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SPORTS
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2003
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Andy Samuelson asamuelson@kansan.com
Local talent on showcase in Manhattan
Without a ticket to tonight's Texas A&M annihilation?
Don't want to watch yet anotherwhatch reality TV show, say, I'm aCelebrity—Get Me Out of Here?
Senior forward Nick Collison watches a bucket fall for Kansas during its second half scoring run against Oklahoma. The Jayhawks will battle Texas A&M tonight at Allen Fieldhouse.
Too cold to drink?
John Nowak/Kansan
(Ok so that last one is never applicable).
Then take the 90-minute march west to Manhattan.
Ransburg
Yeah, yeah, it's Manhattan. And, yes, you'll have to watch women's basketball.
But I promise: You'll witness three of the finest local players to play the game at the collegiate level.
And, not all of them will be wearing their home whites.
If you're a female round ball fan in this state, and you don't know about Kansas State's potential All-American candidates Nicole Ohide and Kendra Wecker, what's your problem?
They're phenomenal. At times this season, the best two players in America both were wearing purple.
And both come from small, Kansas towns. Ohlde is from Clay Center and Wecker made her athletic mark in Marysville. She's also a track superstar.
Koehn is K-State's top three-point shooter, and some proud Powercats might even argue top player, but the standout has missed seven straight games.
What about Moundridge-product
Laurie Koehn you ask?
If Koehn does comeback tonight, hands down, K-State has the top trio of thrillers on the court.
But when she'll return is anyone's guess, thus opening the spot for another player not wearing purple
SEE SAMUELSON ON PAGE 8B
Kansas fights for Big 12title
By Doyle Murphy
dmurphy@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas' game against Texas A&M at 6:30 tonight won't generate a lot of hype.
The student section won't be full of thunder stick-beating fans an hour before tipoff — as it was for the Arizona game.
Fans won't wait in a line that wraps around the block two and half hours before game time — as they did when Missouri came to town.
Radio talk shows won't even be able to debate whether Kansas sophomore forward Wayne Simien will return from his shoulder injury.
The Aggies (13-10 overall, 5-7 Big 12 Conference) will come into town as the eighth-place team in the conference and the opponent sandwiched between an emotional roller coaster in Oklahoma and a much anticipated match-up with Oklahoma State on Saturday.
But if ninth-ranked Kansas (20-6, 10-2) wants to win or share the Big 12 title, winning all of its remaining four games could be crucial.
Kansas had the opportunity to take a commanding two-game lead in the conference race, but after losing 77-70 to Oklahoma Sunday, the Jayhawks and Sooners are now even with four games a piece to play.
If both teams win the rest of their games, they will share the title.
Kansas sophomore guard Keith Langford was confident the Jayhawks were up to the challenge, he said after the Oklahoma game.
"I still believe we are going to win the conference," Langford said. "One loss isn't going to dictate the outcome of our season."
That could make beating the Aggies, regardless of their record, an important task. It's also a task that comes with little preparation.
The Jayhawks did not practice yesterday because of a late arrival from Oklahoma and a busy week that includes Saturday's game against Oklahoma State.
"It's hard," Kansas coach Roy Williams said at a press conference. "The tough thing about playing a Sunday game and then having Wednesday and a Saturday following that, is that at some point in there you're only going to have one-day preparation for one of those two teams that you're playing."
"One loss isn't going to dictate the outcome of our."
season."
Keith Langford Kansas guard
Along with minimal practice time, the Jayhawks will have to deal with the leading scorer in Big 12 history.
Texas A&M senior guard Bernard King has 1,926 points in his career including 22 in his last meeting with Kansas.
"Bernard has just played the way he's played for years," Williams said. "He's just doing a great, great job for them."
The conference's second leading scorer will also be on hand in the form of Kansas senior forward Nick Collison. Collison's 1,882 points is just 44 fewer than King's total.
Edited by Erin Chapman
KANSAS VS. TEXAS A&M
7 KANSAS (20-6 10-2)
7KANSAS(20-6,10-2)
P No. Player Ht. Yt. YP. PPG RPG
F 4 Nick Collison 6-9 Sr. 18.7 9.1
F 5 Keith Langford 6-4 So. 15.3 4.8
G 10 Keth Landford 6-3 So. 15.3 4.8
G 11 Aaron Miles 6-1 So. 8.8 3.3
F 42 Jeff Graves 6-9 Jr. 5.1 5.6
F 23 Wayne Simien 6-9 So. 15.7 8.7
G 25 Michael Lee 6-3 So. 4.7 2.3
F 33 Bryan Nash 6-4 Jr. 2.8 2.1
TEXAS A&M (13-10.5-7)
PNo. Player Hr. Yr. PPG RPG
G 32 Bernard King 6-5 Hr. 18.0 4.3
G 21 Bernard King 6-7 Hr. 15.7 7.0
F 02 Keith Bean 6-8 Sr. 6.5 7.0
F 14 Tomass Rear 7-0 Jr. 5.5 3.5
G 24 Bradley Jackson 5-11 Jr. 4.6 1.8
G 22 Kevin Turner 6-2 Jr. 8.3 1.7
G 10 L Garcia-Morales 6-1 Jr. 5.2 1.9
G 24 Marcus Watkins 6-4 Fr. 2.7 1.0
Opponent: Texas A&M
When: 6:30 p.m. tonight
Where: Allen Fieldhouse
TV: Channel 13
Radio: KJKH 90.7 FM, KLZR 105.9 FM
Physical play dominating Big 12 games
By John Domoney
jdomoney@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Big 12 Conference, which is known as a football conference, may be gaining more respect as one of the premier basketball conferences. But the physical nature of football is finding its way onto the court around conference arenas.
