Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansan's sports columnists have officially caught NCAA fever. Which teams will lose, which ones will stay alive.
SEE PAGE 2B
Kansas golf
The Kansas men's golf team took an encouraging trip to Louisiana earlier this week.
SEE PAGE 4B
Thursday
March 12, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Knight case resolved
Indiana's Bobby Knight will not miss any games because of an incident with a referee two weeks ago.
SEE PAGE 6B
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And Thomas makes three
Kansas guard Billy Thomas dives past a Pella Windows player in a preseason game. Photo by Steve Puppe/KANSAN
Kansas guard Billy Thomas moves in to block a shot by Kansas State's Aaron Swartzendruber. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
Thomas questionable for Friday's game
By Tommy Calagher
tgallogher@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Tommy Gallagher
Thomas said he would learn today whether he would play against Prairie View A&M at about 9:20 p.m. tomorrow, but team trainers already have given him a weekend outlook.
Kansas guard Billy Thomas practiced yesterday for the first time in a week since being bothered by a left-thigh strain. Going into practice, he appeared loose and confident.
"If I'm not ready to go on Friday, then I'll definitely be ready to go on Sunday," Thomas said. "I am looking forward to improving my health and playing on Friday. That will be a coach's decision."
Friday. Why was it so hard for Thomas said he felt better than he had
since injuring the thigh last week in practice, but Kansas coach Roy Williams approached the issue with cautious optimism
optimism. Whether Thomas will play depends on his performance today at practice in Oklahoma City, Williams said.
"Billy has to be able to go through practice, or I don't think we'll have him this weekend," Williams said. "It's his leg. If you can't run or move, you can't play."
Officially, Thomas is listed as questionable for tomorrow's game.
Thomas said he was able to move better than he had before and that the injury would not affect his shooting. But he was concerned about running the court and playing defense with his leg at less than 100 percent.
"Only two days ago, the trainer said I wouldn't be able to play this weekend," Thomas said. "Now, I can shoot the ball. I can move laterally. I can hop. But I don't know if I can slide, run and defend somebody. We'll see."
somebody.
Thomas averaged 13.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game in 34 games this season. And he made two or more three-point field goals in 30 of 34 games.
Guard Ryan Robertson said Thomas served as a team catalyst.
"I think he is the X-factor for us," Robertson said. "He gives us that extra scoring punch that I think some teams just can't handle."
just can change.
But in past years and down the stretch this season, some analysts have criticized the Jayhawks for outside shooting.
The issue came up two years ago when Kansas lost to Syracuse 60-57 in the regional finals.
Thomas was 0-for-5 from the field, including 0-for-4 from three-point range. Overall, the Jayhawks were 22 for 64 (34 percent) for the game, including 4-for-25 (16 percent) from three-point range.
And in last season's 85-82 loss to Arizona in the Sweet 16, Thomas was 5-for-15, including 3-for-10 from three-point range. He scored 13 points.
But Thomas said the Jayhawks were prepared to make another run at the Final Four and to silence the critics.
"This is probably the biggest point of my career," Thomas said. "I think in past years we've been labeled as a team that can't really shoot the ball well in the postseason. This will be the true test."
Student rower roves across eastern Africa
By Kory Burke
Kansan sportswriter
"As an anthropology major, the exposure to East African culture was a critical aspect to my education," she said. "The five months I spent in classes, field school and with the Kenyan families were the most exciting of my life."
While her teammates trained for competition last spring, Erin Dean lived in a dung hut and drank goat's blood.
most exciting event of his career. Because the University of Kansas does not offer a study abroad program in Africa, Dean searched for a school that did. The search led to St. Lawrence University in New York.
Dean, Stillwell senior and member of the Kansas women's rowing team, spent five months last spring traveling throughout East Africa.
Dean left for Africa last January after completing an application and interview
After a week of orientation that included intensive Swahili training, she spent two weeks in Tanzania. Each day in Tanzania brought something new, she said.
"One day, we would go rock climbing or watch a medicine man from the Warusha tribe make a cure-all health drink made
process that lasted two months.
rrom goat's meat and herbal ingredients," she said. "Next, we would be streaking in the Serengeti."
