SAIL AWAY: The club team is preparing to race in New Orleans. SEE PAGE 3B. TENNIS: Senior misses being a teammate to her sister. SEE PAGE 4B.
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SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1B
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17,2001
Commentary
Doug
Pacey
Columnist
sportskansan.com
Allen knows he needs to control team
Terrv Allen finally gets it.
It might be too late, but he understands what he needs to do to win at the Division-I level, and he is doing everything short of washing the football team's uniforms to gain a new level of control.
Allen announced in a press release yesterday that all team practices for the next two weeks would be closed to the public and media.
Kansas' coach made the decision because he knows the possibilities. The Jayhawks have two wins and need four more to get to a bowl (read: save Allen's job). Victories over Missouri, Iowa State and Wyoming are very possible and Kansas State is very vulnerable right now.
In yesterday's release Allen said, "We feel like this is in the best interest of the team and our preparation. We are playing our two biggest rivals over the next two weeks and while I don't
Allen: closed next weeks of practice
normally like closing practice, I think it makes sense for this time period."
If Allen is really worried about someone from Missouri or Kansas State watching Kansas' practices and learning more than they should about the offense the Jayhawks are going to try to run this week, then closing practice makes sense.
But why, then, has Allen had open practices since he's been at the University? In the press release he said, "there is nothing smart about allowing anyone and everyone to walk in off the street and examine your game plan."
So what was smart about it for the last four years?
It took him four years, but he understands now.
The only people who will get in a huff about Allen closing practice are the media. In past years Allen tried to be media-friendly. He let television stations film parts of practice and let reporters roam the practice field. He was the opposite of Kansas State's Bill Snyder. Now, television cameramen and photographers might moan about not getting footage and pictures for stories during the week. Reporters will still be able to interview players after practice.
As for closing practice to the public, how many people, who aren't the spies Allen is trying to keep away, have actually watched the Jayhawks run through drills and calisthenics? Football practice is something only a football coach can enjoy.
Fans want wins. They don't care if practice is closed or open.
It's perfectly acceptable to not allow the public or media to watch practice, but Allen's logic is a little perplexing.
Implementing a closed-practice policy five years into his job makes you wonder what Allen had been thinking for the previous four, but if it helps him get wins against Missouri and K-State, he just might have extended his stay in Lawrence.
Pacey is an Issaquah, Wash., senior in journalism
Weekend border war
Kansas-Missouri battle will be equal matchup in Saturday's game
By Jeff Denton Kansan sportswriter
Kansas and Missouri — the similarities are uncanny.
Both teams are 2-3. Both teams are 1-2 in the Big 12 Conference. Both lost at home Oct. 13. Both won the trophy.
the week before on the road by three points.
Kansas freshman kicker Johnny Beck sealed the game against Texas Tech with a 37-yard field goal in double overtime. Missouri kicker Brad Hammerich did the same for his team against Oklahoma
State with a 36-yard boot in triple overtime.
Each team has shuffled two quarterbacks. Freshman quarterback Mario Kinsey is Kansas' playmaking threat. Sophomore Zach Dyer is its backup quarterback. Junior Darius Outlaw is Missouri's maestro for the big play. Junior Kirk Farmer is its pocket passer. Farmer will start Saturday after recovering from an injury. Dyer may start for Kansas because of an injury to Kinsey. Kansas has seven new assistant coaches. Missouri has a new head coach, Gary Pinkel, and a fresh slate of coaches.
And so on, and so on.
"It's a big game, especially for me since I am from the area," said Dyer, who took all the snaps with the No. 1 offense yesterday because Kinsey was nursing a sore toe.
Yesterday's practice was closed to the
media for the first time all season and for the first time in Kansas coach Terry Allen's five-year tenure. Allen said that he had closed practice when he was head coach at Northern Iowa.
Allen said that he also would have closed practices the week before the Kansas' visit to Kansas State on Oct. 27.
Allen said that his decision was based both on proximity and maintaining a degree of offensive secrecy.
"This is the first year that we have no huddled," he said. "I don't want everybody out there with the things that we do offensively with the no-huddle. Some of the people to the west and to the east are known for their signal stealing."
Kansas will enter Saturday's 1 p.m. game with a handful of key players nursing injuries. Starters Kyle Grady, Kinsey, Reggie Duncan and Termaine Fulton
SEE EQUAL PAGE 8B
Jennifer Bawanan, Modesto, Calif., sophomore, tees-off on the 15th hole at Alvamar Golf Course. Yesterday's Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational Golf Tournament marked KU's first home invitational tournament since 1996.
Golf team loses final tourney
By John Domoney
Kansan sportswriter
The damp turf and cool air reminded the Kansas women's golf team yesterday of what might have been, had the first two rounds of the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational tournament been played Monday at Alvamar Golf Course in Lawrence.
The team finished 10th of 17 teams in yesterday's 18 holes. Oklahoma took first place.
st place.
Kansas coach Nicole Hollingsworth
said the cancellation of the event's first two rounds contributed to the tournament's high scores.
