10B the university daily kansan
tuesday, november 11, 2003
basketball preview
Wilkes leaves behind Laker life to concentrate on Kansas hoops
Kansan file photo
Freshman guard Omar Wilkes chose Kansas over schools in his home state of California. Wilkes is the son of former UCLA and Laker great Jamaal Wilkes.
By Ryan Greene
rgreene@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
It was the middle of the 1999-2000 season, and Omar Wilkes was a freshman on the varsity basketball team at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.
Wilkes, then a wiry 15-year-old boy among 18-year-old men, was struggling to fit in on the court. One day, he looked into his father's closet. His dad, former Los Angeles Lakers standout Jamal Wilkes, had one of his old practice jerseys laying around.
In his next game, Wilkes slipped the jersey on under his game top, and the results were magical. The unassuming freshman burst onto the scene with a 37-point performance and didn't leave the spotlight for the rest of his Lovola career.
Now at the collegiate level,
where his father was an AllAmerican at UCLA, Omar Wilkes is starting from scratch and wants to make a name for himself.
His journey in basketball has now brought him away from California for the first time, and to the heart of the Great Plains instead of staying local at UCLA, Cal or Stanford.
"It's a feeling you get when you come back here," Wilkes said. "You kind of have a gut feeling about certain things, and I had a gut feeling about this."
Now that Wilkes is in Lawrence, he's back in the same situation he was four years ago as a high school freshman. The baby-faced shooting guard is just
like any freshman in the sense that he likes to goof around and goes through homesickness.
However, Wilkes is being looked after by everyone from his teammates to his childhood idols.
"A week before I came out to Lawrence, Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie, told me good luck and if I need anything just shout them a holler." Wilkes said.
His teammates, on the other hand, are teaching him how to adjust to the college basketball life in Lawrence both on and off the court.
"They've said just to keep your confidence high and push yourself to the absolute limit," Wilkes said. "Off the court, you just have
to kind of watch everything you do. All eyes are on you because you're in a high-profile situation, so you have to make responsible decisions."
One invaluable contribution Wilkes brings to the Kansas locker room is his sense of humor. The prime example is his running joke of telling people he meets that he's a world renowned horseback rider.
"If anyone knows, there's not really horses in Los Angeles," Wilkes said. "I just tell them that I ride horses to the mall, and people started believing me, so I just went along with it."
The biggest advantage working in Wilkes' corner on the court
this season is that he knows how to be a leader of a championship team.
Wilkes led his high school teams to sectional championships both his junior and senior years of high school. He brings priceless leadership qualities to a team looking for a little push over the top coming off of a loss in the national championship game. However, Wilkes wants to make sure that he and the other freshmen on this year's team avoid becoming detriments instead of contributors.
"You don't want to be the class to come in and mess it up," Wilkes said.
— Edited by Erin Riffey
Baylor looks to play games, forget problems
By Whitney Long
The Lariat via U-Wire
Bavior University
WACO, Texas - After surviving possibly the hardest offseason in Baylor basketball history, the men's basketball team kicked off its 2003-2004 season with an 83-73 win over an international team. Raiders Select.
Baylor fans showed their support Tuesday at the Ferrell Special Events Center when the 10 players stepped onto the court.
New head coach Scott Drew said he couldn't have been prouder of the way the team played.
"It was the first exhibition game, and it gives us a chance to see what you've got," Drew said.
"We were short-handed, but the people who played for us did a great job."
Two Bears, junior forward Harvey Thomas and sophomore forward Corey Herring, sat the bench with the team but did not dress out for the game.
Senior guard Matt Sayman said the game went "really well," and it gave the team a chance to "see what [lt] needs to work on in the future."
Sayman saw the most playing time out of any returning team member, and he finished the game with 15 points and five assists.
Sophomore forward Tommy Swanson led the Bears with 20 points and nine rebounds, followed closely by senior forward
Terrance Thomas, who posted 18 points and eight rebounds.
"We played pretty good," Thomas said. "We played hard, and that's what coach wanted us to do."
Returning senior center R.T. Guinn put up nine points for the Bears until he was forced to leave the game because of an injury.
Even though the injury was serious, Drew said the 6-foot-10 center should be out only a few daws because he "is a tough kid."
