6B the university daily kansan
wednesday, October 1, 2003
sports
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Playing opponents such as Stanford, last year's national runner-up, builds confidence in young teams, and it showed early last season when Kansas swept national powerhouse Louisiana State.
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OMAHA: Returning baseball stars looking to compete at next level
"Coach Price is great because he puts us in arenas where we can excel, facing the best teams in the country." Baty said. "We have a motto on this team, where we play against the baseball, not who's on the other side of the field. We play our game, and don't adjust to who's across the diamond."
Baty, who batted 377 with 97 hits and 57 RBI last season, said the most significant thing he took away from his experience in the Cape league was learning to play in pressure situations.
Baty enters this season with national media attention after making the Cape Cod All-Star Game. Now, he's in a position to improve the numbers that landed him in the Jayhawk record book.
While Baty was starring on the diamond during the summer months, fellow senior Matt Tribble was left no choice but to improve off of it, logging hours in the weight room after sustaining a knee injury.
"The only thing I could have done by playing this summer is seeing live pitching," Tribble said. "I feel I'm a lot stronger from lifting every day."
Tribble, a .335 hitter from a year ago, has little left to prove to anyone as far as his talents are concerned.
This senior season will be about more than just improving his status for next June's Major League Baseball draft, but more importantly coming full circle on a KU career that he started when the program was still at the conference cellar.
"I wish every guy in the country could play for coach Price," Tribble said. "There's not one guy on this team who has ever thought 'Man, I wish I was at Stanford or Georgia Tech and being in a World Series.'"
Unlike Baty and Trible, Metcalf will more than likely not exhaust his college eligibility. He received offers to play professionally after his sophomore season, in which he racked up 11 home runs and 44 RBI.
Looking back on his experiences as a Jayhawk, Tribble said he would have had it no other way.
“It’s kind of what Hinrich and Collison did for KU basketball last year,” Price said. “I was proud that they both value their education enough that they weren’t going to sign for nothing. I think that's a sign of incredible maturity, and understand that they’ll get the same opportunity next year.”
Metcalf was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 38th round of last June's draft. Metcalf decided in the final days before the deadline whether to stay or leave.
With both Tribble and Baty deciding to return to the University, coach Price said he thought they could go down in history with some of the school's other great senior duos — even from other sports.
"Iactually told them yes, that I wanted to go, and to finalize everything and take care of everything," Metcalf said. "The next hour or so, I felt butterflies in my stomach. It left a bitter taste ending the Big 12 the way we did. I just wanted to get back to that."
Instead of signing for a minimal contract last June, Price sees both of his seniors staring at big money as high-round picks next summer.
Price was the most excited
Matt Tribble — Senior outfielder
Wheaton, Ill. (Wheaton-Warrenville South High School)
Year Batting Avg. Games/ Starts AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
2001 .263 54/51 179 16 47 11 1 1 26
2002 .318 43/43 176 38 156 9 4 4 36
2003 .335 63/62 242 50 81 17 3 5 41
Totals .308 160/156 597 104 184 37 8 12 103
Ryan Baty — Senior first baseman
Wichita (Northwest High School)
Year Batting Avg. Games/ Starts AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
2000 .229 23/13 48 7 11 0 0 1 8
2001 Redshirted
2002 .341 51/51 208 52 71 21 2 6 51
2003 .377 63/63 257 50 97 23 2 10 57
Totals .349 138/128 513 109 179 44 4 17 116
Travis Metcalf — Junior third baseman
Wamego(Wamego High School)
Year Batting Avg. Games/ Starts AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
2001 Redshirted
2002 .269 27/20 78 13 21 5 1 0 3
2003 .288 55/52 198 40 57 14 1 11 44
Totals .283 82/72 276 53 78 19 2 11 47
Returning Player Stats
Metcalf is looking to improve on his sub-.300 batting average from a year ago, yearning to give Kansas baseball a new national image before he is finished in Lawrence.
"He's gonna be a first-10-round draft pick," Price said. "If he plays to his abilities, he'll get at least $100,000 to sign."
"Kansas baseball has always been like, 'Well, those guys might win, and if they beat us, we'll get them the next time,'" Metcalf said. "We're not going to come out and let other teams beat us. 1
when he learned of Metcalf's decision to stay, knowing that he had just scratched the surface of his potential. Price said he knew Metcalf's talents would put him higher on the draft boards, which would more than likely be next June.
