6
University Daily Kansan / Monday, March 16, 1992
SPORTS
Kansas wins tourney title
'Hawks snag top seed in Midwest Regional
By Lyle Niedens
By Lyle Niedens
Kansan sportswriter
Until yesterday, that is.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Among the accomplishments that Roy Williams' Kansas teams had racked up in his four-year tenure, a Big Eight Conference tournament championship was not among them.
The unhallowed slab Kansas' record to 26-4 overall and secured a No.1 seed for the Jayhawks in the Midwest Regional of the coming NCAA tournament.
The Jayhawks followed their Big Eight regular season championship with their first tournament championship since 1986 by defeating No.11 Oklahoma State 66-57.
"It it does feel great," Williams said. "These kids have accomplished so much it's amazing."
Kansas point guard Adonis Jordan said the Jayhawks wanted to use the tournament to prove their regular season title was not a fluke.
"We came in champions, and we wanted to play like champions, and we did." he said.
The Jayhawks opened the tournament Friday with an 84-66 victory against Colorado, which was Williams' 100th victory at Kansas, and a 83-67 in the first of Saturday's semifinals.
But beating Oklahoma State proved to be a tougher task than beating either the Buffaloates or the St. Louis Chiefs.
The Cowboys controlled the tempo throughout the first half and led 21-20 at halftime. Oklahoma State held the Jayhawks to 32-percent shooting in the first half.
That tempo changed in the second half, turning to Kansas' advantage. The Jayhawks hit 15 on defense and led by 23 points.
The Cowbys led 38-35 with 11:12 left in the game when Kansas guard Rex Walters, who led the Jayhawks with 51 points in the tournament, hit Kansas' first three-pointer of the day to tie the score at 38.
"I really thought that was a big morale booster for the team," Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. "And it got the crowd into the name."
Walters hit another three-pointer with 6:30 left that gave the Jayhawks a 49-45 lead. The Jayhawks never trailed again.
Eddie Sutton said that his team did not play as well defensively in the second half as it did in the first half.
"I felt like our defense got a little soft," he
KANSAS66,
OKLAHOMA ST.57
KANSAS (26-4)
Jameson 6-8 2-4 14
Jason 1-3 4-4 6
Pauley 6-9 0-1 12
Watts 3-7 1-4 11
Jordan 2-6 2-4 6
B. Davis 1-4 2-2 3
Riley 0-3 1-2 2
Woodberry 2-3 1-2 5
Oersted 1-3 3-4 5
Nash 1-1 0-6 2
Total 23-46 14-05 62
OKLAHOMA ST. (26-7)
Hawkins 5-16 8-9 18
Stanford 5-7 2-5 12
Sutton 5-2 6-1 4
Williams 3-8 3-6 9
Alexander 2-6 3-4 8
Hatchett 1-5 1-0 3
FL Davis 1-1 2-2 4
Brown 1-1 0-0 2
Brown 19-40 16-17 27
Hatfield - Oakland St. 21, Kansas St. 23, Point-of-point Oklahoma St. 11, 13 (Akronar, 13, Hatcher 1, Houston 0, 22, Williams 0, Sultan 0, 54). Kansas 2 (Walters 2, Richely 0, Jordan 0) Jouved out. Watters卸离 .Okansas St. 10, Jackson 9, Kansas St. 23, Point-of-point (Sultan 4). Kansas 13 (Jimson 1), Total goals. Oklahoma St. 20, Kansas St. 12 = 16,845.
Kansas also did a good job defensively. The Jayhawks held the Cowboys to 39-percent shooting, including holding All-American candidate Byron Houston to 5-of-16 shooting.
said. "We weren't quite as aggressive, and we didn't keep the ball out of the pivot area as well as we did in the first half."
However. Houston still led all scorers with 18 points and was named the tournament's most valuable player—much to Williams' chagrin.
"I love Byron Houston," he said, "but some
in the Kansas locker room should be
MXV."
Walters, forward Alonzo Jamison and forward Richard Scott were named to the all-tournament team in addition to Houston and Oklahoma's Damon Patterson.
Walters said the tournament championship was just the beginning of Kansas' postseason journey.
"We're going to take this事 as far as we can. Walters said, referring to the NCAA as we did."
That journey begins Friday in Dayton, Ohio, where the Jayhawks play Howard University in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The Bison are 17-13 overall this season and won the regular season and tournament championships in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Seniors reminisce at field house finale
Center David Johanneng, guard Lane Czapinski and forwards Macolim Nash and Alonzo Jamison their final game in the playoffs. The Giants regular season championship after the game
By Chris Jenson and Jay Williams Kansan sportwriters
Kansas men's basketball fans said goodbye to four senior players March 8 at the regular season finale against Missouri at Allen Field House, winning 97-89.
Jamison closed his field house career with 16 points and praise from coach Roy Williams.
"Alonzo was fantastic," he said. "Alonzo willed some of those outside shots in. He was
Williams said it wasn't always easy to stand by Jamison.
"I've come a long way," he said. "I'm glad the coaches had the gall to stick it out with me."
Jamison sat out his first year and a half because of academic ineligibility.
"There was a time if he stepped out in the middle of the street, boy I'd have accelerated that car as hard as I could," he said. "Right now he's running on my back, and I think the staff feels that way."
Kansas already had climbed the conference championship going into the game with the Tigers, but Williams said he did not want that to affect the way the players approached their last home game of the season. He said he wanted the players to end the regular season on a
positive note for Jamison and the other seniors.
"I want those seniors, and particularly him, to go out the right way," he said before the game.
After the game, Chancellor Gene Budig and Athletic Director Bob Frederick presented the team with the Big Eight championship trophy for our seniors led the team cutting down the nets.
If decibels were any indication of that, the sold-out crowd provided the ending both Williams and the players had hoped for.
"Iused to shoot around in Allen and imagine a crowd of 15,000 chanting my name," he said to the crowd after the game. "You made my dream a reality."
"I was trying to decide whether to start Lane or not, then I decided this would be one of the most exciting moments in that young man's life," he said. "That is what we're in coaching for."
Walk-on guard Czaplnick started the first career adding to what he called dream seasons.
Johanning said his experience as a Jaayhawk had been increased the he would miss the cap game.
Williams said he deliberated about who to start in the game for two days.
"This all has been unbelievable." he said. "I was better than I thought it would ever be."
"I'm going to miss the players and Allen Field House and all the great fans," he said.
Nash agreed that being apart from his teammates would not be easy.
Kansas' Richard Scott tries to block Oklahoma's Corey Williams.
Kansas sweeps series
By Jerry Schmidt
Kansan sportswriter
Waiting for the net-cutting ceremony . Richard Scott congratulates Alonzo Jamison .
Kansas pitcher Curtis Schmidt had a luxury in yesterday's 11-0 victory against Colorado State that he did not have often last year.
The senior from Mound City, Mont., pitched seven complete games last year. Yesterday, after shutting out the Rams for the first eight innings, he was able to sit back and watch a reliever finish off the last inning.
*Our bullpen is really good, and I feel comfortable with our bullpen.* Schmidt kills the pitching.
Schmidt, 3-0 on the season, gave up only three hits and struck out six. It was his second start since suffering an early season shoulder injury in a game he played. The injury has healed, Schmidt said he washaving problems with conditioning.
"It itg a little out of shape," he said. "I have to keep it loose. It gets a little sore after games."
The victory gave Kansas a sweep of the three-game series. Kansas won both games of a doubleheader Saturday, winning the first game 7-6 and the nightcap 9-4. The 'Hawks are now 13-4. Colorado State dropped to 5-8.
The Jayhawks broke open a scorele game in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman Brent Wilheim reached base on an error by Rams third baseman Steve Sawyer and then scored on freshman Don Steinhauer's double down the left-field line.
Sawyer again helped the Jayhawk's cause when he committed his second error of the inning on junior shortstop Artyu Aalya's ground ball. The bobble allowed Steinhauer to score, giving Kansas all the runs they needed.
Sophomore Chris Corn pitched the finalinning, preserving the three-hitter.
Kansas scored seven more runs in the seventh, highlighted by a two-run home run by sophomore Joe Benninghoff.
The Jayhawk offense has been getting a boost from its younger players lately, making the Kansas batting order more difficult. The Hawker has four hits in his last 11 at-bats.
"I'm pleased with our younger kids," Kansas coach Dave Bingham said, "We needed more kids to play to develop our depth."
Kansas has a return date with Arkansas tomorrow at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium. The Jayhawks won two of three games against the Razorbacks when the two teams met in Fayetteville, Ark., on Feb. 21-23.
Spring Break update
On March 9, Kansas took on nationally ranked South Carolina in Jacksonville, S.C. The Gamecocks prevailed 10-8. Junior John Wuycheck and freshman Dan Rude each had two hits. Junior pitcher Jimmy Walker pitched six and two-thirds innings, giving up nine hits and seven runs.
On March 7, Kansas lost to Stetson University 13-5 in Daytona Beach. Fla. Sophomore Darryl Monroe was 3-for-5 with an RBI. Junior pitcher Joel Bacon had a rough first inning. Bacon pitched only a third of an inning, giving up four hits and five runs.
The Kansas baseball team won two of four games in Florida during spring break.
The Jayhawks rebounded the next day and beat Jacksonville University 7-4. Senior Curtis Schmidt pitched seven hits for the victory. Monroe was 2-for-4.
On March 11, Kansas completed their spring break trip with a 5-0 victory against George Mason University in daytona Beach, Fla. Sophomore Kent Mahon and juniors David Soult and Jeff Berblinger all had two hits. David Meyer pitched seven innings, giving up only three hits and no runs.
Women awarded NCAA berth
Bv Codv Holt
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington has mixed reactions about the Jayhawks' No. 9 seed in the NCAA women's tournament.
However, she said she was disappointed that the Jayhawks would not play at Allen Field House in the opening round of the tournament.
"I was disappointed where we were pincered," she said. "I definitely expected to be."
First of all, Washington said she was happy about being in the tournament.
Instead, the Jayhawks will travel to Springfield, Mo., to battle the Lady Bears of Southwest Missouri State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in what could be the most evenly matched game in the first
Kansas and SMSU have two of the best defenses in the nation. After leading the nation as the best defensive team until mid-February, Kansas has slipped to No. 6, allowing 56.9 points a game. SMSU is currently tied for third allowing only 56.3 points a game.
round of the tournament.
The Lady Bears and the Jayhawks also are matched evenly according to the AP Top 25 Poll. MSUG, 27-2 overall, is ranked No. 10 this week by the poll and Kansas, 25-5 overall, is ranked No. 13.
Perhaps the deciding factor will be the home court advantage, the one that makes them feel more comfortable.
SMSU, the No. 8 seed, has the longest home winning streak of any Division I team at 28. After ranking 18th nationally last year in attendance, SMSU has
more than doubled its attendance from a year ago.
All of this has Washington wondering what more she has to do to get some respect from the NCAA selections committee.
" it has a lot to do with the perception of our conference," she said. "But I don't think any women's team will go into an environment like we will."
Kansas could have secured an opening round home game by winning the Big Eight Conference tournament but losing in the finals to Colorado 20-83.
Colorado received the conference's automatic berth by winning the tournament championship, leaving one of the 25 available at large bids.
The Jayhawks did receive an at-
SPORTS BRIEFS
large bid for the first time in school history and will compete in the tournament for only the third time in school history and for the first time since 1988.
Should the Jayhawks overcome the Lady Bears, who have a 17-game winning streak, they will face the Iowa Hawkeyes, the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. The Hawkeyes, who are 25-3 overall, will receive a first round bye.
Kansas senior guard Kay Kay Hart agreed with Washington that the Jayhawks did not receive a fair shake in the tournament seedings but she said she was happy to still be playing.
"I'm just glad we got in," she said. "I didn't think we'd have to play the No.10 team in the nation, but at least we got in."
Softball sweeps tourney
The tournament victory capped a 14 game, six-day Texas road trip in which the Jayhawks finished with a 12-2 record.
Kansas, which entered the tournament coming off a 8-1 regular season loss to host Texas A&M, completed the trin by defeating the Aguiles 5-3.
The Kansas softball team swept through the Texas A&M Invitational this weekend en route to a perfect 90 record and the championship in the 10-team, round-robin tournament at College Station, Texas.
Kansas senior Camille Spitalier, who is a two-time All-American, hit four home runs during the trip, matching her total home run count from last season. Sophomore Stephani Williams pitched eight victories, including two
no-hit games.
Kansas willface the Washburn Ichabods in a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Thursday in Topeka.
Golf team places second
The University of Kansas men's golf team finished second this weekend at the University of South Florida/Pepsi Invitational.
The Jayhawks finished two strokes behind champion Central Florida which beat them.
Kansas was led by defending Big Eight Conference champion Matt Gogel. The sophomore shot a three-under -par total of 213. The score included rounds of 72, 70 and 71. Gogel placed second behind Henry Strom-Olson of Central Florida.
From staff reports