THURSDAY, MARCH 27. 2003
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7B
NFL votes down overtime proposal
The Associated Press
PHOENIX—NFL owners changed nothing.
The league closed its annual spring meeting yesterday by voting down a proposal to give both teams a shot at the ball in overtime. And it tabled a proposal to expand the playoffs from 12 teams to 14.
The plan to change the overtime rule got 17 votes, seven short of the 24 required for passage.
"They made the decision because the current system presents a tremendous reward or risk. That's something that adds a lot of excitement to the game," said Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian, who helped convince the other teams by citing the Colts' 23-20 overtime victory over the Broncos in the Denver snow.
The expansion of the playoffs got more support than either commissioner Paul Tagliabue or competition committee chairman Rich McKay expected.
But it was tabled until the league's May meeting in Philadelphia because, Tagliabue said, the league had to study the ramifications for both competition and television coverage involved in adding two wild-card teams.
Some teams also are concerned that only one team would have a bye under the proposed
system. And both Tagliabue and McKay noted it was a change in an agreement to wait two years with the new eight-division alignment before tinkering with the playoffs.
"We had no problems last year with the alignment," said McKay, Tampa Bay's general manager. "The teams that made the playoffs were the teams with the best records."
The change in overtime was proposed after a record 25 games went into an extra session last year. Ten of those were won by a team on its first possession and 58 percent were won by the team that won the coin toss at the start of the OT.
One of those was the game in Denver, which seemed to sway many teams.
In that contest, which was televised nationally, the Colts' Mike Vanderjaagt tied the game with a
"We had no problems last year with the alignment. The teams that made the playoffs were the teams with the best records."
Rich McKay
Tampa Bay general manager
54-yard field goal in regulation. Indianapolis then won the coin toss in overtime and moved the ball far enough for Vanderjagt to try a 51-yarder into the wind, which he made.
Polian said that if it wasn't sudden death, coach Tony Dungy certainly would have chosen to punt; he sent the punting team on the field until Vanderjagt convinced him to try the field goal.
"That game made our season," Polian said. "It's probably the main reason we made the playoffs. If there had been two possessions, a defensive-minded coach like Tony certainly would have tried to pin them back. That would have been the right call. But the reward for kicking was much greater—we won the game on the spot."
In another move, the league
changed the rules involving onside kicks in the final five minutes of games.
In the past, if a ball did not go 10 yards, went out of bounds or was touched illegally, the kicking team was penalized, but had a chance to kick again from five yards back. McKay said that while that was rewarding a team for an illegal play, coaches wanted it retained; the coaches feared teams would stop trying surprise onside kicks.
It finally passed when it was amended to cover only the final five minutes, when a trailing team often tries to get back in the game by getting another possession through an onside kick.
The owners also spent considerable time discussing racial diversity in hiring practices. There was no agreement, however, on what discipline to take against the Detroit Lions, who hired coach Steve Mariucci without meeting the new guidelines to interview at least one minority candidate.
The Lions said that five prospective black candidates turned them down because it was clear that Mariucci was the first choice for the job.
Rockies Ozuna hurt; Belliard new starter
The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. — Ronnie Belliard spent the offseason wondering if anyone would call. Now the free agent that nobody wanted will start at second base for the Colorado Rockies.
Belliard was named Colorado's starter on Tuesday after Pablo Ozuna was taken out of the running with an injured right knee.
"It's unbelievable," Belliard said. "I feel better than the first time I was called up. I always work hard, but sometimes you don't know if you're going to make it."
Ozuna was injured on a play at second base late in Colorado's 5-5 tie with Anaheim on Tuesday. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said initial results from an MRI on Wednesday showed a second-degree sprain.
Ozuna was headed back to Denver on Wednesday to see a specialist and will not travel with the Rockies on their final three exhibition games.
"Depending on how his situation works out physically, we really believe that he's a kid that, if he continues to work as hard as he has and he has to go to Triple A. He will be a factor on our big-league club before the season is
appeared to have the inside track at the starting job anyway.
The Rockies signed Belliard to a minor-league deal on Jan. 17 with the hopes that he could regain his form from 1999; when he hit .295 in 124 games with Milwaukee.
