FREE PRE ss Page 8 Colby Free Press Monday, April 2, 2012 SSPORTPORT SS Track team set for season By Tom Koubek • Tuesday, April 10, 10:30 a.m. –Triplains Invitational at The Golden Plains High Colby. School track and field season • Friday, April 13, 3 p.m. – started out with 19 boys and 11 Northern Valley Invitational at girls out for the team. Logan. The first meet of the season • Friday, April 20, 3 p.m. – will be the Triplains Invitational Oakley Invitational at Oakley. at Colby on Tuesday, April 10. • Tuesday, April 24, 3 p.m. – The team has two members at Dighton. who went to the state meet last • Friday, April 27, 3 p.m. – at year and hope to go again this Quinter. season: Cole Christensen in the • Tuesday, May 1, 3 p.m. – at triple jump and high jump and Logan. Kalyn Weber in the 100-meter • Friday, May 4, 3 p.m.– at dash. Colby. Coach Travis Betz said that he • Friday, May 11, 3 p.m. – expects the two to qualify again, Western Kansas Liberty League adding that a handful of others tournament at Scott City. have the potential to qualify. • Friday, May 18 – Class 1A As a goal, said, he wants ev- Regionals at Fort Hays State eryone to do the best they can, University. but still have fun and a good • Friday and Saturday, May track season. 25 and 26 – Class 1A state at JUDY ROGERS/Golden Plains High School The schedule for the season Wichita. Joseph Koerperich (left) and Domonic Luna stretched during competing in their first high school season. includes: track and field practice. Both boys are freshman and will be Kansas, Kentucky to meet in power-program final By Eddie Pells its eighth national title but its first me.” nine-point lead,” he said. “I have that began with low expectations historical aspects of this game. AP National Writer since 1998, has five, maybe six, He won’t do either. By pulling to figure something out. Go shoot for a roster that got hit hard by Basketball, of course, was in- players who will be playing in the no punches, the coach finds him- the free throws myself, do some- graduation and other departures, vented by James Naismith, who NEW ORLEANS – Jayhawks NBA soon. Most are freshmen and self working with the most talent – thing to get us out of that gym and then fell to 7-3 after an ugly, un- later went on to establish the KU or Wildcats, take your pick. Ei- sophomores. None are better than Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist I didn’t.” expected home loss to Davidson. basketball program in 1898. ther can make a case for this being Davis, the 6-foot-10 freshman are likely lottery picks, while Ter- A year later, Cal was out of “I was a little frustrated because Adolph Rupp grew up in Kan- “their” year. who had 18 points, 14 rebounds rence Jones, Marquis Teague and Memphis and putting the pieces I thought that we were under- sas and learned the game under For Kansas, a season that started and five blocks in Kentucky’s Doron Lamb are among the others in place for his run at Kentucky. It achieving, underperforming,” Self Naismith and the next KU coach, with low expectations keeps get- 69-61 win over Louisville in the with first-round potential. began with a trip to the Elite Eight, said. “I thought we were a stale Phog Allen, then moved to Ken- ting better, filled with high-wire semifinals. Calipari is a win away from the continued last year with a spot team. I thought we were slow. I tucky. Over four decades, “the comebacks and an inescapable “Anthony Davis is a great first national title of a stormy and in the Final Four and oddsmak- thought we didn’t play with great man in the brown suit” won 876 feeling that this was simply meant player, but he’s not Superman,” controversial career, one that be- ers have Kentucky as a 6.5-point energy. I thought the things we had games and four NCAA champion- to be. Self said, clearly ignoring the fact gan as a volunteer assistant at Kan- favorite to seal the deal this year to do to be successful, we weren’t ships. For Kentucky, a cadre of NBA- that, only moments earlier, Davis sas. His first two trips to the Final against Kansas. committing to doing them.” So many iconic names have fol- caliber players have had the word had been walking around the Su- Four have been vacated because “Doesn’t bother us,” Kan- Somewhere in that mess, how- lowed at both places: Wilt Cham- “champion” practically imprinted perdome with his practice jersey of NCAA violations. Though his sas guard Tyshawn Taylor said. ever, he saw the potential. berlain, Larry Brown, Danny on their chests since