JAYHAWK
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Basketball
Inside Sports today
Inconsistency and a lack of effort doomed the Kansas volleyball team this weekend in a loss to No. 22 Texas A&M. SEE PAGE 3B
Friday's game - Kansas vs. Gonzaga
KANSAS
1-1
RANKED NO.8
80
GONZAGA 0-1 UNRANKED 66
WWW.JHAWKBBALL.COM
SECTION B, PAGE 1
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1998
Tarheels stomp Jayhawks in opener
By Sam Mellinger
Kansan sportswriter
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Kansas women's basketball co-captain Lynn Pride reads the play, makes her move and comes up with a nice steal in the North Carolina backcourt.
As Pride leads the Jayhawk fast break, she runs into a Tarheel defender and is called for her fourth personal foul, sending her to the bench and forcing Kansas to deal with a 17-point deficit without its All-American candidate.
And if that were not enough, as Pride found her seat next to coach Marian Washington, the announcer said, "foul on the Hawkeyes...
That's the kind of day it was for No. 8 Kansas in a 76-58 loss to No. 7 North Carolina at the State Farm tipoff Classic, held yesterday at Purdue.
"We were just out of sync out there," said senior Nakia Sanford, who scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the loss.
They were out of sync to the tune of 23 turnovers, a 20-13 deficit on the offensive
women's BASKETBALL
glass and a seven of 18 performance at the free throw line.
Kansas opened with a 21-14 lead before UNC called a timeout and answered with a 19-2 run that left the Jayhawks wondering what hit them.
After the Carolina spurt, Kansas never pulled within better than eight points of the lead.
Tarheel point guard Nikki Teasley had little trouble penetrating the Kansas defense. Although she finished with eight points, she drew a lot of defensive attention. It helped fellow guard Juana Brown to her game-high 27 points.
The game was played in front of near-capacity crowd and a national television audience on ESPN2, but Washington was not discouraged by the blowout.
"I really think this was probably the best thing that could happen to us," she said.
thing that happened to us because North Carolina took a similar beating last
year in a preseason tournament, losing 68-48 to then No. 9 Florida. The Tarheels responded with a 27-win season.
"Ims game will do them (Kansas) good," said UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell. "The game we lost last year, it really motivated us."
Washington is hoping for a similar response from her team.
"This game was our barometer as to what we need to do," she said. "It's opened our eyes to some things we need to work on. They hurt us on second and third opportunities off the glass."
That's one of the reasons why Carolina was able to dismantle the Jayhawks despite shooting 38 percent from the field.
Kansas was picked to win the Big 12 Conference and received preseason hype. Nobody will say the team thought winning would be easy. But Washington hopes now her players realize how much work is to be done.
"After this, at our practices our players aren't going to look at us like we don't know what we're talking about when we say we need to step up our intensity," she said.
need to step up our memory.
But the game had its good points.
N.CAROLINA 76, KANSAS 58
KANSAS (0-1)
Pride 7-12 5-18 19, Johnson 3-4 1-1 7, Stanford 7-13 0-1 4, Rayman 3-8 0-6, Jackson 1-8 0-1 2, Robbins 1-7 0-0 3, Prruit 0-0 0-0, Fletcher 0-0 1-2 1, Reves 3-6 0-2 6, Scott 0-0 0-0. Totals 25-57 7-18 58.
Clay 2-1-2-5, Wright 4-12-4-16, 3 Barksdale 3-10 2-12-8, Brown 10-17 3-52-7,
Tesleya 4-14 0-0-8, Higgins 5-2-3-12,
Gaspar 1-8 1-3-3, Allen O-1 0-0-0, Dawkins 0-2 0-0, Goloboy 0-0 0-0, Sharp 0-0 0-0
Total: 29 26-13 12-17 6.
3-point goals—Kansas 1-5, N. Carolina 5-
18 (Brown 4-6, Wright 1-3, Barkdale 0-1.
Fouled out—Johnson, Barkdale, Clay.
