Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Thursday November 19,1998
Section:
The Colorado men's and women's basketball teams are looking to rebound from last year's dispointing seasons.
See Page 3B
Kansas Soccer
B
SEE PAGE 3B
Pro Baseball
Page 1
Texas Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez won his second American League MVP yesterday.
SEE PAGE 4B
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LSU penalized for booster's gifts to Earl
Earl: Received money from LSU booster.
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana State will be barred from 1999 postseason tournaments and lose six scholarships in the next three years because a booster paid Lester Earl $5,000 to play basketball there, the NCAA announced yesterday.
Earl had accused former LSU assistant coach Johnny Jones of paying him to attend the school, but the NCAA investigation cleared both Jones and retired head coach Dale Brown, who was in charge of the program during Earl's brief stay at Louisiana State.
"There was no evidence to show that either of the coaches were involved in the cash payments," said Bonnie Slatton, chairman of the NCAA infractions committee.
The Tigers will be on probation for the next three years, losing two scholarships each year. The school also will forfeit the five victories Earl played in before he transferred to Kansas.
Brown, an outspoken critic of the NCAA, retired at the end of the 1997 season after 25 seasons with the Tigers. He said all along that neither he nor Jones, now an assistant at Memphis, had given
Earl money.
Yesterday, Brown blasted Earl's grant of immunity in the investigation.
"I took great pride in doing my best to run an honorable program at LSU and I think our 25-year history speaks well for itself," Brown said in a statement. "However, there are many rules that need to be changed because they breed deceit and hypocrisy in college athletics."
The LSU basketball program has had a complete turnover of coaches and players since Earl played early during the 1996-97 season.
In its own investigation, Louisiana
State admitted that a booster, Redfield Bryan, a physician, had paid Earl as much as $2,000. The school had asked to remain eligible for post season play and televised games.
"There is no evidence whatsoever that either of the coaches knew that the student-athlete would ask for cash or the representative would offer it," said James Wharton, who was on the school's internal investigation panel.
The NCAA said that Louisiana State did not demonstrate a lack of control, which would have led to tougher penalties.
"This is the kind of violation you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about, because you cannot know what a booster is doing," said Slatton, who also is compliance officer at Iowa.
Poor season overshadows football
Louisiana State has begun trying to reinforce its education of boosters on rules violations, hoping they will realize that doing more than buying tickets, contributing to official causes and rooting for the teams will hurt the school, LSU athletic director Joe Dean said.
By Jodi M. Smith
Kansan sportswriter
Lack of fan support, the beginning of the Kansas basketball season and the success of rival Kansas State has left some of the Kansas football players wondering if they've been forgotten.
The Jayhawks, 4-6 on the season with one game remaining, have simply been shoved aside in the past couple of weeks.
The Kansas men's basketball season officially opened last Friday in front of a sell-out crowd at Allen Field House
The very next day, only two weeks after embarrassing the Jayhawks 54-6 at Memorial Stadium, K-State upset the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 40-30, for the first time in 30 years.
All of this adds up to a lot of hype, and none of it is centered around the Kansas Jayhawk football team.
Maybe it's because the Jayhawks end another lackluster season this weekend with a game against Iowa State that will determine which of the two teams will finish last in the Big 12 conference.
Maybe it's because for the third season in a row the team has failed to qualify for a bowl bid.
Or maybe it's just because the fans don't care anymore.
Defensive back Greg Erb said that there were a lot of fans who could be called fair-weather fans.
"They just go for winning teams, basically," he said. "But we do have some real fans that are die-hard fans whether we win or lose."
This isn't quite the support the basketball team receives, though.
"Kansas is, obviously, a basketball school, and that's where a lot of the love is," linebacker Pat Brown said.
But it's not just about the fans.
It's hard not to be forgotten when you play a mere 83 miles down the road from one of the hot football teams in the country.
But no Kansas player is begging K-State the credit it deserves.
"Obviously K-State's a great
team, and they should be in the national title contention," offensive lineman Justin Glasgow said.
All of this is unfortunate for a team that is struggling to define itself among the K-State's and Tennessee's of the world, but for
now, the team is just going to play for itself.
"As a team we're not worried about it," Glasgow said. "We're more worried about just going out and winning for ourselves, and trying to improve the program."
Zac Wegner to undergo testing for head trauma
Kansas quarterback Zac Wegner will undergo testing Jan. 4 in Chicago for concussions he received this season.
Wegner, who has had three concussions in his lifetime, suffered one in the Colorado game and another one only a week later in the game against Kansas State.
Wegner also received a crushing blow to the middle finger of his left hand during the K-State game which required more than 20 stitches.
The stitches have been removed, but his finger is still swollen.
Although Wegner attends practice every day and throws the ball around some with the scout team, he will not play in the Jayhawk's final game Saturday against Iowa State.
