Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Kansas men's basketball player Ashante Johnson sees more playing time as he recovers from knee surgery.
Friday
January 22,1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Pro Basketball
SEE PAGE 3B
Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz agree on a contract for when Malone becomes a free agent in July.
SEE PAGE 9B
Pro Football
Bill Walsh was appointed as the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers.
SEE PAGE 4B
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'Hawks prepare for Mizzou rivalry
By Kevin C. Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas men's basketball team will attempt Sunday to sweep the regular season series with longtime border rival Missouri for the first time since 1995.
Tipoff is 1:05 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
On Jan. 11., the Jayhawks defeated the Tigers 73-61 at the Hearnes Center and now will try to do it again after only 13 days.
"I'd probably rather not play them quite as quickly, but it's on the schedule." Kansas head coach
Rov Williams said
Kansas, 13-4 over and 5-0 in the Big 12, will be playing a Missouri team that is struggling through a two-game losing streak after falling to Colorado 82-63 Saturday, Despite Missouri's recent slump, Williams said the Tigers were always a dangerous opponent, especially at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Starting Lineup
"I liked them early, and I like them now," he said. "Albert White is one of the best players in the league. Monte Hardge gives them somebody that you can't move. John Woods is a heckuva scorer. I can keep going down the line."
In fact, Missouri was the last conference team to beat
"We have to understand that they have played us well here the last couple of years when, being honest, we've been a better basketball team," Williams said.
The Missouri game has taken on more importance for the Jayhawks after Oklahoma's 96-81 loss to Neb.
"At the end of the season I think that I'll be able to say that I was correct because I think they're an NCAA tournament team, a team that you need to play well, or you're not going to beat them," Williams said.
Win number 36 won't be easy.
Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. Since the Tigers 81-74 win on Feb. 20, 1994, the Jayhawks have reeled off 35 consecutive home conference victories.
Missouri, 12-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, is a team that Williams was especially impressed with when the season began.
raska on Wednesday night, Kansas is now the only undefeated team remaining in league play, but three teams (Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State), are right behind the Jayhawks with one loss apiece. Senior guard Ryan Robertson, who is a St. Charles, Mo., native, said that the Jayhawks' 5-0 start in the Big 12 was a byproduct of beneficial scheduling.
"The fact that we have had only two road games in the conference has helped us get off to a good start." Robertson said. "It has helped us with our confidence."
Williams said that his Jayhawks would need all the confidence they could get to survive the talented Big 12.
"You better be ready to play every single night," Williams said. "This is a year that I think there will be a wild race at the finish."
Freshman Jeff Boschee drives around St. Louis guard Dave Ferguson. The 15-4 Jayhawks will play the Missouri Tigers at 1:05 p.m. Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Dan Elavsky/KANSAN
Young tennis team looks for improvement
By Melinda Weaver
Kansan sportswriter
The return of Luis Uribe and Quentin Blakeney will add experience to a young Kansas lineup as the Jayhawks face Western Michigan at 3 p.m. today in the first round of the Ice Volleys.
The men's tennis team will travel to Burnsville, Minn., on its first road trip of the season after a 5-2 home loss to Louisville.
With Luis Uribe, the ninth-ranked player in the country, out with the chicken pox and freshman Quentin Blakeney only able to play
Uribe and Blakeney will take some of the pressure off the
"We are a young team," said coach Mark Riley. "We need more time to improve."
doubles because of a back injury,
the team's younger players have
had to step up and fill vacant positions.
younger players, including Rodrigo Echagaray and Sebastian Libertino who joined the team in January.
"It's tough for them to come out and play after just getting to Lawrence," Uribe said. "Now they have one match under them and I think they will do much better."
quite an effect on his body.
"I expect to win the tournament," Riley said.
"We need to play a complete match. Our doubles are strong, but we dropped the ball in sin gle."
Against Louisville, senior Kenny Powell was the only singles victor, winning in his first No. 1 singles match.
Riley said he was optimistic about facing Western Michigan, a team Kansas has never faced.
The doctors cleared Uribe to begin practice Tuesday, but Uribe said the chicken pox had
"Practice has been tiring, but I'm fine," Mr. Ithe said. "I'm just a little out of shape."
KANSAS TENNIS
to focus on intensity in our singer matches," Powell said. "A couple of our guys got up 4-0 and 3-1, but we can't find a way to kick it into the next gear. We need to be more humry and have a killer instinct."
"Our doubles are really strong, but we need
After the ice Volleys, Riley anticipates a two-week break to help his inexperienced team become more consistent.
Kansas hasn't faced South Alabama since 1996 when it split the series. The Jayhawks played Minnesota early last season in a 6-4 loss.
