Section:
B
He didn't learn that here Former Kansas player Greg Ostertag punted the basketball into the stands yesterday in Portland after being ejected from the Utah-Portland game.
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: The Kansas women's tennis team split meets with Tulsa and St. Louis universities on Saturday in Lawrence.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: Eric Chenowith's dunk in Saturday's game might not have been flashy, but his teammates said it made a difference.
SEE PAGE 4B
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Jayhawks preparing for Texas
By Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
Mihm's the word.
Minn's the worl Or at least that was one topic of discussion after the Jayhawks rolled over the Baylor Bears 80-70 Saturday night in Allen Fieldhouse.
Forget that the Jayhawks improved to 21-7 overall and 10-4 in the Big 12 Conference with the victory. Forget that No. 23 Kansas showed poise down the stretch by foiling a Baylor comeback. Forget that four Kansas players scored in double figures.
The Jayhawks are concerned solely with their 8:05 game tonight at Texas against the Longhorns and their 7-foot center, Chris Mihm.
"I don't think there's any question that we've got a big task," said Kansas coach Roy Williams.
Make that a Texas-sized task. The Longhorns are ranked No. 14 in the nation, 20-7 overall and 11-3 in the Big 12 - which places them tied for second in the conference with Oklahoma State and one game ahead of Kansas.
Kansas.
A win would almost assure Kansas of a top-four finish in the Big 12, but it won't come easy considering that Texas is 12-1 at home this season.
"I remember them last year," said Kansas guard Jeff Boschie, referring to the Jayhawks' 76-67 victory against the Longhorns in the fieldhouse. "They are extremely physical. We're going to have to worry about Mihm, but he can't win the game by himself."
And then there's 6-7 senior forward Gabe Muoneke, a regular in Texas' starting lineup until he was replaced six games ago by Owens. Texas coach Rick Barnes said that Muoneke, who is second on the team in scoring and rebounding, would probably get the start tonight because it is senior night at the Erwin Center.
can't win the game, so Indeed, Mihm's list of cohorts is a long one. There's Ivan Wagner and Darren Kelly, Texas' guards who average a combined 18.1 points a game. There's sophomore forward Chris Owens, who's third on the team in rebounding.
See KANSAS on page 4B
TONIGHT'S GAME
Who: No. 23 Kansas at No. 14 Texas
Where: 925 Kirkwood Blvd. NW, Austin,
Texas
When/Where: 8:05 p.m. at the Enwin Center in Austin,
Texas
TV/Radio: Channel 44; 105.9 FM
Probable Starters
No. 23 Kansas (21-7, 10-4)
| | Ht. | Yr. | PPG | RPG |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| F Nick Collison | 6.9 | Fr. | 10.6 | 6.8 |
| F Ashante Johnson | 6.9 | Sr. | 3.9 | 2.0 |
| G Kenny Gregory | 6.5 | Jr. | 13.4 | 4.7 |
| G Jeff Boschee | 6.1 | So. | 10.3 | 1.6 |
| G Kirk Hinrich | 6.1 | Fr. | 4.7 | 2.2 |
No. 14 Texas (20-7, 11-3)
No. 14 Tables 20-11
| | Ht. | Yr. | PPG | RPG |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| F Gabe Muguee | 6·7 | Sr. | 13.0 | 6·3 |
| G Darren Kelly | 6·3 | Jr. | 9.4 | 2·7 |
| G Chris Mihm | 7·0 | Sr. | 18.1 | 10.5 |
| G William Clay | 6·2 | Sr. | 8.2 | 3·6 |
| G Ivan Wagner | 6·1 | Sr. | 8.7 | 3·0 |
Kansas guard Kenny Gregory finishes a one-handed dunk in the second half of Saturday's 80-70 victory against Baylor. Gregory had four dunks in the game, scored 13 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Photo by Joy Sheperd/KANSAN
Axtell's absence causes speculation
Read this column and I'll answer the most widely-asked question on campus: What's the deal with Luke Axell?
