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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 18, 1992
SPORTS
Jayhawks to enter hostile first round
Team hopes to stop Bears
By Cody Holt
By Cody Holt
Kansan sportswrite
The NCAA selection committee apparently didn't do Kansas any favors.
Coach Marian Washington said the Jayhawks would enter one of the most hostile environments of any first round in the NCAA women's tournament.
"They've packed the house before," Washington said. "I'm sure they'll do it for Kansas."
Kansas, 25-5 overall and the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region, will travel to Springfield, Mo., to battle the No. 8 seed in Missouri State, 27-2 overall, tonight at 7.
Instead of playing host to a first round game at Allen Field House.
where the Jahayhawks are 10-3 this season, Kansas will travel to play a team with the longest home winning streak in the nation, 27 games. SMSU has more than doubled its home attendance from last season, which ranked 18th in the nation last year.
Seeds five through eight in each region play host to home games in the first round of the tournament. The first four seeds receive first round byes.
Washington said Kansas should have been awarded an opening round home game on the strength of its Big Eight Conference title and second-place conference tournament finish.
"They have put us in an undergolf rule," she said, referring to the NCAA.
To complicate the situation further, Washington will face one of her former
players for the first time as a coach. Cheryl Burnett, who played under Washington from 1977 to 1980 and is third on the all-time assist list at Kansas, is in her fifth season as head coach of the Lady Bears.
Washington said she had mixed reactions about coaching against a team.
"It will bring to the game an emotional element unlike any other in the season," Washington said. "But we're going to try and win the ball game."
If Kansas should overcome what Washington thinks will be the biggest crowd of any first-round game, things won't get any easier.
The winner of Kansas-SMSU game will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to take on the 25-3 Iowa Hawkeyes, the No. 1 seed in the region.
However, adversity is not a new concept for the Javahawks.
Remember, this is a team without
three of the starters who made the Jayhawks favorites to win the conference title.
Not only did Kansas win the conference, but it set a school record with 12 conference victories.
And only one of Kansas' five losses came from a team that is not in the post-season tournament. That loss was against conference foe Missouri, who beat Kansas 57-56 in Columbia, Mo.
Throughout the season, Kansas has encountered countless hurdles, but each time it has found a way to overcome them.
Senior forward Terrilyn Johnson
said the Jayhawks key to success was
their ability to shoot.
"We know no matter what, we're going to have to face obstacles," Johnson said. "It's just a lot easier when you face them together. That's what we do."
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNEY Midwest region: First round
Game time: 7 p.m. in Springfield, Mo. The game will be broadcast on KJHK 90.7 FM, KLWN 1320 AM and KMAU 1440 AM
8 SW Missouri St 27.2
Missouri St. 27-22
23 Secelia Winkfield F Jr. 5-8 10.9 5.1
22 Karen Rapier F Sr. 5-11 10.4 4.5
23 Tonya Baucom C Jr. 6-0 12.8 6.6
35 Melody Howard G So. 5-8 14.3 3.0
30 Tina Robbins G So. 5-7 6.9 1.7
9 Kansas 25-5
23 Danielle Shareef F Sr. 5-10 RPG 6.1
23 Terrilyn Johnson F Sr. 5-11 7.2 8.6
23 Angela Aycock F Fr. 6-2 10.4 5.2
21 Stacy Truitt G Jr. 5-9 12.7 3.3
23 Kay Kay Hart G Sr. 5-7 9.2 3.6
Washington said she didn't know how much longer Kansas could continue to overcome adversity. She said the one thing she was sure of was that her players had a lot to be proud of.
tant for our players to realize that they've had a great season," she said. "As long as we continue to go out and put everything on the line, we have nothing to be ashamed of."
"Whether we win or lose it is impor-
Saberhagen, Mets tromp Royals 21-7
The Associated Press
HAINES CITY, Fla. — These new New York teammates of Bret Saberhagen are pretty nice guys.
