SUNFLOWER SLATE INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS/AKA MY DESK

First things first: Yes, I did think the Jayhawk Media Day was today. Yes, it is next Monday. Yes, I got up before my pre-set 10 a.m.-11 a.m. wake-up call and was going about my day when I called Mike Kessinger circa 7:30 a.m. to ask if he was in Wichita yet and he said, in not so kind words, that it wasn’t until next week. These long nights at Sunflower Slate International Headquarters are really getting to me. So you’ll have to wait until next week to hear what’s going on with Steve Eck.

Onto bigger (and better) things.

Mainly, I think Washburn sophomore quarterback Dane Simoneau should be in the discussion for MIAA Offensive MVP at this point. Numbers don’t lie.

DANE SIMONEAU (WU REVIEW PIC)

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Salina Sacred Heart product leads the league in passing and total offense with 2,265 yards, 23 Tds and just 6 interceptions. The thing that struck me watching him pick apart Pittsburg State on Saturday was the zip in which his passes were thrown. He looked like he was playing shortstop out there the way he was zinging it around the field (which he also does for the Ichabods, BTW). Check that, he looked D-I.

But here’s the thing, I think, that makes him a real candidate: His team is winning. I know WU coach Craig Schurig had to make a tough decision last year to bench his starter midway through the season and go with Simoneau, but now CCS looks like a genius. And now the Ichabods are No. 16 in the country and have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.

If you think I’m crazy for putting this out there, just ask yourself this: If not Simoneau, then who else? I think the NW Missouri trio of QB Blake Bolles, WR Jake Soy and RB Laron Council each make good cases, but nobody means as much to their team as No. 9.

I’m out TA

ZACH WATKINS

I caught up with Washburn senior linebacker Zach Watkins on Wednesday afternoon and came away extremely impressed — and ready to dole out some serious Sunflower Slate karma.

Here’s the skinny on Watkins — the 6-foot, 235-pound linebacker from Independence, Mo. (hometown of Harry Truman) is only the second player in Washburn history to go over 400 tackles, with 403, and could break the career mark of 459 this season. He’s had 100 tackles in each of his first three seasons; 100 in 2006, 143 in 2007 and 119 in 2008 and has led the Ichabods to a No. 17 ranking and 4-1 record this season.

Dude didn’t really want to give himself too much credit — but that’s what we’re here for. Gotta love when your linebackers wanna talk more about their defensive line than themselves. And his pregame music? Killswitch Engage. The Ichabods have got Fort Hays State coming to town on Saturday in Topeka.

Here’s our talk:

Sunflower Slate: You’re in your final year at Washburn and closing in on a pretty lofty record in the career tackles mark. In the middle of all of it do you ever catch yourself thinking about your accomplishments?

Zach Watkins: I really haven’t because I’ve been so focused on trying to help this team win games and be a leader out on the field. I get so wrapped up in the day-to-day stuff that all the personal stuff … I just never think about it.

SS: Did you think you’d have this type of impact coming out of high school?

ZW: You can’t go into college football thinking you’re going to be the best player, but once I got on the field I felt like I could definitely make an impact. As the years progressed I feel like I’ve become more of a leader and a player that the other teams need to prepare for.

SS: You’ve been on some teams that have come really close to being great but couldn’t seem to quite get over the hump when it came to the heart of MIAA play. What is it about this group that you think is different?

ZW: My sophomore year we made the playoffs, but we do feel like we’ve fallen short a couple of times. We feel like we’ve got a special group this year … we’re excited about keeping up what we’ve started this season.

KILL THE QUARTERBACK. KILL EVERYBODY.

SS: We’ve all got the idea  — well at least I do — of the stereotypical middle linebacker who is kind of the frothing at the mouth, always ready for battle type of guy. Do you fit into that role? What are you like before games?

ZW: I feel like I’m pretty laid-back, and I’m not against pulling a prank … but when it comes to practice and to games I definitely am able to get that really intense focus and put everything else aside. I feel like I’m a hard-nosed player and to have any type of success I’ve got to be able to get into that mode. And it doesn’t hurt to have a great d-line.

SS: Nice. Giving the d-line props is never bad.

ZW: Without them I’m not going to get where I need to be. They play the way they do and it makes my job a lot easier.

SS: So what are you listening to before a game? Anything in particular?

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

ZW: (Laughing) That’s easy. Killswitch Engage.

I show my age and have him repeat the name of the band several times.

