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SPORTS
1B
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2003
Sooners stop super Jayhawk rally
By Doyle Murphy
dmurphy@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
John Nowak/Kansan
Kirk Hinrich, senior guard, watches from the bench after fouling out in the second half. Hinrich led the Jayhawks with 21 points in the Jayhawks los to the Sooners yesterday in Norman, Okla.
NORMAN, Okla.-Yesterday's showdown between No. 6 Kansas and No. 5 Oklahoma was supposed to be a back-and-forth battle between the best teams in the Big 12 Conference. But the game didn't live up to its billing until the final minutes of the 77-70 Sooner victory.
Kansas (20-6 overall, 10-2 Big 12 conference) trailed 14-4 seven minutes into the game and seemed to be headed for one of the worst defeats in the program's history. Even the loss of Oklahoma's starting forward Jabahri Brown to a conclusion midway through the first half couldn't slow the Sooners. The Jayhawks' 21-point halftime deficit, 47-26, was the team's largest in two years.
"In the first half, not only were we not in the same building with them, we weren't in the same league," Williams said. "They were in the stratosphere and we were whatever is the opposite of that."
Kansas fared even worse at the beginning of the second half. Oklahoma senior guards Hollis Price and Quannas White combined for 15 second-half points, each finishing with 19 points for the game. Price's layup with 16:07 to play capped a 12-1 run that gave the Sooners a 32-point advantage. But if the scoreboard indicated the game was out-of-reach, nobody told the Jayhawks.
Led by sophomore forward Wayne Simien's 9 points in six and a half minutes, Kansas mounted a furious second-half comeback that turned a blowout into a ball game.
Oklahoma still led by 12 with just under three minutes left, but when Kansas senior forward Nick Collison was fouled while making a layup with 22 seconds left, Kansas cut the deficit to five with an opportunity to do even more damage.
That, however, was as close as the Jayhawks would come. Collison missed the ensuing free throw, and later, Oklahoma guard De'Angelo Alexander made four straight free throws, sealing the victory.
The game put Oklahoma (19-4, 10-2) into first place in the league, while Kansas moved into second with four
remaining conference games.
Pressed by reporters to find a positive aspect of the loss, senior guard Kirk Hinrich said he was impressed with the team's resiliency.
"It's just amazing we even had a shot," Hinrich said, "being down by 30."
- Edited by Ryan Wood
Kansas takes two with fan attention
By Daniel Berk
bberk@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team continued its winning ways this past weekend, defeating the Eastern Michigan Eagles twice by scores of 3-1 and 6-2. With the victories, the Jayhawks moved to 11-3 on the season.
In Friday's opening game, the Jayhawks managed only two hits, but one was a two-run home run by senior Jason Appuhn in the eighth inning.
The three-game series, which was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and yesterday, was cut short. The third game was moved to Saturday, but the second game of that doubleheader was canceled because of cold weather.
Game one belonged to senior pitcher Kevin Wheeler, who threw eight and two-thirds innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out 12 batters.
"It was a lot of fun today." Wheeler said. "I was just trying to get ahead of the batters and make them hit instead of letting them hit. I was just concentrating on getting all of the pitches over the plate in an effective way."
The game drew 1,342 fans to Hoglund Ballpark. It was the sixth-largest crowd in Kansas baseball history. Coach Ritch Price said the crowd attributed to the team's success.
"The crowd today was absolutely awesome," Price said. "Hopefully, if we continue to win, the crowd will continue to get bigger."
The first game of the series also saw outfielder Matt Tribble extend his hitting streak to 13 games, which junior Ryan
Baty could not manage to do as his hitting streak ended at 12. In the second game, Tribble extend his hitting streak to 14 games with a double in the fifth inning.
In the second game of the series, the two teams saw the temperature drop more than 20 degrees to 27 degrees. But the temperature difference did not affect the Jayhawks as they saw seven of their nine starters record at least one hit. Kansas also scored in six of the eight innings it batted.
The pressure was on junior Josh Duran to continue the stellar pitching on day two of the series. Duran pitched five and two-thirds innings allowing only one earned run. The game also saw the Jayhawks hit six doubles, two shy of the team record.
Senior Casey Spanish, who went three for three on the day, said the team's ability to hit the ball was a big reason the Jay hawks came out of the blistering cold with a victory.
"Yesterday, we really did not execute the way we wanted to," Spanish said after Saturday's game. "So today, in the cold we just wanted to put some good swings together. We had to overcome the weather and just play hard all nine innings."
"Both teams today are from the Midwest, and we know that we will have to play more games in conditions similar to today," Price said after Saturday's game. "I think this is a game that we will look back at that was big win for us."
Price said he thought the weather conditions that the team had to play in would help both teams down the road.
Edited by Michelle Burhenn
Lindsey Gold/Kansan
Freshman guard Erica Hallman attempts to wrestle the ball away from Baylor junior guard Jessika Stratton at the women's basketball game Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks lost 61-77 to the Baylor Bears.
Bears beat 'Hawks despite comeback
By Ryan Greene rgreene@kansan.com kansan sportswriter
Saturday's 77-61 loss to Baylor served as the perfect example of the growing pains the young Kansas women's basketball team is experiencing in conference play.
The Jayhawks (10-14 overall, 3-10 Big 12 Conference) showed their heart in pulling back to within four aftertrailing by as many as 18 points in the second half.
