SPORTS
Loss to MU will focus 'Huskers, Williams says
By Lyle Niedens Kansan sportswriter
Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams was less than thrilled with No. 9 Missouri's 87-61 blowout victory Monday night against Nebraska.
At his weekly news conference yesterday, Williams said Nebraska's loss two days before tonight's Kansas-Nebraska game in Lincoln, Neb., probably would make the Cornhuskers more focused.
"Today at practice, there's no doubt in my mind that Danny (Nebraska coach Danny Nee) will have their undivided attention," Williams said of the Nebraska players. "They're a competitive group of kids, and I'm sure they'll bounce back. I would have liked it a lot better if that game would have ended differently."
Williams said he hoped the Cornhuskers would remember the trouble
they had with Kansas' pressure defense in the two teams' first meeting this season in Allen Field House, which resulted in a 103-78 Kansas victory.
"I'm not counting on having the same kind of success up there that we did here because of our pressure, but that's the way we play," Williams said. "Hopefully in the back of their minds they'll be a little concerned about our pressure."
The Kansas defense has been getting consistently tougher as the conference season has progressed. In two games, the Jayhawks held Iowa State and Colorado to a combined 30 percent shooting from the floor.
"I think that the last four or five games, we've been playing better defensively and much better than we were earlier in the year," Williams said. "We've been consistent with our defensive effort.
"Our post players have stepped up
and done a much better job defensively. That has helped because we are able to even put a little more pressure on the perimeter because we know the other team is not just going to throw it inside and kill us."
One of those post players is center Eric Pauley, who shot 77 percent from the field in the last four games.
The Cornhuskers, 15-6 overall and 3-5 in the Big Eight, have lost three of five since their loss to Kansas Jan. 25. Nebraska has five players averaging in double figures, led by sophomore forward Eric Piatkowski, who is averaging 14.5 points a game but is shooting just 44 percent from the field.
The Jayhawks will be trying to improve on their last performance in Devaney Center, which occurred last March. In Kansas' final Big Eight game of 1991, the Cornhuskers beat the Jayhawks 85-75, costing Kansas an outright Eight championship.
(3) KANSAS
JAYHAWKS
Coach: Roy Williams
Record: 19-2, (7-1)
NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS Coach: Danny Nee Record: 15-6, (3-5)
Game time: 7:05 tonight at Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb. It will be televised on channels 3 and 14 in Lawrence and broadcast on 105.9 KLZR.
Probable Starters
Player/Position Height Year PPG RPG
24-F Alonzo Jamison 6-6 Sr. 10.2 4.2
34-F Richard Scott 6-7 So. 10.2 4.4
51-C Eric Pauley 6-10 Jr. 8.5 3.0
23-G Rex Walters 6-4 Jr. 16.5 3.1
30-G Adonis Jordan 5-11 Jr. 13.5 3.8
Player/Position Height Year PPG RPG
21-F Carl Hayes 6-9 Sr. 11.4 5.2
00-F Dapreis Owens 6-8 Sr. 11.1 6.8
34-C Derrick Chandler 6-10 Jr. 12.4 8.1
12-G Jamar Johnson 5-11 So. 11.0 3.6
52/G/F Eric Piatowski 6-6 So. 14.5 6.9
Source: Kansas Sports Information Department
Olympic hopeful
Three-time All-American Barb Pranger takes a warm-up lap in practice. Pranger, who took the gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly at last week's Big Eight Conference Championships in Lincoln, Neb., was preparing yesterday for the Olympic trials coming in March.
At top of Big Eight, Jayhawks attack goals one day at a time
Kansan sportswriter
By Cody Holt
Kansas coach Marian Washington believes in taking games one at a time. Apparently she also attacks goals one at a time.
When the Jayhawks take on Nebraska at 7 tonight at Allen Field House, Washington and the Jayhawks will be focusing on winning their twentieth game of the season rather than taking another step toward winning the Big Eight Conference.
"Given all of our challenges this year, winning 20 games after having lost three starters would be a tremendous accomplishment," Washington said.
But with only four conference games remaining, three of which
Kansas will play at the field house, a conference championship would also seem to be prevalent in the minds of the first-place Javahawks.
"It's about four games too early for that," Washington said. "The only thing I'm trying to keep our focus on is taking one game at a time.
"If we do that, the goals will take care of themselves."
Nebraska is expected to make things difficult for Kansas tonight. The Huskers are in a tie for second place with Colorado, both with 7-3 conference records.
Nebraska boasts the league's leading scorer, Karen Jennings, Jennings, a 6-2-foot junior center, averages 25.3 points a game but scored only 14 points in the teams' first meeting, a 54-51 Kansas victory in Lincoln, Neb.
Washington said that slowing down Jennings would again be a concern for the Jayhaws.
Washington hopes that the crowd at the field house will also be prepared. When Kansas visited Nebraska on Jan. 25, 4,369 screaming Nebraskans greeted the team. Washington said that Kansas may not have the numbers in the stands, but they will have the message.
"With Nebraska we will have to play great defense," Washington said. "We will have to do an even better job against Karen because this is the second time she has seen us, and I'm sure she'll be prepared."
"The fans we have had all season have been very involved and enthusiastic," Washington said. "We may not have 4,000 people, but the ones we will
Women's basketball probable starters
Game time: 7 tonight in Allen Field House. The game will be broadcast on KJHK 90.7 FM, KMAJ 1440 AM and KHUM 95.7 FM.
Kansas 19-4, (8-2) Position Year Height PPG RNG
23 Tarriyl Johnson F Sr. 5-11 7.3 9.0
32 Danielle Shareef F F 5-10 8.8 6.0
30 Angela Aycock F Fr. 6-2 10.1 4.4
10 Jolo Witherspoon G Jr. 5-7 3.0 1.3
13 Kav Kay Hart G Sr. 5-7 9.8 3.6
Nebraska 17-6, (7-3)
42 Sue Hesch F Sr. 6-1 7.3 4.4
22 Rissa Taylor F Jr. 6-1 8.8 4.4
51 Karen Jennings C Jr. 6-2 25.3 9.5
20 Kim Yancey G Str. 5-6 5.2 1.8
24 Megan Yedsena G So. 5-8 11.0 3.4
Source: Kansas Sports Information Department
have will really make themselves felt and heard."
The fans this year have something to vell about, too.
Kansas continues to lead the conference race despite being plagged by injuries. The Jayhawks also have a very good shot at gaining an at-large bid for the NCAA Championship Tournament, even if they fail to gain the guaranteed bid that goes to the Big Eight Tournament champion.
However, with such lofty achievements on the horizon, Washington still prefers to take things one game at a time.
"I just need to be able to feel after every game that we put our best effort
Unranked Kansas is optimistic
By Lyle Niedens Kansanessi
By Lyle Niedens
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas men's tennis team left today for a national championship in Louisville. Kv.
The underdog Jayhawks, the only unranked team in the tournament, will face No. 16 North Carolina in the first round at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
The USTA/ITCA National Indoor Championships are the indoor version of the NCAA outdoor championships, said Kansas coach Scott Perelman.
If the unseeded Jayhawks win, they will face the No. 2 seed and second-ranked Southern California in the second round at 4 p.m. If they lose, they will continue to play in the consolation round Friday.
Perelman said the Jayhawks, 7-3 for the season and coming off a 7-0 victory against Southern Methodist on Saturday, did not mind having the underdog role.
"From the standpoint of national perception, we have nothing to lose," he said. "If we win any matches, that will be iceing on the cake for us."
The Jayhawks, who have never won a first-round match at the National Indoors, qualified for the tournament last fall by winning the Region V qualifier for the National Indoors. That tournament consisted of the Jayhawks, Drake, Colorado and Nebraska.
Perelman said that a strong showing by the Jayhawks would help them if they did not qualify for one of the eight automatic spots in the NCAA championships in May.
If Kansas does not qualify automatically, they would have to hope for one 12 at-large berths. Victories at the National Indoors would weigh heavily in the Jayhawks' favor in the eyes of the selection committee. Perelman said.
Tomorrow, Kansas will go with the line-up of Rafael Rangel, Paul Garvin, Carlos Fleming, Patrick Han, Rhain Buth and either Ian Goodman or Manny Ortiz at No.1 through No.6 singles respectively.
Kansas' doubles teams will be Garvin-Fleming at No. 1, Han-Buth at No.2 and Rangel-Roriz at No.3.
However, those doubles teams may not get a chance to play. Instead of the traditional match format of six singles and three doubles matches, with the winning team the first to score five points, the USTA has decided to go with an alternate format.
In the new format, doubles matches will only be played if the score after six singles matches between two teams is tied 3-3.
If the match is tied 3-all, doubles matches will consist of one set with the first team to win eight games declared the winner, rather than playing the best two out of three six-game sets.
As a result of the different format, which is being used to shorten matches, more emphasis will be placed on singles. That will help the Jayhawks, who have been inconsistent in doubles this year, Perelman said.
"It it's obviously to our benefit," he said of the format. "But I also think that with the caliber of competition, it will be to a lot of teams' benefit."
North Carolina may be one of those teams. The Tar Heels boast three ranked singles players, led by No. 9 Roland Tronqvist.
"They are a very similar team to us, in that their singles play has been more impressive than their doubles play." Perelman said. "I think it's a match that if we play well, we can win."
U.S. hockey team skates closer to gold medal game
The Associated Press
MERIBEL, France — Whether the U.S. hockey team is bullying its way through the Olympic tournament or just doing what it takes to win, it keeps driving closer to its goal
Sufflues and skirmishes marked another game but did not prevent the United States from beatning France 4-1 last night and moving within one victory of the gold medal
of golden glory.
is, we win and people can say what ever they want," U.S. captain Clark Donatelli said. "U don't think we're a dirty team. We're a hard-working team."
"The bottom line
ALBERTVILLE 92
Some French players did not agree entirely.
"They didn't play dirty during the game except for five minutes at the end." Philippe Bozon said. "They
have to play physically to be successful."
The United States (5-0-1) advanced to Friday's semifinal against the winner of today's Finland-Unified Team game. The United States, assured of no worse than fourth place, are in the Olympic medal round for the first time since winning the 1980 gold medal.
With 1:42 to go in the game, the United States' Guy Gosselin and France's Antoine Richer got into a brief fight, but only minor penalties were assessed. Sticks and fists were swung at the benches cleared after the final horn, but order was restored after a few minutes and the teams participated in the traditional postgame handshake.
"I think the players were looking at each other (during the handshakes), wondering if fights were going to start again," Bozon said.
Teammate Dennis Perez said,
"Why did they do that at the end of the
game?"
The Americans just do what they'vegot to do, He迪ciaid.said.
Olympic medals count
Country G S B T
Germany 9 8 6 23
Unified Team* 7 4 6 17
Austria 4 6 7 17
Norway 7 5 4 16
Italy 3 4 3 10
France 3 5 1 9
Finland 3 1 3 7
U.S. 3 2 1 6
Japan 1 1 3 5
The Netherlands 0 1 2 3
Canada 1 0 1 2
Switzerland 1 0 1 2
China 0 2 0 2
Luxembourg 0 2 0 2
Czechoslovakia 0 0 2 2
Sweden 0 0 2 2
South Korea 0 1 0 1
* Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Skating start today
America's contingent is its strongest ever, featuring world champion Kristi Yamaguchi, who won her first national title last month; Nancy Kerrigan, the U.S. run-up and world bronze medalist; and Tonya Harding, 1991 U.S. champion and a silver medalist at last year's world championship competition.
ALBERTVILLE, France—The Winter Olympics are 11 days old, and what many consider the premier event is just beginning. Women's figure skating, an event in the United States has not won in 16 years, starts today with the original program.
OLYMPIC UPDATE
So who's the favorite? None of them
Japan's Midori Ito, the 1989 world champion who has been plagued by injuries and inconsistency ever since, is healthy and, apparently, bursting with confidence. If Ito hits all of her elements, including triple axels in the original program and free skate in the compulsory program, all three Americans will be a
"Ibelieve I will have thegoldmedal if everything works out in my free program," said Ito.
To judge from her practice sessions, it certainly is prepared.
"Midiari is a great skater and she does so many great jumps," Yamaguchi said. "I believe she will be ready for the Olympics."
disadvantage
U.S. skaterslips
ALBERTVILLE, France — For about 900 meters, Dan Jansen looked golden. Then his legs turned to lea
The gold went to Olaf Zinke of Germany, who won with a time of 1:14.85. Yoon-Man Kim of Korea, just one
After skating two blistering splits in the men's 1,000-meter speed skating Tuesday, Jansen slipped from contention and finished 26th.
Jansen had a time of 16:96 for the first 200 meters, the fastest of the day and 28-hundreds of a second faster than Zinke's split. At the 600-meter mark, his time of 44.63 was also the best of the day. His lap time was only 27.67.
Italian takes slalom
nundredth of a second behind at
1:14.86, took the sliver, and Yukinori
Miyabe of Japan won bronze with
1:14.92.
MERIBEL, France — If Deborah Campagnoni ever needed all of her toughness and technical precision, it was then.
French favorite Carole Merle, who has the women's record, posted the time to beat in the Olympic women's super giant slalom Tuesday. French fans roared with delight as 12 skiers tried and failed to top it. Then came Campagnoni, a 21-year-old Italian.
Germany's Katja Seizinger was third with a time of 1:23.19.
She finished in 1:21.22, beating Merle by 1.41 seconds.
"I am not disappointed," Merle said. "A silver medal is fantastic. Of course, I would have to thank her for disappointment." Germany's Kata Seizinger was
the medal sweep by Alpine nations gave them revenge for Saturday's downhill, a gold and silver finish for both Canada and the United States.
From the Associated Press