University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. October 28, 1987
13
Sports
Freshmen bolster KU defensive unit
Coach expects mistakes, says improvement will come with experience
By CRAIG ANDERSON
Staff writer
'Kansas defensive coordinator Dave Dukleberger didn't claim to be a fortune teller, but he said he had a good idea before the Jayhawks' game against Iowa State of what to expect from Kansas' freshmen defenders.
Two of the Jayhawks' true freshmen, linebacker Kyle Schenker and cornerback Michael Page, started against the Cyclones. Another, linebacker Tony Barker, also saw extensive action.
"Before the game, I could have told you what kind of mistakes the freshmen would be making," he said. "They were starting to start, and the mistakes happened."
Dunkleberger said the freshmen made mostly mechanical mistakes, such as lining up one or two steps out of position or covering the wrong shoulder. "We don't say that Dunkleberger was unhappy with the play of the three freshmen.
"They did make some plays that helped the team," he said. "They'll get better with more experience."
For the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Schenker, the Iowa State game was his first college start. Schenker moved into the top spot on the depth chart early last week, replacing junior Rick Clayton. Schenker responded by making five tackles against the Cyclones.
"My play has been decent, but I still have a lot to work on," he said. "It was neat to become a starter. I know Rick (Clayton) and I will both get a lot of playing time the rest of the year."
Page moved into a starting role the week before the Colorado game when injuries and defections depleted the Jayhawk secondary. Senior strong safety Marvin Mattot and junior cornerback Johnny Granderson were out of the lineup because of knee injuries. Junior free safety Clint Normore quit the team the night before it was supposed to leave to play Colorado but rejoined the next week.
Because of the secondary lineup shuffle that resulted, Page started against the Buffaloes, making six tackles. Page started against Iowa
State, but recorded no tackles.
Any playing time at all for Page would have been unexpected when the Jayhawks began practicing in August. Before the season, Kansas coaches had hoped to redshirt the Omaha, Neb, native. When the plans didn't work out, Page said he wasn't discouraged.
"I entered the season with an open mind as far as redshirtings goes," he said. "A redshirt year would have been good for me, but I'm happy to play. There's no substitute for experience."
Barker hasn't started any games for Kansas yet, but he has made an impact. He recovered a fumble and received three tackles against Iowa State.
Dunkleberger said the 6-foot-4, 24-pound Barker made some of the best throws in the league.
"Barker and Schenker) both still have so much to learn," he said. "They'll keep getting better as they keep getting more experience."
Barker said the experience that the Kansas freshmen were getting early on was to learn how to work with
them in the future. He said the adversity that Kansas had faced this year made him work harder to improve next season.
Eight members of this year's freshman class are currently listed on the first or second team. Seven freshmen are being redshirted this year.
Page said this year's Kansas freshman class was a close-knit group.
"When we came here in August, we all read the papers and how they said what a great group of freshmen we he'd said. "That's made us work for him," he said. "We've been years, all this experience we're getting now is really going to help us."
Before they can get to next year, the freshmen have some business to take care of this year. Saturday, top Oklahoma visits Memorial Stadium and plays the Jayhawks. Barker said he knew what to expect from the Sooners.
"They're big and strong. Everybody knows that," he said. "We're going to have to pin our ears back with them. We're going to play for the upset."
Kyle Schenker, freshman linebacker, watches over a defensive hitting drill during football practice. The KU football team was practicing behind Anschutz Sports Pavilion vestedav afternoon.
KU basketball team has trouble keeping Kentucky rivalries alive
By DARRIN STINEMAN
Staff writer
Staff writer
The Louisville basketball program long has had trouble getting cross-state rival Kentucky to meet the Cardinals on the basketball court. Now Kansas is having the same tribute being either of the Bluegrass State powerhouses to appear on its schedule.
The Jayhawks played Kentucky in 14 consecutive seasons before the final game of the series in the 1985-86 season. Kansas defeated the Wildcats its second victory in the 18 games the teams played going back to 1950
Since then, Kentucky has turned a deaf ear to the Kansas Athletic Department's requests to renew the rivalry. Gary Hunter, Kansas associate athletic director, said that Monte Johnson, former Kansas athletic
director, was stonewalled when he contacted Kentucky two years ago. Based on a conversation with Johnson before Johnson left, Hunter said he saw no point in contacting Kentucky.
