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SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Tuesday, April 5, 1994
11
Arkansas hog wild at Final Four
Last minute three-pointer earns victory
By Jim O'Connell AP Basketball Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arkansas won its first national championship last night, sending a president to Hog Heaven and giving its coach, finally, the one college basketball title he so
desperately wanted.
Scotty Thurman's 3-pointer with 60 seconds left while the shot clock expired gave the Razorbacks a 76-72 victory and deprived Duke, the dominant team of the decade, of a third title in four years.
With President Clinton once again watching his beloved Razorbacks in person, Arkansas came up with a gutsy performance, giving Coach Nolan Richardson a championship ring to wave in front of his critics whom he openly challenged throughout Final Four weekend.
It also offset an unbelievable final college game by Grant Hill, one of three Duke seniors looking for a third
title. He engineered an early second-half run that gave the Blue Devils a 10-point lead, but it wasn't enough as the Razorbacks fought back and took the lead for good on Thurman's long jumper.
This was the Razorbacks' first championship game appearance in their fifth Final Four.
Richardson brought Arkansas to the 1990 national semifinals where they were beaten by Duke. He was in search of what he called his coaching triple crown — he won the junior college national title with Western Texas in 1980 and the NIT with Tulsa the next season.
The Razorbacks got him that third
title by overcoming poor shooting with tenacious defense that forced Duke into 23 turnovers. The defense was at its best when Arkansas rebounded from the 48-38 deficit with a 16-4 run. Duke went four minutes without scoring, and in that span the Blue Devils missed five shots and committed five turnovers.
Duke finally righted itself, tying the game at 54 with 10:16 left. From there, there were three lead changes and two ties, the last at 70-70 when Hill nailed a 3-pointer with 1:30 left.
Arkansas called a timeout, and when the Razorbacks returned to the court, they had trouble getting an open shot. While the shot clock ticked
down, Thurman finally let one go from the right side, giving the Razorbacks the lead for good. They closed the game by going 3-for-6 from the free-throw line while Duke missed two shots, including an ill advised 3-pointer by Chris Collins with 24 seconds left and the Blue Devils down 74-70.
Corliss Williamson led Arkansas with 23 points, and Thurman and Corey Beck had 15 each.
Hill finished with 12 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Antonio Lang, another senior, led Duke with 15 points, and Jeff Capel and Cherokee Parks each had 14 points.
Kansas outfielder hits the books
arryl Monroe, senior center fielder, slides back to third base after an attempted steal during a game against Central Missouri State. He is bat ing, 370 and leads the team with 39 RBIs.
Focus, hard work help senior meet many challenges
By Andrew Gilman Kansan sportswriter
Darryl Monroe once struck out seven consecutive times.
Those K's were the lowest he said he ever felt.
"I thought I went blind." he said.
Now, the Kansas senior center fielder is busying himself with other letters: HR, RBI and SB. to name just a few.
Monroe, a four-year starter at Kansas, is in his final season roaming the outfield for the
he's showing why he could be one of the greatest ever to wear Kansas blue.
Darryl Monroe
Consider the numbers: Monroe's 39 RBIs this season already have matched what he had in 55 games last season. His nine home runs are more than he had in the last two seasons combined and his .370 average is more than 25 points higher than his career average.
By season's end, Monroe will be in the top five of every significant offensive category in Kansas history except batting average. Monroe is in eighth place in batting average at .347.
Although the numbers speak for themselves, that's not how Darryl Monroe talks about his role with the Jayhawks.
"I love going out there and playing," he said.
"I love to have the pressure on me. Being a senior and looked at as a team leader makes it all more enjoyable."
He lettered two years at Lawrence High School in baseball and in football. He played defensive back for the 1989 state champion Lions and was a catcher on the 1990 third place Lawrence baseball team.
THE STUDENT ATHLETE
From the time he was 11 he was playing ball. He played on all the start-team in town.
But his athletics were not his only ticket to college. Monroe was offered an academic scholarship long before he decided to play baseball at Kansas. He was accepted both at Tulane and Notre Dame and received athletic offers from Wichita State and Arkansas. But Kansas is where he said he always had wanted to be.
"I've always been familiar with Lawrence," he said. "I've always been a KU fan, and Coach Bingham's reputation had a big impact on me. I always knew he'd compete at the national level."
Now, he's here playing baseball, but not on an athletic scholarship.
