Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Sven Mayer, Germany graduate student, plays team handball in Robinson Gymnasium.
SEE PAGE 6B
Pro Basketball
Dennis Rodman offers to not be paid for games he may miss this season because of suspensions.
SEE PAGE 3B
Thursday
September 18,1997
Section:
B
Page 1
College Football
Duke's football coach is facing a sexual-discrimination lawsuit filed by a former female kicker.
SEE PAGE 4B
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'Hawks ready to hit the road
Kansas sophomore wide receiver Thad Rawls attempts to catch a pass while being covered by a defender from behind. Kansas will face the Cincinnati Bearcats this Saturday. Photo by Steve Puppe/KANSAN
Allen worries that team may be overconfident
By Kyle Cannon
kcannon@kanans.com
Kansan sportswriter
As the first road game of the season looms before it, the Kansas football team is trying to stay focused and avoid overconfidence.
The Jayhawks, who defeated rival Missouri 15-7 on Saturday, travel to Ohio this weekend to face the University of Cincinnati. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
"The thing that scares me to death about Cincinnati is three-fold," Kansas football coach Terry Allen said. "First, one of my biggest fears is facing an opponent that has had two weeks to prepare."
"Cincinnati's offense has both the ability to be a passing offense and option. It keeps you to where you have to be very alert and play assignment football. Cincinnati's defense is run by Buddy Ryan's son. The important thing there is to make things happen." Allen said.
Allen compared Cincinnati's offense to Missouri's and said that the game would be Kansas' biggest vet.
"They are huge in the offensive line," Allen said. "They're the biggest team we have faced so far. They have a gifted quarterback and a very formidable offense. I think they are an awful lot like Missouri."
One of Allen's other concerns results from the Jayhawks' 3-0 record.
"I am concerned with getting too confident, especially on the defensive side of the ball," he said. "The scary thing is, if you mentally let yourself down when you face an option team, then you don't play assignment-oriented football."
Tight end Brian Gray thinks Kansas is prepared.
"A lot of people think that after a big emotional victory, teams tend to not come off a good week of practice and maybe go into the game a little unemotional," Gray said. "But what I have seen this week at practice, I don't think that will be the case."
Outside linebacker Ron Warner said that Allen's coaching style had helped the team.
"He is a team-oriented coach," Warner said. "He comes in and speaks his mind. He tells us if we're doing anything wrong."
Allen's personality on the field also is an asset to the team, Gray said.
"Coach Allen is a very enthusiastic coach, something I'm not used to," Gray said. "In the Missouri game, when we made that • big play on defense, he grabbed us all and hugged us as we ran out onto the field."
Tennis teams set for first tests
Following first week of practice, squads to begin competition
By Jason Franchuk
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
College tennis — like college classes — can get boring during the opening week because of the tedious review.
After a week of practices to refresh ball-smashing smarts, the men's and women's tennis teams each travel to tournaments this weekend in their first examinations of the season.
Coach Mark Riley's men's team will send four players to the National Clay Court Championships Sept. 20-27 in Baltimore.
It's time for some tests.
Abaroa and Avila, both coming off spring All-America seasons, are already in the main draw of the singles tournament because of their success last season. Uribe and Avila will get extra test review, as they must play through qualifying rounds.
Seniors Enrique Abaroa, Xavier Avila and Trent Tucker and junior Luis Uribe will try and ace their first matches of the season.
Abaroa will be vying to improve on his quarterfinal finish in the 1996 tournament.
"I think we're all ready to get started at the tournament," said Abaroa, the Jayhawks' No.1 singles player. "Everyone is hitting the ball well."
Kansas senior Enrique Abaroa prepares for the first competition of the season. He was practicing yesterday at Robinson courts. Photo by Kelly Groshona/KANSAN
Abaroa and Avila, the duo that
won the Big 12 Conference doubles title this spring, will play together in Baltimore. Uribe and Tucker will form Kansas' other doubles entry.
"Iam looking forward to playing with Xavier in doubles," Abaroa said. "He's a very intense player, and we always have a lot of fun on the court together."
Coach Roland Thornqvist's women's squad will take a group quiz of sorts, sending all six varsity members to compete in the William and Mary Invitational tomorrow through Sunday in Williamsburg, Va.
The invitational is organized in three groups called flights instead of bracket play. Senior Kylie Hunt, who did not play last year after suffering a season-ending knee injury, will join classmate Christie Sim in the No.1 single flight.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for our program," Thornvist said. "We've been practicing hard, but we need more match play. There's no substitution for that."
