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SPORTS
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1B
TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2003
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Duke, Kansas share sparse similarities this season
Last season, the dream matchup nearly every college basketball fan yearned for in the national championship game was Kansas and Duke.
Both teams were shining examples of what an elite college basketball team should look like. Both teams boasted a triumvirate of juniors destined to cash in at the next level along with youth and consistency in their supporting casts. However, both teams fell short of their potential when push came to shove.
Now, a year later, the teams could not be more opposite.
Kansas is led by two seniors on a mission to finish where they left off last season, and at the same time had to continue to help bring along one of the nation's top sophomore classes. Duke has seen all three of its big-time juniors from a year ago opt for NBA signing bonus and is left in the hands of an inexperienced, yet potentially top-notch core of McDonald's High School All-Americans.
When you think of Duke basketball, the mystique is always present. You think of great senior leaders like Christian Laetner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Steve Wojciechowski
The way Duke draws the nation's top recruits every year always seems almost unfair. They have basically become the New York Yankees of college basketball.
This year's Duke team, however, has not been the media darlings that former teams have been. The big-name stars are not there, and they are for the most part a collaborative bunch of youngsters learning from each other how to play as a team.
Usually, you know what you will get from Duke, but that is not the case this year. For those of you not familiar with this year's installment of Duke Basketball, here are five things to know about the Blue Devils before tuning in Thursday night.
1) Don't think Nick Collison can easily have a field day in the paint.
The road to Oklahoma
Carlos Boozer may be gone, but Duke can still bang in the paint with the best of them. The biggest challenge will come from 6-foot-11 senior Casey Sanders, who is mainly a defensive menace. Sanders had two blocked shots in just 11 minutes of play in Saturday's second round win against Central Michigan. Freshman forward Shelden Williams has also risen from obscurity to a starting role. At 6-foot-8, Williams is a thick bruiser, whose offensive game is still developing. Kansas ultimately has the inside edge, because after Sanders and Williams, there isn't much. Coach Mike Krzzyzewski's only other options are untested freshmen Shavlik Randolph and Michael Thompson. Even though Kansas has a deeper bench, Duke's physical inside play could cause Collison and Graves fits.
Kristina Boehm, Olathe senior, practices rolling a ball at the Jaybowl. She has been on the KU bowling team for four years. Boehm started bowling when she was four years old.
Anton Bubnovskiy/Kansan
Bowling teams qualify for national championships
By Chris Wintering
cwintering@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Freshman gunner J.J. Redick's first year in a Duke uniform has certainly been a memorable one. Redick is the ultimate system player in Duke's offense. Not only is he quick, but his height (6-foot-4) makes it easier for him to fire away from anywhere on the floor against usually smaller defenders. The bulk of his 14.8 points per game comes from behind the arc, where he shoots an insane 41 percent — Boschee's career best was 41.5 percent his sophomore season. Keith Langford will most likely draw the matchup with Redick, and if Langford gets caught up in the multiple screens the Dukies set for their sharpshooter, it could be a long night.
2) Jeff Boschee's clone resides in Durham, SC
For the first time in team history, both the men's and women's bowling teams qualified for the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships.
The men's team finished second and the women's team finished third in last weekend Midwestern Sectional in Chesterfield, Mo., which was one of four sectionals held around the country.
The sectionals had a total of 64 men's and women's teams from around the country. The top four teams on both the men's and women's side qualified for nationals on April 24 in Tulsa, Okla.
The Kansas men's team was seeded 2nd in the sectional and 4th nationally. The women's team was seeded 5th in the sectional and 9th nationally. Kansas coach Mike Fine said this was the step the team needed to become a top tier program.
"We've talked for years that we wanted to be one of the elite programs in the country," Fine said. "To do that you have to be able to get both the men's and women's team into nationals. It's something we've worked awfully hard for, for an awfully long time, and we are awfully proud."
"We've talked for years that we wanted to be one of the elite programs in the country.It's something we've worked awfully hard for, for an awfully long time, and we are awfully proud."
This is the third straight year the men's team has qualified for nationals, and only the second time the women
SEE GREENE ON PAGE 3B
Mike Fine Bowling coach
have qualified, the previous time in 1995.
The Kansas men's team, along with Wichita State University, ran away with the competition and easily qualified.
"In both the men's and women's competition there were two teams that were way ahead of the field. The real drama came to see was going to be third and fourth." Fine said.
Wichita State and Nebraska dominated the women's competition and Kansas, McKendree College and Lindenwood University were all in contention for the final two qualifying positions.
"The women have been working so hard," Marc D'Errico, Rochester, N.Y., junior, said. "It is my third year going to nationals and I am happy that the women will get a chance to participate."
excited that the women's team also qualified.
"After 11,000 pins, 63 games and nine frames, it came down to the 10th frame and the last bowler on each team," Fine said. "When the smoke settled our women finished four pins ahead of Lindenwood and six pins ahead of McKendree."