Rebounds—Kansas 42, N. Carolina 44).
Assists—Kansas 17, N. Carolina 14.
"Toward the end of the game, we attacked the basket a little more," Washington said.
Kansas has five days off before playing Massachusetts on Nov. 20 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Late run secures season's first win
Robertson sparks second-half surge in 80-66 victory against Gonzaga
By Erin Thompson
Kansan sportswriter
Robertson dominated defensively in the second half to lead Kansas against Gonzaga in an 80-66 win at Allen Field House.
If every 11-point game Ryan Robertson has this season is as impressive as the one Friday night, the No. 8 Jayhawks will have a solid base for a successful season.
"I was just looking at the stat sheet, and that may have been the biggest, or the most impressive 11-point game Ryan Robertson's ever had," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "He really made big baskets for us and he was tremendous defensively."
The Jayhawks struggled against the Bulldogs in the first half, shooting only 35 percent from the field and turning the ball over seven times.
After staying momentarily to acknowledge former Jayhawks Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz and Jacque Vaughn, who were being inducted into the Kansas athletics hall of fame. Kansas headed to the locker room trailing 32-28.
"In the first half, not only did they (Gonzaaga) play well, but they played harder then we did," Williams said. "That was the most discouraging thing to me at the half. They had a lot more effort than we did."
The Bulldogs did not give up that easily, though. The score was tied six times before the Jayhawks took control with 10:33 left, when Robertson blocked a jump shot by Gonzaga guard Matt Santengelo, who was the game's leading
After the half, Robertson dominated the first minute of play — he had a steal, two assists and a defensive rebound as the layshawks tied the game at 32.
scorer with 24 points. Forward Kenny Gregory grabbed the ball and finished the play with an explosive dunk at the other end to put Kansas up 53-51.
"santangelo's a great player." Robertson said. "On that play he kind of forced it a little bit. I got a good jump and blocked it right to Kenny. It was a pretty good play for us."
After the Bulldogs tied the score at 53-53, the Jayhawks went on a 14-4 run to win their 61st consecutive home game.
"A lot of times the tradition we have, the winning streak, tends to make you think teams are going to roll over," Williams said. "And I didn't think that one would. I knew that they were good to begin with."
Four Jayhawks scored in double figures, led by Gregory and center Eric Chenowith, who each scored 18 points. Chenowith (18 points and 10 rebounds) and forward Nick Bradford (16 points and 10 rebounds) each recorded the first double-double of their careers.
Freshman point guard Jeff Bosshee, who had nine points and three assists, looked a little shaken by the higher intensity of the regular-season game.
"It was the first regular-season college game, the intensity level is much different than those exhibition games," Boschee said. "That's the biggest thing I have to get adjusted to."
Kansas plays again Tuesday against Penn at the Palestra in Philadelphia.
More information
more information
Additional information on Nick Bradford's effort in Friday's game.
See page 5B
For more photos of the game,
See page 4B
Kansas cross country's Jensen heading to nationals
Lester Earl, right, pulls down a rebound over Gonzaga's Jeremy Eaton. Earl had six rebounds and two points against the Bulldogs in the Jayhawks 80-66 win Friday night. Photo by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
By Brad Hallier
Kansan sportswriter
Brian Jensen has been working all year for one event — the NCAA Championships.
Jensen's time of 30:54.4 was his career best on a 10,000-meter course.
On Saturday, Jensen reached that aspiration by finishing in second place by two seconds, behind Illinois State's Chris Bailey, at the Midwest Regional at the Raft Golf Course in Augusta.
With the second-place finish,
Jensen earned an automatic bid
Kansas coach Gary Schwartz said that he was excited that Jensen qualified for the NCAA Championships.
to the championships on Nov. 23 at Rim Rock Farm, the Kansas home course north of Lawrence.
"It's difficult for an individual to qualify to nationals," Schwartz said. "It was a tremendous accomplishment."
In addition to qualifying for nationalists, Jensen earned All-Midwest Region honors. Jensen's second-place finish was the highest of the Schwartz era, which began in 1988.
