Section:
B
The University Daily Kansan
Trivia Question
Sports
Between 1956 and 1964, this Soviet woman won 10 World Championship titles in gymnastics. Who is she? See the answer on page 2B.
Inside: The Kansas women's swimming team defeated Southwest Missouri State on Friday.
SEE PAGE 5B
Inside: Junior Charlie Gruber was the only cross-country runner to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
SEE PAGE 5B
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1 E. 2000 For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Jayhawks take New York
The Kansas men's basketball team displays the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic championship banner. The Jayhawks defeated St. John's in the championship game 82-74 on Friday night. Photo by Craig Bennett/KANSAN
Kansas takes bite out of St. John's in tourney final
By Michael Rigg sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
NEW YORK — The New York fans yelled for them to "go back to the south," and one local newspaper misidentified their hometown as Manhattan, Kan.
The Big Apple wasn't prepared for the Jayhawks, but Kansas was more than ready for New York.
On a rainy Friday night at Madison Square Garden, Kansas blocked out a raucous crowd, the non-stop trash talking of St. John's. . . guard
John's guard
Omar Cook and
decease again
foul trouble to down the
Red Storm 82-74.
With the win, the Jayhawks captured the championship of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classid and added their second win of the new season.
Kansas 82
St. John 74
For more on this
weekend's game, a
statistical breakdown
and Big 12 Confer-
ence previews.
See page 3B
More Big 12 previews.
See page 7B
For more photos.
See www.kansas.com
But it didn't come easily.
For the second time in two nights, the Javahawks built
a double-digit lead, got in foul trouble, watched their opponents whittle the lead away and then hung on for the victory.
In fact, the issue was still very much in doubt when Red Storm forward Anthony Glover's layup sliced an 11-point lead to just two with less than two minutes to play.
But an arching, fall-away shot by Jayhawk sophomore forward Drew Gooden on the other end lifted the Kansas lead back to 77-73. When Gooden snagged a rebound on the other end and drew the foul, the game was effectively out of reach.
For Kansas coach Roy Williams, the 2-0 start in the Big Apple showed a lot about his
team, which played with March fire instead of November timidness.
"Our team learned a lot about itself." Williams said. "We were exposed to a lot of different things in this tournament and I think that's important this time of year."
Indeed, Gooden was exposed to every emotion on Friday. He didn't start against St. John's — Williams said his defense wasn't strong enough — and was pulled just minutes before hitting his clutch shot after trying to dribble through St. John's guards Cook and Willie Shaw.
"I took him out and kind of chewed him," Williams said. "There's no way a 6-foot 9 guy should spin dribble through traffic like that. At that stage of the game, you don't make hard plays. You make easy plays."
The easy play was exactly what senior forward Kenny Gregory made all night against St. John's. After wowing the Garden crowd with multiple Empire State Building-sized dunks in the first half, Cook and Gregory talked all game, trying to intimidate each other. But freshman Cook was no witty match for senior Gregory.
Still. Cook scored 17 points against the Jayhawks and was named to the all-tournament team.
"Coach told us before the game they'd try to intimidate us," Gregory said. "Cook told me we play the best ball in New York. I said, 'We play basketball in Ohio and Kansas, too.' I thought it all was kind of cute."
Kansas' championship proved it was ready for the bright lights of New York in the middle of November.
— Edited by J. R. Mendoza
Texas loss dashes Kansas' bowl hopes
By Jason Franchuk
Kansan sportwriter
The last thing Kansas football coach Terry Allen wanted Saturday was to hear his team spouting off cliches.
Kansan sportwriter
Such is life, however, when there's nothing new to say.
With one game left, the Jayhawks spoke about pride, playing for fun and trying to end the season on a positive note.
It all sounded sweet, but one fact remains: Kansas' 51-16 loss to Texas on Saturday ended its hopes of going to a bowl game.
At 4-6 and 2-5 in Big 12 Conference games, Kansas is malleible for postseason play for the fifth consecutive year.
"We're out of a bowl game," senior quarterback Dylen Smith said. "That's frustrating for me. We thought all year we could go to one. I was confident going into this game, but we got whipped.
Kansas jumped out to a 14-0 lead after freshman wide receiver Derick Mills' 28-yard touchdown run and junior cornerback Andrew Davison's 43-yard interception return for a touchdown.
That was not the case early.
Texas cut the lead to 14-9 after a 38-
Nesmith roamed the end zone, read Longhorns quarterback Chris Simms and made a one-handed catch. As he jaunted up the field, only a 300-pound Texas offensive lineman pursued Nesmith. Of course, Nesmith won the race and appeared to do some talking.
yard touchdown pass, but Kansas senior safety Carl Nesmith intercepted the ensuing two-point conversion and returned it for a touchdown.
It was a glorious moment for the. Javhawa.
"The way the game started out, we just never thought it would go like that," sophomore tight end David Hurst said. "I don't understand what happened. In the blink of an eye, we go
"Nah," Nesmith said, later, laughing. "I was just having fun. It was fun to score."
That would be the last time Kansas would have that feeling.
from a 14-point lead to down 14 at halftime and we couldn't get anything going."
Give No. 19 Texas credit.
Give No. 18 Years of Creation.
It was playing with the backup Simms, instead of injured starter Major Applewhite. Simms completed 10 of 18 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns. And he did it against a team in desperate need for a win, playing in miserably cold weather with basically no audience — a paltry crowd of 27,200.
"We could have easily been flat," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "There was no one in the stands. KU was fighting for a bowl game, and it was cold. So it would have been natural for us to take today off."
