Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Michael Jordan is keeping his lips sealed as to whether he will return for another season in the NBA.
Kansas Baseball
The Jayhawks split an error-ridden double-header last night against Baker University.
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Thursday April 2,1998 Section: B Page 1
Kansas Track & Field
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The team members will split up to compete in Austin, Texas and Emporia starting today.
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Football team seeks improvement
Kansas quarterbacks Akili Roberson and Zac Wegner throw the ball at Memorial Stadium. The team held its first spring practice yesterday. Photo by Steve Puppe/KANSAN
Allen settles in prepares players
By Kevin C. Wilson Kansan sportswriter
Last year's spring practice period was an opportunity for Kansas football coach Terry Allen to become acquainted with his players and assistant coaches.
This year's practices, which began yesterday afternoon, will be more about football and less about making introductions, Allen said.
"Last spring, there were quite a few
know," Allen said.
"The playbook was like Greek to most of the guys. We didn't get a lot accomplished."
This year, Allen is ready to start improving the football team, he said.
"Our primary goal is to come out with our two deep positions set and see where our personnel is at." Allen said. "This is also a chance for us to make positive adjustments to our offense and defense."
Allen: Focusing on the game in second spring of practice
Allen said that last year he and his staff had learned some of the intricacies of the Big 12 Conference. This year, they will attempt to adapt the offense and defense accordingly, he said.
"We want to pick up from where we left off on offense last year," Allen said. "We made great strides and hope they continue to multiply."
Kansas returns 10 starters on an offensive unit that, despite ranking last in the country in total offense, showed improvement late in the season. The Jayhawks averaged 27 points and 353 yards in total offense during their final three games after putting up an average of 12 points and 199.6 yards during the first eight games of the season.
Sophomore running back David Winbush said that last year he tired of hearing about how bad the offense was and that he was looking forward to improving.
"We are out to prove to ourselves that we can be a top-10 offensive team," Winbush said.
Winbush said he had extreme confidence in his own abilities, his coach, the offensive line and the advantage of having 10 returning starters.
The Jayhawks' defense will not have that kind of experience. The defense will go into spring practice looking to solidify a unit that lost seven starters, including three from the secondary.
Senior cornerback Jamie Harris is the only returning regular in the defensive backfield, and Allen said the most interesting competition would come from this area.
"I think that when we travel, the defensive secondary will need their own bus," Allen said. "We have 25 guys competing in the secondary, including walk-ons who see that there's an opportunity."
Allen said opportunities on the field were ample and everything was wideopen heading into spring practice.
"You can just throw out those two deeps that we have now because they are going to change."
1998 Kansas football schedule
Sept. 5 Illinois State 1 p.m.
Sept. 12 at Missouri TBA
Sept. 19 North Texas TBA
Sept. 26 at Alabama-Birmingham 6 p.m.
Oct. 3 Texas A&M 1 p.m.
Oct. 10 at Baylor TBA
Oct. 17 at Nebraska TBA
Oct. 24 Colorado 1 p.m.
Oct. 31 Kansas State 1 p.m.
Nov. 14 Oklahoma State 1 p.m.
Nov. 21 at Iowa State TBA
Home games in bold
Football team recuperating seeks starters
By Kevin C. Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
Notes from the press conference before the beginning of spring practice.
Coach Allen said several Jayhawk players would be held out of spring practice to recover from injuries. Last year's starting fullback Greg Davis will miss the duration of spring drills in an attempt to alleviate the migraine headaches that he has had since the conclusion of last year.
"It is a neuromuscular thing." Allen said. "It's kind of scary, but they are doing the research to find out what it is. He's also about 25 pounds overweight because he hasn't been able do anything this offseason except sit at the table."
Allen said the running back position was wide-open, with sophomore David Winbush, junior Mitch Bowles and senior Julius Bruce all competing for the starting spot.