Source: Athletics Department
think everyone's put personal goals aside after the summers we've all experienced."
Baty, Tribble ard Metcalf all experienced 2003's 35-victory roller-coaster ride together and went their separate ways once school let out.
Even though the summer separated the three geographically, it brought them together closer than ever to make sure that when people think of Kansas, basketball is not the only sport that comes to mind.
"I think we're one of the topthree teams in the Big 12 right now." Baty said. "That might just be pure optimism, or just pure confidence, but we believe in each other. We want to make it so special this year."
Predictions prove premature
The Associated Press
College football's opening month provided many lessons.
Arkansas might be LSU's toughest test in the SEC West instead of Auburn, predictions of Nebraska's downfall might have been premature, and the ACC doesn't have much behind Florida State.
Most importantly, it shows how difficult it is to predict how good teams will be before the games start. Nine teams that were in the preseason Associated Press poll aren't ranked heading into October — the most teams to drop out since the poll went to 25 teams in 1989.
Auburn was the only top team to fall out of the poll, dropping from sixth after season-opening losses to Southern Cal and Georgia Tech. Eight of the bottom 11 teams have also fallen out, including Maryland, North Carolina State and Virginia from the ACC.
Edited by Ehren Meditz
The Razorbacks (4-0) are the highest of the unranked teams, going all the way up to No. 8 after a comeback win over Alabama for their highest ranking since 1989. Arkansas made it into the
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"After four games we still have to make some progress. We still want to get better each week. Our team is still not satisfied," running back Josh Davis said, "We deserve a top 10 ranking, but right now we will just keep working hard and do what we can."
"Texas was big. I think this was bigger." Razorbacks coach Houston Nutt said. "This was a win in the SEC and on the road."
Predicting success is hard enough in the NFL, and it's nearly impossible in college because of the younger players and more turnover.
One constant has come at the top of the poll where Oklahoma has remained No. 1 since the preseason. Miami and Ohio State have also been top five teams all season, and Virginia Tech has
poll after winning at Texas on Sept. 13.
That's why there's no reason to pay too much attention to the poll until October. The first Bowl Championship Series standings won't be released for three more weeks.
Then again, plenty more could change in another month.
Nebraska, unranked in the preseason for the first time since 1968, has used a 4-0 start to go up to No.12 in the poll.
Two of the biggest disappointments this season are two of the most stories programs. Notre Dame is 1-3 for the fourth time in seven years and with its next four games against No. 15 Pittsburgh, No. 10 USC, Boston College and No. 5 Florida State things don't figure to get much better soon.
The upcoming weeks will provide plenty of showdowns that will determine which, if any, of these teams will remain undefeated and have a chance to play for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl.
crept up from ninth in the preseason to fourth now.
There are eight other undefeated teams in Division I-A, including Northern Illinois, which has beaten three teams from BCS conferences. Florida State, LSU, Tennessee, Minnesota, TCU, Louisville and Air Force round out the beatens.
Adding Kaun would make Self's first recruiting class a great one, but Self has already done plenty. Even as Giddens, Padgett and Wilkes figure to eat up play time for the next four years, Self is still convincing blue-chip players a year younger to come to Kansas, something Williams couldn't do.
Miami will be in the middle of many of them, with games against Florida State, Virginia Tech and Tennessee. When Arkansas travels to LSU on Nov. 29 the SEC West title could be on the line.
If he can continue to do that kind of job selling his program, Self will be doing his best to put the Jayhawks in position to compete for a national title every single year.
Berlin is a Leawood senior in journalism
Self has one scholarship left for next year, and he's not going to waste it on someone like Niang. Alexander Kaun, a 6-11 center from Melbourne, Fla., expected to choose Kansas over Duke today.
BERLIN: Self recruiting west of Mississippi
Instead, with Self, Kansas is following one good recruiting class with another, and Robinson represents something nearly unheard of in the Williams era—a recruit east of the Mississippi River.
1009 Mass.
1st Annual Lawrence Scooter Rally
Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003 Cool people!
Train Park (7th & Kentucky) Giveaways!
Begins at 3 p.m.
T-shirts!
Mega cruise down Mass St.!
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For more: www.ku.edu/~scoters or email us at scooters@ku.edu
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