INSIDE: Former high school athletes replace sports with Sega. SEE PAGE 7A. INSIDE: Freshman kicker Beck a consistent performer. SEE PAGE 6A.
8A
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
TALK TO US: Contact Jay Krall or Sarah Warren at (785) 864-8410 or sports@kansan.com
THURSDAY,SEPTEMBER 6,2001
Commentary
Doug Pacey
Sports Columnist
sportsakansan.com
T-shirts won't affect lack of student fan turnout
A reporter at Terry Allen's press conference yesterday asked the coach if noise would be a factor with Kansas' no-huddle offense.
To which Allen replied, "Hopefully it will get to the point where noise is a factor at Memorial Stadium."
This Saturday might be different, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
The Kansas University Endowment Association has given out 17,000 free T-shirts to students this week, and 25 $1,000 scholarships will be awarded at Saturday's game. If students wear the "KU FIRST" T-shirt, they'll get free admission to the game and will be eligible for the money.
It's a nice gesture by the Endowment Association, which is starting its public campaign this weekend, thus the reason for the free T-shirts and money, and no one has ever been known to refuse free money. But has it come to the point that students need to be bribed with the possibility of free money to spend a Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium?
And it's really too bad.
You bet.
KU students simply don't care about football. Kansas' lowest home attendance last year—a generous figure of 26,000 was announced—came in its most important game of the season.A win against a beatable Texas Tech team would have given Kansas five victories — one away from a bowl berth — on the season and made the season finale against Iowa State mean something.Instead, the Jayhawks lost 45-39 that day.
Allen said that he was shocked at the lack of attendance against Texas Tech last year.
Still, small crowds and even less support are something the Jayhawks have learned to live with.
"A lot of the guys don't expect to see many fans," cornerback Andrew Davison said. "You shouldn't have to try and get fans by giving them money. They should come out regardless."
People will support a winner, but Kansas has been everything but during Allen's tenure.
The Jayhawks have won just 18 games in Allen's first four seasons, but so did Bill Snyder's Wildcats in his first four years. We know where Kansas State is now.
Or maybe you're not a fan of the Jayhawk players themselves. Four players have been reprimanded in the last two years, but not a football program in the country has had all of its players behave perfectly off-the-field. Anytime you group 100 guys together, not all of them will be choir boys.
But money talks and when you're a college student, $1,000 is a lot of jibber-jabber in your ear. Buying off the student body with 25 $1,000 scholarships is a good way to put people in the stands, which is the ultimate goal for any football program. But when a throng of white-T-shirt-wearing students leave at halftime after the money is given away, it will be evident how unsupportive the students truly are.
Pacey is an Issaquah, Wash., senior in journalism.
Players' legal troubles continue
Back-up quarterback arrested on drug charges during summer vacation
By Brent Briggeman
Kansan sportswriter
The two Kansas football players made news last week when they were suspended by coach Terry Allen for violating unspecified team rules.
Skeletons continue to come out of the closets of Reggie Duncan and Mario Kinsey.
The suspensions turned out to be little more than the tip of the iceberg.
Kinsey
Kinsey's troubles started May 25 when he was arrested for marijuana possession during the summer vacation in his hometown of Waco, Texas.
Kinsey was with Gregory Griffin, a Waco native, at 2:12 a.m. outside Tom
Duncan
and Jerry's Bar and Grill. Officer Glen Garcia approached the car in which Kinsey and Griffin were in after he heard tires screeching, Garcia had been parked across the street at a Waco post office. Upon approaching the car, Garcia reported that the two men appeared to be trying to hide something.
Waco Police Sgt. Dennis Kidwell gave the details of the arrest.
"He approached the car and seemed to startle them, I don't think they saw him coming," Kidwell said. "Mario tried to hide something under the seat, so Officer Garcia asked them to get out of the car and he searched it."
SEE LAW PAGE 7A
Garcia found two cigars containing marijuana and a small plastic bag with marijuana.
Both were charged with possession of less than two ounces of marijuana, a misdemeanor offense. Kidwell said felony charges, including intent to distribute, could have been explored had the amount of marijuana exceeded two ounces.
Kidwell said Kinsey and Griffin, both 19, cooperated with police. Sobriety tests weren't issued because the car was on a private road, having not left the parking lot.
