6B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8. 2009
SOFTBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
energy and passion into the game at hand."
Coming off a series split with Texas Tech, Kansas is set to square off against a solid Nebraska squad. Despite having lost its last four contests, most recently against Oklahoma, Nebraska is 25-10 overall and 2-4 in conference play. Nebraska heads into the doubleheader with a .294 team batting average, led by sophomore second baseman Julie Breschtel's .380 average.
From the circle, Nebraska's staff boasts an impressive 1.88 ERA and has allowed only 62 earned runs on the season. The Cornhusker defense has been
equally effective. Its 28 errors are good for second-least in the Big 12. Nebraska's most notable win came on March 22 when it upset then-No. 19 Texas A&M 3-2 in extra innings.
"I have a lot of respect for Nebraska," Bunge said. "They are disciplined, well-coached, and they play the game the right way. They play very aggressively and they don't beat themselves."
Nebraska is largely the same team as last year, returning 15 letter-winners from the previous year. Kansas went 1-2 against Nebraska last year despite outscoring the Huskers 13-12 overall in the series. The Kansas pitching
staff currently has an ERA of 3.07 and will have to see solid outings from both Val George and Sarah Vertelka in order to come away with the two victories. Liz Kocen leads the Jayhawk bats with a .321 average and a team-high 21 RBIs. She has hit three home runs in the past four games.
The doubleheader kicks off at 4 p.m. at Arrocha Ballpark. Admission is free with a KUID.
"We're looking for revenge this year," Kocon said. "They're not going to push us around on our home turf. We're looking for the sweep."
NFL
Edited by Grant Treaster
Chiefs pick up two players, including former Baker QB
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs have signed wide receiver Rodney Wright and long snapper Tanner Purdum.
Wright, as the seventh-round draft pick of Buffalo in 2002.
spent portions of the 2002 and 2003 seasons on the Bills' practice squad. He played four seasons with the San Jose Sabercats (2005-08) of the Arena Football League, where Wright caught 292 passes for 3,229 yards and 42 TDs to go with five TDs rushing and 113 kickoff returns for 2,450 yards and four scores.
Purdum was a four-year letterman as a long snapper and quarterback at Baker University (2004-07) in Baldwin City, Kansas. He served as a graduate assistant with the Wildcats in 2008, working with the wide receivers.
Associated Press
BIG 12 BASKETBALL
Griffin plans to join the NBA
Oklahoma forward will hire an agent ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin, left, is consoled by assistant coach Oronde Tailferro, and guard Austin Johnson, right, as Griffin leaves the Elite Eight game against North Carolina late in the second half. Griffin plans to leave Oklahoma for the NBA.
Blake Griffin's coach called it a no-brainer for the Oklahoma forward to leave for the NBA.
Griffin will give up his final two seasons of eligibility after the he was honored by The Associated Press and several other groups as college basketball's player of the year.
"It wasn't a decision to really debate because it's the right one, and it's the best thing for Blake," Sooners coach Jeff Capel said, sitting alongside Griffin at a campus news conference.
Arizona junior forward Chase Budinger is also headed to the NBA. Two star SEC junior guards
— Kentucky's Jodie Meeks and South Carolina's Devan Downey have declared for the draft without hiring an agent, leaving the option of returning to school.
averaging 28.5 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Sooners to the regional finals, where they lost to eventual national champion North Carolina.
Griffin led the nation with 30 double-doubles and 14.4 rebounds per game while averaging a Big 12-best 22.7 points. In the NCAA tournament, he was even better
"It's tough to walk away from something like this but at the same
time, it's a big opportunity and I felt like I was ready for it this year," Griffin said.
Budinger said he was hiring an agent, which would end his eligibility.
He averaged 18 points and 6.2 rebounds and scored 19 points per game in the Wildcats' three NCAA tournament games.
Arizona point guard Nic Wise said he would make himself available for the draft but wouldn't hire an agent.
Meeks averaged 23.7 points
last season — eighth in the country and tops in the Southeastern Conference — and poured in a school-record 54 points in a win over Tennessee in January.
He also led the SEC in 3-point percentage (40.6), 3-pointers per game (3.25) and free-throw percentage (90.2).
Meeks sounded optimistic about coming back last week after the Wildcats hired John Calipari.
Underclassmen have until June 15 to remove their names from the draft.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Coming Monday, April 20th
Season Wrap Up
TENNIS (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Even though junior Kuni Dorn and freshman Erin Wilbert were the only victorious KU players against Baylor, the match proved that Kansas could seriously challenge top squads.
Last weekend the Jayhawks dropped two close matches: 5-2 to No. 3 Baylor, and 4-2 to No. 69 Texas Tech.
have to be mentally prepared for a tough K-State match."
Senior Yuliana Svistun and sophomore Maria Martinez took their match to three sets, but they narrowly lost the doubles point 8-3, 8-6 and 8-7.
Hall-Holt said that all season she had emphasized the value of vigorous court play "because you never know when things are going to turn around, and things could have turned around majorly against Baylor. The
"It should be a big win for us, but we can't take any team for granted," Hall-Holt said. "Every match is a big match for us here on out. We have got to keep building and keep preparing for each time we step out on the court."