After Tanzania, she lived with a family in the Taita region of southern Kenya. She
See UNIVERSITY on page 3A
Kansas athletes qualify for NCAA nationals
Four Kansas athletes recently qualified for the NCAA national championships in their respective sports.
TRACK & FIELD: Senior co-captain Candy Mason and freshman Andrea Branson received invitations to compete in the pole vault at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis this weekend.
Mason set the Big 12 and Kansas pole vault record earlier this season with a mark of 12 feet, 7 1/2 inches, which ranks fourth nationally. Branson, a freshman, finished second behind Mason at the Big 12 Championships with a mark of 12 feet, which ranks 12th nationally.
Freshman Scott Russell will compete in Indianapolis in the 35-weight weight throw. He already has broken the Kansas record in the event three times this season, and he throw of 67 feet, 23/4
SWIMMING: Senior Kristin Nilsen has qualified for the NCAA championships March 19-21 in Napoleapolis.
inches is the sixth-best mark in the country.
Her times at the Big 12 Championships several weeks ago were good enough to qualify nationally in the 200 breaststroke, 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley.
Nilsen is a team captain and holds the school record in the 200 breaststroke (2:15.37.) She also is a member of the record-holding 400 medley relay team
Last year at the NCAA Championships, she finished 17th in the 200 breaststroke, just three one-hundredths of a second out of the consolation finals. She also finished 23rd in the 400 individual medley and 37th in the 200 individual medley.
-Kansan staff report
Kansas coach takes another shot at title
By Tommy Gallagher
tgallagher@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas coach Roy Williams had heard all of the questions before.
But Williams said yesterday at his weekly press conference that he would not dwell on the past to motivate his team in the future.
Has the team recovered from last season's NCAA Tournament loss to Arizona? Do you feel pressure to win a national championship?
"Arizona last year finished fifth in their league," Williams said. "But the ability to upset somebody is truly one of the great things about the NCAA Tournament. You've got to play."
The Jayhawks have been a No. 1 seed under Williams three times during the past seven seasons but have advanced no further than the Sweet 16 in any of those years. And in Williams' two trips to the Final Four, Kansas has been a No. 3 seed.
Williams and the Jayhawks are cautious not to take anything for granted, including Prairie View A&M at about 9:20 p.m. tomorrow night at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
Williams said last year's team was a cut above the rest of the Kansas squads he previously had coached.
Williams: Says he won't use past disappointments to motivate this year's basketball team
"Last year is the only year that I looked back and said we should have won. Those other years I said we could have." Williams said. "Had we won it in '91, I wouldn't have thought we were one of the top-10 teams." in '93 if we had
Each season presents a new opportunity for Williams. He has a record of 281-61 (.822) — the best winning percentage among active coaches — and he has notched more victories than any other coach during his first 10 seasons.
Last year marked the first time a senior class had failed to reach the Final Four during the Williams era. Raef LaFrentz, Billy Thomas and C.B. McGrath will attempt to reach the Final Four before they graduate in spring.
But Williams said he felt no pressure to win the national title, despite what some critics have claimed.
"I don't think that a lot of analysts, so-called analysts, believe that we can do it," Robertson said. "That's their opinion. This is America, and I don't have a problem with that. I think we're going to find out whether or not that lack of respect is a good motivating tool for us."
"Do I feel as if I have to win it? Not yet," Williams said. "If Bob Frederick and Chancellor Hemenway tell me I have to win it or else they'll fire me, then I might feel that way. But I probably set myself up for a lot of criticism by talking about this openly. But that's all right."
won it, we were probably one of the top five to eight teams."
Some Jayhawks, including guard Ryan Robertson, said the Jayhawks were receiving little respect from basketball analysts.
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Williams then shared a conversation he had with a former player from Kansas that refreshed his attitude about coaching pressures.
"He said 'Coach, regardless of what happens, you're still the greatest thing to happen in my life. I'll still use you as a role model.'" Williams said. "It was one of the nicest phone calls you could ever have. And I'll think more of that than of someone criticizing me because I haven't won the national title."
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