Inside Section B NAGANO 1 99 8 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Sports The United States hockey, after an embarrassing Olympic performance, have been accused of wrecking their rooms. SEE PAGE 6B Friday February 20,1998 Section: B Page 1 Chicago residents and baseball fans nationwide mourn broadcaster Harry Caray's death. KU SWIMMING SEE PAGE 2B Kansas swimming Page 1 The Kansas women's swimming and diving team is competing in Austin, Texas at the Big 12 Championships. SEE PAGE 3B WWW.KANSAN.COM/NEWS/SPORTS Contact the Kansan Sports Desk: Sports Fax: Sports e-mail: Sports Forum: (785) 864-4810 (785) 864-5261 sports@kansan.com sptforum@kansan.com Commentary Camping out sends students into realm of field house Camping out in Allen Field House before a basketball game is like entering another world. But I have a confession: I too used to be a wide-eyed, patient, overly enthusiastic, fanatical, sleeping-bag-and-pillowcase-carrying, tired, class-skipping student with too much time on my hands. Those were my freshman days when I was naive and did not have a basketball ticket that guaranteed me a good seat. Since then I have avoided camping out as if I were a highly touted basketball recruit shunning Roy Williams. Recently, a friend of mine asked me to accompany her and reenter the world I had ignored. This is my artistically licensed story: 3 p.m. I sat down on a blanket across from a guy drooling in his sleep. I think he had been sleeping on the spot I was sitting because I noticed my blanket was a little wet. 3:01 p.m. My butt was already sore. 3:02 p.m. A women's basketball player walked by. No one but me noticed her affiliation Spencer Duncan sports@kansan.com 3:03 p.m. A guy who resembled Billy Thomas walked by. Everyone noticed. 3:06 p.m. A very cute girl had to go the bathroom. The tension mounted. 3:04 p.m. A fight broke out. Members of one group were upset at another group for taking their spot. A member of the upset group missed camping time because of a test and wanted the group's spot back. 3:05 p.m. The fight ended. The group that stole the spot explained that its members were all missing tests to camp out. Test taking, it turns out, is no excuse. The group that had lost its spot walked away crying. 3:07 p.m. My butt was really sore now. And wet. A guy jumped up and offered to hold her spot. He obviously had no girlfriend and his motives were clear. She went to the restroom. The tension eased. 3:09 p.m. Another argument broke out. One girl claimed that *Titanic* should be named Best Picture, and another said it should be Good Will Hunting. 3:08 p.m. A guy in the corner found a doughnut under a table with a bite taken out of it. Rumor had it the bite marks matched those of Roy Williams, and the guy in the corner wrapped it in cellophane I said I thought Hoosiers was a good movie. 3:10 p.m. The girl returned from the bathroom. She thanked the guy for saving her place. He asked her out, and she said no. The doughnut guy in the corner laughed. 3:11 p.m. Some guy started bouncing a basketball. He said he tried out for the team once and he knew Jelanni Janisse. No one was impressed. 3:12 p.m. I thought I caught the girl who went to the bathroom looking at me, but I couldn't tell if she was cross-eyed or if she was checking me out. I let it go. 3:13 p.m. I asked the campers what was so great about camping out. "Nada," said some Spanish major "The sleep time," said the drooler who had just woken up. 3:14 I asked everyone, "If there is nothing good about government, then why do it?" "You can get a good seat," said the basket- ball dribble. "You can get into the field house first on game day," said some guy who earlier had tried to immy open a Coke machine. "The artifacts," said the guy who found the doughnut. 