KUsports.com | Stories by Tom Keegan

Keegan: Collins cleans up, too

Even a place as charming as Allen Fieldhouse has some very difficult jobs under its roof. The people who have to clean the bathrooms, for example. Had that job in college. Don’t want it again.

Keegan: Releford provides a spark

Players don’t just walk into a basketball program like Kansas and become instant fan favorites. They have to earn that distinction. It takes some longer than others. It didn’t take Travis Releford long at all. It took him all of 13 minutes. That’s how long Releford was on the floor in KU’s season-opening, 71-56 victory Sunday night against a UMKC team that had a way of coming back to life.

Keegan: Seasons’ changes dramatic

Snow fell on the 2008 Kansas University football team Saturday for the first time. The curtain fell on their chances of having a truly memorable season long before that. Exactly when did that happen? Can’t remember. The snowflakes barely were visible, small and short-lived, like the hopes of duplicating a magical 12-1 season that ended in an Orange Bowl victory against Virginia Tech.

Keegan: Pass defense deficient

When a pass defense performs as poorly as has that of Kansas University in the nation’s best quarterback conference, a variation of the chicken-and-egg question can be difficult to answer.

Keegan: Marcus figuring it out

Today is the first day high school basketball players can sign national letters of intent. So ends the signees’ recruiting process, and in the minds of so many begins the necessary step of going through the motions of playing one year of college ball before they begin to collect the inevitable NBA paycheck.

Huskers: Win ‘awesome’

Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz bruised his heel on one play and twisted his knee on the other, but his coach, Bo Pelini, said he didn’t even consider removing him from the game. “If I wanted to fight him on the sidelines,” Pelini said. “He would have fought me before he would have let me take him out.” Pause.

Keegan: Keegan: Huskers won this one on lines

Slammed to the ground for the second consecutive play, Kansas University quarterback Todd Reesing was pulled up by a teammate and slowly made his way off the field for the final time Saturday. He tried to run to the sideline, but his body wouldn’t cooperate, so he hobbled, a beaten man, roughed up from start to finish, still clever enough to make a game of it, but in the end, beaten by a better team.

Keegan: Keegan: Game at NU is huge

Today’s Kansas-Nebraska game at the Cornhuskers’ Memorial Stadium is big, but just how big? It’s bigger than Lil’ Red’s caboose, bigger than Bill Callahan’s debt to Nebraska football, bigger than Jake Sharp’s e-mail in-box after the Kansas State game. That big.

Keegan: Keegan: NU game special for one

Turner Gill, Irving Fryar, Roger Craig, Tom Osborne. Such names make Nebraska football fans, which is to say all Nebraskans, think back to the glory days. For Kansas University special teams player Micah Brown, they mean more. They’re family friends. Micah’s father, Todd, played for Osborne and with Gill, Fryar and Craig.

Keegan: Keegan: Rookies struggle in debut

Here’s guessing Barack Obama will get off to a better start than the newcomers to college basketball’s defending national champions did Tuesday night in Allen Fieldhouse. Then again, giving young players a chance to ease their way into college basketball is a big reason why Div. I teams schedule exhibition games against Div. II programs.

Keegan: Keegan: Clock is ticking on Prince’s tenure

How fitting that the week started with a Kansas State player talking so tall and ended with the team walking so small. What a perfect way to capture the expiring Ron Prince era. All talk. So much style, so little substance. Listen to the man talk, and you leave impressed with his intelligence.

Appleton remains a mystery

Making the transition from junior-college basketball to high Div. I ball presents a challenge even without any setbacks. For 6-foot-2, 203-pound combination guard Tyrone Appleton, it grew tougher when he missed practice time while nursing a hip flexor.

Keegan: Keegan: KU coaches should commit to Sharp

The Kansas University football coaching staff had reason not to trust the running game early in the season. The new offensive line, featuring a redshirt freshman at each tackle spot, was having trouble meshing. The search for a first-string tailback still was in the audition stage and every one of the three candidates appeared to be singing slightly off key.

Keegan: Keegan: Running down dream

He’s the Lawrence High student-body president, co-captain of the cross country team, a regular at LHS sporting events wearing his signature candy-striper overalls, and hits the books hard enough to be a member of the national art honor society.

