Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Tuesday November 30,1999
Sports
Section:
Cincinnati remained No.1 for the second straight week, and Kansas jumped to No.6 in this week's AP men's top 25 poll.
Sugar Bowl
SEE PAGE 7A
Florida State and Virginia Tech will play for the national title on Jan. 4 in New Orleans.
Page 1
SEE PAGE 7A
SEC Football
The Southeast Conference's supervisor of officials said that referees at the Georgia-Georgia Tech game made an error that led to a Tech victory.
SEE PAGE 8A
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Sharpshooters raise Jayhawk hopes
By Matt Tait
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
There sure is a sweet sound surrounding the Kansas men's basketball team this season. That sound is the ball going through the net.
As a team, the Jayhawks have played varying styles during their first four games. The one thing that has remained constant in the half-court sets and the fast break, run-and-gun style has been Kansas' high shooting percentage.
The No. 6 'Hawks (4-0) have lit up the nets for a scorching 52 percent from the field, and they have been blazing from behind the three-point arch — hitting 40 percent of their three-pointers.
Specifically, three players were responsible for warming up the cold Alaskan nights with their shooting last
weekend at the Great Alaska Shootout. Those players, sophomore Jeff Boschee and juniors Luke Axtell and Kenny Gregory, have shot a combined 66 for 92, 72 percent, on the season.
Gregory said the reason for the high percentage was not because the shots have been easier or even luckier. They have just been better.
really likes.
"If it keeps going like this, then I'm happy," Gregory said. "And if it changes, I guess I'll just have to adjust."
As for as knocking down so many threees, Axell said that the long-distance shots are what he does best, and they really go a long way in swinging the momentum of a game
Gregory: Leads Kansas with 17.3 points per game
"That is my shot," Axtell said. "It's what I've done. It's a huge lift to a team when somebody hits a three."
In Alaska, Boschee and Axtell provided the Jayhawks with lifts, hitting
key shots at key times as they combined to knock down 16 three-pointers in just 22 attempts. Even more important was the fact that the shots were open looks and came at crucial times.
Perhaps the most crucial of all of them came when Kansas trailed Georgia 56-55 late in a second-round game in Alaska.
A fully confident and fully capable Axtell stepped back, way back, and buried a three-pointer that gave Kansas the lead for good.
Whether it was a big three to regain control, like Axtell's against Georgia, or a burying three that put the game out of reach, Boschee and Axtell pierced the field leading the Jayhawks to the title.
See 'HAWKS on page 8A
Walk-on, mom seeks challenge as 'Hawk
Kansas basketball player Robin Shield is a full-time student, a wife and a mother along with her sports career. The Haskell transfer sees coming to the University as a challenge and a chance to gain respect for her Native American heritage. Photo by Chad Cummings/KANSAN
By Sam Mellinger
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
This is not just a story about a University of Kansas student, although Robin Shield is a full-time junior in business and accounting.
This isn't just a story about a basketball player, although Shield did make Kansas' team as a walk-on.
And this isn't just a story about a wife or a mother, although Shield is both.
This is a story about a 21-year-old woman trying to make something of herself.
"I could have stayed there and graduated and everything, but I feel like I need the challenge," she said. "I just feel like if you want something, you have to go for it. Haskell is like one step above high school. KU is about three."
To do that, Shield, who grew up on a Montana reservation before attending Haskell Indian Nations University, transferred to Kansas this fall. It's a change that Phil Homeratha, Shield's coach at Haskell, called a different world. Gone are the easier classes, the familiar faces and the $70-per-semester tuition.
A road less traveled
At first one wonders why Shield is doing this. She was doing well at Haskell. She was on track to graduate, and was looked up to after she became Haskell's first non-track athlete to be named a second team All-American. She had a close group of friends.
At Kansas, she has none of that. Sure, she's doing well in her classes — she said they're a lot harder here, especially her economics class — but her role-model status as a standout athlete is gone. The 5-9 guard/forward is unlikely to see much
playing time for the No. 19 Jayhawks, and most students probably wouldn't even recognize her as a member of the team.
"Everything's faster in practice now, everyone's more serious," she said. "At Haskell, if you were doing something wrong, they'd just point it out to you. It was up to you to watch videos to improve, it was more fun. It's still fun playing basketball, but here it's much more serious."
And though she still sees her Haskell friends — her husband, Jeremy, works there — she spent this summer playing with the Jayhawks, and she hangs out with her new teammates more often.
Not that she's got a lot of spare time. Shield is a full-time student, practices basketball up to 20 hours each week and takes care of her two-year-old daughter, Jolona.
Shield is not the first mother to play for Kansas coach Marian Washington. Adrian Mitchell (1976-79) was a single mother and raised her daughter during her standout career at Kansas. Washington often babysat for Mitchell, Kansas' No. 2 all-time scorer, but much has changed since then.
"I'd have Adrian's daughter at my house, no problem," Washington said. "But it's been a long time; I don't know if that would still be allowed by the NCAA." OK. Shield said. She's got some
That's OK, Shield said. She's got somebody at home.
"A lot of people ask me how I do it, but it's the support of my husband," she said of Jeremy, who works full-time to pay for Robin's tuition, the family's expenses and even a computer. "He gives me 100 percent, and if it wasn't for him, there's no
way I'd be doing this. He could have left me, but he didn't."
