Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Oklahoma men and women prepare for the 1998-99 basketball season with mixed chances for success.
Tuesday
November 10, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Yesterday's sports front
Because of a technical error, this page was not printed on the front of yesterday's sports section.
Contact the Kansan
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810
Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Commentary
Gregory takes game to next level
I think Roy Williams might have found his next All-American.
If Saturday night's 31 point, 13 rebound
If Saturday night's 31 outburst is any indication, Kansas sophomore Kenny Gregory is ready to take his game to the next level.
Against a talented California All-Star team, Gregory displayed the explosiveness and aggressiveness that made him a McDonald's High School All-American and one of Kansas' most celebrated recruits.
Kevin C.
Wilson
sports@kansan.com
After averaging an
underwhelming 7.1 points and 2 rebounds per game during his injury plagued freshman season, Gregory is expected to fill some of the void left by last year's All-Americans, RaeFlaFrentz and Paul Pierce. On Saturday he did just that.
Gregory dazzled Jayhawk fans with numerous rim-rattling dunks and provided Kansas with some much needed rebounding. More importantly, he did it when it mattered the most, at crunch-time. After the All-Stars cut Kansas' lead to 82-81 late in the game, Gregory took control. He scored 11 of the team's final 13 points leading the Jayhawks to victory.
Last year, Gregory would have stepped aside and let LaFrentz or Pierce take the big shot, but this season it's up to him.
In this year's basketball media guide, Gregory said that when his Kansas career was over he would like to be most remembered as a player who improved every year. That definitely won't be a problem if he continues to dominate the way he did on Saturday.
Five Big 12 teams are ranked in both the AP and USA Today/ESPN Top 25 polls. K-State, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Missouri are all in the top 15.
Don't look now, but the Big 12 Conference has developed into the football powerhouse that was envisioned when the league was formed in 1996.
If you compare that to the more highly regarded football conferences like the SEC, PAC-10 and Big 10, you can see that the Big 12 more than holds it own.
The SEC has four teams in the Top 25, including No.1 Tennessee and No.4 Florida, and have the most top-to-bottom talent.
The PAC-10 is represented in the Top 25 polls by only three teams, the overrated UCLA Bruins, the overachieving Arizona Wildcats and the unexpected Oregon Ducks. This was supposed to be a banner year for the PAC-10, but Arizona State, USC and Washington have been huge disappointments.
The Big 10 has four schools in the Top 25, Wisconsin, Ohio St., Michigan and Penn St., but the rest of the conference is a mess. The Big 10 will be lucky if enough teams gain the required number of wins to fill the league's automatic bowl bids.
As you can see, the Big 12 has risen to the top of the college football heap and along with the SEC, has provided the season's most competitive and exciting football.
Kevin C. Wilson is a Des Moines, Iowa,
senior in journalism.
Pick 'em games: Week 11, Nov. 14
Week 11 of the football season is here. Pick the teams you think will win and send your choices to the Kansan.
Include your name and year in school with your picks.
We will print the results and names of the too predictors.
You can e-mail them to the sports editor at sports@ukans.edu or drop them by the newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall by 5 p.m. Today.
Nebraska at Kansas State
Missouri at Texas A&M
Texas at Texas Tech
Oklahoma at Baylor
Iowa State at Colorado
Southwestern Louisiana at Oklahoma State
Virginia tech at Syracuse
North Carolina at Virginia
Wisconsin at Michigan
Arkansas at Tennessee
UCLA at Washington
Northern Illinois at Ohio
Kansas is idle this weekend
Kristi Elliott / KANSAN
Guard Marton London drives to the hoop during the Jayhawks' game against the California All-Stars. Kansas plays tonight against Australian's Geelong Supercats. Photo by Jay Sheep/KANSAN
Kansas basketball to focus on defense in final exhibition
By Erin Thompson
Kanson sportswriter
After beating a strong California All-Stars team Saturday, the Kansas basketball team will look to iron out remaining wrinkles during its final exhibition game tonight.
The Jayhawks face the Australian Geelong Supercats at 7:05 tonight at Allen Field House. The Supercats will not be pushovers. Unlike most exhibition opponents, Geelong plays together all year and recently made it to the finals of Australia's Continental Basketball Association postseason tournament.
Kansas coach Roy Williams said he expected to see more outside shooting from the Supercats than Kansas saw from the California All-Stars.
Geelong is 1-2, after defeating Tennessee Martin and losing to McNeese State, 86-72, and Memphis, 120-85, on Thursday. The Supercats have not played since then and have been in Lawrence since Sunday, so they should be well rested.
Ken Cole, Geelong's general manager, said he had brought teams on tours for nearly 40 years and was a fan of Williams and the Kansas program.
"The Kansas fans are indeed the finest I've ever been involved with in my 40 years of travel." Cole said. "Roy Williams is the vardistk all others are measured by."
To contain the Supercats, the Jayhawks must improve on their defensive transition. On Saturday, Kansas struggled against the fast breaks the California All-Stars threw at them. Williams said his team gave up more baskets than any Kansas team he had coached in the 11 years he has been here.
Ryan Robertson, guard, said the Jayhaws needed to work on a lot but defensive transition was one of their top concerns.