Just to make sure Saberhagen was not a loser in his first appearance against his former Kansas City team, the Mets wiped out Saberhagen's three-run deficit with a 14-run sixth innning and went on to beat the Royals 21-7 yesterday.
"Fourteen runs in one inning. These are our new uniforms," Saberhagen said of the Irish green the Mets wore against the Royals. "We're going from the Mets blue and orange to green."
The circumstances were odd, too. Saberhagen was pitching on his regular fifth day, but Royals manager Hal McRae had decided well in advance to give most of his regulars the day off.
"When Ined nobody was playing. I was upset. "Saber hagen said. "I was hoping to face George Brett. George took me under his wing when I first cameup. Whatever I wanted, he lent to me—money, his Bronco. It talked with George and I went over to the clubhouse before the game and talked with all the guys I played with.
"The guy I really wanted to throw against was George."
Saberhagen went into the game yesterday having given up just four hits and a run in seven innings for a 1.29 earned run average.
Arkansas second baseman Tim Thomas tries to complete a double play after taqqinq out Kansas' Alex King.
Balk in 8th gives Jayhawks victory
By Jerry Schmidt
A two-out, bases-loaded balk in the eighth inning by Arkansas pitcher JEff Tucker allowed Kansas freshman Brent Wilhelm to score the winning run in Kansas '6-5 victory yesterday at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
The victory raised the Jayhawk's record to 14-4, including a perfect 9-0 at home.
Kansan sportswriter
Wilhelm led off the eighth inning with a walk and moved to second on a passed ball. He then advanced to third on a ground ball by shortstop Arturo Ayala. After junior Jeff Berlinger was hit by a pit, junior Kip Kent Mahon drew another walk, loading the bases and setting up the balk situation.
As Tucker went into his wind-up against sophomore center fielder Darryl Monroe, he balked, allowing Wilhelm to score.
"You hate to win that way," Kansas coach Dave Bingham said. "But we won't give it back."
The game started in Arkansas' favor in the first inning when the Razorbacks scored two runs on three hits and were helped by two Jayhawk errors. After a single by Arkansas' Tim Thomas, Carl Stall singled to Kansas right fielder Don Steinhauer, who then bobbed the ball, allowing Thomas to score. Smith later scored on a single by first baseman Dan Hreba
The runs in the first innings snapped David Meyer's streak of 20 consecutive innings pitched without an earned run.
"Meyer didn't have solid motion today, and he flattened out in the fifth inning," Bingham said. "But I thought he really battled. They didn't hit him hard until the fifth inning."
The pitching matchup had an unusual side note. Meyer and Arkansas starter Ryan Whitacker were high school teammates at Union High School in Tulsa, Okla.
Chris Corn relieved Meyer with two outs and one runner on base in the fifth inning and made Arkansas' Scott Epps pop out to second baseman Jeff Berlinger to end the inning. Tom Stewart pitched the last inning and wo-thirds and earned the victory.
Junior first baseman John Wuycheck started the Jayhawks rolling when he hit the first pitch from Ryan Whitaker in the bottom of the second inning over the right-field wall for a home run, his third of the season. Wuycheck finished the game with two hits and two RBI in three at-bats.
*Getting them in our own yard just before the conference season is a real惊喜.*
Berblinger showed signs of coming out a sub-par early season start. The junior from Goddard was 3-for-4 with an RBI, a stolen base and was hit by a pitch, the 12th time this season he has been plunked.
The Jayhawks will start conference play 7 p.m. Friday against the Kansas State Wildcats in a four-game series.
Williams, team dispute Kemper controversy
TV analysts say Jayhawks given unfair advantage
By Lyle Niedens
Kansan sportswriter
It often has been called the Kansas Jayhawks "home away from home."
Kemper Arena, which lies just across the Kansas-Missouri state line amid the remnants of the old Kansas City stockyards, has been the site of 58 Kansas basketball games. The Jayhawks have won 43 of them.
