodling: Woodling: KU-ISU in ‘92 a doozy
Seldom one to keep his emotions in check, Glen Mason blurted: “I still don’t believe it. It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.” Mason was Kansas University’s football coach the day the Jayhawks staged the greatest comeback in school history. The date was Oct. 17, 1992. The place was Iowa State. Saturday, as you know, KU rallied from a 20-point halftime deficit to shock the Cyclones, but that turnaround bore little resemblance to that October ‘92 stunner.
Chuck Woodling’s Big 12 notebook
One national writer dubbed Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Manuel Johnson as “arguably the nation’s most electrifying pass-catch duo” after Bradford threw for a personal-best 411 yards and Johnson produced a school-record 206 yards receiving with three touchdowns in the Sooners’ 35-10 victory over TCU.
This week in the Big 12 Conference…
Nearly half the Big 12 schools are averaging more than 500 yards a game, led by NCAA pacesetter Missouri at 595.5. Texas Tech is third nationally at 572.8, Oklahoma fourth at 556.7 and Oklahoma State fifth at 546.0. Texas is ninth at 502.3. Kansas ranks 15th at 473.0.
Woodling: Woodling: Too tiny? Not these 3 QBs
In street clothes, Todd Reesing looks more like an alto in the cherub choir than he does a major-college quarterback. Yet the Kansas University junior quarterback can play. He’s one of the best passing QBs in the country. In the same vein, Camren Torneden looks more like a jockey intern than he does a high school quarterback in the state’s largest classification.
Jayhawks rebuilding
Zac Elgie said no to the pros. So did Lee Ridenhour. And that’s good news for Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price.
This week in the Big 12 Conference
¢ OSU backs thriving ¢ ISU forcing turnovers ¢ Time on KU’s side ¢ Meier grabs early lead ¢ Flags haven’t cost TTU
Woodling: Woodling: Army game spectacle
In the grand scheme of things, it’s impossible to do everything you want to do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give it your best shot. In that regard, I have now checked a football game at the U.S. Military Academy off my list of wanna-dos.
Woodling: Woodling: A look at future of Big 12
Big 12 Conference athletic directors adopted a rule today requiring league schools to play at least one football game on campus every season. The ruling is aimed at preventing league schools with smaller stadiums from staging all their games at larger professional facilities in order to boost attendance and increase revenue. Over the last few years, for example, Kansas and Kansas State have been playing the majority of their home games at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
Woodling: Woodling: Sayers utilized properly
Gale Sayers received his Medicare card a couple of months ago, and you know what that means. People who sat in the Memorial Stadium stands back in the early ‘60s and watched the man many consider the greatest open-field runner in college football history are becoming fewer and fewer. I never saw Sayers perform in person, yet, like most of you, I’ve heard plenty about how amazing he was. At the same time, the Sayers legend has been dogged over the years by speculation he was underutilized.
Coach Bunge’s outlook: ‘I like what I see’
Tracy Bunge can’t help but be optimistic about next spring and her 13th season as Kansas University’s softball coach.
Price counting on ballyhooed recruits
Rarely one to avoid hyperbole, Ritch Price nonetheless raised more than a few eyebrows when he announced his group of signees.
Woodling: Woodling: Self’s contract a rarity
Uh, oh. Another 10-year contract. That was my knee-jerk reaction to the news Kansas University had awarded men’s basketball coach Bill Self a 10-year pact. Decade-long deals for coaches are rare. I know of only two and, in both cases, the recipient failed to make it to the max. Self is, in fact, the second KU coach to secure a 10-year contract. The first was Jack Mitchell, a gregarious football mentor who endeared himself to the KU masses with that famous 23-7 victory over previously unbeaten Missouri at the end of the 1960 season.
Woodling: Woodling: Stadium pretty, imperfect
Few college football stadiums can boast as picturesque a setting as Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium. Located at the foot of Mount Oread, with green space sprawling southward up Campanile Hill, Memorial Stadium is one of the few college facilities remaining that juxtaposes football with scenery. Nevertheless, Memorial Stadium is still the oldest campus stadium west of the Mississippi River, and it does have its drawbacks. Parking, for instance.
Woodling: Woodling: Mario’s shot still goes in
I wonder how many times over the weekend Mario Chalmers nailed his famous three-point goal against Memphis. While channel-flipping, I saw Chalmers do it twice on CBSC, the cable outlet that was telecasting an NCAA Final Four retrospective. Heck, I even watched some of Kansas University’s semifinal victory over North Carolina in April at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
KU men’s basketball Big 12 schedule announced
Kansas University’s defending men’s basketball champions will make three television appearances on ABC and two on CBS during the Big 12 Conference portion of their 2008-2009 schedule.
Woodling: Woodling: Kivisto rallied before
These are tough times for Tom Kivisto, and that saddens me because Kivisto fills a unique niche in Kansas University athletics. Kivisto is the only KU athlete in my memory who was booed repeatedly on the basketball floor, yet years later donated millions of dollars to his alma mater. Kivisto, who was removed last week as president and CEO of his Tulsa-based energy company, came to KU as a highly touted point guard out of a suburban Chicago high school.
