Section B
The University Daily Kansan
Horsewhipped
Sports
Dave Meadows, Garden City High School football coach, resigned yesterday after admitting to using horse ointment on his players.
Inside: The men's tennis team had a tough time at the Louisville Invitational Saturday.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: Atlanta police charged Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis with murder late yesterday.
SEE PAGE 2B
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2000
Jayhawks hope to stay on rise
Big win bolsters team's spirit
By Chris Fickett
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Although the midpoint of the Kansas women's basketball team's conference season is tonight, it wants to make sure it isn't an endpoint.
The No. 25 Jayhawks are coming off their most important victory of the season, a 58-49 triumph against No. 6 Iowa State on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. The 'Hawks are 5-2 in the Big 12 Conference, tied with three teams for third place and two games behind the league's first-place team, 7-0 Oklahoma.
"It's wide open," said junior guard Jennifer Jackson about the conference race.
"All we can do is take care of our own business and hope for a little help down the line."
Tenight's business is in Boulder, Colo., where Kansas will play the Colorado Buffaloes, who are 6-12 overall and 1-7 in the Hiz 12.
In the teams' last meeting, on Jan. 15 in Lawrence, the Jayhawks pounded Colorado 78-56. The 'Hawks out-rebounded the smaller Buffs by 15, and Kansas' bench players had one of their most productive games, scoring 16 points.
Jackson isn't taking this road game lightly, though.
"it's tough to go out to Colorado; there's altitude problems," she said. "Part of the Big 12 schedule is consistency. You have to stay focused on each and every game."
After their upset win against the Cyclones, who fell to 6-1 and to second place in the Big
12, most of the Jayhawks talked about maintaining their steady rise.
"We're beginning to heal," said Kansas coach Marian Washington, who will be coaching her 800th career game tonight. "We take a lot of pride in our defense, and we're trying to become more consistent with our effort on the floor. We showed it today, and hopefully we'll show it on the road."
Kansas' defense holds its opponents to 37.5 percent shooting, which ranks second in the Big 12 and 15th in the nation. The Jayhawks held Iowa State to a season-low 30 percent shooting on Saturday.
Although Kansas shot only 32.8 percent against the Cyclones, and two of its key players, forwards Brooke Reves and Lynn Pride, were limited on offense, Washington gave credit to her reserve players, who have improved since the start of the season.
"We've got some players coming off the bench doing some good things for us," she said.
Another key in Saturday's game was the play of junior forward Jaclyn Johnson, who scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, her third double-double of the season. Johnson has been a regular contributor to Kansas' offense this season, averaging 10.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, but her team needed her production even more on Saturday as Reves went scoreless and Pride was held to nine points.
Kansas defenders Brooke Reves, left, and Nikki White trap an Iowa State guard at half court. The Jayhawks' tenacious defense and frequent trapping led to a 58-49 upset against the sixth-ranked Cyclones. Photo by Matt J. Daunherty/KANSAN
After tonight's game, Kansas returns home and will play Sunday against Oklahoma State and Feb. 10 against Texas. The Jayhawks probably would love a win against the Longhorns, who also are 5-2 in the Big 12. But Johnson has other goals in mind.
"We're just growing," Johnson said. "It's still early.
"We want to be at our prime when March Madness comes, and we're definitely on our way there."
Buffaloes step up action with fewer players
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Melinda Weaver
The Colorado women's basketball team has more to worry about than preseason All-American Lynn Pride and the Kansas scoring attack.
It has more to worry about than a defense that held Iowa State, which was leading the league at 80.2 points per game to nearly half that on Saturday.
The second youngest team in the nation has to worry about escaping each game without losing another player.
The Buffaloes, 6-12 overall, 1-6 in the Big 12 Conference, have only one reserve guard to back up sophomore guards Mandy Nightengale and Jenny Roulier, who each average 38 minutes per game this season.
When sophomore guard Linda Lappe and freshman guard Kate Fagan went down
with season-ending injuries, that left Colorado with only nine active players on its roster and put even more responsibility on Nightenale and Roulier.
But you won't here any complaints from Nightengale.
"I just come in as a starter and now I'm going to play a lot of minutes," Nightengale said. "It really doesn't seem like that much because we have halftime and lots of time-outs to help us out."