"Kentucky didn't feel like our team was worthy of playing them," Kansas coach Larry Brown said. "It wasn't a significant trip for them to come out here because they don't recruit here. I just thought the tradition of these two schools was unbeatable, and be a great thing for our fans. And I was hoping it would be a great thing for Kentucky's fans."
"We tried very hard to get a game, and we weren't able to work it out." Hunter said. "We hope to get the series started again in the future. I think it's a great series."
Louisville, which played Kansas the past two seasons, has been less resistant to the idea of continuing its series with Kansas. Hunter said the Louisville athletic department was willing to work out something when
he contacted it last spring, but scheduling conflicts kept negotiations from bearing fruit.
"The Louisville shriekened me because I thought that was all done," he said. "I like their program and I like (coach) Denny (Crum), and I was just hoping we could continue to play."
Brown and Crum concur on the philosophy of playing the most difficult schedule possible to prepare for the NCAA tournament. The absence of Louisville and Kentucky from Kansas' schedule has left the schedule less competitive than Brown would like.
Harriers out to win crown for Timmons
By MIKE CONSIDINE
Staff writer
Throughout the year, when the KU men's cross country team lagged, someone invariably said "Let's get those fingers fitted." The non-squirter became a rallying cry during Coach Bob Timmons' final season.
The Jayhawks are trying to send the retiring coach off with his third Big Eight Conference championship when they compete Saturday at the University of Oklahoma. Among the winners' rewards are championship rings for the team members.
“It’s a lot of incentive to do that much better,” junior Doug Silkha said. “Everybody knows it’s his job, and doing this for ourselves anymore.”
coached is that it's his last. It's the one he'll look back on no matter what happens."
Junior Matt Bell said, "One thing that makes this team more special than any (Timmons) has
Kansas has not won a Big Eight title since 1969. The Jayhawks were ranked fifth in a poll of conference coaches that was released last week, but Timmons' squad remains optimistic.
"We have the depth to put guys in front of the fourth and fifth runners on the other teams." Bell said.
The juniors are part of a group of runners who have battled for a place in the lineup behind junior Craig Watcke and sophomore Steve Heffernan. Other team members who have competed for the top seven spots are: freshmen Sam Forese and Sean Sheridan and junior Jon Joslin, Dan Schneider and Mike Spielman, before he contracted mononeucleosis.
Bell said the atmosphere had been competitive, but cooperative throughout the year.
“it’s kind of exciting.” Silifa said. “The No 7 runner can be No 1 in practice. There is no set order. It changes from week to week.”
"It's quiet, but it's optimistic." Bell said. "We have more leaders and more front-runners, even (among) our freshmen."
Bell said the Kansas pack behind Heffernan and Watchek had been inconsistent this season, but this year he indicated it was rounding into form.
Sifka said that the entire team needed to peak Saturday to have a chance at the championship.
"A lot of us have given up our social life purely to run and study well said. A lot of times he has told me that either it’s worth it. This week it is."
Women's swim team sets sights on Huskers
By ROBERT WHITMAN Staff writer
At the Big Eight Conference championships in March, the Kansas women's swimming team finished a close second to Nebraska.
The first swimming session will start at 9 a.m. and the other will start at 3 p.m. Diving will start after the swimming session, at about noon.
But the Jayhawks will get a chance to gain an edge on the Cornishers, who have won the last three conference games in their rookies' Invitational in Robinson Natarjumpu.
The meet will give all the teams an opportunity to size up their conference opponents and see how far along they are in training and conditioning, Kansas swimming coach Gary Kemfm said.
"This is considered very early in the swimming season," he said. "Sure, you'd like to swim well in front of the other conference teams. It's a lot of pride and there's a lot of good swimming in our conference."
Spry finished second at the conference championships in the 100-yard freestyle and third in the 200-yard freestyle. She was a member of the 800-yard freestyle relay team that was first in the conference meet and then in the 800 and 400-yard freestyle relay teams that qualified for the NCAA meet.