Keegan: Keegan: Don’t blame Bowen

The knee-jerk reaction of an angry fan base any time a football team with a popular, successful head coach hits hard times involves turning with a mob mentality on the coordinator from the side of the ball doing worse. In the case of a Kansas University football team embarrassed by surrendering 63 points at home Saturday to Texas Tech, that would be Clint Bowen, in his first year of flying solo as defensive coordinator, instead of as co-pilot to revered veteran Bill Young.

Keegan: Keegan: Lopsided loss came as a surprise to many

It was supposed to be a close game, one that would leave the 50,000-plus spectators turning their heads back and forth as if watching a tennis match. They were supposed to be treated to a pair of great passing offenses. The last team to score wins. That sort of a game. That game still might happen, but not until next weekend, when Kansas State brings its pass-happy offense and slapped-silly defense to Memorial Stadium for what suddenly seems like a tough game to forecast, the way Texas Tech-Kansas shaped up as a difficult call, at least until the second quarter arrived.

Keegan: Keegan: Manning opens window - a crack

A window opened Thursday at high noon on the second floor of the College Basketball Experience wing of the Sprint Center. It allowed for a rare peak inside the private personality and brilliant basketball mind of Danny Manning.

Keegan: Kansas wins a shootout

Sometimes, picking college football games has a lot in common with picking stocks. Both resemble crapshoots and the winners in both ventures are the ones who buy low and sell high. Indicators suggest that now is the best time to sell your stock in 2008 Texas Tech football. The Red Raiders (7-0) are ranked No. 8 in the nation, yet Las Vegas has made Kansas the favorite in Saturday’s 11 a.m.

Keegan: Keegan: North title up for grabs

The rules dictated that somebody had to represent the Kansas City Royals in the 1969 All-Star Game. The American League needed another catcher, so Ellie Rodriguez made the team, despite carrying a .260 batting average, two home runs and 12 RBIs into the break. You think those numbers made Rodriguez, his family, friends and members of his fan club (both of them), any less proud of him when he was called to the line in pregame introductions? Rodriguez, a .245 career hitter, finished with 16 home runs in nine seasons, but he was a two-time All-Star (1972, representing the Milwaukee Brewers). An All-Star is an All-Star.

KU women’s basketball point guard Goodrich out for season

Highly touted freshman tore ACL in practice

Close loss or embarrassing blowout, Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson always takes the podium afterward, poised and confident, and tells it like it is.

Keegan: Keegan: Unhurried, Bradford picked Kansas apart

To hear Oklahoma University quarterback Sam Bradford tell it, he faced all the stress of a fisherman vacationing on a hot summer day, with nowhere to go, nobody to see, nothing on his to-do list, waiting, waiting, waiting to strike, knowing he will. “I can’t tell you how much time I had back there in the pocket today to just look, figure out what they were running and find open receivers,” Bradford said after leading the Sooners to a 45-31 victory Saturday against Kansas.

Sooner switch secret

Safety Harris fills void at linebacker

Pine trees line the practice field at Oklahoma, just as they do at Kansas University. Sooners coach Bob Stoops and KU coach Mark Mangino worked on the same staff at Kansas State under Bill Snyder, who made CIA agents seem loose-lipped by comparison.

Keegan: Keegan: This Angel’s exciting

Sherri Coale, coach of perennial national women’s basketball power Oklahoma, offered Angel Goodrich a scholarship. Except when a Tennessee or a UConn is offering, that usually means the next words Coale hears are, “I’m coming to OU.”

Kansas pass defense improving

The Kansas University pass defense showed significant improvement in its last three halves of football, starting with the second half of the come-from-behind victory in Ames and continuing throughout the home victory against Colorado.

Keegan: Keegan: Kansas offense is equalizer

Routs happen when one team has no trouble scoring and the other can’t find the end zone. In the past, routs generally happened when Kansas University played either Texas or Oklahoma. That was then. This is now: Quarterback Todd Reesing, program changer, is at his best when a play breaks down and when his team trails. Both of those factors figure to happen a lot Saturday in Norman. Reesing has the sort of physical and mental durability suited for the underdog role.

