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SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
1B
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2002
SPORTS COMMENTARY
Eric Braem/Kansar
Ryan Wood rwood@kansan.com
Freshman guard Aquanita Burras searches for a passing lane against Texas Southern. Burras netted 15 points in the first half Friday and finished with 18 in the Jav Hawks win over the Tigers.
Rowing gives glory to females
John Crider, a former Kansas hoopster, practiced six hours a day in high school, relentlessly perfecting his skills and making himself the best-conditioned athlete on the court.
He still struggled to find playing time at Kansas and was painfully forced to demote himself to the Division-II ranks at Washburn University.
It's too bad Crider wasn't a woman. He could've just joined the rowing team;
Rowing, the love child of Title IX and the athletics departments at Title IX's mercy, is a Division-I athletics joke. If you played a couple sports in high school and you're female, rowing could be your new best friend.
It's not easy to become a Division-I athlete. In many cases, it helps to have size. It sure helps to have natural athleticism. More important than either of those, though, you have to work your tail off, refining your skills and making yourself elite, making sure you stand out when coaches come to observe.
Only then would the possibility exist that you could actually go to school, play the sport you love, get a discount on education and proudly boast that you are a Division-I athlete.
Not anymore. Now we have rowing.
You. Miss Decent Female High School Athlete, can now be Division-I caliber.
You have rowing.
If your dreams were once crushed by terrible free-throw shooting, slow 200-meter dash, or the inability to hit a riseball, you have a second chance.
It's a sad day when one can walk in and participate in a sport for the first time at the Division-I level. Thirty-six rowers on Kansas' varsity squad in 2002 were profiled in the media guide. Half of them had not rowed competitively before college.
To their credit, most of these women are very good athletes. They're strong as bulls, they have a lot of stamina, and I'm almost certain that rowing coaches nationwide condition these women until they puke.
But many males have the same attributes and the same desire to push the limits just to say they're a Division-I athlete. They're stuck paying full price for their college and playing pickup basketball at Robinson Gymnasium.
Yet all the Title IX supporters think it is fair. Title IX wasn't originally meant for athletics, but somehow, the vagueness of its wording pulled athletics into its hell.
If Division I sports have to live with it, how about we just take football scholarships out of the equation? After all, in most schools, football makes the dreaded Title IX concept feasible, bringing in all the cash that's spent on ... well, boats.
Omit football scholarships, and ridiculous sports like rowing don't get the chance to tarnish Division I athletics.
But that's not likely to happen. As a result, one thing is certain: the day my beautiful baby daughter is born, I'm tossing an oar into her crib.
The answer, of course, is no.
Is it really fair to the male wrestler and the male soccer player whose lifetime of hard work and dreams of being a Division-I athlete were dashed by Title IX? In the same breath, is it fair that women are given scholarship money for competing in a sport they heard of only a couple years earlier?
It may turn out to be a good investment.
- Wood is a Lee's Summit, Mo., senior in journalism.
Women split weekend games
By Doyle Murphy
dmurphy@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas women's basketball team proved two things at the Holiday Inn Jayhawk Classic this weekend — it can put points on the board and it's still learning.
The Jayhawks (4-1) dropped a heartbreaking 48-46 loss to Western Illinois University in the championship game after crushing Texas Southern University 83-45 on Friday night.
The Texas Southern game didn't start as a blowout. Sophomore guard Aquanita Burras hit a game-opening three pointer, but the Tigers scored 10 straight points. The 10-3 advantage was their largest of game.
Led by Burras' 15 first half points, the Jayhawks gained a 19-18 advantage with 6:28 left in the half. They never trailed again.
Kansas's young legs and zone defense turned 31 Texas Southern turnovers into 32 points and removed any opportunity of a close game. The entire Kansas lineup
scored at least one basket and dominated the smaller Tigers defensively.
Tamara Ransburg, 6-foot-4 freshman forward, led the defensive effort, blocking eight shots and altering many others.
