Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Wednesday February 24, 1999
Section:
Does Mark McGwire let his baseball teammates offer their critique of his Mad About You performance?
B
Pro Basketball
WNBA player Kim Perrot hopes to employ the determined spirit that helped her basketball career to fight cancer.
SEE PAGE 5B
SEE PAGE 3B
Page 1
Women's Soccer
The Kansas women's soccer team added a fourth recruit to coach steve Francis' first recruiting class.
SEE PAGE 2B
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Jayhawks' recruit Collison on elite team
By Chris Wristen
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas basketball signe Nick Collison received Monday one of the most prestigious high school hoops honors — a spot on the McDonald's All-America team.
Collison, a 6-9 forward from Iowa Falls (Iowa) High School, is averaging 23 points,11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots a game. He is one of 25 players to be selected to the elite squad.
“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the top 20 players in the country,” Collison said. “I know there were a lot of other great players who didn’t get selected but were deserving, so it’s great to be honored like that.”
His mother agrees.
"He's worked really hard, and I've gotten to see all of the effort he's put into it over the years," Judy Collison said. "I think the honors he receives are very deserving, and I'm just really proud of him."
A longtime fan of the McDonald's All America game, Collison said the selection was important to him.
"With all of the names that have played there before, it's really an honor to be selected to play." Collison said.
The game between the East and West selections on March 24 will be played in Ames, Iowa, virtually in the backyard of Collision's Iowa Falls home. He is expecting a large turnout of friends and family.
"A lot of my friends have already bought their tickets, and we'll probably buy a block of tickets." Collison said. "We'll probably have about 200 people there."
He still has business to take care of in Iowa Falls before he can turn his attention to national prominence. His Iowa Falls team is putting its 19-0 record on the line tonight in the district playoffs.
Collison said that not many of his opponents had provided much of a challenge to this point, so he's looking forward to playing some of the nation's best in the All-America game.
"I haven't played against that type of competition in a while, since last summer actually, so I'm looking forward to getting in and practicing to see how I stack up to these guys," Collison said. "It should be a fun week, and the game should be a lot of fun too."
— Edited by Duane Wagler
Pushing for a strong finish
Kansas center
Nakia Sanford
boxes out Oklahoma forward
Desiree Taylor. The
Jayhawks are scheduled to play Oklahoma State tonight at 7 p.m.
Photo by Augustus Anthony
Ringman (KANSAN)
Piazza/KANSAN
Kansas hopes to lasso Cowgirls
Oklahoma State struggling offensively
By Matt James
Kansan sportswriter
Oklahoma State women's head coach Dick Halterman wants his team to finish the season on a winning note, but 22nd-ranked Kansas isn't the opponent he was hoping for.
Their seasons may be headed in entirely different directions, but Kansas and Oklahoma State's paths will cross tonight in Stillwater.
Kansas (20-7 overall, 10-4 Big 12) heads back on the road to battle the Cowgirls (12-12, 4-10) at 7 p.m. in Stillwater.
Halterman's squand is in the middle of the program's worst losing streak in more than a decade. The Cowgirls have lost four games in a row and nineteen of
their last 11, matching only the '85-'86 team, which finished the season with only one win in its final 11 games.
"We're just struggling," Halterman said. "We just can find enough points
... We're averaging about 60 points a game, and that's not going to win many games in this conference."
Kansas coach Marian Washington probably doesn't mind when the Jayhawks only score 60 points, because their top-ranked Big 12 defense has only relinquished 50.6 points a game during their current 7-1 streak.
The Jayhawks will pose a major problem for the undersized Cowgirls, whose offense ranks last in the conference in scoring and field goal percentage at 39 percent.
"Kansas falls into the category with Texas as very athletic teams that really give us match-up problems," Halterman said.
Oklahoma State's top scoring threat is
junior Jennifer Crow. The 5-9 guard averages 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, but is the only Cowgirl averaging double-digits in scoring.
"Crow is a great player and scorer." Washington said. "We're going to have to keep a hand in her face and make her work."
But as the Jayhawks realized after three early conference losses, one scorer isn't enough to win in the Big 12. Ever preseason Big 12 player of the year Lynn Pride couldn't carry Kansas to victory consistently.
"They've always had players who worked hard, scrappy players, players who always did the little things,"
See WASHINGTON on page 3B
Senior hitter leads team with seven-game streak
By Matt Tait
Kansan sportswriter
Bv Matt Tait
First baseman strives to maintain lucky record
Despite the statistic, King, Gainesville, Fla., senior, remains modest about the achievement.
For most hitters, a year off could throw off their timing, but for Chad King, a year off has resulted in a seven-game hitting streak.
