Now running the show
Owens walks into head cage position
By STEVE SHRIVER Kansan Sports Writer
Ted Owens never thought he had much of a chance of becoming head basketball coach at Kansas.
"I had never given it much thought," Owens said. "When I came to KU as an assistant in 1960, Coach Harp (Dick, head
"Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa State return all five of their starters off last year's teams. And K-State will be good, too," he said.
Owens in repose
coach from 1956-64) was young and I didn't think I had a chance. But I knew being an assistant coach would be good experience for me in preparing for a head coaching job somewhere else."
"When Harp resigned, they picked me and, naturally, I was delighted," he added.
Eight this year and Owens agrees. He qualified his statement when he said, "but there are four or five other teams to beat besides Colorado."
When Owens stepped into the head coaching job he had some mighty big shoes to fill. Kansas is a school rich in basketball tradition with such names as Dr. James A. Naismith, Phog Allen and Wilt Chamberlain looming as national figures. Naismith invented the game, Allen coached it and Chamberlain played it, and, perhaps, no one has done as much for basketball, and so successfully, as these three men.
But Owens rose to the occasion with unprecedented success. His first season at the helm in 1964-65, he guided KU to a 17-8 record after three previous years of Jaya-hawk failure to break the 500 barrier. The next year the Hawks were 23-4 and Big Eight Champions, and that started a string of four straight seasons in which KU won 20 or more games and advanced to post-season tournaments each year.
Even the immortal Phog Allen, who coached Kansas for 39 years, could not match the records Owens has wrought in only five years. Owens also has the distinction of being head coach when KU became the first school in history to win 1,000 basketball games.
KU on the rebound
However, Kansas hasn't won the Big Eight since the 1966-67 season and the pressure may be on Owen's and his crew more than ever to win the league crown this year.
But Owens isn't about to make any predictions. He has retained that wait-and-see attitude, the kind of attitude a successful coach always takes early in the season. Colorado has been the consensus pick to win the Big
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No easy games
From all indications, it should be one of the closest races ever with all schools classified as contenders. Nobody will be a pushover in the Big Eight this year.
"But the first few games should give a good indication of things
to come," Owens said. "We open with a tough road game at MU, and Colorado has two tough road games to start the season. The standings should begin to take definite shape in the opening stages of conference competition."
"We're still trying to settle down to a set lineup. The most important thing for us right now in non-conference play is to find out about ourselves."
The Jayhawks must face Chicago Loyola this Saturday night and the following Monday night they square off against 10thranked Notre Dame. Both games are on the road.
"If you're going to have an exceptional team, you have to do well on the road." Owens said.
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they fare may give some insight to the team's success this year.
And KU will face quite a task against these two teams; how well