Members of the men's team were
"The men are a little more knowledgeable about the lanes and help us. There is little separation between the
Kristina Boehm, Olathe senior, said that the men's team often helped the women in practice and tournaments.
SEE BOWLING ON PAGE 3B
AYHAWKS IN THE PROS
By Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
With the NBA regular season in full swing, each week the Kansan will bring updates on all of your favorite former Jayhawks. If there are any former Jayhawks who we haven't included, email requests to rgreene@kansan.com. Reader requests will continue next Tuesday.
Paul Pierce - Boston Celtics
Pierce is still struggling to relocate his consistency after some back pain forced him out of action earlier this month. Not only has Pierce's individual performance been up-and-down, but his team's has also. The Celtics
ended the week on a four-game losing streak, capped with an embarrassing loss to the lowly Denver Nuggets Saturday night. In
the 90-80 defeat, Pierce had a season high with nine turnovers, for which his 31 points were not enough to compensate. Boston has now fallen to sixth place in the Eastern conference, and they are just one game ahead of Orlando.
the Magic have tailed off as of late, but the team is hotter than ever. Riding a fourgame winning streak, the Magic are moving up in the
Gooden's big numbers since joining
Drew Gooden - Orlando Magic
Eastern conference standings heading towards the postseason. Gooden's only action this week came on Wednesday in a win against Miami, where he only scored seven points. Since then, Gooden has sat two games with a sprained right big toe and his condition is listed as day-to-day.
Jacque Vaughn - Orlando Magic
Until Sunday,
Vaughn had not
played much of a role
in Orlando's current winning streak. After limited minutes in three straight games, Vaughn had 13 points in 32 minutes in Sunday's win against Miami. Even bigger on Vaughn's stat sheet Sunday were his zero turnovers.
Raef LaFrentz - Dallas Mavericks
LaFrentz had a tough week, scoring a total of 20 points in three contests. His highlight was a 10-point performance on Wednesday against Cleveland;
his third consecutive double-digit effort. The cure for LaFrentz's woes comes this week against Denver, against whom he has averaged 11.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in three meetings this year.
Greg Ostertag - Utah Jazz
The Jazz ended the week on a good note with three straight wins. Ostertag played a considerable role in the streak, especially in Wednesday's 99-86
win at Phoenix, with 13 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Scot Pollard - Sacramento Kings
For a guy who has missed nearly the entire season due to injuries to his back and hand, Pollard is showing little rust upon his return. In
Tuesday's 117-91 win against Golden State, Pollard had 15 points and 12 rebounds in just 23 minutes off the bench.
Danny Manning - Detroit Pistons
Manning only saw action in two of the Pistons' four contests this week. His only notable ticks on the stat sheet were three
points and two rebounds in Sunday's win against Chicago. The Pistons are still in the top spot in the Eastern conference standings going into the season's final few weeks.
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images
Drew Gooden failed to impress the Memphis
Grizzlies who traded him to the Orlando Magic
in midseason. Since then he's performed up
and down even though the Magic are currently
enjoying a four-game winning streak.
Note:
Former Kansas Guard Billy Thomas, who was a reader's request three weeks ago, had his best week as a professional.
Thomas, who plays for the Greenville Groove of the National Basketball Developmental League, was presented with the NBDL Sportsmanship Award before the team's regular season finale against Asheville. Even though the Groove finished at the bottom of the league standings, Thomas' finale was memorable.
Thomas scored an NBDL single-game record 49 points, but that was just one of five single-game records he set in the effort. Thomas set records for field goals made with 19, field goals attempted with 29, three-pointers made with 10, and three-pointers attempted with 17. To boot, Thomas' 10 rebounds gave him his first double-double of the season.
Swimmer competes nationally
By Jason Hwang
jhwang@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Amy Gruber competed in the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 20 to 22 in Auburn, Ala. The Kansas sophomore finished in the top 40 in all three of her events: the 50-yard freestyle; 100 freestyle and the 200 freestyle.
Gruber
"Once I got there, it was really exciting," Gruber said. "I felt really honored to compete against others in the meet, representing my school and team."
Gruber finished 37th in the 50 freestyle. Her time of 23.26 was .30 seconds off her career best.
In the 200 freestyle event, the Bigelow, Ark., native captured 29th place after claiming her career best time of 1:48:93. The time is second best in Kansas school history, behind Jennifer Peltier's 1996 mark.
Gruber said the atmosphere in the championships was different not because of the magnitude of the event, but because no teammates were present to cheer her on—she was the lone Jayhawk.
"My performance was acceptable, but I didn't get the times that I wanted," she said. "It's still a big shock that I am in the top 40."
In her final event, Gruber finished the 100 freestyle race in 33rd place at 50.36 seconds, which was .10 seconds off of her career best.
"Amy's swim closed out our season of swimming," swimming coach Clark Campbell said. "As a coach, I couldn't be more impressed by the progress this team took over the course of the year."
Edited by Erin Chapman
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