Section:
B
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Who is the NCAA men's basketball all-time leader in career scoring?
Trivia question
SEE PAGE 2B
Volleyball: The Jayhawks are left wondering why none of their players was selected for the All-Big 12 team.
SEE PAGE 5B
Inside: A fan went to great lengths to make Kansas' game against Middle Tennessee State more exciting by dressing in a penguin suit.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2000 For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
SEE PAGE 8B
Assistant football coach resigns
By Jason Franchuk sports@kansan.com Konson sportswriter
Another disappointing season has left the Kansas football program searching to fill positions on its coaching staff. First, head coach Terry Allen fired defensive coordinator Ardell Wiegandt and offensive line coach Walt Klinker. Yesterday, tight ends coach Todd Middleton resigned after four years at Kansas.
And then there were three.
"I want to be clear that Todd has coached well throughout the time that he has been here at KU." Allen said. "And the decision to leave the team is his and not mine.
"I have not asked him to leave the team, and if the choice were mine, I would have him stay on the staff next year."
Middleton worked as a linebackers coach his first three seasons at the University before he was shifted to work with the offense this year. His decision, he said, was something that had been broached for some time and did not appear to be a decision based upon Allen firing two of his colleagues.
"I'd been thinking
"I'd been thinking about it for a while," Middleton said. "I just felt it was time to move on and make some changes in my life."
Allen had remained coy about his
chances of dismissing assistants at his final press conference on Nov. 20, after Kansas finished 4-7, losing its last four games. He only said replacing some of his assistants was "a no possibility."
Allen, who coached previously at Northern Iowa, has been loyal to his assistants. He kept most of his staff intact when he arrived here in 1997. Klinker, 62, had worked with Allen for 14 years at Northern Iowa before going to Hawaii for a year as an assistant. The pair reunited when Allen took the Kansas job.
Wiegandt, 60, is a 30-year coaching veteran with experience at every level. He had spent the past 12 seasons working under Allen, however, he said he understood his fate after a disappointing year on defense.
"We didn't perform on defense this season, and that's my responsibility."
Wiegandt said. "That's why these things happen in coaching."
The choice to start fresh with part of his coaching staff has been a tough call for Allen.
"This was a very difficult and extremely painful decision for me personally," Allen said. "However, I felt it was necessary for the future of our program."
Even more difficult than the firings could be finding replacements willing to work for what Kansas pays its assistants. The Jayhawks are ranked last in the Big 12 Conference in assistants' salaries. Allen has said he would like to see the salaries raised, but said that he realized the way the past three seasons had gone, he's not in the position to ask.
— Edited by Brandon Stinnett
Jayhawks pelt road-weary Illini
By Zac Hunter
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Zac Hunter
The next time No. 24 Illinois decides to come to Allen Fieldhouse for a game, it might decide to avoid the detour through Maui.
The Fighting Illini played in the inaugural Maui Classic last weekend and apparently had nothing left in the tank for the second half against the Jayhawks. Kansas used an 18-4 run to beat Illinois 73-60 last night in Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansan sportswriter
"I think the big thing was they kind of ran out of gas," said senior forward Jaclyn Johnson. "They had a pretty tough road swing there, coming from Hawaii. And I think that definitely worked to our advantage."
Johnson led the team with 23 points, scoring more than 20 points for the third time in just three games. She also surpassed 1,000 career points midway through the second half.
"She's the first one of us to get there, and it's really exciting," said senior guard Jennifer Jackson, referring to the three seniors on the team. "Jaclyn has been great for four years, and I think that her consistency is what got her there."
With Illinois back on its heels, Kansas coach Marian Washington knew just what to do: turn up the pressure.
"I think our defense forced them to take some shots that they didn't want," Washington said.
"The second half they didn't penetrate our defense as much," she said. "We were taking a chance that they might make those outside shots, but it was a lot better than allowing them to continue to break our defense down."
Washington's gamble paid off, because the Illini shot an abysmal 24 percent in the second half.
With Kansas clamping down on the penetration of the Illini guards, it left openings from the perimeter. But Washington said she was willing to take that chance.
Although Illinois was fatigued from its trip, Kansas was coming off a road trip of its own, from Birmingham, Ala., and also was short-handed.
Junior center Nikki White did not play
"I think the big thing was they kind of ran out of gas. They had a pretty tough road swing there, coming from Hawaii.And I think that definitely worked to our advantage."
Jaclyn Johnson
senior forward
because of headaches caused by the broken nose that she suffered before Saturday's game against Alabama-Birmingham.
Jackson also was questionable before the game, but made good on her promise not only to play, but to start.
"I told her yesterday that I was going to play," Jackson said about a conversation with Washington. "I don't know why she doubted me."
Jackson finished with 10 points and three assists, helping avenge the Jayhawks' loss to Illinois last season.
The one newcomer who stepped up last night was junior KC Hilgenkamp. She was an efficient 5-7 from the field, hitting several big shots down the stretch and finished with 11 points.
But Hilgenkamp's biggest contribution was her passes. She finished with nine assists, including two huge feeds to Johnson for easy buckets to start the second half.
"She is one of the best passers in the conference," Washington said of Hilgenkamp. Jackson also praised Hilgenkamp's performance, which included only one turnover.
"Anytime you have newcomers like we have, stepping up and ready to follow the people that have already been here, I think that's really important," she said.
