JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Basketball
Inside Sports today
Women's basketball player Lynn Pride scores her 1,000th career point.
Yesterday's game - Kansas vs. Texas
SEE PAGE 4B
KANSAS
13-4, 5-0
RANKED NO.19
SECTION B, PAGE 1
TEXAS
9-9, 5-1
UNRANKED
WWW.JHAWKBBALL.COM
67
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1999
Lester Earl wins appeal to play another year for Jayhawks
By Kevin C. Wilson
Kansan sportswriter
Lester Earl will be a Jayhawk for one more year.
Earl, a 6-foot-8 forward for the Kansas men's basketball team, was granted his junior year of eligibility when he won an appeal that nullified his original letter to play at Louisiana State.
The National Letter of Intent Steering Committee upheld Earl's appeal Thursday and removed the one-year eligibility penalty that he would have faced for not fulfilling his one year of residency requirement after originally signing a letter of intent with LSU.
Despite the importance of the committee's decision, Earl said that he was confident he would be awarded another year of eligibility.
"The way I saw it, if the Commissioners Association followed the rules and did what ever goes by the book, I was not worried," Earl said. "I felt positive about the outcome. It's very good to have it behind me."
Earl appealed the one-year penalty because LSU admitted to NCAA recruiting violations while the school was pursuing him. LSU was barred from 1999 postseason tournaments
and lost six scholarships during the next three years because a booster paid Earl $5,000 to play basketball at the school.
A provision in the national letter of intent program makes a letter of intent null and void if recruiting violations are acknowledged by the school
Had Earl's appeal been denied, this would have been his final year of eligibility. Because he won
Earl: Can play one more year at the University.
the appeal, Earl is a second-semester junior and will be considered a senior next season.
Kansas head basketball coach Roy Williams said that he was looking forward to another season with Earl.
"I'm happy for Lester and for this basketball team," Williams said. "Hopefully, Lester can put this all behind him and enjoy his final year and a half of basketball."
Earl, a Baton Rouge, La., native, played the fall semester of his freshman year at LSU in 1996 before transferring to Kansas. He sat out one year under NCAA transfer rules before joining the active Kansas roster on Dec. 20, 1997.
This season Earl has been hampered by injuries and was forced to miss seven games after undergoing knee surgery on Dec. 7. Earl is averaging 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in nine games this season.
Chenowith wins war inside as Kansas beats Longhorns
By Kevin C. Wilson Kansan sportswriter
Nothing could stop Kansas center Eric Chenowith in last night's 76-67 win against the Texas Longhorns.
Chenowith scored a game high 20 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and blocked three shots in his highly anticipated match-up with one of the Big 12's best big men, Chris Mihm. Despite suffering from bronchitis, a sinus infection and an ear infection, Chenowith made all eight of his foul shots and tallied his second straight double-double while holding Mihm to 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
Chenwishen said that his duel in the paint with Mihm would be an important factor in the crucial Big 12 battle.
"It was very important, but I don't think it was the one thing that was going to win the game for us," Chenwith said. "I knew I had to hold him to 20 or 25 points, and he only scored 14. And I had some pretty big numbers myself."
The Jayhawks, who improved to 13-4 on the season and 5-0 in the Big 12, led from start to finish and the Longhorns (9-9, 5-1) couldn't get any closer than five points in the second half.
Three Jayhawks had strong second-half performances to help prevent Kansas from losing consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 20-23, 1994 after falling to Massachusetts 64-60 on Saturday.
Senior guard Ryan Robertson scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, forward Nick Bradford collected all 10 of his points after intermission and Chenowith chipped in 10 points in the second half, including some clutch free throws down the stretch.
Kansas coach Roy Williams said that he was pleased with the way his team rebounded from the poor performance in Amherst.
More basketball
See a timeline of what happened during winter break.
See pages 68 & 7B
"I think our past history shows that for 11 years we've bounced back pretty good after losses," Williams said. "We lost eight in a row our first year and three in a row in '94, but I think it's always been a characteristic that we come back and play."
After getting outrebounded 46-33 and outscooped 42-2 in the paint by Massachusetts, Kansas hoped to reverse that trend against the Longhorns. The Jayhawks pulled down 16 more rebounds than Texas, 51-35, and outscooped the Longhorns 32-26 in the paint.
"I think we really did a great job on the backboards," Williams said. "I look down there and see Nick Bradford with nine rebounds, T.J with nine rebounds, Eric with 13 rebounds. I don't think we rebounded that many the whole game Saturday. I was pleased with how we competed on the boards."
The Jayhawks impressive work on the backboards was accomplished even without the help of 6-8 forward Lester Earl, who sprained his right ankle in yesterday morning's shoot-around. The junior is listed as day-to-day and said that he was hoping to return for Sunday's game against Missouri.