Keegan: Keegan: The race to say yes to Kansas

On Wall Street of late, the rich have gotten poorer. Not the case in college basketball, where defending national champion Kansas University is involved strictly with McDonald’s All-American-caliber recruits, even having to say no thanks to some.

Keegan: Keegan: For Jayhawks, training wheels off

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino’s words and actions during and after Saturday’s 30-14 victory against Colorado at Memorial Stadium amounted to a father unfastening the training wheels from a bicycle and tossing them in the attic for storage.

Keegan: Keegan: Rebel returns to town

George Kimball, the face of Lawrence’s anti-establishment movement in the ‘60s, returns to town today for a busy weekend. The real purpose of his trip? “It’s just an excuse to see the Colorado game,” Kimball said.

Keegan: Keegan: Is sky really falling?

The defensive line can’t put steady heat on the passer. The offensive line has trouble blowing open rushing lanes and protecting the passer. The running game often crawls. The secondary gets torched regularly. The remaining schedule is as tough as any in the nation. The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

Keegan: Keegan: Kansas defense passive

The Kansas University football team’s offense was its bold, brash self in the second half of a 35-33 comeback victory Saturday at Iowa State. The Jayhawks went for it on fourth down and with the lead kept throwing the ball, instead of milking the clock. “We have to,” coach Mark Mangino said. “It’s part of the makeup of our football team. We tell the kids all the time we need to be aggressive. … You can’t get in your play calling and say, ‘We’re going to sit on this.’

Keegan: Keegan: Sharp rejoins playmaker ranks

Five games into the season, Kansas University’s football team pretty much has revealed itself for what it is: slow and not very physical in the trenches, passive in the secondary, extraordinarily gifted, smart and gutsy in the passing game. Marred by a defense that not only bends but breaks and a flawed offensive line, KU’s path to victory involves riding two reliable and remarkable superstars, quarterback Todd Reesing and receiver Kerry Meier working in tandem, and a rotation of mystery playmakers taking turns as the third spark.

ISU bemoans ‘debacle’

Second-year Iowa State coach Gene Chizik wasn’t in the mood to take any positives Saturday out of Iowa State’s 35-33 loss to Kansas University at Jack Trice Stadium. Not after the Cyclones blew a 20-point lead in the second half. “No excuse,” Chizik said. “We have to learn to slam the door when we’ve got a chance like that.”

Keegan: Keegan: Quigley taking it all in

Just about every week, Kansas University running back Angus Quigley’s coach tells reporters the key to him becoming a better running back is learning to run with his pads lower. It doesn’t sound complicated. Why not just do it?

The coachable coach

Ex-KU running back McAnderson sharing his knowledge

High school football practice is creeping toward the finish line, and the rookie assistant coach is gathering up one, two, three, four footballs and carrying them off the field because that is what rookie assistant coaches do. They start at the bottom.

Keegan: Keegan: Gauntlet awaits Jayhawks

Your Kansas University football magnet schedule fell off the refrigerator and you accidentally swept it up and tossed it in the garbage? Forgot to take your pocket schedule out of your pocket and it shriveled up in the wash?

Keegan: Keegan: Perkins versus Ainge

Kansas University’s senior associate athletic director Larry “Contrary” Keating, always eager to disagree with anybody, anywhere, any time, was busy finalizing details of the women’s basketball schedule Tuesday afternoon. Athletic director Lew Perkins was in Rhode Island, schmoozing donors. Smart move. New England sports fans are in a great mood now, thanks to the remarkable revival of the Boston Celtics engineered by general manager Danny Ainge.

Keegan: Keegan: Meier faithful receiver

Ed Warinner, the mastermind behind the Kansas University football team’s no-huddle, spread offense, gets high grades for innovative thinking. An offensive coordinator’s job can grow pretty complicated, but Warinner’s most brilliant move to date was right in front of his face.

Keegan: Keegan: Sayers to attend KU game

Gale Sayers, the greatest football player ever to wear a Kansas uniform, will be in attendance at Saturday’s game against Sam Houston State. If Sayers happens to notice Tent No. 2 near the bottom of the hill during pregame tailgating, it’s doubtful he will find anything he sees during the game as meaningful. For Sayers, the term “student-athlete” means the student comes first for a reason.