He has been just what the Rockies had hoped for, hitting 300 with six doubles while playing steady defense this spring.
him," Hurdle said. "I told him he needs to get on phone and call some people because from where he was in the winter, when nobody really called, and now he's going to be starting for our ballclub."
"It should be a happy day for
Ozuna is out for now, but he won't be forgotten.
"Every time he runs somewhere it looks like he stole something," Hurdle said. "He improved as much as any player here from the start of spring training to the end of it."
Although he hit 234 and has just 48 career starts in the majors, the Rockies like his aggressive approach.
NCAA tourney teams feel out Metrodome
BASKETBALL
MINNEAPOLIS - The Metrodome brings back sweet memories for Kentucky.
The Wildcats passed through the dome in 1996 on their way to the national championship. They beat Utah 101-70 and earned a trip to the Final Four by defeating Tim Duncan and Wake Forest 83-63. Kentucky is 30-6 in domes.
Yet the caverrous, 21-year-old building remains one of the least popular venues in all of sports. The NFL's Minnesota Vikings, baseball's Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota football team are all looking for new stadiums.
To accommodate seating for the basketball court, which takes up only about half of the artificial turf surface, crews have installed bleachers across from the benches and closed off some of the stadium seats behind them.
Wisconsin guard Kirk Penney was asked if it was tough to get his bearings in the Metrodome.
"Yeah, it's a dome," he said. "It's just getting the feel for it. You've just got to go out there. There is a little difference, but once you get a feel for it, it's fine.
"If you're put here, you've just got to make do."
Marquette star Dwyane Wade said his team had already tried to get accustomed to the unusual setting.
"We try to get used to the rims and the atmosphere. We don't worry about what's in the background, though, only the orange rim and the ball."
Notre Dame coach among elite coaches
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Notre Dame's Mike Brey is keeping some impressive company at the West Regional.
His fellow coaches in Anaheim are Arizona's Lute Olson, a basketball Hall of Fame member. Duke's Mike Krzyezewski and Roy Williams of Kansas.
"Mike just knows people, he's just really a good guy," Krzyzewski said.
Brey spent eight years as a Duke assistant under Krzyzewski before getting his first head coaching job at Delaware. Brey came to Notre Dame three years ago.
"You use all three of them as models. Certainly, my eight years in Durham with Mike had a huge influence on me," Brev said yesterday.
What did he learn?
"The first thing would be get a lot of good players," he said. "The daily competition and intensity that you need to run a program at this level, Mike was a great example of that. One of the things he made very clear when he hired me back in '87 was he didn't want anybody coming down there who didn't want to be a head coach."
Cougars consider hire of former Badger coach
MINNEAPOLIS — A published report yesterday said former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett was being considered for the head coaching job at Washington State.
According to the Spokane Spokesman Review, sources in Washington State's athletic department said Bennett, whose son Tony is an assistant coach with the Badgers, was a strong candidate for the job.
The elder Bennett left coaching in 2000 and still resides in Madison, Wis. Badgers guard and New Zealand native Kirk Penney was one of the players Dick Bennett lured to Wisconsin.
"He's a great coach and if he feels the urge again, that's wonderful. He's one of the best." Penney said. "I support him, absolutely. I love playing with him, if he feels he wants to get back into the game, that's great."
Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame member dies Monday at 92
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
MANHATTAN- Oren Stoner, a member of the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame, has died at the age of 92.
Stoner, who earned letters in basketball, football and track and
field between 1932 and 1935 died Monday in Tulsa, Okla. Stoner was inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame in January.
Stoner played four positions for the 1934 Kansas State football team, which won the Big Six
Also in 1934, Stoner set a world record in the shuttle hurdle
relay at the Kansas Relays as a hurdler on the Wildcats' track and field team.
Stoner was also an honorable mention All-Big Six selection in basketball.
After college, Stoner coached high school track, football and
basketball and spent time in the U.S. Army Air Corps and the Army Reserves.
Stoner is survived by two daughters, one brother, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His wife, Gladys, died earlier.
Stoner's memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Ford-Wulf-Bruns Edgewood Chapel in Coffeyville, with a private burial. Memorials may be given to the donor's choice of charities.
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