SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29,1994
PAGE 6
Kansas stands tall with three
Team versatility shows up in stats
By Chesley Dohl
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas coach Roy Williams has three big men to put on the court in senior Greg Ostertag, sophomore Scot Pollard and freshman Raef LaFrentz.
When it comes to choosing a starter,
Men's basketball Top 25
First-place votes are in parentheses and records are through Nov. 27. Kansas moved up two spots.
rank team record pts. orc
1. UMass (8) 1-0 1,616 3
2. UNC (6) 1-0 1,506 2
3. Kentucky (1) 1-0 1,441 4
4. Arkansas 1-1 1,406 1
5. UCLA 1-1 1,402 6
6. Duke 2-0 1,256 8
7. Kansas 1-0 1,185 9
8. Florida 1-0 1,094 10
9. Arizona 2-1 988 5
10. Cincinnati 2-1 975 12
11. Maryland 2-1 934 —
12. Arizona St. 3-0 793 —
13. Wisconsin 1-0 709 15
14. Ohio U. 4-0 689 23
15. Minnesota 3-0 623 —
16. Conn 1-0 610 16
17. Michigan 2-1 474 13
18. Michigan St. 0-1 460 17
19. G-town 0-1 361 14
20. G-Tech 1-0 344 22
21. Wake Forest 1-0 285 24
22. Syracuse 0-1 268 18
23. Virginia 1-1 253 20
24. Villanova 1-2 215 21
25. New Mex. St. 3-1 175 —
Other receiving votes: Indiana 135,
Brigham Young 114, Illinois 106, Texas
102, Tulane 102, George Washington 97,
Alabama 74, Purdue 71, Oldham State 64,
Mississippi St. 51, St. Tech 45, Iowa 84,
St. John 31, St. Juniper 25, OU 19, Utah
17, Ute 17, Colorado 16, Kansas 14,
Florida 3, Florida 8, N.C. Char-
lotte 7, Louisville 5, St. Louis 4, Oklahoma
3, Boston College 2, Batee 1, Coppin St.
1, Deflair 1, Virginia Tech 1.
Williams said that he might as well draw their names out of a hat — they are all taller than 6-foot-10, and they all have the ability to put the ball in the basket.
Saturday, LaFrentz and Ostertag got to start.
But at 16:53, the sophomores came in: forward Scot Pollard relieved Ostertag — continuing his role from last season — and forward B.J. Williams took over for LaFrentz.
Williams said he didn't have a set lineup and that the versatility on this
Source: The Associated Press
Women's Top25
First-place votes are in parentheses and records are through Nov. 27. Kansas remained at No.16.
rank team record pts. pr
1. Tenn.(31) 2-0 775 1
2. Stanford 2-0 735 2
3. UConn 2-0 712 3
4. Louis.Tech 1-1 661 4
5. UNC 3-0 645 7
6. Alabama 2-0 758 9
7. Penn St. 1-0 570 10
8. Washington 4-0 521 13
9. Vanderbilt 4-1 497 12
10. Colorado 2-0 480 12
11. Texas Tech 3-2 441 6
12. Iowa 2-0 425 14
13. Purdue 0-2 415 5
14. Virginia 2-1 397 8
15. Florida 2-1 375 15
16. Kansas 2-1 345 16
17. Georgia 2-0 257 18
18. Geo.Wash. 2-0 237 17
19. W.Kentucky 2-0 187 21
20. Mississippi 1-1 151 22
21. Rfa.Lt. 1-1 137 20
22. Texas A&M 2-0 111 24
23. Seton Hall 2-1 98 25
24. USC 1-1 75 23
25. Auburn 2-0 65 -
Others receiving votes: Texas 45, SW Missouri St. 29, Ohio St. 24, Oklahoma St. 14, DePaul 14, New Mexico St. 13, Clemson 12, Oregon St. 10, Virginia Tech 6, Creighton 5, Wisconsin 5, Southern Methodist 4, Oregon 3, Bowling Green 2, Notre Dame 1.
team allowed for necessary changes.
Nothing's set in stone, he said.
