GOLF: Gary Woodland makes his Masters debut today. 2B
SPORTS
NOT THIS TIME Normally reliable Joakim Soria wasn’t so reliable Wednesday in the Royals’ 10-7, 12-inning loss to the White Sox. Story on page 4B
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Robinson, Taylor returning to KU Tom Keegan tkeegan@ljworld.com
Good move, T-Rob So many mock drafts and insider columns from which to choose on the Internet. A lesser man than Thomas Robinson would choose to read the projections and opinions that say he already is Superman, ready for instant stardom as a professional basketball player. A lesser man than Robinson might listen to one of the many, many voices working on behalf of agents eager to tell him that he must leap to the NBA now because he’s already a lottery pick. The NBA drafts on potential, remember? As usual, Robinson did the smart thing. He decided to kill speculation and made it clear Wednesday he was returning to Kansas University to play his junior season. Was he ready for the NBA? Ready to make NBA dollars, yes. Ready to play NBA minutes, no. He’s too raw, and he knows it. Robinson wants more out of basketball than to get rich from it. He wants to grow into an outstanding player. That much is obvious by the way he talks about the game, the way he plays it with such passion, the way he attaches himself to assistant coach Danny Manning to draw as much knowledge from him as possible. Some players risk their marketability by staying in school too long. They get exposed as less of a prospect the longer they play without improving weaknesses. Julian Wright, had he returned to Kansas for his junior season, might have fallen into that category. His explosive jumping made him a good rebounder, but the more you saw him run the floor (not nearly as fast as Darrell Arthur) or slide his feet on defense (not nearly as quick as Brandon Rush) or dribble and shoot (not nearly as skilled at the former as he was eager to do it) the less he looked like a future NBA starter. Wright might have fallen in the draft had he stayed an extra year, but he would have improved more playing in college than sitting in the pros, and he would be a better player. Robinson’s a different case. The more he plays, the better he becomes. His ceiling is higher than Wright’s ever was, and he already does one thing better than Wright, an excellent passer, ever did anything. Robinson’s one of the best rebounders on the planet, and that’s not going to change. Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried, who broke Tim Duncan’s career rebounding record and led the nation this season, averaged 17 boards per 40 minutes, Robinson 18. Robinson has shown flashes of developing a mid-range jumper and can hone it better playing 30 minutes a game for Kansas than sitting on an NBA bench. The same can be said for his ball-handling. Playing as a featured scorer will force him to develop better go-to scoring moves. The joint announcement of the returns of Tyshawn Taylor and Robinson puts an eighth consecutive Big 12 title in play for Kansas, especially if Taylor performs as consistently well as he did after returning from a late-season suspension. All signs point to an early entry for Marcus and Markieff Morris, a move difficult to question in a normal, non-lockout year. If Josh Selby follows them out the door, KU coach Bill Self would do well to recruit a three-point shooter to go with a pair of tall guys already high on his wish list (DeAndre Daniels and Otto Porter?). Never forget, Kansas doesn’t rebuild. It reloads.
By Gary Bedore gbedore@ljworld.com
Thomas Robinson, who was considered a possible f irstround pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, and Tyshawn Taylor, a secondrounder at best according to various websites, have decided to return to Kansas University for the 2011-12 school year. Robinson, a 6-foot-9 junior-tobe from Washington, D.C., and Taylor, a 6-3 senior-to-be from Hoboken, N.J., made their intentions known Wednesday afternoon. “This is certainly not any new news to us, but I felt it was unfair for us to make a statement until I got back from the Final Four
and visited with them individually,” KU coach Bill Self said. He was given no reason to believe either player was seriously considering turning pro. “To be quite candid, we’re still smarting over the fact that we lost in the Elite Eight and were so close to putting ourselves in a position to win another (national) championship. We’re disappointed, but one thing about it, the season is officially over for everybody. Even if we played in the championship and even if we played in the Final Four, the season would be over now. “With that, it’s a new team, a new season and a fresh start. I’m real excited about these two commitments to putting us in a
situation to having great success again,” Self added. KU now is assured of returning its starting point guard in Taylor, who averaged 9.3 points and dished 4.6 assists per game for the Jayhawks, who went 35-3 and won the Big 12 regular-season and postseason tourney titles before falling to VCU in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. “We had a great year,” Taylor said. “But since the season ended disappointingly, there has been a lot of speculation with fans and on the Internet on what we were going to do. The bottom line is, we’re going to work very hard this offseason and put ourselves in a position to play in that game again and come out with a different result.
“The year was up and down for me, but I feel like I finished on a strong note, and I am ready to carry that momentum into the summer and next year try to have a better season than we had this year,” added Taylor, a Bob Cousy Award finalist who scored in double figures in five of his last Robinson six games. Robinson averaged 7.6 points (off 60.1 percent shooting) and 6.4 rebounds a game his sophomore season. “This was the most trying year of my life,” said Robinson, whose mom, grandmother and grandfather died during the season. “I want to thank everybody, and I Please see ROBINSON, page 3B Taylor
KANSAS BASEBALL 7, MISSOURI 1
Taylor masters MU Kevin Anderson/Journal-World Photo
KANSAS’ ASHLEY SPENCER PITCHES against Oklahoma. The Sooners swept KU, 12-6 and 13-5, Wednesday at Arrocha Ballpark.
Kansas softball swept By Ben Ward Journal-World Sports Writer
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
KU PITCHER THOMAS TAYLOR (11) DELIVERS against Missouri. Wednesday, Taylor turned in his second straight dominating performance against the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium, this time in a 7-1 rout.
