Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY.KANSAN
Sports
The Texas Tech men's and women's basketball teams have a much different outlook for the upcoming season.
Thursday
November 5, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
SEE PAGE 3B
Doug Flutie became the starting quarterback yesterday for the Buffalo Bills.
Pro football
SEE PAGE 6B
College Football
Seven major college football teams hope to keep their perfect records intact this weekend.
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Commentary Chill of winter brings variety of predictions for sports season
A little more than a week ago, when the sun was still warm and the sky was still summer blue, I boldly predicted that Kansas was in for a tropical winter.
Basing my prediction on the lingering effects of El Niño combined with continued global warming (mixed with quite a bit of self-delusion as well), I foresaw a winter of fun in the sun — Jamaica, just without the beaches.
But, like most of my predictions, I appear to have failed miserably. When I stepped out my door a couple of mornings ago, I looked at the dark gray sky and took a deep breath, inhaling nothing but cold winter air. It looks as if we are in for another six months of Hoth-like conditions. Wonderful.
So as I prepare for bibernation, I leave you with with some sports fat to gnaw on...
The Philadelphia Eagle's offense was truly an exercise in futility Monday night against Dallas.
I can't remember the last time I witnessed such offensive ineptness by a football team from the first play to the last. You almost had to think that Oklahoma coach John Blake was calling the plays.
Harley
Rattif
sports @ kansan.com
With third-year man Bobby Hoying at the helm, I would be surprised if the Eagles win another game, even against Washington.
Speaking of Monday Night Football, has anyone noticed how Dan Dierdorf repeatedly clowns Boomer Esiason on-air every week? What's with that?
Last week, Dierdorf claimed he was going to dress as Boomer for Halloween because it would "frighten all the children." And that isn't the only barb Dierdorf has gotten into. There hasn't been a broadcast this year that Dierdorf has not found some way to punk his newly hired colleague.
Weekend's Best Halloween Costume: the guy dressed as the KU campus masturbator.
It seems that Dierdorf, after years of being the butt of Al Michaels and Frank Gifford's jokes, has finally found someone he can pick on.
Rattif is an Norman, Okla., senior in journalism.
Dressed in all black, wearing a shirt reading "Sex Crimes Unit" and a name tag buttoned to his chest, this guy's costume was by far the most original outfit I saw, not to mention the most classless.
What can you say, celebrities make great costumes.
I think I saw Kerry Collins at the Jazzzhaus lastnight...
After two consecutive losses at Arrowhead, the Kansas City Chiefs' season is looking eerily similar to the one two seasons ago when they failed to make the playoffs. With two games still left against Denver, it's hard to believe that Kansas City will do any better than 9-7, with 8-8 a very real possibility.
The problem may be with who is lining up behind center. In his two injury-plagued seasons with Kansas City, Elvis Grbac has looked like a real good Steve Bono.
I have two words for Coach Marty: "The Cannon."
Has anyone seen Derrick Thomas lately?
I received a letter last week that accused me of being "jealous" of Kansas State's gridiron success. It went on to blaber about how my constant public badgering of their nouveau riche program was giving Kansas a bad name in the world of sportsmanship. It was signed "Rock Chalk."
First off, Mr. Rock Chalk, I believe you got "jealousy" and "absolute hatred" confused. Secondly, if you ever want to be taken seriously, sign your real name.
■ In a poll conducted by ESPN of 455 sports fans over the age of 18, 62.7 percent said that they didn't care if the entire NBA season was canceled. My point exactly.
Jayhawks win first exhibition game
Kansas women play physical against rougher Slovokian team
By Sam Mellinger
Kansan sportswriter
Ignore the score
Sure, Kansas beat Myjava Slovakia 76-64 in a women's exhibition basketball game last night at Allen Field House, but that's not the important thing to coach Marian Washington.
Exhibition games are for learning, which is exactly what Washington did as she watched the Slovakians keep it close until the game's final minutes.
"We all realize there's a lot we need to do on defense," she said. "We did a lot of little things not very well, but that's not a big surprise. They know what they have to do to improve."
That's practice, practice, practice.
"Defensively, we kind of broke down but we'll work on that," said junior Lynn Pride, who led all scorers with 21 points. "We need to work on our team defense, our offense will come."
The offense did come early as the Jayhawks broke out to a 17-6 lead five minutes into the game. That run had to be reassuring to Washington because it included six points from senior Suzi Raymant.
Playing her first game since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, Raymant scored 19 points and dished out five assists in 34 minutes, including 14 points in the first-half.
"The first half, I didn't feel it at all." she said of the knee. "Only right near the end I felt it. It just got kind of weak."
Washington shied away from extensively using the
team's new offense. The Jay hawks ran mostly set plays, instead of a recently installed motion offense.
"I can tell you we're not really comfortable with it yet," Pride said. "We'll just have to continue to get the feel of it."
The Jayhawks spent much of the game getting the feel of some Slovakian elbows. Traditionally, international teams play more physically than Americans, and last night's game was no exception.
Words and elbows alike were exchanged, though the language barrier kept the Jayhawks from knowing what was being said.
"It's hard to move Nakia around," Washington said. "She's bigger and a lot more physical."
