Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
After beating No.1 seed Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, The Rhode Island Rams suddenly don't seem so tiny.
See what Kansas fans have to say about the men's basketball team's loss to Rhode Island.
Kansas basketball
SEE PAGE 6B
SEE PAGE 5B
Tuesday
March 17, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Club sports
Several KU students are bending over backwards trying to form a gymnastics club at the University.
SEE PAGE 4B
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"We play during timeouts and yell when the referees make a bad call. Master hecklers, we caiole the Tulane team into a turnover here, a bad shot there." Photo by Geoff Kriener/KANSAN
Life on the road with the Kansas women's basketball team. See it from the eyes of a KU student who is...
Playin' in the band
By Gerry Doyle gdylee@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Friday. March 13, 7:01 a.m.
My alarm goes off. I don't know where I am for a few moments, but after some self-convincing, I struggle out of bed and into the shower. It's a bit early to be getting up after a late Thursday night, but it's okay. The Jayhawk men and women are in the Big Dance.
7:50 a.m.
My car barely makes it past a patch of ice in the alley behind my house, and I go to pick up another band member. She also is tired.
8:30 a.m.
We roll away from Murphy Hall. The band director hands out travel money to the 25 or so members on the bus. There is much rejoicing.
2:30 p.m.
We arrive in downtown Iowa City, Iowa.
We step off the bus. The first thing we notice is the smell, sharp and pungent even in the chilly March air.
It's the smell of pigs doing what pigs do We quickly go inside.
We play some songs for a few Kansas fans who are assembled in the lobby for a pregame rally. It's loud. Finally, we form a tunnel, and the women's team jogs through. The women seem ready to play.
6 d.m.
Tipoff of the Tulane game. After a slow start, the women pick up steam, hitting shots and playing defense.
We feel bad for the Tulane band, a collection of four saxophones, a flute, a tuba, a trumpet and a sprinkling of drums. The band isn't very good, but its members seem like nice people.
We play during timeouts and yell when the referees make a bad call. Master hecklers, we cajole the Tulane team into a turnover here, a bad shot there.
The Jayhawks hit two key free throws with 10.7 seconds left, sealing the win, 72-68.
8:45 p.m.
We get back to the hotel. We head out to an eating and drinking establishment for some much-needed dinner and for beverages to soothe our raw throats. We badger the management until it puts the
KU-Prairie View A&M game on the big screen. The Jayhawks win by a lot. Although it takes nearly an hour to get our food, there is much rejoicing.
About 11 p.m.
The band members say their goodnights and go to bed after a night of carousing. I have an odd dream that a bunch of people — most of whom I don't know — burst into my room after I have fallen asleep. The people are loud, and one of them jumps on my bed. Odd, indeed.
Saturday, March 14, 12:30 p.m. I manage to open my eyes and look at my watch. I look around the room. I am
the only one there.
Strangely, debris — as if from a party — litters the room. I feel for the television remote on the bed stand, find it and press my thumb on the "on" button.
2 p.m.
I shower and go get some food from a Hardee's down the street. I bring it back, collapse on the floor of the room and munch. The food is good. The basketball on television is good. I am happy.
4 p.m.
A group of us wander around the city, searching for pastries. I scout potential dinner locations on the sly.
5:45 p.m.
1 go shopping with another band member.
I buy a KRS-ONE CD at a small shop called Discount Records. The CD costs $15.99, hardly a discount.
We find a grocery store and buy some party supplies.
The girl I'm shopping with tells me that my odd dream last night wasn't a dream. Odd.
6:30 n.m.
11 n.m.
Dinnertime. We eat at a pizza place called Airliner. Pictures of World War II aircraft dot the walls. It's pretty neat. I order a French dip and a salad, both of which are good. We play pinball in the back of the restaurant. It's neat.
We head to a club down the block called The Union. The city seems filled with bars and clubs with these kinds of names: There is a place called The Fieldhouse, and I think overhear someone talking about going drinking at The Library. I am intrigued.
11:30 p.m.
Despite every shred of common sense I have, I am dancing. The lights are fun; the music is loud. When I am not feeling self-conscious, I enjoy myself. The spirit squad shows up. Things become more fun.
Sundav. March 15. 1:15 a.m.
Suddenly, I am dancing with a bunch of people I don't know. Smiling, I carefully boogie my way out of the crowd and scan the undulating mob of people on the floor. I see one guy I know. He tells me everybody left. I nod and head out the door. The night air is a quiet, cool contrast to the interior of The Union.
1:30 a.m.
We don't do anything social back at the hotel. No parties, no being loud, no arrests and definitely no drinking. The lack of social activity moves to the room of two of the team's managers. One of them calls some players. They are asleep.
3 a.m.
Bedtime.
12:30 p.m.
