Sports
University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, November 19, 1986
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Finally!
Basketball season opens with Soviet exhibition
By JANE ZACHMAN
Sports writer
If Larry Brown had his druthers, Kansas would not play the Soviet National team until February or March.
"We're not preparing for Russia," Brown, the men's basketball head coach said yesterday. "We're not ready."
Soviet National team
The KKL men's basketball team and coaches stretch to music before practice. The Jayhawks practiced yesterday in Allen Field House in preparation for tonight's exhibition game.
Basketball
Basketball
7:38 p.m. tonight
in Allen Field House
Channels 27, 41 and ESPN
"To me, we don't look very good, but I'm pretty critical."
Whether or not the Jayhawks are ready, they are scheduled to tip-off against the Soviets at 7:38 p.m. tonight in Allen Field House before a sold-out crowd.
The game will be televised live on channels 27,41 and ESPN, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
"We could always use more time to get ready, but I think it'll be good to play someone else," said Chris Prieur, 6-foot-8 forward.
So far, the Soviet National team has looked good. It has accumulated a 6-3 record on its tour of U.S. colleges.
The Soviets have downed Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech and Michigan. Two weeks ago they beat Oklahoma 102-74, but Sunday they escaped with a narrow victory over Iowa. 95-93.
Soviet defeats have come from Duke, Providence and Indiana.
Since Kansas has never played the Soviet team, "We don't really know what to anticipate." Piper said.
Piper and Mark Pellock, 6-9
center, are the only Kansas players who have seen any of the Soviet players in action. The two played on a Missouri Valley Amateur Athletic Union team that played the Russian National Junior team in 1983. Three members of the Russian junior team are now members of the Soviet National队.
"We've seen them play on TV. Duke and Arizona played them close but they blew out Oklahoma," said Kevin Pritchard, 6-3 freshman guard.
"It's going to be a challenge," he said. "I'm kind of nervous myself."
Brown said that the Jayhawks weren't looking at the game as just an exhibition.
"It's not a scrimage." he said. "It's a game against a good team."
Brown said that for the first game of the season he would experiment by playing different people at different positions. He said
See BASKETBALL, p. 12, col. 3
Recruits agree to play at KU
By NICOLE SAUZEK
Two high school basketball players signed national letters of intent to play for Kansas next season, Larry Brown, men's basketball head coach, announced yesterday.
Mike Masucci, a 7-foot center from Grandview High School in Grandview, Mo., and Mike Maddox, a 6-8 forward from Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City, made their interest in KU basketball official yesterday afternoon—the last day of the early signing period for high school and transfer players.
Masucci and Maddox join 6-1 guard antoine Lewis of Brooklyn, N.Y. and 6-4 forward Ricky Butler from Huntington Beach, Calif.,
who signed letters of intent last week.
Maddox, who weighs 150 pounds,
averaged 23.8 points and 10.8 rebounds
last season, helped his team to a 22-4 record and a berth in the state playoffs.
Masucci, who weighs at 210 pounds, averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds a game at Grandview.
Goalies find glory, frustration in game
Jacki Kelly/KAHSAN
Above, Steve O'Holearn, right, gloeite for the KU Hockey Club, blocks a goal
Top left; John Abraham, defenseman, comforts O'Holearn after a puck got
By BRIAN SNYDER
Sports writer
Andy Solem says he's not crazy.
He might strap, buckle and fasten 65 pounds of equipment on every Monday night to be pelted with a puck by five men on ice, but that doesn't make him crazy.
The Chicago sophomore is a goalie for the KU Hockey Club.
"Everyone says you have to be crazy to be a goalie," Solem said yesterday. "That's not true. I'm really a reserved guy."
The puck can reach a gooie travel
between 70 and 90 mph.
With the weight of all that equipment and the responsibility of the
"If you have all of the equipment, there isn't any danger," he said.
position, there must be a motivating force driving Solem to be a goalie.
"A forward or any other player can screw up and it might not matter."
past him. Hockey players say it's an unwritten rule of the ice for teammates to protect the goalie.
"The glory. It's a glory position," Solem said. "It is so rewarding. If you play well and the rest of the team doesn't, the team can still win the game. But if you don't play well, the team will lose no matter how the other guys play."
