Section:
B
Sports
The University Daily Kansan
You win some; you lose some NAIA Division II Southwestern has canceled next season's football game with Northwestern Oklahoma because of what it called excessive taunting after last year's 44-10 playoff loss.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2000
Inside: The Kansas men's tennis team will try not to get taught a lesson today when it faces nationally ranked Harvard in Boston.
SEE PAGE 4B
Inside: The Jayhawk track and field team will be in action at 5 p.m. today at Anschutz Sports Pavilion for the Pre-Conference Invitational.
SEE PAGE 3B
Defense critical against K-State
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Kansas guard Jennifer Jackson pressures Iowa state forward Tracy Gahan during Wednesday's 79-71 Jayhawk victory.
Kansas will try to keep its hot streak going tomorrow against Kansas State at Allen Field-house. Photo by Rue Poklaknik/iowa State Daily
By Chris Fickett sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
Last year, the Kansas women's basketball team lost its final regular season game to Kansas State, 69-58. The defeat was not only a huge disappointment for Reves and her teammates, but it partially led to the team's No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament. That seeding matched the 'Hawks against No. 1 seed and eventual national champion Purdue in the second round.
For Brooke Reves, the Jayhawks' philosophy is simple — play every game like there's no tomorrow.
Reves, a junior forward, doesn't want another lewdown when the 'Hawks face the Wildcats at 3 p.m. tomorrow in Allen Fieldhouse.
"We can't let that happen," she said. "We've worked too hard as a team."
Earlier this season, Kansas beat K-State 70-54 in Manhattan.
After tomorrow's game, Kansas hits the road for games against Missouri, which recently beat No. 12 Texas Tech, and league-leading Oklahoma. The Jayhawks, at 9-3 in the Big 12 Conference, are tied with Iowa State and Texas Tech for second place and need
every victory to keep their league title hopes alive.
But if the Jayhawks continue to play like they did Wednesday night against No. 10 Iowa State, that shouldn't be a problem.
"I think that playing in front of a tough crowd and being able to handle the runs they made against us will help us down the stretch," said senior guard Suzi Raymant, who hit four-of-seven threees in Kansas' 79-71 victory against the Cyclones.
Another thing the Jayhawks should copy from that victory
TOMORROW'S GAME
See TEAM'S on page 2B
Sports Columnist
Who: Kansas women vs. Kansas State
When/Where: 3 p.m. tomorrow at Allen Fieldhouse
Radio: 90.7 FM and 1320 AM
Probable Starters:
Kansas (18-6; 9-3 Big 12)
Ht. Yr. RPG RPG
F 34 Lynn Pride 6-2 Shr. 17.7 8.3
F 5 Brooke Reves 6-1 Jr. 12.2 6.9
F 42 Jachin Johnson 6-1 Jr. 11.0 8.5
G 11 Suzi Rayment 5-11 Shr. 14.2 5.5
G 11 Jennifer Jackson 5-11 Jr. 8.5 3.0
Lori
O'Toole
Kansas State (12-13; 5-7 Big 12)
Ht. Yr. PRG PRG
C 42 Angle Finkes 6-1 Sr. 13.9 6.5
F 45 Nicky Ramage 6-1 Sr. 13.8 5.9
G/F 12 Kristin Retham 5-9 So. 9.5 4.3
G 21 Kim Woodiee 5-8 Jr. 9.4 5.0
G 14 April Sailors 5-9 6.1 2.4
Baseball team is riddled with injuries
By Amanda Kaschube
Three of coach Bobby Randall's outfielders are injured, and one player did not return to the diamond.
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team will try to avoid getting mauled tomorrow when it faces the Southwest Missouri State Bears — it cannot afford to lose anymore players.
Senior Brett Kappelmann sprained his ankle during Tuesday's win against Rockhurst. He is questionable for this weekend. Sophomore Matt Van Alsburg recently underwent surgery for a hernia and will be out for a few months, and sophomore Jason Appuhn
is scheduled to have surgery to remove a calcium deposit on his rib cage — he will be out for a few weeks. Furthermore, sophomore Harrison Hill opted to stick with football instead of being a two-sport athlete.
"We're getting down to the nity-gritty in our outfield," Randall said. "We're going to have a lot of freshmen in there this weekend. Are they ready for the task? I don't know, but they'll get a taste of good baseball."
