Varsity Kansas - The Blog

A coach recently e-mailed me — in an extremely respectful fashion, mind you — about how he was frustrated with a story concerning his team. There were no errors, simply what he considered a miss by the reporter. He felt that his team wasn’t given its due respect, instead overlooked in favor of the other team, considered its win an upset, etc.

I understand his point. I do. But it’s tough to know what to say. The reporter didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t commit any error, he simply wrote it as he saw it.

Reporters are cautioned to not go into any situation with preconceived notions, thus preventing bias. But, for instance, it’s a difficult thing to not pay attention to records, especially if you’re not as familiar with both teams.

And then there’s the saying that we have in journalism — Send five people to cover the same story/event, they’ll have five different perspectives.

I thought about that a lot last week as I wrote my game stories. I know what I saw, I trusted what I saw, but what were the coaches thinking? Would they have agreed with me? And what about fans? How did their view differ?

Now, that didn’t change how I wrote my stories, but it is fascinating. I would say that most fans think we’re too hard on their own team (we focused on turnovers as opposed to steals), that we don’t give their team enough love (we have good players, too! Don’t just write about the No. 1 team). I would think coaches wish we would print certain quotes over others that they made.”

My goal is to be as fair as possible to both teams, but if I’m covering an area team vs. a non-area team (for example, Maize vs. Blue Valley), I focus on Maize win or lose because that’s where my readership is.

But there is limited space and limited time, so key points do get left out. Two recent examples from my work include Southeast’s Jordan Cyphers’ spectacular block of Northwest’s Chris Harper’s fastbreak layup attempt. Cyphers blocked it so perfectly that the ball stuck between the rim and the backboard. Another example is from Maize’s third-place game when Brittney Bell kicked SM North’s Michelle Counts. What didn’t make the story, due to space reasons, was Maize coach Craig Lungwitz’s response — She’s a good kid. She made a mistake, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a good kid.

I truly wish we could make everyone happy. But we don’t.

As Hays coach Rick Keltner said, though, sportswriters are like coaches “We can never please everyone.”

I was stunned to read of the death of East soccer coach Mike Anderson (click here) on Jan. 14. He was only 56 and he had a brief illness. (Sorry I’m commenting on these deaths so late. Again, I was on leave.)

Mike was a longtime soccer coach, and someone I talked to fairly often. I know the soccer community is definitely mourning his death.

Ed Kriwiel’s death was less surprising, but no less sad. When I first came to Wichita in 1996, my then-co-worker Duane Frazier told me before going to cover my first City League girls golf meet — Just look for Eddie Kriwiel. He’ll help you out.

Sure enough, he did. I never thought of him as Eddie as the long-timers did, but I always appreciated his kindness and quick smile. He was always willing to do an interview, too.

Feel free to treat this as a place to put your memories. I know we had a place to post thoughts on Ed Kriwiel’s death on Kansas.com shortly after he died, but maybe you didn’t get a chance. I’d love to hear thoughts on Mike Anderson, too.

One of the worst parts of this job is writing obituaries because it’s so sad. I’ve written many in my time, including the deaths of young coaches, young athletic directors. It’s tough to write, but I so enjoy hearing people talk about all the wonderful memories they have of those people.

I see there’s been some talk that we aren’t discussing enough of the top boys players in the City League. Well, consider this your chance.

Give me your All-City team after the first half of the season.

Now give me your mid-season All-Metro team.

If you want, I’ll take All-Central Plains, All-MCAA, All-AVCTL I II III IV at midseason.

Now for my thoughts, which will be skewed to City League because that’s all I’ve seen so far. (Give me time!) And, please, no sarcastic comments about how I should be coaching because I know so much. Blah, blah. This is only my opinion, feel free to take them with a grain of salt, just as I will do with yours.

Southeast has two of the City League’s top players by far in Jordan Cyphers, who’s leading the City League with 22.5 points, and Adonis Gantt (16.9). I like Cortez Barnes, but he really seems to disappear. Frustrating, because the kid can dominate.

East has the likes of Garrius Holloman (17.3) and Jawanza Poland. I heard about the dunk he had against Heights — Jeff Lutz was gaa-gaa over that. Poland is just so darn long that he gets so high and he can reach so far.

South’s studs are Marky Nolen and Lance Russell, without a doubt. I saw Russell (19.5 points and second in the CL) put up 34 on Heights, which was impressive. But South lost that game, yet won when he only had five against Carroll. That says a lot about how that team has progressed. Nolen (14.5 points) is so darn athletic.

