Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansas softball team has split doubleheader after doubleheader this season. This weekend it hopes to sweep two against Oklahoma teams.
Friday
April 10, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Chiefs Football
Future Hall of Famer Marcus Allen hangs up his cleats at an emotional announcement.
SEE PAGE 6B
Entertainment
The Kansan movie critic declares Odd Couple II deja vu of Odd Couple and the Grumpy Old Men movies.
SEE PAGE 8B
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Sixth-ranked recruiting class to join women
By Kevin C. Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
During the first days of the late signing period, the Kansas women's basketball team failed to add any new faces to this year's recruiting class.
Kansas secured four players during the fall signing period for next season and has two possible scholarships remaining to offer this spring.
The Jayhawks' recruiting class is ranked No. 6 in the country, and Kansas
utive classes ranked in the top 10.
Players who have already committed to the Kansas women's basketball team:
Dalchon Brown
6-foot-5, center, Virginia Beach, Va.
(Green Run High School)
Brown was named Green Run High School's most valuable player as a junior and is listed
the No.1 player in Virginia.
Washington said Brown would add some needed size to her front line.
Brown averaged 14.7 points, 11.7 rebounds and 8.0 steals per game last season and chose Kansas instead of Old Dominion.
"She's a young player who will continue to help us build size in the paint," Washington said. "Dalchon has a tremendous amount of potential."
Kristin Geoffrey, 6-6, center, Los Alamitos, Calif. (Los Alamitos High School)
Washington said she was excited about what Geoffrey would bring to the Javhawks.
Geoffrey averaged 13.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game last season and is listed as the No. 6 high school post player in the country.
"Kristin brings great size at 6-6, and she is a very mobile 6-player," Washington said. "She runs the floor very well and her great hands give her the ability to do many things. I truly believe her best basketball is ahead of her. On top of that, she is a fine student with a 3.8 grade point average."
Geoffrey chose Kansas instead of Vanderbilt and Navy and said she was impressed with the support basketball receives in Lawrence.
"Everybody is totally into basketball in that town," Geoffrey said after Kansas's Late Night event on Oct. 17.
Katie Hannon, 6-2, guard, Rochester, N. Y. (Gates/Chili High School)
Hannon averaged 17.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and the shooting guard was named a preseason honorable mention pick by Street & Smith magazine. Hannon is a three-time all-county selection and was a second team all-greater Rochester member last season.
Washington said Hannon's outside marksmanship would improve the Jayhawks' perimeter game.
"Katie has a tremendous advantage because of her size." Washington said. "She is a great player with great shooting ability."
Selena Scott, 5-6, point guard,
Austin, Texas (St. Michael's Academy)
Scott is rated as the top player in Texas by the state's recruiting publications and was named a USA Today and a Street & Smith preseason All-American earlier this fall.
Scott averaged 18.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last season and led her team to a 31.5 overall record and the Texas state championship.
Scott is a three-time all-state pick and has been named a Texas all-star twice. She was ranked 42nd in the nation by the Blue Star Recruiting Guide.
Washington said the point guard position was a major area of focus for this recruiting class and she was excited to have landed one of the top players at that spot.
"She will bring us not just a strong point guard that can run, but a shooting aspect as well," Washington said. "She has great shooting range and is very effective behind the three-point line."
The rowing team takes a short break during practice on Clinton Lake. The team will play host to its first home regatta of the season this weekend.
Photo by Roar Nomer / KANSAN
Landlocked Jayhawks find recruiting rough
By Kory Burke
Kansan sportswriter
Slowly but surely, the Kansas women's rowing team is making a name for itself.
Rowing teams in the Midwest are familiar with Kansas, but outside these geographic confines, rowing in Kansas is thought to be a novelty.
Jennifer Adams, team captain and Lawrence senior, experienced the ignorance of those outside the Midwest last October at one of the world's largest regattas. The Head of the Charles regatta, held in Boston each year, draws hundreds of teams and elite competition from around the world.
"Some guys saw us wearing our jackets and ran with us while we were warming up, asking us if we rowed in sewage." she
said. "Then during our race everyone was cheering for us because they thought of us as such an oddity."
Andrew Rothenberg, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, was wearing a Kansas Crew shirt last summer, much to the amazement of his boss at the golf course where he worked.
"I went to work with the shirt on and my boss just started laughing," he said. "All he could say was 'Rowing in Kansas.' Is that like skI Iowa?"
Cattoth says there is one thing missing from his team that will make them a frequent visitor in the NCAA championships: recruits.
strong teams."
Margaret Gardel, a rower for Brown University, said her team's visibility among high school prospects gave it an ear on the competition.
The Ivy League schools in the East traditionally are the dominant teams. Most of the schools rely on recruits from the coast to be the backbone of their teams.
Even though Kansas still may be obscure in the rowing world, coach Rob Catloth thinks the Midwest has teams that can't be overlooked.
"Some guys saw us wearing our jackets and ran with us while we were warming up, asking us if we rowed in sewage. Then during our race everyone was cheering for us because they thought of us as such an oddity."
"I think the major advantage we have over teams in other parts of the country is we have more interest from the students," she said. "Students on the East Coast know we have traditionally strong programs, so they come here."
"We're training as intensely and seriously as anyone else in the country," he said. "The Midwest is producing very
Gardel said the recruits served as extra
Jennifer Adams Kansas women's rowing team captain
"Since most of our team just started rowing in college, we learn a lot from them," she said. "Having them as examples is important."