Keegan: Keegan: Sellout makes statement

Wednesday’s announcement that Kansas University athletic director Lew Perkins topped the public-voting standings in Time Magazine’s look at the top sports executives of the world is no shocker. The Kansas fan base is a passionate one and went to bat successfully for the boss of the athletic department.

Keegan: Keegan: Who is this mystery man?

Reesing gets a laugh out of not being recognized

Sometimes, the life of Riley isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Neither is the life of Reesing. Robert Riley, a Journal-World reporter by day and a cage fighter/instructor by night, strolls Mass Street in the late afternoons, asking topical questions of strangers. He shoots pictures of them and runs their responses in the daily “On the Street” feature.

Keegan: Keegan: KU’s 20 minutes of doom

The Kansas University defense was closing in on pushing its touchdown shutout streak to 10 quarters, when the defense that to that point had bent but never broken was blown to bits for roughly 20 minutes of game clock Friday night at Raymond James Stadium. For those 20 minutes, beginning with a few minutes left in the first half and ending a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter of a 37-34 loss to the University of South Florida, the KU defense allowed four touchdowns.

Keegan: Keegan: Defense, not QB, to blame

Quarterback Todd Reesing didn’t lose the game Friday night for Kansas University. Instead, he almost won it, amid a swarming rush, without any running game to speak of and with very little help from a defense exposed from front to back.

Kicker change aids USF

Timing can be everything in life. University of South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt’s timing on a decision to change kickers turned out to be a kick in the teeth for Kansas.

Keegan: Keegan: Talib still a Jayhawk

It’s Thursday morning inside the posh locker room at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice facility, across the street from Raymond James Stadium, not far from a giant billboard picturing Aqib Talib and coach Jon Gruden, both smiling. Talib is standing in front of his locker, conducting a one-on-one interview, and is asked about when Gruden wasn’t smiling, thanks to the rookie chosen with the 20th selection of the first round.

Keegan: Keegan: Reesing great equalizer

Much of the hype for Friday night’s Kansas-South Florida game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa centers on a matchup that pits proven performance against potential. South Florida’s George Selvie, second in the nation in sacks with 20 and an All-American as a sophomore last season, faces redshirt freshman Jeff Spikes, making his third career start. The mismatch of experience plays a part in South Florida being favored by a field goal. It’s a legitimate concern. It also is overplayed because it doesn’t take into account the equalizer.

Keegan: Crawford remains optimistic

Jocques Crawford paused, stretched his lips, grimaced and softly said something about his mouth hurting. He meant from his braces, not from his boldly stated goal of rushing for 2,000 yards in this, his first Div. I football season.

Numbers don’t lie

Speedy Patterson can catch, too

Watching Daymond Patterson run with a football calls to mind watching Tom Seaver firing fastballs for the ‘69 Mets. Under normal circumstances, Seaver had an overpowering fastball. Put a runner in scoring position and two strikes on the batter, and Seaver reached back for more. Under normal circumstances, Patterson is the fastest player on the football field. Then when he needs a little extra, he kicks it up a notch.

Keegan: Keegan: Don’t freak out yet

Two games into the season, the Kansas University football defense has allowed three points, the receiving unit looks as if it could become known as the best in school history, the punt-return team has transformed from a horror show into a highlight show, and the Jayhawks are ranked 13th in the nation by the Associated Press. Sometimes it pays to pause and soak in all that before returning to freaking out about the state of the running game.

Keegan: Keegan: Stuckey simply gets it

Put a knucklehead in a fishbowl, and he’s bound to expose himself sooner or later. Bang, there goes his reputation, up in smoke. He says he didn’t do it. Some even believe him. Others never again will trust him. It happens to athletes all the time.

Keegan: Keegan: Big Mike deserves honor

Finally, Kansas University lineman Mike McCormack’s name goes up on the Ring of Honor at halftime of tonight’s football game against Louisiana Tech. McCormack doesn’t have the name recognition of a Gale Sayers or a John Riggins, a John Hadl or even a Bobby Douglass. Sayers ran the football with such speed and grace that he still jumps out of your television when his Chicago Bears highlights are shown.

Staff

Tom Keegan

Stories by Tom