Woodling: Woodling: Lawsuit gives T’s new life
This, for once, wasn’t all about the money. Oh, Kansas Athletics Inc., saw dollar signs, all right, but the conservative culture of the corporation that operates on the Kansas University campus was motivated more by a particular T-shirt. You know the one I’m talking about. Muck Fizzou. Lew Perkins, CEO of Kansas Athletics Inc., hates that T-shirt. First, Perkins tried jawboning entrepreneur Larry Sinks to get rid of it, but Sinks declined. Then Perkins convinced ESPN to ignore students wearing it, but so many students donned it that ESPN couldn’t avoid all of them.
Woodling: Woodling: KU still playing catch-up
Spin doctors at Missouri University sent an e-mail to alumni members not too long ago trumpeting the Tigers’ success in athletics during the 2007-2008 school year. Missouri finished - fanfare, please - 38th in Director’s Cup standings compiled by the nation’s athletic directors (NACDA). Big deal, huh? Thirty-eighth in the nation. Whoopee. Looking at it another way, while Kansas University fans are still trumpeting the school’s NCAA title in men’s basketball and the Jayhawks’ best football season in modern history, Missouri is ballyhooing a 38th place finish in the NACDA rankings.
Woodling: Woodling: Football secretary special
Oh, what a book Marge Hazlett could write. Oh, the tales she could tell of skeletons in closets, of peccadilloes swept under rugs, of juicy tidbits never made public. Several years ago, I queried the woman who was secretary to every Kansas University football coach since Pepper Rodgers if she had ever considered doing a tell-all book when she retired.
Woodling: Woodling: Happy new year!
You know what today is, don’t you? OK, it’s the first day of the rest of your life. But it’s also a new year for Kansas Athletics Inc. KAI, the corporate behemoth that operates on the Kansas University campus, functions on a fiscal year basis that begins on July 1. The arrival of New Fiscal Year’s Day means that just about all the KAI employees will be receiving their hefty raises based on the bountiful booty created by the football team’s appearance in the Orange Bowl and the men’s basketball team’s : well, you know what it did.
Woodling: Woodling: NBA Draft a joke
So I’m watching the NBA Draft the other night, and Darrell Arthur looks like his dog was just run over, and I’m thinking: What about Mario Chalmers? Here it is late in the first round, and Chalmers, the man who nailed the magical three-pointer in the NCAA championship game, is still waiting for his name to be called. ESPN analyst Jay Bilas keeps saying Chalmers is the best player available, but he might as well be talking to The Love Guru. No NBA general manager is listening.
Woodling: Woodling: Boozer, Manning, Beasley?
Whether Kansas State offensive machine Michael Beasley goes first or second in Thursday’s NBA Draft seems meaningless on the surface. Either way, Beasley will become an instant millionaire. Nevertheless, don’t discount the prestige of being No. 1.
Woodling: Woodling: Tickets increase with title
Well, you knew it was coming, didn’t you? When Kansas University captured the NCAA men’s basketball championship last April in San Antonio, you knew a boost in next season’s ticket prices was as inevitable as death, taxes and asphalt.
Woodling: Woodling: Mario goes out on top
Something unique appears about to happen : something that hasn’t occurred in the storied history of Kansas University’s men’s basketball program. Now that Mario Chalmers has pulled the ripcord and confirmed he won’t be returning for his senior year, KU appears likely to produce its first hat trick. Never before have three Jayhawks been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.
Woodling: Woodling: Pierce closing on Jo Jo
Now that Paul Pierce is hogging the headlines during the NBA Finals, it’s possible he’ll soon shed his second-rate status. Pierce, a second-rater? Am I nuts? Here is clearly one of the best players in professional basketball, a man who is paid a stratospheric $16 million plus per year, a man who probably could be elected mayor of Boston.
Woodling: Woodling: Where are they now?
Names, names, names. Here are some names that might interest you… Willie Mays Aikens, a power-hitting first baseman and designated hitter for the Royals in the early 1980s, was released from prison this week after spending 14 years behind bars for selling cocaine to an undercover policeman. Sad.
Woodling: Woodling: ‘07-‘08 huge year, but best?
I wasn’t there for Bob Hemenway’s commencement address, but I know many folks who heard it weren’t pleased with the Kansas University chancellor. Hemenway, they felt, put too much emphasis on the Jayhawks’ football and men’s basketball accomplishments and not enough on academics.
KU, MU to play two
Saturday evening’s rain delayed Kansas University’s chase for sixth place in Big 12 Conference baseball.
Woodling: Woodling: Son of voice of Jayhawks paying dues in Arkansas
The young usherette tapped Steven Davis on the arm and said, “Excuse me, but do you know where these seats are?”
Woodling: Woodling: Talib among KU elite
The drought is over. Kansas University finally has produced another NFL first-round draft choice.
Kansas softball bounces back, 6-0
Val George may hail from Tucson, but she looked more like the Phoenix on Sunday.
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Kansas women's basketball to play St. Louis November 21, 2008
Tolefree signs to play volleyball at KU November 21, 2008
Kansas regroups, preps for Missouri November 21, 2008
Jayhawks look for help from hometown KC crowd November 20, 2008
KU's Smith plays through pain November 20, 2008