"I couldn't really understand them, but the elbow has its own language," said center Nakia Sanford. "I'm going to be black and blue tomorrow. I don't think anybody we play will be that physical."
The Jayhawks next action will be their last exhibition game. They play host to Latvia-Club Riga at 7:05 p.m Wednesday.
Referees have instructed coaches that more hand checks will be whistled this season in an effort to cut down on rough play, but Pride said she had yet to see a change.
"The Big 12 officials came and told us how they were going to call it more closely to keep the contact down," she said. "But as you could see out there, it wasn't like that. It was kind of frustrating."
One Jayhawk who seemed to thrive on the intense contact was the 6-3 Sanford.
Guard Suzi Ray-
ment shoots over
Vladimira
Danikskova. Ray-
ment played 34
minutes and
scored 19 points.
Kansas opened its
exhibition season
last night at Allen
Field House
against Myjava
Slovakia. Photo by
Dan Elavsky/
KANSAN
Injured player still helps basketball team to victory
By Matthew Friedrichs
Kansan sports editor
Kansas guard Suzi Raymant iced her opponents in the first half, then iced her knee after the game last night.
The 5-11 senior scored 14 points leading all scorers in the first half of Kansas' 76-64 victory against Myjava Slovakia at Allen Field House.
The game was the first of the season for the Jayhawks. It also was Raymant's first game after surgery in April to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.
Raymant finished with 19 points on six of 10 shooting.
"Suzi looked great offensively," said Coach Marian Washington.
Washington said it was obvious that Raymant was still uncertain how her knee would holdup when she moved laterally.
She said that doctors had told her that it would take about a year to fully recover.
Raymant, with an ice pack on her left knee, admitted after the game that she was only about 85 percent.
She played 19 minutes in the first half and 15 more in the second half. She only scored five points in the second half, all on free throws.
"I saw her tentative defensively." Washington said.
She attributed her lower output in the second half to Myjava's physical defense and to tiring.
"My leg's not as strong as it was," she said.
Her 19 points and 34 minutes were both above her season averages of 14.1 points and 32
minutes last season.
Raymant scored driving to the basket, hit two of three threepoint shots and had five assists.
Forward Brooke Reves played in her first game as a Jayhawk after sitting out last season as a transfer from Wichita State.
"It's been a long time since I've been on the floor," she said.
Reves, whose sister Amanda Reves plays for the Kansas volleyball team, had one assist in 9 minutes. She was the only Jayhawk newcomer to play significant minutes.
Center Heather Fletcher played 12 minutes for the Jayhawks and was in the game at the end.
Fletcher, who averaged one point and four minutes in only 13 games last season, scored seven points and played 12 minutes.
With the game in doubt with 4:04 left to play, she scored a basket and gave the Jayhawks a 62-58 lead.
Fletcher hit a free throw with 3:10 left, making the score 64-40, and she grabbed a couple of key rebounds for the Jayhawks.
With Wegner out, team fills holes in roster
By Jodi M. Smith
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas head football coach Terry Allen is a tough man, except when it comes to blood.
I wasn't wegner's only injury, though. He also suffered a gash to the middle finger of his left hand when the helmets of two K-State players crushed the finger during the hit that knocked him unconscious.
During Saturday's 54-6 shellacking by the Kansas State Wildcats, quarterback Zac Wegner left the game with a concussion for the second time in two weeks.
"It was boom, boom, helmet and then those helmets hit again and his finger was in there." Allen said.
It wasn't Wegner's only injury, though
And when Allen traveled out to check on his player, he got more of a show than he had bargained for.
"I'm not real good with blood, and I went out and he was unconscious and lying there," Allen said. "His finger was ripped open so that you could see the bone of the finger sticking out there, and the finger-nail rolled back, and you've got the blood spurting out of there. I almost fainted."
The first one was last spring when Wenger was jumped in the parking lot of the GSP-Corbin residence halls. He was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion in the incident. He later suffered a concussion in both the Colorado and K-State games.
Wegner had already fainted, but because of the hit, not because of his finger.
This concussion is the third he has suffered in the last year.
"That first concussion is the one that exposes him to more concussions," Allen said. "Both of the concussions in the football game have not been from hitting his head on the turf. Both of them have been head-to-head helmets."
This leaves the Kansas football team with quite a challenge — finding someone to play backup
Wegner's backup, junior Jay Alexander, has officially assumed the starting quarterback position but that
leaves him without a replacement.
If Alexander has to leave the game for a short period of time, Allen plans to play freshman Henri Childs.
"Henri did play a little quarterback in high school," Allen said. "None of the other running backs have played quarterback, and he's a kid with the knowledge of the running back position. Basically, it's natural for him from the quarterback position."
Or any position on offense, that is.
So far this season, Childs has played running back, wide receiver and tight end and returns both punts and kickoffs.
"Whatever gets me on the field," Childs said. "I've already played tight end, running back and wide receiver ... I just love to play football."
If Alexander suffers a season-ending injury like Wegner's, though. Allen will go with freshman Jonas Weatherbie, who has yet to take a snap in college.
But Allen said he would prefer not to use Weatherbie because it would cost the true freshman his redshirt year.
"We hope we don't have to make that type of decision, obviously," Allen said.