"We will take a good strong look at Winchub," Allen said. "We also got Mitch Bowles who can be a guy who can help us a lot. He is a dual purpose back who can run and catch the ball out of the backfield. Then we have an enigma in Julius Bruce who has shown signs of being great."
Also expected to miss the spring drills are running back Mike Lewis (knee), tight end Jason Gulley (stress fracture of left foot), linebacker Steve Bratten (knees), defensive end Jeremy Hanak (left knee) and linebacker J.J. Johnson (right knee). Allen said wide receiver John Gordon had his sleep apnea problem taken care of but Gordon would be held from spring practice anyway. Allen is optimistic about Gordon playing in the fall.
Kansas starting quarterback Zac Wegner said he was excited about the upcoming season, especially with the improvement of his offensive line.
"We had a great winter conditioning program," Wegner said. "The offensive line got bigger, stronger and faster."
Allen said his Jayhawks had benefited from the addition of a football specialist strength coach. He said that 57 players had achieved their personal records in lifting this winter.
■ Receiving is an important area of focus this spring if the Jayhawks will be more effective at moving the ball through the air next season. The Jayhawks have six players returning with starting experience including sophomore Termaine Fulton, who had 10 receptions for 302 yards and four touchdowns.
"We need to better exploit the opponent with Termine by not just throwing the long ball," Allen said. "We need to get him the ball in better places."
Men's tennis blown away by weather, Tulsa
By Erin Thompson
Kansas sportswriter
Women's team travels to Manhattan, win 8-1
A chance for the men's tennis team to prove it was still the best team in the region was blown away in the Kansas wind yesterday.
After dropping two of the three doubles matches, the Jayhawks could not overcome the Golden Hurricanes. The strong wind coming out of the west was an additional obstacle.
The Jayhawks fell 7-0 to Tulsa at the Robinson Center tennis courts. Kansas is ranked first in Region V of the Collegiate Tennis Rankings and Tulsa is second.
"Today, there was a little wind condition," junior Kenny Powell said. "Tulsa played really well. We could have competed harder. But Tulsa came out ready to play."
The Jayhawks have struggled this season with inconsistency and injuries. This continued yesterday.
KANSAS TENNIS
Enrique Abaroa, the team's No.1 singles
player, is recovering from a sprained back he suffered in February. Without Abaroa the Jayhawks must change their line up, which leaves everyone playing a spot
higher than usual, said Mark Riley, Kansas coach.
Abaroa played doubles at the top spot with Luis Uribe but did not compete in singles play. He and Uribe had the Jayhawk's only win.
The team continues to search for consistency from all its players.
"It's like we have two teams." Riley said. "We need to be more consistent. We were bad against Berkeley, good against UNLV, and bad today. Hopefully, the good team will show up Saturday against Colorado."
Putting everything together at the end for the national tournament is the goal for the remainder of the season. Riley said.
"I hope we can pull this together," he said.
"We are no longer looking to get healthy; we just need to play consistently with the players we have. If we're going to go to the Big Dance, we need to do it with the group that's healthy now."
To advance to the national tournament the Jayhawks probably would have to play Tulsa again and win. Powell said.
The Jayhawks face Missouri at 3:00 today at the Robinson courts and Saturday travel to Colorado.
The women's tennis team had better luck than the men yesterday when it played at Kansas State. The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats 8-1.
Earlier in the season, doubles play had been a problem for the women, but they swept the doubles against the Wildcats.
The Jayhawks top-four singles players, who all are ranked, continued their impressive play and won all their matches. The biggest challenge came at the No. 2 singles, where Christie Sim had a three set battle with K-State's Anna Pampoulova before winning in a tie breaker 6-2, 0-6, 7-6 (7-5).
The Jayhawks will have a two-match home stand this weekend against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Kansas sophomore Jeff Erin hits the ball in a doubles match against Tulsa. The men's tennis team was defeated 7-0 yesterday and faces Missouri today. Photo by Steve Pipe/KANSAS