Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Monday April 19, 1999
The Kansas softball team knows what winning is. The Jayhawks won their fifth straight yesterday.
Section:
SEE PAGE 3B
Pro Football
No Kansas football players were selected in the weekend's NFL draft.
B
SEE PAGE 6B
Pro Football
Page 1
Wayne Gretzky, the "Great One," hung up his skates yesterday after his final NHL game.
SEE PAGE 7B
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Women finish with Pride
By Matt James
mjames@kansan.com
Kansan swriter
At one point, head coach Marian Washington grabbed Lynn Pride's arm before she could return to her seat and told her she should probably just save a trip.
The first-team All-Big 12 Conference member nearly wore a path from her chair to the acceptance area at the women's postseason banquet Saturday night. Pride finished the evening with five awards, including the Lynette Woodard Most Valuable Player Award for the second consecutive year.
Kansas basketball players laugh as coach Marian Washington speaks about the season during the awards banquet at the Holidome. The players received awards Saturday night for their performances throughout the season. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
The awards portion of the banquet held few surprises as Pride also took home the Steals Leader Award, Vickie Adkins Rebounding Award, Angela Aycock Free Throw Percentage Award and 94-40 Defensive Award, which is given to the player who is said to have played defense on all 94 feet of the court for 40 minutes. During the 1998-99 season, Pride led the Jayhawks with 17.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game, while shooting a team-high 73 percent from the free-throw line.
The team took the opportunity to thank
its supporters and booster club, known as The Courtsiders, for its year-long support. Many were in attendance at this year's annual post-season banquet, held at the Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.
"I just want to congratulate this coaching staff and team on a great season," said Chancellor Robert Hemenway in an opening statement. "I am proud of the way they represent the University of Kansas. I did a lot of cheering and clapping, and I'm ready to do it again next year."
Bob Frederick, athletics director, echoed Hemenway's sentiments while reflecting on the Jayhawks' eighth consecutive
Flying coop not an issue for Williams
See FLETCHER on page 2B
The Associated Press
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Maybe one thing could get Roy Williams to leave Kansas for North Carolina.
And even a personal appeal from Dean Smith might not be enough, Williams said Thursday.
"If that situation ever comes down, then I'll have to make a decision." Williams said before Kansas' annual basketball banquet. "I don't think (Smith) would put me in that position. But (if he did), it would be hard, but I could (decline)."
Williams has been the subject of persistent rumors the past two years that he would head back to North Carolina, where he was an assistant under Smith before he took the Kansas job in 1988. The two are close friends.
The talk resurfaced again after last season as unhappiness built with Bill Gutheridge, Smith's successor.
williams said he has grown tired of answering the persistent rumors. He issued a statement during the Big 12 tournament this year as the talk began again that it was unfair to Gatheride and unfair to him.
his stamp on the Kansas program.
After 11 seasons, Williams said he has put his stamp on the Kansas
"It's still the basketball program of the University of Kansas, but it's got my fingerprints all over it now." Williams said. "The first few years, it wasn't like that. I was just the guy who was in charge. With each and every year, those fingerprints become more evident and there are more of them.
Williams: Has no plans to leave the Kansas Jayhawks.
"These are my kids
now. When we have reunions, there's a lot of my players who come back. When we talk about the top five or 10 scorers or rebounders or whatever, a lot of those guys are guys who I coached. With each and every year, it gets to be more my program."
"I cannot paint you a scenario that would entice me to leave because I don't know that there is one," he said. "That's saying it as plain as I can. Money has never gotten it done. The pro game has never gotten it done.
Williams said he had never talked about returning to Chapel Hill with anyone at North Carolina.
"I've never been enticed by the college game to go somewhere else. I love Lawrence."
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick, who took a chance on Williams and took heat for hiring a man who was then a no-name coach with no head coaching experience, said he was concerned at first that Williams was merely waiting for Smith to retire before he headed back to North Carolina. He isn't concerned anymore.
"In his early years, there was a concern. Frederick said. "But I haven't given it a moment's thought in the last five years except when someone in the media asks about it."
Williams said the only other thing besides a personal request from Smith that could cause him to leave would be if he suddenly fell out of favor at Kansas.
Edited by Julie Sachs
Shortstop John Nelson slides into home plate as Oklahoma State catcher Ryan Budde tags him out. Kansas dropped all three games against the Cowboys this weekend as the Jayhawks' losing streak reached a school-record 12 games. Photo by Dan Elavsky/KANSAN
Kansas drops three to Oklahoma State
By Matt Tait
sports@kansan.com
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Oklahoma State Cowboys came to Hoglund Ballpark this weekend and defeated Kansas in three straight games, earning a series sweep.