"I am disappointed that we were only able to play 18 holes of golf due to Monday's weather," Hollingsworth said. "Today's conditions were difficult, and we didn't play up to our potential."
we thank you for your team score of Kansas finished with a team score of 328 behind the strong play of junior Heather Rose.
Rose fired a 5-over-par 77 on her way to tie for ninth place, but she said she could hardly describe yesterday's round as one of her best.
Rose continued to be the team's most consistent golfer. She turned in the team's only top-10 individual finish of the season.
"There were a couple of holes I had to grit it out for pars," Rose said.
Pars were prized possessions yesterday on the Alvamar Golf Course, which still showed the effects of Monday's rain.
Kansas junior Kristy Straub continued her comeback quest from wrist surgery this summer and finished with the team's second-best score. Straub scored
SEE GOLF PAGE 2B
Soccer team moves up in rankings
Kansan sportswriter
By Ryan Wood
The formula seems simple: keep winning, keep moving up the rankings...
After winning two conference games on the road last weekend, the Kansas soccer team has moved up a spot and is ranked fifth in the central region on both the Soccer Buzz poll and the National Soccer Coaches' Association of America poll.
Furthermore, both Soccer Buzz and the NSCAA also released their Top 25 national polls yesterday. The Jayhawks received votes in both polls, barely missing their first national ranking ever.
Kansas (9-3 overall, 5-1 in Big 12 Conference play) will take on perhaps its most challenging weekend to date. No. 17 Texas A&M comes to town on Friday for a 4 p.m. kickoff at Super Target Field. The Jayhawks then go on to play No. 12 Texas on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Super Target Field. Texas boasts a 7-3 overall record and stands at the Big 12 standings with a perfect 5-0 mark.
Coach Mark Francis said the possibility of two wins would depend on the team showing up ready to play.
"If we play well,we can play with both of them," he said.
With a makeup game against Drury scheduled for Tuesday, Kansas will be playing three home games in five days.
Francis said the cluster of games might be physically and mentally draining on the team.
"It's gonna be hard," he said
Kansas has an 0-5 all-time record against Texas A&M, with the latest loss coming last year at College Station, Texas by the score of 3-0.
Notes:
Kansas hasn't fared much better against Texas, holding an 0-4-1 mark. The Jayhawks lost to the Longhorns 5-2 last year in Austin, Texas, with current Jayhawk senior forward Natalie Hoogveld tallying an assist in the game.
Contact Wood at 864-4858
Two recruits join'Hawks; third opts for Oklahoma
By Ryan Malashock Kansan sportswriter
The Jayhawks landed their first two recruiting prospects of the season when Jeff Graves and Moulaye Niang orally committed to the Jayhawks after visiting this weekend.
It looks like the recruiting tool known as Late Night with Roy Williams paid off once again for the Kansas men's basketball team.
Graves' mother, Sharon Graves told Alliance Sports that her son considered Kansas a favorite throughout the recruiting process, but the weekend visit was the deciding factor.
visiting this weekend.
Graves, a 6-foot-9, 260-pound power forward, ended a long and intensive recruiting process by committing to Kansas. Graves, a Lee's Summit native and current Iowa Western Community College player, picked Kansas rather than other Top 25 schools such as Illinois and Missouri.
"The visit was great," Sharon Graves said. "Midnight Madness was phenomenal. Everything was real hometown. They were real genuine and showed a lot of interest. The players were great. They invited him into their circle and treated you like family. Now we're part of that family."
Niang gave Kansas coaches his decision Sunday night. He said the Jayhawk program would be a perfect fit.
Niang, a 6-9 forward from El Cajon, Calif., however, was not as heralded as Graves during the recruiting season. Niang chose the Jayhawks instead of San Diego State and Connecticut, which entered the picture late, but recruited him hard.
"I liked the family atmosphere," Niang said. They have one of the best programs in the country. I have to go in there and work hard. After talking with the Kansas coaches, they think I can be a pretty good player."
Niang was born in Senegal, and this is only his second year in the United States. He said the visit showed him that Kansas offered him a comfortable environment.
"You have to have someone you can talk to (about something) other than basketball," he said. "I talked to people on campus from Senegal. I asked them how they liked it and they said they liked it a lot. If they like it I think I will, too. I had a chance to meet the Director of International Studies and he's lived in Senegal 10 years. He just moved here. They even have my native language as a course you can study."
With Graves and Niang committing, the other visitor for Late Night, Kevin Bookout, eliminated Kansas from his list of schools. Oklahoma is now considered the front-runner for the 6-9 power forward from Stroud, Okla.
Graves and Niang plan to sign with Kansas during the Nov. 14 to Nov. 21 early signing period.
Kansas now has only one scholarship left to give out, which will likely go to a shooting guard or swinger. The two players still being pursued by Kansas that fit that description are Hassan Adams, a 6-5 guard from Los Angeles, and Andre Igoudala, 6-6 swingman from Springfield, Ill.
Note:
Kansas junior forwards Nick Collison and Drew Gooden were named to the list of 30 preseason candidates for the 2001-02 Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award, according to a list released yesterday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Other Big 12 Conference players on the list include Missouri's Kareem Rush and Texas' Chris Owens.
Contact Malashock at 864-4858