SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Monday, January 31, 1994
9
Stubblefield enjoys first pro season
SPORTS EDITOR
Yesterday at 5 p.m., when practically an entire nation gathered in front of its television sets for the Super Bowl, one man decided not to watch. Instead, he chose to travel around Lawrence and reminisce with old friends and teammates.
The man, a 6-foot-2, 302 pound nose tackle named Dana Stubblefield, had just finished his rookie season in the NFL and was one week into his vacation — a vacation that came one week too soon.
I'm not even going to watch the Super Bowl," Stubblefield said. "I don't care about it. I could have gone to the Super Bowl and watched it if I wanted to, but I didn't want any part of it. I'm going to go out and visit some friends."
Stubblefield, who played at Kansas for three years, returned to Lawrence Friday night. He watched the Kansas women's basketball game yesterday and talked about his rookie season during halftime. His team, the San Francisco 49ers, lost last week to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game.
Had the 49ers won last week, Stubbeldfield would have started last night, just as he had started in his team's previous 15 games. In 16 regular season games, Stubbeldfield led all rookies in sacks and was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Although the honor gives him pride, he obviously would rather have plaved last night.
"When I was named defensive rookie of the year, we were going through a slump as a team defensively," Stubbelfield said. "I was in a situation where I was being rewarded for my performance, but as a team we hadn't been winning."
Kansas women thrash Kansas State
Once again, Stubblefield played well against Dallas, but the 49ers fell 38-21 to the Cowboys.
Stubblefield said his immediate success in the NFL surprised him. Being a first round draft pick, and the 26th selection overall, put some extra pressure on him during his rookie year. But Stubblefield not only met his expectations, he exceeded them.
The awards are nice, but they don't mean anything if you're not winning," he said. "I had some good tackles last week, but after the very first series, things weren't going our way."
"I probably played the most of anybody else on the defensive line," he said. "I played every down of every game. I was in the middle at nose tackle, and there weren't many guys on our team that wanted to play there or that could play there.
One week into his first NFL off-season, Stubblefield has yet to decide where to make his permanent home. His contract with the 49ers expires after next season, and if he plays as productively as he did this season, he could find himself being compared to one of his idols, Green Bay defensive tackle Reggie White. But Stubblefield isn't thinking about his future in football. In fact, he isn't thinking about football at all.
"Football is the last thing on my mind," he said. "My knees still hurt, my back still hurts, and I still get headaches from getting hit. I'm just going to take some time off and let my body heal."
"I've been through a year, and I know what it takes as far as having to perform week in and week out. It's not for fun anymore. It's a job. This is my life. I'm not on scholarship anymore."
"I'm being set up with some charities, and I'll be speaking at some hospitals, but right now I'm relaxing," he said. "The little kids, they really look up to me. If there's a little kid out there that idolizes me, that thinks I'm the greatest, and I help him stay on the right track, I'll be happy."
But Stubblefield, at least after two weeks of relaxation, plans to spend his off season productively. While at Kansas, he served as a summer camp counselor for kids ages 10 to 12 years old for the National Youth Sports Program. He'll visit some of those kids during the next few weeks before returning to his hometown, Cleves, Ohio. He'll spend his time both in Lawrence as well as in San Francisco
Stubblefield, who plans on completing his degree in secondary education in California, can now kick back and enjoy himself. After playing a season nearly two times longer than any of his college seasons, Stubblefield, along with every other pro football player, deserves a break.
Jayhawks undefeated in Big Eight
By Matt Siegel
Kansas sportswriter
Two weeks ago, the Kansas State men's basketball team shocked then top-ranked Kansas — in Allen Field House. The K-State women's basketball team had the same aspirations in mind yesterday but fell far short of their goal.
The No. 7 Kansas women's basketball team overwhelmed K-State from the beginning and defeated the Wildcats handily, 77-50.
"We haven't been the most consistent team," K-State coach Brian Agler said. "In order to beat a good team like Kansas, we have to do everything right. And we did a lot of things wrong today."
Part of K-State's troubles started at the offensive end. At the 10:20 mark in the first half, K-State trailed 20-12 and had survived an early run by Kansas. However, things fell apart for the Wildcats as they went the next five minutes without a field goal. By the time the Wildcats scored, Kansas was coasting to a 41-18 halftime lead and was well on its way to an 11th consecutive victory.
The reason the Wildcats struggled visibly is an all-too-familiar tune for Kansas opponents. The Jayhawks defense smothered the Wildcats, holding them to 31.7 percent shooting for the game. Although K-State's fearsome twosome of junior Shawna deCamp and Shanele Stires scored 16 and 20 points respectively, none of the other Wildcats scored more than five points. With DeCamp and Stires shooting a combined 14 for 41 from the field and K-State being held to 18 first-half points, it's easy to see how Kansas improved to 7-0 in the Big Eight Conference and 16-1 overall. K-State fell to 3-4 in the conference and 9-8 overall.
