Wichita Eagle: Sports

VarsityKansas Big Show (Feb. 6)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:46 CST

Derby wrestling coach Bill Ross joins Joanna Chadwick for this week's Big Show.

Shockers’ Stutz named MVC player of the week

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:16 CST

Wichita State senior Garrett Stutz earned Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball player of the week honors.

Stutz, a center from Kansas City, Mo., averaged 24.5 points and 13 rebounds in wins over Indiana State and Missouri State. He made 17 of 30 shots in the two games and 14 of 17 free throws. His two double-doubles give him eight for the season, most by a Shocker since Jamie Arnold had eight in 1996-97.

Stutz’s 24 points against Indiana State pushed him over 1,000 for his career. He has 1,016 points, ranking him No. 38 at WSU.

Jayhawks move up one spot to No. 7 in AP basketball poll

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:02 CST

Kentucky is on top of The Associated Press' college basketball poll for a third straight week.

The Wildcats, who were also No. 1 for two weeks earlier this season, received 63 first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel.

Syracuse, which got the other No. 1 votes, Ohio State, Missouri, North Carolina and Baylor held second through sixth from last week. Kansas moved up one spot to seventh, while Florida jumped four places to eighth. Murray State, the lone unbeaten in Division I, moved one spot to ninth and Duke dropped three places to 10th.

Mistakes cost Pats in Giants' 21-17 Super Bowl win

HOWARD ULMAN — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:38 CST

The New England Patriots' three star receivers couldn't make the big plays when they needed them. Neither could their superstar quarterback.

There was plenty of blame to go around in the Patriots' second Super Bowl loss in four years, both to the New York Giants.

"We had opportunities to put this team away and we didn't," wide receiver Deion Branch said after Sunday night's 21-17 loss. "All the plays were big."

Documents: Seattle working to bring NBA back

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:41 CST

The city of Seattle has been working behind the scenes the past eight months with a hedge-fund manager to bring an NBA team back to town – possibly as early as next fall if the Sacramento Kings fail to get a satisfactory deal for a new arena, newly released documents show.

The city turned over the documents to The Seattle Times on Friday under a public records request (http://is.gd/PyQ06N ). The documents included the agenda for a meeting between the parties on Dec. 13, with topics including “Review of Basic Deal Structure,” “City Debt Capacity” and “Financing Issues.”

A Seattle native who now lives in San Francisco, 44-year-old hedge-fund manager Christopher Hansen, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena south of Safeco Field, the documents show. Hansen told city officials an arena could be built with minimal impact on taxpayers.

Kyle Stanley rallies to win Phoenix Open

JOHN NICHOLSON — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:43 CST

For the second straight week, a PGA Tour event ended with Kyle Stanley in tears. This time, they were tears of joy.

Taking advantage of Spencer Levin's final-round meltdown, Stanley rebounded from a devastating loss at Torrey Pines to win the Phoenix Open on Sunday, overcoming an eight-stroke deficit in a comeback as unlikely as his collapse a week ago.

"You go from a very low point to a high point," Stanley said. "I'm not sure I expected to maybe recover this quickly. ... I think the biggest challenge was seeing if I could put last week behind me. I think I did."

Wichita State claws back into Missouri Valley lead by beating Indiana State

Paul Suellentrop — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:31 CST

Wichita State ended a long Saturday by getting back to first place in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Long because the game started at 9 p.m. Long because Indiana State showed up with its St. Louis attitude and gave the Shockers fits. Long because the Shockers had three hours to think about the Creighton loss that gave them a chance to tie the Bluejays.

WSU handled all that to defeat the Sycamores 71-66 at Koch Arena. After a cold-shooting first half, the Shockers made 16 of 27 shots in the second half and outscored Indiana State by10 points. Center Garrett Stutz led WSU with 24 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, marking his fourth straight game with 20 or more points.

Missouri stuns Jayhawks with late rally

BLAIR KERKHOFF — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:02 CST

Until the final three minutes Kansas played the game coach Bill Self deemed necessary to win at fourth-ranked Missouri.

The Jayhawks pounded the ball to Thomas Robinson in the second half after riding Tyshawn Taylor in the first half.

The result was an eight-point lead on Taylor’s dunk with 3:25 remaining. Just stay in control down the stretch and Kansas would close the Big 12 history between the schools in Columbia with a glorious triumph.

Super Bowl: Big game, big-time quarterbacks

BARRY WILNER — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:46 CST

MVP quarterbacks on marquee franchises. A rematch of a nail-biter from four years ago, featuring many of the same key characters. Madonna and plenty of Manning — Eli, and Peyton, too.

This Super Bowl certainly has all the makings of another thriller, the perfect finish to a season that began in turmoil and wound up the most successful in league history.

The NFL couldn’t have planned it any better.

Michael Pearce: The man who opened his outdoors world to many

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:41 CST

The first time I went afield with legendary herpetologist Joe Collins, the setting did little for my apprehension.

Even at mid-day, the canopy of dense oaks and elms let no sunlight reach the forest floor. A fog-like humidity hung heavy in the air.

Rocks from dime to door sized laid scattered about an area clogged with pant-grabbing briars and cluttered with fallen trees. A vertical wall of rimrock was well-pocked with small caves and crevices.

Spradling, Rodriguez spark K-State past Texas A&M

Kellis Robinett — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:01 CST

There was a moment during Kansas State’s 64-53 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum when the Wildcats’ recent struggles seemed to fade away.

