WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2002
18 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Staying in school could pay off for Hinrich, Collison
COMMENTARY
Pc
Next season more than 16,000 people will fill Allen Fieldhouse and cheer for the Kansas men's basketball team. Fans will yell for Aaron Miles' pin-point passes, Keith Langford's athletic moves to the hoop and Wayne Simien's ferocious dunks.
Sure, Collison and Hinrich could each have another breakout year and move up into next year's draft lottery. That would be a boon financially, as Hinrich moving from the final pick in the draft, where Dickau was chosen, to 10th overall would likely mean an increase of about $2.5 million over three years.
Fans will also cheer for the only two senior Jayhawks, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, both of whom stuck around and didn't leave for the NBA draft, even though an early departure from Kansas may have been in their best interests.
As nice as that much money would be, it would also mean playing for a team that didn't make the playoffs instead of one that finished near the top of the league.
The 13 teams in this year's lottery combined for a .381 winning percentage, and only four of those squads have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs this year, barring any major free signings.
The two announced their intentions to stay in early May even though they knew they would have been first-round draft picks. Last week's draft proved that, as three guards — Fredrick Jones of Oregon, Juan Dixon of Maryland and Dan Dickau of Gonzaga — with less talent and worse stats than Hinrich were taken in the first round. Collision, being a 6-foot-9, 250-pound man, probably would have been taken ahead of Ryan Humphrey of Notre Dame at No. 19 to the Utah Jazz and shouldn't have dropped below the Detroit Pistons at No. 23.
Levi Chronister
lchronister@kansan.com
On the other hand, teams not in the lottery — those that made the postseason — won 60 percent of their regular-season games last season. Although the extra money from making the playoffs wouldn't equal that difference of $2.5 million, one would hope that the experience of playing on a winning team, especially for players from a school with a history like Kansas', would make up a large portion of the disparity.
Collison and Hinrich, though, decided that the experience of playing for the Jayhawks, a chance at a national title and improving as players before reaching the pros were more important than the money or the NBA playoffs.
Suffice to say, fans should be extremely appreciative of the duo this year and thank them for staying in Lawrence with cheering and applause even more raucous than normal in Allen Fieldhouse.
Had the pair jumped to the NBA, KU would have faced a starting lineup of Simien, Jeff Graves, Miles, Langford and Jeff Hawkins or Bryant Nash and a middle of the pack finish in the Big 12 Conference.
Chronister is a Lawrence senior in journalism.
Al Bohl, University of Kansas athletics director, named Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo coach Ritch Price head baseball coach on Monday.
By Matt Norton
Kansas gets Ritch with new baseball coach
Price was selected over Baylor assistant Mitch Thompson, Kansas assistant Wilson Kilmer and Cal State-Chico coach Lindsay Meggs.
Kansan sportswriter
Bohl said Price would emphasize both academic and athletic achievement in the baseball program.
"I am really pleased and excited to have Ritch Price as our head baseball coach," Bohl said. "He is committed to building a Top 25 program."
Price compiled a 217-228-1 record in eight seasons at Cal Poly, leading the team as it moved from NCAA Division II to Division I status in 1995. He finished the last three seasons with winning records, including a 30-29-1 mark in 2002 and a third-place
He said when Cal Poly first moved to Division I, it was a challenge competing in the Big West with only 6.5 scholarships and less-than-adequate facilities.
finish in the Big West Conference.
Price said he saw many similarities between the rebuilding job he did at Cal Poly and the one he now faces at Kansas.
The maximum amount of scholarships the NCAA allows for baseball is 11.7 scholarships per school. In addition, the team played games in a facility off campus that it was not allowed to practice on.
"We only had an infield to practice on," Price said. "There were new engineering buildings built in the outfield."
Now the Mustangs have a multi-million dollar facility and are one of the best teams in the Big West. Price said he was proud of the program he had built.
Contact Norton at mnorton@kansan.com.
This story was edited by Jason Royer.