Sports
Softball recruits new players The Kansas softball team signed four recruits for the 2005 season on Thursday. PAGE7A
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The University Daily Kansan
Soccer team heads to Los Angeles
By Nikki Nugent
nnugent@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The round of 16 has never been so sweet for the No. 16 Kansas soccer team
That's because the players have never experienced it.
With the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament behind them, Kansas coach Mark Francis is just happy to still be alive. The Jayhawks, along with Texas A&M are the two remaining teams from the Big 12 Conference of the eight that qualified for the tournament.
Francis said he didn't feel any extra pressure to represent the Big 12, though he wanted the conference to do well.
"We're excited that we're one of the two that are in there," he said.
Francis has said all season that anybody could beat anybody. His theory has proven true based on first and second round results.
advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
Ten-seed Colorado, 15-seed Boston College and 16-seed Illinois all lost in the first round of the tournament.
Seven-seed Virginia and 12-seed Duke lost in the second round.
Ten of the tournament's top-16 seeds
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament so far was unseeded Michigan's 1-0 defeat of two-seed Notre Dame. The Irish, one of the most well developed and respected soccer programs in the country, placed second in national rankings behind North Carolina for most of the season.
The Jayhawks will travel to Los Angeles later this week for a 7 p.m. match Friday with four-seed UCLA. It will be the
North Carolina is in a position to win its 18th NCAA Championship in 24 years. The Tar Heels are undefeated on the season, sporting a 23-0-0 record. They will face unseeded Purdue on their home field Friday.
Caroline Smith, sophomore forward, ducked to avoid a kick by Stacy Leeper, junior defender, during Kansas' defeat of Missouri. Kansas will face UCLA Friday in Los Angeles for the third round of the NCAA tournament.
John Nowak/Kansar
SEE SOCCER ON PAGE 6A
Weekend victory could earn Jayhawks bowl bid
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
By Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Kansan sportwriter
rian Luke became the Jeyhawks' leader after quarterback Adam Barmart left with an injured ankle in Stillwater, Okla. Saturday. Going into this game against Iowa State with a losing record does not cure out the football team's chance to play in a bowl game.
Even though the Kansas football team has dropped four games in a row, and its record stands at 5-6 entering its final regular season contest with Iowa State, hopes for post season play are still alive and kicking.
Eric Braem/Kansar
Getting their first bowl bid since the 1995 Aloha Bowl would have been easier if the Jayhawks were heading into this weekend's game with six victories already in hand. The Jayhawks will need to beat the Cyclones and get a little help from their friends, and foes, if they hope to be playing come Christmas time.
The Bowls Kansas still has a shot at:
Who Plays — ACC 4th place vs. Big 12 5th, 6th, or 7th place
Last Year — Texas Tech 55, Clemson 15
Fort Worth Bowl — Fort Worth, Texas,
Dec.23
Who Plays — Big 12 8th place vs. Conference USA
Last Year—This is the inaugural Fort Worth Bowl
Houston Bowl — Houston, Texas, Dec. 30 Who Plays — Big 12 5th, 6th, or 7th place vs. SEC
Last Year — Oklahoma State 33,
Southern Mississippi 23
Last Year — Moe Miss 27, Nebraska 23
What will the Javakhvvs need?
Who Plays --- SEC vs. Big 12 5th, 6th,
or 7th place
If Kansas should lose to Iowa State on Saturday, all bowl talk will be moot. If Kansas should defeat Iowa State, a bowl is not necessarily guaranteed. Here are the possible outcomes:
If Kansas wins. Colorado defeats
Nebraska, and Texas earns a BCS bid Kansas will finish the season 6-6, but
so will Colorado. Colorado will take 8th place in the conference because the 'Buffs defeated the Jayhawks in their regular season meeting, 50-47. If this happens, and Texas earns a BCS at-large bid by defeating Texas A&M, Colorado will then become eligible for the Houston, Independence or Tangerine bowls and Kansas will more than likely receive a bid to the Fort Worth Bowl.
If Kansas wins, Colorado defeats
In this scenario, Colorado will probably receive the Fort Worth Bowl bid, leaving Kansas in the dust and with a 9th
Nebraska, and Texas does not earn a RCS bid
place conference finish.
If Kansas wins, Colorado loses to
Nebraska, and Texas earns a BCS bid
This is the best possible outcome for the Jayhawks, because then they could receive a bid from any one of the four bowls listed above. From what Tangerine Bowl officials have said, they would be interested in the Jayhawks flying south for Christmas.
If Kansas wins, Colorado loses to
Nebraska, and Texas does not earn a BCS bid
KU BOWL POSSIBILITIES
In this situation, Kansas would finish eighth, and probably be offered a bid
from the Fort Worth Bowl
— Edited by Abby Sidesinger
Lone Jayhawk to run at championships
By Sean O'Grady
sogrady@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
After practice yesterday afternoon, the Kansas men's cross country team learned its season was over.
The NCAA Track and Field selection committee announced the 13 atlarge bids and Kansas was not one.
Cameron Schwehr said the team was disappointed how
Freshman Benson Chesang, who finished second at the Midwest Regional Championships this weekend, will be the lone Kansas representative at the NCAA Championships. He will run as an individual competitor.
