INSIDE: Cross country teams head to Cowboy country. SEE PAGE 7A INSIDE: Kansas tennis team set for opener this weekend. SEE PAGE 6A
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TALK TO US: Contact Jay Krall or Sarah Warren at (785) 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com
Commentary
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2001
Michael
Rigg
Columnist
sportscans.com
KU's follies offer laughs, little hope
Life is all about comedy and cruel realities.
Cars will break. Absolute morons will call in to the Free For All. And Kansas coach Terry Allen will run about 10 quarterback draws every Saturday.
Allen will also forget he has tight-ends and fullbacks on his roster and continue to use the most predictable no-huddle spread offense you have ever seen. And do about 87 other things that will make you scratch your head and send for your transfer papers to Kansas State. Deal with it.
Be patient. Kansas has a bye this weekend but returns for homecoming on Oct. 13 against Oklahoma after a game at Texas Tech next weekend. The Jayhawks still have four home games left — against the Sooners, then Missouri. Nebraska and Iowa State.
Despite Kansas' performance thus far, don't toss your tickets for those remaining games. They could be fun.
In these days of instant satisfaction, too often winning gets all mixed up with fun. In this state, where the Jayhawks are the football equivalent of Art Garfunkel, fans tend to forget that Kansas has been having fun for years. They've just been losing at the same time.
There was the hilarious loss to Kansas State four years ago when the Jayhawks rolled up 44 yards of offense. There was the comical loss last year to Southern Methodist where the Jayhawks fumbled six times and dropped at least three key passes en route to losing to a putrid Mustang team that finished the year 3-9.
History has spoken. What we're seeing isn't football. It's comedy — darn good, varsity-level comedy. In a college football world full of distinguished speakers, Kansas is Carrot Top.
Frankly, it's entertainment at its best. Sure, Kansas could be one of those consistent 5-6 teams with an occasional bowl bid. But where would the laughs be? Who would get stuck in Taco Bell windows? Who would be in charge of finding new ways to lose games?
Still, it's not good enough for the fans. There are those out there who think that Kansas could have a Kansas State-esque resurgence, those who think the Jayhawks can compete for national championships. I'm here to tell you that it's not going to happen. Kansas will never be the top program in this state, much less this country.
We'll never have the New York Yankees on our hands. But we could have the Chicago Cubs, lovable losers who are defined as much by their great fans as they are by losing.
So go to all the home games, and just enjoy the fact that you're there. Listen to the band. Enjoy a beautiful fall day with your friends inside of a beautiful stadium. Drink a beer, as long as you do so responsibly inside the designated area. Enjoy college football for what it is: 22 young men competing on a field for the love of the game. Get to know Terry Allen, whose real success is off the field in the game of life.
Kansas will never be prime-time football programming. But it can be entertainment nonetheless, and that should be good enough for us.
Rigg is a Greenwood Village, Colo., senior in broadcast news.
'Hawks setting up to net win
Volleyball team must stop setter's attack to stifle Buffaloes
By Steve Laurenzo
Kansan sportswriter
Expect the Kansas volleyball team's game against Colorado to be played out above the net, as two experienced setters lead their teams into the Horejsi Family Athletics Center at 7 tomorrow night.
Junior setter Elizabeth Gower has been known to do her own preparatory work for the Buffaloes, setting up her own kills and adding an extra dimension to her team's offense.
Trying to contain Gower and Colorado's front line will be senior Molly
LaMere, who leads Kansas with 12.35 assists per game.
Gower is a preseason All-Big 12 selection and averages 12.54 assists per game. She also racks up 2.06 kills per game — sixth on her team but nearly twice LaMere's average of 1.13.
"Their setter is taller, and they use her more as an offensive weapon," said Kansas coach Ray Bechard. "With most setters it's 95 percent setting to somebody else. In her case, 20 to 25 percent of their offense has her in the first row. It'll be a little bit different look for us."
The Jayhawks (10-2) will try to break their two-game skid, having lost to Oklahoma and Texas following their best start in program history. Colorado is 6-3, fresh from victories against Texas Tech and Baylor.
The Buffaloes' record is deceiving.
Two of their three losses came in close 32 matches with Utah and Brigham Young. Bechard said there was no question that Colorado was a better team than its record reflected.
Colorado leads the overall series with Kansas, 27-3. But the two teams split a pair of matches last year. Kansas defeated Colorado 3-2 last year in both teams' Big 12 Conference opener. LaMere and Gower each managed nine kills in that game.
"I think it was a great match last year," Bechard said. "We had a great performance from a lot of people, and obviously it is going to take that again to have success."
In their second meeting last year, Colorado swept Kansas 3-0 about a month later in Boulder, Colo.
son said she hoped to contribute tomorrow night after tying her career-high with nine kills in Wednesday's match against Texas. Jacobson was more concerned with the team as a whole.
"I focus on myself, but I focus a lot on getting to my team and giving energy," Jacobson said. "If I could be the person that they were going to go to, then that's good, but there are a lot of other things that we could have contributed to help us win."
Sophomore outside hitter Abbie Jacob
"On Wednesday our coverage really bit us," Jacobson said. "If we focus on coverage, don't get blocked as much and keeping swinging high, then it could be a different picture on Saturday."
Jacobson said the Jayhawks could beat the Buffaloes if they improved in three areas.
Football team welcomes break
Players, coaches plan to devote bye weekend to families, recruiting
By Brent Briggeman
Kansan sportswriter
Contact Laurenzo at 864-4858
LAURIE SISK/KANSAN
As Jayhawks take their bye week, Scherer plans to watch his son, Scott, play for Memphis in Louisville tomorrow.
Kansas offensive coordinator Rip Scherer has been looking forward to this weekend all season.
Scott Scherer is a backup quarterback for Memphis, the team his father coached for the past five seasons. The trip will also give Scherer a chance to see his wife and three kids, whom he's seen only once in two months.
"We haven't moved because we haven't sold our house yet since this job came about so late," said Scherer, who was hired at Kansas this summer.
With the next three days off, many KU players will be headed home.
Freshman linebacker Glenn Robinson caught a flight last night to his hometown, Denver, where he will spend time with his mother and friends.
Sophomore running back Dan Coke looks for a hole in Kansas' 24-10 victory against Southwest Missouri State on Sept. 1. He planned to help his church with a fund-raising event this weekend, while Kansas is off with a bye week.
Seniors Marquis Hayes, a defensive tackle, and Quincy Roe, a defensive back, both plan to spend their weekends in St. Louis. The week off will give Roe a rare chance to see his brother play high school football. Hayes joked that he was so excited to spend time with his son that he might not return until next week's game.
Sophomore running back Dan Coke, a Florida native, said he would stay in Lawrence for the weekend. He plans to help his church, Lawrence Morning Star, 620 W.12th St., with a fund-raiser to benefit victims from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Except for Scherer, the coaching staff will take the open date as a chance to hit
the recruiting trail.
Kansas, 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12 Conference, will travel to Texas Tech next Saturday. The Red Raiders (2-0) travel to Texas for a nationally televised
game against the Longhorns at 6 p.m. tomorrow on Fox Sports Net.
Contact Briggeman at 864-4858
Kansas soccer to kick off Big 12 play
Coach pleased to open conference at home against Oklahoma
After nearly a month on the road, the Kansas soccer team is glad to be home.
By Ryan Wood Kansan sportswriter
The team opens its Big 12 Conference schedule at 4 p.m. today against Oklahoma at Super Target Field.
The Jayhawks (4-2) have not played at home since Sept. 2, when they lost 4-3 in double overtime to then No. 23 Illinois.
"It's nice to be home again, definitely," said coach Mark Francis.
tough," Francis said. "It's nice to open up conference at home. That's definitely a plus."
Oklahoma's 6-1 start has been highlighted by solid defense. The Sooners have allowed only one goal in their first seven contests, with goalkeepers Jana Cunningham and Catherine Wade combining for six shutouts.
Oklahoma soundly beat Kansas 4-0 last year in Norman, Okla. Francis said the returning players had not forgotten the loss he called "embarrassing."
"Any conference game on the road is
"I think they know that with conference, obviously there's a lot more at stake," he said. "Having those guys beat us last year the way they did, I think the return players will definitely be up
for it."
"I don't think it's going to be a problem as far as getting motivated to play," Francis said. "We need to show up ready to go."
The showdown will be extra exciting with the release of the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America central region poll this week. Oklahoma is No. 9, and Kansas is No. 10.
After today's game, the Jayhawks will travel to Stillwater, Okla., to take on Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Senior forward Hilla Rantala said she thought the team was ready to tackle the Big 12 Conference.
SEE SOCCER PAGE 7A
Men's golf to venture into new greens
By John Domoney Kansan sportswriter
Although the Kansas men's golf team hasn't played for nearly three weeks, the Jayhawks have been busy scheduling tournaments, including one next week at a Manhattan course where none of Kansas' golfers have ever played.
This week coach Ross Randall announced that the Jayhawks would travel to Manhattan on Monday and Tuesday to compete in the Jim Colbert Invitational at Colbert Hills Golf Course.
The team also announced its spring schedule, which includes some of the same tournaments that the team attended last year.
The Colbert tournament, which Kansas State played host to, replaces a hole in the Jayhawks' schedule created by the cancellation of the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational on Sept. 17-18 following the terrorist attacks.
"We really needed to find another tournament," he said. "We were lucky enough to work it out in our schedule. It's a good opportunity to play some because we've been practicing enough that we need to play and turn some scores in."
Kansas will be facing a rigorous challenge in the form of Colbert Hills Golf Course.
The Scottish-links design offers a tough layout that can be made even more demanding with the winds of the Flint Hills. While American-style courses tend to be more spread out with many trees, Colbert Hills takes advantage of its area's prairie grasses and features plenty of rough on each hole.
Senior Casey Harbour said that playing in the tournament concerned him because of what it could mean for Kansas.
Being tough and staying focused will be two clichés that the Jayhawks will get familiar with as they prepare for their spring schedule.
"It's an interesting situation for us because we have a lot to lose but not a lot to gain," Harbour said. "We must go over there and really concentrate. We'll do fine,but it'll be tough."
Kansas begins the spring schedule on Feb. 13-15 with a trip to the islands in Waikoloa, Hawaii, at the Taylor Made/Big Island Invitational.
SEE GOLF PAGE 7A