SPORTS VERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1995
Top 64 is tough to calculate
Jinxing the Jayhawks is the last thing I'm trying to do with this column. It seems the No. 1 ranking did that already anwav.
With that said, I have calculated an NCAA tournament bracket as if the
season were to end today, using power ratings listed in The Kansas City Star, current conference standings and projected regular season records.
According to my study, the Jayhawks will be the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region.
SPORTS EDITOR
This is the most research I've ever had to do for a column, and my bracket isn't even official. I can't imagine how much research the real tournament committee must do.
Bob Frederick, Kansas athletic director, must have one of the toughest jobs in the nation in March. Frederick is head of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee in charge of picking the top 64 teams that will get berths to the "Big Dance."
The president of the United States doesn't even have as many second guessers as this committee.
Every year, the committee chairman must justify every pick of the 64 teams to Chris Berman or Dick Vitale on ESPN after Selection Sunday. Thousands of questions can be asked after going through this selection process.
Should a team with a great record from a weak conference be picked before a mediocre team from a strong conference? Should teams from conferences with no automatic bids be considered? In seeding teams, are conference records more important than power ratings?
SECTION B
Whew — it's enough to make your head spin. Just be glad that Frederick is on the job.
The process is complex, but let me try to justify some of the tougher choices in this less-than-scientific study.
THE NCAA
TOURNAMENT
Nothing can be done about teams like Rider, Tennessee-Chattanooga or Bucknell. Although those teams truly are bad, they are in conferences with automatic bids. Twenty-nine Division I conferences receive automatic berths. The atlarge berth decisions are the only ones that can be challenged.
The Kansan projects the NCAA seedings for the men's tournament if the season ended today.
At right and Page 3B
STUDENT-ATHLETE UP CLOSE
I have a preference for the major conferences in the tournament. A team such as Illinois, with an average record, takes precedence over a team such as Santa Clara, which has 20 wins already. Illinois battles through a fairly difficult Big Ten schedule, while Santa Clara plays the likes of St. Mary's and Gonzaga on the West Coast. That's almost as bad as playing St. Mary's Sisters of the Blind, the fictitious team that Kansas coach Roy Williams refers to as the worst team in basketball.
Conference strength also should be considered when deciding how many teams from one conference go to the Big Dance. I took my bias against East Coast basketball into the selection process.
I took five teams from the Big Eight, five from the Atlantic Coast, and, regretfully, five from the Big East. Despite all the hype about the Atlantic 10, Massachusetts and George Washington are the only deserving teams in the hypothetical bracket.
Of those four conferences, the Big Eight's five teams are the most solidified. The only questionable choice could have been Oklahoma. But after upsetting the Jayhawks Monday on national television, you can put the Sooners on the board.
No one will ever find out my picks for the Final Four — I know better. Anyway, all this is just academic. After the season-ending conference tournaments, many of these choices could be different.
All I'm asking is that Kansas wins three games. Three games are on my head — the rest is up to Roy and his boys.
Kansas golfer turns actor
By Jenni Carlson
Kansan sportswriter
Alan Steams is accustomed to pressure on the golf course.
But tomorrow night when the curtain goes up for the 46th annual Rock Chalk Revue, the Kansas men's golf team member will face a new pressure — stage fright
Stearns, a redshirt junior, will be transformed into Patrick Wilson in "And the Envelope Please..." The show was written and produced by the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and the Delta Unison fraternity.
"Rock Chalk brings everyone together," Stearns said. "It is a very fun aspect of college life."
Stearns, president of Delta Epsilon, has been involved in Rock Chalk Revue's annual fundraiser for United Way for three years. He was an usher for two years, and he sang on the audition tape that Delta Upsilon entered in last year's competition.
Stearns' parents exposed him to musicals and theatrical productions similar to Rock Chalk when he was a child.
However, Stearns said Rio Mesa High School in his hometown of Camarillo, Calif., did not have a strong theater program. Stearns did not realize he had a talent for singing until last year.
In the show, Stearns' character is traveling to his wedding when he is involved in a car accident. He loses not only his transportation but also his wallet.
Despite a lack of formal voice training and stage experience, Stearns was almost a natural fit for the role of Patrick Wilson.
Wilson is stranded in a small Arkansas town and takes drastic measures to get to his wedding. He even enters a beauty pageant and becomes Patricia Wilson.
In addition to being attired in a dress and wig, the 6-foot-6 Stearns stands appropriately above his 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-5 female competitors, said J.P. Gerritz, one of the directors of "And the Envelope Please..." Stearns said he also was the only one that could hit a high note in one of the songs.
"Everything kind of just happened to work out," Steams said.