"What more could happen," Earl said regarding his injury-plagued season.
The Jayhawks remained undefeated in conference play and handed Texas its first loss in the Big 12.
"It's a great feeling. It tells us we are a good team, and we can win big games," Chenowith said. "We played two big games back-to-back in the conference. We wanted to be 5-0. We want to win this conference."
Kansas guard Kenny Gregory goes up for a dunk as he glides by two Texas defenders. Gregory scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds for the Jayhawks. Photo by MattJ. Daugherty/KANSAN
NO. 19 KANSAS 76, TEXAS 67
TEXAS (9-9)
KANSAS (13-4)
Muonek 4-9 4-5 12, Clack 3-11 5-17 12, Mihm 6-17 2-12 14, Wagner 4-13 4-14 4, Vazquez 3-6 0-6 0, McCalpin 1-2 0-0 3, Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Clay 2-7 2-3 6, Totals 23-65 17-21 67.
| 13-10-28 | Gregory 4-13 0-2 8, Bradford 4-7 2-2 10, Chenowith 6-14 8-8 20, Robertson 4-7 3-6 13, Boschese 5-12 0-1 15, Carey 0 0 0 00, London 2-5 0-4 0, Johnson 0-1 13, Pugh 2-4 2-2 6, Totals 27-63 15-20-76. |
| :--- | :--neves 4-8 0-2 8, Pride 6-18 7-11 19,
Johnson 1-3 8-13 10, Jackson 1-4 0-1 18,
Scott 0-1 13 0-0, Pruitt 1-3 0-0 3, Robbins
0-3 0-2 0, Sanford 3-6 8-8 14. Totals 19-
53 23 36 62.
Halftime—Kansas 33, Texas 22, 3-Point goals—Texas 4-23 (Wagner 210, McCallin 12, Clack 14, Monkee 0-2, Clay 0-2, Vazquez 0-3), Kansas 7-13 (Boschee 5-7, Robertson 2-3, Gregory 0-1, Landon 0-2).
Fouled out—None. Rebounds—Texas 35 (Mthm 11), Kansas 51 (Cenewith 13). Assists—Texas 10 (Wagner 4), Kansas 16 (Robertson 4). Total fouls—Texas 21, Kansas 16. Attendance—16,300 ra斯 19 (Kubik 6). Total fouls—Texas 22, Nebraska 28. Attendance—5,762.
Women suffer defeat at hands of 'Huskers
By Matt James
Kansan sportswriter
After a hard-fought, two-point victory last Wednesday against the undersized Missouri Tigers, who frustrated Kansas with up-court pressure, Washington predicted that her team would see even more pressing and trapping from upcoming Big 12 opponents.
She said it would happen. Unfortunately for the preseason Big 12 favorite Jayhawks, Marian Washington was absolutely right.
The 21st-ranked Jayhawks had a good idea what they would face as they headed into Lincoln, Neb., last Saturday for a top 25 showdown with 19th-ranked Nebraska, and the Cornhuskers didn't disappoint
"We have to be much more aggressive against (the press)," Washington said after the narrow home victory. "We need to be confident in our ability to break it."
The Jayhawks shot only 35 percent and the Husker defense held Big 12 Preseason Player-of-the Year Lynn Pride to only three points in the first half.
A tenacious Nebraska press forced a season-high 34 Kansas turnovers on its way to clobbering the Jayhawks 82-62 in front of 5,800 fans at the Devany Sports Center.
"It's a very disappointing loss for both the coaching staff and the players," Washington said.
"A lot of teams are intimidated by (Pride)," said Nebraska forward Naciska Gilmore. "Our game plan was to go out
NO. 24 NEBRASKA 82
NO. 23 KANSAS 62,
KANSAS [13-5]
Halftime -Nebraska 42, Kansas 24. 3-
Point goals-Kansas 1-9 (Pruitt 1-3, Jackson
0-1, Robbins 0-1, Revis 0-2, Pride 0-2)
Nebraksa 2-7 (Kubik 2-4, Went 0-1,
Schwartz 0-2). Fouled out-Pride, McDill,
Rogers, Whitfield. Rebounds-Kansas 40
(Sanford 9), Nebraksa 37 (Schwartz 9).
Assists-Kansas 8 (Johnson 3), Nebraksa
19 (Kubik 6). Total fouls-Kansas 22,
Nebraksa 28. Attendance-5,762
McDill 1-1 0-0 2, Gilmore 2-5 1-2 5,
Rogers 2-5 2-2 6, Schwartz 2-1 5-0 9,
Kubik 9-19 16-18 3, Jaracz 1-1 0-1 2,
Muller 0-1 0-0 0, Went 0-2 0-0 0,
Williams 3-5 2-2 8, Whitfield 3-7 0-0 6,
Reitsma 3-4 0-0 8, Totals 27-60 26-31 82.