Now Kansas enters its final week of practice preparing for the Cyclones, a team that has already qualified for the postseason. Allen admitted that emotionally preparing his team to go on the road for a meaningless game would be "a challenge."
But after a disappointing showing on Senior Day at home, the Jayhawks spoke about trying to finish on a high note.
"We've got 20 seniors." Hurst said. "We want to do it for the seniors. If we don't, that's pretty selfish. You always want to end the season with a win."
Kansas junior cornerback Andrew Davison leaps for the pass block but was unsuccessful in stopping Texas' Roy Williams from making the reception. Williams was virtually unstoppable as the Jayhawks let him rack up 180 yards receiving with two touchdowns. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
— Edited by Clay McGuistion
Wildcats shut out Jayhawk volleyball a second time
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Sarah Warren
Kansas was also shut out on Oct.
It was a case of the "coulda, shoulda, wouldas" for the Kansas volleyball team this weekend.
The Jayhawks fell in three games, 15-12, 8-15, 15-1, to the Kansas State Wildcats on Saturday night at the Horesei Family Athletics Center. The loss dropped the Jayhawks to 14-12 and 5-12 in the Big 12 Conference.
4 in Manhattan.
"The first time we played them we were more aggressive," said Danielle Geronymo, senior middle blocker. "This time we didn't finish. We just didn't respond."
The Jayhawks had a strong start, scoring the first three points in game one, but Kansas State then matched, scoring three straight.
The two teams were tied 3-4 for a series of nine side outs before Kansas finally scored. The teams exchanged the lead point-for-point
Kansas v. N. State
12-15, 8-15, 1-15
until the sats went on a fourpoint streak, making the score 9-12. "I'm real disappointed," Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. "We had our opportunities, but they just got better, better, better."
The Jayhawks kept it close for most of the second game, but just when they would start to extend their lead beyond two points the
sen had a team-high 16 kills, plus four digs and six block assists. Geronnyo led the team with a .500 hitting percentage — 15 kills — and eight digs. Senior outside hitter Amy Mvyt added 11 kills.
"It's a match that we could have had," said Nancy Bell, senior outside hitter. "We had our chances in game one and we just couldn't finish. That's a trend this season."
Kansas will next play the Texas Longhorns in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday night. Kansas fell to Texas in five games when the two teams last met on Oct. 7 in Lawrence.
We had a couple of kids with
high efficiency." Bechard said. "But we need to find more of a balance. We had miscommunication and some hesitation."
The Wildcats, who bobble in and out of The Associated Press Top 25,
improved to 18-6. 12-4 Big 12.
— Edited by John Audlahelm
Seniors end where they began with a loss
It's unfortunate but undeniable — Saturday's 51-16 trouncing at the hands of Texas was a fitting send-off for Kansas seniors.
The Senior Day game was a microcosm of each of the four years the team spent with Kansas coach Terry Allen.
It started with high hopes but was quickly brought crashing to earth with the reality of the team's weaknesses. By the time it was all over, a bowl bid out of the question.
The Jayhawks stormed out of the gate on their first drive and scored on a lightning-quick end-around by freshman wide receive Derick Mills. The 29-yard sideline scamper was his first career touchdown, and it had Kansas fans searching their programs and wondering, "Who the heck was that?"
It wasn't long before they had even more reason to be excited. On Texas' next drive senior defensive back Andrew Davison actually looked like he might be "the best cornerback in the Big 12 Conference" (his words) when he picked off a Texas pass and took it 43 yards for a score.
The Hawks were on top 14-0 less than five minutes into the game.
You couldn't have written a better start to the Senior Day game.
start to the Senior Day game.
But, as it has been each year for these guys, the final act in this play read more like a tragedy — or perhaps a farce.
After being intercepted, Texas quarterback Chris Simms inserted a big pin into Davison's overinflated ego. On the Longhorn's next drive, Simms victimized Davison with a 43-yard pass to receiver Roy Williams. Texas capitalized with a field goal.
Simms again saw Williams matched up against Davison on the next Texas drive. This time they connected in the end zone for a 38-yd score.
How about a 34-yard pass from Simms to Williams over Davison that got the ball down to the Kansas 2 yard line?
fast-forward to the second quarter with the score tied 16-16.
Davison was matched (read: mismatched) with Williams on one again. Sims saw it, took his time and floated a bomb that went for a 65 yard score.
The Simms-to-Williams-over-Davison combination racked up 180 yards and accounted directly for 12 points and indirectly for another 11.
Follow that with an easy touchdown run, and the 14-0 Jayhawk lead reversed into a 30-16 lead for the Longhorns.
So what did Texas do when it had the ball and time dwindling away in the first half?
Division wasn't so lucky to blame.
His case was just an example of the larger problem with Kansas' corner-backs: They are just too short.
Simms was just throwing the ball high and letting Williams jump up over Davison for the catch.
The defense didn't have any success stopping the run either. Texas churned up the turf to the tune of 396 rushing yards. Toss in 241 passing yards, and the Longhorns had a robust offensive output of 637 yards. Curb
Ouch.
That's definitely not the note on which the Jayhawk seniors wanted to exit Memorial Stadium. Fittingly, there weren't many people there to see it. Only a meager crowd braved the cold to bid farewell to the seniors.
Perhaps a cold aluminum bench and a mediocre football team just didn't seem as inviting after watching an outstanding basketball team from a warm couch the night before.
So our football seniors ended up where they started out: on the short end of the stick and in the shadow of the basketball team.
Prater is a lawrence graduate student in journalism.