Inside Sports THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Sports The Kansas swim team plays host to Iowa State tomorrow. The home meet will be the last one for the senior women. Friday February 5,1999 Section: B College Basketball SEE PAGE 5B Iowa State forward Stevie Johnson is establishing himself as a relentless offensive rebounder. SEE PAGE 4B College Football Page 1 University of Notre Dame trustees are deciding whether to negotiate to add the school's football team to the Big Ten. SEE PAGE 6B WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS Contact the Kansan Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810 Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391 Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com Track teams set for indoor meet in Lincoln, Neb. Kansas forward Lynn Pride looks to pass the ball down the court in the Colorado game. The Jayhawks are scheduled to play the Missouri Tigers at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Hearnes Center. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN By Mike Miller Kansan sportswriter The men's and women's track teams travel to Lincoln, Neb., this weekend to compete in the Husker Invitational, one of the largest indoor meets of the year, featuring nearly 900 athletes and 45 teams. Teams from both coasts and the Midwest make the meet the most competitive atmosphere the Jayhawks have seen yet. "It's kind of a meet for the best," coach Gary Schwartz said. Kansas will use the meet to continue training and preparing for the Big 12 Indoor Championships, just two weeks away. Halfway through the indoor season, the Jayhawks' fall training has begun to pay dividends. "This week I felt pretty good," said sophomore All-American Andrea Branson. "Our preseason stuff has made sure of that." Branson set a new personal record last week at the Northern Iowa Invitational in the pole vault, one of Kansas' strongest men's and women's' events. Her vault of 12 feet, 3 3/4 inches gave her the 10th best mark in the nation. Freshman Shannon Agee has been hot on Branson's heels thus far, finishing second last week with a vault of 11 feet, 11 3/4 inches. Junior Garrett Attig, senior Colby Miller and sophomore Greg Steve have finished in the top four each of the last three meets, giving the men consistent scoring in that event. Sophomore Scott Russell, ranked third in the nation in the 35 pound weight throw, has broken the KU school record in the last two meets, establishing a new record of 70 feet, 2 1/4 inches. Sophomore Eric Patterson will try to continue his dominance in the 60-meter high hurdles, after winning titles in the last two meets Senior Kevin McGinn proved his range as a middle-distance runner after winning the mile run two weeks ago. He won the 3,000 meter last weekend. McGinn said he would run the mile again this week, though, to establish which is his best event. Sophomore Jabari Wamble also used a change-of-pace approach last weekend when he ran the 200-meter dash instead of the 400 meters. "It felt good dropping to the 200 because it makes you stronger," Wamble said. "It's kinda like you get a break." But with the number of runners who will be at Lincoln this weekend, Wamble will run the 400 meters this weekend. "A lot of the top 400 runners in the nation will be there," he said. "It's a good way to gauge how I'm doing." Field events kick off the meet this afternoon. Finals in the running events are tomorrow. Women's basketball on a roll, to face Tigers By Matt James Kansan Sportswriter It's time to take this winning show on the road. The Kansas women's basketball team, now 7-3 in the Big 12 and 17-6 overall, will attempt to stretch its winning streak to five games when it travels to Columbia to battle the Missouri Tigers Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Hearnes Center. Missouri (11-9, 4-6) struggled through the early Big 12 Conference schedule, suffering a 54-52 loss at Allen Fieldhouse on January 13. But the Tigers have been a much different team lately. They upset the formerly-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers 74-66 at the Hearnes Center last Monday. "It's tough to play at Missouri," said senior Nakia Sanford. "As a team, though, we're starting to play a lot harder and finding different ways to win. We should be fine." The Jayhawks' modest four-game winning streak, especially Wednesday's comeback win over the Colorado Buffaloes, may not seem earthshattering, but it has provided answers to crucial questions about this season's squad — answers that could be the difference between a Final Four run or an early exit in the NCAA Tournament. First of all, how would Kansas react if star junior Lynn Pride had a poor shooting game against a quality team? Before the Colorado game, several of Kansas' players had commented that even Pride would have an off shooting night sooner or later and that the rest of the team would step up when the time came. These comments may have made good sound bites, but the truth was that they couldn't be sure because it hadn't happened. Pride had scored double digits in all nine conference games and was averaging 21.5 points per game in Big 12 play before Wednesday's game. So when Pride went 3 of 11 in the first half against Colorado and continued to struggle in the second, the Kansas front court had its opportunity to produce in the clutch — and did it ever. While Pride drew double and triple teams, forwards Brooke Reves and Jaclyn Johnson and center Sanford took over the scoring with their powerful inside play. The trio finished with 49 points and grabbed 26 rebounds. Lynn who? Secondly, is the Kansas defense solid enough to make up for lack of depth and bench scoring? If this four-game winning streak is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes. The Jayhawk defense held its last four opponents to an average of 50.3 points per game and 33 percent shooting. Those schools — Texas Tech, Texas, Kansas State and Colorado — all had winning records. The Texas Tech Lady Raiders were ranked sixth with a record of 17-1 before being swallowed by the Kansas defense. The last question is more entertaining than insightful about the Jayhawks' future. Will Lynn Pride win the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year? The race has come down to three players: Texas Tech's 6-foot-3-inch cent See PRIDE on page 3B Jayhawks looking for a little respect in Boulder The Starting Lineup G RYAN ROBERTSON 6-5 Sr. G JEFF BORCHER 6-1 Ft. F T.J. PUGH 6-8 Sr. F NICK BOARDON 6-6 Jp. C ERIC CLEINWOHN 7-0 So. KANSAS JAYHAWKS 7-2 Big 12, 15-6 overall COLORADO BUFFALOES 2-7 Big 12, 1.1-1.1 overall G DWIGHT JONES 5-11 SR. G JAMMIY WALES 6-3 Jr. G KENNY PRICE 6-4 Sr. F JAMMIK MOLEY 6-8 SD. Kevin C. Wilson Kansas state writer F CARLTON CARTER 6-10 FR. CARLTON CENTER 6-10 Coors Events Center • Boulder, Colo. Sunday, Feb. 7, 2:30 p.m. TV: Ch. 9 and 14 Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network Kansan sportswriter Kansas, 15-6 overall and 7-2 in the Big 12, has won more games at a higher winning percentage than any other NCAA Division I men's basketball team this decade. But, apparently, this season's team, which is unranked for the first time in eight years, does not strike the same type of fear into the hearts of their opponents as Jayhawks of the past. Although the Jayhawks have defeated Colorado in 19 straight games — most recently last Saturday's 77-74 sweaker — the Buffaloes are confident that streak will come to end Sunday in Boulder, Colo. The winningest men's basketball program in the 1990s is suffering from a severe case of lack of respect. "They've given us some good bulletin board material," Kansas center Eric Chenowith said. "They had some comments in the paper about us the next day. They thought they should have won and that we were intimidated, but they can say what they want. We are just going to go out and take care of business." And they haven't been shy in sharing that belief with the media. "I think they actually think they can beat us," Kansas guard Kenny Gregory said. For the Jayhawks to do that they must address some of the problems that allowed Colorado to claw back into the game in Men's Basketball Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas led by as many 17 points in the first half of that game before falling apart prior to intermission. "In the last 4:39, we scored a total of two points and acted like we never practiced a day the entire season," Coach Roy Williams said. "I think that gave Colorado a little more confidence and then their play gave them even more confidence because they totally outplayed us." The majority of the Jayhawks' defensive problems arose from their inability to contain Colorado's guards, especially Jayquay Walls. The junior point guard scored 19 second-half points at Lawrence, including three three-point plays that resulted from his penetration into the Jayhawks interior defense. "Jaquay Walls just about killed us," Williams said. "It showed us that we are still not doing a very good job on the perimeter with our defense and that we have got to do a better job stopping the penetration. If we don't do that this weekend, we are not going to win." Williams said that a victory Sunday would give his young team some much needed confidence. "One win doesn't give you confidence," Williams said. "But if we can follow it up and string two or three wins together, then our team would feel better about themselves and their possibilities." Kansas forward Nick Bradford drives under Colorado forward Jamahl Mosley. The Jayhawks will try to go 2-0 this season against the Buffaloes when the teams meet again Sunday in Boulder, Colo. Photo by Matt! Daugherty/KANSAN Commentary Allen's class act, recruiting talent to show on field Take a break from Kansas hoops for a minute, though, and let's talk some Kansas football. After all, the basketball team is only playing Colorado this weekend. Surely we won't lose to them — at least as long as we have Jeff Boschee to save us. Probably the last thing on Kansas sports fans' hands right now is football. The Super Bowl is over, the men's basketball team is chasing another Big 12 Championship and March Madness is almost here. Wednesday was college football's signing day and Kansas signed a pretty impressive class. Allen called this 22-member recruiting class his best at Kansas so far. The Kansas football team should finally start reflecting Allen's recruiting ability next year. When Allen arrived, he was forced to use the players recruited by Glen Mason, but Allen now has recruited three classes, and the team should start to take on his style and attitude. We finally should start to see Allen's pass-oriented offense come to life. In his first couple of recruiting classes, he brought in some great wide receivers — Harrison Hill, Terraine Fulton, Byron Gasaway, etc. Now Allen has started to bring in some quarterbacks who can get them the ball. Dylen Smith is a junior college AllAmerican quarterback who could easily earn the starting job next year. Juco AllAmericans have fared well in this state Kansas State's Michael Bishop and Brandon Jones goods@kansen.com our own Mark Williams (quarterback of Kansas' 10-team in 1995). We lost out on great quarterback Zak Kustok, but had he signed with us, we would've had two quarterbacks named Zak, and that's too many. We lost out on a few recruits at the eleventh hour — Cliff Holloman, who signed with K-State, and Kustok, who signed with Northwestern — but we also gained Reggie Duncan, a great running back from Texas we weren't expecting. Overall, this is a great recruiting class for Kansas and a big step in the right direction. Allen is the right man to rebuild this program. When Allen announced that he was passing up a chance at his dream job at Iowa to stay at Kansas, he showed that he is absolutely committed to rebuilding this football program, and recruits can see that. Terry Allen is the best thing to happen to Kansas sports since the signing of Roy Williams. He, like Roy, is an absolute gentleman on and off the field. He is sincere, honest and hard-working — and players and recruits love that. Zak Kustok felt terrible after deciding not to sign with Kansas, and it wasn't because he was upset about not getting to play in the half-full Memorial Stadium. Kustok felt bad for letting Allen down, a man who he had grown to truly like and respect during the last several months. Allen will continue to recruit well because he is a good man and the recruits will know they can trust and believe in him. He will not lose too many more players like Kustok because they will not want to let him down. All Allen needs now is a winning season and a bowl berth, and the recruits should start rolling in. Next season could be that winning season. I'm looking forward to next year with great anticipation. I hope to see Allen's pass-oriented offense come to life. I hope to see a more experienced Kansas team win those close games in the fourth quarter. Finally, I hope to see all of you in the stands supporting this team. We are getting close to being a winning program, so jump on the wagon now. Don't wait until we crack the Top 10 before you start showing your support like the pathetic K-State fans did. You support the basketball team through thick and thin — do the same for Allen and his football team. Allen is just as good a man as Williams and deserves your respect and support. We are very lucky to have two great coaches who are also great men — support them and their teams. Jones is a Lyndon second-year law student. --- b