Section:
B
The University Daily Kansan
Yesterday in sports
Sports
Tom Kelly agreed to a one-year contract extension to return for a 15th season as manager of the Minnesota Twins, the longest current tenure of any major-league manager.
Inside: Kansas offensive lineman Marc Owen doesn't make excuses when quarterback Dylen Smith gets sacked.
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: The Kansas soccer team will play its final home matches of the season this weekend.
SEE PAGE 3B
EDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2000 For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Family football feud
Kansas defensive end Ervin Holloman eyes his prey as he and Kareem High charge on Oklahoma running back. Holloman will have to set his sights on his own brother Cliff, K-State defensive lineman, when the Wildcats come to town Saturday. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Brothers to face off in intra-state battle
Kansas State defensive tackle Cliff Holloman grapples with a Miami linebacker. Six of Hollman's siblings, including Kansas defensive end Ervin, will be at Saturday's game. Contributed photo
By Allan Davis sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwinter
Ervin Holloman, a junior defensive end, plays for the Jayhawks, but his older brother, senior Cliff Holloman, plays defensive tackle for K-State.
This year's Sunflower Showdown does more than just match neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. This year's Kansas-Kansas State game actually pits brother against brother.
Kansas coach Terry Allen recruited both Holloman brothers, and although he only landed one, he said he was familiar with both.
"Actually, Cliff was always the bigger brother," Allen said. "I think Ervin might be a little faster."
Ervin said that playing against his brother would be a unique experience.
"It's going to be weird because we've never been on different sides of the ball," he said. "We never played on different teams."
However, Ervin said he wasn't certain that his brother would start and that he might be second team now.
"I haven't talked to him about all that," Ervin said. "I don't know what's going on with that. He's been starting the whole season though. I think."
The K-State football Web site lists Cliff on the second team, although he started in 10 games last year.
The Holloman brothers both played at Wichita Northwest High School, where Ervin played one defensive end position, and Cliff played the other.
The brothers then attended Garden City
Community College together. In Ervin's first year at Garden City, he played defensive tackle and his brother played defensive end. The next year, after Cliff left to attend St-State, Ervin played defensive end.
"I liked the coaching staff, and I thought this team had a chance to win some games," he said. "So there was no need to go to Manhattan. They've got about eight or nine defensive linemen already."
Ervin said there were several reasons he came to Kansas rather than following his
brother to K-State.
Ervin and Cliff are the only members of
the family to play a major college sport. One of their younger brothers was a running back at Manhattan High School, but doesn't play anymore. Ervin said that six of his 10 siblings, ranging in age from 36 to 18, would be at Saturday's game against K-State.
Although they share a love for football, Ervin said that he and his brother have totally different personalities.
Ervin said that everybody in his high school knew who Cliff was and probably would have known even if Cliff didn't played football.
"He's more outgoing and very well-spoken," he said. "I don't talk as much as he does. Everybody says he's kind of crazy. I guess you could say he's a little more the wild child."
"I remember one time for Halloween he dressed up like a girl," he said. "He had on some lipstick. He let some girl put lipstick and eye shadow on his eyes. We were in the same class, and I looked over and he had makeup on."
Ervin is recovering from an injury suffered against Oklahoma and didn't practice yesterday. Allen said Ervin had aggravated an old medial collateral ligament strain and bruised his calf.
Ervin said the injury occurred when someone blocked him below the waist from behind.
"I was just running upfield — I was on the back side of a play, and a guy just cut me, and when he cut me, he crawled onto my leg," he said.
See BROTHERS on page 3B
Pierce thanks fans for concern, support
By Michael Rigg
By Michael Rigg sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
Former Jayhawk Paul Pierce took time yesterday to issue a thank you to Kansas fans, while the Boston Celtics continued training camp without their star.
"I would personally like to thank all the Kansas fans and the KU family for all the love and support that's been showering upon me throughout this whole ordeal," Pierce said in a statement issued through the Kansas sports information office.
"I'm doing just fine, and I'm on the road to recovery," Pierce said. "I'm looking forward to returning to playing basketball."
Pierce: issued statement of thanks to Kansas fans
ball with the confidence of being better than ever. Thanks again for all the love and support."
Pierce, who plays for the NBA's Boston Celtics, was stabbed outside of a Boston nightclub on Sept. 25. He
was released from the hospital Friday, Sept. 29, after undergoing surgery to repair a pierced lung.
"When you look at getting hit over the head with a bottle, being knocked to the ground, being stabbed multiple times to come out of it in a short time being 100 percent, that's the greatest blessing that any organization can have," he said. "This is tremendous good luck."
Boston police have three suspects in custody in connection to the stabbing. The stabbing motive is still unknown, and Celtics coach Rick Pitino told the Associated Press that he considered Pierce lucky.
Pierce played for Kansas from 1995-98. He averaged 16.4 points per game for the Jayhawks and is fifth on Kansas' all-time scoring list.
"If I was a fortune teller, I would say he'd play, knowing Paul." Pitino said. "But that's up to the doctors and that's up to Paul."