After the Jayhawks 20-6 shellacking of Rockhurst, the team had three days to tune up its skills, both on the mound and at the plate.
"Our pitchers have been going at it prettier hard." Randall said. "We want
our pitchers to get us into the sixth and seventh inning — we need depth."
Junior Pete Smart, 1-0, and sophomore Jeff Davis, 1-0, will try to keep the Jayhawks in the game this weekend. A third starter has not been selected. Davis, who went six and twothirds innings in Kansas' 12-3 win against UT-San Antonio last weekend, said he was pumped for his next outing on the mound.
The Kansas offense has been a key factor in the team's wins, scoring a season-high 20 hits against Rockhurst. But Randall said he still was looking
"4-0 gives us a lot of confidence, and that is a huge part about being successful," he said.
for improvement.
"We're not hitting that well—we're hitting to get results, not for execution." Randall said. "A lot of the younger players are still in the high school mode. They aren't there yet, but they can do it."
Kansas, 4-0, will have to play hard if it wants to win this weekend — Southwest Missouri State, 0-0, leads the series, 15-11, and is looking for its first win of the season.
The battle will begin at 1 p.m. tomorrow and will continue with a doubleheader on Sunday at 11 a.m.
sports@kansan.com
"They're a scrapy ball club historically," Randall said. "It's the right time for a test. We're going to have to fight pretty hard if we want to come out of there with some W's."
Role models aren't always male athletes
I reluctantly took my seat at the Kansas women's basketball home game last Thursday. I had a great view and was eager to watch the Jayhawks play the Texas Longhorns — but I was sitting in front of a group of hyper, screechy-voiced preteens.
As soon as the Kansas starting lineup was announced, the girls were on their feet, squealing with excitement. They commented loudly on the players — the way their hair was fixed, their height, their enthusiasm for the game.
Minutes later, they yelled at the tops of their lungs when Kansas guard Suzi Raymant made the first basket of the game. "You go girl! That's the way it's done!" one screamed.
Between Raymant's first basket and her three-pointer at the last second of the game, the young fans retained their energy. They sang along with the fight songs. They mimicked the Crimson Girls' and band members' choreography. They cheered the 'Hawks all the way through to their 64-52 victory.
Sometime during the girls' devoted shouts and exclamations, I scanned the crowd and smiled to myself as similar groups of little girls and preteens did the same things.
A cluster of 20 or so sitting in the southwest corner of the stands fixed each other's hair with crimson and blue pompons and yelled through paperboard megaphones.
On the west side of the court, a dozen girls wearing black T-shirts with bright basketballs on their right shoulders chanted cheers. Ten girls wearing Bonner Springs basketball sweatshirts stood and clapped in the southeast corner of the Fieldhouse.
The hollers following every Jayhawk basket had a distinctively high pitch, attributed to the hundreds of little girls in the crowd of 3.310.
But these girls weren't enjoying the
See WOMEN on page 2B
Kansas swimmers struggle in Big 12 Championships
By Brandon Krisztal
sports@kansan.com
kansas sportswriter
The Kansas women's swimming and diving team wanted to make a splash on day one of the Big 12 Conference Championships in College Station, Texas.
"It was a real roller coaster ride for us today," he said. "We certainly had some performances that stood out, but it seems we depend on the same people every time. That's something we want to correct. Our relays were sub-par today, but in all it was a solid first day."
Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, that splash was not as big as they'd hoped. Kansas' 156 points put the team in fourth place, behind three nationally ranked teams. Texas, ranked 13th, No. 22 Texas A&M and 16th-ranked Nebraska held down the top three spots with 280, 209 and 166 points, respectively.
But Kansas coach Gary Kempf was pleased with his team's performance overall.
After strong performances in the preliminary round, the Jayhawks were unable to pull out any top-three finishes in the finals. There were six events held yesterday, eight today and there will be seven tomorrow, which includes preliminaries and finals.
for the NCAA Championships March 16-18 in Indianapolis because of their preliminary times. Schryer's 4.52.11 in the 500-meter freestyle in heat three was the fastest in her heat and fifth-fastest time in school history. DeVaney's 4.51.68 in heat four broke Schryer's mark. Schryer finished fifth and again set the fifth-fastest mark in school history posting a 4.51.94. DeVaney finished sixth in the finals.