He has a 3.19 grade point average and is majoring in human biology. He has been named to the Academic All-Big Eight team the last three years and turned down an offer from the Montreal Expos in order to continue his schooling.
Kansas coach Dave Bingham said that coming back to Kansas had made Monroe more marketable for the future.
"The only thing I asked him was if his decision was a good business move," Bingham said. "He's shown some things power-wise this year. He'll be a solid draft pick."
Monroe said that he had not spent a lot of
time thinking about the choice.
"It wasn't a tough decision," he said. "Basically, I would have had a lot of school left, and my future would have been in the hands of other people. After this year I'll be much more secure, and I'll almost have my degree."
Bingham said he had realized the potential Monroe had, even before Monroe came to Kansas.
"We watched him for a long time," Bingham said. "Kids in the Midwest are a little frightening, mostly because their skills aren't that far along. They just don't have the repetitions and the practice that others have. It comes down to what the kids are about."
"He was a catcher in high school, but he ran extremely well and had a lot of bat speed. He also has a great work ethic."
That work ethic is something Lawrence High Coach Lynn Herrod still points to when directing his players.
"It was his work ethic that was special," he said. "It's the amount of time that he spent in all aspects of the game."
Herred, the only baseball coach Lawrence High has ever had, coached Monroe and Kansas right fielder, senior Ron Oelschlager. He said that the bond the two had made Kansas
baseball better.
"They've played their entire lives together," he said. "We have a lot of players who look up to those two. I'm happy for them and for Kansas baseball."
THE PHILOSOPHY OF A HITTER
Even after striking out seven consecutive times last season against Oklahoma State, Daryll Monroe bounced back.
He came back to register two consecutive hits, and he has slowed down since.
"I don't wear my failures," he said. "If you do, you'll never succeed. I take the philosophy that nothing is as bad or good as it seems. You always have to come back the next day and do the same thing."
Monroe has done just that.
"I don't get caught up with what others are doing," he said. "There's enough pressure to evaluate your own performance. Ijust try to do the best I can."
Bingham said that Monroe was special.
"The numbers speak to that," Bingham said. "But he is what Kansas baseball is about. It's not an easy thing to play Big Eight baseball and get through the University of Kansas. This is a guy who has met that challenge. He epitomizes what it is all about."
Kansas softball player got an early start
By Matt Siegel
Kansan sportswrite
In "A Season on the Brink," author John Feinstein chronicles an Indiana basketball season under fiery Coach Bobby Knight. One chapter details Knight's recruitment of an eighth-grade phenom by the name of Damon Bailey.
"I got to know Coach Haack because he's married to my sister," Richardson said. "He has seen me play since I was 10. He has seen me grow up. Since I was little, he always watched my team play."
But Knight has nothing on junior Lora Richardson, who plays first base for the Kansas softball team. Kansas coach Kalum Haack began recruiting Richardson when she was 10.
Good thing Haack got an early start on Richardson. Last season she hit .299 with 23 runs batted in and was a first team All Big Eight Conference selection.
The numbers that Richardson has produced in her career for the Jayhawks are even more amazing when considering that she didn't play high school softball. Her high school in Irving, Texas, didn't have a team.
Instead, Richardson played summer ball, which she said lasted from March through August.
"A lot of the girls on our team are from California, and they have travel teams during the summer," Richardson said. "They are very serious about softball. My summer team was just a couple of the girls' dads coaching the softball team. We just happened to be really good."
Good enough that the team, which started playing together at age 10, went to nationals four times in eight years. The exposure Richardson received at nationals had schools such as Louisiana Tech offering her scholarships.
But Richardson spurned other schools to play
for Kansas. She said that when she was younger, Haack, then a coach at Nebraska, had wanted her to play for the Cornhuskers. By the time Richardson was old enough to commit, Haack was a coach at Kansas. She said Kansas had been her best option because the other schools had recruited her to play pitcher and she had wanted to play in the infield.
Lora Richardson, a junior who plays first base, has spent most of this season filling in at shortstop because of injuries the team has suffered.
Heather Lofflin / KANSAN
As Richardson soon found out, playing for her brother-in-law wasn't always easy.
"For a while it was kind of intense," Richardson said. "It was kind of difficult because of the relationship we had. It was hard to turn it on and off. The coach-player relationship, and then our relationship. The first year was the hardest adjustment period, but we have learned to adjust to it."
Richardson has had to do some more adjusting this year. The softball team has been riddled with injuries, and Haack was forced to move Richardson to shortstop.
