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The University Daily Kansan
Men wearing diapers
Seven years ago, Honolulu resident Chad Rowan became the first foreign yokozuna ever, the highest rank in sumo wrestling.
Sports
Inside: Senior forward Brooke Reves lit up the Tigers last night, scoring a team-high 28 points. Scribe 2B
Inside: The Rams-Titans matchup allows the world to watch two of the rags-to-riches stories of the NFL.
SEE PAGE 2B
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORES
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2000
Jayhawks scorch nets, burn Mizzou
Run-and-gun attack leads to 90-71 win
By Chris Fickett
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
Some games, the Kansas women's basketball team gets by just fine without Lynn Pride as its leading scorer.
Last night was one of those games.
Junior guard Brooke Reves scored a career-high 28 points as the Jayhawks ran away for a 90-71 win against Missouri in Allen Fieldhouse.
Pride, a senior forward, scored 19 points and helped suffocate Tigers forward Amanda Lassiter, who scored only nine points on three-of-12 shooting.
Reves had been a reserve in two of the Jayhawks' last four
"We had Lynn play on Lassiter," Washington said. "It really freed Brooke up."
Reves: Scored a career-high 28 points last night
games, as Washington used sophomore center Nikki White against larger opposing lineups.
Reves scored only 10 points in those games, but she started last night against the smaller Tigers. And she started hot, hitting her first seven shots from the field and 12 of 15 for the game.
Many of those hoops came the easy way, via the layup. Pride and junior guard Jennifer Jackson resembled quarterbacks.
"A lot of times you throw it as hard as you can and hope it doesn't hit a tuba," Jackson said. "She got in front and we threw it to her. She could outrun anyone tonight."
Jackson, who had seven turnovers Saturday in a loss at No. 14 Texas Tech, dished out eight assists last night. But that credit went to her teammates.
"You just give it to them and that takes care of the assists," said Jackson, who had just one turnover last night. "I have to take care of the turnovers."
Kansas led 20-4 with 10:28 left in the first half, but Missouri pulled to within four points of the lead with less than four minutes to go before the break.
"They made a run on us in the first half," Washington said. "It was very important that we kept our composure."
Indeed. At Texas Tech, the Jayhawks were tied with about five minutes left in the first half.
They went into the locker room down by 14 points and lost the game by 20.76:56
Last night, Mizzou trailed by 15 at half-time and by as many as 27 in the second half. But dribble penetration from guard Natalie Bright, who had four assists, three steals and 10 points off the bench, and six-of-eight shooting from forward Amy Monsees helped the
Tigers cut the 'Hawks lead to as little as 12 points.
But when its lead was threatened. Kansas countered.
"We ran on them, and that was a good sign," said Washington, referring to Missouri's runs. "We made some nice passes and finished our shots."
"When you're a shooter, you really don't want to disturb their psyche," said Washington about Raymant's shooting slump. "She just needed to shoot the ball."
Senior guard Suzi Raymant brought a dimension to Kansas' game that has been missing the three-point shot. Raymant hit three of five three-point attempts and scored 17 points.
Jaclyn Johnson leaps over Ekpe Akpaffiong on a fast break. Johnson had 10 points in the game, and Kansas scored 18 points on fast breaks. Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
Wanted: Fans to fill fieldhouse for females
It is halftime of the Kansas-Missouri women's basketball game.
A small blond-haired boy shuffles toward James Naismith Court. He's handed a basketball by a member of the athletic staff. He stands proudly — all three-feet-five inches — with the ball under an arm. He can barely hold it under his tiny bicep, but he does not seem intimidated
He's wearing a green and gold sweater for tonight's game. One of those "better safe than sorry," hot, itchy, ugly sweaters that moms like to wrap their "cute little guys" in on frigid nights like this one. But now he's been chosen out of the audience as halftime entertainment. Mom never
Associate Sports Editor
Matt James sports@kansan.com
shoes, dribble to the far end of the court and shoot this ball that is larger than his head into the hoop, which must look as if it's in the rafters to this kid.
His competition: a brown-haired girl in a white sweater who seems to be about the same age, but twice his size. P.A. announcer Pat Diekhouse belts out the intercom "Who wants to be a Jayhawk" — the name of this seemingly mismatched half-time contest.
said anything about that.
His objective: dribble this ball to mid-court, put on an actual Kansas game jersey and matching shorts, step into a pair of what must be Eric Chenowith's size 18
The two dribble toward the piles of clothing at midcourt. She gets there just before he does, throws on the clothes, takes three steps forward, stops and stammers back toward the goal where this all began.
She has taken two wild shots before the little blind-haired boy leaves center court. His jersey hangs past his knees and his shorts graze the tops of his shoes. "I told them size 13 kids," he must be thinking to himself.
It takes him what seems like a half hour to stroll/clomp to the far basket, and by some miracle he tosses the ball into the hoop on his second Herculean effort. The crowd cheers in disbelief, and he coolly high-fives one of the ball boys.
Why the emphasis on this seemingly unimportant halftime competition? This is
See EMPTY on page 3B
Hinrich reaping benefits of being the 'coach's kid'
Bv Matt Tait
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
His entire life, Hinrich's father, Jim has been a basketball coach. In fact, he has been coached by his dad since third grade.
For Kirk Hinrich, life as a basketball player has been different.