"I think that everybody has been playing like that," Kansas coach Roy Williams said during Monday's Big 12 Teleconference. "There's a definite advantage if the referees don't call it, but they're supposed to call the game that way."
Williams spent most of Monday's teleconference answering questions concerning the amount of physical play in college basketball after his Jayhawks lost to the hard-nosed style displayed by Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson's Sooners.
Kansas knew it would be in for a bruising game, especially with the number of big bodies that Oklahoma brought to the floor, such as Kevin Bookout and Johnnie Gilbert.
The 77-70 loss to Oklahoma on Sunday featured a combined 52 fouls and 64 free throws shot.
Still, Williams said he did not think his team was overmatched physically.
"If you look at the times that there's the people diving on the floor, we dived just as much as everybody else, we banged just as much as everyone else," Williams said.
Kansas guards Keith Langford and Kirk Hinrich both fouled out as a result of the banging on the floor at the Lloyd Noble Center. But, a Sooner took the hardest hit on Sunday.
Oklahoma center Jabahri Brown took a blow to his head in a scramble for the ball midway through the first half. The blow sent Brown to the locker room. The concussion kept him out of uniform for the rest of the game.
Kansas forward Nick Collison said
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 8B
Jayhawks to face a 'true test' in No. 5 Wildcats
By Ryan Greene rgreene@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter r
Freshman guard Eric Hallman challenges Baylor's Chelsea Whitaker in the open court. Kansas (10-14, 3-10) will face Kansas State (25-2, 12-1) tonight in Manhattan. The Wildcats beat the Jayhawks 88-49 at Allen Fieldhouse earlier this season.
The women's basketball teams at Kansas and Kansas State are similar and different in many ways. Both teams are young, without a senior on the roster. Actually, that's where the similarities end.
Scott Reynolds/Kansar
The Jayhawks (10-14 overall, 3-10 Big 12 Conference) have had a tough time in the conference schedule and are still learning how to play as a cohesive unit. On the other end, the fifth-ranked Wildcats (25-2, 12-1) have used their youth to put them on the map as one of college basketball's premier teams.
In the first meeting of the season, KState made itself at home in Allen Fieldhouse with an 88-49 victory. Getting revenge on the road at Bramlage Coliseum will be no easy task for Kansas, but it will do its best to ruin K-State's perfect 17-0 record at home.
"As I told them, we will have, I think, a good game plan going in, and it will be a true test for them," coach Marian Washington said. "When you go into that facility now, they've got a nice crowd that's following them."
The Wildcats average 8,358 spectators per home game.
If Kansas has any kind of an edge heading into the contest, it is that K-
State's sophomore guard Laurie Koehn will more than likely miss her 10th consecutive game with a sore right foot. Koehn is the team's fourth leading scorer, averaging 13.5 points per game.
Over the past week, the Jayhawks have been through a roller coaster of emotions. Last Wednesday, the team snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Nebraska on the road, 62-58. At
nome on Saturday, the Jayhawks nearly came back from an 18-point second half deficit, only to see Baylor pull away in the end, handing out a 77-61 defeat.
The team has seen improved performance in its half-court set over the last few games as sophomore guard Aquanita Burras has seen more time at point guard. Also, freshman forward Tumara Ransburg, who slumped through a portion of
KANSAS VS.KANSAS STATE KANSAS(10,14,3,10)
No. Player   Ht. Yr. Ppg RG
F 3    Blair Waltz   8-0 Sr. 25.1
F 40    Tamarra Walsar   6-2 Fr. 10.9
F 42    Tamarra Ransburg   4-4 Fr. 10.8
G 21    Lella Menguc   5-6 Jr. 2.8
G 24    Aqua Burras   5-6 Sr. 10.8
G 25    Aqua Burras   5-6 Sr. 10.8
G 23 Eric Hallman 5-8 Fr. 8.4 1.6
F 33 Nichole Roberts 1-1 Fr. 4.0 4.5
F 32 Stacoy Backer 5-9 So. 4.1 0.8
KANSAS STATE(25-2 12-1)
P No. Player   Ht. Yr. Peung RPG
F3 Kendra Wecker 5-11  Po9. 19.8
F4 Cakar Wecker 6-0  Jr. 4.4 2.7
C5 Nice Oldehle 6-0  Jr. 18.6 8.9
G34 Megan Mahoney 6-0  So. 13.6 6.2
G34 Chelsea Domicini6 5-6  So. 14.1 2.9
C 42 Brie Madden 6-3 So. 4.9 4.6
C 50 Jessica McFarland 6-2 Fr. 2.8 1.5
G 4 Kimmey Newsom 6-8 Jr. 1.0 0.7
Opponent: Kansas State
When: 7:35 p.m. ont月
Where: Manhattan
Radio: 1320 KLWN
the conference schedule, has had three consecutive solid outings. She knows that competing against top-five opponents requires her to increase her level of play.
"It will be a great experience again," Ransburgsaid. "Their team is very fundamentally sound. I think we can compete with them on a better level than we did the first game."
—Edited by Christy Dendurent
State rivalry puts natives head to head
Kansas State will go for its 21st consecutive home victory when it takes on Kansas tonight.
By Shane Mettlen
smettlen@kansan.com
Kansan sportswritter
The Wildcats have a 20-game winning streak at home, dating back to last year, which is the sixth-longest NCAA streak for women.
A victory against the Jayhawks would be the fifth time in school history that K-State was undefeated at home.
K-State leads the all-time series against Kansas 44 to 40, and 20 to 13 in Manhattan. K-State has won the last three meetings between the rivals.
The last time the 'Cats lost at Bramlage Coliseum was Feb. 13, 2002, against Oklahoma.
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SEE RIVALRY ON PAGE 8B
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