SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, December 4, 1992
7
Kansas, Indiana set for defensive battle
Dan Schauer / KANSAN
Source: Kansas Basketball media Guide
By David Dorsey
Kansan sportswriter
The No. 3 Kansas men's basketball team faces perennial power No. 2 Indiana tomorrow at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis in what could turn into a display of defensive prowess for both teams.
Kansas coach Roy Williams, who emphasizes a strong, man-to-man defense, said he respected Indiana coach Bobby Knight's similar coaching style.
"Both of us believe in playing on the defensive end of the floor," Williams said. "Both of us believe in playing very hard. Both of us believe in the bread-and-butter of being able to
After a long practice last night,
Williams was pleased with his team
"We had a very good practice," he said. "But we have to be more consistant with our plans."
The Jayhawks are now 1-0 after a 76-65 victory against Georgia on Tuesday night. The Hoosiers, who were originally ranked in the AP poll one notch below the Jayhawks, opened the season by winning the Presenation NIT with a 44-8 victory and included three victories against ranked teams.
Kansas and Indiana last met in the NCAA Southeast Regional semifinals
in 1991. Although the Jayhawks won
83-65, only four current Kansas players,
Adonis Jordan, Steve Woodberry,
Richard Scott and Patrick Richey,
played in that game. Seven Indiana
players, including four probable
starters, return for a rematch.
"It will probably meanmore for their side than it will for ours," Williams said. "We played very well, and allot of their kids were playing at the time. Very few of ours were. At the same time, it helps having Adonis, Steve, Richard and Patrick. They know what they're talking about when we tell them how demanding the game can be mentally and physically."
Kansas senior guard Rex Walters has more experience playing against Knight's teams than any other Jayhawk, as he faced the Hoosiers three times while at Northwestern. Walters transferred to Kansas after the 1989-90 season and knows many of Indiana's players and Knight's system.
"They don't have a lot of set plays like we do," Walters said. "It's more of a constant motion offense. But their goals and what they try to accomplish on the court are very similar to the things we try to do at Kansas.
"This is the type of game I've been looking forward to all summer long. We're playing a great team, and I think we can be a great team. It's a great matchup."
Walters is a likely starter for tomorrow's game and hopes to overcome a 2-for-10 shooting slump against Georgia. Scott is a likely starter at forward and has led the Jahaways in scoring, averaging 20 points a game in three games, including two exhibitions. Scott scored 18 points and had eight rebounds against Georgia.
Indiana has four seniors listed as probable starters, including the Preseason NIT Most Valuable Player Calbert Cheaney, who scored 34 points against Florida State and 36 in the championship game against Seton Hall Cheaney, a 6-foot-7 forward, and Walters both were selected as Playboy preseason All-Americans.
COURTSIDE NOTES:
The Kansas ticket office has sold almost all of the 3,000 tickets it is allotted. Attendance is expected to be about 30,000.
The Hoosiers are led inside by 6-9 sophomore forward Alan Henderson, who has averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds a game.
Tomorrow's game will be televised on CBS at 2:45 p.m., with Jim Nantz and Billy Packer calling the action.
BRIEFS
Michigan, Duke set for rematch The Associated Press
■ The Jayhawks will return Monday to Allen Field House to play Emporia State. The Kansas juniorvarsity team defeated Emporia State juniorvarsity 9:56 Wednesday night.
DURHAM, N.C. — Chris Webber's last visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium was under much different circumstances than the one he will make tomorrow night.
The 6-foot-9 sophomore was one of the most highly recruited players in the nation, and Duke was among his visits before he selected Michigan.
"I went to Duke for a visit the weekend Shaquille O'Neal was playing there with LSU," Webber said yesterday, two days before he returns to that campus for a rematch of last season's NCAA championship game. "The first thing I noticed on the way to the gym was about a half-mile-long row of tents. It was real cold, and that struck me."
The tents are back in front of the gym, where they have been since Nov. 27. They are filled with students waiting for the chance to charge in for prime spots in the student-only lower section when the doors open. Nothing will get a crowd known for its chants, taunts and barbed humor going like a meeting between No.1 and No.4, especially with its Blue Devils the lower of the two. "I think the crow will be pumped up and ready to go, but you have to realize where our team comes from," Webber said. "We all play in the parks in the city, and I don't think there's anything you can say or chant, anything you can do, to make me mess up as far as concentrating."
Duke beat the Wolverines in overtime early last season at Ann Arbor and then won 71-51 in the championship game, although the lead was just 48-45 with 7 minutes to play. Both teams opened with victories Tuesday night.
Nebraska, K-State to play in Tokyo
The Associated Press
TOKYO — Bringing a football team to Japan is terrific, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said yesterday. The only problem is that his team has to play No. 11 Nebraska before it can go home.
"It's a great opportunity to experience the Japanese culture," Snyder said after his team's first workout in Tokyo. "Unfortunately, we have to play a ball game here later on." But, he added, even that prospect isn't all bad.
"If we have to play Nebraska, it's best to play them as far away from the continental United States as possible."
K-State, 5-5, meets Nebraska, 8-2, in Sunday's Coca Cola Bowl at the 60,000-seat Tokyo Dome.
Though the Cornhuskers are the heavy favorites, both sides have strong reasons for wanting to win.