Wegner is still questionable for next season, depending on results from the tests.
— Kansan staff report
Running back David Winbush rushes for a touchdown against North Texas. The crowd at the game was one of the smallest this seasons in Memorial Stadium. Photo by Matt Daughter/KANSAN
A look behind, ahead for college football recruit
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles chronicling the recruitment of a high school athlete through the eyes of the recruit. Kansan sportswriter Randy Withers has followed Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Jason Rowe through his senior season to get an inside look at the world of recruiting. Rowe received letters from the University of Kansas, as well as Hutchinson, Butler and Coffeyville community colleges throughout the season and is continuing to draw interest.
By Randy Withers Kansan sportswriter
Shawnee Mission Northwest senior lineman Jason Rowe and his teammates endured a nightmarish 1998 season, finishing 3-6. Now that a difficult year has come to an end, Rowe realizes that there are more important things than the record his team posted this year. Among them, the chance to play college football and the many memories he has of the game.
"What I will miss most about high school ball is the friendship that you have with the other players," Rowe said. "It seems like only yesterday (as freshmen) that we were practicing with the sophomores. It has gone by so fast."
Rowe has put football in a new perspective now that he realizes how fortunate he is to be able to play at the next level.
"The seniors are sad to see that football has come and gone," he said. "This was the last time many of them will get to play, and now I think they know it."
Rowe has many fond memories of his time at Northwest, as do his coaches. Head coach Scott Diebold ranks him among the best players he has ever coached.
"He's right there at the top in linemen over the last five years." Diebold said.
After watching him develop as a player, Diebold said he believed that Rowe could compete at the collegiate level.
("He has) some untapped potential," Diebold said. "(He has the) physical tools to do whatever he wants."
"Athletically, I think he's got some good talents there, some good ability," Jensen said. "We've had other people go on that were of comparable ability and maturity that continue to have success at the upper level."
Northwest has turned out several successful college linenes. Among them, is Aaron
Rowe: Ready to play at the collegiate level.
"When Aaron was here, Aaron definitely showed some promising signs, but there was also some of that lack of maturity, both football wise and physically," Jensen said. "Going to Fort Scott allowed him to have that opportunity (to develop)."
Starnes, a fourth-year junior at Purdue who has started on both guard and tackle this season. Starnes played at Fort Scott Community College before transferring to Purdue.
Diebold said he felt that Rowe could have similar success.
"I think he's in that same development, and getting to go to a juco will give him the opportunity he needs to develop." Diebold said.
Jensen said he felt that, like Starnes before him, Rowe could benefit from playing at the junior college level.
Rowe said he believed he could be successful, but would rather play at a four-year school and work his way up through the program.
"A better program would be a better experience," Rowe said. "I am looking forward to the experience and challenge of college football and can't wait to get into it."
Swimming shored up by team's confidence
By Brad Hallier
Kansan sportswriter
"I think anytime we take our team cross country, it's important to perform well," Kansas coach Gary Kempf said. "I think we're going to see some great competition. We're going to compete against some people we don't normally see and we'll compete against some real fast people."
The Nike Cup will feature 13
It has been two weeks since the Kansas swimming and diving teams have been in competition.
Today and tomorrow, they will participate in their biggest meet of the fall season at the Nike Cup Invitational in Chapel Hill. N.C.
KU SWIMMING
The Nike
teams, many
of them from
the east coast.
The men's
team, ranked
25th in the SACSCA preseason poll, will be joined by two other ranked teams, including 19th-ranked Louisiana State, and the host team, 22nd-ranked North Carolina.
Freestyle swimmer Trent Hartl said that the recent 172-129 loss in a dual at 15th-ranked Texas A&M on Nov. 6 was frustrating, and that this weekend the men would seek redemption.
"We can add a lot of confidence coming off a disappointing loss to A&M," Hartl said. "We will try to come out with personal bests in times and score as many points as possible."
The women's field is a little more stacked with talent.
The women swept all their events in a meet against North Texas on Nov. 7 and are looking to carry that momentum to North Carolina this weekend.
Kansas is unranked, but did receive votes in the preseason poll. It will face four ranked teams. The host Tar Heels are ranked 16th, Kentucky is 19th, Louisiana State is 24th and Clemson is tied for 25th.
"If we could do well this weekend, it would be a real confidence booster going into our conference meets," Adrienne Turner said.
Turner, who regularly swims in the butterfly races and the 400 individual medley, said that she hoped that having the two-week break would enable her to swim her best 200 fly of the season.
Despite the large number of renowned teams at the cup, Kempf said that he expected his team to perform well at the meet.
"We have a top-25 men's team, and the women will be there soon," he said. "We have the expectations to swim well this weekend and to do the job we are capable of doing."