"I really feel that this team has improved week by week," said Colorado coach Ceal Barry. "Young teams improve more rapidly than older teams because they have so
In their first meeting with Kansas on Jan. 15, the Buffalooes lost 78-56 in Allen Fieldhouse, but since then, Colorado has won its first conference victory, a 62-47 home win against Texas A&M and has gained more confidence as a team.
much more to learn. Most of these players hadn't played in a Big 12 game until six games ago."
Colorado is the youngest team in the conference, starting only one upperclassman, junior forward Kami Carmann.
"We can't use that as an excuse right now," Roulier said. "There are other young teams in the country who are doing well. There are other teams suffering from injuries that are doing just fine."
"Suzi Raymant really stepped up for them as she has in the past," Barry said. "We have to defend against Raymant and Lynn Pride better. We turned the ball over way too much. We have to respond better to their tough defense."
Barry said that her game plan had not changed much for the Buffaloos' second matchup with No. 25 Kansas, but they needed to execute the plan better.
TONIGHT'S GAME
Who: No. 25 Kansas women vs.
Colorado
**When/Where:** 8 tonight at Goors Events Center (11,076) in Boulder, Colo.
Probable Starters;
Sports Editor Commentary
Kansas (14-5; 5-2 Big 12)
Ht. Yr. PPG RPG
F 34 Lynn Pride 6-2 Sr. 17.7 8.4
F 5 Brooke Reves 6-0 Jr. 12.3 6.4
F 42 Jaclyn Johnson 6-1 Jr. 10.7 8.2
G 11 Suzie Raymont 5-11 Sr. 14.2 5.9
G 15 Jennifer Jackson 5-11 Jr. 8.5 2.8
Colorado (6-12; 1-7)
Ht. Yr. PPG RPG
F 22 Sabrina Scott 6-2 Fr. 9,4 7,8
F 55 Kami Carmann 6-3 Jr. 7,1 6,6
C 00 Critt Hartshorn 6-4 Ga. 13,5 17,9
G 21 Jenny Roulier 5-8 Sa. 13,9 2,9
G 32 Mandy Nighntenberg 5-6 Sa. 10,3 9,2
G 32 Mandy Nightengale 5-6 So.10.5 3.7
Mike Miller
sports@kansan.com
Rafters need more great Jayhawks
At this rate, there's never going to be another retiree served at Kansas.
From the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse, nine jerseys hang. All — except for 1988 graduate Danny Manning and women's basketball legend Lynette Woodard — belong to Jayhawks who played before 1960.
All of the retired jerseys — Paul Endacott, Charlie Black, Charlie Black, Clyde Lovellette, B.H. Born, Wilt Chamberlain, Manning, Ray Evans and Woodard — are deserving.
It's the guys whose jerseys aren't hanging from the rafters that spark discussions about the Kansas greats.
To make things easier on itself, Kansas uses guidelines to determine which athletes should be honored. In basketball, a player must be a three-time consensus All-American, consensus player of the year, or the MVP of the Final Four.
Later this season, the Athletics Department will raise a banner with all of Kansas' All-Americans, but that's not enough. The great players at Kansas should be honored — with or without qualifications.
The department's guidelines are ridiculous for three reasons:
1. Basketball has changed
It's impossible to be a three-time consensus All-American player now. There are too many excellent players, and the good ones usually take off for the NBA.
2. Roy Williams teaches his players to play a team game.
We sportswriters are fickle and rely on statistics to determine which players are the best. In Williams' offense it's difficult for one player to shine, garnering the necessary attention for All-American status, often overlooking the ones who do the little things. Even when two players do have the opportunity to shine — such as Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce in 1998 — it's only for one year at a time.
3. What's the point in having guidelines anyway?
Even with the aspirations of those guidelines, they only take away from what the players of today have accomplished. The point of retiring jerseys is to honor great players. That may be a subjective term, but it makes as much sense as the guidelines.
