University Daily Kansan
Thursday, December 7, 1978
7
Jayhawks' performances not yet up to cage ranking
The men's basketball team is 3-4. The Associated Press ranks it 8th in the nation.
Apparently not. Not now, coaches and players are quick to add, not yet.
Take Boise State coach Bus Connor. His Broncos, have lost 82-68 to the "Hawks on Monday, have also lost by 20 to UCLA and California-Fullerton. UCLA is No. 2 nationally and Cal-Fullerton was last year's Cinderella team in the NCAA.
With those three games in mind, Connion questioned KU's upper-echelon ranking.
"I think it's way too high," Conn said.
If UCLA is 2. Now, . . . If you say KU is
3. Now, . . . If you say WSU is
4. Now, . . . If you say UNC is
Kansas, he said, is overrated because of its famous guard, Darnell Valentine. It isn't hard to agree. Except for Valentine, senior Paul Mokesi and maybe sophomore Moe KU hasn't developed enough of its talent to be anywhere near championship caliber.
KU cagers televised
The KU-Kentucky game from Rupa Area in Lexington, KY, will be waived at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on a state-wide network that in-ventured in Topeka and KMIC in Kansas City.
The second game, on Dec. 21 at USC in Los Angeles, begins at 10 p.m. Central time. That game will be televised nationally on Home Box Office.
The third TV game is against San Diego on Friday, 23. It will begin at 10:15 p.m. on the show.
Rose contract sign of expense of free agents
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The economic vibrations of Pete Rose's $3.2 million free agent contract with the Philadelphia Phillies continued to send shudders through the baseball establishment at winter meetings yesterday.
And the team most likely to feel the fallout first is the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are still negotiating with Dave Parker, the National League's Most Valuable Player for 1978.
Parker will be in his contract option year in 1979 if the Pirates are unable to sign him, and that would mean they could lose him on a free agent market that seems intent on climbing higher and higher, despite the warnings of Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
AT THE press conference which unveiled nose as baseball's highest-salaried player, he was some discussion of the hurry got from sweet treats. Grown up sweepstakes. Among them, said Rose, was the offer of a brood mare from the Darby family to abbreviate family, which also own the Pirates.
That piece of intelligence must have fascinated Parker, who, at 27, figured he should be worth at least as much to the team. He offered a player 10 years older than him.
REPORTS SWEPT the convention Wednesday that Parker had taken a new approach to the negotiations with the Galbraeths, which still are continuing. Pittsburgh had hoped to conclude the talks Thanksgiving Day, but Parker and his team were in no hurry, preferring to wait and see what kind of package Rose received.
Reich, who was at the meetings, said the report that Parker was asking for the same package that the Galbraeths had offered to him. He was with the Pirates would continue Wednesday.
BUT THE attorney acknowledged that the lose deal would have a tremendous effect on him.
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LAST MONDAY when KU was No. 4; before Michigan State bumped them down, Valentine said, "We're not playing like the 4. team in the nation because we're not."
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At the start of the year, Coach Ted Owens asks that Ken Koenigs, Ctl. John Johnson, John Dykes and the rest should be inspected that the Jayhawks opened the season ranked higher than their No. 8.
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The Jayhawks certainly have the talent to be great, and their attitudes toward each other are marked with selflessness. But, Owens has said, they're playing just well enough to beat the easy teams on the early schedule.
KU just can't be that much better a team when it is starting three sophomores, a senior and a freshman. Last year it was three seniors, a junior and a freshman.
"I THINK they have an excellent chance of being there by the time they play together for quite a while," Connor said. "I think that them is going to be answered Saturday night."
And is there anything like Saturday night in Lexington, Ky., playing Joe B. Hall's
But the first test isn't No. 14 Kentucky. It's tonight against Oak River University, a 1-2 team. ORU is faster and more physical than the other teams KU has played. And it may be capable of taking advantage of KU's defense and its sometimes easyening defense.
Wildcats? Nope, Kentucky beat KU, with its foul problems, last year and on went to on the NCAA title. Monday, it beat West Texas State 121-47.
The time has come for the Jayhawks to quit playing as if they were in a daze. As forward Chester Giles said, "These are the teams we gotta kill."
ALTHOUGH ORU may not be the toughest team on KU's schedule, the Jayhawks can't afford to play as ininstantly as they have in their first four games.
The last three were uninspired, and the tans could tell it. The players certainly knew
Perhaps it's just that some of us are slightly skeptical of a winner after despairing over this year's sad escapades on the football field.
There are a lot of people who want to believe that KU deserves to be ranked near the top. Look at the full stands in Allen Field and see the number of games that will be televised.
But the honor of joy deserving that ranking will have to wait until the Jayhawks prove themselves against, as Owens said, their physical talent to defeat us if we aren't sharp."
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