Pick up a Kansan every day next week for a piece of a Roy Williams poster.
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: The volleyball team will try to break a five-game losing streak against Oklahoma tonight at Horesi Family Athletics Center.
Inside: Kansas soccer player Katie Lents hasn't gotten as much playing time this season, but she earned her first goal of the season during the weekend. SEE PAGE 4B
SEE PAGE 5B
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2000. For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Player profile
Academics accentuate linebacker's performance
By Allan Davis
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
Last Saturday, Tim Bowers, senior linebacker and second-year co-captain, had the kind of game most athletes dream about. He intercepted a Missouri pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown and also recovered a Tiger fumble.
Bowers, a fifth-year senior from Columbus, Ohio, came to Kansas as a safety but was a redshirt before moving to linebacker in the spring of his first year at Kansas.
He started 10 of 12 games as a junior and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference honors. This year he has started all six games and was selected by the Kansas coaches as Jayhawk defensive player of the week for his performance in the Jayhawks 38-17 win against Missouri.
However, Bowers is more than just a good football player; he's also a top-notch scholar with a lengthy list of awards.
school With a劲意! Bowers was a first-team Academic All-Big 12 Conference selection as a redshirt freshman, as a sophomore and as a junior.
He earned NCAA District VII Academic All-America honors as a sophomore. As a junior he was named to the District VII Academic All-America second team.
Bowers also was named to the Big 12 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, and he has been recognized twice as a University of Kansas Black Faculty and Staff Council Scholar.
Kansas coach Terry Allen said the rest of the football team appreciated what Bowers brought to the team.
More information
For more football,
See page 38
"All the kids have a lot of respect for Tim."
Allen said. "He's a two-year captain, and the reason they have respect for him is he gets his work done. He does
Bowers said he tried to keep a positive attitude about academics.
what he's supposed to do, and he plays hard. He's graduating. He's got a very high grade point average. He's just a really quality young man and a good person."
"You're here to play football, but your parents want you to be here to get a good education. So you've got to be able to balance both of them."
attitude about classes.
"I try to keep it as not being a task to do my work," he said. "I just make it a habit. Just like it's a habit to go to practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; it's a habit to go to class. It's just something you've got to do while you're here.
Success in the classroom is important, but Bowers, 6-foot and 230 pounds, said Saturday's victory at Missouri also was important to him and the team.
"It was a road win. It was a Big 12 road win, and it's Missouri," Bowers said. "It means a lot to this team. I think it gives us some momentum going into the Colorado game."
Bowers is a political science major but said he also has done a lot of premed work.
He said that after graduation he would like to work for a pharmaceutical company or perhaps attend medical school or business school.
"There's just a lot of different options right now," Bowers said.
Edited by Erin McDaniel
one Kansas women's basketball team flexes with strenath trainer Kevin Coleman, fourth from right. Coleman worked with the team on speed and agility this summer. Photo by Tara Kraus/KANSAN
Trainer pumps up 'Hawks
By Zac Hunter
sports@kanan.com
Kanan sportswriter
Don't be surprised if the Kansas women's basketball team spends a little extra time in front of the mirror this season. Don't blame it on vanity; blame it on reality.
Don Collins is our head coach.
The Jayhawks are primed and in great shape for the season, thanks to Kevin Coleman, director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports at the University of Kansas.
uffering for Olympic sports He worked with the women's basketball team all summer, and said they had shown great improvement in their quickness and mobility.
"Basketball's more of a game of acceleration," Coleman said.
So that's what he focused on. Coleman said he worked to get the players' agility and quickness to a higher level. "I really worked more on the changes of direction,
which is really important," he said.
Coach Marian Washington said she could tell during the year's first practice that Coleman's efforts had paid off. She said her players were strong and intense for all three hours. Coleman said that when he heard those compliments he took pride in doing his job right.
we took price in seeing it. "It's a nice feeling to see that your hard work is appreciated," he said. "As long as I see these athletes receiving results and are happy with what's going on, I can do it all day long."
"Most importantly, the athletes have to want to better themselves, and that's exactly what women's basketball has done," Coleman said. "They want to succeed and they want to get better."
He said he sometimes had to slow down some of the players who had nagging injuries.
players who had begun "For me as a coach, it was exciting because I've got people that are injured who were trying to push themselves to do more," Coleman said.
Senior forward Jaclyn Johnson said that his summer training routine had slimmed her down, preparing her to play the faster style the 'Hawks plan to run this season.
"Jaclyn may be in the best shape she's been in." Washington said.
A strength trainer must have strength, and Coleman certainly has that.
certainly has that. He was a two-time national shot put champion at the University of Nebraska, where he got his masters degree in health education. He was also a weight-lifting alternate for the United States team in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Coleman was the strength coach with the Cornhuskers when their football team won two national championships in the early 90s.
Coleman said seeing his athletes succeed on the field is what gives him his greatest thrill. . .
