JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Basketball
Inside Sports today
The men's tennis team improves to 5-1 after defeating Iowa yesterday at home.
SEE PAGE 5B
Yesterday's game - Kansas vs. Iowa State
KANSAS
19-9, 11-5
UNRANKED 50
SECTION B, PAGE 1
WWW.JHAWKBBALL.COM
IOWA STATE 15-14,6-10 UNRANKED 52
MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1999
Commentary
Madness accurate description of March
Some say it's better than sex.
If that's too much for you, let's go ahead and say it's better than extended foreplay.
Welcome to March, the greatest month of the year.
It actually started this weekend. Yesterday to be exact. It started out a normal, perfectly lazy Sunday. My roommates and I dragged ourselves out of
bed shortly before noon to play basketball.
We stopped at Taco John's on the way home and planted ourselves on the couch, flipping from basketball game to basketball game.
After Kansas lost another late lead, we get a preview of what's in store this month in the wonderfully wild world of college basketball
Sam
Mellinger
sports @ kansan.com
The Murray State Racers were playing Southeast Missouri State for the Ohio Valley Conference championship. Mind you, none of us watching could tell you the name of one player on the court, but that's the beauty of March.
Mollinger is an Liberal, Kan., senior in journalism.
SEMO, as they were identified on ESPN's score box, had the ball down two with about 30 seconds left. I don't know what happened next because of bad remote control work, but once we flipped back the Racers were down one with less than six seconds to go.
Again, none of us knew any players on either team, but that's not the point. Murray State inbounded the ball to some guy — No. 12 — about 86 feet away from the basket. He's got two guys on him, but somehow manages to dribble his way about 70 feet down the court, throw up some running one-handed slop shot that splashed the net and sent the Racers into a frenzy and into the NCAA Tournament.
it's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
I consider myself a relatively lazy guy, especially on Sundays after I've played basketball and polished off some Taco John's. But as soon as that shot went in, I leaped from my spot on the couch and did a little Racers-win-the-championship dance.
Visions of Richard Hamilton last year against Washington, Tyus Edney a few years ago against Missouri, and Christian Laetner in 1992 against Kentucky ran through my head as I realized how wonderful the month ahead of us is going to be.
Take away midterms, and March couldn't be better. You've got temperature in the 60s, you've got spring break and you've got March Madness. And this next month of your life should be even better than usual for Kansas fans since big-time heartbreak should not accompany the Jayhawks' postseason loss this year.
In no other sporting event can you find the raw emotion of March Madness.
The men's team's successful yet-nominating regular season should allow Jayhawk fans to not think of this season's tournament as a life-and-death situation.
Now you can focus more on being happy for this season's "Cinderelles," the small schools that sneak into the tournament by winning their conference tournaments and surprise the regulars with an inspired performance. These teams seldom advance to the Final Four, but are what separates college basketball's postseason from the predictability of professional sports' playoffs.
I'd take Bryce Drew's game-winner at the buzzer and ensuing celebratory dive over Michael Jordan's push-off and jumper over Bryon Russell any day.
'Hawks stumble against Cyclones
By Kevin C. Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
AMES, Iowa — The Iowa State Cyclones held the lead for less than a minute on Saturday, but that was all the time they needed to upset the Jayhawks 52-50 in the final game of the Big 12 Conference regular season.
The Jayhawks, 19-9 overall and 11-5 in the Big 12, were outscored 30-18 in the second half as the Cyclones ended a six-game losing streak to Kansas.
The loss dropped Kansas into a three-way tie with Missouri and Oklahoma for third place in the Big 12 and secured a No.3 seed for the conference tournament.
Kansas is now 7-6 in its last 13 games and has seemed to have lost some of the confidence that had helped it become the winningest Division I men's basketball team in the 1990s.
"It's been a very frustrating time, and yet there's a lot of college teams in the country that would like to be frustrated like Kansas is, but we're not every other basketball team," Williams said. "I'm very disappointed in the way we played. We've set a pretty high bar and we haven't reached it."
The Jayhawks seemed to be riding the momentum of their three game winning streak when they
jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Iowa State missed its first six shots, including two air balls, and did not score its first points until 13:33 remained in the first half. Kansas committed two turnovers in the first half, and shot 48.3 percent from the field as it led by as many as 12 points before taking a 32:22 lead into intermission.
"Iowa State, they kept in the game and felt like they had a chance," Williams said. "We had some chances to be ahead by more than 10 in the first half, but didn't make plays and didn't make shots."
The Jayhawks once again pushed the lead to 12 when they took a 38-26 deal with 16:48 left in the game. Iowa State responded with a 14-2 run, highlighted by three, three-point shots, to the score at 40-40 with 9:34 left in the game. The Cyclones connected on 6-of-15 three-point shots in the second half after hitting only one of eight in the first.
Kansas failed to score for more than seven minutes during the Cyclone run as the Jayhawks saw yet another double-digit second-half lead evaporate.
"It itf like it it was slipping away," guard Jeff Boschee said. "They made a lot of big shots and a lot of key three-pointers."