The five-team tournament features national powerhouses William and Mary and Duke. Both were top-five ranked teams this spring.
Junior Kris Sell and sophomore Brooke Chiller will play in the No. 2 flight, while junior Maria Abatjoglou and sophomore Julia Sidorova will participate in the No. 3 flight.
"Everyone is really excited to start playing competition," said Sim, who filled in at No.1 singles last season during Hunt's absence. "We're a hard-working team that is constantly trying to get better."
"I think for both programs it's just a matter of going out and getting the job done," he said. "We've all done our homework."
Both coaches figure their teams have their skills sharpened enough
to begin their tennis tests.
"It's an unusually strong tournament to start the year," Thorngvist said. "But if we play well Friday, watch out. Saturday could be awesome."
Riley was as optimistic about the men's chances.
Pride in Big 12 football fizzles following losses
By Harley V. Ratliff
Kansas sportswriter
Kansan sportswr
It's very flashy - vibrant red with big white lettering.
Hanging gloriously above my computer in the Kansan newsroom is a Big 12 Conference football poster.
editor as he passes He tries to retort
Lots of wonderful photos. Most of them are of football players and fans, with a few token cheerleader shots. Every time I look at the poster, I'm temporarily overcome with a heavy helpm of Big 12 pride.
"Big 12 Conference football is the best in the nation," I tell my editor as he passes by.
"It's the best Tom," I say - successfully cutting him off in mid-sentence. "It's the best, and you'd have to be blind to think otherwise."
But even I can no longer live in such a state of gridiron denial – not after this past weekend.
Big 12 Conference football got humiliated.
Last Saturday, the rest of the football world walked the conference out to the woodshed
Big 12 conference out to the woodsheed and went to work.
Texas was pummeled 66-3 at home by previously winless UCLA. Colorado was squashed for the second consecutive year by Michigan. Nebraska squeaked by Central Florida at home.
Well, you can start with the new kids on the block.
Harley
Ratliff
sports@kansan.com
Neither the Longhorns nor the Aggies, the two banner teams of the now-defunct Southwest Conference, have lived up to the massive amount of hye lumped on them two years ago.
Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor simply haven't held up their end of the bargain.
Two years ago, the Big 12 was labeled the best conference in the land. It seemed as if every poster, pollster and prognosticator had proclaimed the conference as the king of college football. Theory is the second problem.
Texas A&M finished last season 6-6 - its worst record in more than a decade. Texas hasn't helped much either. The Longhorns' debacle against the Bruins was one of the most inent performances by a football team in years.
Often we presented the coherence as the king of consequences.
Therein lies the second problem.
We, the media, have created an atmosphere of unattainable expectations. We set the Big 12 up to take the fall.
Two years ago the media flooded the nation with articles and columns about how Big 12 football was going to steamroll the world, crushing any Hawkeve or Razorback in its path.
Even after last season, when the conference got knocked on its overblown head, the media didn't learn. We simply took our lumps and kept pumping out the propaganda.
And it wasn't just the regional media, it was everybody. It was an investment in the environment, it's the media that may be丑化 grown well.
At the bottom of that flashy poster - the one that stirs up all that Big 12 pride - reads "The Sophomore Season" in big white letters.
Unfortunately, it looks like the conference is still suffering from some freshman growing pains.
Volleyball to vie for Classic victory
Ratliff is a Norman, Okla., senior in journalism.
Bv Matt Gardner
sports@kanson.com
Kanson sportwriter
After a 3-1 showing last weekend at its home tournament, the Kansas volleyball team is ready for a weekend that could prove to be more important than last.
The Jayhawks will be the hosts for three teams playing in the Jayhawk Classic, which starts tomorrow night at Allen Field House. Kansas' play will be important as it will open Big 12 Conference play next Friday against national powerhouse Nebraska.
"It's important that we get to our consistent level heading into conference play," said Karen Schonewise, Kansas volleyball coach. "The teams are going to be a little stronger than last weekend, and it will be a little better test of where we are before we face Nebraska and Colorado."
The inconsistency that the Jayhawks have shown seemed to be coming to a halt after three straight wins against Buffalo, Kansas City-Missouri and Toledo before Kansas fell apart at Butler.
"We need to do a much better job of stopping the unforced errors," Schonewise said. "That's something that really hurt us in the Butter match."
Schonewise said her team still had a lot of things to improve on to be able to keep up in the Big 12.
See VOLLEYBALL on page 6A