Source: The Associated Press
"We have a chance to do some different things with this year's team," Williams said. "We'll see what happens. There are some players with some positions pretty well set, but we're open to some experimentation this season."
Saturday, all three Kansas big men scored in double figures. Ostertag and Pollard each had more than 21 minutes of playing time, scoring 14 and 11 points respectively. LaFrentz played 17 minutes and scored 11 points.
For Pollard, who last season came in to relieve Ostertag, not being a starter could seem frustrating. But Pollard said his attitude about playing the vital sixth man role remained
In the first two exhibition games, Pollard led Kansas in scoring, averaging 18 points and shooting 73.7 percent from the field. Saturday, in the season opener against San Diego, Pollard started the regular season at that same pace.
Pollard said the whole team was unselfish and would pass up the outside shot for the easy score inside.
"It's something our whole team does," he said. "We're used to playing with each other and knowing where to look for the open shot."
Roy Williams has continually voiced concern on the defensive end of the court this season.
Kansas' front court got into foul trouble against San Diego, with Pollard and LaFrentz each finishing with four fouls. LaFrentz committed three fouls in the first half.
"I told him (LaFrentz) at half he didn't have a lot of fouls to waste, but he has a lot of energy to waste because he sat over there by us the whole game." Coach Williams said.
"A couple of the fouls were fouls you'd expect a freshman to make. I told him he has to get over that fast."
With its size inside, Kansas has a lot of opportunities to intimidate opponents — but the players have to be in the game and not on the bench, Williams said.
Kansas sophomore center Scot Pollar shoots a jump hook over a San Diego player in the Jawhays' '83-65 victory. Kansas has three players taller than 6-foot-10 this season playing in the frontcourt.
Jay Thornton / KANSAN
Kansas runners hit the big time
By Kent Hohffeld
Kansan sportswriter
The Big Eight conference established itself as one of the best cross country conference's in the nation at this season's NCAA Cross Country Championships in Favetteville, Ark.
The conference had a total of seven men's and women's teams place in the top 20 at the Nov. 29th meet. Those results included Kansas' 16th-place men's finish and the women's 18th-place finish.
It was the first time in school history that both the Kansas men's and women's teams competed in the national meet in the same year. Kansas coach Gary Schwartz said that both teams had performed well during the season.
"This was by far our best season in men's and women's cross country in my seven years here," Schwartz said. "We were pleased that the men's team finished higher than they were ranked entering the meet."
The men's team was ranked 19th entering the meet, and the women's team was ranked 14th.
The star performances for the men's team were put in by senior co-captains Michael Cox and David Johnston. The two finished 21st and 26th respectively overall and 10th and 12th respectively among the American participants. Those rankings were good enough to award the runners All-American status. The top 25 American collegiate runners are automatically awarded All-American status, even though they may not place in the top 25 overall.
"This has been my goal for two years," Johnston said. "This was my best-ever finish at nationals." Both Cary and Johnston sat out
last season as part of a team experiment to give younger members of the team a chance to gain experience.
Kansas hasn't had an All-American cross country runner since 1984 when Brent Strent qualified. The school hasn't had two All-Americans in the same season in 36 years. Cox and Johnston are the 13th and 14th All-Americans in school history.
Big Eight teams took the top two spots in the men's meet. Iowa State won its first national title at the meet, with Colorado finishing second.
It was the second consecutive year that the Kansas women's team had qualified for the championship meet by winning the District V meet. The Jayhawks were led by Colleen McClimon, who finished 82nd in the championship meet.
The Kansas women's team was one of three Big Eight teams to place in the top 20, finishing 18th. Colorado led the conference finish fourth in the meet, and Nebraska finished 16th overall.
Both Cox and Johnston sat out
The team returning to nationals after a 22nd-place finish last season acted as motivation for retiring team members, said senior co-captain Melissa Swartz, who was Kansas' second runner to cross the line.
Swartz said she hoped the team would continue the progress it had made during her four years with the team. She and senior co-captain Kristi Kloster have helped lead the the Jayhawks in their recent successes.
"Before Kristi and I got here, we'd never won districts and we'd never qualified for nationals," Swartz said. "Hopefully they'll just keep making history."
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