WEDNESDAY,APRIL23,2003
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7B
Faculty, players show frustrations after Self leaves
By Colleen Kane Daily Illini illini staff writer
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Nick Smith could see it in Bill Self's demeanor at the basketball awards banquet on April 15.
Dee Brown knew from some verbal hints Friday.
The team found out Saturday. The rest of the world, Sunday.
Monday it became official.
Self stood in front of a crowd of reporters and administration in Lawrence, Kan., Monday afternoon and announced that he couldn't "tell you enough that I am thrilled to be the basketball coach at Kansas University."
The hire took place after just one week of speculation about who would replace Roy Williams as Kansas' eighth basketball coach.
For Self, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kansas, his five-year contract with the Jayhawks was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
"The year that I was here, I saw the best that college basketball had to offer. Right then, I knew this place was different," Self said. "Once you've been here, you know what it's like."
"In my opinion, this is the most prestigious chair in all of college basketball."
For those left in the Jayhawk dust, the cloud of disappointment
and anger is far from settled.
"I think it's harder (to hear the official decision)," Brown said. "I knew in my mind he was leaving, but just to hear him say it — I didn't want to hear it. When he told me, it kind of hurt."
"How could you not be (mad)?" Illinois Athletics Director Ron Guenther said Monday. "When we talked with Bill Self three years ago, we thought this was a stop he could live with for a long time.
"It's disappointing for the kids because when you make a commitment to get the job done, the right thing is for him to stay. You finish the job, and then you move on."
But apparently, a Kansas history that included the inventor of basketball was enough to lure Self away.
"I've always thought, 'How cool would it be to office on Naismith Drive?' And now it actually gets to happen," Self said. "This program is bigger than one player. It's bigger than one coach."
An annual contract of $1.1 million, one that Illinois did not try to match, couldn't have hurt either — though Guenther said he did not need to try to outbid Kansas.
"This was not about money," Guenther said. "There wasn't any countering. Everything was in his court trying to come to grips with the move."
Self also announced Monday
that he's taking his coaching staff with him.
Illinois Associate head coach Norm Roberts was at the press conference in Kansas as Self announced him as the Jayhawks' new associate head coach. Assistant coach Tim Jankovich will also join Self.
Assistant Wayne McClain is the only member of the coaching staff to decline Self's invitation to join him at Kansas. He will remain at Illinois next year.
"Coach Self is great, but for me this is just so natural," McClain said. "Being in Illinois, my family's here, my daughter's here in school. I'm 90 miles from where I was born, and I know the coaches in the area, so for me, it just fits better."
Guenther, who will be the sole force in finding a new coach, said he had not contacted coaches yet but always had a list of possible replacements tucked away. He said he would look for a coach with integrity, a commitment to seeing athletes graduate and someone familiar with state institutions. He denied rumors that he will try to hire a coach who will stay longer than his last two hires (Lon Kruger, four years; Bill Self, three years).
Guenther said he hoped to have the job filled in seven to 14 days. An Illinois affirmative action law requires that a state job be open for 14 days, but the high profile nature of the Illinois coaching position could overstep that law.
Kenyan, Russian race to victory in 107th Boston Marathon
By Jordan Carteo-Evangelist The Daily Free Press via U-wire Boston University
BOSTON — You might say Kenyan legman Robert Cheruiyot ran away with it. His 23-second margin of victory in the 107th annual Boston Marathon Monday, as far as marathons go, might as well have been a mile.
Cheruiyot, 24, led the race uncontested from just after the 20-mile mark around the infamous Heartbreak Hill, at some points opening a lead as wide as 20 meters over his nearest challenger. He defeated the 20,222 other runners who left Hopkinson at noon, becoming the first to break the finish-line tape in Copley Square 26 miles,eight towns, minus 12 degrees and more than two hours later in just his second Boston Marathon.
Among those outpaced by Cheruyilot in this year's contest were last year's champion and runner-up. His official time of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 11 seconds was a few minutes short of his personal best (2:08:58) and the men's course record (2:07:15 by Kenyan Cosmas Ndeti in 1994),
but it was fast enough to edge fellow Kenyans Benjamin Kimutai and Martin Lei and earn him the $80,000 purse. For perspective, hopping the commuter railroad from Ashland to South Station, roughly the same distance, would take slightly less than half the time.
Monday's race marked the second straight year Kenyans have swept the top three slots in the men's division. Last year's champion, Rodgers Rop, finished just more than six minutes after Cheruiyot, landing him in seventh place overall.
But on a day when there were more people on Hereford Street than Newbury Street and one of the swankiest hotels in town was full of half-naked, sweaty bodies, the biggest surprise was not Kenyan dominance, but a lack thereof in the women's division.
Russian runners Svetlana Zakharova and Lyubov Denisova strode to the top two slots in the women's division, finishing first and second and banishing last year's women's champion and course record holder, Kenyan
Margaret Okayo, to a distant fourth place. Zakharova, 32, fought a see-saw battle with Okayo from the half-way mark on, but she took a permanent lead after the 20-mile mark. American Marla Runyan led the race at points but fell behind late and finished in fifth overall with a time of 2 hours, 30 minutes and 28 seconds. But Runyan, who is visually impaired, posted the best finish by an American woman in 10 years.
The only American to finish first in any division yesterday
was Christina M. Ripp, who rolled to a 10-second victory over fellow American Cheri Blauwet in the women's wheelchair division. Ripp's time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 47 seconds, however, was a full 20 minutes off the course record set by American Jean Driscoll in 1994.
A duo of South Africans dominated the men's wheelchair division, with Ernst Van Dyk swiping first and Krige Schabort finishing second. American Saul Mendoza finished fourth in the division.