He left Kansas after his junior season and was selected by the Celtics as the 10th pick of the 1998 NBA draft.
Pitino said that he expected Pierce to play in Boston's season opener Nov.1.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
'Hawks hope to snap losing skid at K-State
By Sarah Warren
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Mending their broken hearts after two tough five-game losses in a week, the Kansas volleyball team will try to find solace on the road as they board the bus to Manhattan for tonight's matchup against Kansas State.
Kansas (11-4, 2-4 in the Big 12 Conference) fell to Baylor last Wednesday and to Texas Tech last Saturday, succumbing each time to rally scoring in the fifth game. Now the Jayhawks face the Wildcats, who were ranked No. 24 before falling to Missouri in three games Saturday night.
we've had two tough five-game losses and then we'll go play another ranked team," said coach Ray Bechard after Saturday's loss to Texas Tech. "That's how it is in this conference. It doesn't get any easier."
Actually, the Wildcats fell out of the rankings after Saturday's loss to Missouri. But at 9-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, the Wildcats are still a formidable opponent. K-State has won every meeting with the Jayhawks since the 'Hawks won a five-game squeaker at Allen Fieldhouse in 1994. Making things more difficult for the Jayhawks is that they haven't won in Manhattan since 1993.
Kansas, however, has some positives to take into the match, which begins at 7 tonight at Ahearn Fieldhouse.
During last Saturday's match against Texas Tech, Kansas gained 84 kills — their second highest kill total of the season. In the kills category, senior outside hitter Amy Myatt led the Jayhawks with 19 kills, followed by senior outside hitters Nancy Bell with 17 and Danielle Geronymo, who recorded 18 and a career-high four solo blocks.
In addition to leading the team in kills, Myatt recorded her 700th career kill against the Red Raiders. Her career total now stands at 718.
The Wildcats, in comparison, had a pair of outside hitters, junior Liz Wegner and freshman Lauren Goehring, leading them in their match against Missouri. Wegner recorded 17 kills, while Goehring took a career-high 15 against the Tigers in Columbia. Mo.
In devising a strategy for handling the Wildcats, Bechard said he would continue stressing the things he had specifically stressed all season — digs and passing. Kansas recorded 67 digs against the Red Raiders.
Myatt said that in order to beat the Wildcats, the Jayhawks must keep up the high numbers and fight for every dig, block and kill.
"We've just got to get a game plan and keep fighting," Myatt said. "It's going to go our way one of these times."
Sports Columnist
Seth Jones
Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
sports@kansan.com
Columns help in-state rivalry, trash talking just for fun
I'm a little depressed today.
I'm not writing the Kansas State column for the K-State/Kansas sports column exchange this year. If I were normal, I would be happy to have shrugged this duty off to some other columnist. But for some reason, probably pride, I feel as though it's my duty to write that column.
Last year, I received around 150 threatening e-mails after my anti-K-State column ran in the Collegian, the student newspaper for Kansas State University. Got them from both coasts. They were from students, professionals, even professors. One guy told me he was going to drag my dismembered body with his truck. He didn't say what he was going to do with my limbs. Maybe they got the pleasure of riding shotgun in his truck.
Heck, even my own roommate's little brother sent me a message so laced with profanity that I felt like washing my own mouth with soap after reading it.
Jerk.
In most cases, it was laughable. It's a fun rivalry. But after a while, after reading too many threats on my computer, I began to lose faith in our sister university to the west.
How serious do you take this rivalry? Too seriously? If a K-State student wrote something horrible about Roy Williams, would you blow a gasket?
Turns out I may have lost a buddy because of that column. I went to high school with the long snapper at K-State, Neal Gosch. Neal and I, man, we used to play hoops together all the time. Neal's a really good guy. Good ball player, too. My buddy T.J. "T-Love" Lervik told me Neal kind of thinks I'm a jerk now. Maybe I am.
The things I said about K-State weren't meant to be taken too seriously. Yeah, I meant it when I said they play a weak schedule. But when I called them ugly and stupid, I was just having fun with them. You know, a little trash talk for the rivalry. In the case of K-State versus Kansas, you have to talk trash before the game, because once the ball is kicked off, the only team talking is K-State.
If I were to write a serious column to be sent to the Collegian, what would it say? I couldn't do it. It'd be too self-degrading. It'd simply read, "K-State, please don't hurt us."
That column's not any fun for Kansas readers or K-State readers. But a little trash talk, that's fun.
So K-State students, if you are out there, please understand that I really don't see many differences between our two universities. There are the stereotypes: You all are hicks, and we're all preps. But those are just stereotypes.
Please remember, if you get really mad after reading our columnist's Friday column, it's meant to be taken lightly, to keep our rivalry alive. At least, it was when I wrote it. There's no need to threaten anyone's life.
I'm sorry I won't get a chance to settle my old score between us, but life goes on.
And Neal, old buddy, I hope your team loses, but I'm hoping every long snap you have is right on the money.
4.
Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism.