Section:
B Yesterday in sports
The University Daily Kansan
Buck Showalter, the only manager in team history, was fired Monday as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks after a disappointing season that saw the team go from division champions to third place.
Sports
team had a strong showing in the doubles competition of the San Diego/San Diego State University tournament last weekend.
SEE PAGE 9A
Inside: The Kansas City Chiefs played in thier first home Monday-night football game in two years.
SEE PAGE 7A
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3. 2000
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Jayhawks focus on chemistry, preventing turnovers Saturday
Errors plague football team
By Jason Franchuk sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
After last Saturday's game, the Kansas football team returned to campus with chemistry on its mind, just as it has many other times.
The Jayhawks keep returning from road trips searching for team chemistry and positive moments after another road loss, this time a 34-16 loss at Oklahoma.
It might be an old method, but Kansas has been forced to salvage anything good from road games. After a season-opening loss at Southern Methodist, Kansas figured it could have changed the outcome if its special teams played better.
This time, the thoughts are that if the Jayhawks can limit their turnovers — they had seven Saturday — then maybe Saturday's 1 p.m. showdown with Kansas State could be different.
Nose tackle Nate Dwyer summed up Kansas' optimistic thoughts.
"We were there in the first half." Dwyer said. "We stalled a little."
Kansas trailed 24-16 at halftime, largely because of quarterback Dylan Smith's play. Coach Terry Allen mentioned Smith's positives — a career-high of 258 passing yards and a perfect strike to Roger Ross that gave Kansas its first touchdown of the game.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Kansas football road game if there weren't negatives
to balance out the good. Smith was responsible for all seven turnovers — five interceptions and two fumbles — all results of when he tried to scramble.
"Obviously he tried to force some things." Allen said.
The Jayhawks are quick to try to focus on the positives again.
Smith's two fumbles were a result of his trying to elude the pass rush he faced most of the game. Aside from the first interception, Smith's interceptions looked more like good punts than bad passes, and they all came on deep passes.
On one interception, Smith was trying to throw the ball out of bounds over everyone's head. Instead, the Oklahoma defender leaped and made a remarkable one-handed grab.
"That was interesting." Allen said.
That was interesting. In fact, the pass defense, which was ranked first nationally before playing Oklahoma, dropped to fourth after surrendering 346 yards through the air last Saturday. Oklahoma quarterback Josh Heuphrel threw 43 passes and completed 29, but Kansas could not come up with a interception.
However, Heupel struggled at times. He didn't fully take control of the game until the Kansas defense was worn out. The defense had to return to the field immediately after the turnovers occurring early in the Javahaws' possessions.
"It keeps the defense on the field for a long time," Marcus Rogers said of the mistakes. "They caused us to wear down." — Filed by Sara Nutt
Kansas nose tackle Nate Dwyer takes out Oklahoma wide receiver Damian Mackey in last Saturday's game in Norman, Okla. Frequent turnovers by the Jayhawks kept Dwyer and the rest of the Kansas defense on the field and worn out. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
Two Oregon guards to attend Late Night
More recruits turn attention to Kansas basketball program
By Michael Rigg
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
By Michael Rigg
on Fridav. Oct. 13.
After a slow recruiting season, things are looking up for Roy Williams and the Kansas men's basketball team.
Greg Hicks and Tracy Pierson of PacWest Hoops reported yesterday that Aaron Miles and Michael Lee — both guards from Portland, Ore. — will attend Late Night with Roy Williams
The Web site reported that Kansas now leads the battle for the two guards.
Curiously, Kansas' interest in Lee arose when it was apparent that Miles was leaning toward Arizona. While Miles is considered one of the top point guards in the nation, Lee - Miles' close friend and summer teammate - wasn't being recruited by any of the nation's top programs.
Kansas leads the battle for Lee among Santa Clara, Nevada California-Santa Barbara and Wisconsin.
KANSAS RECRUITS
CatfTracks.net reported that Kansas had offered Lee a scholarship. Miles, meanwhile, postponed his scheduled trip to
Aaron Miles, Portland (Jefferson) 6-foot 0-point. Also recruited by Aizong
Michael Lee, Portland (Jefferson) 6-foot-2
guard; Also recruited by Santa Clara,
Nevada, California-Santa Barbara,
Wisconsin
11.604 Josh Childress, Lakewood, Calif. (Mayfair)
6-foot-6 forward; Also recruited by
Stanford
Jamal Sampson, Santa Ana, Calif. (Mater Dei) 6-foot-10 center; Also recruited by Saint Louis, California
Arizona to attend Late Night. He was previously scheduled to visit the Wildcats' Midnight Madness the same day.
Because Kansas has suddenly jumped to the lead in recruiting Miles
and Lee, another of Miles' close friends 6-foot-6 forward Josh Childress from Lakewood, Calif. also may become a Jayhawk.
Childress visited Stanford last weekend and told Hicks that he enjoyed his visit, but that he still planned on visiting Kansas for Late Night.
Another Kansas recruit — 6-foot10 center Jamal Sampson from Santa Ana, Calif. — visited St. Louis last weekend but still will be a member of the group of recruits who will spend Oct. 13 in Lawrence for the Late Night festivities. However, Sampson told Hicks that St. Louis and California still were in the lead for his services.