Senior forward T. J. Pugh's shot is blocked by Iowa State's Marcus Fizer. The Cyclones held Kansas to 18 points in the second half on their way to a 52-50 victory yesterday. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
See IOWA STATE on page 3B
K-State too much for women in final match
Kansas State guard DeDe Slayah and Kansas forward Jaclyn Johnson battle for a loose ball. Jay hawks were defeated Saturday by the Wildcats 65-58. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
Injured guard returns, helps lead 'Cats with 28; Jayhawks turn attention to Big 12 Tournament
By Melinda Weaver
Kansan sportswriter
In the first meeting between Kansas and Kansas State, the K-State women's basketball team could not stop Lynn Pride. In round two, Kansas could not stop Angie Finkes, losing 69-58.
Finkes scored a career-high 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting, a school-record goal percentage of 80 percent. She had spent the last four games on the bench with a stress fracture in her leg.
"Angie brought a lot of excitement and energy to the rest of us that we didn't have while she was on the bench," teammate Brandy Harris said. "We didn't want to lose, and she stepped up to keep that from happening."
After being down by as many as nine in the first half, the Jayhawks rallied and tied the score 28-28 at halftime.
In the first five minutes of the second half, the Jayhawks, led by Pride's six points, three steals and three assists, charged to a 12-point lead on a 14-2 run.
"It's tough to stop Lynn Pride," K-State coach Deb Patterson said. "She's a tremendous player, and Nakia Sanford is a big presence at post. We just had to step up on the defensive end."
With just less than 15 minutes left in the game, the Wildcats took control and never looked back. Finkes scored 16 of her 28 points in the second half, and sophomore Kim Woodlee came off the bench and scored 13 points on 3-for-5 shooting from behind the three-point arch.
"We lost some momentum on offense, and
their play escalated, which hurt us on defense," said Marian Washington. Kansas coach. "They controlled us on defense, which allowed them to chip away at the offensive end."
K-State outscored Kansas 39-16 in the last 15 minutes of the game.
Washington pointed to free-throw shots as one of the biggest differences in the game.
The Wildcats went 18-of-24 from the line, while the Jawhaws went only 3-of-5.
"We shut ourselves down." Washington said. "We weren't as aggressive as they were. When they're going to the free throw line 24 times to our five and making 18 to our three, that hurts. Obviously, we had to be more aggressive."
The Wildcats shot a season-high 56.4 percent from the field and outrebounded Kansas 32-18.
"Our post defense was not there tonight," said Nakia Sanford, who lead the team in scoring with 17 points. "They stretched out our defense a lot and isolated the inside. We didn't handle that well."
Kansas now looks to the Big 12 Tournament, which begins Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo. The Jayhawks have the No. 3 seed and will play their first game at 8:20 Wednesday evening against the winner of Tuesday's Oklahoma, Oklahoma State game.
Players said they had no doubt they could recover from this loss.
"I'm not sure what the problem was," sophomore Brooke Reves said. "They just had more fire. We're going to fix that before the tournament."
— Edited by Darrin Peschka
Red Raiders bombard Jayhawks in three-game sweep
By Matt Tait
Kansan sportswriter
As the saying in Kansas goes, "There's no place like home," and for the Kansas baseball team, it can't be any worse than the road.
The Red Raiders, ranked 17th nationally, are known for their explosive offense, and they provided Kansas a first-hand view of just how good they really are.
The Jayhawks traveled to Texas Tech this weekend and lost three games in three days, dropping their record to 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the Big 12 Conference.
"They're a good team with some experienced players," Kansas catcher Shane Wedd said. "They've got a couple of the best players in the conference."
The players Wedd referred to, catcher Josh Bard and pitcher Sash Wright, also happen
to be two of the best in the nation, and they dominated the weekend series.
Bard went 6 for 12 in the three games, scored four runs, drove in nine, and hit two home runs, his first two of the year.
Wright, the Red Raiders' starter in Friday's game, went the distance, giving up only one run on five hits, and struck out a career-high 12 batters.
On Sunday, the dayhawks put together their best performance of the weekend and
managed to take some good things away from the otherwise bleak series.
"Up and down the lineup, each guy had one or two good at bats," Wedd said. "We were in the game for a while and we were competitive. We came back when we were down and showed a little more fight and competitiveness."
The Jayhawks only managed four hits while Texas Tech pounded out 12.
The Jayhawks managed five runs on 10 hits in Sunday's finale, but Texas Tech jumped out to an insurmountable 9-1 lead that sealed the sweep.
Starter Colin Call (0-2) went four innings but
eave out nine runs, eight earned, in the loss.
Kansas starter Rusty Philbrick pitched 42/3
In Saturday's game, the 'Hawks were blanked 11-0 by another strong pitching performance and more offensive firepower.
innings and struck out four but gave up eight runs.
Only four of those runs were earned as the 'Hawks committed five errors in the game.
"The pitching was all right, we just didn't help them defensively and we didn't put up any runs for them either," Wedd said. "We've got to get better."
In the opener on Friday, Kansas failed to score until the eighth inning, as Shane Wright held the Jayhawks' bats down the entire game.
The Jayhawks' next action will come Wednesday against Baker University. The game is the home opener and will be the first game played in the newly renovated Hoglund Ballpark.
"We're ready to come home and get some hometown support." Wedd said.
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Edited by Jon Campbell