"That's a wonderful feeling," he said.
Edited by John Audlehelm
Jayhawk sophomores mature
By Michael Rigg
By Michael Rigg
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
This season, the nucleus of the Kansas Jayhawks definitely will have a canine feel.
Forwards Nick Collison and Drew Gooden, along with point guard Kirk Hinrich, have shed their freshman puppy labels. Because of last season — when all three routinely set and nearly guided the Jayhawks past top-ranked Duke in the NCAA tournament last March—the three aged in the basketball equivalent of dog years, as opposed to the slower rate of most freshmen.
"We got so much more experience than most freshmen," said Collison, who was third on the team in scoring in his initial campaign. "Because of that, we may feel a lot older than most returning freshmen."
The experience paid off, as Gooden and Collison were named to the Big 12 Conference All-freshmen team, and Hinrich won the team's most improved player award.
Now, the challenge is to retain that knowledge and keep up the frantic pace of a year ago. Unlike last season, during which all three were being led by blind faith, this year all three would know what was coming, Gooden said.
"Last year gave us a great advantage."
sand Gooden. "Now, we know what to expect."
Kansas coach Roy Williams said the biggest thing Gooden had to get adjusted to was the length of the season.
"Drew was just shocked at the end of the year last year how tired he was come tournament time and how everyone else just raised the level of play." Williams said.
Indeed, Gooden faded in the NCAA tournament, as he averaged only six points per game in the two tournament games nearly half of his season average.
Williams promised such declines would
See SOPHOMORES on page 3B
Kansas sophomores (from left) Nick Collison, Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich hope they can build off the experience they gained last season. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
Late Night should heed advice, make skits exciting for fans
It doesn't take a whole lot to keep me entertained. For example, when I actually go to my classes, I usually find my professor's lectures somewhat interesting. Honest.
that's why it baffles me that something like Late Night can bore me to no end. Let's face it, this past Late Night may have reached a new low in entertainment value. It was simply awful.
For those who were fortunate enough to have missed Late Night, allow me to summarize: Women's basketball team jumps around for an entire song. They stop. Quick break into Survivor theme. Women's team dances more. Stops. Survivor. Dance. Stops. Men's team enters, dances. Stops. Survivor. Everybody dances. Stops. Survivor.
Oh, I forgot. Jeff Carey got a haircut! Seriously, 16,000 people sitting in Allen Fieldhouse for hours just to support this team, and they make us watch some guv
Get the picture?
get a haircut? What's the next? Brooke Reeves
get her nails done at midcourt?
I thought about the lack of entertainment at Late Night, and I wondered how I would have done things differently. If this were my world, here's how things would have gone down at Late Night.
Blair Witch Project skit:
Yeah, I know, they did one. But it was weak. My version — three Jayhawks go searching Allen Fieldhouse for... Marlon London! Dramatic peak hits when the lights go out, come back on, and (gasp!) a bundle of twigs are found at midcourt. Inside.. sweet Jesus, no! Are those Marlon's transfer papers??
Interlude: Crimson Girls (they CAN dance).
Considere Theory starring Kirk Hirsch:
The story of how Kirk Hinrich single-handedly kept the Duke Blue Devils on hand in last year's NCAA tournament. The hook of the story is the unbelievable shadow-foul that was called on Hinrich, which took him out of the game.
Interlude: more Crimson Girls.
ER:
Howard Stern:
Axtell was unconscious, someone stole his guitar!
Interlude: más Crimson Girls, por favor.
Missed Lesson
A quick-paced story, Luke Axtell is wheeled in on a stretcher, suffering from a mystery illness. Doctor Roy cures Luke, and all is well. But wait! This story has an additional surprise happy ending! While
To calm the crowd after the ER drama, we do a Howard Stern spoof. Jeff Bosche, sporting a long-haired wig, sits behind a microphone and tries to convince three Crimson Girls to take their tops off.
Interlude: Crimson Girls (like Jello, there's always room for more Crimson Girls).
Judge Judy:
For this one, we have to fly in super tough Judge Judy herself. In this skit, football players face charges from a soccer player regarding sexual assault. Rather than drawing this case out for eternity, Judge Judy settles the case in nine minutes, doing a service to Jayhawk fans everywhere.
The dramatic conclusion comes when Roy Williams, Kenny Gregory and Drew Gooden march out to mid-court, all decked out in Run DMC gear. I'm talking Adidas everything, shoes with no laces, and lots of gold jewelry. The one time we see dancing that doesn't involve the Crimson Girls, Roy and the guys lead the men's and women's basketball teams in a rip off of Run DMC's classic, "Who's House?"
And of course, this would be the new version of the song, where the answer is, "Roy's House!!!"
Conclusion:
OK, so I'm probably not the guy who should be writing the script for Late Night. But whoever gets the job next year, please, I beg you, make it less painful!
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Jones is a Multvane senior in journalism.
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