- Edited by Kimberly Thompson
Soccer player earns Big 12 recognition
Sophomore defender credits simple playing for weekend success
By Yoshitaka Ebisawa
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
Brown, a sophomore defender for the team, was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week,the conference office in Dallas announced yesterday.
Pardis Brown shone in two games this weekend and won Big 12 recognition, all in her first season playing for the women's soccer team.
In a 3-1 victory against Iowa State Friday at the SuperTarget Field in Lawrence, Brown led the KU defense. She helped keep the Cyclones from scoring during the run-of-play, which is when the game runs continuously.
She won the award because of her solid defensive performances against two conference foes this weekend.
Brown said her defensive accomplishments came from playing simply, which prevented her from making a lot of mistakes.
I've had few mistakes. That's really been a big part of the game, I think. Just by playing simple it has helped the overall outcome of the game."
"I think that I have played really well," Brown said. "I think I have been playing simple, and so
In a 3-0 loss to Nebraska at the same home turf Sunday, she helped minimize the Cornhuskers' solid attack that has produced 53 goals in 11 games this season.
However, Brown still remained humble about her honor and passed much of the credit onto her teammates.
Brown: was named Big 12 newcomer of the Week
"I'm really excited about it," Brown said. "I think that as the
defense, we've been working really hard together. For any of us to get recognition, that's really good for our whole team."
Coach Mark Francis said that Brown had two good games last weekend and that she deserved the honor.
"I think our defense has been doing a lot better lately," Francis said. "A lot of that is because of Pardis. She organizes and communicates with the defenders in the back. And she's been doing a good job all year, but I think she really played well last two games especially."
Brown said she was worried about Nebraska's athleticism and speed before Sunday's game, but that the team did a good job keeping up with the rhythm that Nebraska, which improved to 12-0 and 3-0 in Big 12 Conference, created.
"I feel really good about the game," Brown said. "We played really well. I'm really proud of the team."
Brown, a Salt Lake City native,
transferred from the University of Portland before the spring 2000 semester because she wanted to attend a university with more degree options as well as a strong soccer program.
Francis said he had enjoyed Brown's attitude as well as her tough defensive performances.
"Pardis is very intense, and she doesn't like to lose no matter what she's doing — in practice or anything," Francis said. "That mentality is something that we needed."
Brown was a member of the U.S. Women's National Team Pool at Portland from 1986 to 1987 and was named All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in 1997.
As a Jayhawk, Brown has started all 12 games this season. She was awarded the Defensive Player of the Tournament at the UCL/Nike/Holiday Inn-OC Airport Invitational Sept. 8-10 in Irvine, Calif., and was named to the all-tournament team at the KU Credit Union Jayhawk Soccer Classic.
Sports Columnist
Chris
Wristen
Olympic policy on cold pills worries writer
I have a confession to make. I've been doping.
I took cold medicine.
I simply wasn't feeling well and wanted to get better. Surely I had committed no crime.
It was purely accidental. Wheat Meet — the intramural track meet and Alpha Kappa Lambda/Chi Omega event raising money for KU cancer research — took place Sunday at Memorial Stadium, and I was competing. I had a head cold, and if I didn't get rid of it, there was no way I could participate. So, I did what any logical person would do.
I went to the meet, ran a few races and ended up winning the long jump. I was happy that I had helped my team and helped raise money for cancer research. Despite throwing up after the 200-meter dash, legs aching from being out of shape and my face being sunburnted to a crisp beet red. I was feeling pretty good.
Then I got home, and for some strange reason, God knows why, I started thinking about Olympic gymnastics. I thought about Andreae Raducan, the Romanian gymnast who won the women's all-around competition only to be stripped of her gold medal when a drug test revealed she had pseudoephedrine in her system.
Raducan had a cold and a fever in the days prior to competition. Her doctor gave her Nurofen, an over-the-counter cold and flu medicine. Pseudoephedrine was its active ingredient, clearing nasal congestion.
International Olympic Committee officials confirmed that pseudo probably did not affect her performance in any way, and they realized it was not her fault but still refused to return her medal.
This is where my concern began. Had my cold medicine perhaps altered my performance? Could I possibly be an Olympic-caliber athlete now that I had taken cold medicine? Of course not, although my time in the 100-meter preliminaries was a mysterious 9.91 seconds, supposedly because of a stopwatch mishap.
Upon this realization, I limped to the medicine cabinet and pulled out my bottle of Triaminic Nighttime cold medicine. Sure enough, it contained pseudoephedrine. My first thought was that perhaps that 9.91 time was legit. No, it couldn't be, because three people beat me when I ran that time and I'm sure they weren't on pseudo.
Regardless, I'm glad Wheat Meet doesn't have its own version of the Olympic committee.
A trip to Dillons brought me instant relief. I searched the entire rack of cold medicines and discovered a shocker. The only cold medicine with a nasal decongestant on the rack that did not have pseudo in it was the Alka-Seltzer brand. Tylenol Sinus, Perfect Choice, Benadryl in pill form, some Triaminic products, NyQuil, Sudafed, Robitussin and Motrin Cold and Flu all have pseudoephedrine as an active ingredient.
With this being the case, there should be about 100 other athletes busted for using one of these products in the weeks prior to the Olympics.
With that knowledge in hand, my guilt wore off. I felt comfortable in my athletic mediocry once again. I packed some more pseudo by taking two Tylenol Sinus gelcaps for my cold and sore legs — and vowed to never run again.
Wristen is a Lowwood junior in journalism.
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