Things not only worked for Stearns in
See STEARNS, Page 2B
Knight-Rider Tibune, Brian James / KANSAN
Source: Kansas sports information KANSAN
Kansas relies on its bench
By Christoph Fuhrmans
Kansan sportswriter
The Big Eight Conference Championship still is up for grabs, even though Sooner fans celebrated Oklahoma's victory against Kansas like a national championship.
After No.25 Oklahoma defeated No.
1 Kansas 76-73 Monday night, the crowd jumped over the media tables and one another to run onto the court and cut down the nets.
Kansas has two games remaining, both at home, against No. 14 Missouri and No. 18 Oklahoma State. The Cowboys have a one-half-game lead over the Jayhawks in the conference race.
If Kansas is to win its last two home games and win the conference, it will need outstanding play from its bench — which hasn't been a problem this season.
Although starters usually dominate the statistics on many teams, the Jayhawks are an exception. Kansas' bench has supplied 33 percent of the offense this season, and nine players average at least 12 minutes of playing time a game. Those same nine players all have scored double figures at least once.
"That's a great thing about our team," Kansas sophomore guard Jerod Haase said of the Jayhawks' depth. "We don't rely on one or two people."
Most teams that rely on one or two players haven't had much success against Kansas. But in each of the Jayhawks' four losses, the star player for the opposing team has had an exceptional game.
Oklahoma junior forward Ryan Minor was that player Monday night against the Jayhawks as he scored 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
However, relying on one player could have its drawbacks. If a team's go-to guy doesn't play well, the team could lose — which hurts during the NCAA tournament, where one bad game can end a season.
Not including walk-ons Scott Novosel and Joel Branstrom and junior guard T.J. Whatley, who rarely plays, the Jayhawks use 10 players in a game.
"We've got 10 guys that can do the job," Kansas senior forward Greg Gurley said. "We have so many options. We have options for our options."
Having a team with a reliable bench adds a level of protection against the uncertainties that happen during a season. A starter could leave a game because of an injury or foul trouble, and if the backup doesn't play well, the team could lose.
Kansas coach Roy Williams creates the options. His philosophy to coaching basketball is a total team approach — everybody plays.
"We try to play our bench," he said.
"We try to do it from the first game of the season to the last. The more I play people early in the year, they're going to feel more comfortable at the end of the year when the games are bigger and more important."
'Hawks hope to swim away with title this weekend
By Tom Erickson
Kansan sportswriter
In February 1979, a five-year-old swimmer named Dan Phillips won a gold medal at his first meet in Mississippi. That same month, the Kansas men's swimming team won its last conference title at the Big Eight Championships.
Phillips, now ajurior on the Kansas men's team, hopes to bring the trophy back to Lawrence. The Nebraska Cornhuskers have won the title 15 consecutive years.
The No.22 Jayhawks will have another chance at the Big Eight Championships tomorrow through
Saturday in Oklahoma Citv.
"The fact that we haven't won for so long will just make the victory even sweeter," Phillipps said. "Td want to win if we had won 15 years in a row anyway."
Kansas has come close to the title, having posted eight straight second-place finishes in the conference under Coach Gary Kempf. And Feb. 4, Kansas beat the Cornhuskers 127-116 at Nebraska.
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Kansas senior men's captain Marc Hensel said winning the title was the team's goal every year.
"This is as good a chance as any that we've had to win," he said. "The whole team attitude is really positive.
People are really easygoing, but in the back of their minds they want to do well."
Claiming victory is just as important to the No.21 Kansas women's team as it is to the men's. The Nebraska women's team won the conference last year after the Jayhawks had taken the title in 1992 and 1993.
Nebraska beat Kansas 142-101 at Nebraska earlier this season.
Kansas freshman Kelly Williams said talking about the conference meet with her teammates helped her get ready for competition.
"I've heard from everyone else," she said. "They've said the experience and the swimming are great. It's going
Sophomore Andee Greves is ready to retrieve the title she lost as a freshman last season.
"All the girls are ready to swim fast and everybody has a really good attitude," she said. "I know the upper-classmen really want to take it back. The seniors, of course, want to win their last meet."
Kempf said that the conference meet usually created a feeling of unity for Kansas.
"We always go to the conference championship focused as a team," he said. "I brings out the best individual
to be a tough meet, but if everyone swims up to the level they should be at, we have a good chance."
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"I think our preparation has been just great," he said. "I think their attitude has been loose, yet confident in their own ability. They are focused on what they want to accomplish, and I think they've done a very good job of preparing themselves to compete."
performances."
Both teams should be ready to go tomorrow, Kempf said.
To go along with team members who will shave their body hair to decrease water resistance, Kempf shaved his trademark mustache.
X.
"It's something different from last year," he said. "They're getting ready to shave down and do their thing, and I figured I'd make my contribution."