Oddly enough, what makes the position so appealing also poses the most difficulty.
That kind of pressure, Solem said, caused him the most problems. During pre-game warmups, Solem thinks about how his position will affect the game. He said the pressure was nerve racking.
Nevertheless, some pucks get past the goalie.Solem said opponents would stand in front of the goal to
The emphasis on the goalie position doesn't end with his responsibility on the ice. Although he plays with five teammates, Solem said a goalie viewed the game as him alone against five opponents.
Solem said there was an attitude of, "This is my goal and there is no way you guys will get a puck past me."
he said. "One screw-up for the goalie and it could be the game."
The only defense a goalie has are quick reflexes, strong legs, good eyesight and concentration. Forwards and defensemen might be
shield the googie from a shot until the last split-second. Reacting and blocking this type of shot is impossible, he said. Even teammates unknowingly act as screens for the other team.
Another tactic is for an opponent to position himself in front of the net and deflect a snapshot into the goal. The speed of the puck and the change of direction is too much for a goalkie to adjust to.
more active, the goalie must concentrate throughout the game.
"Sometimes, your mind drifts up into the stands and then you'll hear someone yell 'Breakaway!' " Solem said. "You have to concentrate on the puck and on the other players. If one of your teammates is screening you from the puck, you have to tell him to move. If someone on the other team is screening you, you have to have a "amate shove him out of the war."
Pushes came to shoves last night in the KU Hockey Club's game against Enderes in Overland Park.
Dave Prygon, an Enders defenseman, immediately threw a punch at the KU player and was ejected from the game. KU captain Greg Lederer explained Prygon's actions.
The Enderes goalie tell on the puck. Before the official blew his whistle to stop the action, a KU player began slapping at the puck and the goalie on top of it
"It it's sort of an unwritten rule." Lederer said. "You're taught from the time you start playing hockey to protect your goalie."
Clemens ends AL starting pitchers' drought with MVP win
KATY, Texas — Roger Clemens, who won 24 games in his first full season with the Boston Red Sox, capped a dream year yesterday by becoming the first starting pitcher in 15 years to win the American League's Most Valuable Player Award.
The Associated Press
The 24 year old right hander captured 19 of 28 first place votes for 339 points, easily beating Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees and Boston teammate Jim Rice in the balloting
by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
"I thought I did have a pretty good chance even though I was a starting pitcher," said Clemens at his home in Katy. He conceded, though, that the news still was a bit of a shock.
"I was going to come home tonight, and see on TV if I finished second or third, but Debbie (his wife) wanted me to stay around the house."
He learned of the award by telephone, and immediately called his wife, who was at an obstetrician's office. She is expecting the couple's
first child in five days.
The media descended upon the Clemens home for the second time in a week — he won the Cy Young award Nov. 12 — and the scene was chaotic with utility crews working on the new home and a cleaning service using vacuumums in the background.
The awards, he said, would be displayed in the family room, where he already has his high school, college and pro uniforms ready to hang.
Mattingly, the 1985 MVP, had five first place votes and 250 points as he was selected to lead the league.
win the award in consecutive years since the Yankees' Roger Maris in 1960-61.
Coming back from right shoulder surgery that cut short his rookie season in 1985. Clemens began a fabulous season by winning his first game 7-2 in Chicago on April 11. He went on to pitch the Red Sox to their first pennant since 1975 and only their
Rice, the league's 1978 MVP, was third with the other four first place votes and 241 points in the balloting by two writers in each of the 14 league cities.
fourth since in 68 years.
His other accomplishments included:
He became the Boston stopper. The Red Sox did not lose more than four games in a row all season. Clemens followed 14 losses with a victory.
- Setting a major league record by striking out 20 batters in a game against the Seattle Mariners in Fenway Park on April 29.
Gong 14.4 at the start of the season.
Winning the only games as
Boston went 3-10 on the road, but clung to the AL East lead immediately after the All-Star Game in mid-July.
JURY
■With a 24-4 record, leading the majors in victories and topping the AL with a 2.48 earned run average.
■Struck out 238 batters in the season, second only to Seattle's Mark Langton with 245.
Became only the third AL pitcher to win the Cy Young Award unanimously, joining Detroit's Denny McLain, 1968, and New York's Ron Guidy, 1978.
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