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GOLF: Sophomore takes second place in Stanford tournament. SEE PAGE 3B. VOLLEYBALL: Squad drops two road games. SEE PAGE 2B.
SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1B
MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2001
Commentary
Michael Rigg Columnist opinionkansan.com
Despite losses recall Allen's love of game
Three days before his team was once again drilled by Kansas State, Terry Allen walked into his weekly press conference and noticed something was amiss.
The table that the beleaguered Kansas coach sits at to address the media had been moved four feet closer to the back of the room.
Allen immediately noted the change.
"They've got me against the wall this week," Allen said. "How fitting."
it's so easy to blust Allen these days that he's even dissing himself. There's only one story left in this waste of a football season, and it has more to do with the unemployment pages than it does with football.
The story grew bigger on Saturday, when the Jayhawks were pasted 40-6 by a bad Wildcat team. In that game, Kansas displayed exactly what poorly-coached football teams do. The Jayhawks committed stupid penalties, jumping offsides on a key third-down play in the first quarter. They looked completely unprepared and overwhelmed, and couldn't even get the coin toss right (Kansas stupidly kicked off and didn't get the wind in both halves).
Needless to say, Allen is a dead man walking, slowly pacing down a career green mile that will culminate in a pink slip some day around November 25 — the day after the Jayhawks' final contest against Wyoming.
Still, you have to admire the way Allen has handled his final days as the Kansas football coach.
He has taken the criticism head-on and handled the adversity with tolerance and grace. While vultures circle above, Allen has fought back by showing his great character and pride.
The troubled coach remains unbelievably optimistic, attacking his job with the excitement and vigor of a new hire, and staying in his office to the early morning trying to figure out a way to turn this thing around. The lack of sleep and the losses are taking a toll on Allen, but his enthusiasm and love for the game of football hasn't waned.
Kansas fans should be disgusted with themselves by the way they've acted for the past few weeks. We're watching a man about to lose his job, and some Jayhawk fans couldn't be happier about it. Internet chat rooms celebrate Allen's impending doom and poke fun at the weary coach's job status. Fans heckle him in his own stadium. One gutsy Jayhawk supporter called Allen's radio show last week and asked him to resign on the spot.
and asked me to look. There's a fine line between looking forward to the future of Kansas football and dancing on Allen's grave. Jayhawk fans have crossed it.
Allen, meanwhile, will coach Kansas football for just four more weeks. And I hope, in the end, that he will be remembered as much for the way he acted in the last month of his tenure as how he coached for the first five years.
Rigg is a Greenwood Village, Colo., senior in broadcast news.
Showdown turns to let down
By Jeff Denton Kansan sportswriter
MANHATTAN - Minutes after Kansas State's 40-6 shellacking of Kansas on Saturday, a pack of reporters crammed into a small shack beside the visiting locker room at the Wildcats' Wagner Field.
As Kansas coach Terry Allen approached the long wooden table in the back of the room, he had to slither his way through the swarm of clunky video cameras and restless bodies.
Allen was baffled by his newest battle the media's attention.
"It's bad enough out there," Allen said, sandwiched between two journalists. "This is scarier."
Allen's offense sputtered in front of a crowd of 50,101 in Manhattan. The Kansas offense gained 212 yards, went three for 16 on third downs and managed three yards on 12 plays in the third quarter.
For the first time all season, Kansas (2-5) failed to score a touchdown. Johnny Beck's two field goals accounted for all its points. The freshman kicker also missed twice during the game.
missed twice during his game. K-State running back Josh Scooby muscled 45 yards on his first carry, while the Kansas running attack moved 47 yards the entire game.
"We're not as good offensively as we would certainly like to be," Allen said. "But the moral of the story is that when you dig a hole against K-State, you are going to suffer because they are a very difficult team to come back against."
The hole was dug on the first drive of the game by the moves of Scobey, K-State's 6-foot, 205-pound senior. He humbled his way for all but 12 yards on K-State's 77-yard touchdown march.
Three minutes into the game, K-State was ahead by a touchdown.
After Kansas went three-and-out the first time it touched the football, K-State starting quarterback Marc Dunn found Ricky Lloyd wide open at the two-yard line. The receiver wrestled through cornerback Carl Ivey's tackle and fell into the end zone.
had opened up for But Kansas quarterback Mario Kinsey said K-State's quick start did not dampen his offense's rhythm or impede its game plan.
In just under six minutes, the Wildcats had opened up a 13-point lead.
plan. "We didn't get shaken up at all," Kinsey said, who launched the ball 32 times but completed just 14 passes for 139 yards. "I just don't think we played to our capabilities. We got started, and then we couldn't get things going again. And
SEE LOSS PAGE 6B
Junior corner back James Dunnigan gets wrapped up by sophomore offensive tackle Brock Teddleton. Teddleton had one assisted and one unassisted tackle against the Wildcats on Saturday.
CHRIS BURKET/KANSAN
Freshmen aid Jayhawks' win
LAURIE SISK/KANSAN.
By Ryan Wood Kansan sportswrite
Hilla Rantala, senior forward, beats a Baylor defender to the ball during a 3-0 Jayhawk victory yesterday afternoon at Target Field.