SS: What about away from football? What do you do for fun?

ZW: Play a lot of basketball, a lot of golf. We’ve got a group of seniors who have been together for four or five years and we’re pretty close. Just typical college-kid stuff … anything competitive usually catches our attention.

SS: Are you any good at golf?

ZW: Consistent low 80s.

SS: Last question. Biggest hit ever? College, high school, pee-wee football … what’s the biggest?

ZW: Mo-Kan All-Star game, senior year of high school. Tight end came right across the middle.

SS: Thanks for doing our Q&A. Best of luck this year.

I’m out. TA

DANE SIMONEAU

Holy Moly.

Here’s this: Washburn just threw up an 82-spot on New Mexico Highlands tonight in Topeka. That’s 82 points. That’s a 61-7 halftime lead. That’s a school-record for points. Sophomore quarterback Dane Simoneau only played the first half, but he made good use of his time with four touchdown passes and 127 yards passing.

Oh, and Zach Watkins had five more tackles.

NO. 22 GARDEN CITY UPSET

Here was a big WOW that came across my desk a couple of hours ago — No. 22 Garden City Community College upset by Air Force Prep 20-13 out in Colorado Springs. Were the Busters thinking ahead to Cessna and Butler? Probably. On a side note, while I was covering the Busters for the GC Telegram back in the day (actually just a couple of years ago) I got super duper sick headed out to Colorado Springs to cover a GCCC-AFP football game. It’s a three hour drive from Garden City to Colorado Springs and my plan was just to head another hour up the road after the game to hang out with family. I got about two hours in and after having to pull over at least 10 times … I finally checked into a hotel room, called my editor and told him it wasn’t happening, called my Grandma B to tell her I wasn’t coming … and then had about 18 hours of fever dreams and tiny sips of Gatorade, in which I thought I hallucinated a K-State game against Colorado playing on the TV. Not pleasant. But the Busters won that day. Trust me, this one isn’t going to play very well in the WK.

Tomorrow, look for scores updates from the MIAA and Jayhawk as I get them. All … night … long.

I’m out. TA

BEN MUIR

A sad story out of Topeka:

TOPEKA, Kan. — Senior Washburn Ichabod football player Ben Muir passed away from injuries suffered in a single-car accident early Saturday morning south of Topeka.

“Our coaches and players are very saddened by the news,” head coach Craig Schurig said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Ben was an outstanding young person and the ultimate teammate and did everything he could do for the team. He was a great young man to his family and his teammates. He will be missed.”

Muir played in 16 games in his Ichabod career after returning from a knee injury. This past season, he played in all 11 games starting eight recording 29 tackles with five solo stops.

He leaves behind his mother Marion Muir, grandmother Elsie Muir and brothers Fabian Valverdie and Dillon Buras.

Funeral arrangements will be announced as they become available.

Here’s a link to his player page.

Sad stuff.

-TA

Enjoy:

MIAA

JULIAN DOZIER

Emporia State

Two players from this class really stick out to me — Julian Dozier, a three-star cornerback out of Texas, and former Miami of Ohio and Coffeyville C.C. offensive lineman John Buckman, who runs about 6-foot-8, 335 pounds but hasn’t played football since 2006. Dozier is a player.

Fort Hays State

Butler Community College offensive lineman Matt Bruner — also an Andover product — will get a chance to reteam with Mike Garrison, the QB from Bruner’s first national championship team (yeah, dude won two). The 6-foot-3, 285-pound Bruner was a first-team all-Jayhawk pick, and is going to help the Tigers a lot. But in the MIAA, this team needs more than just help to become competitive. It’s almost an impossible task.

FORREST STUCKY

Pittsburg State

Wow, they cleaned up. They grabbed Nate Dreiling and Forrest Stucky out of Hutchinson High, two guys I think can come in and contribute at PSU, maybe right away, although I was under the impression that one if not both of these guys had DI offers. And it never hurts to recruit kids from programs that win as much as the one at HHS. Just ask Hutch C.C. coach Rion Rhoades what he thinks about Gage McKinnis.

Washburn

This is a team that seemed like it was on the brink of breaking into the upper MIAA echelon last season, but fell just short. They’ve got one of the smaller classes, maybe because they just don’t need much. I’m interested to see how Dane Simoneau develops at QB for them. He could be pretty good, but I’m wondering what head coach Craig Schurig thinks of him missing spring football to play baseball. But hey, he’s pretty good at that, too. Can’t knock the hustle.

