8A
Who were the 1953 Major League Baseball World Series champions who became the first team to send each winner home with more than $10,000 compensation for the victory? Answer on page 6A
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: Kansas soccer player Perdis Brown has more than one big game to worry about this weekend as her husband, Chris Brown of the Kansas City Wizards competes in the MLS championships.
SEE PAGE 6A
Inside: The Kansas volleyball team faced more than a tough Missouri team last night, also battling a record-breaking crowd in the Hearnes Center
THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2000 For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
SEE PAGE 6A
Athlete gets sports double dose
Mario Kinssey, Waco, Texas, freshman, slam dunks a football. Kinssey, who plays football on scholarship, soon will begin practicing and playing with the basketball team. Photo portrait by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Kinsey hopes to compete on field, court
By Jason Franchuk sports@kanson.com Kanson sportswriter
Mario Kinsey strolls a hallway at Allen Fieldhouse, heading toward his first photo shoot, and he appears to be relaxed — for a young man who has his hands full.
He has a football in his right hand and a basketball in the other. This is what sets the freshman apart from most college athletes.
The photo op calls for him to hold each of the balls because he plans on playing both sports at Kansas. But Kinsey's athletic circus will not turn into a juggling act yet.
Kinsey, a Kansas quarterback, will redshirt this season. Football coach Terry Allen and basketball coach Roy Williams devised a plan for Kinsey's services. Tomorrow, at Kansas basketball's Late Night With Roy William, the Waco, Texas, native will become a basketball player again and practice with the hoopsters.
"It's been fun for me," Kinsey said. "I've really enjoyed myself."
Life is all about enjoyment for Kinsey right now. He gets to play football, for which he is on scholarship. He tries to squeeze in some time to shoot baskets, usually on Mondays, when the football team does not normally practice. He's jovial at football practice, laughing, talking trash to teammates, as he tries to help out the team as a wide receiver in some practice drills and as a quarterback in others.
"He's a gifted athlete," Allen said.
His future as a two-sport athlete is in the air. With the graduation of current quarterback Dylen Smith, whom Kinsey compares himself to athletically, Kinsey can expect to be in the mix for the starting job next fall.
He said he needed to get in "basketball shape," which means to have more endurance than the constant lulls that football provides. But until then, his focus is on the first sport.
"I'm going to concentrate completely on football until I'm told I can play basketball," Kinsey said.
From high school, Kinsey brings the credentials for succeed at both sports, which was his plan all along. He wavered between Kansas and Baylor, two schools that offered him the opportunity to play two sports.
He was selected the Class 3A Texas player of the year as a junior in football. He fared similarly well in basketball, averaging 16.3 points and 6.2 assists last year while leading his team to a 34-4 record and a state championship.
"I think I can," Kinsey said,
"if I work hard enough."
There are questions Kinsey will have to answer in the coming months. What if he fares better in one sport than the other? Will he be shortening himself if he tries to play two sports? He claims he can succeed in both.
There have been a few close calls during which he was almost called into action, thereby eliminating the redshirt status. Against Kansas State last Saturday, after Smith was injured on the Jayhawk's first drive, Kinsey was told to warm up with second-string quarterback Zach Dyer.
It was on the sideline, however, where Allen saw Kinsey display his greatest act of confidence.
At Oklahoma, Kinsey mockingly encouraged the Sooners fans to start cheering by waving his arms in the air. A few fans retorted, yelling at Kinsey to enter the game, even though Kinsey was dressed in jeans and only his jersey top.
"He told them, 'the name's Kinsey,'" Allen said, telling the anecdote with a smile and a few dramatic pauses. "Remember it."
Kinsey wants fans to know who he is. Coming to Kansas gives him two ways to do it.
— Edited by Kimberly Thompson
Record Tigers crowd goes home happy
By Sarah Warren sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The happiest moment in the Kansas volleyball team's trip to Missouri was the post-game Papa John's pizza.
The Jayhawks feasted after they lost three games to the Tigers and beat the home team in the second game, 15-11.
"Yeah, I'm not too happy right now," said Nancy Bell, senior outside hitter. "I think we weren't executing any of our game plan."
The 'Hawks marched into the Hearnes Center, knowing that they had a fight ahead
For Kansas, senior middle blocker Danielle Geronymo was the most solid player, knocking down 17 kills and pulling out seven digs. Senior Amy Myatt, outside hitter, was second for the 'Hawks batting down 15 kills and also bumping seven digs. Bell was third in kills with 11, and junior settler Melly LaMere had an unusual seven
of them. A border war does exist, even in volleyball, as the second largest crowd in Missouri volleyball history — 1,148 goldcid fans — taunted the "chicken hawks."
But it seemed that the Tigers' Lisa Morris proved the most disturbing to the Jayhawks. Morris racked up 23 kills and three service aces for the Tigers.
kills and 12 digs in addition to her 48 set assists.
"I thought we played well," said Kansas coach Ray Bechard. "We really hung in there. They just did an excellent job."
However, the Tigers may not be as deadly when they play the Jayhawks Nov. 18 at the Horejsi Family Athletic Center. While leading the 'Hawks in the first game 1-11, Kristen Johnson — who is second in kills for Missouri on the season — went down with a twisted knee. Johnson returned the court on crutches with a MRI scheduled for today.