COMING
MATCHUPS
Edited by Chris Horn
match could have gone enner way"
| | All-time record | Last meeting | Current streak |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Kansas State | 39-7 | 2008 | Won 1 |
| Tulane | 1-1 | 1987 | Lost 1 |
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University of Vermont players cheer during practice Sunday. Nearly destroyed by a hazing scandal almost a decade ago, Vermont's beloved hockey team has been rebuilt. On the ice, the Catamounts are all the way back, and playing in the Frozen Four.
COLLEGE HOCKEY
University rebuilds program
On Oct. 2, 1999, Vermont's hockey players held a party. The theme was freshman humiliation in the name of team bonding.
On the ice, the Catamounts are all the way back. Frozen Four participants for the second time, they will play Boston University in the NCAA semifinals here Thursday night.
Team to play in Frozen Four almost a decade after freshman hazing incident
The agenda included sexually degrading acts, including forcing the new players to parade around in a line, naked.
Nearly destroyed a decade ago, Vermont's beloved college hockey team was rebuilt — thanks in part to a university that regrouped and set an example for how to deal with hazing, an issue that continues to be a problem at colleges around the country.
"It's great to see them developing, their program, doing such a good job after a setback like that," said Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, a member of Gilligan's 1996 team along with fellow NHL players Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay and Eric Perrin of Atlanta.
"It's been a few years," Gilligan said, "but it's certainly worth the wait."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gilligan himself is still employed by the Burlington, Vt., school with about 10,000 undergraduates, no longer as coach of the men's hockey team but as an assistant to the athletic director. Now on medical leave as he fights throat cancer, he hopes to make the trip to the nation's capital to sit in the Verizon Center and see the Catamounts try to win their first NCAA hockey championship.
WASHINGTON — Mike Gilligan was there when Vermont hockey mattered for all the right reasons, coaching the Catamounts to the 1996 Frozen Four, the sticks-and-pucks version of basketball's Final Four.
He was there, too, when Vermont hockey mattered for all the wrong reasons $ - 3 \frac{1}{2} $ years later as a hazing scandal, a lawsuit, a cover-up and the canceling of half a season devastated the program.
"A sad part of Vermont hockey history," Gilligan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "But it was something that I think everybody in the country learned from."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The first-year players were pressured to drink warm beer until vomiting, then had to eat until they vomited some more.
About two months later, La Tulipie sued the school, its president and athletic director, Gilligan and several teammates, blowing the whistle on the most popular team in a state without professional sports.
These days, he has no interest in what happens on the ice, no desire whatsoever to know how Vermont fares this week.
LaTulippe was a local, from Williston, Vt., excited to be playing in a place where college hockey mattered, where the wait was an estimated 20 years to get a season ticket.
A report by the Vermont attorney general would later find that those sorts of initiation rituals — with older players belittling underclassmen — had been going on for years.
"I just don't really care anymore," Tailupte told the AP when contacted at the Florida golf course he runs. "I don't really follow college hockey, don't really care about it. It's not important in my life now."
"I glad that I did it," La Tulpe said, "but it was really tough."
About two weeks before the party, freshman goalie Corey LaTulippe tried to warn the school what was about to happen.
The party took place anyway.
La Tulippe eventually dropped his lawsuit and was paid $80,000 by the university. He reached other out-of-court settlements with ex-teammates.
Some people see him as a hero. To others, he will always be the troublemaker.
"That's exactly the way I was made to feel," he said.
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Page 2 of the NCAA handbook "Building New Traditions: Hazing Prevention in College Athletics" defines hazing this way: "Any act committed against someone joining or becoming a member or maintaining membership in any organization that is humiliating, intimidating or demeaning, or endangers the health and safety of the person."
Vermont is hardly the only school where hazing has taken place, of course.
"It it was something that was going on," said Graham Mink, one of the players on Vermont's 1999-00 team originally sued by LaLiptpe. "Obviously, it wasn't the right thing, but it could have happened at a number of other universities or other teams."
Not only could have, but most certainly did. A study released last year by two University of Maine professors — and supported by the NCAA — found that 74 percent of respondents who were students on varsity athletic teams experienced some form of hazing.
"It's not necessary. It's something that can hurt people and cause a lot of problems, obviously. I've seen that firsthand," said Mink, who appeared in two games with the NHL's Washington Capitals this season and is now with their top minor league affiliate. "It was something that was done. It was a once-every-year thing, and it was over with, and that was it. It was part of being on the team at the time. Certainly, I'd be shocked if that still happened at most universities now."
Maybe not at Vermont, but a simple Internet search will find unsavory examples from around the country.
"There's a denial of the reality, and part of that is a code of silence: "What goes on in the locker room stays in the locker room," said Susan Lipkins, a New York psychologist and author of a book on hazing.
When she speaks to high school or college students, Lipkins sometimes will point to Vermont as a warning.
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"We say, 'You could lose your season,'" she said.
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