d.Not an addiction, said Hill. Its steely focus.Hes got a different motor than anybody else you come in contact with, Hill said. Hes always going.The San Diego coach recalls visiting Joh

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- David Beaty could stand at a pulpit and go toe-to-toe with the most long-winded, passionate and downright positive preachers to ever step foot inside a church.Its a nice ability to have when youre trying to sell Kansas.By now, the depths of the Jayhawks ineptitude the past five years are well known: the 15-game losing streak, the poor recruiting classes under Turner Gill and Charlie Weis, the winless season in Beatys debut, the subpar stadium and apathetic fan base.Yet as Beaty stood at a lectern inside a team meeting room this week, appraising the first three weeks of the season, he launched into an unscripted address brimming with optimism.Were excited about moving forward, he said. Really as we get into it, you start looking at it, theres a lot of surprising things that youre actually doing a little better than you thought.Like passing yards allowed, where the Jayhawks rank ninth nationally. And in total defense, where they have gone from 120th out of 125 schools last season to 62nd through their first three games.Similar improvements have been made on offense and special teams, too.Beaty is also a realist, though. He understands the only statistic that truly matters is number of wins, and a victory over Rhode Island followed by losses to Ohio and Memphis is hardly progress.Theres some positive things there, he said while meeting with reporters during the Jayhawks bye week, but the details are in the things were not doing well, but they need to hear about the ways were improving as a team because we are making improvements. We just havent done enough yet, so the details are going to be huge for us as we go through this week.Two major areas of emphasis: ball security and field position.Turnovers have destroyed any chance of winning the past two weeks -- nine of them in total. The Jayhawks lost a pair of fumbles and threw a pick against the Bobcats, and last week coughed it up four times and threw two interceptions in a six-turnover meltdown against the Tigers.Kansas has no prayer against Big 12 foes making those kinds of mistakes.The thing that we learned as we look at the tape is its never as simple as you think it is. Ball security is an everybody deal, Beaty said. All those things are coached, and weve just got to coach them harder, because when we do, the results will be a lot different. Theyll fall in suit.The same rings true for trouble with field position, where the Jayhawks have made a habit of starting in the shadows of its own goalposts. The turnovers have contributed to the problem, but so has a mixed bag on offense and scattershot performances by special teams.Starting drives inside your 5 or inside your 10, that makes it tough sledding, and conversely, if were not making our opponents start their drives inside their 20, that makes it tough sledding, Beaty said. I want to say of 14 drives or 15 drives last week, Memphis started inside their 25 twice, and we started inside of our 12 six times.That certainly wont fly against the high-powered offense of Texas Tech, which kicks off Big 12 play next week. The meet Thursday night for a game that will be showcased on national television.There were still questions for Beaty to answer Tuesday after his lengthy oratory, ranging from the future of decrepit Memorial Stadium -- our fan base deserves a quality, wonderful, great fan experience -- to his own self-scout, where he admitted to a number of personal faults.But one point he drove home time after time was his steadfast belief in progress.These arent the same old Jayhawks. Beaty is sure of it.Youre never going to be there. We are always going to be developing, he said. Youre going to hear me say that from now until we win a conference championship, which we will do. Im not sure when, but we will get to it, and we will always be developing. Robby Fabbri Jersey . Ancelotti says Ronaldo has recovered from a hamstring injury but "but he doesnt feel comfortable yet so we wont risk him." 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OMAHA, Neb. -- The long talk came after an out-of-conference game at Arizona State in April. Sandwiched between important home series against Washington State and Stanford, Arizonas late rally fell short and freshman outfielder Alfonso Rivas finished the game on the pitchers mound.First-year coach Jay Johnson kept the Wildcats in left field for close to an hour. And after 30 games on the job, Johnson finally let it out. He told his team he wanted to win the national championship.That was the first time I ever heard about that, senior second baseman Cody Ramer said.This was heady stuff for the Wildcats, who had missed the NCAA postseason in each of the past three years. After a 3-0 win Monday over Coastal Carolina in Game 1 of the College World Series finals, they stand one victory away from the programs fifth title.Game 2 is set for Tuesday night at 8 ET on ESPN.Another Arizona win in the best-of-three series would make Johnson, 39, the first college baseball coach to win a championship in his first season at a school. Four others have played for the crown and lost.Already, after four straight Arizona wins in Omaha and five wins in six games, Johnson has lept from being an emerging name to a figure front-and-center in the sports landscape.He implores the team to attack the game with a Navy SEALs intensity, but also to shrug off the pressure of the moment and try to relax.Johnson is the son of a longtime high school track