On Saturday, the team will face either. Minnesota or South Alabama.
"I think we will carry the disappointment (of the Louisville loss) around for awhile to make sure we aren't inconsistent," Riley said.
Kansas ready for Raiders despite its recent losses
By Matt James Kansan sportswriter
What a difference a game makes.
Kansas had been struggling of late, losing two of its last three games before Wednesday's Colorado game, but no one was hitting the panic button. The Jayhawks had dropped to 13-5 overall and out of the AP poll for the first time all season, but no one had written them off.
After all, three of their five losses had come against ranked teams, and the loss to Arkansas State on Dec. 1 came at the end of and along draining road trip.
The silver lining was definitely still there.
With a win at Colorado, the Jayhawks could have moved into sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings and still have plenty of time to build momentum for a strong surge into March Madness.
The boat to the Final Four, however sprung some major leaks Wednesday against an inexperienced team, as the Buffaloes exploited Kanss's lack of depth for an eleven point victory.
The Jayhawks are now only 3-3 in the conference, but more importantly still
The Starting Lineup
G  LYNN PRIDE   6-2  JR.
G  JENNIFER JACKSON  5-10  SO.
F  JACLYN JOINSON  6-1  SO.
F  BROOKE REVES  6-0  SO.
C  NAKA SANFORD  6-3  SR.
TEXAS TECH
RAIDERS
6-0 Big 12, 17-1 overall
G MELINDA SCHMUKER 5-9 JR.
J JULIE LAKE 5-9 SR.
F KIETHA DICKERSON 6-0 JR.
R RENE HANEUTT 5-8 SR.
C ANGIE BRAZIEL 6-3 SR.
Allen Field House • Lawrence Time: 3:05 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Network
See 'HAWKS on page 9B
Who would have thought the preseason No.11 Jayhawks would even need to be worrying about getting into the tournament?
have only 13 wins — seven short of 20, the mythical number that usually guarantees major conference teams an at-large birth into the field of 64.
The beginning of the 1998-99 season was
Commentary
Commentary Clinton trial Senate events should be on SportsCenter
So there I was, on my couch, remote in hand.
It was Tuesday night, and I was ready to relax and watch TV after the first day of class. There was not a decent college basketball game on. I realized that until someone created a 24-hour Jerry Springer network, I have to find something to watch other than sports and fighting lesbians.
Then I remembered my mom's wish: that I at least try to find out what is going on in what she calls the "real world," which, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't exactly make Plays Of The Week on SportsCenter.
I continued my search and soon realized that almost every station was showing President Clinton's State of the Union address. Ah, here is my chance to become a Renaissance Man. I thought
So I watched the big guy, trying to cut through all the crap and the standing ovations that Congress seems to hand out like promises during the election seasons.
They're not going to stop me. I'm going to watch, learn and use it the next time I talk to my mom.
ME: Well, I've really been putting a lot of
MOM: How are classes? Are you getting good grades? Shouldn't you be studying?
Sam Mollinger sports@kansan.com
time into the President's proposal to grant businesses a tax break for investing in rural or inner-city areas. And isn't it great that he has found time between sexual pleasures to cut the welfare rolls almost in half?
MOM: Uh ... is Sam there?
MOM... is actually trying to pay attention, maybe even learn something. But then — I'm not making this up — I saw the smiling slugger, Sammy Sosa, sitting amongst the lawmakers, right next to the First Law.
this is the same Sammy Sosa who has been my favorite athlete since I saw him joking around with fans at a Royals-White Sox game when I was in junior high. The same Sammy Sosa whose strikeout binges were my friends' favorite conversation topic whenever I wore my jersey with his name and number on the back. (Somehow the ribbings died down when he unleashed his MVP season last summer.)
"Hmmm," I thought, "Maybe it's all SportsCenter, and people like President Clinton just got stuck playing the boring sports."
The NBA lockout is now officially over and training camps are starting. Since the league and its players have vowed to put the fans first, can the first move of good-will be to get Bill Walton the heck out of broadcasting? Please?
Speaking of the NBA, it appears that Latrell Sprewell is going to open the season for the New York Knicks. Does anybody else find something wrong with this? The Big Apple has a reputation for having some of the most outgoing and harsh fans in the country, and I just wonder if everybody's favorite coach-choker is ready for that.
I've never been too much of an NBA fan. The Golden State Warriors always have been my favorite team after the Run TMC days of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, but after they were broken up with a series of bad trades unmatched in stupidity, I host a little love.
i
4.
Mollinger is a Lawrence junior in journalism.
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