3:15 My butt couldn't take it anymore. I said goodbye to my friend, wishing good luck to the other campers. Fifteen minutes was all I could handle. Duncan is an Topeka senior in English. You have to have to give credit to those campers. Besides, camping out seems almost better than the games. Cyclones whirl to Kansas Victory would clinch Big 12 title for 'Hawks By Tommy Gallagher tgallagher@kansan.com Kansas sportwriter No. 4 Kansas can secure the Big 12 Conference regular season title and cut down some tornadoes if the Jayhawks defeat Iowa State in Allen Field House. However, the Jayhawks must face one of the conference's stingiest defenses, a fact not lost to Kansas coach Roy Williams. "The first thing that comes to mind when we play against Iowa State is the somewhat unique defenses," Williams said. "They face-guard some people. They don't play some people. They completely disrupt the offense." The Cyclones own the conference's top scoring defense, allowing just 67.2 points per game. Although they lost 83-62 in the teams' first meeting in Ames, Iowa, they stayed close until a 32-10 second-half run helped propel Kansas to victory. Williams said Iowa State's defense had some strengths, but other flaws could be exposed, as was proven by the by former Kansas guard Jacque Vaughn. "Jacque was not being played, so he probably had more shot attempts in Ames than anywhere else he played the last couple years," Williams said. "It's hard doing that with this year's team, in particular, because we have five people who can score." Kansas shot 51.6 percent from the field in the last game. The Cyclones were a mere 38.5 percent and committed 17 turnovers. Kansas forward Lester Earl blocks a shot by Kansas State's Shawn Rhodes in Manhattan. Kansas will play Iowa State tomorrow in Allen Field House. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN Not much has changed since the first meeting. Iowa State forward Marcus Fizer still leads the team in scoring with 15.2 points per game, and rebounds, with 8.5 per game. Forwards Paul Shirley and Klay Edwards will be expected to contribute to the Cyclones' offense and defense. Forward Reef LaFrentz said he was eager about Kansas' chance to win the conference title for the fourth consecutive year. "It's always special to cut down the nets to celebrate something that you've worked so hard to earn." LaFrentz said. "It was one of our goals at the start of the season, and hopefully it'll be another special day in the field house." The Starting Lineup Allen Field House • Lawrence Time: 3:05 p.m. KANSAS JAYHAWKS 12-1 Big 12, 28-3 overa G RYAN ROBERTSON 6-5 JR. G BILLY THOMAS 6-4 JR. F PAUL PIERCE 6-7 JR. F T.J. PUGH 6-8 JR. C RAEF LAFRENZT 6-11 JR. IOWA STATE CYCLONES 5-8 GRE B12, 12-14 overall G LEE LOVE 6-1 Fr. G STEVIE JOHNSON 6-5 Fr. F MARCUS FIZER 6-7 Fr. F KLAY EWARDS 6-9 Jr. C PAUL SHIRLEY 6-10 So. Women vie for first place spot Bv Kevin C. Wilson Kansan sportswriter First place in the Big 12 Conference's north division is up for grabs and the Kansas women's basketball team wants a piece of it. The Jayhawks will travel to Ames, Iowa, tomorrow looking to sweep No. 24 Iowa State and move into a tie for the top spot with the Cyclones. Coach Marian Washington said it was unbelievable that the team would be playing for a tie for first place in the division. "We realize how tough Iowa State is but most of our players have not been in this arena," Washington said. "They're going to have to face another hostile crowd, but hopefully we will benefit from our experience in Nebraska and show some composure." Kansas, 17-6 overall and 9-4 in Big 12 play, defeated the Cyclones 65-58 in Lawrence on Saturday, but this game is in Iowa State's backyard, where they are a perfect 13-0. "It's just another game on the road," Johnson said. "I've never played there so I don't have any preconceived notions. I'm just going to go out and play the same way I always do and hopefully it will result in a victory." "We need to have another balanced attack so they can't pack it inside," Johnson said. "If we can hit from the outside, they're going to have no choice but to go one-on-one inside and the same thing might happen again." Freshman forward Jaclyn Johnson said she was not intimidated about her first trip to Hilton Coliseum. Johnson bullied the interior defense of the Cyclones for a career-high 23 points on Feb.14, but said she didn't expect it to be that easy this time around. The Starting Lineup G LYNN PRIDE 6-2 So. F GACLYN JOHNSON 6-1 FR. F JENNIFER JACKSON 5-10 FR. F SUZI RAYMANT 5-11 Jr. F NAKIA SANFORD 6-3 Jr. KANSAS JAYHAWKS 9-4 Big 12, 17-6 overall IOWA STATE CYCLONES 10-3 Big 12, 21-5 overall Hilton Coliseum • Ames Radio: KJHK. 90.7 FM G AMANDA BARTZ 6-0 So. G STACY FREES 5-8 So. G MEGAN TAYLOR 5-11 Fr. F JAYME OLSON 6-1 Sr. F JANEL GRIMM 6-1 Sr. Iowa State, 21-5 overall and 10-3 in Big 12 play, is