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
Kansas State (9-8, 3-4)
Kansas 77, Kansas State 50
Kansas forward Angela Aycock takes a jump shot in the game against Kansas State yesterday at Allen Field House. Aycock scored 14 points from the field, boosting the Jayhawks to a 77-50 victory.
"They played really tight defense on me," DeCamp said. "It seemed like every time I got the ball there was somebody on me."
Player fgm/fgs ftm/fta tp
Stires 8-22 4-6 20
DeCamp 6-19 0-0 16
Holzman 1-6 0-0 2
Larson 1-2 0-1 2
O'Neal 0-7 1-2 1
Pollack 1-2 0-2 0
Grattan 0-2 0-2 0
Neal 2-2 0-0 5
Jones 1-1 0-0 2
Decker 0-0 0-0 0
Benson 0-0 0-1 0
Totals 20-63 5-12 50
Kansas coach Marian Washington said denying DeCamp was part of Kansas' game plan. She said the Jayhawks were able to force an up-tempo
KANSAS (16-1, 7-0)
Player fgm/iga ftm/fa tp
Aycock 5-11 4-5 14
Trapp 2-4 2-4 6
Tate 6-11 8-9 20
Sampson 2-5 4-4 9
Muncy 2-5 1-2 14
Halibble 4-6 0-0 10
Slatter 2-3 1-3 5
Dixon 3-4 2-2 8
Canada 1-2 0-1 2
Leathers 0-3 0-0 0
Thalmann 0-2 2-2 7
Totals 20-51 24-32 77
Haitiine Kansas 41, Kansas State 18.3 point goal Kansas 3-7 (Hallebail 2-4,
Sampam 1-2, Leathers 0), Kansas State 5-13 (DeCampe 4-8, Neal 1, Stires 0-4)
Rebounds Kansas 46 (Tate 14, Aycock 11),
Kansas State 32 (Stires 14). Assists
Kansas 16 (Aycock 6, Munchy 4), Kansas
State 12 (Larson 5, Stires 3). Total foul
Kansas 17, Kansas State 23. Attendance
1,600.
pace, and that worked to their advantage. As a team, Kansas shot 49 percent from the field. Kansas also was able to take advantage of a its height as the Jayhawks out-rebounded the Wildcats 46 to 32. Senior center Lisa Tate scored a team-high 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Helping Tate was junior forward Angela Aycock, who scored 14 points and had 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals.
"We knew Aycock and Tate were going to score," Agler said. "We even put people up on Aycock, and she still scored with people in her face. What we had to do was to eliminate other things, and we didn't."
One thing that Kansas was able to eliminate was the presence of Stires in the first half. Stires was saddled with three fouls in the first half and scored only four points.
"We were able to take advantage of Stires playing a post position," said freshman guard Tamecka Dixon. "We
Like everything else the Jayhawks did, that plan worked. Stires picked up her fourth foul with 18:14 remaining in the second half and eventually fouled out. K-State repeatedly was forced to foul taller Kansas players, resulting in the Jayhawks shooting 24
for 32 at the free-throw line compared to K-State's 5 for 12.
Next up for the Jayhawks on Friday will be No. 3 Colorado. The game in Boulder, Colo., is already sold out. Kansas soon will become accustomed to the road, as they play five games away from home through February, a situation that Washington said she wasn't thrilled about. Still,
Washington said she had faith in her team.
"We're about to face our biggest challenge of the season," she said. "We still have five games away, but this is a group of young women who are focused and know what they want. The reason why we're so successful is because no one on this team underestimates anyone."
Kansas to battle Missouri for Big Eight lead
Kansan sportswriter
By Gerry Fey
Problems with No. 3 Kansas' outside shooting and inside strength may be solved just in time to face Big Eight Conference leader Missouri at Columbia, Mo., tonight.
The game will be shown at 8:30 p.m.
on ESPN, channel 18 on Sunflower
Cablevision, and will pit the Tigers
against second-place Kansas.
Kansas is 19-2 overall, 4-1 in the conference, and could be tied for first if it defeats Missouri, which is 14-2 and 5-0.
"It's got to be a game where we try to play the entire game," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "We must focus on just what's going on on the court, not what's going on anywhere else."
Williams said playing Missouri would be a challenge.
"Because of what they have accomplished, they are the best team in the conference right now," he said. "They've been destroying people defensively."
Kansas senior guard Steve Woodberry dribble past Colorado junior guard Donnie Bove during the second half of Saturday's 87-53 Kansas victory.
Tom Leininger / KANSAN
The Jayhawks have had occasional problems against an opponent's zone defense. Teams have used a zone because of Kansas' inconsistent outside shooting. Earlier in the season, Temple defeated Kansas 73-59. Kansas shot 37.9 percent in that game, primarily because the Owls played a tough zone defense. It was their worst shooting performance of the season.