The Tigers are now 15-2, 6-2, while Kansas falls to 11-7, 2-7.
Missouri only had seven blocks, even
though it is No. 2 in blocks in the Big 12 Conference, while stuffing 14 its own. Jordan Garrison, a freshman middle blocker, scored five of those blocks and batted down eight kills of her own.
Garrison said that the Jayhawks would use their off weekend for recuperation and preparation for next Wednesday night's home-court battle with Oklahoma.
"I think with how many games we've played this season, this is a really good time for us," Garrison said. "And, hopefully, we can come out to practice next week and concentrate and play as a team and get ready to go."
- Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Slap on wrist lets player off the hook
There are those dark moments in sports than seem to overshadow and put a damper on all the positive aspects of the game.
When Shaquille O'Neal donned a turban and stared in *Kazam*, a movie that turned the Los Angeles Laker into a genie who could grant wishes. I shinned the game of basketball for two weeks. I was ashamed to be a fan.
When minor league pitcher Ben Christiansen fired a ball into the on-deck circle, beaming the opposing player in the eye, I shivered that someone could be so heartless. But now, Marty McSorley has lowered the standards on one of my favorite sports
— hockey. I have no problem with fighting in hockey; that's one of the best aspects of the game. That's the highlight of any Chicago Blackhawks game.
But when McSorley, a 17-year veteran of the game, whacked Vancouver Canucks' Donald Brashear last season with his stick, I was shocked. McSorley missed the final 23 games of the season as punishment from the NHL and was later charged with assault with a weapon.
Does the court want hockey to turn into a death match? That's the stupidest idea I've heard of since Arena Football.
But here's the real problem — even though McSorley was found guilty last Friday, he won't be sent to jail, he won't be fined and he won't have a criminal record.
McSorley claims he deliberately skated up the ice, looking for trouble, missed the shoulder and bonked Brasher on the right side of the head with his lumber. A veteran hockey player can't discern a shoulder from a player's head?
Maybe McSorley needs to retake grade school biology. Or instead, he should be booted out of the NHL and spend a few nights in jail.
Judge Kitchen dismissed that claim, saying "a housekeeper swinging a carpet-beater wouldn't miss. An NHL hockey player would never, ever miss."
It wouldn't be the first time a hockey player has spent a few hours in the slammer. In 1988, Dino Ciccarelli received a one-day sentence and was fined $1,000 for a stick-related offense against Toronto defenseman Luke Richardson.
But McSorley was handed an 18-month conditional discharge, meaning that he has no participation in any sporting activity with Brashear during the span. I guess ABC won't be featuring a one-on-one competition between them any time soon.
McSorley is a deviant to the game. He didn't choke his coach as Latrell Sprewell did or throw beer bottles at the KU crowd as the Missouri did two years ago. But by slapping him on the wrist instead of cutting off his hands, the court put every hockey player in danger by letting McSorley's behavior fly.
Now if Dallas Star Brett Hull is upset at Colorado Avalanche Joe Sakic for being more attractive, Hull has the permission of the court to take a swing and not worry about any stingy repercussions.
That's an NHL that I don't want a part of. A fistfight, OK. But not using an opposing player's head as a batting tee.
Kaschube is a Flossmoor, Ill., senior in journalism
Losing team leaders won't deter Jayhawks
By Zoe Hunter
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Media day is nothing new to Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington.
She is entering her 28th season as head coach, but this media day might have been her most difficult. She introduced six new players to the press and spoke at length about team chemistry and how the team was coming together.
"This group seems to like each other." Washington said. "There is no question they respect each other."
She said that the respect factor was the first step in gaining complete team chemistry. This year's team is different because it lacks a go-to player. Without Lynn Pride or Suzi Raymant, who finished their last season of eligibility at Kansas last spring, more emphasis will be
placed on working as a team offensively.
Because of this, Washington said outsiders would view Kansas as underdogs, and most people would think they were at least a year away from making any noise in the Bie 12 Conference.
After Washington finished speaking to the media, the players conducted one-on-one interviews. The seniors were surrounded immediately and offered their own views.
But Washington said she would not let the new faces on the team cloud her view of what her team could do.
"We might be able to surprise some people," she said.
Senior guard Jennifer Jackson said that this year's team was hungry and that the team's speed would make up for any loss the team suffered offensively.
"On any given night, any one of us is going to score 25 points," she said.
Jackson also talked of the team's goals, adding that she would like to add a couple more banners to the Allen Fieldhouse rafters, possibly one that reads Final Four.
"We're very lacking in jewelry," Jackson said.
"And I think that we'd like some."
After the interviews, the players — already suited up in their home uniforms — headed downstairs and posed for the team picture.
Instead of spending the time sitting on the bleachers between photos, the players gave observers a sneak peak of Late Night with Roy Williams at Allen Fieldhouse tomorrow night. But they made sure not to go give a way too many of the skits and dances before the actual event.
Sophomore guard Kristen May said the show would be one that added "some flava to the mix."
- Edited by Warisa Chulindra
Members of the Kansas women's basketball team practice a dance that they will perform at tomorrow's Late Night with Roy Williams. They were waiting to have their photos taken at Media Day yesterday at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Tara Kraus/KANSAN
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