SPORTS
PAGE 1B
WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 9. 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
MEN'S BASKETBALL
It's just another game
In last year's game at Kansas State Wayne Simien, then junior, tries to find an open teammate. Simien finished the game with 16 points and 8 rebounds. The jayhawks beat the Wildcats 78-70 for their 28th straight victory against K-State. Kansas looks to extend the win streak tonight when they take on the Wildcats in Manhattan.
Kansan file photo
Beating K-State tonight would extend win streak
BY MIRANDA LENNING
mlenning@kansan.com
KANSAN SENIOR SPORTSWITTER
When the Jayhawks, 18-1, take the court at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan tonight, they will try to add another victory to a streak that dates back to Jan. 29, 1983.
Streak? What streak?
That's the response you'll get if you ask Aaron Miles about the Jayhawks' 21-game winning streak in Manhattan.
It was so long ago, most students now at the University of Kansas weren't even born yet. Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf" was
"We ain't concerned about the streak," the senior guard said yesterday. "The only streak we are trying to do is get a one-game winning streak started tomorrow night."
BASKETBALL TICKETS
Today is students' last chance to get tickets for men's basketball games against Colorado and Iowa State. Tickets are available at the Allen Fieldhouse Ticket Office on the east side of the Fieldhouse. Last week, for the first time, all student tickets were picked up and a lottery was implemented. The next ticket pick-up is Feb. 21-23, for the final two home games.
No. 1 on the charts, and the Wildcats still played in Ahearn Field House.
-KU Athletics
But Kansas coach Bill Self said it shouldn't be the focus of the Sunflower Showdown.
"It is a remarkable streak." Self said. "I haven't been a part of anything except for one win in Manhattan."
SEE ANOTHER ON PAGE 3B
ROWING
Athlete continues family tradition
BY KRISTEN JARBOE
hjarboe@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
The three children in the Kramer family have all played college sports, and they've done it at different colleges.
The two oldest, Brandon and Lance, went to different colleges for football. Brandon was a tight end for Harvard and Lance was a full back for Kansas State.
The youngest, Ashlea, has been rowing at Kansas for four years.
It is no surprise, though, considering all of them grew up playing sports. Kramer was involved with basketball, volleyball and, her favorite, softball, which she started playing when she was 6 years old.
"They all started playing at a young age," their father, Duane Kramer, said. "They were never forced into sports, though, and could always make their own decisions. Some received scholarship money and some didn't. Sports were just something they always enjoined."
Their parents were always there for support and never forced sports on them, Ashlea Kramer said.
"They started us off young. My family has always been into sports," she said. "Our parents have always watched us. They didn't have to push us, we all just loved sports, and we always stuck with it. For me, I didn't have any experience with rowing, but I loved being part of a team."
SEE ROWER ON PAGE 3B
Kramer originally wanted to play softball in college. She had offers from junior colleges in western Kansas, but she wanted to attend a Division I, four-year school where she could work toward her physical therapy degree.
She remembered Kansas rowing recruiters coming to Seaman High School in Topeka when she was a senior. That year, they were trying to recruit girls from in state, and they began mailing and calling Kramer.
"Someone called me about rowing at KU," Kramer said. "I decided that I would try playing softball at KU first, and if that didn't work, I would seriously think about rowing. Now I got to try another sport, and I'm really glad I did."
The experience of playing college sports has been a positive one for all three of the Kramer kids. They loved the team aspect and enjoyed getting to know other people.
The family saw the women's rowing team last year in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and last fall in Lawrence at the Kansas Cup.
A friend of the family, Merlyn Stallbaumer, is happy that both their families share something in common: Both had kids who attended K-State and the University. The two families' children grew up together, and the parents watched each other's kids play sports at Seaman.
"You meet so many people," Kramer said. "If I had not done rowing, I wouldn't know any of those girls."
▼ WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Rachel Seymour/KANSAN
Taylor McIntosh, freshman guard, rebounds the ball after a miss for the Jayhawks. McIntosh made 8 offensive rebounds and a total of 16 for the game against the Tigers last Saturday afternoon in Columbia, Mo. Kansas play Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., at 8 tonight.
Season a success
A win tonight would bring the women's basketball team its best record in five years; Coach credits team's attitude
BY PAUL BRAND
pbrand@hansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWITER
A victory tonight would give the women's basketball team something it has not enjoyed in four years.
At 10-10 (3-6 Big 12 Conference), a fourth conference triumph would seal the most successful Big 12 season since the 2000-01 campaign, when Kansas finished 5-11 in league play. A third road victory would also be the most in conference since the 2000-01 season.
The Cowgirls, 6-13 (1-8 Big 12), are tied for last place in conference with Missouri and present a good opportunity for the Jayhawks to pick up
another road victory. Kansas is coming off a 60-42 victory against Missouri in Columbia.
Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said that although Oklahoma State owns the worst record in the Big 12, she expects a tough competition.
VIEW FROM PRESS ROW
"Their record is tremendously deceiving," Henrickson said. "We have broken them down on film, and have a lot of respect for how much better they have gotten."
SEE SUCCESS ON PAGE 3B
In Henrickson's debut season, she said she credited her team's relative success to the attitude of all players, whether they face a top-10 opponent or a last-place team.
KELLIS ROBINETT
krobinett@kansan.com
Manhattan here we come
Every time Kansas travels to Kansas State, you can count on seeing a few signs that read, "Welcome to Allen Fieldhouse West."
Kansas is undefeated in 16 games at K-State's arena and hasn't lost in Manhattan since a 1983 game in Ahearn Fieldhouse.
Sure, the arena's real name is Bramlage Coliseum, but it truly is the Jayhawks' home away from home.
"It's a remarkable streak," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "I respect it immensely. It's something that isn't going to take place very often, away from home, at any level."
To understand how impressive this streak is, you must first realize how different the world was before it began.
"You can't hide it," Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said of his team's 21-game home losing streak to Kansas. "People are going to repeat it, repeat it and repeat it, and you just can't ignore it.
Only NASA employees had computers. Tape decks and record players ruled the music world, and basketball players wore tiny shorts that left nothing to the imagination. In fact, the streak is older than all but two players on the current Jayhawk team: junior forward Moulaye Niang and junior guard Jeff Hawkins. Self was a sophomore at Oklahoma State.
Three Kansas coaches — Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Self — have maintained the streak. Each of them, except Self, lost games to the Wildcats, but never on the road.
During the last 21 years, Kansas State and Texas A&M have been the Big 12 teams that have failed to defeat Kansas at home. Nebraska has defeated the Jayhawks on its home court ten times, Colorado five and Texas Tech once. Even Baylor knocked off the Jayhawks in Waco, Texas, in 2001.
The strangest year of the streak was 1988 — the year Kansas won the national championship — when the Wildcats defeated the Jayhawks twice. The first victory was in Lawrence, by 11 points, and the second was in the Big Eight Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., by 15. But Danny and the Miracles were victorious in Manhattan, 64-63.
Kansas' road dominance against its in-state rival boggles the mind. Kansas State points to its home game with Kansas every year as the biggest game on its schedule. The Wildcats give the Jayhawks their best shot, and it's the only game of the year that regularly sells out.
"If we are fortunate enough to beat KU and end the streak, there's a lot that would be attached to that kind of win," Wooldridge said. "We're going to address it, talk about it and challenge our team."
Wooldridge said that beating Kansas would mean as much to his program as anything short of reaching the Final Four.
It's laughable to think a coach would make that kind of assessment about one regular season game, but now that Kansas has ended its losing streak to Kansas State in football, the basketball streak has attained a larger-than-life status. Even the worst of teams pulls off an occasional upset against their arch-rival at home. But for whatever reason, the Jayhawks simply own the Wildcats. In addition to their 21-game road winning streak, they have reeled off 28 straight victories in the overall series.
K-State has not played terrible basketball for the entire two decades of the streak. Former NBA all-star Mitch Richmond played for the Wildcats in the late 1980s, including the 1988 game when the Wildcats played the Jayhawks in the Elite Eight for a trip to the Final Four. And, believe it or not, the Wildcats used to have a rich basketball tradition of their own. Their 10 Big Eight Conference championships were second only to Kansas' 13
It just has not mattered. In 1997, the year Kansas finished the season with a 34-2 record, Kansas needed a furious rally to escape Manhattan with a three-point win. In 2003, Kansas trailed late in the game. Nick Collision was fouled out and Bryant Nash came off the bench, threw down a few dunks and the streak lived on.
With players from the past 21 Jayhawk teams urging the team to keep this streak alive, you can bet that this year's seniors don't want to be remembered as the class that allowed Allen Fieldhouse West to be renamed Bramlage Coliseum.
♦ Robinett is an Austin, Texas, senior in journalism.