16B the university daily kansan
basketball preview
tuesday, November 11, 2003
Perkins pushes women's basketball
By Jessie Newell
jnewell@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Marian Washington can now step off her soapbox. She couldn't be any happier to do so.
For her entire coaching career, Washington has been the advocate for women's sports at the University of Kansas. With new athletic director Lew Perkins in town, it looks as if Washington will be able to pass on some of her duties, or at least have a partner to preach with.
"Over the last 50 years of women's sports, I have been the main voice," Washington said. "When you are in it and pushing to bring about change and trying to help people be more open and accepting, you become the target. It is going to really be a relief to have other people pushing for women's sports."
Perkins, during his 13-year tenure at the University of Connecticut, helped turn the women's basketball team into one of the elite programs in the country, with National Championships in 1995, 2000, and 2002. He also helped change the women's basketball team into a revenue-producing program, with ticket sales and television contracts adding money to the athletic department.
Women's basketball coach Marian Washington should receive plenty of help from new athletic director Law Perniks. Both hope to raise attendance at games.
"We have a lot of success in
women's basketball at Connecticut," Perkins said in his acceptance speech June 10. "Iam probably the strongest supporter of
women's basketball in the country. Obviously, it has been very good for that institution."
Perkins looks to bring the same
"There is going to be an effort to build women's programs so they bring in revenue. I think all of that is a long time coming," Washington said. "I am going to enjoy sitting back and let someone else do the pushing."
here to Kansas, a process Washington feels is long overdue.
Perkins was frank about his goals for the women's basketball team in terms of revenue. He was not hesitant to point out that one of his main goals at Kansas was to make women's basketball into a profit source for the University.
"Quite honestly, women's basketball has to become a revenue sport here," Perkins said. "As you look at sports or revenue sources, we don't have a lot here at Kansas."
Washington has said she would do what is needed to make this goal a reality.
"It is going to be a different kind of outreach, when you have an administration pushing," Washington said. "When I am pushing by myself it is a different flavor. Anything I can do to help the administration move the programs forward — not just women's basketball — I am open to trv and help."
Especially now with someone there to help her push.
— Edited by Abby Sidesinger
Unique lineup could add to 'Husker offense
By David Diehl Daily Nebraska via U-Wire University of Nebraska
LINCOLN, Neb. - The catchy and educational Same桑 Street ditty "One of these things is not like the other ..." would have fit well at Nebraska's basketball practice Tuesday.
There serimaging in white jerseys were Marcus Neal, Nate Johnson, Corey Simms, Jake Muhleisen and big man John
Turek. That's four guards and one center.
"One of these things does not belong ..."
Aha. But the mismatched group of backcourt players and a frontman does belong in the Cornhusker basketball plan.
The short and speedy lineup is just one weapon Coach Barry Collier is experimenting with during the preseason before the Huskers open exhibition play Monday against Division II
Alaska Fairbanks at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
The lineup allows Nebraska to exploit its depth at the guard positions and get out and run against slower teams.
"That's the whole point of working with it today," Collier said Tuesday. "You don't have to substitute a big guy when you have a deeper wore corps."
Of the 16 players on Nebraska's roster, about a dozen can play around the perimeter and fit
into Nebraska's four-guard plan when used.
In preseason practices, Collier has Neal, a junior college transfer, and Charles Richardson Jr. competing for the point-guard spot, and Nate Johnson, a solid player, as shooting guard.
But the lineup is just one experiment Collier is working with during the preseason. The Huskers still have a little size, with five returning players at 6-7 or taller.
By Jon Page Technician via U-Wire North Carolina State University
RALEIGH, N.C. - Hall of fame coach Kay Yow hasn't taken N.C. State's women's basketball team to the NCAA tournament since 2001. It's been even longer since the Wolfpack won an ACC tournament (1991) or a regular-season title (1990).
But it's also been a long time since the Pack started the season on a healthy note.
However, this season, the Pack figures to begin play with a fully stocked, healthy roster of 16 players — the most ever in Yow's 28-year career.
"We look like a little army [in practice] in comparison to the way we've looked the past few years with all of our injured players," Yow said.
Among the faces of the Pack are nine players who didn't see action last season, including five true freshmen, two transfers and two medical redshirts. They will team up with returning starters Terah James, Nanna Rivers, Alvine Mendeng and All-American candidate Kaayla Chones.
Despite Yow's optimism and high hopes for her team, a panel of members from the media picked the Pack to finish sixth on Wednesday, behind Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Clemson, Maryland and Wake Forest rounded out the voting.
For the third-consecutive season, Duke forward Alana Beard grabbed preseason player of the year honors, while North Carolina guard Ivory Latta earned the title of preseason rookie of the year.
Duke forward Iciss Tillis, Tech forward Fallon Stokes, Virginia forward Brandi Teamer and Carolina guard Nikita Bell joined Beard as all-conference selections.
Duke, a unanimous No. 1 choice for the second-straight year, hasn't lost a conference
game since Feb. 18,2001,a streak of 43 games including ACC tournament play.
The Blue Devils return four starters from last season's Final Four squad, including Beard, an All-American and two-time ACC Player of the Year. Beard led the league in scoring last season (22 points per game) and ranked in the top five in rebounding (6.9), field goal percentage (.527), steals (2.81) and blocked shots (1.30).
Unlike State, Duke suffered quite a few injuries during the offseason.
Tillis, now 6-foot-5, grew an inch over the summer and is suffering from scoliosis. Beard had a hip flexor and eight other players were injured at some point before practice started.
But Duke coach Gail Goestenkens said everyone except for Caitlin Howe and Wynter Whitley have been practicing and that she has no worries.
"We're excited about the season," Goestenkors said. "You don't need to have 10 or 12 [players] to be successful. You can be successful with a smaller group of people."
MaChelle Joseph was the 1992 Big Ten Player of the Year at Purdue University when Goestenkors was an assistant for the Boilermakers. Now, in her first season as head coach at Georgia Tech, Joseph said she still looks up to the Duke coach and her program.
"We're trying to use Duke as our role model," Joseph said. "Ten years down the road we would like to be like them."
But that doesn't mean Joseph or the rest of the league is content to concede games to the Blue Devils.
"I believe we're going to beat [Duke]." Clemson coach Jim Davis said. "We're not going to throw in the towel just because they're going to be ranked No. 1 or 2 in the country. But they are very talented and well-coached and it's going to take a really good effort by anyone else to unseat them as champions in the regular season."