Here’s a modified release from the MIAA on the big upsets, with C. Mo handed the Blues their first loss of the year (despite another big game from Janice Bright) and Southwest Baptist rallying to beat the Hornets, who seem to be having a bit of a post-Michelle Stueve hangover.

UCM 79, No. 2 WU 77, OT

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Central Missouri Jennies scored the final eight points in overtime and sophomore G Kara Fleming hit a jumper with 1.4 seconds remaining to upset second-ranked Washburn. 79-77. at Lee Arena Saturday night (Jan. 3).

The Jennies (9-3, 4-1 MIAA) trailed, 77-71, with 2:25 to play in the extra period before making their final run to pull off the upset. The win was the first for UCM in Topeka since a 66-50 decision on Feb. 16, 2000.

Trailing 77-71, Fleming started the run with a jumper to draw UCM within four. Senior G Dominica Blakemore hit a jumper to pull the game to 77-75, and after the Jennies forced a turnover, junior G Deidra Dace hit a runner in the lane to tie the game at 77 with 45 seconds remaining.

Another turnover by Washburn (12-1, 5-1 MIAA) with 26 ticks on the clock set up the final play for Fleiming and the Jennies.

SBU 86, No. 9 ESU 73 -

EMPORIA, Kan. — Southwest Baptist used runs of 13-0 and 15-4 to take control after trailing by as many as 16 points in the second half of an 86-73 upset of ninth-ranked Emporia State at White Auditorium Saturday night (Jan. 3).

SBU (5-7, 2-3 MIAA) snapped win streaks of six games overall and 16 games at home by the Lady Hornets (11-2, 5-1 MIAA), doing so by converting 13 of 15 free throws in the final 3:47 to secure the win.

ESU led by as many as 12 in the first half before taking a 10-point lead into the halftime break. The Lady Hornets scored eight of the first 10 points of the second half to get a 50-34 advantage with 17:33 left.

The E-State lead was 12 with 9:58 to go thanks to a layup from senior F Ida Edwards before the Bearcats lauched their first outburst.

Senior G Courtney Creed, the MIAA’s scoring leader entering the game (18.7 ppg), had been held to just four points in the first half. Her first field goal of the second half at the 9:15 mark started a string of 13 straight SBU points.

DEANDRE EGGINS

This isn’t going to be about the Washburn women — I think I know how good they are. Ranked No. 2, 10-0 … yeah, you get the picture. They’re nice.

This is about the Washburn men and what I think could be one of the best in the MIAA.

And, just one question before I get into all of this: How are the Ichabods not ranked yet? 7-3 and 3-0 in the MIAA with that schedule? Come on!

TWO REASONS WHY I THINK THE WASHBURN’S MEN’S TEAM IS GOING TO BE PRETTY DARN GOOD AND ONE REASON (IN TWO PARTS) WHY THEY MIGHT NOT:

LEKHEYTHAN MALONE

1. Little Rock’s loss is Topeka’s gain

I know the game when it comes to most Division I transfers. Good athletes. Just not good enough to get time on the D1 level. That’s not the case with DeAndre Eggins and Lekheythan Malone, two players that came to Washburn from Arkansas-Little Rock. Here’s the thing, though: they were both, at different times and by all means, central figures at UALR. Eggins averaged double digits two season ago. Malone was the Sun Belt freshman of the year in 2005. But for some reason, they decided to leave. There’s always some logical connection when something like this happens, i.e., an old AAU coach, an old assistant knew somebody who knew somebody … whatever it was, they’re tearing it up. Malone, a 6-6, Antonio Gates-looking dude from Dallas, is averaging 14.5 points and 6.3 rebounds. Eggins, a 6-2 shooting guard, is fourth in the MIAA at 15.9 points per game. And he tore up No. 6 Brigham Young-Hawaii in Honolulu last week in a Washburn win.

Wait! Maybe that’s why they transferred! A free trip to Hawaii! Yeah right. We’ll get to the bottom of this.

2. Mr. Scott is here to assist you

There aren’t just two players on the team, despite what you may have just read on this blog. There’s also Mario Scott, a 6-1 junior who led the Ichabods in assists last season and is first in the MIAA this season with 5.38 assists per. So yeah, he’s not too bad.