The Bears relied heavily on some new additions Tuesday night. Freshman guard Carl Marshall and walk-on senior forward Robbie McKenzie contributed seven points apiece.
Both players saw ample playing time as well.
"The walk-ons did a great job as well," Drew said. "Each one came in and contributed something. We wouldn't have won without them."
Returning junior forward Ellis Kidd also recorded five points and three rebounds.
The Bears claimed the lead shortly after the tipoff, and the Raiders never could catch up. Baylor maintained the lead for the entire game, never allowing the Raiders to break their eight-point deficit.
Drew said the game was good for seeing what the team needs to work on, but toward the end, fatigue was setting in.
"I was just trying to focus on what we've been working on in practice." Swanson said.
No Ridnour this year, but no worries for Oregon
Hank Hager
Sports Editor
Oregon Emerald
The change of scenery at McArthur Court has claimed No. 13.
Luke Ridnour is gone. He is gone to the Seattle Sonics, missing on what would have been his senior season in Eugene.
So are Brian Helquist and Robert Johnson, fixtures in Oregon's success the past two seasons.
They will be missed, but the Ducks say they won't miss a step. They say they will be one of the top teams in the Pacific-10 Conference this season, ready to battle for another crown and berth to the NCAA Tournament.
And they'll do it with a team effort, much like they've done it in the past.
"We've built this program on the premises that the program is bigger than any one coach," Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said at the team's media day Thursday. "I also believe that it is also bigger than any one player."
The Ducks will be like teams of the past. They will run an up-tempo offense but change it up to a post game.
The team's point guard, expected to be either returnee Brandon Lincoln or freshman Aaron Brooks, will be fast. The big forwards, which are now led by Ian Crosswhite, can run and gun but are hoping to be able to battle with their bodies.
It's going to be the Ducks of old, but a team of new.
"The diversity of this team will be really good in terms of what we can throw at teams." Kent said. "This will be one of the biggest teams in the country, I think. It has the potential to be the fastest team I have ever coached."
The Ducks say Ridnour's hole can never really be filled, both in leadership and talent.
Lincoln and Brooks will attempt to step up into the point guard position, although Kent said he will not name a starter this early.
"Well, my initial goal is to keep the team on the same track it is," Brooks said. "I would feel a lot more pressure if we didn't have a lot of good guys here, but there are a lot of incredible athletes here. I will step in there, distribute the ball and play defense."
Leadership-wise, the Ducks will count on a senior quartet that has seen three of the best seasons in Oregon basketball history.
Aaron Brooks has been considered the heir apparent to Luke
Ridnour, although head coach Ernie Kent will not name a starting point guard just yet. Luke Jackson let Ridnour go to the NBA alone, deciding to stay for his senior season. Guards James Davis and Andre Joseph and center Jay Anderson will be key leaders on the team, although one specific player is being counted on for overall leadership.
That's Jackson. And all that comes with him is 16 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season, as well as 71 career starts. He's being touted as a potential player of the year, both in the Pac-10 and nationally.
"The seniors that came in with Luke (Ridnour), they definitely want to do some good things." Lincoln said. "I'm going to be committed to sending these guys out with a bang.
"We need a definite vocal leader and we're all looking to Luke Jackson for that. We have other seniors, but primarily the leadership role is going to fall on Luke's shoulders. He knows that and he's been preparing for it all summer."
Because the Ducks have always been a mobile team, the ability to post up and rebound is expected to play a key part in the team's potential success this season.
Oregon returns a more experienced Crosswhite—now a sophomore—as well as center Matt Short. The sophomore is expected to be out until mid-November with an injury but won't miss much.
Short and freshman Ray Schafer are both 7-foot, while Crosswhite is 6-foot-11-inches, freshman Mitch Platt 6-foot-10-inches and Anderson is 6-foot-9-inches.
The group will be bolstered by redshirt freshman Adam Zahn, a muscular forward the Ducks hope can come in and play in key defensive situations.
"I know our small lineup, because there's going to be more experienced guys there, is going to do well but I think our big lineup is going to work well against some teams," Crosswhite said. "I think with a little experience from our nonconference games, both are going to be great."
The first real game of the season comes Nov. 21 when Fresno State visits McArthur Court. From then on, a prime time game comes against Kansas in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 13. Pac-10 play begins Jan. 2 when Oregon visits USC.
That'll show Oregon's true colors.
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