Catloth said he didn't feel threatened the Ivy League. Kansas has a lot to offer to prospective rowers, he said.
"When we bring recruits from the East in, they see how beautiful the campus is and that they can get a good education here," he said. "They also see
"Most of the kids on the East Coast row on bays where they don't have a smooth surface to practice on." he said. "Here they see how much of an advantage it is to
He also said the Jayhawks' practice and competition sites could offer better rowing surfaces.
that we have a well-run quality program."
Members of the women's rowing team prepare to launch a boat into Clinton Lake. The team practice at Clinton Lake for about two hours yesterday afternoon. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
row on the Kansas River where it's smooth, or at Clinton Lake."
The women hope to capitalize on their hard work and produce better results this weekend after a sub-par performance last weekend in Iowa, where they won only two of 11 races. In the first home regatta of the season they will face tough competition from Texas, Kansas State, Tulsa and Creighton.
The races start at 10 a.m. at Clinton Lake.
"We had a frustrating weekend so this weekend we want to build upon that and put to use all our hard work from this spring." Adams said.
Catloth chalks last week's disappointing finish up to the team's youth.
"We're predominantly a sophomore team. We're going to have breakdowns," he said "This week we've been working on the better concentration and mental preparation that we have been lacking."
Recruit coming prepared to sign
Chicago guard to visit next week; Kansas tops his list of schools
By Tommy Gallagher
tgallagher@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
Marlon London, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from St. Joseph's High School in Chicago, could be the next high school basketball prospect to sign with Kansas during the late signing period.
London, who will visit Kansas on April 16, told the Chicago Tribune that he would sign a letter-of-intent with the Jayhawks while in Lawrence if he liked the trip.
He wanted to sign early, but only smaller schools such as Indiana State and Valparaiso showed interest.
"I felt like if I had a good season, the big offers would come in," London told the Tribune. "I just had to come out and show everybody I could play. I had to show my talents but play within a team concent."
London averaged 17.5 points, six rebounds and four assists last season. He said that he favored Kansas to Minnesota.
Williams; Recruiting scheduling keeping head coach busy
The Jayhawks, who already have been contacted by event organizers, may play Arizona or Stanford, Connecticut, Duke, Kentucky, Rhode Island or Utah.
Indiana, Connecticut and Penn State.
Although London has a qualifying GPA, he needs to improve his ACT score by one point. His coach, Gene Pingatore, told the Chicago Tribune he was confident that London prepared well enough to qualify when he took the ACT again last Saturday.
- The Jayhawks may play in the Great Eight again next season, despite their second-round loss to Rhode Island.
Other basketball news:
The Great Eight annually features teams that advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament the previous season, but it prohibits more than one team from a conference from entering. Arizona and Stanford from the Pacific 10 and North Carolina and Duke from the Atlantic Coast Conference made the Elite Eight last season.
Kansas, a draw for ticket sales and ESPN coverage, would play anyone except for North Carolina, if indeed the Tar Heels compete. Kansas coach Roy Williams has said in the past that he would not intentionally schedule his alma mater.
Assistant coach mulls job options for future
By Tommy Gallagher
igallagher@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
Matt Doherty, Kansas men's basketball assistant coach, recently interviewed for head coaching position at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
He must wait for another chance. The 49ers chose to stay within the
program, selecting UNC Charlotte assistant coach Bobby Lutz for the position. He will succeed Melvin Watkins, who accepted the head coaching position at Texas A&M.
Doherty, an assistant coach at Kansas for six years, has been the focus of several coaching rumors during the past season.
Doherty: UNC Charlotte opted for other finalist
Doherty did not formally interview for any of those coaching positions.
Before last season, there were whispers of Doherty leaving for Arizona State. Most recently, he had been named among the candidates for head coaching positions at Virginia and Providence.
"I have not been offered the job." Doherty said. "I have had discussions with UNC Charlotte and I think it's a good situation and the people there are first class. If things don't work out for me, I think a lot of Bobby Lutz, who is a good friend."
Doherty told the Charlotte Observer on Wednesday he wanted the UNC Charlotte job but he would not be crushed if he did not get it.
Doherty said he felt comfortable with the responsibility of being a head coach in the future.
"I don't feel like I have to take a job." Doherty said. "I want to get a situation that is just right for me and my family. But I believe I am more and more ready
Whether Doherty leaves for a head coaching position this offseason could determine the future of Kansas assistant coach Joe Holladay, who was hired as a restricted-earnings coach before the 1993-94 season.
Holladay: Tenure as restricted-earnings coach to expire
Holladay has been at Kansas for five years, which is the
to assume the role of head coach."
Should Doherty leave for a head coaching position during the offseason, Hollday could slide into the assistant position vacated by Doherty.
limit for restricted-earnings coaches at an institution as set by the NCAA. Now he must be reassigned to another position here or find employment at another school to comply with NCAA rules.
Kansas head coach Roy Williams testified Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., against the NCAA's restricted-earnings rules. The rules restrict earnings of designated coaches to $12,000 per year in institutional salary and $4,000 in basketball camp income.
Williams said the NCAA's rules were unfair given the $50,000 and $60,000 salaries of other assistants. Holladay's salary jumped to $36,000 when the rule was rescinded in May 1995.
"As far as I know, there are not many places in America where you're limited to a certain amount of money," Williams told The Associated Press after his testimony.
J
The plaintiffs in the class-action case are seeking $30 million in damages to almost 1,900 coaches. The NCAA said it owed 58 coaches about $800,000 total.
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