"We wanted to try to move as few people as possible," Haack said. "I thought that an upper-classman could handle the position better. She did a good job there. We didn't lose a step with her as shortstop."
The Jayhawks recently have returned to health, so Richardson moved back to first base, a move she said she was happy about. Richardson didn't mind filling in as the shortstop, though. She played that position until she was 17.
"When it happened, it was during the third inning of the first game," Richardson said. "It was kind of weird. It wasn't too bad. I knew what to do from having played in the infield so long."
She also has been playing softball for a long time. She began playing when she was 5 and said that athletically she had followed in her two older sisters' footsteps. Both of her sisters played softball. When Leslie, 9 years Lora's
senior, was able to play college softball, Lora Richardson knew that she would have a chance to play somewhere.
Richardson said she was just glad to be part of something that she had done since she was 5 and be able to see her family at the same time.
"Both of my sisters are flight attendants," Richardson said. "So my mom and dad fly up, and I see them regularly. As far as seeing my family, I see them all the time. It's pretty convenient. It's kind of a soap opera story."
SPORTS EDITOR
This soap opera, however, has a happy ending.
So far, the NCAA has not.
Unfortunately for Lassiter, NCAA regulations say that a student has five years to complete four years of eligibility. Lassiter sat out the 1991-92 season after transferring from Butler County Community College, but the Jayhawks were hoping that the NCAA would consider Lassiter's untimely injury.
NCAA, injury snag Lassiter on sidelines
While the Kansas football team continues practicing this spring, a notable player remains sidelined, awaiting his fate.
Kwamie Lassiter, a senior free safety, broke his corallbone Sept. 4 while attempting to recover an onside kick against Western Carolina. Lassiter, a fifth-year senior, spent the rest of the season healing and hoping that the NCAA would allow him an extra year of eligibility after considering his case as a medical redshirt.
legislation.
Lassiter has appealed the NCAA's initial decision that denied his return. Now he is waiting on a second reply while trapped between two walls of
Should Lassiter contact any agents or work out at any of the NFL combines, he would have no chance of winning his appeal. And unless the NCAA allows him an extra
Kwamie Lassiter
year to play, all the time he has spent waiting will he for nothing
"I needed my senior season to show some consistency," Lassiter said.
April 24 happens to be NLA draft day, but Lassiter realizes that he needs another season of playing in order to be a high draft pick.
"Imissed the combines, and IthinkI could have done fairly well in them," said Lassiter, whose collarbone has since healed. "Hopefully, I'll hear from the NCAA before April 24."
During his junior season, Lassiter did just that. He was a first team All-Big Eight Conference selection by the league's coaches and an honorable mention All-America selection by "Football News."
"Sports Illustrated" named him the defensive player of the week after he intercepted two passes, caused a fumble, broke up a pass and contributed 11 tackles in a game against Oklahoma. He finished his junior season with a team-high four interceptions and 77 tackles.
Against California, he tallied 19 tackles. In the last game of the season, the Ala Bowl, he had a team-high 12 tackles. Eleven of them were solo.
Lassiter said he refused to watch the tape of his injury, but he did evaluate his performance in his only other game in 1993 — the Kickoff Classic loss to No. 1 Florida State.
"I really don't like to watch football on TV, but I'll play it all day long," Lassiter said. "My family sent me a tape of the Florida State game, which I watched. I thought I did some good things, but I think I could have had at least one interception."
Lassiter knows that he can't rest on his past glories, and he knows that he can't rely on his 37/12-inch vertical leap forever. That's why he's working on finishing his degree in communications. If a career in football doesn't work out, Lassiter at least will have his education.
"I thought about my future after football long before I got hurt." Lassiter said. "When I was growing up, I learned that you can't play football forever. I'd like to get into public relations or maybe public speaking."
If Lassiter returns to the Jayhawks next fall, they will again have a 24-year-old fierce competitor.
"I'm not out there to hurt anyone, but if I get a chance to hit you, I'm going to hit you hard," Lassiter said. "Once I get into the game, all of the skills will come back to me."
Kansas coach Glen Mason misses Lassiter's presence on the field. More important to Mason, however, is Lassiter's long-term future.
"I think Kwamie Lassiter is one of those guys that is very positive about college football," Mason said. "He wants to come back and play. A lot of kids are bolting from college early. He's done everything he's supposed to do, and he's stayed away from the agents.
"The other positive thing is that he'll graduate after next semester. And that's what it's all about."