WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2003
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5B
Texas seniors prepare for sendoff
KU
By Darren W. Dummit Daily Texan, University of Texas via U-WIRE
Wearing a shoulder-brace that would make Robocop jealous, Erskin torched Seton Hall for 23 second-half points on 8-for-8 shooting on Nov. 30. Barnes
After leading the Longhorns in scoring during last year's NCAA tournament, Erskin had high hopes for his second and final season in Austin. The soft-spoken swingman from Gonzales, Texas, began the season in the training room with a serious shoulder injury, but played through the pain to provide the Texas frontline with its quickest offensive threat and its best defensive post player.
AUSTIN, Texas — Deginald Erskin, Terrell Ross and Chris Ogden. While they're not the first three names that come to mind when people think of Texas basketball, they are the three men on the Longhorn roster who embody everything admirable about the program Rick Barnes has established in just five years.
post-game comments summed up Erskin's worth: "Deg is the heart and soul of this team."
Two weeks later, Erskin's heart and soul would be violently jostled with the unexpected passing of his mother, Marie. Only months away from becoming the first Erskin to graduate from college, he was forced to deal with a loss unimaginable to those who haven't experienced it firsthand.
"It's something you're never prepared for, but I'm just trying to deal with it still today," Erskin said. "It's been tough, but I can't say enough about my teammates and how they've helped me through the process."
Making matters worse, Erskin injured his ankle in practice just days after his mother's death. To this day the ankle prohibits him from using the explosiveness and agility that made him a mainstay in the Texas starting lineup, Personally and physically, Erskin's year has been anything but easy.
"I've never been around a tougher person. People throw that word around, but I mean it
with the utmost respect. You've got to think that somewhere down the road through life things are going to work out for him," Barnes said. "His mother would be proud."
Terrell Ross has encountered similar setbacks, although to a lesser degree, in his two years in Austin. In a pick-up game just before last season began, Ross came down awkwardly from a dunk, resulting in face lacerations, a concussion, an injured knee, an injured ankle and an injured foot.
Ross was a junior college All-American playing in his home state of Maryland, but the lure of country music and cowboy boots was too strong to resist. Aside from the inevitable culture shock, the former All-American had to learn what it was like to come off the bench behind the nation's best point guard.
"Coming off the bench is tough because you have to adjust to the crowd noise and the momentum of the game," Ross said. "But this program is at a different level, and I've learned a lot basketball-wise."
Serving
PGA Tour full of 'knee-jerk reactions'
Unpredictable finishes keep officials guessing
The Associated Press
Three of the top five seeded players were knocked out in the first round of the Match Play Championship, and everyone started trying to figure out how to bring stability to golf's most unpredictable event.
By the end of the week, it was Tiger Woods against David Toms in the final match, and no one had any problems with that.
"If the No. 1 player in the world has played four times and been in the finals twice, I don't
see anything broken with it," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said.
"You've got to look at these things over time," he said. "There's a role for match play, and you have to accept it for what it is."
Indeed, the first two months of the golf season have been a case study in knee-jerk reactions including the left knee of one particular player.
Exhibit A comes from the Mercedes Championships, where Ernie Els hit a tee shot on the 15th hole at Kapalua that traveled about 400 yards to the bottom of a hill. Equally alarming was his
A week later at the Sony Open, Els reached the 501-yard ninth hole at Waiialae Country with a driver and a wedge, and there were murmurs about the ball going too far.
Never mind there was virtually no wind on either island.
True, Finchem and the U.S. Golf Association are starting to look more closely at equipment issues, particularly the golf ball.
score, 31 under par, which shattered a PGA Tour record.
But a case can be made for waiting until the Tour has gone to a variety of courses in a number of states under all kinds of weather conditions.
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