Friday, March 13, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
Kansas State collapses, ends season in NIT
The Associated Press
MANHATTAN — A team's basketball season can unravel in March, Kansas State's collapsed.
From that fabled 111-point game against Missouri, the Wildcats scored just 39 Wednesday when they lost an NIT First-round game to North Carolina State 59-39.
Hiring at 10 a.m. and drinking NOAAT football!
But late in the season, point guard Duane Davis suf-
That was a return to earth for a team that once was riding high at 15-6 and thinking NCAA Tournament.
a severe ankle injury.
The team's other key player,
Manny Dies, got himself in trouble with the law at the crucial point of the year.
The Wildcats lurched into the postseason Big 12 Conference tournament, defeated Colorado and best to Kansas.
Like every other conference team but Kansas, the Wildcats had trouble winning road games. But behind Dies, the team's most improved player, they played respectably.
The Wildcats landed a spot in the second-chance NIT. But the performance at North Carolina State left the team's two seniors, Aaron Swartzendruber and Marcus McCollough, wondering how the team could come up so short in what for the Wildcats was such a big game.
then Davis missed the last four games of the season with the ankle injury. And coach Tom Asbury held out Dies for three games after he was charged with possession of an open container of alcohol in his car
And now the K-State season is finished after what became an ill-advised trip to Raleigh, N.C.
"This is such a disappointment," Swartzendrubor said of the North Carolina State game. "To play that way in this kind of game. I don't know how else to describe it."
But Asbury already is looking toward next season, and a first glance at the roster would indicate he has a lot of players who gained experience this year coming back.
However, he is quick to say the loss of Swartzendruber and McColloch will affect the team.
Key players returning are Dies, Chris Griffin, May, Davis, Shawn Rhodes and TV Sims.
Meanwhile, Asbury has denied rumors he is interested in a head coaching position with the University of California-Santa Barbara.
"My efforts are 100 percent focused on the next season here at Kansas State." Asbury said yesterday in a news release. "The 1998-99 season begins immediately."
Tiger players hoping for NCAA berth in'99
COLUMBIA, Mo. — It is no wonder Missouri coach Norm Stewart gets a little sentimental when asked about senior Kelly Thames.
The Associated Press
Thames was the last link to arguably the greatest Tiger team of all time, the 1993-94 squad.
Wednesday, Thames' career ended, as did the 1997-98 season for the Tigers (17-15) who lost 93-86 to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
"I was glad to see him (Thames) wind up just the way he started." Stewart said.
For three consecutive years, the Tigers failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Thames had to sit out the 1994-95 season with a torn ligament in his right knee.
"You can't write your own script," Thames said. "I've got no negrets."
The Tigers played well in spurs during its final game and during the whole season. Missouri defeated then-No. 3 Kansas Jan. 19, but lost to mediocre Kansas State 111-56.
The Tigers, 0-10 on the road, never found a way to win on an opponent's home court. Stewart said it will be the returnees who will dictate success or failure next season.
If a turnaround is in the hands of current players, transfer Albert White and junior John Woods gave fans some hope Wednesday. Woods scored a career-high 29 points. White had 22.
Woods said, "I guarantee we go to the NCAA (Tournament) next year. I know that for a fact."
Teammates look for records
Track members to compete in NCAA championships
By Angela Johnson
Kansan sportswriter
Two Kansas women pole-vaulters will attempt to vault their way into the Jayhawk track and field record books again tomorrow.
"All of his throws were between 65 feet and 67 feet," Rick Attig, multi-events coach, said. "He needed to throw better to qualify for nationals, and he went in there and did it."
Mason's mark of 12 feet, 7 1/2 inches is the fourth best in the nation, and Branson's 12 feet mark is ranked 12th nationally.
Senior Candy Mason and freshman Andrea Branson hope to leave their mark at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships in Indianapolis, along with men's teammate freshman Scott Russell. He will compete in the 35-lb. weight throw.
"Both women have really good chances of placing well, better than what the rankings show," Attig said.
Russell broke his school record last weekend at the qualifying meet in Ames, Iowa. His throw of 67 feet, 2 3/4 inches is the sixth-best mark in the country.
This is Mason's first time competing in the indoor nationals. She is the school recordholder in the pentathlon, but the pentathlon is not an NCAA national event.
Attig said he hoped Mason and Branson came back with new school records.
"In most of the meets this season, Candy had done the pentathlon before the pole vault," Attig said. "She never had fresh legs, but still jumped over 12 feet."
"Andrea has made progress the past couple of weeks," he said. "She's ready to take it to the next level."
Seventeen women across the nation will compete in the pole vault, the first year for this event at nationals.
Kansas is the only school to have two athletes in one event. Attig said the team would have had three if freshman Ashley Feinberg, who jumped 12 feet, 6 inches at the Kansas State Triangular on Jan. 31, had been able to compete.
Feinberg has acute tendinitis and underwent surgery last week.
The meet starts today at the RCA Dome. Branson, Mason and Russell all will compete tomorrow.
"It will be nice to be able to practice in the facility," Attt said. "The track is a bit faster than some, and it helps if we're ready for it and know what to anticipate."
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