coming off a 80-50 thrashing of Kansas State on Wednesday night and present the Jayhawks with a difficult defensive assignment. "We have to take them out of their rhythm," Washington said. "With a team like this you can't allow them to get on a roll. We're going to have to get a hand in their face and make it difficult for them to run their offense." Washington said she was optimistic about her team's chances of making the "We are ranked 16th in the country in terms of strength of schedule and 17-6 overall," Washington said. "We've got a shot if we can win a few more games and getting to the playoffs would be an unbelievable accomplishment for this young team." Kansas forward JacyIn Johnson jumps for a rebound with Colorado's Shelly Garcia putting on pressure. Kansas defeated Colorado Wednesday night 67-51 in Allen Field House. Photo by Steve Puppe/KANSAN NCAA Tournament. Baseball off to play top teams in tourney By John Blakely Wilson Kansan sportswriter The team looks to build upon a two-game sweep at San Diego State last weekend, its best start since 1971. They combined clutch hitting, solid pitching and team speed to pound the Aztecs last weekend. Kansas baseball jets to Houston this weekend to play three 1997 NCAA Tournament qualifiers in the Marriott West Loop Classic. Central Florida (4-6), Houston (1-5) and Oklahoma (6-0) will be opponents for the Jayhawks today, tomorrow and Sunday. The final game of the series, a non-conference game against Oklahoma, will broadcast on KLWN 1320 at am noon Sunday. SIGNEES "The good thing is we won, but we made too many mistakes," coach Bobby Randall said. "We got enough pitching to win, and we put heat on their defense with our running game. We just have to be more consistent in all phases of the game." Les Walrond (1-0, 4.15 ERA) will start today's game, followed by Mark Corson (1-0, 5.79) tomorrow and Chad Schuster (0-0, 0.00) on Sunday. Randall said competition Corey Harrington, P-SS; 6-1, 160; Lincoln,NB. Eight players have signed letters of intent to play for Kansas next season. Jeff Davis, P; 6-3 170: Lawrence Jay Brooks, 1B; 6-5.220; Baldwin ■ Lukas McKnight. C; 6-0, 195; Liber. twille. Ill. Ryan Schmidt, P; 6-2, 215; Valley Center Dan Olson, P-OF; 6-2, 190; Love- land. Colo. Matt Van Alsburg, OF; 6-4, 190; Fort Collins, Colo. ■ Matt Webb, OF; 5.10, 185; Bedford, Texas "Last year we basically had to throw everyone because nobody was very consistent," Randall said. "Practices are more competitive now because you will have to be effective to get to throw on this staff." was high on the staff to get innings. Randall said base running allowed the team three or four extra opportunities to score. "Their game plan was to stop our running, but we still had six steals in two games," Randall said. "We also hustled hard to turns singles into doubles, and those things paid off." Randall also praised the hitting of catcher Josh Dimmick (.444 average, one home run, three RBI) and outfielder Cliff Bryson (.444, five RBI). Central Florida won 40 games last season and is led by pitcher/pitoutfielder Todd Bellhorn (2-0, 0.92 ERA and a .333 batting average), who will be the starting pitcher against Kansas. Central Florida is favored to win the Trans-America Conference title. Houston also won 40 games last season and was picked by the coaches of Conference USA to win the league title. The Cougars' record at 1-5 is deceiving after being swept by No. 5 Alabama last weekend. Outfielder Mike Medrano leads the Cougar attack with a .370 average. "Both Central Florida and Houston are solid, young teams," assistant coach Mike Bard said. "Both teams will finish the season with far better records than they look like at this point." Then there is the 19th-ranked powerhouse Oklahoma. The Sooners have a .416 team batting average and blasted 25 home runs in just six games. First baseman Casey Bookout is an All-America candidate with a .714 average and seven home runs, and pitcher/outfielder Brian Shackelford has jumped out to a 2-0 start with a 2.00 ERA. "Our philosophy is to play the best teams," Bard said. "To be the best you have to best the top teams. It's just a process of gaining confidence that we belong at that level." Other baseball news: Kansas added a home game at 3 p.m. Tuesday against Ottawa to replace the rained out Saturday game in San Diego. ]