and field coach from Oroville, California. Hes an overachiever who ran his own Division I program for two seasons at Nevada before Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne picked him to take over when Andy Lopez retired last May.Johnson got his Division I start as an assistant at the University of San Diego. His boss there, Rich Hill, said the young coach blends top-shelf work ethic with integrity and intelligence.Thats what separates him from everybody else whos coaching college baseball right now, Hill said.Hyperbole? Maybe not.Johnson played at Point Loma Nazarene, an National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school, and took over at his alma mater in 2005 at age 27. After one year, Johnsons college coach, Scott Sarver, convinced Hill to hire Johnson at San Diego.Trust me, Sarver told Hill. Hes special.Johnson helped USD climb to new heights in his eight years as an assistant there. The Toreros made six NCAA regional appearances and signed the No. 1- and 2-ranked recruiting classes nationally in 2008 and 2010, respectively, according to Baseball America.Johnson carried the torch, Hill said, in landing Kris Bryant, a raw talent out of Las Vegas who blossomed into the 2013 Dick Howser Trophy winner at USD and the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year with the Chicago Cubs.Bryant hit three homers Monday night for the Cubs in Cincinnati as Johnson moved one step closer to a spot among coaching royalty at the College World Series.I dont think my night could get any better, Johnson said after the game.At Nevada, Johnson finished 72-42 with one Mountain West crown. The Wolf Pack won 41 games in 2015 but missed the 64-team tournament. That miss ate at Johnson, who dreamed of a spot in the CWS during a late-season trip last year when Nevada played Creighton in a two-game series at TD Ameritrade Park.That was the No. 1 motivating factor to be at a place where [the Wolf Pack] had won before, Johnson said.In the minutes after finishing exit interviews with 24 players last season, Johnson received a text message from an associate of Byrnes. Would Johnson be interested in talking about the Arizona job? Of course he was interested.Later tthat night, Byrne and Johnson talked on the phone.dddddddddddd A few days later, they met in San Diego.Byrne said he received strong endorsements on Johnson from Lopez, the retiring U of A coach who won a title with the Wildcats in 2012, and Mississippi State coach John Cohen, whom Byrne hired when he was AD at MSU in 2009.About 30 minutes into the first meeting with Johnson, Byrne said, I knew I had to hire this person.Byrne was struck by Johnsons passion, his focus and his plan for Arizona. His strong recruiting ties in Southern California also impressed the AD.One of the things that Jay told me when I hired him was that the Arizona job was like the New York Yankees, Byrne said Monday night outside the victorious locker room. Hes a West Coast guy, and he fits extremely well at the U of A.That said, Johnson earns a base salary of $160,000 with additional income that reportedly pushes him close to $300,000. Several Pac-12 coaches earn in excess of $500,000. Salaries get considerably higher in the SEC.Ive never talked to that guy in my life, Greg Byrne, said Hill, the San Diego coach, but he looks like the smartest AD in the world. He could have hired anybody he wanted. And at the same time, I know hes smart enough to do everything he can to hold on to Jay.Because theres no hotter commodity in the country right now than him.Notably, Texas remains without a coach after the retirement last month of Augie Garrido, who won a national championship 21 years ago at Cal State Fullerton and left a year later for the riches of Austin.If youre the University of Texas, you do everything you can to pay [Johnson] $1 million, Hill said. You do a backroom deal, so he cant use it as leverage or anything else, and you get it done. I know who Jay is. Anywhere he goes, that organization will be the best it can be. If you put him at a place like the University of Texas with unlimited resources, watch out.The 44-year-old Byrne is no newcomer to this business, with coaches Sean Miller and Rich Rodriguez on his payroll.The way I look at it, Byrne said, is that Id much rather have a coach thats in demand than have one who youre trying to figure out if its the right fit or not.Johnson wore the same look Monday night as he did when the Wildcats beat UCLA in a March series and lost three straight at Utah.His dad, Jerry Johnson, the former coach, is having the time of his life in Omaha. Jay Johnsons players dance in the dugout and throw water when they score. But their coach is unwavering.This is the guy who said he peers at WarrenNolan.com, an RPI-tracking site, 17 times per day.I guess you would call it an addiction, Johnson said.Not an addiction, said Hill. Its steely focus.Hes got a different motor than anybody else you come in contact with, Hill said. Hes always going.The San Diego coach recalls visiting Johnson a few years ago at his Point Loma home, near Hills favorite surfing spot. Hill inquired about Johnsons refrigerator, oven and washer-dryer set, none of which looked like they had ever been used.But Johnson had two dry-erase boards -- one full of NCAA regional scenarios and the other color-coded and lined with recruiting prospects.I was like, Dude, no wonder youre single, Hill said.Johnson is growing. He met Maureen Marshall at Nevada. Theyre getting married. The couple has yet to set a date.With one more victory here, perhaps Marshall can temporarily pull his attention away from baseball. And theyd have more than a marriage to celebrate. ' ' '