they gathered slung across his shoulders like a 2008 trip with Memphis is no lon- “They’ve got high expectations, Much of it shined through thanks Manning at KU; Dan Issel, Wes at Rupp Arena for the season’s cape. ger in the record books, it’s clearly and they had a great year so the to the development of Robinson, Unseld, Rick Pitino at Kentucky. first practice. As he has all year and all tour- emblazoned in his memory. expectations should be high. What known for his first two years in Come Monday night, somebody They meet tonight for the nament, Calipari has not so much That team, led by Derrick Rose, we think, though, is that we match college as a role player with NBA else could get their name up in NCAA championship, a history- defended as explained his coach- had one essential flaw – bad free- up with them well. We feel confi- skills. He was allowed to blos- the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse or filled matchup between the two ing philosophy, which is to go af- throw shooting – and the coach dent going into this game.” som when he got regular playing Rupp Arena. winningest programs in college ter the very best players and not dismissed it every time he was And why not? time this season and is averaging “I dreamed about it as soon as I basketball history. This is the one- demand they graduate, but only asked about it in the days and Though the talent level may not 17.7 points and 11.7 rebounds a saw the brackets,” Self said. “I did and-dones at Kentucky vs. juniors that they play team basketball weeks leading to his final against be as strong as Kentucky’s from game. He was the only unanimous look. I said, ‘How cool would it be and seniors at Kansas; Anthony for whatever amount of time they Self and the Jayhawks. The Tigers top to bottom, the Jayhawks (32- AP All-American and was in the to play Kentucky in the finals?’ Davis vs. Thomas Robinson in a spend in the Commonwealth. missed four free throws down the 6) get more reinforcement every conversation, along with Davis, “You guys know better than front-court battle of All-Amer- “I don’t like the rules,” Cali- stretch and blew a nine-point lead game that anything is possible. in most of the player-of-the-year me, but when do you have the two icans; a title-game coaching re- pari said. “I want Anthony to in what turned into an overtime On Saturday, they overcame a voting. winningest programs in the his- match between John Calipari and come back and be my point guard loss that gave Kansas its third 13-point deficit against Ohio State These teams met in November tory of ball playing each other? I Bill Self; a high-stakes meeting next year. It’s really what I want. NCAA title. for their latest escape act. Before at Madison Square Garden, a 75- don’t know when. From a historic between one team whose founder There’s only two solutions to it. Lessons learned? Well, Calipari that in the tournament, they won 65 Kentucky victory in the second standpoint, I think that’s really invented the game and another Either I can recruit players who does make his team run more after close ones against Purdue, North game of the season. There wasn’t cool.’” that likes to claim its legendary are not as good as the players I’m bad free-throw shooting nights. Carolina State and North Carolina. much conversation about that one coach perfected it. recruiting or I can try to convince But regrets? Not many. They were comeback kids in the Sunday. Kentucky (37-2), in search of guys who should leave to stay for “At the end of the day, we had a regular season, as well – a season More noteworthy were all the Fans burn couches after Kentucky win By Bruce Schreiner streets had already been blocked Associated Press off around Kentucky’s Lexing- ton campus to make way for the LEXINGTON, Ky. – Thousands crowds, but sirens blared and po- of raucous fans swarmed streets lice shut down more streets when near the University of Kentucky the blazes broke out. campus Saturday night, setting Twitter feeds reported police couches ablaze and overturning in riot gear moved in to disperse cars after the Wildcats beat cross- crowds as some people on the state rival Louisville in a Final streets were overturning, vandal- Four matchup that had riveted the izing vehicles, and smashing glass state. bottles. Get $13 off a 1 year The throngs of screaming fans Lexington city spokeswoman took to the streets both on and off Susan Straub said police made campus following the Wildcats’ fewer than 10 arrests, and a few 69-61 win in New Orleans.