"We're not very good right now," Robertson said. "There were a lot of things that we did wrong and that's due to our inexperience."
Defensively, the Supercats should play man-to-man. The Jayhawks were able to score easily against the zone defense the All-Stars played in the first half but did
not have as much success against the man-
to-man they played in the second half.
"We penetrated the gaps in the zone during the first half. Overall, I think we did well offensively, but we have to work on our defense," said center Eric Chenowith. One of the things Kansas will have on its side is the strong fan support in Allen Field House.
"The atmosphere in Allen Field House is unlike any other. It's a great opportunity for our players to go down there and experience that," Cole said. "We have a good group of players and we hope to give Kansas a good game."
Kansas will hope to extend its exhibition-win streak to 10 with a win tonight. The last time the Jayhawks lost was in November 1993 to an Australian team.
The Starting Lineup
KANSAS
JAYHAWKS
0-0 Big 12, 1-0 overall
G JEFF BOSCHEE 6-1 FR.
G RYAN ROBERTSON 6-5 SR.
F KENNY GREGORY 6-5 So.
F NICK BRADFORD 6-6 JR.
C ERIC CHENOWITH 7-0 So.
GEELONG
SUPERCATS
1-2 overall
G RODNEY WALKER 6-3
G ADAM LAMONT 6-0
F CHAD ROVERT 6-5
F MATT WIRKOWSKI 6-4
F CLUDE JUNNON 6-6
CLYDE JOHNSON
Allen Field House • Lawrence 7:05 p.m.
TV: Ch. 13 and 62
Radio: 1320 AM and 105.9 FM
Jayhawks finish 'near-miss' soccer season
By Brad Hallier
Kansan sportswriter
The 1989 Kansas soccer season will most likely be remembered for its one-goal defeats, near-miss victories and goal scoring droughts. The Jayhawks finished the season 5-13-1
The Jayhawks finished the season 5-13-1 overall, 1-8-1 in the Big 12 Conference, their worse record in the program's four years.
Throw in the fact that eight of the 13 losses were by one goal, and it could be concluded that the season wasn't as bad as the record appeared.
the defense allowed a record-low 34 goals this year. Former Kansas coach Dan Magner, who resigned last Tuesday after the season, said he had two number one goalies to choose from toward the end of the year.
Midfielder Eri Hon settles the ball under pressure from a Missouri defender. The women's soccer team ended the season with a record of 5-13-1. Photo by Jay Sheepred/KANSAN
Katie Garrity and Jen Fecke both had superb performances in the nets this year. Fecke held 24th-ranked James Madison and Big 12 champion and 13th-ranked Baylor to one goal each. Garrity held big 12 runner-up and 12th-ranked Nebraska scoreless for 88 minutes and 45 seconds before allowing the only goal of the game to the Big 12's leading scorer, Kim Engesser.
Magner said that despite its poor record, Kansas showed themselves capable of playing with everyone in the conference.
"We had a strong season all together on defense," Fecke said. "We played as a unit, regardless of who was in goal."
"Games against Nebraska and Baylor in particular come to mind, considering they are one-two in the conference," he said. "We kept ourselves in a position to win those games."
The Jayhawks did start brightly. After nine games, they stood at 5-4 and were coming off a record-breaking performance in a 50 win against Western Illinois.
Magner and defenders Jackie Dowell and
Ashley Gorman the turning point of the season came after a 1-loss to Baylor.
"We lost a lot of close games, but the Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech games we could have won easily," Gorham said. "If we had won those, we could be on our way to San Antonio (for the Big 12 tournament) now."
"It's really hard to say if there was a turning point, but I would trace it back to the weekend in Oklahoma," Dowell said. "We still had potential, but I think that was the breaking point."
Those three games came in a span of four days. Then Kansas tied Oklahoma State 1-1 after having the lead until the 84th minute. Oklahoma would shock the Jayhawks 3-0 and Kansas would close out the weekend losing to Texas Tech 1-0.
"We had an opportunity there to gather nine points and we came away with one," Magner said. "If there was a critical juncture, it was that weekend."
Following forward Erin Hon's goal in the 29th minute at Oklahoma State, Kansas failed to score for a team-record 585 minutes. Forward Lindsey Horner would finally break the spell late in the first half of a 4-1 loss to Texas A&M. But the Jayhawks would not score again in identical 1-losses to Colorado and Wyoming that closed out the season.
"A real positive for us was we created goal-scoring chances," Magner said. "I think not taking full advantage of the chances we created haunted us."
Kansas had its share of near-misses this year. In soccer terms, a near-miss is a chance on goal that barely misses.
Among those near-misses were two free kicks taken by Dowell in 1-0 losses to Baylor and Texas Tech that rattled the crossbar.
"I think a lot of times you create your
own luck, yet at times we were unlucky, in particular Jackie's kicks hitting the crossbar, those were unlucky," Magner said.
"That has been the rivalry, and we put
But the season was not without good moments. Dowell, a senior, said that the 10 upset win against Missouri might have been her favorite game in her four years.
Magner agreed.
hard work in that game and got the result we deserved," she said.
"Missouri was tremendous in a lot of aspects," he said. "Missouri is a top-flight team, and it was our number one rival at home. A lot of things point to that game as the game of the season for us."