NEBRASKA (14-4)
and be physical with her the whole game." For offense, Nebraska (14-4, 3-2) needed to look no further than junior guard Nicole Kubik, who scored a career-high 36 points. Nearly half of Kubik's points came from the foul line, where she went 16-of-18, setting school records for free throws attempted and made.
and be physical with her the whole game."
Washington elected to go with younger starters for Saturday's game, which marked the first change in the starting line-up for Kansas since Dec. 4 against Maryland Eastern Shore. The Jayhawks' second-leading scorer, sophomore Brooke Reves, and freshman point guard Selena Scott joined Pride and sophomores Jennifer Jackson and Jaclyn Johnson as the starters against Nebraska.
Kubik had eight rebounds and eight steals to go along with her career high in points and outscored the entire Kansas team 25-to-24 in the first half.
"I wasn't pleased with the effort in the Missouri game," Washington said. "I wanted to shake things up a bit."
She said she would not hesitate to change the line if she felt it necessary.
The combination of Kansas players was of little consequence, though, against a motivated Cornhusker team that had just returned home after back-to-back road losses to Texas and Kansas State.
"Kansas is a good basketball team who deserves to be in the top 25," Nebraska coach Paul Sandford said. "Tonight they just caught a team that was hungrier than they were."
Kansas (13-5, 3-2) only trailed 20-17 after Jackson hit a jumper with 8-31 left in the first half, but on Nebraska's next possession Kubik was fouled as she drained a three-pointer. The four-point play started a 22-7 Nebraska run that put the game out of reach early.
Kansas forward Jaclyn Johnson, middle, wrestles the ball away from Nebraska's Nacissa Gilmore, left, and Lisa Reitsma. Photo by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
Commentary New editor will try to bring professionalism back to sports
Oh, I don't know. I guess I will simply be unable to fulfill my duties as a Kansas student after the completion of this semester.
With the last semester break of my life finished and my final undergraduate semester beginning, I have reached a decision — I am retiring from the NBA. Wait, that's not right. I am retiring as head coach of the Chiefs. No, that's not it. either.
While many of us were skiing, opening gifts and watching football, many in the sports world decided it was time to hang up their jerseys and whistles.
Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player ever, has turned in his Chicago Bulls jersey (for the second time) to pursue other life challenges. If at 35 the biggest challenge remaining for me to conquer is raising my kids, I'll consider my life a success.
- After a season that most Kansas
Citizens would like to forget, Marty Schotttenheimer retired as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. I don't know why more people have not considered Kansas State coach Bill Snyder for the position. Think about it. It's the best thing those of us in crimson and
Erin Thompson
one could hope for. Without Snyder at the helm, K-State would continue the fast downhill slide that began in the Big 12 Championship game against Texas A&M and continued into the Alamo Bowl. As an added bonus, the Chiefs would have an outstanding head coach.
Jerry Albright, the NFL ref that has an uncanny resemblance to a Keebler elf, officiated his final game in the league. In a season full of blind men in striped shirts with blown calls, Albright provided solid officiating and got every coin flip correct that he presided over.
- Keith "Whoa, Nelly" Jackson, who has been calling college football games longer than most of us have been alive, retired after the first official Bowl Championship series final game. No Dick Vitale, "Time for a T.O., Baby!" ever will replace Jackson's originality in play calling.
The professionalism of Jordan, Schottenheimer, Albright and Jackson will be missed in a sports world filled with unprofessionalism.
And there are some in the sports world who should consider retiring but show no signs of doing so.
Norm Stewart. In his years of coaching Missouri, Stewart has yet to reach the Final Four. In recent years, the biggest wins Stewart could muster were the home wins against Kansas. Not this year. Was it just me or did Stewart have more hair this year? He must have spent some off-season training with Karl Malone.
Before I fulfill my final semester of eligibility, I will be serving you, the readers, as the Kansan sports editor and trying to bring some of the Jordan/Schottenheimer/Albright/Jackson professionalism to the Kansan.
Not many changes are in store for the sports section, but I hope to make it more visually oriented and easier to find scores and facts fast.
More in-depth men's and women's basketball coverage will be coming your way this semester.
In addition, we will be highlighting a different club sport every week in our new "sport of the week" section. Be on the lookout for it.
Finally, I want to encourage readers' feedback. If you have a question or comment about a story that appeared in our pages, drop us a note in the newsroom at 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall or e-mail us at sports@kansan.com.
Thompson is a Wichita senior in journalism.
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