— Edited by Erin McDaniel
For more about Kansas' game against Illinois See page 3B
Junior center Kristin Geoffroy towers over Illinois forwards Allison Curtin and Cindy Dallas as she gently pushes the ball into the goal. Geoffroy had 10 points and 5 rebounds against the Illini last night in Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Craig Bennett/KANSAN
Axtell rejoins Kansas lineup but ankle still slows his play
Senior forward Kenny Gregory shoots over Middle Tennessee State defenders. Gregory was named the Big 12 player of the week. Photo by Justin Schmidt/KANSAN
Even though Axtell performed well with 11 points in the Jayhawks' 92-68 drumming of Middle Tennessee State on Monday, he said his ankle still wasn't quite up to par.
By Michael Rigg sports@kansan.com Kansan sports writer
but he's sun nor quite back into run swing. Axtell, a senior forward, led the Jayhawks in scoring in their first two exhibition games. But he severely sprained his ankle hours before Kansas headed to New York for the Coaches vs. Cancer IKON Classic, and he was forced out of the Jayhawk lineup until last Saturday's win against Washburn University
Luke Axtell is back in the Kansas lineup, but he's still not quite back into full swing.
Axtell's shot has been dropping for the Jayhawks since his return, connecting on 50 percent of his shots so far this season. But despite the productive numbers.
"I'm about 85 percent," Axtell said. "It doesn't affect my shot, but it affects coming off screens and moving laterally."
Kansas coach Roy Williams said he would keep a protective eye on Axell. After Axell landed awkwardly on the ankle late in the game against the lchabods, Williams told his senior forward he would keep a close watch on the injury.
"When he tweaked it in Saturday's game, I think that scared him a little bit, and he was a bit more tentative in yesterday's practice," Williams said. "We had a little talk before, and I told him I was going to watch him closely and that he would have to understand that everybody that's ever had a severe ankle sprain has had some pain involved for a month afterwards."
In fact, Williams said Axtell might not be 100 percent for a few more weeks.
Williams also said Axell would be a factor when he was healthy.
"He does give you another weapon, and he's hard to guard," Williams said.
Seth Jones
■ With the No. 2 Jayhawks attaining their highest national ranking since the spring of 1988, the Big 12 Conference officials
Sports Columnist
decided to turn back the clock, too.
For the first time since Paul Pierce won the honor in February 1988, a Kansas player was named the Big 12 player of the week. This time, senior forward Kenny Gregory won the honor for his efforts last week against Boise State.
Gregory scored a season-high 25 points against the Broncos to accompany a career-high 11 rebounds. After five games, Gregory leads the Jayhawks with 20.6 points a game and 8.8 rebounds.
The Jayhawks reportedly have reached an agreement to play in next fall's Maul Invitational. The tournament will feature UCLA, Duke, Seton Hall, Houston, South Carolina, Ball State, Chaminade and Kansas.
— Edited by Warisa Chulindra
sports@kansan.com
Columnist strikes back writes own Free for All
Today seems like a good day to burn a bridge or two.
A lot of times when I go out, people stop me and talk about my columns. I think that's great. I enjoy meeting people who read my columns or remember a cartoon I did.
I'm calling out all you "Free for All" suckers. That's right. Just because you got ten words printed in the *Kansan* doesn't make you tough.
But, on occasion, I'll meet some chump that wants to brag to me, and he or she will say,
"Yeah, well, I've been in the Free for All three times!" Then they go on and tell me what meaningful thoughts they had printed.
Half the time I want to respond, "Oh! That was you! Those words moved me so, I've since given up jaywalking!" Or maybe, "Ha! That was so funny I coughed up blood laughing!"
But I don't. I'm nice. I smile. I say, "Oh,
really? Your parents must be proud."
Then I'll see someone who I know but haven't seen in two months. The first thing they'll tell me is, "Hey, I saw what was written about you in the Free for All... heh-heh-heh." Then I tell them I don't read the Free for All and get all defensive trying to find out what someone said about me.
So today I strike back. I'm doing my own Free for All. Don't like it? Tough. Deal with it.
Some of these Free for All statements are contributed from others, but I'll take the heat for all of them. Sorry it takes the anonymity out of the Free for All concept, but I've got a problem with anonymous people trying to stir up trouble. Something about backbones and the like...
So here ya go. Free for All, Jonesey Style.
I think all the people who read the Free for All have drinking problems.
Yeah, Roy Williams is a fine coach, but we take her worship a little too far. Want a real hero? How about a primary school bus driver?
-
I could make fun of frat boys, sorority girls, dorm rats or whatever other campus group I can think of. But I'm not that trite.
You get three years to build a football program. Then if you still suck, you get canned. Example: USC's firing of Paul Hackett. Terry Allen — borrowed time.
You know, every time I read my column, the first thing I think is, 'Dammit, I'm way better looking in real life.'
And then a voice spoke in my head, and she said, 'Dark is not the opposite of light. It's the absence of light.'
One for me (takes a drink of St. Ides), one for all my sexually assaulted soccer girls (pours a drink of St. Ides on the ground).
The funny thing about those of you who really hate me is that you're also my most loyal readers. Thanks for your support.
Comic books are literature too.
-
Hi, my name is Seth Jones, and I just wanted to see something positive about me in the Jonesey-Style Free for All. So, I think I'm a nice guy.
I'd like to give another shout-out to the Crimson Girls. And if that anglers you, I have to wonder, why?
Ironic, the most fervent environmentalist in national politics was ousted by the Green Party.
'Ohhh' was cool back when Ostertag was here.
"Puuhu" was really pushing it. Now "Dreee"
and "Luuuke" cheers make me wince.
Did you read this far in the column? I win again! (I... am. Spartacus!)
Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism.
---