In Kansas '87-83 victory against Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, Colo.
the Jayhawks had to prove they could shoot from outside. And they did, at the Coors Events Center in front of 8,004 fans - approximately half of which cheered for Kansas. The Jayhawks shot eight for 25 from three-point range and led 39-25 at halftime.
Kansas senior guard Steve Woodberry became the 31st player in Kansas men's basketball history to score 1,000 career points with his first three-pointer of the game. With that shot, he set the tone as Kansas went on a 10-0 run to begin the game.
Another inconsistency has been the play of Kansas junior Greg Ostergat. But during the last two games, the 7-foot-2 center has averaged nine points, nine rebounds and 5.5 blocked shots.
"Our game plan was our everyday game plan," Ostertag said. "They worry about me, Richard, and Scot. If they play us tough inside, we go outside. If they play us tough outside, we go back to the inside."
Kansas' strong point in almost every game this season has been its defense. Teams are shooting 36.8 percent against the Jayhawks' pressure defense. Playing defense against Colorado meant shutting down Colorado junior guard Donnie Boyce.
Since Boyce switched to point guard six games ago, he has averaged 24.7 points, 5.4 assists and 6.2
Ostergt said that Kansas' ability to score inside may have opened up its outside shooting but that it was nothing new.
rebounds a game. Boyce scored only 16 points Saturday, and Kansas' defense was the catalyst for its most impressive run to gain control of the game.
After halftime, Kansas went on a 13-0 run that gave the Jayhawks a 52-25 lead. Kansas caused four turnovers during that span and 23 turnovers in the game.
However, playing defense against Missouri will be an entirely different story, Williams said. Missouri senior guard Melvin Booker in the 10th lead scorer in the conference, averaging 18.2 points a game, and senior forward Jevon Crudup is ninth in field goal percentage at 50.6 percent.
"Missouri gives you a five man group that can score," Williams said. "You look at Colorado's stats, and you've got Mark Dean scoring 19, and you've got Donnie Boyce scoring 20. You can gear your defense toward that. You look at Missouri, and they've got five, six and seven guys that have scored 20 for them this year. That's the most difficult kind of team to guard."
Kansas junior guard Calvin Rayford said he thought the Jayhawks' defense would stay the same despite Missouri's balanced scoring. Rayford had one steal against Colorado, but he and Kansas freshman guard Jacque Vaughn tormented Boyce and Colorado junior guard Sande Golgart throughout the game.
"I like guarding people taller than me," said Rayford, who is 5-6. "I just
watch them dribble the ball. I knocked a couple away from Boyce. It takes them out of their game."
Even though tonight's game may signal things to come, Kansas senior forward Patrick Richey said the game was not as big as the hype.
"Obviously, one of our goals is to win the Big Eight," he said. "But if we were to lose tonight or Monday night, we still would be all right because the Big Eight season is so long. We're going in there confident, and we want to win."
Women's tennis team beats Utah
The No. 15 Kansas women's tennis team got off to a fast start to open its spring season. The team blanked the Utah Utes 9-0
SPORTS BRIEFS
yesterday at the Alvamar Racquet Club.
Senior Mindy Weiner, who is playing in the No. 1 singles spot and is ranked No. 35 nationally, defeated Utah's Rebecca Smith 6-3, 6-2, and improved her overall record to 16-4. At The No. 2 spot, Nora Koves defeated Jennifer Jensen 6-1, 6-2. Juniors Koves and Rebecca Jensen, who are playing in the No. 1 doubles spot for Kansas,
defeated Smith and Heidi Chinchiolo 6-1,3-6,6-2.
As a team, Kansasq only dropped one set in singles and one set in doubles. Five Jayhawks will be competing Feb. 3-6 in the Rolex Indoor Championships in Dallas. The next home match for the Jayhawks is at 1 p.m. Feb. 15. The team will play the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhones.
Track teams win in weekend events
The women were paced by
Senior John Bazzon continued his winning ways by placing first in the pole vault event with a jump of 17 feet.
The University of Kansas track team came away with four first-place finishes at the Sooner Indoor Relays Saturday in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Other winners for the men included the distance medley relay team of senior Dan Watters, freshman Kerry Bolze, senior David Johnston and junior Mike Cox. The team captured first place and a provisional qualification for the NCAA championship indoor meet, with a time of 9 minutes, 53 seconds. A provisional qualification does not guarantee
senior high jumper Keely Harding. Harding jumped 5-9 to take first place in the event.
the team a spot at the meet but puts it in a position where its time has to be beaten.
The Jayhawks placed first and second in the long jump events. Freshman Marc Scheil jumped 23-5 1/2, and junior Harun Hazim jumped 23-4 3/4 for a second place finish.
The Jayhawks will compete Saturday when they play host to the Kansas-Kansas State-Missouri Triangular at Anchutz Sports Pavilion.