After missing nearly 100 games during the past year because of an injury, King, the Jayhawks 'first baseman, has hit safely in all seven of the team's games this season.
Coach Bobby Randall said that King was the strongest player he had coached and that the main reason for King's success was his strength.
"It's just a coincidence," he said. "Honestly, I have no idea why it happened."
"Chad has got as much hitting potential as anyone I've ever coached." Randall said. "He's not up to that potential yet, but when he gets straightened out, it will mean bigger hits."
He also said that King understood how to hit and that if he improved his timing more hits would come.
"But understanding and doing are two different things, and hitting is one of the
"It's not something I think about. I just want to win," King said. "But I've approached it from a different standpoint than in the past. I used to tie the left shoe before the right, but I've changed and I don't get caught up in numbers or superstitions anymore."
King, who is 10 for 31 for the season, said he thought his numbers and his power could improve.
most difficult things to do in sports," Randall said.
King, who is aware that a legitimate hitting streak is not something that comes along often, said that it was not constantly on his mind.
"I've seen guys go into a hitting streak and not hit great." Randall said.
... is what King said was happening.
... will be something to talk about. King said
More realistically, King alluded that even if he had a 15- or 16-game streak —
A senior farewell
That is what King said was happening.
See BASEBALL on page 3B
KU cheerleaders prepare to shower the senior men's basketball players with flowers during their final introductions at senior night. From right, the cheerleaders are Samantha Stewart, Fredonia junior; Rachelle lest, Mission Viejo, Calif., junior; Krissy McHenry, Arlington, Texas, sophomore; and Erin Nible, Harding Ames, Iowa, junior. See page 4B for more photos from Monday night's game. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Commentary
Tournament to showcase Big 12 battle
Both Pierce and Raef LaFrentz are doing well at their new homes in the NBA
If I had a dollar for every time I heard some talking head on television say "Paul Pierce — making NBA teams wish they would have picked him sooner than No. 10," I'd be able to start paying off my student loans early.
But this column isn't going to be about the NBA. No Dennis Rodman "As the Worm Turns" updates from me. Why? Well, because Big 12 basketball is FAN-tastic.
If you were at Monday night's game against Oklahoma State, you saw first-hand what excitement this league has to offer late in the season.
That game had everything — from the drama of overtime to the comedy of OSU's Doug Gottlieb styling in backwards
shorts at the beginning of the game.
Whoever started the "Shorts on backwards!" chant gets the first ever Seth Jones right arm flex. While not as famous as the Ryan Robertson right arm flex, it comes with the same amount of enthusiasm. That was one of the funniest things I've seen in Allen Fieldhouse.
Seth Jones
sports@kansan.com
If I were Jeff Boschee, I wouldn't have been able to resist the possibilities for trash talk.
"Hey Doug, I may be a freshman, but at least I know that the tag in my shorts goes in the back!" or maybe "I'm not sure if it's because of your lack of intelligence, or my quick first step, but somehow you managed to end up with your shorts on backwards."
Want to know why that game was so good? It's because March Madness is just around the corner. That was an Oklahoma State team hungry not only for a win, but also a postseason berth.
If you want to go check out the Big 12 tournament at Kemper Arena, you have until March 4 to scrape together the $180 to see all 11 games in person.
The field of 64 teams is starting to shape up, and the Big 12 tournament will be one of the most interesting tournaments out there.
But even the worst nose-bleed seat in Kemper Arena would be an enjoyable one this year. It'll be a dogfight for the scraps of hope to make it to the Big Dance.
For college students, that's a lot of plasma.
Texas and Kansas are locks for the NCAA tournament at 1st and 2nd in the Big 12 and No. 32 and No. 17 in the Rating Percentage Index. Oklahoma and Missouri, currently at No. 31 and No. 30 in the RPI and 3rd and tied at 4th in the Big 12 should both feel very confident.
Nebraska finds itself in a tight spot at No. 45 on the RPI and 6th in the Big 12. Kansas fans can attest to the abilities of this team, but unfortunately, the selection committee doesn't listen to Kansas fans.
Oklahoma State, a team with plenty of athleticism, is in no-man's land in the RPI at No. 58 and 6th in the Big 12.
The feeling is that the Big 12 should get four teams to postseason play. Outside of Kansas and Texas, the other teams bunched in the middle of the league should all consider themselves on the bubble. These teams won't want to leave anything to chance, and will want to solidify their bids for the tournament.
So how do they do that? An automatic bid by winning the Big 12 tournament would be the sure-fire way, but only one team gets that honor. So the other bubble teams all just scratch and claw to put on the best late performance for the selection committee they can.
That makes Kemper Arena the sight for a showdown with many teams that are smelling blood.
Jones is a Mulvane junior in magazine journalism.