This is the second year in a row a Jayhawk has qualified individually for the national championship meet. Mark Menefte qualified last year after an eighth-place finish at the region meet.
Freshman Benson Chesang.
Volunteer assistant coach Charlie Gruber is the only other Kansas runner to have qualified for the
NCAA meet under coach Stanley Redwine. Gruber qualified in 2000.
The Jayhawks could have automatically qualified at the Midwest Regional Championships. Kansas, which was ranked second in last week's United States Cross Country Coaches Association poll, finished fourth.
"We grew so much," Schwehr said. "It was a lot of fun to see how far we went after losing Mark. It was definitely a fun ride."
its season ended, but the season was still a success.
Oklahoma State and Minnesota earned the automatic bids.
The NCAA Cross Country Championships will take place at 11 a.m. on Nov. 24 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Results will be available immediately after the race at www.unipanthers.com. Website for meet host, the University of Northern Iowa.
Wissel, who attends Kearney High School, is one of the nation's premiere prep distance runners. He won the Nebraska State Cross Country Meet earlier this year, and is currently ranked sixth in the nation in the 2 mile with a time of 9:06:29. His mile time of 4:14:27 currently ranks eighth nationally.
Cross country and track notes
"When we talk about Colby Wissel, we are talking about one of the best in the nation," Redwine said. "We are excited to have him and he chose us over some very good schools."
The track office announced the first three members of this year's recruiting class. Colby Wissel, a distance runner from Kearney, Neb. Mica Land, a middle distance runner from Wichita and Cortney Jaeobs, a spinner from Atlantic, Iowa, will join Stanley Redwine's program for the 2004-05 academic year.
Land attends Andover High School and won the 2003 Kansas 4A 800 individual title in addition to placing second in the Kansas 4A 3,200 championship.
Jacobs, a senior at Atlantic High School, won two Iowa 2A state championships last year in the 200 and 400.
"Cortney and Mica will both be great competitors for KU and will be a great additions to the team," Redwine said. "I believe all of them will come in and make immediate impacts to the team and we are looking forward to getting them here."
- Edited by Nikki Overfelt
sports commentary
Joey Berlin
jberlin@kansan.com
O
Starting Hawkins would test new coach
Who's a better judge of talent — Roy Williams or Bill Self? If the report ESPN's Andy Katz gave on Friday night is accurate, we may soon have an indication. Reporting from the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York, Katz dropped one of the more thunderous shockers in recent Kansas basketball history.
He reported that Self was considering starting sophomore Jeff Hawkins, the same Jeff Hawkins who averaged just 5.8 minutes per game last year under Williams, as the Jayhawks' third guard to join Aaron Miles and Keith Langford.
Katz's report sounded almost like Hawkins starting was a done deal, but Self told the Lawrence Journal-World Friday night, "I said that could be the case."
If Hawkins starts, it will represent the sharpest difference of opinion yet between Self and his predecessor in the Kansas coaching chair.
Williams had no use for Hawkins last year. Despite struggling most of the year to find seven players who could give him quality minutes, Williams never had Hawkins on the floor at an important point in a game, and didn't use him at all in nine games. But suddenly, now that Self's in charge, Hawkins is, if not a starter, at least starter material.
He was Self's choice for player of the game in the first exhibition game against EA Sports Midwest for his defensive effort, then started the second exhibition against Pittsburg State. He scored eight points in both games. Williams thought Hawkins was best left at the end of the Jayhawk bench. Mere months later, Self thinks Hawkins is a potential starter.
So, the question is: Who's right?
Hawkins has evidently worked hard on his game, but can anyone improve that much between April and November?
As weird as the idea of starting Hawkins may sound, deferring to Self's judgment may be the right thing to do here. He's in a new job that carries more pressure to win than he's ever faced in his coaching career.
Does Self really want the 5-foot-11-inch Hawkins to team with the 6-foot Miles and the 6-foot-4-inch Langford to form one of the smallest backcourts in the Big 12 Conference? Can Hawkins be a better third guard option than both Mike Lee, who became an unsung hero on last year's national runner-up team, and J.R. Giddens, a top-30 recruit?
The knee-jerk reaction is to say starting Hawkins, at least at this point, can't possibly work. Such a meteoric rise, from playing garbage minutes to landing a starting job in just one season, hasn't happened much lately at Kansas.
It's hard to believe he would make a bold, out-of-nowhere move, like starting Hawkins, in his first season at Kansas unless he was damn sure it was the right call.
Hawkins, as a starter, would provide the first litmus test of the differences in talent evaluation between Self and Williams. Giving Hawkins a starting job would be almost a no-lose situation for Self.
If Hawkins falls early on, Self has two capable security blankets to frill back on in Lee and Giddens. If Hawkins succeeds, Self will look like a genius and Kansas fans will be left to wonder what other hidden talent Williams allowed to rot at the end of the bench the past 15 years.
Berlin is a Leawood senior in journalism.
TALK TO SPORTS: Contact JJ Hensley and Shane Mettlen at SPORTS@KANSAN.COM
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