HOMECOMING: More photos from Saturday's game. SEE PAGE 8B. BASKETBALL: Women's team takes part in Late Night. SEE PAGE 4B.
TALK TO US: Contact Jay Krall or Sarah Warren at (785) 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com
SPORTS
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
1B
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2001
Commentary
Chris
Wristen
Columnist
sportskansan.com
This year,the showdown is a new game
Circle Saturday, Oct. 27, on your calendars now.
In just 12 days, it will be time for the war, the main event, the battle of the ages ... the ... um ... well, the Kansas-Kansas State football game.
Kansas fans haven't cared about the Sunflower Showdown since 1998. They haven't believed their Jayhawks could even be competitive, let alone win, since 1998, when they got tattooed by Michael Bishop and the K-State national championship choker squad.
kansas fans have accepted mediocrity from their Jayhawks and accepted getting their rump smacked for far too long. The series has become obscenely dominated by the Wildcats, who have won eight games in a row and outscored Kansas 314-84 during that span. No wonder you don't care.
Now it's time to start caring again.
Now it's time to start calling again.
The fact is, the Jayhawks should beat Missouri, Iowa State and Wyoming. That's five wins. The swing game that could give them that magical sixth win and make them bowl eligible comes against K-State on Oct. 27 in Manhattan.
But don't cringe at that thought as most Kansas fans would have in years past.
This is a much different K-State team. The Michael Bishop and Jonathan Beasley years are long gone. K-State now has an overrated quarterback in Ell Roberson, an overly-hyped running back in Josh Scooby and a coach named Bill Snyder, who hasn't been able to inspire his team to show any heart since its demoralizing one-point loss to Oklahoma three weeks ago.
K-State has lost three games in a row and is still the worst team in the Big 12. It's still behind Kansas and will fall even farther behind the Jayhawks when they beat Missouri this weekend at Memorial Stadium and K-State loses at home to Texas &M for a fourth consecutive loss.
The only positive for K-State is its defense, but just like Kansas, its offense can't seem to help the defense by scoring. But Kansas has an edge with its defense. K-State's defense mailed it in at Texas Tech on Saturday while Kansas' defense gave unquestionable effort against No. 3 Oklahoma and kept the game from getting embarrassing by halftime.
tigers使命挑战 Kansas has a bowl-caliber defense, which it showed against the Sooners. Kansas' offense fumbled three times inside its own 30-yard line in the first quarter, but Oklahoma came away with only one field goal because the Jayhawk defense forced a fumble and Algie Atkinson blocked a field goal attempt.
Atkinson also added eight tackles, as did co-captain Nate Dwyer. Leo Etienne had an astounding 18 tackles against the Sooners, and Marcus Rogers added nine. Cornerback Andrew Davison picked off two passes and Charlie Dennis recovered a fumble. Contributions came from everywhere, even though those guys hardly got a breather because the offense didn't stay on the field long enough for them to rest.
Kansas can't afford to look past anybody, especially not a very beatable Missouri team, because every game is critical at this point.
Regardless, the facts don't lie. Kansas and K-State match up very well this year. The possibility of Kansas winning that game is a reality this year, and the team should not be scared. It should scrap battle cries of "we're going to close the gap" (meaning lose by less than last year) and expect a victory; nothing less.
The winner will most likely go on to a sub-par bow game like the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl. It's a weak bowl with an embarrassing name, but it's still a bowl, something Kansas hasn't seen since 1995.
1995. I'd love to spend a warm Dec. 29 in Tucson, Ariz., at that bowl, but a win on Oct.
27 must come first.
Freshman Keith Langford leads a rendition of James Brown's "Living in America." The skit was one of many at the annual "Late Night with Roy," Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Westen is a Leawood senior in journalism
Late Nightushers in season
By Ali Brox
Kansan sportswriter
Allen Fieldhouse was full of screaming fans as the men's basketball team was introduced for the first time this year at Late Night with Roy Williams, but the atmosphere quickly changed to one of unity for the University and the country.
Unlike previous years, the festivities began shortly after the doors opened at 7 p.m.
The fans were introduced to Al Bohl, the new athletics director, who commented on the weekend's events.
"This is a special night for KU, a special night for basketball and tomorrow's a special night for football," Bohl said.
Bohl then called student body president Justin Mills onto the floor and recognized his efforts to raise more than $30,000 for Sept. 11 relief efforts.
After Mill's recognition, the High Voltage Dance Team wowed the crowd with its break dancing abilities. The team is from Orlando, Fla., and the dance members said they had danced at several halftime shows and appeared on America's Funniest Home Videos and the Jenny Jones show.
Dancer Carrie Loeser said the members of the team began training before the dance team was created.
"I have a gymnastics background and they have break dancing, so we've all just grown up with it," Loeser said.
The usual Late Night activities started around 10 p.m. Banners displaying the jersey numbers for the men's team recruits were paraded around Allen Fieldhouse. Administrative assistants Jerod Haase and C.B. McGrath sat with recruits Kevin Bookout, Jeff Graves and Moulaye Niang.
The men's and women's teams took the court for the first time during the
singing of the National Anthem. Following the singing, the players on both teams were introduced individually.
The first skit of the night included members of the women's team with the band E-Double providing back-up. Women's basketball team senior Nikki White and freshman players Chelsey Thompson, Kathryn Nichols and Keila Beachem sang "Everywhere" by Michelle Branch.
"We practiced about a half an hour a night all week and did a lot on our own," White said. "We made up a lot ourselves this year."
White thought Late Night was an exciting time but also stressed that this was the seniors' last Late Night.
"We're looking forward to the season and practice tomorrow," White said.
Late Night is the first time the fans see the freshmen recruits, and the introductions of both basketball squads' freshmen provided some laughs. Seniors Lewis Harrison, Jeff Boschee, KC Hilgenkamp and Nikki White were in charge of the introductions.
The freshmen on the women's team are Blair Waltz, Keila Beachem, Valerie Migicovsky, Chelsey Thompson, Brandi McGinest and Kathryn Nichols. The freshmen on the men's
SEE LATE NIGHT PAGE 4B
Sooners crush 'Hawks in Homecoming loss
By Jeff Denton Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas offense knew it would be tested Saturday against a stingy Oklahoma defense stacked with size, athleticism and skill.
but after an impressive 404-yard night Oct. 6 against Texas Tech, coach Terry Allen's offense was not prepared for the 11-man wall of fury in Oklahoma's starting defense.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY REYES/KANSAN
In front of a restless homecoming crowd of 48,700 at Memorial Stadium, the Jayhawk offense piled up a mere eight first downs, 84 yards rushing and 139 yards passing against the No. 3 team in the country, which captured a 38-10 win over the Jayhawks. Seventy-eight of red-shirt freshman quarterback Mario Kinsey's passing yards came on a touchdown bomb to senior wide receiver Roger Ross when the game had already slipped away from Kansas, now 2-3.
The Sooner stampede disrupted Kansas and baffled its fifth-year head coach Allen.
"The major factor out there was Oklahoma's defense," Allen said, as he stared blankly into the video cameras at his post-game press conference. "It was a frustrating football game, but they are an outstanding defensive football team. That out there today was as good a defense as we have ever seen."
In an offensive comparison from week four to week five, sophomore running back Reggie Duncan had four more yards rushing against Texas Tech, 227, that the Kansas offense had in total yards against Oklahoma, 223. Like his coach, Duncan gave credit to his opponent's defense. The Big 12 Conference co-offensive player of the
Kansas junior defensive back Matt Jordan tries to prevent Oklahoma tight end Trent Smith from catching a touchdown pass. Kansas lost its homecoming game 38-10 on Saturday to the Sooners, who are now ranked No.2.
every time.
As much as Allen praised Oklahoma's defense, he spoke fondly of his own. The Kansas front line was spearheaded by senior Nate Dwyer, who turned out his best performance of the season with eight tackles, three of which went for losses. Senior linebackers Marcus Rogers and Algie
week from the week of Oct. 6 finished with just 31 yards on 11 carries.
"The defense flies to the ball." Duncan said, who gained just one yard after the first quarter. "It felt like there were at least 12 or 13 people out there every time."
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 4B
Kansas guard dazzles Late Night spectators
By Ryan Malashock Kansan sportswriter
Kirk Hinrich's play Friday in the annual Late Night with Roy Williams men's basketball scrimmage may have left some fans thinking Kansas was in the middle of its Big12 Conference season.
son.
The junior guard dazzled the 14,000 fans at Allen Fieldhouse by scoring 16 points and hitting six of his nine shots from the floor. He also led the Crimson team to a 53-33 victory against the Blue team. The teams played one 30-minute half with a continuously running clock.
Coach Roy Williams praised Hinrich at the team's preseason media day on Thursday for his hard work and dedication in the offseason.
Williams noted that he expected to see many improvements in Hinrich's game this year.
Hinrich first displayed his improved leaping ability in the impromptu pregame dunk contest.
pregame dunk contest.
"The most impressive thing has been Kirk in preseason conditioning. He's probably in better shape than anybody." Williams said. "I think he worked awfully hard in the summer. He always has been able to dunk the ball for example, but now he is dunking easier than I've ever seen."
To cap off the night, Hinrich hit a layup after spinning around Hawkins and darting between two other defenders.
Hinrich said he and Hawkins were able to joke about the play after the scrimmage.
"He was playing really good'D.'I just made a pretty good reaction," Hinrich said.
Senior forward Chris Zerbe posted 11
Roy Williams men's basketball coach
points for the Crimes, while senior guard Jeff Boschee paced the Blue team in defeat with 10 points.
Hinrich's performance didn't overshadow what most Kansas fans were in attendance for; the debut of this year's freshmen.
Freshman Keith Langford, Miles and Hawkins played for the Blue team, while freshman Michael Lee and Wayne Simien teamed up to play for the Crimson team.
Lee led all freshmen in scoring with 8 points, and Simien added 6 points and five rebounds.
fiveobbits.
Senior Brett Ballard said the freshmen had a long way to go, especially with conditioning, but said he thought they showed intensity for their first game action.
"The freshmen all came out and played hard," Ballard said. "I know they're all real tired after the scrimage, but they'll get used to everything."
"He always has been able to dunk the ball for example,but now he is dunking easier than I've ever seen."
After having their fun at Late Night the Jayhawks began what Williams called "real" practice Saturday at 1 p.m.
Contact Metashock at 864-4858
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