3. The reason they might not

Part of the reason they might not is because the rest of the MIAA is pretty darn good. Especially Southwest Baptist and Matt Rogers, the No. 3-ranked team in the nation. And Rogers, a 6-11 junior, leads the MIAA in scoring (22.6), rebounding (9.8) … and 3-point shooting percentage (52.5). Dude is a freak. So they’ll have to get through them and Missouri Southern if they want to make any noise. The other part of the reason (or a separate reason all to itself, if you’re being picky) is that I understand how hard it is to bring in transfers and make them mesh as a team. If you don’t have the right mix of four-year, program guys on the roster to balance out the transfers … sometimes that mix can be combustible. And sometimes it can be magic.

So there you go.

I’m out.

-TA

Let’s get this rolling. Not as much to deal with as in the fall … but just as important.

No players of the week to speak of — yet — in the KCAC but I’ll get into that in a minute. And the Jayhawk won’t start putting them out, apparently, until after the new year. Bummer.

JANICE BRIGHT

MIAA

Washburn’s Janice Bright is the player of the week in the MIAA after she helped the No. 2-ranked Lady Blues to a 3-0 record last week … including two wins against fellow top-10 teams and a win over NAIA No. 12 Sterling. Bright was big in all three wins, averaging 16.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, but had her signature moment on Saturday night against No. 8 Indiana (Pa.) in Washburn’s 72-62 overtime win at Topeka. Bright scored all 17 of her points after halftime, including six in overtime. The 5-foot-9 senior is currently moving up the charts for Washburn in all-time 3s made and games started. Good luck to Janice. Southwest Baptist center Matthew Rogers was the men’s player of the week, BTW.

KARA BEAL

KCAC

No players of the week here, but definitely time enough for a rankings, standings and leaders update. In the national NAIA D-II rankings, Sterling dropped one spot to No. 12 and Kansas Wesleyan broke in at No. 21. Southwestern and Friends both received votes. On the men’s side — Friends forward Romar Jones is averaging 24.2 points per game. Dude. Who are you and where did you come from? Not hardly a mention in the preseason and now this … and he’s from the ICT. And why doesn’t Friends have pics of their athletes on their site? Anyways. The two best returning women’s players in the KCAC are showing they were worth the hype thus far. Sterling’s Ashley Kraft and Southwestern’s Kara Beal are 1-2 in the conference in scoring and Kraft is averaging a league-leading 3.5 steals per game to go with her 18.8 points. Beal’s no slouch, either, filling it up to the tune of 18 ppg and dishing out 2.57 assists per.
I’m out.

-TA

ESU 2008 MIAA VB CHAMPS (ESU PHOTO)

Here’s the release from ESU sports info director Donald Weast:

HORNETS SECURE OUTRIGHT MIAA VOLLEYBALL TITLE November 14, 2008-The #6 Emporia State volleyball team secured their first outright MIAA championship with a 25-17, 25-21, 28-26 victory over #10 Washburn in front of an MIAA record 2,432 at White Auditorium on Friday night. Lady Hornets Brittney Miller and All-American Arica Shepard combined for 26 kills to offset the Lady Blues All-American Monica Miesner’s 18 kills in the match.

After falling behind 1-0 on a Miesner kill to open the match, ESU jumped out to a 7-3 lead and never trailed in the first set. After ESU took a 24-15 lead, WU fought off a pair of set points before Hannah Carter ended the set with a kill.

The Hornets led 17-12 in the second set when the Lady Blues went on a

9-3 run to take a 21-20 lead. ESU then scored the final five points of the set, ending it on back to back kills by Megan Koster.

Neither team led by more than three points in the third set and WU actually fought off three match points before Arica Shepard got back to back kills to give ESU their first outright MIAA title.

In addition to her 12 kills, Arica Shepard had 22 digs for ESU. Ting Liu had a match high 41 assists for ESU while her counterpart for WU, Kate Hampson had 36 assists. Hannah Carter had six blocks to go with nine kills. Miesner was the only Lady Blue in double figure kills while Molly Smith added a match high 21 digs.

ESU is back in action on Saturday afternoon when they take on Ft. Hays State. The Senior Day match begins at 1 p.m. in White Auditorium.

HORNETS SEE 19 MATCH WINNING STREAK END

In a battle of top ten teams, the home squad came out on top as #10 Emporia State fell to #9 Washburn in three sets on Friday in Topeka.

The Hornets only led once in the 25-15, 25-15, 25-21 loss that snapped a 19 match winning streak for ESU.

Arica Shepard led the Hornets with a match high12 kills on .320 hitting. She was the only Hornet in double figures as ESU hit just .071 as a team.