See JERSEY on page 2B
Kansas sprinter Jabari Wamble sprints his way to a first-place finish in the 400-meter dash at Missouri on Jan. 21. Wamble is ranked No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference in both the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
Kansas track in fast lane with runner
Team captain leads Jayhawks, Big 12 in 200,400 meter
By Sarah Warren
Kansan sportswriter
He knows as a team captain that he has to lead his track and field team bravely into battle. He knows he has to lead by example. He knows he has to live up to all of the expectations put upon him.
Jabari Wamble knows he has to be a leader.
And as he races around Anschutz Sports Pavilion, it is hard to believe that he could be anything but a brave warrior. He runs with his head up, body erect and knees high. He doesn't wear fancy jewelry or sport tattoos. He doesn't trash talk, and he doesn't exude a high-and-mighty, track-star attitude.
He knows he has to live up to his name. Jabari means "brave warrior" in Swahili.
"I've always been involved in athletics, playing baseball, basketball and football, but no matter what sport it was, I was always the fastest person on the team," Wamble said. "I may not have been the best on the team, but I was always the fastest."
He simply runs. And runs well.
And he still is the fastest. On Jan. 15
at the Nebraska Triangular, Wumble broke the four-year-old school record for the indoor 200-meter dash, clocking in at 21.65.
But breaking the school record wasn't as important to Wamble the spinner as it was to Wamble the team captain.
"A lot of what I try to do as a team captain is to lead by example, and I don't think you could be team captain if you don't do well in your event," Wamble, who also runs the 400-meter dash, said. "I try to do well in my event, work hard at practice and step up at meetings. Sometimes you have to run the races you don't want to run but you do it anyway, and that's what I try to do as team captain."
Wamble is one of four team captains, all of whom are juniors.
"We had a very strong freshman year; two of our captains became All Americans our freshman year — Andrea Branson and Scott Russell." Wamble said. "And Charlie Gruber, who is not a captain, became an All-American his sophomore year. And so when we became eligible to be team captains, I think it was inevitable that it would be our class."
Therefore, Wamble became a viable role model on the track after just two seasons with the Jayhawks. And Candace Mason, assistant event coach, is not surprised that Wamble would be pegged for a leadership position. Mason, who graduated from Kansas in 1999, spent two of her years
Theo Hamilton, sprints and hurdles coach agreed.
"I've always been impressed with the way he trains — he trains like it's a meet," Mason said. "Jabari's the kind of kid that every coach wants on their team."
on Kansas' track and field team impressed with the young man from Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Christian High School track team instantly got a jolt from their freshman runner.
"I think I got third in the 100 and fourth in the 200 at state my freshman year." Wamble said.
"I told Jabari a couple of weeks ago that if he works really hard he could make it to the postseason track." Hamilton said. "I think if he works really hard he could make it to the Olympics in 2004."
The Olympics? Not bad for a kid who started track after a run-in with his mother. While on the soccer team his freshman year in high school, Wamble didn't do so well on a Shakespeare test in English class causing his mother, Wilma, to tank him off the team. When his final grades came in, however, Wamble got an A in the class and, because rejoining the soccer team was out of the question, Wamble took up track and field.
But eventually Wamble sobered up to his talent. By the time he graduated, Wamble had lettered four years in track, two years in basketball, was a member of National Honor Society
And it has been at Kansas that he has excelled.
Now he is the team's top performer in both the 200- and the 400-meter dashes, as well as the top performer in the Big 12 Conference in both events. And each time he has come around a turn in either race, his head has been up, his body erect and his knees high, daring the warrior in the next lane to challenge him.
and had track coaches from Iowa State, Indiana, Texas Christian, Oklahoma, Syracuse and Kansas knocking on his door.
"Both my parents went to Oklahoma State, and they would have wanted me to go there, but they didn't have a sprint program." Wamble said. "We went as a family to visit KU, and we really liked the academics and the athletics. KU was the right fit for me."
WAMBLE'S RECORD
Wamble's Official Times and Places of the 2000 Indoor Track and Field Season
200 Meter Dash
1/08/00 Second 21.91
1/15/00 First 21.65
1/29/00 Second 21.90
400 Meter Dash
Y
1/21/00 First 48.38
1/29/00 First 47.91
1927/06 fis 47.91 Wamble is ranked No.1 in the Big 12 Conference in both the 200-meter and the 400-meter dashes.
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