Section B·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Big 12 basketball season previews
Texas to deal with void Longhorn women strive for past glory
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
The youth movement has struck the rest of the Big 12 Conference, and the Texas Longhorns are no exception.
Center Chris Mihm left for the NBA following his All-American junior season, and senior forward Gabe Monueke graduated, leaving a void in the middle of the Longhorn offense.
Coach Rick Barnes said he was not concerned with the loss of his dominant veterans.
"We have a lot of young guys," Barnes said. "But this could be a blessing for us. Getting them experience is a key to our success this season. We will count heavily on our veterans this season to carry us until our newcomers become comfortable and get into the flow of a college basketball season atmosphere."
The veterans, who will be leaned heavily upon, are junior forward Chris Owens, who started 16 games last year, and sophomore forward Chris Ogden. Owens is 4-foot 9, and Ogden stands 6-7. But despite them, the only roster player with much height is 6-10 freshman center Jason Klotz.
"We are going to be an up and down team," Owens said. "We'll get the ball up the floor. I think we'll be versatile. We want to do things to make it hard for other people to stop us. We need to utilize our weapons."
Perhaps the most dangerous weapon Texas will have is junior guard/forward Maurice Evans, a transfer from Wichita State. As a sophomore at Wichita State, Evans ranked ninth in the nation in scoring with a 22.6 points per game average. He chose to transfer after repeated arguments and misunderstandings with his former coach.
That offensive explosiveness that he brings to the team has both conference coaches and media outlets listing Evans as their choice for preseason Big 12 Conference forward of the Year honors.
Evans said he understood that he would be expected to be a scorer.
"I am trying not to focus on that with as youthful as we are this year," Evans said. "We didn't win that much at Wichita State, and I want to win. I want to come here and contribute in any way I can."
That method of contribution will be scoring, something Evans isn't concerned with after practicing against Mihm and Muoneke last year.
"It made me thankful to be at Texas because playing against the quality of players in practice last year gave me a taste of what to expect this year," he said.
—Edited by Kathryn Moore
By Zac Hunter sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
Texas women's basketball can be broken into two different eras; pre Big 12 Conference and post Big 12.
The pre-Big 12 years were great for the Longhorns when they were in the Southwest Conference with fellow Big 12 schools Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M, along with Houston, Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian. Texas won 10 conference titles and never finished below fourth place. Perhaps the greatest example of the Longhorns' dominance is the fact that they didn't lose a SWC game in the first eight years of the conference's existence.
Now, the once-untouchable Longhorns are suffering through some lean years. They finished second in the Big 12 in 1997, but they haven't finished higher than
fourth since.
If Texas is to make a run at its first Big 12 title, it will have to do it without the services of Edwina Brown. She averaged 21.2 points per game last season, and was the team's go-to player.
But losing Brown wasn't necessarily a bad thing, according to coach Jody Conradt.
"There were times when Edwina went to the bench for various reasons, and I thought that we were a very good team for short periods of time without her." Conradt said.
Texas will have to permanently adjust to those periods to have success, and senior guard JoRuth Woods, senior guard, said that the Longhorns would use balance to counter the loss of Brown.
"I don't think we will have a specific go-to player," she said. "It will depend upon who is hot in a particular game."
Woods will be a big factor for the Longhorns this year. She averaged 8.7 points and pulled down 6.3 rebounds per game.
In its favor, Texas does have four returning starters and a total of 11 players from last season. However, the returning talent won't help without maximum effort from the Longhorns.
"We have worked on putting ourselves in a position to be more consistent," said junior forward Tracy Cook. "We didn't have 15 players committed to being consistent."
Conradt said she already noticed a difference from last year.
"They stayed in Austin this summer, organized themselves, worked out and are in the best physical condition and more mentally ready to start the season as any team I can remember for a while," she said.