For Nebraska, victory in Tokyo will clench not only the Big Eight conference championship, but also a berth in the Orange Bowl. A loss would give Colorado the title and the chance to play in the Miami game on New Year's night. Nebraska would then likely have to settle for a slot in the Blockbuster Bowl against Penn State.
Swimmers to compete with top teams
"We're not over here to just sightsee," said center Jim Scott. "We're here to play a football game."
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Nebraska will have to make do without I-lback Derek Brown, the Big Eight player of the year, who separated his shoulder in a game against Oklahoma last week.
Jeff Wilson, Athens, Ga., sophomore, practices his backstroke for the coming meet. The men's swimming and diving team faces No. 10. Southern Methodist tomorrow in Oklahoma City.
Men face SMU; women travel to Texas for invite
By David Bartkoski Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas men's and women's swimming and aving teams travel south this weekend to face some of the toughest competition of the season.
The men's team, 6-1, tomorrow will go to Oklahoma City where it will face No. 10 Southern Methodist.
The women's team, 8-0, hopes to make a splash in Austin, Texas, where it will face some of the nation's best collegiate teams in the three-day Texas Invitational, beginning with another Sunday.
No.1 Stanford, No.2 Texas and No.5 Arizona should provide the toughest competition for the Kansas women, who have already recorded victories against top 20 programs Northwestern and Tennessee.
Kansas coach Gary Kempf said the women's team deserved an opportunity to compete against the elite field in Austin.
"I wouldn't take us down there if I didn't feel we belong," he said. "I expect us to compete with the Stanfords and the Texases. I want us to stand up, race and be accountable."
Fifth-year senior Kelly Reynolds is one reason that the Jayhawks have been able to remain undefeated.
Reynolds, who was redshirted last year, has been a consistent top two finisher at meets in the 100-yard backstroke, 200 backstroke and the 200 individual medley.
She placed first in the 100 backstroke against Illinois State and took first in the 200 individual medley against Purdue and Northwestern.
Kansas can not afford to be intimidated by the competition in Texas, Reynolds said, and the Jayhawks must maintain the confidence they have established.
Kempf said he did not want to let the women's early success overshadow the accomplishments of the men.
"We can have a good meet if we just maintain our good attitude," she said.
"I feel like our men are right on target," he said. "Right now, our ladies are a little more visible, but the men's team has really progressed well. The key to our team is balance and depth. We're moving in the right direction."
In its six victories, the men's team has defeated opponents by an average of 52.7 points. Kansas' only loss of the year came against No. 5 Tennessee, which defeated the Jayhawks 132-109.
Sophomore Mare Bontranger, who is one of Kansas' top swimmers in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, said that he feels proud to be a member.
Bontrager said he was pleased with his individual performance throughout the season, including a 20.9 seconds clocking in the 50 freestyle against Arkansas and Tennessee.
"If they underestimate us, we'll beat them," he said. "Otherwise, it'll be a battle."
The 20.9 seconds timing was nearly a lifetime best for Bontrager in the 50 freestyle. His best is 20.64 seconds.
Kempf said that Bontrager and the rest of the Jayhawks should be ready for the meet in Oklahoma City.
"We'll be prepared to swim well," he said. "SMU traditionally has a great program. We're ready to stand up to them race-for-race, event-for-event and heat-for-heat."
New Jersey player commits to Kansas
Her playing style often compared to Jordan's
By David Bartkoski Kansan sportswriter
Tameeka Dixon, who is regarded by many as one of the nation's top female high school basketball players, has verbally committed to attend Kansas.
The 5-foot-11 player from Linden, N.J., is one of USA Today's Presseason Super 25 Players. She averaged 27 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots a game last year for Linden High School, which won the New Jersey Class Four state championship.
Dixon also was recruited by Georgia, Iowa
Michigan, Houston and Maryland. She said her visit to Lawrence in October was a deciding factor in selecting Kansas. She is scheduled to sign with the Jayhawks during the April signing period.
"I chose Kansas because of the coaches and the team," she said. "The campus is really nice, too. It was picture perfect, like you'd see on TV."
Dixon's playing style has been compared to that of two players often seen on TV, Michael Jordan and Charles Burke.
"She takes the game and the team to the next level," said Andrew Eng, Dixon's high school coach. "In my 17 years of coaching, she's probably the greatest athlete I've ever coached here."
Dixon may not be able to slam dunk a basketball like Jordan or Barkley, but she can
dunk.
She said she had not yet dunked in a game but wanted to do it this year.
"I've just got it down pat," she said of her dunking style.
Dixon is the third highly recruited player that the Jayhawks will have landed in the past three years.
"When I left that weekend, I cried," she said. "The players made me feel so very comfortable and as if I was wanted."
This year's top recruit said she looked forward to playing with her Kansas teammates, who treated her well on her recruiting visit.
Freshman guard Charisse Sampson and sophomore forward Angela Aycock were among the top-ranked high school players in the nation when Kansas recruited them.
Big Eight honors
Big Eight football team named their selections for 1992 season honors. Nebraska took three of the seven conference awards:
Couch of the Year:
Tom Osborne, Nebraska
Offensive Player of the Year:
Calvin Jones, Nebraska
Offensive Player of the Year:
Deon Figures, Colorado
Offensive Newcomer of the Year:
Shannon Culver, Oklahoma State
Defensive Newcomer of the Year:
Kesh Burms, Oklahoma State
Freshmen Newcomers of the Year:
Tommy Frazier, Nebraska
BENEFITS
Shannon Clavelle, Colorado