"They need to understand that staying with our game plan is essential," coach Marian Washington said. "I thought we had too many breakdowns, especially at the three-point line. That has hurt us all season long and it hurt us again."
They also showed their youth by allowing a 10-2 Baylor run after closing the gap. Kansas accomplished its goal to stay tough in the paint, being out-rebounded 32-28, but could not keep pace effectively as the Bears (17-8, 6-7) hit nine three-point field goals.
A late three-pointer gave Baylor a 42-34 lead going into halftime, and then a 10-0 run to start the second half gave Baylor a comfortable lead.
Kansas nearly completed the comeback, sparked by three threepointers from sophomore guard Stacey Becker. Baylor ultimately pulled away, triggered by sophomore guard Jordan Davis, who hit four of her game-high six three-pointers in the game's final seven minutes.
SEE HAWKS ON PAGE 6B
Swimmers take fourth in Big 12 meet
By Jason Hwang
jhwang@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
Although the expectations of being a Top 25 swimming program were not met this season, the Kansas swimming and diving team is getting closer to its goal.
The Jayhawks concluded their fourday performance, which started Wednesday, in the Big 12 Championships at Austin, Texas, with a fourth-place finish. The team collected 471.5 points, which was 38.5 points behind the third place
team, Missouri. Texas went on to win the championship meet. The fourth-place showing was highest Big 12 meet finish for the Jayhawks since the 2000 season.
"We took a lot of positive strides this year, and it showed in the conference championships," senior Gwen Healey said.
"It was a tremendous honor for me, but more of the credit must go to the swimmers who swam hard to improve
Kansas swimming coach Clark Campbell was named the Coach of the Meet by other Big 12 coaches at the awards ceremony.
their conference finish from a year ago," Campbell said.
Freshman Gina Gnatzig finished third in the 200-yard backstroke, which was the highest finish for a Jayhawk in the conference championships. Her time of 2:01.05 set a new school record. The previous best time was 2:01.40, set in 1997. Senior Beth Schryer took fourth place in the 1,650-yard freestyle, clocking in at 16:52.82. She improved from her tenth place finish at last year's conference meet. Sophomore Andrea Becker took ninth in the same race with
a time of 17:03.17.
Sophomore Miranda Isaac and junior Kristen Johnson finished in seventh and eighth place respectively in the 200-yard breaststroke with times of 2:20.04 and 2:20.30. Haley placed fifth, with a time of 2:03.36, in the 200-yard butterfly. Amy Gruber notched a ninth place finish for Kansas in the 100-yard freestyle at 50.61 seconds. Kansas wrapped up the championships with a fifth-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, clocking in at 3:26.34.
- Edited by Lindsay Hanson
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Ryan Wood rwood@kansan.com
Like it or not, any Kansas baseball fan was more suspicious than excited when sophomore third baseman Travis Metcalf was named the NCAA National Hitter of the Week last week.
But didn't Ryan Baty, KU's first baseman, win this same award just two weeks earlier?
It was an outstanding honor. According to the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association, nobody in the country had a better week than Metcalf, who hit .588 with three big home runs, helping the once-pipsqueak Jayhawks topple No. 6 Louisiana State.
Popularity of baseball may not last after honors
So, which is it? Were Baty and Metcalf really the best in their respective weeks, or was the association just not looking hard enough?
The fact that two Jayhawks, members of a team picked to finish in the Big 12 cellar, were given the honor in three weeks might be reason to question the credibility of how far they search for the best hitters in the country.
"The process involves the conference offices," said Russell Anderson of the association. "They send a list of their players of the week, and we select a hitter and a pitcher based on that."
The award has been running for three years now. Last season, Bryan Bullington of Ball State, the first overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft, received the award. So did—among others Texas All-American Justin Simmons and Clemson's Khalil Greene, the best player in the collegiate game last year.
And, can we say the same about the rowdy fan base? The 1,342 fans who showed up on Friday were fabulous. They supported the Jayhawks, and at the same time, never thought twice about giving Eastern Michigan or the umpires all the grief they could handle.
Can we say the same about the No.21 Jayhawks? They're now 11-3 after topping Eastern Michigan twice this weekend. Will they cool off and be mediocre like everyone expected?
The fans of Kansas baseball may have been suspicious about the big-time honors that Baty and Metcalf received, but the award seems legit.
The truth is, Metcalf, Baty and Tulane's Jonny Kaplan, the three to receive the honor this season, are in great company. Two Jayhawks getting it in three weeks is even more impressive — and unprecedented.
"I don't think that's happened yet," Anderson said. "There's been a couple of players from the same team in one year, but not in three weeks."
But will the fans cool off and not care in a month?
As for Metcalf, his hot stick came while Kansas was shocking the nation, sweeping mighty LSU and giving Kansas one of its finest weekends in history. Metcalf was one of the big reasons Kansas went 3-0 in Baton Rouge.
So why Kansas?
One reason for Baty's honor may be that not every school had started playing when he received the honor in late January. Still, for a player to hit 619 in six games as Baty did would merit serious consideration any week of the season.
Time will tell. But like it or not, I'd be more suspicious than excited if they stuck around, especially when the team slips and loses a couple of games.
Sadly, that's all it would take for the fans to head to the exits. No matter what kind of accolades Kansas brings in.
■ Wood is a Lee's Summit, Mo., senior in journalism.