For those who have been watching VH1's Where Are They Now? marathon non-stop since early February, Axell has not been playing or practicing for the Jayhawks because of what the team has described as a non-life threatening illness. He'll miss his ninth-straight game tonight.
straight game but before I tell you about Axtell — a story. I'm hanging out at my local bar of choice and someone walks up to me and asks, "Jonesey?" I reply "Whaasssuuuppp!!" doing my best Budweiser commercial imitation.
This person whom I don't know steps closer, squints and asks, "Seth. C'mon, give me the scoop. What's really up with Luke Axtell?"
The first 100 times this happened to me, I laughed and made up a ludicrous answer to show that I had no idea.
had no idea.
"A serious lack of defense," I'd say. Eventually, I became jaded with the question. Do people really think I know? Do they think I care?
Do they think it's any of my business?
After I give my ridiculous response, the person shakes his or her head, and starts giving me the scoop, as if they had just been on the inside of the Watergate scandal.
"You know what I heard?" They say, "My Aunt's best friend's coworker knows Luke's stock broker. He said."
Tonight, the Jayhawks face Texas in what had the potential to be quite a homecoming for Axtell. Instead, he will either not be in attendance or not be in uniform. Both possibilities are disappointing.
Oh, but I told you that once and for all, I'd give you the low down, the 411, the scoop, the dilly-yo on Luke and his mystery "non-life threatening" sickness.
Sports Columnist
Seth Jones
sports@kansan.com
So here you
have it! It's none of your business.
And I don't mean that in a rude way.
It's none of my business either.
There's an invisible bubble that athletes step in and out of. Inside the bubble, they're playing their sport. I can ask about a dumb haircut, poor free-throw shooting or any distractions an athlete is dealing with while on the court.
But then they step outside the bubble and go home. They watch professional wrestling, eat leftover pizza and call their parents. While they're outside the bubble, we leave them alone.
them alone.
Whatever is keeping Axtell from shooting three pointers at Allen Fieldhouse is outside that bubble.
When asked about his recent slump, Eric Chenowith told a reporter, "I knew my play would be heavily scrutinized when I came here. If I wasn't prepared for that, I wouldn't have come to a big-name program like Kansas."
The key word there is play. The performance of these guys on the court is talked about until fans are blue in the face. But athletes should not have to give up all of their privacy just because they came to Kansas.
That said, I hope Axtell gets better quickly and returns to the basketball court soon. Part of the obligation of accepting a scholarship at Kansas as a basketball player is that you . play basketball.
Now, let's focus on the players who actually are playing.
Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism.
'Hawks drop three
By Amanida Rushoteh sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
By Amanda Kaschube
The Kansas baseball team didn't pass its test this weekend.
After cruising to the impressive 8-1 record, the Jayhawks, 8-4, dropped three consecutive games to the Creighton Bluejays, 7-1, all by slim margins — 10-9 Friday, 8-6 Saturday and 5-3 yesterday.
In the first two games, Kansas was plagued by both 10 defensive errors and offensive shortcomings — the Jayhawks stranded 13 players on base. Yesterday, the
'Hawks stepped up their game — but not enough to get past the Blueiays.
"The whole series, we came up short," said coach Bobby Randall yesterday. "The first two games we kicked away, but this was a better game."
See KANSAS on page 2B
Women's road woes continue
Bv Chris Fickett
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
NORMAN, Okla. — The Kansas women fell down and the Sooners went boom in the first half on Saturday.
first half on Saturday.
The No. 25 Jayhawks shot seven-for-28 in the first half at No. 24 Oklahoma, helping them dig a 22-point hole at halftime, and got pounded 88-69 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
"They were very aggressive on us and we just didn't respond — and that's where we lost the game as far as I'm concerned," said Kansas coach Marian Washington.
The Sooners scored the most points against the Jayhawks this season, and more importantly, they handed Kansas its fourth loss in its last six road games.
muss coach mar burton.
