SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 10, 1994
11
Big Eight honors Booker, Vaughn
The Associated Press
BANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the time came to pick the Big Eight player of the year, thoughts naturally turned to the unbeaten regular season champion Missouri Tigers.
Who was their player of the year?
Without a doubt, Mevin Booker.
Could there be anyone else? A 16-member panel of media representations said no, making Missouri's smooth, do-everything senior guard a runaway winner as Associated Press Big Eight player of the year.
Booker's selection, announced yesterday, almost gave the third-ranked Tigers a clean sweep of Associated Press coach and player honors. Earlier, Norm Stewart was announced as the unanimous selection as coach of the year. And the same panel elected Kelly Thames, a 6-foot-7 native of Jennings, Mo., as Big Eight freshman of the year.
The only close balloting was for newcomer of the year, where freshmen compete with transfers from junior colleges as well as Division I programs. Freshman point guard Jacue Vaughn of Kansas drew five votes, and Thames, team-mate Paul O'Liney and
Malvin Booker
Oklahoma's John Ontjes each got three. Oklahoma junior Calvin Curry received two votes.
Booker, a 6-2 native of Moss Point, Miss., was the only Tiger who started every game. He scored in double figures in 42 of his team's last 44 games and averaged almost 19 points this season.
Vaughn was highly recruited out of Pasadena, Calif., and spent his freshman year playing the toughest position for a freshman — point guard. He goes into the postseason holding the
Kansas freshman record with 153 assists, No. 3 in the league, and averaging 7.9 points.
Showing a flair for the dramatic, he hit a 20-footer for the winning basket in overtime
Jacque Vaughn
against Indiana with two seconds remaining. At Oklahoma in the regular season finale, he hit two free throws in the final minute to seal an 84-81 win.
With a 3.75 grade point his first semester, Vaughn was also first team on the Big Eight all-academic team.
"I can't believe that there is a coach in America that's more comfortable than I am with a freshman point guard." Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "Jacque runs our offense with a great amount of poise."
Williams tells Tennessee no
Kansas coach Roy Williams said that he was sick of hearing speculation about his possible departure from Kansas and that he had been forced to release a statement to the media.
"I had hoped that I would not have to make any official statement like this," Williams said. "But there have been many stories in the media and rumors floating around about the position at Tennessee."
Rumors began after Tennessee coach Wade Houston recently announced his resignation, which will take affect at the end of the season. Williams said his name might have come up because Tennessee's location in Knoxville, Penn., is close to his hometown of Asheville, N.C.
Tennessee officials contacted Williams with a preliminary inquiry, Williams said, but he had no intention of entertaining offers.
"I have told officials at Tennessee that I was flattered by their preliminary inquiry," he said. "But I will be staying at the University of Kansas."
No longer a freshman on the court
Kansas forward works on adding muscle to hustle
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Kansas freshman forward B.J. Williams battles for position for a rebound against Kansas State senior forward Deryl Cunningham, left, and senior forward Ron Lucas, right. The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats 65-56 FB. 12 in Bramage Coliseum.
By Gerry Fey Kansan sportswriter
He's talented but young, quick but thin. He shows signs of brilliance but at times makes freshman mistakes.
Kansas forward B.J. Williams has been each of these things at one point or another this season.
Before the season started, Kansas coach Roy Williams may not have known how much his words would foreshadow B.J. Williams' performance.
"I think he's really progressing well," he said at that time. "He needs another 20 pounds of muscle, but I think he's going to be an extremely good player for us."
Roy Williams has said different things about B.J. Williams depending on the time of the season. At the beginning of the season, Roy Williams was worried about his skinny 200-pound player compared with his other freshmen, guard Jacque Vaughn and center Scott Pollard.
"He hasn't progressed as fast as Jacque and Scot, but he's done well," he said at the beginning of the Big Eight Conference season. "It's the physical part of the game. It will take him a while to get used to that."
B. J. Williams said it was a difficult task to jostle with 260-to-270-pound players every game.
“It’s tough,” he said. “But I have to use what I have to make the situation better for me. If I can’t out-muscle them, I have to use my quickness.”
Since the beginning of the season, the 6-foot-8 player from Wichita South High School has improved his play. Against Oklahoma on Sunday, he scored seven points and hit an important baseline jump shot that helped Kansas preserve its 84-81 victory.
