2B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"He said, 'What do you want to be remembered as, the great dunker who won the slam dunk contest with a Superman outfit on, or do you want to do something better than that?' I said, 'I want to be one of the greatest players.' And he said it starts with defense."
— Dwight Howard on a conversation he had with Dikienke Mutomba before the season
FACT OF THE DAY
Dwight Howard led the Magic to a second straight Southeast Division title and 59 wins in the regular season, one shy of tying the best record in franchise history set in the 1995-96 season.
Associated Press
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Who is the youngest player to win the NBA's defensive player of the year award?
A: Dwight Howard. The 23-year-old Howard became the youngest player to win the NBA's defensive player of the year award Tuesday. Howard was only the fifth player to lead the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season, a goal he set in training camp.
Associated Press
@KANSAN.COM
First Pitch: Check Kansan.com for in-game updates of tonight's game against Missouri in Kauffman Stadium.
Through the Uprights:
Stephen Montemayor has all the news and notes you need from yesterday's Big 12 teleconference, only at Kansan.com.
STATE
Four sentenced in murder of Ottawa football player
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Four men have been sentenced in the beating death of a small-college football player.
Eric Freeman, Luis Gaston,
Milton Lopez and Ryan Simon-
son were sentenced Tuesday
in a Grand Rapids courtroom
in the January 2008 death of
Jonathan "Jono" Krystiniak, a
defensive lineman at Ottawa
University in Kansas.
A jury convicted Freeman of manslaughter in March. Simonson, Lopez and Gaston previously accepted plea deals. A fifth man, Casey Therriault, is already serving six months in jail as part of a plea agreement. Freman has been sentenced to 27 months to 15 years in prison, Gaston to a year in jail and five years of probation, and Lopez and Simonson both to one to three years in prison
Lopez apologized at the hearing to Krystiniak's mother.
The young and the ambivalent
COMMENTARY
Associated Press
I don't watch daytime television. It's always struck me as a fantasy realm of phony judges and soap operas reserved for the unemployed and stay-at-home moms.
That was until Xavier, C.J. and Carl Henry — with considerable
help from
John Calipari,
Rivals.com
and three
sets of rabid
fan bases —
turned a seem-
ingly straight-
forward decision into "The
Henry
Young and the Ambivalent."
All the pieces for a Daytime Emmy Award are already there. The drama is real. The characters are decidedly human and the final outcome is anyone's guess. By this time tomorrow, people are going to be waking up from comas to complicate a delicate situation even further.
All joking aside, the daytime television parallels are a little eerie.
There's the tilted lower (recruit) left standing at the altar and pondering the future: Xavier Henry. There's the smooth-talking ladies man (recruiter) trying to keep as many beautiful women (blue-chip players) on his arm as possible: Calipari. There's the other woman (recruit), waiting for the smoke to clear to make a decision: Lance
Stephenson.
Finally, there's the patriarch keeping everyone guessing with a mixture of fact and conjecture:
Carl Henry.
Stephenson
And then there are the rest of us: the audience held in rapture by this saga's every twist and turn. It's
hard to watch,but it's even harder to look away.
If you've somehow missed the most recent — and ridiculous — developments, Carl told the Lawrence Journal-World and Rivals on Monday that a decision was imminent and that no official visit to Kentucky would be necessary.
To make matters even murkier, C.J. — who will most likely join Xavier wherever he ends up — spoke to Rivals later that day, saying that he hadn't heard anything about a visit to Kentucky but that it was a possibility Xavier, for his part, told TheShiver.com that he and C.J. would indeed be visiting Kentucky.
Only a few hours later, Carl reversed course, telling Zagsblog.com that Xavier informed him that he would be taking an official visit to Lexington after all.
Finally, Rivals reported on Tuesday that the only sure thing was that Xavier would attend his senior prom this Friday night in Oklahoma. He could then leave
Saturday to visit Kentucky, but Carl wouldn't speculate about whether the visit would actually occur or when a final decision would be made.
Translation: The only guarantee is that there aren't any.
So today, just like yesterday and the day before, Kansas and Kentucky fans will stayed glued to "The Young and Ambivalent" for the latest drama. They will scur Rivals for every tidbit of information possible.
They will do it because — like with any soap opera — it's all about the suspense and what might happen, not necessarily the end result.
Edited by Chris Hickerson
POLO
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Criminal probe opened in horse deaths
BY BRIAN SKOLOFF Associated Press
Horses wait behind the gates of Lechuza Caracas Polo and Equestrian stables one day after the death of 21 of their polo ponies in Wellington, Fla. Monday. The horses became sick just before to a scheduled match at the club on Sunday.
WELLINGTON, Fla. — Organ by organ, veterinarians are taking apart 21 prized polo horses to uncover what killed them mysteriously over the weekend during preparations for a match in one of the sport's top championships. Simultaneously, state authorities have opened a criminal probe to determine whether the deaths were intentional, a result of negligence or simply a terrible accident.
With careful cuts to their muscular bodies, the investigators look for lesions, fluids, bruises and hemorrhages, any obvious signs of sickness. They're removing the hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and spleens, and cutting small samples to be tested for toxins. The process unfolds much as it would for a dead person.
"We want to make sure from a law enforcement standpoint that there was no impropriety ... no purposeful harm or laws violated in Florida," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is handling the case with help from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
The horses from the Venezuela-owned team began collapsing Sunday as they were unloaded from trailers at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, with some
"Should criminal activity surface, we don't want to be so far behind the eight-ball that were playing catch-up."
GREG RICHTER Sheriff's Captain
State officials think the horses died from an adverse drug reaction, toxins in their food or supplements, or a combination of the two. Two days after the horses' deaths, authorities said they had not uncovered any crime but continue to investigate.
dying at the scene and others hours later. They were set to compete in the sport's U.S. Open tournament ahead of the finals this coming Sunday, and were seen as top contenders.
While veterinarians work
with their scalpels, investigators are interviewing everyone who encountered the horses the day of the game and gathering evidence such as feed and supplements from the stables where the horses were kept.
"Should criminal activity surface, we don't want to be so far behind the eight-ball that we're playing catch-up," sheriff's Capt.
Greg Richter said.
The exhaustive process included more evidence collecting Tuesday at the stables used by the Lechuza Polo team, said Dr. Michael Short, the state's equine programs manager who is helping coordinate the case.
The investigation hinges on a combination of interviews with players and groomers, tests of feed and a history of the horses' training regimens. Short said. Information gathered there and during the necropsies will help investigators refine their approach to the toxicologies.
finished, possibly by Wednesday, Short expects that testing blood and tissue for toxins will be more important in pinpointing a cause of death. But results from toxicologies could take weeks.
And while the necropsies could yield important clues when they're
"In these cases, because we're suspecting that this is most likely some type of toxin or poison, we may not see anything definitive" in the necropsies. Short said.
The team's owner, prominent Venezuelan banker Victor Vargas, has not spoken publicly since the deaths. In fact, it's unclear if Vargas, president of the Venezuelan Banking Association, or the team are still in Florida. Authorities would not say.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Baseball Missouri, 7 p.m.
Kansas City, Mo
THURSDAY
DAY
Softball
Drake, 7 p.m.
Lawrence
Track & field
Drake Relays, All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
Tennis
Big 12
Championships,
All Day
Norman, Okla.
FRIDAY
Baseball
Nebraska, 6 p.m.
Lawrence
Tennis
Big 12
Championships,
All Day
Norman, Okla.
Women's golf
Big 12
Championships,
All Day
Lubbock, Texas
Track & Field
Drake Relays, All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
SATURDAY
Softball Baylor, 2 p.m. Lawrence
Baseball
Nebraska, 6 p.m.
Lawrence
Track & field
Drake Relays, All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
Women's golf
Big 12
Championships,
All Day
Lubbock, Texas
Tennis
Big 12
Championships,
All Day
Norman, Okla.
**Rowing**
Minnesota, TBA
St. Paul, Minn.
INDYCAR
After tax trial and crash, Castroneves happy to be racing again
BY JOHN MARSHALL Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Helio
Castronews has a sore neck. His
shoulder blades burn, his back
aches and his hips are tight.
That energetic smile? Back and bigger than ever.
After months of mental anguish from a grueling tax evasion trial, Castroneves is thrilled to be back
to racing — even if it does hurt a little.
Castroneve was acquitted of tax evasion charges on Friday, ending a six-month ordeal that left him mentally exhausted. Less than 24 hours after avoiding what could have been a six-year prison term, the popular Brazilian driver was 3,000 miles away at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, back in the comforting cocoon of his
"I'm a little tired, but it's a very good feeling of tired." Castronews said Tuesday from his office in Coral Gables, Fla. "It was physical. For the first time in a long time it was physical, not just mental. It's the best feeling in the world."
Red Lyon Tavern
No. 3 Team Penske IndyCar.
Castroneve couldn't wait to get back to the track with his team and friends again.
"To be back in racing so fast, people were like, 'are you sure you're able to do that?' he said. "Guys, you don't understand. The only place I want to be right now is racing. The only place I want to be is with my team. That's me. That's what I did since I was 11 years old. I just missed it so much."
Once Castroneves got back on the track, it was as if he never left.
Sure, it was a bit of an adjustment to get the feel for the car; working out the braking points, when to downshift, remembering the nuances of the track. He figured it out quickly, though, qualifying eighth despite a crash that left him with a headache on Saturday, and finishing seventh at the race on Sunday.
"It took a little while. It's like when you play tennis for a while and you stop: The ball seems to come a little faster to you," Castronews said. "It was a lot of little things coming back slowly."
Whatever happens from here,
Castronews thinks he can handle it.
Avali
apart
town
550-1
Avail
only
Hurry
3. = 4 √ 2 √ 1. 5
"When the car is going too loose now, I think I'm going to be like, I can do this," Castroneve said. "If I can handle the seven weeks of the trial, I can probably handle for a few laps a loose car. Definitely, I'm ready for that situation."
Close
1820
$126
0487