"Something in my head just tells me to go, and I go," Ransburg said of erasing opponents' shots.
Riding the momentum of an 84-76 upset against previously undefeated Western Michigan, Western Illinois University (4-2) jumped out to a 13-5
SEE SPLIT WEEKEND ON PAGE 6B
Newcomers catapult team to 4-1
By Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Kansan Sportswinter
Many might think that a 5-25 campaign last year for the Kansas women's basketball team would be hard to forget, but a trio of newcomers are clouding those memories.
Freshman guard Erica Hallman, freshman forward Tamara Ransburg and sophomore guard Aquanita Burras each made an impression at the Holiday Inn Jayhawk Classic this weekend.
Whether it was Ransburg rejecting shots, Hallman dishing out no-look passes, or Burras casually draining a jumpshot, these three fresh faces are moving the team farther and farther away from last season's dismal record. The team is now 4-1.
“Our chemistry with each other bonded since the first day we got here, so you know when we brought it onto the court,” Burras said. “We just knew how to read each other.”
Friday's 83-45 win against Texas Southern roused excitement from the Allen Fieldhouse crowd as the Jayhawks clicked for the game's final 37 minutes. Even in Saturday's loss to Western Illinois there was no short supply of breathtaking plays from the young Jayhawks.
Burras led the team in scoring in both games, averaging 18.5 points per game for the weekend. Her scoring outburst earned her the tournament MVP award.
Coming off the bench, Hallman showed both finesse and intelligence.
The finesse was displayed with a baseball pass to sophomore guard Blair Waltz for an easy layup Friday, while Hallman's quick thinking was showcased by diving on a loose ball and calling a timeout with time dwindling at the end of Saturday's loss.
"It's kind of like a gift, it's nothing you can teach." Hallman said of her passing skills. "I just see things better than other people. I'd rather have 20 assists than 20 points."
SEE FRESHMEN ON PAGE 6B
Men's 'moral victory' falls short
By Jessica Scott jscott@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
PORTLAND — The sweat streaked across the floor was the only thing the Jayhawks left on the court after an all-out battle against No. 7 Oregon Saturday afternoon.
Kansas fought from behind for almost all of the 40 minutes, but in the face of 51 combined points from the Ducks' duo of Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson, Oregon handed the Jayhawks their third loss of the season — 84-78.
In a game littered with loose basketballs and smothering defense, it looked at times more like a wrestling match than a game of nationally ranked programs. Kansas coach Roy Williams said although his team came back to tie Oregon in the second half after a 14-point first-half deficit, moral victories were not enough.
Jared Soares/Kansan
Kansas coach Roy Williams spent much of the game without a smile on his face. The Jayhawks lost 84-78 to the Ducks.
"We competed today like all Kansas teams do," he said, "but I'm not a fan of moral victories, never have been and never will be. We had our chances. We didn't do what we needed to do down the stretch."
The Jayhawks (3-3) trailed by four at halftime, but came back re-energized
after the break. A zone defense held Oregon scoreless for more than two minutes early in the half and allowed Kansas to pull within three at the 14-minute mark.
Senior Nick Collison, who finished with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, was
SEE LOSS ON PAGE 3B
Swim team drops meet to A&M
The Kansas swimming and diving team fell to Texas A&M this weekend, 169-129, despite Gwen Haley's strong individual performances.
By JeremyKrashin
jkrashin@ansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
Haley's 2:03.24 time, which earned her first place in the 200 butterfly, highlighted the day, and the time was just .05 off her personal best.
"It was a good first step after the Nike Cup in North Carolina," coach Clark Campbell said. "Our goal now is to make progress to getting back to those times from Nike Cup."
Campbell was pleased with the way his team swam, but he knew they could accomplish more.
"We have to remember, we are a blend of young and veteran talent,
SEE SWIM TEAM ON PAGE 2B
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