The Kansas soccer team is heating up at just the right time.
After pounding Drury 5-0 last Tuesday, the Jayhawks kept the momentum going by defeating Baylor 3-0 yesterday at Super Target Field.
Kansas (11-5 overall, 6-3 in Big 12 Conference play) pounded out 14 shots on Baylor, while the Bears only managed seven. Freshman goalkeeper Meghan Miller saved three shots en route to her third shutout of the season.
"I was really happy that we got the shutout," coach Mark Francis said. "Defensively, we're not giving up soft goals."
Freshman defender Stacey Leeper struck first in the 14th minute, sending a ball into the box from 30 yards out. The ball slipped by Baylor goalkeeper Stephanie Dempsey and trickled into the net,
giving the Jayhawks a 1-0 advantage. It was Leeper's first goal of the year.
Leeper's goal would be all they needed, but freshman forward Rachel Gilfillan provided the always welcome insurance goals. In the 33rd minute, Gilfillan picked up the ball at midfield and moved toward goal. After eluding two defenders, she shot one past Dempsey from close range, putting the Jayhawks up 2-0.
"I decided to go inside." Giffillan said. "I cut and she fell for the outside, and I had an open shot."
Gilfillan scored again at the 65 minute mark, taking an assist from freshman midfielder Amy Geha and propelling it into the net. Gilfillan has eight goals and two assists on the season, playing mostly off the bench.
Baylor (8-8, 4-6) had never lost to Kansas prior to yesterday. Francis said it was the strength of the Jayhawk
SEE SOCCER PAGE 6B
Final Four berth may be in store for Big 12
By Ryan Malashock
Korean sportswrite
Kansan sportswriter
IRVING, Texas - This could finally be the year for the Big 12 Conference.
Teams such as Kansas in 1997 and Iowa State in 1999 have knocked on the Final Four door in years past, but no team in the Big 12 Conference's six-year history has qualified for a Final Four.
At last Thursday's Big 12 media day, coaches said that the possibilities of a Final Four team emerging from this year's Big 12 were as promising as they've ever been.
Kansas last reached the Final Four in 1993. Junior Drew Gooden said the Final Four would be the ultimate goal, but winning the Big 12 would be Kansas' first goal of the season.
absences. "It's only our sixth year, so we're still young. But to get a team or two to the Final Four this year, that would be the last step to becoming a great league."
"It's a little surprising," Kansas coach Roy Williams said of the Big 12's Final Four
Texas coach Rick Barnes, whose team is one of five Big 12 teams in ESPN.com's preseason Top 25 poll, said it would be tough to stop any of the top
"We want to win," Gooden said. "We want to win the Big 12. That's our goal."
conference teams once tournament time rolled around.
"I'm excited about our league having five teams in the Top 25 and two teams in the top 10," said Barnes, referring to No. 5 Kansas and No. 9 Missouri. "If some teams play deep into the tournament, the perception of this league will change."
this league Oklahoma State was rated third in the conference by the Big 12 coaches in their preseason poll. Coach Eddie Sutton's Cowboys return five players who averaged more than 29 minutes a game last season, including Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Maurice Baker. But Sutton
wouldn't put call his team a potential Final Four candidate yet. He saved that distinction for two other teams.
"I would think that Kansas and Missouri are the two teams right now that have a legitimate shot at it, depending on what happens," Sutton said.
First-year Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, who spent 26 years coaching in the Big 10 Conference at Indiana, said Final Four success doesn't exactly equate to national respect. He said the Big 12 Conference had already earned that.
Contact Malashock at 864-4858
Jayhawks get run over by Wildcats
Saturday, Kansas safety, senior Jamarei Bryant, couldn't help but glance up at the carnage reflected on that scoreboard.
By Brent Briggeman Kansan sportswriter
"During the game I just kept looking up and seeing how many yards rushing they had," Bryant said. "They just kept running the ball over and over again and getting positive yards. There just wasn't anything we could do about it."
anything we could read In the end, the scoreboard read that Kansas State's offense had amassed 349 yards rushing. Kansas, however, had only 47 yards on the ground.
Not surprisingly, the Wildcats won also on the scoreboard that counts, ending their four-game skid with the 40-6 win.
The Kansas defense left the field frustrated and confused as to how the 'Cats were consistently able to create holes for its running backs.
MANHATTAN - A tiny scoreboard on the south end of Kansas State's Wagner Field keeps running totals of team statistics throughout games.
"I don't know what was going on, who missed their assignments or what," said Nate Dwyer, senior defensive lineman and the 'Hawks team captain. "Right now we're just kind of at a loss."
Bryant, who said his primary focus was to stop the K-State passing attack, was frustrated that he couldn't help teammates stop the 'Cats' running game.
"Their offense is designed that as soon as you cheat on the run, they'll beat you on the pass," he said.
Kansas State's offensive game plan was evident from the beginning. Kansas State senior running
SEE RUSH PAGE 6B
Arizona Diamondbacks lead the World Series two games to none. Randy Johnson pitched a complete game shutout.