Incidents involving Kinsey and Duncan
A brief history of off-the-field developments involving Kansas quarterback Mario Kinsey and running back Reggie Duncan:
September, 2000
Duncan is charged in Lawrence for retail theft under $500. He is granted a diversion.
Kinsey joins the Kansas men's basketball team as a walk-on.
November, 2000
Duncan finishes the 2000 football season with 54 carries for 207 yards after sitting out as a redshirt in 1999.
Source: Kansan archives
Feb.15,2001
Kinsey quits the basketball team to concentrate on academics.
May 25,2001
Kinsey is arrested in his hometown of Waco, Texas, and charged with possession of marijuana.
June 12, 2001
KU student Lindsay Douglass reports her purse stolen at a loss of $191.84. Kinsey and Duncan were identified as suspects.
Aug.27,2001
Kinsey and Duncan are suspended from the football team's home opener for violating team rules. Both are expected to play Saturday against UCLA.
'Hawks pound on Wichita State
Melissa Carr/KANSAN
Rome, Scavuzzo help Kansas keep undefeated mark
By Steve Laurenzo
Kansan sportswriter
The Jayhawks swept their home opener in three games, 30-14, 30-20, 30-19.
The Kansas women's volleyball team dominated the Wichita State Shockers last night, improving its record to 50.
Although the Shockers led through the first 10 points of the second game, and briefly in the third, the Jayhawks consistently sucked the life out of the Wichita State offense, holding it to 2 percent hitting efficiency. Topped off by a crowd-stirring 4-0 run to take the final game, Kansas played a solid match.
"I thought it was, for this early in the season, a pretty well-rounded effort," coach Ray Bechard said. "They're young, and that two-setter system makes it
real difficult if things aren't
just right. We got them a little bit out of what they wanted to do."
sophomore outside hitter Sarah Rome and junior middle blocker Molly Scavuzzo led the offensive attack. Rome had 15 kills with 59 percent hitting efficiency. She also had two service aces and five digs. Scavuzzo had a career-high 12 kills with 56 percent hitting efficiency. She added five digs, one block, and two block assists.
Scavuzzo complimented her team on a good job.
Bechard said he thought Scavuzzo's performance was encouraging.
"We really came together," Scavuzzo said. "We did a really good job of staying consistent."
"That's great to see 12 kills with only two errors, we've been fighting that." Bechard said.
Senior setter Molly LaMere also was impressed by Scavuzzo's effort.
SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 7A
LAURIE SISK/KANSAN
Sarah Rome, Eagan, Minn., sophomore goes up for a spike against Wichita State defenders. Rome led the offense with 15 kills in last night's match.
Fishing with Drew: Hard work, hard play this summer
Globe-trotting Gooden hits weight room, works camps, snags big fish
By Ryan Malashock Kansan sportswriter
Drew Gooden gave a big smile when asked how he spent his summer vacation.
Gooden said he had the most fun on a family fishing trip to Finland. His mother is a native of Finland, and she still has family there. Gooden's greatest achieve-
ward spent his summer traveling the globe and loving every minute of it.
Between lifting weights and scrimmaging in Lawrence, fishing with family in Finland and working Michael Jordan's basketball camps in California, the Kansas men's basketball junior for-
ment of the trip came when he snagged three pikes, a type of fish that he had never caught before.
Gooden:
Played against
Michael Jordan
this summer
"Catching those pikes made me so excited," Gooden said. "I first started fishing when I was little with my dad, and I've liked it ever since. I'm no expert, but I'm not bad at it."
Gooden spent the first month of his summer lifting weights every day and assisting in coach Roy Williams' basketball camps.
"After my freshman year, I took off from lifting weights, and part of that was from playing in the USA deal," he said of a program by USA Basketball, the national governing body for all men's and women's basketball. "But I decided not play in the USA (program)
this summer and just work on a lot of individual stuff that I needed to work on, and one of the most important things was strength."
Gooden now bench presses 265 pounds, the highest press on the Kansas men's basketball squad.
He first noticed the difference in his strength when he took on Memphis Grizzlies forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim in their annual one-on-one summer battle.
"We played a lot of one-on-one again this summer, me and Shareef," Gooden said.
MLB
MLB
Toronto 3
Anaheim
4
MLB
Kansas City
SEE GOODEN PAGE 7A
Oakland
12
MLB
Baltimore
Florida
Chicago
7
6
Montreal
VILB
10
r