As a result of that success, some college basketball analysts — including ESPN's Jim Valvano and Dick Vitale — have said that it was unfair that the Jayhawks were placed in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA tournament. The semifinals and the final of the regional will be played in Kemper, and some think that gives the Jayhawks too much of an advantage.
Kansas coach Roy Williams, however, said yesterday in a teleconference that Kansas was being singled out for having a chance to play close to home and that Kemper should not be regarded as another home court for Kansas.
"It's surprising to me that everyone keeps talking about KU in Kemper Arena," Williams said. "We win a tournament over there, and now everyone in the media is acting like it's our home court.
Williams was referring to the fact that Duke, the N. 1 seed in the East Regional, will play its first-rock games in Greensboro, N.C., which is only 54 miles from Durham, N.C., home to Duke's campus. Worcester, Mass., where the East's No. 3 seed Massachusetts will play its first-rock games, is just 48 miles from its campus in Amherst, Mass.
"What about Duke in Greenbush?"
What about Massachusetts in Worcester?
Kansas' sub-regional in Dayton, Ohio, also has a team not far from its
campus. The University of Cincinnati, the No. 4 seed in the regional, is just 40 miles from Dayton, where the Bearcats will play Delaware on Friday before Kansas' game against Howard University.
"But nothing has been said about those teams," Williams said.
The NCAA selected Kemper as the site for the Midwest Regional in the summer of 1988, said Carl James, commissioner of the Big Eight Conference, which will be the host of the regional.
Although the NCAA avoids having teams play on their home courts, it does attempt to put teams in their natural region if possible, according to the NCAA guidelines for establishing the 64 team tournament bracket. With the strength of the conference, consensus throughout the season was that the best team in the Big Eight would receive the one.1 seed in the Midwest.
Kansas proved to be that team. The Jayhawks won the regular season and the N.B.A. title.
Although some have said that it is unfair for Kansas to be playing at Kemper, Williams said that it would have been just as unfair if Kansas had been forced to go into a different region just because Kemper had been chosen as the regional finals site four years ago.
"It's considered a home court for us, but it took four years since I've been to win the Big Eight tournament over there," he said.
Game times concern coaches
He also said that playing in Kemper might not be as big of an advantage as he was, but it would still be valuable.
"We've had a lot of success there," Walters said. "We have a lot of alumni over there, but the court is the same height as it is anywhere else."
Kansas guard Rex Walters said the Jayhawks had supporters everywhere they went but would not deny that he loved playing in Kemper.
As for Kansas being chided about having an opportunity to play in Kemper, Walters was blunt about his thoughts on the subject.
By Lyle Niedens
Kansan sportswriter
When, instead of who or where,
Big Eight Conference teams play in
the first round of the NCAA tourn-
ment seems to be the primary con-
cern of the Big Eight coaches whose
teams are in the tournament.
Sutton said he was elated that Oklahoma State would play its first round game against Georgia Southern on Friday instead of tomorrow.
In a teleconference yesterday, Nebraska's Dannynee, Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton and Kansas' Roy Williams all expressed either concern or relief about their teams' playing dates and times.
"That's a bunch of crap," he said
"I told our squad the one thing I wanted was a Friday game," Sutton said. "I didn't care where."
Sutton said a Friday game was important after playing three games in three days at the Big Eight
Tournament. Williamsagreed.
"I was pleased it was a Friday," said Williams, whose team will play one of the last of the 32 first-round games at 7:05 p.m. Friday. "It gives us an extra day to rest."
Nee, however, did not share Sutton and Williams' relief. His Cornhuskers will play Connecticut about 9 p.m. tomorrow夜行 in Cincinnati.
Five conference players received Associated Press All-American honors, which were announced Monday. Oklahoma State's Byron Houston and Missouri's Anthony Peeler were named to the second team and Kansas' Adonis Jordan, Alonzo Jamison and Rex Walters received honorable mention.
