TENNIS: Two Jayhawks named to Academic All-Big 12 team. SEE PAGE 2B. SOFTBALL: Kansas to take on Nebraska today. SEE PAGE 3B.
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SPORTS
1B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2002
COMMENTARY
Jeff Denton
jdenton@kansan.com
Nice coaching in Big 12 play won't win games
Al Bohl strolled down the aisle at Hoglund Ballpark last night wearing his custom uniform — a starched white dress shirt, tie and dark slacks.
Kansas' athletics director wore a smile on his face, gripped a game dog in his left hand, a Coke in his right and eased into a royal blue seat a few rows behind home plate.
His Kansas baseball team was deadlocked at zero with Southwest Missouri State, but Bohl was not at the ballpark to speculate. He was there to evaluate.
Bobby Randall is not meeting the demands Bohl requires from his coaching employees. Kansas' seventh-year coach is not winning games. And commitment to winning in all sports has been ingrained in Bohl's mind since he arrived last summer.
After blazing to a 10-0 start, his team had dropped 21 of its last 27 games. Nine of those ten wins came against college baseball fodder Avila College, Kansas Newman, Ottawa, Centenary College and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Randall scheduled these scrubs to improve his team's confidence and boost his own. But things soured when Kansas broke in to Big 12 play. Pitchers' arms withered. Bats cooled. Defense disappeared. And losses came in droves.
Now, with his team mired in a five-game losing slump and his boss watching with intent eyes, Randall had to perform. He had to win this game, to make the statement that he belonged back for another season and belonged back on Bohl's payroll.
But four batters into the fourth inning, things unraveled for the Kansas baseball team. And all Bobby Randall could do was stand in the first base dugout and watch.
A sharp double to left. A slicing double to right. A mammoth home run blast that soared above the trees in left center. Another hard double down the third base line. Just like that, Kansas fell behind 7-1 with nobody out in the top of the fourth inning.
The barren crowd at the ballpark was baffled.
"How well a team performs is going to determine who shows up," Bohl said. But the metal bleachers were littered more with Cracker Jack sacks, aluminum foil hot dog wrappers and plastic cups than interested baseball fans.
Bohl commented how Kansas set a topive attendance high two weeks ago when 1,623 fans showed up to see Kansas defeated Wichita State. But more than two-thirds of the spectators were there to see the opponent, decked out in black and gold.
people don't come to see a losing team. A porous 220 rolled in to see the Kansas-Newman game Feb. 20. An even 300 came to see Kansas battle a formidable Texas A&M team. And an anemic 152 souls showed face to see Kansas get throttled by Oral Roberts on March 24.
That's about as many hands as Bohl shakes during the first half at Kansas football games.
Coaching is more important in baseball than basketball or football because of time and strategy. Coaches have more time to think in nine innings than basketball coaches do in two halves and football coaches in four quarters.
Most sports fans who detest baseball do so because of how lengthy the games stretch. During this time, coaches implement different matchups to get better results, but seven times this season Kansas has gone into the bottom of the seventh inning either tied or ahead and lost.
Solid pitching, good defense and timely hitting surge a team forward. A quality coach makes sure this lead is not relinquished. Too many times, Randall has not been that guy.
Bobby Randall's coaching record has no
SEE DENTON ON PAGE 4B
The Southwest Missouri State team rises to their feet to congratulate teammate Matt Gardner on his homerun while Kansas catcher Cole Armstrong looks on. The Jayhawks were unable to come up with a victory, losing 20-8.
Losses could oust coach
Home runs, big hitters trouble Kansas team
By Ryan Wood Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team faced another hard-hitting squad yesterday. Southwest Missouri State showed off its strength, crushing four home runs and pounding its way to a 20-8 victory at Hoglund Ballpark last night.
The Jayhawks (16-21) have given up 50 runs in their last three games, and with last night's loss, dropped their fifth game in a row. The Bears' hitting strength was problematic for the Jayhawks.
"They swing hard, and that scares pitchers sometimes," coach Bobby Randall said. "They intimidated us a little bit where we couldn't make the pitches we needed to make."
Southwest Missouri State (28-8) scored four runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Kansas could never recover, despite scoring six of
its own in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Jayhawks did garner 12 hits in the game, but their offensive display was minuscule compared to the Bears.
"I saw some positive signs out of what we were doing." Randall said. "I did think we fought the whole game and I don't think there was a spot where we laid down."
The frustration of Southwest Missouri State's bats finally boiled over for Kansas in the eighth. Bears shortstop Shaun Marcum stood and watched his solo home run easily clear the left-field fence, and Jayhawk sophomore pitcher Chris Smart retaliated by hitting Donnie
Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, the Bears never let up. They collected 21 hits on the night, including 400-foot home runs by four different players.
SEE BASEBALL ON PAGE 8B
Randall era may be closing despite effort to stop slides
By Ryan Wood Kansan sportswriter
For the Kansas baseball team, April 12 was a beautiful night.
The Jayhawks were hitting everything pitched to them. Senior Jeff Davis was throwing a masterpiece. The fans were enjoying the atmosphere at Hoglund Ballpark, watching their Jayhawks blow out Texas Tech. Each inning, when coach Bobby Randall would run to his post at the third-base coaching box, fans would cheer for him. After a three-run eighth inning that put the Jayhawks up 14-3, Randall acknowledged the cheers, pumping his fist and grinning from ear-to-ear.
That night was a rare bright spot in what has been an otherwise dismal stretch since Big 12 conference play began in early March. The Jayhawks (16-21 overall, 3-14 Big 12 Conference play) have not won since that Friday
SEE RANDALL ON PAGE 8B
JILLIAN THORPE/KANSAN
Kansas coach Bobby Randall smacks a helmet after the Jayhawks finish a scoreless inning. The Jayhawks have lost 21 of the last 27 games, causing uncertainty about Randall's future with the team.
Football team has new faces, attitude
Mark Mangino is beginning his first season as football coach at the University of Kansas. He spoke briefly at a press conference yesterday about general plans for the upcoming season. "We will be getting a feel for the players, and they will be getting a feel for us," he said.
AARON SHOWALTER/KANSAN
By Brent Wasko Kansan sportswriter
Kansas football coach Mark Mangino won't be the only new face strolling the Jayhawks' sideline during games next fall.
Mangino spent his first few months as a Jayhawk coach scouring the country in an effort to assemble a top-notch staff. He ended up hiring 12 new assistants and rehiring two others.
"I wanted to find people that wanted to be at Kansas," Mangino said. "I wanted coaches that knew we were going to be at the ground floor of a program that had been down a little bit. The assistant coaches have to believe we can win for us to be successful."
When spring practices opened on April 1, there was an adjustment period for the new coaching staff. Some of them had yet to meet the players, and some of the players hadn't been introduced to the new coaches.
Mangino said the coaching staff had been able to work together faster and better than he ever
expected this spring.
"We are starting to get a good feel for each other," he said. "Everybody coaches differently, but the bottom line is that they're all good teachers."
Defensive ends coach Travis Jones, who was an assistant last season under former Kansas coach Terry Allen said most of the new coaches had already become good friends. They even got together away from work.
"Coach Mangino sometimes invites us to have dinner with him over at his house," Jones said. "It creates a real family atmosphere, which has been great for all the coaches."
Jones said while it was tough to compare the new staff with last year's, the players seemed to be responding well to the change.
"Coach demands a lot from everyone around him involved with the program," he said. "Everyone is held accountable for their actions. Mangino is a big disciplinarian, and I'm very encouraged by
SEE MANGINO ON PAGE 4B
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