I wake up, shower, get some food. We work for a little while at cleaning up the hotel room, which mysteriously is filled with debris again. We pack, get our stuff
See BAND on page 3B
Baseball team plagued with rainy-day blues
By John Blakely Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team continues to battle weather conditions more than opposing teams. The Jayhawks (8-6) are scheduled to play Arkansas (15-4) at 5 p.m. today at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
Weather forecasts for this week call for
showers through the weekend, which could postpone today's and tomorrow's scheduled games against Arkansas and may
threaten the upcoming weekend series against Iowa State.
"It's so rare to have weather this poor in March,"said Bobby Ralland, Kansas coach. "I get frustrated with this much rain in March, but it usually only happens once every ten years."
Games scheduled against Nebraska Kansas State and Air Force were canceled last weekend because of poor weather before conditions finally allowed Kansas to play Hastings College Sunday in Lawrence. The Javahwens won 11-3.
"It was a cold day, but we got out there and shook the turf off our shoes," Randall said.
The Jayhawks used every pitcher except for Les Walrond, who should start today. Assistant coach Wilson Kilmer said Walrond, who is 2-1 with a 5.75 earned run average, had been the most consistent pitcher this season.
"Les didn't come into this season with much pitching experience," Kilmer said. "He has made amazing progress from last spring to this spring."
Kilmer said that the pitching staff had progressed, but that canceled games had slowed development.
Walrond also can bat. He made three hits Sunday as the designated hitter, one of which was a three-run home run.
"Every time we think a guy has something going, he's had to sit a week or two," Kilmer said. "We need some good weather so everybody can get into a rhythm in throwing the ball."
Arkansas, a consensus top-20 team, is coming off a 36-20 1997 season in which it narrowly won out on the NCAA tournament.
"They attract good players and are traditionally one of the most fundamentally sound teams we face." Randall said. "We need to play teams like Arkansas to prepare us for the Texas Techs and Oklahoma of the world."
Jayhawks express disbelief about close of season
By Tommy Gallagher
tgallagher@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
Kansas coach Roy Williams always told his plains to fear no one but respect everyone.
Williams frequently shuttled players in and out of the game — 51 times to Rhode Island's 16. He played guard Billy Thomas and forward Lester Earl on offense and guard C.B. McGrath and forward Nick Bradford on defense during the game's final minutes, changing lineups at nearly every whistle.
But some Rhode Island players perceived a lack of respect by top-seeded Kansas during most of its 80-75 upset of the Jayhawks Sunday night.
"I think they underestimated us," he said. "I think they were overconfident and didn't want to play us until the last five or six minutes. We had the game under control by then."
Rams forward Antonio Reynolds-Dean said the Jayhawks only started playing with intensity late in the game.
"I still never thought that we were going to lose the ballgame, even when we were down with only five or six minutes to go." McGrath said. "I had that much confidence in our team, but I guess it didn't turn out that way."
Despite Kansas' superior bench, athleticism and frontcourt size, the game was out of reach.
Forward Paul Pierce shared the same sentiment.
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
"It was frustrating," Pierce said. "At no time did I feel we were out of the game. No matter how many threes they hit, I always thought we'd come back. Only after that buzzer did it sink in that we had lost."
Williams led solid, but lackluster, teams to the Final Four in 1991 and 1983. But with two first-team All-Americans, six McDonald's All-Americans and a bevy of talent from top to bottom, the Jayhawks floundered again.
For the fourth time in seven seasons, the Jayhawks earned the No.1 seed. And on all four occasions, Kansas advanced no further than the Sweet 16.
1998: Rhode Island 80, Kansas 75
1996: Georgia 76, Purdue 69
1994: Boston College 75, North Carolina 72
1992: Texas El-Paso 66, Kansas 60
1990: North Carolina 79, Oklahoma 77
1986: Auburn 81, St. John's 65
1983: Villanova 59, Michigan 55
1982: Boston College 82, DePaul 75
1981: St. Joseph's 49, DePaul 48
1981: Kansas State 50, Oregon State 48
1980: UCLA 77, DePaul 71
1979: Pennsylvania 72, North Carolina 71
FALLEN NUMBER ONE SEEDS No. 1 seeds that have lost second-round games since 1979, when the NCAA began seeding teams:
Pierce said Sunday that the loss left him craving for an escape route.
"No one wants to be here. I don't want to be here in this locker room do interviews right now," Pierce said. "But I have to accept the fact that we lost because I have to move on."
Some of his teammates hinted that Pierce may forge his senior season to go the NBA. Pierce said Sunday that he would discuss his future with his family and Williams and that a decision could come in few weeks.
Until then, most of the Jayhawks said they would skip watching the rest of the NCAA Tournament. Remembering the pain from their loss would be too hard.
Kansas guard Ryan Robertson sits in the locker room after the Jayhawks 80-75 defeat Sunday in Oklahoma City. Photo by Steve Pupine/KANSAN
"My career's over. and I'm proud of
what I've been able to accomplish, what I've done," forward Raef LaFrentz said. "I'm proud of the people who we've been in
contact with, grown with the past four years. But we didn't make the Final Four."