Heights is led by Kelton Marshall (16.4 points), a kid who must weight about a buck25. Seriously. I wish I had his metabolism. Anyway, he’s an amazing shot blocker, but he’s kind of like Barnes, he’ll disappear on you. Terry Webb (12.5) and Dorrian Roberts are quick guards with the ability to kill you offensively.

Northwest’s top player is obviously Chris Harper (13.6). Love this guy’s pure athleticism. My goodness, he can control the lane offensively with his moves. He has the ability to score 10 unanswered, but then you wonder, OK, where’s Harper? Especially when he’s on the perimeter. I know the guy has a shot at playing college basketball (he’s orally committed to play football at Oregon and I give him major props for still playing basketball) and he won’t play inside in college. But this is high school and he’s a dominant post player.

I haven’t seen Kapaun Mount Carmel, but Kevin Booker (12.8 points) and Shane Torgler (11.5 points) are its top two players. Booker’s the type of skilled player who can create on his own.

Bishop Carroll has Brett Steven scoring 13.4 points and ranks 8th in the league’s offense. But, true to what coach Lonnie Lollar said before the season, the Eagles have one of the top defenses, allowing 54.9 points, second behind South’s 54.5 allowed.

North is struggling. I thought this team would be better by now, but it’s not. Andre Kahmeyer is scoring 12.1.

West is struggling, too. I saw West play at Koch Arena and was impressed with their guard play, but it couldn’t sustain a whole game.

As for outside the City League, I’m looking forward to checking out Andover at Andover Central Friday night. Can’t wait to see the undefeated Trojans. Luke Meisch is averaging 18.5.

All right folks, agree with me, think I’m crazy. Tell me yours.

Oooh, I love to see the activity on this blog. I guess all I need to do is put Arthur Brown in the title and those who hate vs. those who sweat the Browns come typing. I don’t even want to get into the logic/rationale of those types.

Here’s some comments from some recent posters:

From Matt G: “Nobody wants to talk about girls basketball. I want to talk about sports that I can watch and not fall asleep.”

OK, I’m guessing Matt is a 37-year-old man with no woman in his life and no chance at it. Hee, hee, just kidding Matt. But, seriously, do you have a girlfriend, wife, mother, sister? Yes, there is some bad girls basketball out there. Lord, I’ve seen my share. But there is some god-awful boys basketball, too. Maybe you’re blessed to only be a fan of a perennially winning boys team, but even if you are, surely you’ve seen the crappy teams.

I know, I’m a girl, but have you seen the Heights girls play? My goodness, watch the Andover Central girls. This is fast-paced basketball, akin to what Southeast, East, Heights and McPherson boys are playing. It’s fun to watch. Girls are different athletes than boys, but there are some seriously talented chicks who can send the ball into the stands (i.e. former McPherson center Marlies Gipson, now at K-State who averaged more blocks than points some games.) If you say, oh, but it happens more in boys. Please, I’ve seen one stud shot-blocker this year and that’s Heights’ Kelten Marshall.

Alright, moving away from the caveman…

From RikRok: “Those weren’t comments about your Arthur Brown blog, that was just the same ol’ Brown, Brown & Butler folks yipping back and forth.Stick some other football player’s name up there and hear the crickets chirp. “

I like RikRok’s honesty since I’ve come back, but it hurts me to hear that the reason people were coming to the blog before my maternity leave wasn’t because of my fab posts but because people love to rip Brian Butler and the Browns. All right, I’m wiping the tears away.

I know what he’s saying because if Chris Harper doesn’t draw the interest of the Browns when I write about him, it’s just those who hate and those who sweat the Browns/Butler who write. Truly sad. This blog could be a good place for commentary.

On the other hand, isn’t it nice not having such hatred directed toward a couple of pretty nice teens? Yep.

We’ve also had some comments about the problems with the discussion board. I will pass those on to those who might be able to do something about it. I know there’s been talk about stats being updated, and I can understand the frustration. We’re working on it. This is a work in progress and does take time. But thanks to all of you for your interest and concerns.

Any other topics out there?

Which do you prefer?

I’m curious about this because of the lack of discussion on the varsitykansas.com forums and in this blog when it comes to basketball.

Are you all that much more into football? If so, why? If not, why?

I personally enjoy both equally. Maybe because it’s my job, but I love football in its season, basketball in its season. I can’t imagine shunning conversation on either one.

I also find it interesting that certain folks are able to raise such ire and interest while others aren’t. Why isn’t Jordan Cyphers such a topic of conversation like Arthur Brown is? Is it because he doesn’t have his own Brian Butler?

For that matter, sticking with football, why isn’t Chris Harper a bigger topic of conversation? Is it also because he doesn’t have Brian Butler as his advisor?

Just curious and would love to hear your thoughts.