"It's just not a natural starting time," Nee said. "The latest we've ever played is about 8, and we're used to playing at 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
"We feel we got a fair seeding." Nee said, whose team was blown out 107-85 by Oklahoma, a No. 4 seed, in the first round of the conference tournament. "I just told our team that now we have to get off our asses and play."
"But you have to have flexibility in the tournament. It's a disadvantage for everyone—the players, fans and the coaches. But somebody has to play at those times."
"I think they were treated fairly," Sutton said of the conference's teams and the seeds they received. "I think Nebraska and Iowa State probably have it the toughest to make the Sweet Sixteen."
As for the seedings, each coach said he thought the conference teams received fair draws. Four of the six conference teams in the tournament received a No. 5 or higher
Nebraska is a No. 8 seed and Iowa State is a No.10 seed.
seed.
"Duke gets to play in Greensboro. I think it's unfair that we're being singled out."
"We have good support there, but we don't get the student support that we get in the field house," Paula said. But we're not going to have to worry about it. We could do it ourselves if we would if, for example, we would have to play out West against UCLA.
Kansas center Eric Paulle said that playing at Kemper was not like playing at Allen Field House but that it did have advantages over playing somewhere else.
"I think we deserved the No.1 seed in the Midwest. If that meant playing in Kemper or anywhere else, we deserved it."
Both Walters and Williams said they thought it was a bit premature to be
focusing on Kemper anyway.
"Don't forget, we still have to win two games to get there," Williams said.
Tournament déjà vu
For the Jayhawks to advance to the Final Four in Minneapolis, they will have to take a similar road that the 1986 Kansas team took on their way to the Final Four in Dallas.
After winning the Big Eight tournament, the 1986 Jawhaws went to Dayton for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional, just as did the 1992 Jawhaws.
And just like the 1992 Jayhawks, the 1986 team faced the winner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament championship in the first round.
However, instead of Howard, the '86 Jayhawks played North Carolina A&T.
And in 1886, the Jayhawks played the regional state of Michigan State in the NCAA.
The similarities do not end there. After winning the first two rounds, the '86 Jayhawks played the regional semifinals and finals in Kemper Arena. The '92 Jayhawks will do the same if they wir the first two rounds in Davton.
If the 1992 Jayhawks win their first two games, there is a possibility they could agree meet the No. 5 seed in the regional semifinals. That team is — you guessed it — the Michigan State Spartans.
TENNIS BRIEFS
The Kansas men's tennis team dropped two of three matches March 6-10 at the Arizona State/Penn Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., but Kansas coach Scott Perelman said the Jayhawks improved at the tournament.
Men are 17th nationally
All three of Kansas' opponents were ranked among the Top 20 nationally. The Jayhawks lost to No. 7 Pepperdine 8-1 and No. 8 University of Miami (Pa.) 7-2 but closed out the tournament by defeating No. 20 Arizona State 6-3.
The same day Kansas claimed its victory against the Sun Devils, the Jayhawks found out they were ranked No. 17 in the new Volvo Collegiate rankings. Kansas had been unranked in the preseason.
"I thought we got better every day." Perelman said. "To beat Arizona State on their home court was a significant victory for us."
Kansas will return to action this weekend. The Jayhawks will take their 10-6 record to Houston where they will compete in the Rice Invitational beginning Friday.
Women get first ranking
The Jayhawks lost to No. 10 Pepperdine and No. 6 Arizona State by identical 4-scores and lost to No. 8 Arizona 5-1. The Jayhawks defeated Illinois 8-1. The matches all were played in Arizona last week.
"We did a lot of good things," Center said, "but it's obvious we need to improve if we want to beat Top-10 teams in the country."
Although they lost three out of four, the Jayhawks received their first national ranking ever when the new Volvo Collegiate rankings were released March 10. The Jayhawks, 8-3 on the season, are ranked No. 20.
From Kansan staff reports