Jeremy said he loved her and would support her.
"When she's done, she'll work so I can go to school," he said. "She could have gone to a lot of schools to play out of high school, but she got pregnant and couldn't. When she came here, I told her that if she wanted to continue her basketball somewhere, I would help her do that."
A Native-American role model
A Native-American role model
It's a life to which few Kansas students can relate. Shield has a full day of classes, then basketball practice, then homework, then taking care of a young daughter.
"She's living a little different life than the rest of us," junior point guard Jennifer Jackson said. "There's all these things she has to deal with that we don't."
See EX-HASKELL on page 7A
Kansas senior Amanda Reves digs the Jayhawks out of a hole by saving them from a Colorado point in the second game of the Jayhawks 0-3 loss to Colorado. Saturday night was senior night, and the Jayhawks honored five players. Photo by Chad Cummings/KANSAN.
Volleyball players earn all-conference honors
Bv Shawn Hutchinson
Reves and Myatt accounted for 46 percent of the team's kills, 42 percent of the team's attacks, 46 percent of the team's block solos, and 68 percent of the team's total blocks.
Kansan sportswriter
To get an idea of the impact that Amanda Reves and Amy Myatt had on the Kansas volleyball team this season, take the numerical approach.
sports@kansan.com
Those numbers were impressive enough to earn both players a spot on the 1999 AllBig 12 Conference Volleyball Team, which was announced Sunday after a vote by the league's coaches in Dallas.
Reves, a senior middle blocker from Denver, Colo., was named to the All-Big 12 First Team. Myatt, a junior outside hitter from Iowa City, Iowa, was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12.
"It's definitely an honor to be recognized with such an elite group of athletes," Reves said. "It's a reflection of all the hard work that my teammates and I put in this season."
After earning honorable-mention honors last year, Reves was first among the
Jayhawks this season in kills, 435, block solos, 25, and block assists. 115. She also is Kansas' all-time leader in kills, attack percentage and block assists.
During her career, Reves was named Big 12 Player of the Week twice, and was just the fourth Kansas player to earn first team all-conference accolades.
The road to eminence has been a bit bumper for Myatt, who played in only 16 games last year after suffering a stress fracture in her femur.
This season, Myatt was injury-free and lead the Jayhawks with 3.95 kills per game and a .242 attack percentage. Her 423 kills this season rank third on Kansas' single-season kills list.
On Sept. 4, she smoked a school-record 27 kills in a four-game match against West Virginia in the West Virginia Tournament in Morgantown, W.Va. That performance earned her the Most Valuable Player award for the tournament.
One week later, Myatt broke that record during a 3-1 home loss against Auburn by drilling 30 kills on 48 total attacks for a .479 attack percentage.
- Edited by Mike Loader
Chenowith not playing like an All-American
As much as it pains me to say this, it needs to be said: There's something wrong with Playboy magazine.
Eric Chenowith, an All-American? Please.
Watching Chenowith this season, I get the feeling he spent the off season reading his own press rather than making sure he would live up to it.
I certainly haven't detected anything he's added to his game, and it seems as though he's surprised when other teams challenge him.
Yes, he's got size and a nice shooting touch, and on occasion he's shown the skills to dominate. But he's also shown traits associated more with playboys than All-Americans — arrogance and laziness.
If he doesn't start showing up for each game, he better get used to being a sidebar to the story of freshman front court duo Nick Collison and Drew Gooden.
tans overlook his half-hearted effort
Name recognition may have gotten Chenwith chosen to the all-tournament team at the Great Alaska Shootout, but it won't make Kansas
and paltry numbers. With the exception of a strong first half against Georgia Tech, Chenowith looked as if he was lost in the Alaskan wilderness. The shorter players he guarded had no problem pushing him out of the lane or beating him to the boards — Chenowith had just
Derek Prator sports columnist sports@kansasan.com
one rebound in 25 minutes against Xavier.
Offensively, he looked slow and out of rhythm. He shot just 41.4 percent from the field, averaging 10 points a game. Also, he averaged three turnovers.
These hardly are All-American-type numbers, especially with the way other big men around the country are playing.
Chris Mihm, Texas' 7-footer, made his case for best center in the nation at the Puerto Rico Shootout.
Mihm scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds against then-No. 18 DePaul, and the next night put together 19 points, 11 boards, and he five blocked shots in an upset against then-No. 3 Michigan State.
Kenyon Martin is ripping violent dunks and putting up consistent numbers for top-ranked Cincinnati, and Loren Woods is dominating defensively for the talent-laden Arizona Wildcats.
From what I've seen so far, Chenowith doesn't even rank with the country's top five centers. He's certainly not playing as well as those mentioned above, and I wouldn't take him before Brendon Haywood from North Carolina or Etan Thomas from Syracuse.
That said, I think Chenowith could make himself into the best center in the country. His size and wingspan are features that can't be taught. When his head is in the game, he has a great knack for blocking shots both against his man and on help-side defense.
One encouraging sign is that Chenowith plays his best against other big centers. It's not a coincidence that his best game to date was against Georgia Tech's Alvin Jones and Jason Collier.
But until he decides that he wants to show up every night, Chenowith can forget about post-season All-American honors. It's more likely that you'll see me kicking it with some bunnies at the Playboy Mansion.
Prater is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.