It occurred midway through the second half, with the game still in doubt. K-State was inbounding the ball in front of its own bench, and the home crowd rose to its feet in anticipation of a key sequence that could serve as a turning point in an up-and-down season.

No one knew exactly what was going to happen, but when Angel Rodriguez rebounded his own missed three-pointer and made a contested layup, everything suddenly fell into place. The Wildcats started using a full-court press, and within the next 2 minutes Jamar Samuels drew a charge, Adrian Diaz hit a layup, Will Spradling made a three and Rodriguez scored five more points to give them a 17-point lead.

Chiefs set to hire offensive coordinator

ADAM TEICHER — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:08 CST

Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel doesn’t make a habit of studying the offenses of opposing teams. But he admits to paying some attention when he’s watching the offenses of Brian Daboll, who was the Patriots’ receivers coach for a couple of seasons while Cassel played in New England.

“There were a lot of instances throughout the year with Miami last year where he would do a good job of mixing and matching personnel to create some mismatches,” Cassel said. “That’s the thing I noticed. He’s really good at doing that.”

Cassel will soon get to know Daboll, 36, even better. The Chiefs were on the verge of hiring Daboll as their new offensive coordinator, an announcement should come this week, perhaps as soon as today.

Wings rally late, win in overtime

Jeffrey Lutz — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:52 CST

The 4,439 fans at Hartman Arena surely didn’t have the Wings’ playoff prospects in mind when they wildly cheered the goal that gave Wichita a 19-17 overtime win over Rochester on Saturday night.

Even though it was the kind of victory that can reverse misfortune, the Wings set aside their postseason thoughts at least immediately after the game, which ended when Bryan Perez put in a rebound.

It felt bigger. It felt like the kind of night coach LeBaron Hollimon envisioned when he decided to become coach for the Wings’ inaugural season, before he even had a roster.

Thunder tops Laredo

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:53 CST

Matt Robinson had a goal and two assists, and four Thunder teammates each added a goal as Wichita beat Laredo 5-2 on Saturday night in Laredo, Texas.

Matt Summers had a goal and an assist; R.G. Flath, Chris Chappell and Dustin Donaghy also had goals as the Thunder maintained its lead in the Berry Conference. It was the second road victory in two nights for Wichita.

Adam Russo made 23 saves in the victory.

Top-ranked Baylor overwhelms Wildcat women

Kellis Robinett — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:52 CST

The margin for error against Baylor, the No. 1-ranked women’s basketball team in the country, is small.

Kansas State learned just how small during a 70-41 loss to the Bears on Saturday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

Despite taking a 19-13 lead on a three-pointer from Brittany Chambers that sent a sellout crowd of 12,528 into a frenzy, the Wildcats were unable to remain competitive with their undefeated opponent in the second half.

Shocker women shoot past Drake

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:04 CST

Wichita State’s women’s basketball teaam beat Drake 74-56 on Saturday afternoon in Des Moines.

The Shockers hit 56.4 percent of their shots while earning a split of two road games this week, and it kept WSU in first place in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Jessica Diamond led the attack, hitting 10 of 13 shots and scoring 22 points. Jazimen Gordon added 13 points and two blocks, while Haleigh Lankster had 12 points and five steals.

Tuliamuk hits road seeking toughest competition

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:03 CST

Next weekend, Wichita State’s track and field team travels to Geneva, Ohio to compete against schools such as Florida State, Ohio State, Texas, Michigan, Auburn and Indiana.

Strong field. Just not strong enough for distance runner Aliphine Tuliamuk. She will go it alone at the Iowa State Classic in a loaded 5,000-meters field.

“It is super-difficult to find a great race for such a good athlete,” WSU coach Steve Rainbolt said. “There’s a handful of girls in the nation that can run with her.”

Bob Lutz: Missouri rumbles, KU crumbles

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:02 CST

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri public-address announcer began to scream as soon as the buzzer sounded and the Tigers had won the biggest basketball games of their lives.

Nobody inside Mizzou Arena could make out what he was saying. There was reverb in the microphone and the place was pandemonium and after a few seconds the PA guy’s voice broke as he seemed to completely lose his mind.

Missouri beat Kansas in what just might be — who knows? — the last KU-MU game played here. The Tigers leave for the SEC soon and they wanted — no, needed — this game as much as they’ve ever needed a game.

Ask Sports: Super Bowl edition

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:46 CST

Tom Brady is playing in his fifth Super Bowl. Are there any other Patriots who are still around from their first championship team?

There are a couple. Running back Kevin Faulk is the longest current tenured Patriot, joining the team in 1999.

All-Pro offensive tackle Matt Light was a rookie on the 2001 team that won Super Bowl XXXVI. One former teammate who played on all three New England title teams, Larry Izzo, is a special teams coach for the Giants this season. Of course, Bill Belichick is looking for his fourth title as a head coach to go with his two as coordinator with the Giants under Bill Parcells.

Missouri's Haith gets first taste of Kansas-Missouri rivalry

MIKE DEARMOND — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:30 CST

Frank Haith — heading into his first Kansas game as Missouri’s basketball coach — said he did not want to imply that the Border War was just another game.

And then he did.

“We have talked about not getting distracted, about us staying true to who we are and what we’ve done all year,” Haith said. “We don’t want to go into this game looking at it as any more than it is.”