Freshmen Lyndsay DeVaney and Beth Schryer each qualified
Freshman Gwen Haley also provisionally qualified for the NCAA's with a 2.03.2 in the 200-meter individual medley. Her time ranks third in Kansas history. She already provisionally qualified for the NCAA's in the 400 individual medley on Jan. 22 at College Station.
Senior captain Kerri Pribil did not fare as well in the one-meter diving event as she had hoped. She posted the sixth-best dive in prelim. Pribail could not improve on that, finishing sixth in the finals.
Sophomore Carrie Kirkham finished sixth in the 50-meter freestyle. Her time of 0:23.34 is the second-fastest in school history. The Jayhawk 200-meter freestyle relay team of Kirkham, junior Carolyn Grevers, sophomore Kmir Maite and sophomore Carolyn Horwitz finished fifth.
Haley finished sixth in the finals after putting up the fifthfastest prelim time.
Haley said she knew the 'Hawks had a tough road ahead.
Persistence key to win against Sooners
By Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com kansas sportsperson
The loss dropped the Jayhawks to 18-7 overall and 7-4 in the Big 12 Conference and left them pondering their fifth loss in their last eight games.
That's about the only philology the Jayhawks can have after suffering through perhaps their most biting defeat of the season. Kansas blew an 11-point second half lead and was upended 64-62 by the No. 14 Iowa State Cyclones Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse.
No. 24 Kansas' philosophy right now is simple — don't give up.
"It hurts a lot," said Kansas guard Jeff Boschee. "But we can't lay down and give up. We've just got to
SUNDAY'S GAME
Who: No. 24 Kansas vs. No. 20 Oklahoma
When/Where: 12:30 p.m. Sunday in Allen
Fieldhouse
F 21 Eduardo Najaar 8-6 Sr. 19.0,9 6
F 34 Jameel Heyeard 6-6 Jr. 3.5,3 5
G 5 Nolan Johnson 6-4 Jr. 8.4,4 7
G 10 Hollis Price 1-1 Fr. 5.4,1 8
G 11 J.R. Reymond 6-2 So. 15,6 17
No. 20 Oklahoma (20-4, 8-3)
Probable Starters
Ht. Yr. PPG RPG
No.24 Kansas (18-7, 7-4)
Ht. Yr. PPG RPG
Forward Nick Bradford dribbles down the court in Kansas' 64-62 loss to Iowa State Wednesday. Bradford and the Jayhawks will face No. 20 Oklahoma on Sunday. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
F 4 Nick Collison 6-9 Fr.10.4 7.0
F 0 Drew Gooden 6-9 Fr.10.9 7.6
G 20 Kenny Gregory 6-5 Jr. 13.5 4.6
G 13 Jeff Boschee 6-1 So.10.3 1.4
G 10 Kirk Hinrich 6-4.6 2.1
come back and keep working."
The next assignment will be a showdown with the No. 20 Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the fieldhouse.
Oklahoma is 20-4 overall and 8-3 in the conference after a victory at Nebraska Tuesday night. The Sooners are led by Big 12 Player of the Year candidate Eduardo Najera, who tops the team in scoring (19.0) and rebounding (9.6).
Oklahoma also starts three guards — sophomore J.R. Raymond, freshman Hollis Price and junior Nolan Johnson.
"They're going to be tough," said Kansas forward Nick Collison. "They're a big, physical team with good guards on the outside."
Guards were what helped spell doom for the Jayhawks against Iowa State. Kansas led 59-53 with a little over three minutes remaining, but the Jayhawks buckled under the pressure.
Iowa State point guard Jamaal Tinsley came up with two late steals, and off-guard Michael Nurse came up with three rebounds in the last minute, helping lead the Cyclones to the victory.
"We've never lost like this," said Kansas forward Nick Bradford, who scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds in the loss. "I can't compare it to any other game this season. We just have to try to get better."
The Jayhawks will have to get better in a hurry if they plan on getting a first-round bye in the Big 12 Conference Tournament next
month. The top four finishers in the conference standings get first round byes, whereas the other eight teams must play the dreaded extra day.
After Wednesday night's loss, the Jayhawks were in sixth place in the Big 12, behind Iowa State (10-1), Oklahoma State (9-2), Texas (9-2), Oklahoma (8-3) and Missouri (8-3).
"I think all we can do is go out and try to win every game that we play," Collison said. "Then, whatever happens, will happen. Hopefully, we'll finish in the top four in the conference and get a bye in the tournament. We'll try to win every game, and if we don't get it done, then we don't get it done."
A.