Edited by Sara Nutt
Texas Tech hopes to improve, curb injuries
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
Ace bandages and hydrogen peroxide may be the Most Valuable Players for Texas Tech men's basketball team this season considering all of the painful losses and injuries it has endured.
The Red Raiders lost four starters from last year's team that managed just a 12-16 overall record, 3-13 in the Big 12 Conference for an 11th place finish. Making the pain worse is that one of those losses is Rayford Young, last season's leading scorer at 17.8 points per game. Second leading scorer Mario Layne also graduated. So did third leading scorer James Ware.
The low-powered Red Raider offense returns just 35 percent of its scoring. Most of that is handled by 6-foot-11 junior center Andy Ellis. He averaged 16.9 points per game, but played in just 14 outings because of a dislocated shoulder.
Ellis said he developed a left-handed shot that should increase his offensive production.
"I'm just trying to make the best of the time I have before the season." Ellis said. "I've been working on my left-handed shots in practice; that should help."
Senior forward Cliff Owens also returns after recovering from preseason ankle surgery last year. His absence, along with the injury to Ellis, left a soft interior on the Texas Tech offensive front.
Coach James Dickey said his team must stay healthy this year.
"Our theme at the end of the season last year and the beginning of this one was Rehab and Recruit," Dickey said. "It is critical that we stay healthy this year. Our freshman class must also step up because we know the challenges that are ahead of us."
Those challenges are the rest of the teams in the Big 12 Conference. Dickey said he thought his team
should have stacked up better in the league last year.
Outside production also will be an area the Red Raiders must succeed in at order to increase from critical to stable condition in the Big 12.
"We are going to throw the ball inside, but we have to have consistency on the outside." Dickey said. "Jayson Mitchell shot it good at times last year. We are going to have to find the people to put the points on the board from the outside consistently."
Dickey said those long range shooters might come in the forms of junior guard Moses Malone, Jr. and senior forward Jayson Mitchell.
Mitchell said the outside game would be key for the Red Raiders this year.
"We have several players that are good from the outside," Mitchell said. "That will give us some quality points each game."
— Edited by Kathryn Moore
By Zac Hunter
sports@kansan.com
The last time the Texas Tech women's basketball team didn't win 20 games in a season was 1989.
That was also the last time the Lady Raiders failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Since 1983, Tech has racked up eight conference championships. Five of those were in the former Southwest Conference, and in the last three years the Lady Raiders have done no worse that tie for a share of the Big 12 Conference title.
"I hope that at some point your program gets to a point where people feel like you are going to be able to recruit well enough to keep it going year after year," said coach Marsha Sharp.
The Tech program is at the point where it can recruit players that keep it among the Big 12 elite
every year. Its recruiting power comes is evident in its ability to sign six freshmen, all from Texas.
Sharp said she got exactly the players she wanted from within the state, so there was no need to continue pursuing other players.
Those six freshmen will help replace three seniors from last year's team and also will have the burden of heavy expectations. Tech is ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press press season and is also a favorite to contend for the Biz 12 title.
"They're living up to their reputation, and I'm excited for our team and for them," said senior Katrisa O'Neal. "They're a big reason why we're ranked."
However, Sharp also knows that the other Big 12 teams are just waiting to knock the Lady Raiders down.
"This is a pretty unforgiving conference and you can have a good basketball team and not finish very high," Sharp said.
Tech will provide one of the major challenges for co-defending Big 12 champion Iowa State. The Cyclones and the Lady Raiders will play on the last week of the season, and that game probably will have championship implications.
The 25-point truncating Iowa State dropped on Texas Tech last season cost the Lady Raiders the conference crown. So it may be a good thing that they are starting with a clean slate, bringing in six newcomers and replacing three seniors.
"We lost three big seniors, but we know that the year before we were able to overcome the loss of seniors the year before," said sophomore Plenette Pierson.
Pierson added that the season would be determined by the contributions by the six Texas freshmen.
Edited by Erin Adamson
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