The game was tied 4-4 about two minutes into the game when the Sooners went booming on a 23-4 run. During that stretch, Oklahoma sophomore guard Stacey Dales pushed the ball into the paint, drew doubleteams and dished. The Sooners had 11 assists at halftime.
consists at hairstyle. The offensive funk that plagued Kansas at Missouri found its way on to the team's bus to Norman. During a nine-minute span in the first half, the Jayhawks made one basket.
ket.
"We just needed to adjust and work on our offense to how they are playing us," said senior guard Suzi Raymant, who tied a team high with 19 points. "I just think if we just
stick to our game that we'll come into a win, but sometimes we let teams get to us and we rush our shots."
sitting in it. "It was very physical and they were getting away with a lot of pushing and bumping," said junior forward Jaclyn Johnson, who also scored 19 points. "We didn't adjust. And it showed."
And Kansas set Oklahoma to get them. The Sooners set the tempo, attacking the backboards, grabbing defensive rebounds and starting their transition game.
Kansas did make some adjustments in the second half. Although Oklahoma increased its lead to as many as 35 points, the 'Hawks outscored the Sooners 51-48. And they did it despite senior forward Phylesha Whaley adding to her game-high 23 points.
Kansas, which dropped to 19-8 and 10-5 in the Big 12, can lock up a No.4 seed and a first-round bye in the Big 12 Conference tournament with a victory against Texas A&M Wednesday. But it can't seem to crack the code of the league's officiating pattern.
"I told them I was very proud of how well they played — [Oklahoma] wasn't subbing until the last two minutes. It was a different ball game the second half. That we can definitely take away with us," Washington said.
"It really doesn't matter how a game is called," Washington said after the very physical game. "My problem is that we never know. And its not always the same, even in the same game. That's my challenge."
Track team sweats out the small stuff in Iowa
By Sarah Warren
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
AMES, Iowa — Inches and seconds are everything in track and field.
And the Kansas track and field team found itself scraping for every little one this weekend at the Big 12 Indoor Conference Championships.
There, some titles were won and lost by the narrowest margins.
the hardwose margin Junior All-American Charlie Gruber got a crash course in how a little can mean so much in Saturday's mile finals. In that race, Gruber came from behind in the last 50 meters, beating out Iowa State's Daniel Kinyua by just two-hundredths of a second and winning his third Conference title.
For Gruber's fellow junior All-American, Andrea Branson, inches made all the difference. Branson, the record-holder and defending conference champion and in the pole vault, lost both titles by 6 inches to Kansas State's Erin Anderson. Anderson cleared Branson's personal best height of 13-feet-1, while Branson finished second with her last cleared height of 12-7. Anderson and Brandon had been jumping at 13-5, but neither could clear the bar.
Branson's co-team captain, junior Jabari Wamble, placed fourth in the 400
Junior Charlie Gruber sprints to first place in the mile run with a time of 4:04.78 at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships in Ames, Iowa this weekend. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
On the field, sophomore Ryan Speers continued the battle for inches in the
meter dash with a time of 46.76 seconds.
Not bad, considering the top seven finishers in the eight-person final, including Wamble, provisionally qualified for NCAA Championships in that race.
"I'm happy with a third-place finish," said Speers, who placed eighth in last year's event. "I felt like I could have done better, but I'll take third."
Junior heptathlete Andy Morris also had mixed feelings about his finish. Morris was excited to have finally completed his first heptathalon, but he was uneasy about his fourth-place finish, which was just four points short of a second-place tie.
snot put competition, when he ousted Nebraska's John Shovlin by 1 $ _{3/4} $ inches, taking third place.
one-piece it. "I can't look at it as four points behind because I did as good as I could," Morris said. "I can't beg for inches and seconds."
And neither could coach Gary Schwartz, who watched the men's team place 10th with 34 points, and the women's team finish 12th with 14.5 points. The men were six points out of ninth and the women were one-half point out of 11th. Nebraska won both women's and men's titles with 154.5 points and 115 points, respectively.
"I'm pleased with the individual effort, but we still need to do better in the team event," Schwartz said. "Unfortunately we didn't score as many points as we wanted to, but the kids are really competitive this year, they've really got something going and that will help me in the long run."