What often comes with being the son of a coach? Lots and lots of torment.
There is an expectation to perform, and there are chants of "coach's kid" from opposing fans. In a nutshell, it makes basketball different.
Despite the tribulations, being the son of a coach has its benefits. From the day Hinrich arrived, Kansas coach Roy Williams has said that one of Hinrich's biggest advantages is that he, like fellow Iowan and freshman Nick Collison, has
been around the game his entire life.
Being thrown into the limelight of bigtime college basketball has been a challenge for Hinrich. And although he hasn't completely struggled, he needed a certain amount of adjustment time. Who was there to help? His father and lifelong coach — who else?
"My dad really got
Lately, Hinrich has begun to show just
"Kirk and Nick are really fortunate to have been around the gym their whole lives and around coaches their whole lives," Williams said.
Hinrich: Father was his coach through- out childhood
me prepared and let me know what to expect in the beginning," Hinrich said.
Once the growing pains subsided — noticeably at the beginning of Big 12 play — Hinrich has shown that the challenge is one he can handle.
In Kansas' first five conference games Hinrich is showing it all. Offensively, he has increased his scoring and field goal attempts and he has continued to get the team into the offense with his distribution — his 3.1 assists per game rank him third among Big 12 freshmen.
Defensively, he has continued to play smothering defense and has even gotten an occasional blocked shot or two. Overall he has settled down his game and is beginning to play with more poise.
"I'm starting to get the feel," Hinrich said. "I've got more confidence and I've played more aggressive in the last few
As for the increase in his scoring, which included a nine-point performance against Missouri and a four-point game against Colorado, Hinrich said that he has cut down on mistakes.
games."
"Early in the year, I'd get by the first line of defense and I wasn't looking to score," he said. "I was making silly turnovers instead of just taking the jump shot. I'm still not shooting the three that well. but I'm going to keep shooting."
Of the upcoming trip to Hinrich's home state for Saturday's game in Ames against Iowa State and next Thursday in Iowa City against Iowa, Hinrich said that even though he won't be returning to his home city, he still is excited to avenge last year's losses to both teams from his home state.
"It's not really home, but it's close enough," he said.
Sports Editor
Mike Miller
Roy Williams has changed, so have fans
One — He's trying divert attention from Lester Earl.
First things first, Roy is not going to North Carolina.
Two — He's trying to divert attention from the blowout at Missouri.
After his tirade Monday night where he blasted the crowd, yesterday he listed three reasons that people have given him about why he spouted off:
Three — Now he has an excuse to bolt to North Carolina.
All three were flat-out denied by men's basketball coach Roy Williams.
"This is my program," Williams said. "Why would I want to leave? Coach Smith told me 10 years ago that Kansas was the kind of place you can come and make your home. I'm not leaving."
That was the easy part.
The hard part was acknowledging that Roy's changed.
Everyone associated with Kansas basketball has this grand image of who Williams is. He's a coach. A genius. A motivator. A shaper of young minds. A father-figure. An untouchable basketball icon who can do no wrong. But more and more, he's also seen as a control freak who doesn't know how to get with the times.
Maybe bits of all those are true, but Williams is really a man with distinct priorities who knows what he wants. And he's been lucky and smart enough to attain it.
Williams always has concerned himself with those things. That's not any different from 12 years ago. What has changed most noticeably in Williams is his age — he's almost 50, something of which he says he doesn't need to be reminded.
He puts his family's needs first, then those of his extended family — the basketball team. From there he worries about friends, fans and his golf game.
But members of the media, longtime Kansas fans and others associated with the basketball team will say Williams is different than he once was. He seems to yell more. He wants to dictate exactly how his teams play basketball — if the offense isn't run the way it's supposed to, then a player is on the bench. And he wants to tell the fans how to cheer.
Is he a control-freak?
"I think that the crowd should be as loud as they can, then maybe I am," Williams said. "But I say that because our team feeds off the crowd like they feed off of us. As far as our players go, I am demanding, but they understand where it's coming from."
The subtle changes in Williams' demeanor should be expected. He's not an infallible basketball genius. He is outcoached every now and then. He stunckly defends his team's controlled offense. But his devotion to an offensive system that has produced more wins in the 1990s than any other school cements an offense that plays to his team's strength — inside players.
As he gets older, the pressure starts to wear on him a little more. He hasn't been to a Final Four in seven years, but he tries to ignore that by producing student athletes of whom he can be proud. When the 1997 team with Jacque Vaughn, Jerod Hasse and Raef LaFrentz lost to Arizona, it hurt Williams more than just about anything in the world. It still pains him to talk about it, but it signaled the first change.
An early exit from the NCAA tournament the next year didn't make it any easier, and last year's difficult season ended up being the worst record since his first year.
This year, his team has not been as good defensively at times as he would like, and the pressure to win is wearing on him even more.
"When people say that it's not our right to ever lose a game, that makes things tough on you and your kids," Williams said.
When he woke up Tuesday, he knew he messed up by blasting the crowd — which did not include the student section. It's just that things are tough when you're at the top and, after time, the little changes start to wear on people.
We've changed with Williams.
Complacent attitudes toward winning don't help a basketball team. But we'll stick with him, even if he doesn't do things we always like. I just hope that he sticks with us when we do stuff he doesn't like.
Miller is a Cheyenne, Wyo., senior in journalism.
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