Easton won the 200-yard individual medley at the conference meet. Her time qualifier her for the NCAA meet and the 1988 Olympic Trials. She was also second in the conference in the 100-yard breast stroke and was a member of the 200- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams.
The Jayhawks' top returning swimmers are senior Susan Spry and junior Erin Easton.
Kempf did not hold an intrasquad meet this year for the first time in 11 seasons of coaching the women's team. He said he had never liked the meets.
Instead, he said he was going to use the Big Eight Invitational to determine who would swim in a dual meet on Nov. 6 in Robinson Nautilium.
All 23 women's swimmers and five divers will compete at the meet. About 20 will be used in most other meets, including dives, Kempf said.
KU diver Lori Spurney works to perfect her diving form. Spurney and the rest of the KU women's swim team worked out yesterday at Robinson Natatorium.
The Associated Press
Twin Cities go wild; shower champions with cheers, dollars
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of thousands of delightfully happy Minnesota Twins fans showered their heroes with millions of dollars in shredded money and waved the ever-present Homer Hankies in a World Series victory celebration yesterday.
"It's been building up since we won our division," said leaf fielder and leadoff batter Dan Gladden, whose grand slam home run got the Twins off to a winning start in the first game.
"It's been parlayed and carried over since then. I guess this is the grand finale right here. These have to be the best fans." Gladden said.
Police estimated that more than 200,000 fans turned out for the start of the parade in Minneapolis and another 200,000 or more were in St. Paul to watch the parade and a rally on the steps of the Capitol.
"I could cry. That is so nice I could cry," said team owner Carl Pohlad as he rode at the head of the parade. A young woman rushed his car, and he swung his cheek and then apologized to Pohlad's wife, Eloise, who rode beside him.
Steven Schusser, a Minneapolis nightclub owner, said he distributed about 17,000 pounds of confetti for the celebration. He said that included 2,000 pounds of out-of-circulation shredded money from the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis.
Federal Reserve Bank officials estimated their contribution amounted to millions of dollars in old coins that had been out of circulation, Schusler said.
Gov. Rudy Perpich gave most state employees the afternoon off, and many Twin City schools followed suit. Perpich proclaimed the rest of 1987 "Twins Year," and promised individual days in honor of each player and members of the team management.
Pitcher Bert Blyleven slapped high-fives with fans and waved a placard saying "Twins Number One."
"It's a sign of this state being together, one family," Pohlad said when asked about the holiday. "I think that's what's great about this state."
With temperatures in the mid-40s, a brisk wind held the thousands of pounds of confetti in the air. People
were hanging out of windows, children climbed traffic lights, and construction workers 60 stories above weaved their hands and placards.
The parade nearly came to a halt within minutes of its start in Minneapolis as thousands of fans flooded the parade route, blocking traffic. From 40 to 50 Hennepin County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to clear a path, but the process moved at a crawl through both downtown areas.
City Center, a shopping mall in downtown Minneapolis, was closed for about 30 minutes on advice of the city's housing managers for the center, said.
"People got too rowdy, and were partying a little too hard for our security," she said.
Twins officials and players, many of them wearing heavy fur coats and gloves to ward off the fall chill, were individually to the crowd at the rally.
The motorcade arrived at the Capitol more than an hour behind schedule because of the crowds. Smoke from contetti singed by cars was reported first in Minneapolis and once again in front of the Capitol, and the crowd apparently separated from their parents in the pandemonium, police said.
"This is surely the best thing that's ever happened to the Twin Cities," said Minnesotais Mayor Don Fraser, speaking from a podium atop the red-, white- and blue-decked steps of the capitol. "I'm sure we're going to come out of the feeling better about ourselves, and we have the Twins to thank."
Tom Kelly, Twins manager, said,
"We're enjoying the heck out of it.
It's been fun, and we appreciate the help you've given us all year."
Paul Ridgeway, hired to stage the Paul Ridgeway, said it was the biggest parade in Milwaukee since President Harry Truman's ticker tape parade in 1948.
"It's even beyond my wildest imagination. It's just unbelievable. I think it's an emotional experience," Ridgeway said.
Pohlad said, "There's an infectious nature to this. You just have to see it to believe it."
The crowd included thousands of children who had taken the afternoon off from school, and thousands of others continuing the celebration that began Sunday night after the Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals.