INSIDE: Kansas football senior Quincy Roe settles in new role. SEE PAGE 9A INSIDE: Michael Jordan announces return to basketball. SEE PAGE 8A
10A
SPORTS
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TALK TO US: Contact Jay Krall or Sarah Warren at (785) 864-4858 or editor@kansan.com
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2001
Commentary
Brian
Hanni
Columnist
sportskansan.com
Football team has big heart despite a few bad apples
Someone once said, "a few bad apples spoil the bunch." You know what? They were right.
A rotten "Granny Smith" here and there definitely does have a way of ruining the harvest, and the same can be said for lots of things in life. Just don't try dropping that line on the Kansas football team.
By now, most of us are all aware of the lengthy rap sheet of the Jayhawk football squad. From June Henley's DUI in the fall of 1996 to Mario Kinsey's and Reggie Duncan's alleged purse theft this past summer, it's been an embarrassing stretch for the Kansas football program. The team's reputation has taken hit after hit over the past few years, with perhaps the biggest blow coming in November of '99 when Dion Rayford jumped off-sides at Taco Bell.
The Jayhawks have definitely had their share of bad apples over the years, but that doesn't mean this team is rotten.
Lost in the shuffle of police reports and negative press are the stories of the good guys on this team; the crop that's never gone bad, despite a few sour apples around them.
Jayhawk wide receiver Derick Mills has been racking up some serious stats this season on the gridiron. When he's not posting big numbers for Kansas, he's crunching numbers at Hillcrest Elementary. Mills serves as a volunteer math tutor there, and he's not the first lavhawk to help at Hillcrest.
Before Mills was working there, it was former Jayhawk fullback Moran Norris who would spend time working with the Lawrence youth. Former running back David Winbush also has volunteered with grade school kids, and is still helping out this fall.
This past summer, 36 Jayhawk football players worked with athletes from the Special Olympics. For the past few summers, strength and conditioning coach Fred Roll has been leading an effort to help Special Olympians train and has seen participation from members of the football team grow every year.
"Our guys really enjoy it and everyone benefits," Roll said. "It's a chance for our specially gifted athletes to work with other people who are special."
Last fall, the Kansas offensive line proved that their hearts were as big as their muscles. The group got together and helped build a home for Habitat for Humanity.
Ask anyone in the athletic department why so many football players are helping in the community and they'll point to the apple at the top of the tree. Most feel that players are getting involved because of the example that head coach Terry Allen sets on a regular basis. Allen rarely turns down an opportunity to help and was most recently involved in helping raise money on the WIBW telethon for disaster relief following the terrorist attacks on our nation.
These are just a handful of the many great individuals involved with the Kansas football program. I wish I had the space to tell you about Roger Ross's involvement at Ninth Street Baptist Church or about the team's latest project: an appearance from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday at HyVee on Sixth Street to help raise money for disaster relief. There are plenty of good apples on the Jayhawk's tree. This bunch is anything but spoiled.
Hanni is Topeke senior in broadcast management.
Dyer in dark about start
By Brent Briggeman
Kansan sportswriter
Traveling to Colorado last week. Zach Dyer had no idea that the Kansas quarterback controversy had ended.
After weeks of alternating with Mario Kinsey, Dyer hadn't been informed that Kinsey had won the job outright before Kansas' game against Colorado on Saturday.
As Dyer watched from the sidelines during the Jayhawks' 27-16 loss to the Buffaloes, it became evident to him that Kansas coach Terry Allen had made his decision.
"I can't say there was one point that I realized I wasn't going in," Dyer said. "I guess I just kind of figured it out when everybody else did."
As of yesterday, Allen still hadn't talked to him about the quarterback situation, Dyer said.
"He hasn't talked to us, or he didn't talk to me," a visibly frustrated Dyersaid
after practice yesterday.
While Dyer was in the dark, Allen told Kinsey of the decision last week.
Dyer refused to comment about how he thought Allen handled the situation.
"I came in to watch film last week and he told me then," said Kinsey, who split time with Dyer in a week-two loss to UCLA after serving a one-game suspension in the opener against Southwest Missouri State.
Kansas running back Reggie Duncan didn't know the quarterback issue was decided until he picked up a newspaper yesterday.
"I read in the paper today that coach said it was Mario's job," said Reggie Duncan, Kinsey's roommate and the Jayhawks' starting tailback. "I don't know, coach hasn't said anything to me."
Dyer has a slight advantage over Kinsey in a comparison of the quarterbacks' passing numbers through the first three games.
Dver has a completion percentage of
"I can't say there was one point that I realized I wasn't going in. I guess I just kind of figured it out when everybody else did."
Zach Dyer Backup quarterback
55. 6 percent, connecting on 25 of 45 passes for 294 yards and a touchdown. Kinsey has completed 42.9 percent, completing 18 of 42 tosses for 258 yards and a touchdown. However, Dyer has thrown three interceptions, while Kinsey has thrown just one.
Kinsey brings a running dimension to the quarterback back. His 33 rushing attempts, 86 yards and two touchdowns lead the team. Dyer has 35 rushing yards
on 20 carries. The two quarterbacks have scored all of Kansas' three rushing touchdowns.
Dyer said he was disappointed to learn of Allen's decision, but stood by his belief that any team was better off with only one quarterback.
"I can't say I don't wish it was me, that would be lying." Dyer said.
Just three weeks after setting a Kansas record for a quarterback in his first start, when he tossed for 231 yards against Southwest Missouri State, Dyer approached Allen yesterday to ask if he could line up at wide receiver.
"We'd consider doing some other things with him," Allen said. "He's got good speed and he knows the routes, but we won't take him completely away from the quarterback position. We're just one snap away from him being our quarterback."
Contact Briggeman at 864-4858
ANTHONY REYES/KANSAN
Diane Disher, Wainsleet, Ontario, freshman, uses the legs of Paige Higgins, Denver sophmore, to help her in her excercices at cross country practice Monday at Anschutz Sports Pavillion. Disher injured a muscle in her hip and her sciatic nerve. She will race this weekend in Stillwater, Okla.
Freshman runner eager to bounce back from injury
By Matt Norton Kansan sports writer
After battling injury this summer and fatigue for the past week, freshman Diane Disher is eager to run her first cross country race for Kansas.
She will get that chance this weekend at the OSU Cowboy Jamboree meet in Stillwater, Okla.
The Wainsleet, Ontario native said she injured her hip during a race at the provincial championships this summer. A strained sciatic nerve and strained hip flexor forced her to take nearly six weeks off from training, and when she arrived at school in August, she could only cross train, riding a bike, performing strength exercises and trying to let her hip heal.
Disher said her health was getting better but she had been battling fatigue for the past week as she adjusts to training again.
"Setbacks are a pain," she said. "You just want to get back to where you were."
Assistant coach Doug Clark said he thought Disher may have tried to come
back too soon.
"She's just like a lot of kids, just really highly motivated," Clark said. "It's part of the maturing process, and she's got to learn when enough is enough."
Disher said the coaches told her to be patient, but it wasn't that easy.
Disher's coaches have high hopes for the freshman runner. She ran 3,000 meters in 9:58 on the track in 2000. That mark is the best of all current Kansas runners, and she missed the majority of the track season in 2001.
"I think if she stays healthy, she could end up the No. 1 girl on the team," Clark said. "I think there are other girls on the team that will definitely challenge for that No. 1 spot also, but it's possible for her to do that."
"They said to take it one step at a time," she said. "But you can only be patient for so long."
Coach Stan Redwine said he liked Disher's competitive spirit and that it would add to a team bond that is strengthening.
"That's why I recruited her, because she's fast." Clark said.
"It's part of the maturing process, and she's got to learn when enough is enough."
Doug Clark assistant coach
"With the positive attitude she brings, it not only helps her, it helps the rest of the team as well," he said.
Redwine said he understood why Disher was having a hard time taking coaches' advice to be more patient with their training.
"She's understanding her event, she's understanding her body, and once she understands that you don't have to go 100 percent every day to be 100 percent for the race, she's going to be great," Redwine said.
Contact Norton at 864-4858
Surgeries will bench Iverson, McKie
By Ryan Malashock Kansan sportswriter
Iverson and Philadelphia 76ers teammate Aaron McKie both had surgery yesterday. The team announced that neither would be able to play for at least a month.
Allen Iverson won't be dazzling a crowd at Allen Fieldhouse next month as had been expected.
They will miss the 76ers' exhibition game in Lawrence against the Utah Jazz on Oct.18.
Iverson, the NBA's MVP who led the 76ers to the Finals last season. is expected to miss four to six weeks after an arthroscopic operation on his right elbow.
He likely will be ready for the 76ers season opener on Oct. 30.
McKie, the league's top sixth man, had a similar procedure on his right shoulder and will be out six to eight weeks. He could start the season on the injured list.
Both players were scheduled to visit physician James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 11, the day of the terrorist attacks. Andrews performed both operations yesterday.
"We were worried in both cases that there could be more injury than we found," Andrews said. "We were somewhat relieved."
Andrews removed bone spurs from Iverson's elbow that limited his motion and caused pain. He feared Iverson might have an arthritic condition.
McKie has a small shoulder tear, and there was concern he might have a complete tear of his rotator cuff.
Both players will begin rehab today. General manager Billy King said they would accompany the team to State College for training camp, beginning Oct.2
Philadelphia opens its exhibition season Oct. 9.
Iverson has missed 34 games, including playoffs, because of injury or suspension. The Sixers are 15-19 in those games. McKie missed six games last season because of an injury.
SEE SURGERY PAGE 8A