– Written by Joanna (not Kirk)

I’ve only been back at this for a week, but let me tell you, I love tournament weeks, boys and girls. There’s so many games, you see lots of different teams, you get out of your comfort zone. I love it.

I went to Newton on Thursday and saw two excellent girls teams in Andover Central and Bishop Carroll. I’ve given Matt Browning, who has done girls rankings in my absence, a hard time for having Andover Central so high in the overall rankings. Now, please remember I hadn’t seen the Jaguars this season because of my leave.

Well, he needs to keep them up high. They are an outstanding team, even better than last year. Glad to see freshman phenom Tiffany Bias has only gotten better as a sophomore, and Bailey Gee continues to be a stud inside. Love her spin moves.

Friday I was at McPherson, which must have the best run tournament around. The statistics that are handed out are second-to-none, and they’re all just so darn nice. This is definitely cheesy, but I’m always happy at McPherson because of the people.

That’s good because the games were pretty brutal — low-scoring across the board.

Today was at Kapaun, and I was truly impressed with Olathe South, which blew out Great Bend in the championship. Olathe South had a 24-point lead in the third quarter. What also impressed me was Great Bend, which managed to get it together late in the third and in the fourth period. It’s so cliche to say a team never gave up, but that’s what happened. And kudos to the Great Bend fans who cheered to the end as if it were a close game.

The only thing bad about that game? Two Great Bend radio stations sat on either side of me. Thankfully I’ve learned over the years to tune out those around me (thank you all you crazy fans), so I could concentrate on the game.

Kapaun should be better than its record, and Maize will be strong as the year goes on.

What tournaments did you see? Anything interesting?

– Written by Joanna

There aren’t many comments on this blog — where are all the people from football season? Do you readers care more about football than basketball? Just curious.
Here’s one comment — from RikRok about the Arthur Brown ranking:

“Does it really matter at this point? Did they really need to start another Arthur Brown blog about a rating? There was a time when the blogs were fairly interesting. This was a whole worthless sentences.”

I find this interesting because what are people reading and commenting about — Arthur Brown. Not Carl Taylor, not Jordan Cyphers’ minor elbow injury from a hard fall in Tuesday’s game. They’re certainly not talking about girls basketball.

Yet I write about Arthur Brown and I get 12 comments. Interesting.

It’s girls tournament time, and as much as I love tournament weeks, I’m kind of down about this year’s. There just are not many strong tournaments in the area.

Kapaun, always such a strong tournament, lost two teams — Derby and Southeast — so it’s down to six teams and it’s spread out over four days instead of two.

Newton should have a couple good games, especially if we can get a Carroll-Andover Central final (No. 2 and No. 4 overall) on Saturday. But there’s little draw for Sunrise and Omaha Marian. No offense.

McPherson’s tourney should be fine, as usual, but the best tournament for area interests is Lawrence Free State. Goddard and Derby are seeded 1 and 2.

CSTV’s Tom Lemming has ranked East linebacker Arthur Brown as the No. 5 player in the class of 2008. It’s his final ranking.

No surprise here on the ranking. Even though Arthur finished his senior year by missing the final three games, he made his mark. No doubt about it.

It was my first night covering basketball this season, and what do I get? Oh how everyone misses Duane Frazier. OK, it wasn’t everyone, but it was enough. I miss him, too. Can we move on now? (I’m kidding!)

Went to Northwest at Southeast tonight and was impressed with Northwest in the first half, holding Southeast to a season-low 26 points. And then Southeast did was Southeast does, it scored 25 in the third quarter. Truly impressive.

Southeast’s Jordan Cyphers took another hard hit tonight, this one courtesy of Teyon Reese. Coach Carl  Taylor said he’s taken multiple hard fouls this season. That could take its toll on the league’s best player. He was a little banged up after tonight’s game, with a slight elbow injury. It didn’t stop him from scoring 23 points.

Chris Harper played well for Northwest. I understand that if he plays basketball in college that he’ll be a guard, but he is so dominant around the basket. He can be so dangerous offensively, especially in the lane. By the way, Northwest football coach Weston Schartz already has an Oregon hat (Harper orally committed to play football there).

In other action Tuesday, Heights handled North. Although North outscored Heights in three quarters, Heights put it on the Redskins in the third quarter, outscoring them 30-14.

South and Carroll had some interesting linescores –  Carroll went 11in the first, 7 in the second, 2 in the third, 18 in the fourth of the loss.South scored nine in the first, 4 in the second, 13 in the third, 17 in the fourth.

But nothing is as bad as  West Elk beating Hamilton 42-7. That is not a misprint, nor is it a football score.

That’s all for tonight. Post your thoughts.