Kansan dominates Tigers at The K — again By Matt Tait mtait@ljworld.com
K A N S A S C I T Y , M O . — Call him Thomas “The Tiger Tamer” Taylor. Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium, the Kansas University starting pitcher surpassed his stellar performance against the Tigers from 2010 with a career night that led the Jayhawks to a 7-1 victory over Missouri. The win was the fourth in four tries for the Jayhawks (13-16) over the Tigers (13-16) at the majorleague ballpark, but the dominance of that stat was nothing compared to the commanding performance Taylor delivered at The K for the second season in a row. In two career starts versus MU at Kauffman Stadium, Taylor has 2 given up just one run in 11 ⁄ 3 innings. Included in that span are three hits, three walks and 17 strikeouts. Wednesday, Taylor went six innings and gave up one run on one hit while striking out a career-high nine batters. Of the 119 pitches he threw, 76 were strikes. “You hand that ball to a kid who’s been a lifelong Royals fan, it’s a pretty special day in his life,” KU coach Ritch Price said of Taylor. “He went ball one on the first nine hitters, and then he found himself with the three strikeouts in the third inning. He was dominant from there on out.” Asked what it is that gets him going when pitching in the cavernous big-league ballpark , the Overland Park native pointed to his early memories of coming to watch the hometown Kansas City Royals. “I grew up around here, and I think I went to my first Royals game when I was 2,” Taylor said. “I’ve always wanted to pitch here, and tonight I just wanted to pitch as well as I did last year, and everything went well.” The Jayhawks struck first when
KANSAS’ JIMMY WATERS SLIDES SAFELY into home as Missouri catcher Ben Turner blocks the throw. Waters’ run staked KU to a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
one point, Taylor struck out five consecutive Tigers. He retired the final batter of the second inning on a called strike, fanned the side in the third and led off the fourth with an overpowering strikeout of Mizzou’s Dane Opel. “I think I just tried to stop overthrowing and pound the zone lower, and everything went well after that,” Taylor said. “I started hitting my spots more and getting ahead in the count, and I think that really helped.” Taylor was not alone in keeping the Tigers’ bats quiet Wednesday night. Relievers Frank Duncan and Colton Murray pitched three innings without surrendering a hit to complete KU’s first combined one-hitter since April 2008. “We’ve been winning with pitching and defense all year,” Price said. “Every time we play a quality opponent, it’s been Duncan and Murray out of the bullpen.” Dreiling, the team’s utility man and a Free State High graduate, made the first outfield start of his college career. In addition, Waters, normally a corner outfielder, started in center field for the first time in his KU career. Also of note for Kansas was catcher James Stanfield extending his hitting streak to eight games. Wednesday’s victory over their arch-rival came as a relief for the Jayhawks, who were reeling from a 6-1 loss to Missouri State on Tuesday night, their second loss to the Bears in a week’s span. “(KU senior) Jimmy Waters came in yelling, ‘This is our season, fight for our season,’” Dreiling said. “It’s going well for us right now, now we just need to carry it into this weekend.” The Jayhawks will open a threegame series against Nebraska at 6 p.m. on Friday at Hoglund Ballpark.
first baseman Zac Elgie ripped an RBI double in the bottom of the first that scored Jimmy Waters, who walked. Mizzou tied the game on a sacrifice fly in the top of the second, but the Jayhawks broke it open after that. Jordan Dreiling (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Ka’iana Eldredge (1-for3, 2 RBIs) delivered RBIs in the three-run second inning, and Eldredge, Jake Marasco (1-for-3) and Chris Manship (0-for-2, sacrifice fly) added RBIs in the threerun third. “That was the key, getting on ’em early,” Dreiling said. “A lot of teams will deflate after you score seven runs on them, and we kind of coasted after we got to seven.” While the KU bats staked Taylor to a six-run lead, the 6-foot-3, 209pound third-year sophomore continued to cruise on the mound. At ● Box score on page 5B
There’s plenty to be said about the Kansas University softball team’s tenacity. But there’s plenty more to say about what has gone wrong for KU since conference play started March 3. After getting flattened by No. 14 Oklahoma, 12-6 and 13-5, in Wednesday’s doubleheader, the Jayhawks (27-11 overall, 0-8 Big 12) are still winless in the league. “It’s always frustrating. It’s always kind of discouraging to get two losses in one night,” KU catcher Brittany Hile said. Though the Jayhawk offense busted out of a recent slump, none of KU’s pitchers were effective from the circle. Allie Clark and Ashley Spencer surrendered a combined 10 walks in the first game and also fell victim to five KU errors. Kristin Martinez lasted only three innings in Game Two, and neither Clark nor Spencer could hold back the potent Sooners (3110, 4-2) in relief. After smashing nine hits in Game One, OU teed off for 20 in Game Two — including five from Dani Dobbs and a grand slam from Keilani Ricketts, who also pitched five scoreless inning with 10 strikeouts to earn the win in the opener. Now the pitching staff, which was so dominant during KU’s 263 start, has a collective ERA of 7.88 in eight Big 12 contests and has yielded 82 hits in 501⁄3 innings. “We knew pitching was going to be a work in progress this year,” KU coach Megan Smith said. Down 8-0 in the first game, KU staved off being run-ruled with a six-run fifth inning — highlighted by a two-RBI double by Maggie Hull and a three-run homer by Laura Vickers. “I don’t ever want them to lose that fight because we give up runs,” Smith said. “I want them to continue to push and continue to put runs on the board.” The same scenario played out in the second game, where, down 9-1 and facing being run-ruled, KU struck for four straight runs — a three-run homer by Maggie Hull and a solo shot from Hile, who also homered earlier. ● Box scores on page 3B