Neither the men's or women's teams fared as well. The men finished 14th and the women finished 20th.
"Team-wise, I'm disappointed." Schwartz said. "I thought the men had a legitimate shot at nationalists." We are.
everyone run well and that didn't happen."
We needed to
Kevin McGinn was the only other Jayhawk to finish in the top 50. He finished 31st with a time of 31:57.
"Kevin had a strong race," Schwartz said. "Brent Behrens ran well also, especially for a freshman"
Schwartz said that Andy Tate had asthma problems around the 2.000-meter mark.
"It it would be hard for anyone to run 8,000 meters when they can't breathe," Schwartz said.
For the second consecutive race, Diane Heffernan led the Kansas women. Her time of 19:06 earned her an 89th-place finish in the 5,000-meter race.
senwartz praised the work of Katz Eisenmenger. He said that it katz
was a strong race for her, probably the best she had run all year.
"Other runners didn't fare as well," he said. "They didn't have poor races, but we didn't get what we wanted."
Although Jensen will be the only runner on either team to compete at the national meet, Schwartz said he was proud of both teams.
"Both teams worked hard this year and they are a good group to work with," he said. "Having that drive and determination doesn't guarantee success, but I am proud of their efforts and proud to be their coach."
Commentary
Bloopers fill sports week; fans spoil KU game
What a week for sports bloopers.
The men's basketball team played well against Gonzaga Friday night.
The men's basketball game, the Kansas State football game and the Tuesday sports page caused me some consternation last week.
This particular fan decided to express his personal disgust with Gonzaga and its players through a series of obscene gestures and crude comments.
Unfortunately, a young man sitting near me in the stands added to my early discomfort.
well again. Although many fans might have felt uncomfortable when Kansas trailed the Gonzaga at half time, the Bulldogs have a solid team and were a great test early in the season for a young Kansas team.
A young woman sitting behind him politely asked him to stop because he was being offensive.
The confrontation ended a few minutes later when a police officer escorted the young man with his can of beer, out of the
He responded rudely and then verbally attacked the woman and her friends when they made a disparaging comment about him.
beer out of the bleachers.
Matt
Friedrichs
sports @kansan.com
All of which bring me to my point. I sit in the student section with fans who scream the entire game, and their language is not always PG. But Kansas basketball fans have an obligation to consider the feelings of those around them and to respond appropriately if someone is offended
Speaking of inappropriate comments
Kansas State fans should be upset by ABC's effort televising the Wildcats' landmark victory against Nebraska.
At times during the broadcast Saturday, renowned announcer Keith Jackson seemed confused. He made mistakes identifying players, commenting on the team — and most inexcusably of all, he called the Wildcats "the Jayhaws" at least twice.
ABC's camera crew was terrible. On a second-half touchdown pass from quarterback Michael Bishop to receiver Darnell McDonald, the camera stopped panning across the end zone, leading viewers to believe the ball had dropped incomplete or sailed out-of-bounds.
There were other gaffes too — unacceptable for a major network covering a game that has national-title implications.
One last note on the K-State game.
One last notch the goalposts down after the Colorado game faster than K-State fans were able to Saturday. At least we're better than them in something.
Finally, a column about mistakes, faux pas and errors would be incomplete without mention of last week's sports page.
On Tuesday, readers picked up the Kansan and found the Oct. 30 sports front had been reprinted because of an error at The Lawrence Journal-World, where the paper is printed.
Thanks to all the readers who called, e-mailed and cornered me on the street to ask about the problem.
I could only respond with the follow- comments;
And, yes, I did say I would pick Kansas to beat K-State in football if we were to play them again this season, but I did not intend to do so by republishing my predictions from prior to the K-State game.
No, we are not going to have a classic sports section in the Kansan. We'll leave that to ESPN.
I apologize to all the fans who did not get to read our preview of the Kansas vs. Australia Geelong basketball game.
Friedrichs in a Bremen graduate student in journalism.