Cold weather keeps team indoors as season heats up

The Jayhawks have yet to practice outside, despite the upcoming season opener in Hawaii next week

By Shawn Shroyer

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Kansas may have had to wait a month to begin practice this season due to NCAA regulations, but that hasn’t made the Kansas weather any more accommodating.

The Jayhawks wrapped up their first full week of practice last week, but have yet to step on the field at Hoglund Ballpark. As the days fall off the calendar until Kansas’ first game, coach Ritch Price is just trying to keep his players fresh, regardless of where they practice.

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“We’ve been trying to make sure that we don’t go backwards,” Price said. “If you keep inside every day and practice three to three and a half hours, you can literally get worse. One week becomes two weeks and this is our second week we’ve been inside every single day.”

Confined to Anschutz Pavilion or the team’s indoor hitting facility, Price has been mixing up his practice routines to break up the monotony of being indoors.

Last week Price eliminated certain drills from some practices. In his sixth season at Kansas, Price has learned that varying and shortening indoor practices can help players remain focused on the task at hand.

“At this level, our players understand that it’s work, but they also understand that you have to come and prepare every day because the big picture is that in two weeks you’re going to be playing for real and you’d better be ready,” Price said.

Price has grown accustomed to the limitations of playing baseball in February in Kansas. However, incoming freshmen, particularly those from Western states, can take time to adjust to the elements.

Freshman third baseman Tony Thompson, a Reno, Nev., native said eastern Kansas and western Nevada winters were fairly similar.

“Yeah, it’s snowy and in the teens, so it’s about the same,” Thompson said. “We practice inside a lot at the beginning of the season in Nevada, too.”

Even though Kansas’ practice conditions are less than ideal, Price was pleased with the effort his assistants were getting out of their position players, particularly pitching coach Ryan Graves.

“Coach Graves has done a really nice job of using some different teaching strategies to help us improve our command,” Price said. “Also, it’s a much more experienced pitching staff than it was a year ago, so I think they’ve taken a jump from a development standpoint.”

But with time running out before Kansas heads to Hawaii for its season opener against Hawaii-Hilo on Feb. 22, Price is crossing his fingers that his team will practice outside. If it doesn’t though, it won’t be the first time Kansas didn’t touch a diamond until arriving on the Big Island.

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“Coach Graves has done a really nice job of using some different teaching strategies to help us improve our command.”

—Ritch Price, coach

“I really hope that the weather will change sometime this week and maybe we’ll get out two or three days before we go to Hawaii,” Price said. “But we’ve been there five times before and three times we hadn’t been outside, so it’s not unusual for this to happen to us.”

Marks update

Junior left-hander Andy Marks continues to make progress as he rehabilitates his throwing shoulder. Marks had surgery in the fall to repair his labrum and Price said his ace hasn’t had any setbacks in his rehab and is on pace to return to the mound in mid-March.

—Edited by Sasha Roe

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