He has shown above-average athletic ability at times, slam dunking alley-oops as he did against Kansas State on Feb. 12 or hammering an offensive rebound through the net as he did against the Sooners. But when B.J. Williams thinks of the most enjoyable part of a basketball game, it is
not from an individual's point of view.
"I like it when the team plays together," he said. "When everything's clicking the way Coach Williams likes it, that's what I like."
When Kansas senior forward Richard Scott suffered a shoulder injury before the Oklahoma State game Jan. 26, B.J. Williams and sophomore forward Sean Pearson were depended on to fill the vacant position. Scott started against the Cowboys but was not very effective due to a shoulder injury. B.J. Williams and Pearson took the remaining minutes and combined for 19 points.
In a game when Kansas would look to its big men for support, the Jayhawks defeated Oklahoma State 62-11 in overtime. The Jayhawks limited Oklahoma State junior center Bryant Reeves to 13 points. B. J. Williams said he and Pearson could not play as physically as Scott in the middle.
"It was a big confidence booster for me, knowing that Coach Williams had the confidence to put me in that situation," B.J. Williams said.
Scott realized that playing in the game at less than full speed would hurt the team rather than help it.
"We weren't going to be as physical as
Without size, Pearson said the two had to use other qualities that Scott didn't possess.
Richard when we went in there," he said.
"But you've got to do your part."
"We just try and use our speed," he said. "It may be a disadvantage because we're not as physical. But we try to keep the same philosophy. B.J. is playing very well. We may lose size, but with him we gain a lot of speed."
As the Jayhawks head into postseason play, B.J. Williams said he didn't feel like a freshman anymore.
"I have a lot of experience now," he said.
Kansas track team has year-round star; she keeps on going
Kristi Kloster made her debut in the gut wrenching, stamina building, endurance testing world of competitive track in the fifth grade.
And it was that same day that Kloster was recruited by a coach because of her speed.
With her eyes focused on the finish line, Kloster lined up with her fellow classmates waiting for the starter's gun to sound. At the sound of the gun she took off on a dead sprint like no other, and she didn't stop concentrating until she crossed the finish line in first place.
After the race, she turned around and saw that she had left everyone behind in her tracks. She won the 50-, 60- and 100-vard dashes that day. No contest, hands down.
"I ended up beating all the boys in our class, and my teacher said," Kristi, I really think you should run track this spring." "the Lenexa junior said.
So Kloster took her gym teacher's advice and began competing in citywide track meets each spring through her eighth-grade year.
Her running career may have ended after her freshman season, but her high-school basketball coach noticed the strength in Kloster's strides.
While running sprints, Kloster was dreaming about playing soccer in the spring.
But the track coach, who stood on the sidelines and watched her run, had different plans for the freshman.
"They talked me into running track instead of playing; soccer," she said. "I can still remember I brought both pairs of shoes, soccer and track, to school the first day of practice. I didn't know which sport I wanted to play."
Her performance on the Bishop Miege track team was a high-school athlete's dream come true. She won 11 state championships in everything from the 200-meter dash to the half mile, and she set school and state track records.
Kloster definitely made the right decision.
At Kansas, Kloster competes in track year around. She runs cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring.
So I asked Kloster, "Does this mean you're running 365 days a year? Are you crazy! Do you actually enjoy all of those torturous practices?"
Kloster, the most physically fit female on campus, said,
"Well, veah - almost. I get a week off in the summer.
"I love track workouts, but sometimes during cross country practices when we're running the courses and do mile repeats and it's really hot, windy or cold out, I sometimes find myself asking, 'Why am I doing this to myself?'"
Her hard work has paid off at Kansas. Today Kloster is leaving for the NCAA Indoor Championships that will take place in the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis this weekend.
It's a goal toward which she's been working since she came to Kansas, she said.
She qualified for nationals at Iowa State last weekend in the 800-meter with a time of 2:06.5.
Kloster's goals are only beginning with the trip to the championships. She wants to become an All-American this season, which means that she will have to make it to the finals and finish in the top six.
"I get really nervous for meets, but the 800 is my favorite race, and I feel really comfortable with it," she said.
Kloster has developed into a solid competitor from the gangly fifth-grader who started running almost 10 years ago.
Still, there is one similarity in comparing her grade school days to the present: When Kloster crosses the finish line, she still can find everyone straggling behind her.
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