The losses push Kansas' losing streak to 12 games. That streak is the longest in school history, eclipsing the mark of 11 set by the 1940 team.
"That's never a record I want to be a part of," coach Bobby Randall said. "And I know it's hard on the guys, but we've just got to keep working hard and always keep fighting."
Despite being swept, the Jayhawks fought the games down to the last pitch.
The teams were scheduled to play one game each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Because of Friday night's bad weather, the teams played two games Sunday.
Saturday's opener was a pitching duel through seven innings as Kansas starter Rusty Philbrick and Oklahoma State starter Matt Smith mowed down hitters and kept the runs off the board.
After the seventh, however, the bullpens opened the flood gates as 22 runs were scored in the final two innings. Kansas went on to lose 16-10.
"It was two games today, 3-1 and 13-9." Randall said. Offensively, John Nelson, Shane Wedd and Doug Dreher led the charge for the Jayhawks, delivering two hits aniece.
Sunday's first game picked up where Saturday
game left off as the teams scored 13 runs in the first three innings. Kansas led or was tied most of the way until the seventh, when the Cowboys tacked on four runs to go ahead 12-9.
The Jayhawks battled the next two innings and got the tying run to first base in the ninth. But with two outs, Nelson was caught trying to steal second, ending the game.
"We're unsure if we can win those kind of games, but we're not afraid to compete in them," Randall said.
Compete they did, as the Jayhawks pounded out a season-high 17 hits in the contest.
Brandon O'Neal, who hit three for five in the game,
launched his fourth home run of the season and
See 'HAWKS on page 3B
Football team thwarted by elements, injuries
By Michael T. Rigg sports at kansan.com
Kansas writerwriter
After the first three weeks of spring football practice, one thing's been made clear to the Kansas football team: The sky is the limit.
Monday was sunny and windy, Thursday was wet, while Saturday's full-contact scrimmage was simply frigid. However, the arctic conditions did not stop coach Terry Allen from seeing progress in his team, especially in Saturday's scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.
This was especially true this past week, when the sky limited the Jayhawks to three practices, two of which had weather conditions more suited for Antarctica than Kansas in April.
In the scrimmage, the offense scored 22 points, completed two long pass plays and dominated the defense from whistle to whistle, save for a few penalties and dropped passes. The dominance is a complete U-turn from earlier in the week, when
the offense was frequently dominated by the defense.
The offensive progress has made Allen think twice about the productivity of his defense, which ranked 107th in the nation last season in rushing defense.
"You go 'Boy, we did a good job offensively," then you go 'Boy, are we that bad defensively?" Allen said. "The thing that I
look for to see if we're progressing is if you have good days by each group. On Wednesday, the defense totally dominated. So it's probably a
good thing the offense dominated [Saturday]. If just one team continually dominates, then I think you have some problems. If you have some ups and downs, then I think that's a good sign."
The ups and downs are what nose tackle John Williams and the rest of the defense
hope to eliminate by Saturday's spring game. Williams thinks the fluctuations in the defense mean the unit needs more practice.
Senior quarterback Zac Wegner said Saturday's show of offense was a definite improvement compared to the last few springs.
"The screen passes are just something we haven't seen yet." Williams said.
The defense was beaten twice on long pass plays, one to wide receiver Termaine Fulton that set the offense up on the 1 yard line and another 70 yard touchdown screen pass to running back Mitch Bowles. Williams said the long passes were results of offensive schemes previously unseen this spring.
The defense also has been victimized by injury. The wet turf at Thursday's practice caused numerous injuries, and more surfaced as the week progressed, according to Allen. Junior college transfer linebacker Chaz Murphy broke his middle finger, and free safety Chad Coellner injured his right thumb.
Murphy is out for the rest of spring practice, while Coellner will see limited action Allen said the risks of the players playing hurt outweigh the benefits of the additional practice. "We don't want to take any chances," Allen said.
Allen said the wet turf at Memorial Stadium Wednesday contributed to injuries to wide receiver Byron Gasaway (knee) and defensive back Tanner Hancock (shoulder). Allen called off Friday's practice because of similar conditions, he said.
"B be danger if we didn't get on the bus yesterday, go all the way over to the stadium, and there was ice on the field," Allen said. "After Wednesday, I was scared to death, so we got back on the bus, drove back, and didn't practice."
The lack of practice time means more work this week for the Jayhawks, culminating with Saturday's spring game.
"We'll go all out this week, and go every day if we have to," Allen said.
The spring game is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
weather pending, of course.
— Juan H. Heath