Thursday, October 29, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 3
Soccer player scores winners
KU defender Kylie Watts practices her shooting skills at soccer practice yesterday. Watts has helped the team's record by scoring winning goals in two games this season. Photo by Tara Bradley/KANSAN
Team's defender helps to establish women's success
By Brad Hallier
Kansas sportswriter
On page 17 of the women's soccer media guide, Kansas defender Kyle Watts described her favorite moment in soccer.
"Scoring the winning goal with a diving header," she said.
OK, so she hasn't scored on a diving header. However, twice this season Watts has scored the winning goal on a header.
Missouri was the first to suffer a defeat from a Watts header when Kansas upset the Tigers 1-0 Sept.8.
"The that goal against MU was my most memorable one," she said. "It was our first win on the season, and it was my first collegiate goal."
She repeated the feat five days
later when she scored the decisive goal in a 4-1 win against Central Missouri State. Watts would add another goal on a header two weeks later in a 5-0 win against Western Illinois.
Scoring on a header is not easy, but Watts knows the secret.
"It's timing, jumping ability and judging where the ball is going to go," she said. "Maybe it's something you are born with or have a knack for."
Kansas coach Dan Magner said that next season he would train Watts to target corner kicks and free kicks.
"It adds a great dimension to the game, and we will continue to look for her on set pieces next year," he said.
Watts, a sophomore from Tecumseh, said that she had made strides since starting 13 out of 19 games last season.
"I was kind of scared and felt intimidated," she said. "All the upperclassmen had high expectations for me. Now I feel like I know what I'm doing."
Magner said that Watts had made strides since the spring season.
"She has raised her level tremendously since last fall, and we began seeing glimpses of that in the spring," he said. "In games versus Memphis and Iowa, Kylie was clearly one of our top two players on the field."
Even though Watts has tallied three goals this year, she knows her job as a Jayhawk is far from finished.
Watts chose Kansas because of its proximity to her home. Watts also believed that she could make an impact as a member of Kansas' program.
"Before I leave, I would like to play in the Big 12 tournament and have a winning record," she said. "It's been a tough year, but the ball will eventually bounce our way. We were a better team this year. We've had plenty of 1-0 losses and we play well against good teams, but we are having a hard time playing a full 90 minutes."
NBA games canceled for November
Jordan speaks up for players in talks
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — David Stern cut two more weeks off the NBA schedule, debated the finer points of the lockout with Michael Jordan, and then met with the players to see if the sides could compromise on the "guts" of a new deal.
"I feel neither optimism nor pessimism. I just think that we've got to talk," the NBA commissioner said. "We may have the skeleton of a deal. But in terms of a hard negotiation on the guts of this deal, I would say we're no place yet."
The cancellations, which wiped out the rest of the November schedule, came after a meeting of the league's Board of Governors at which some owners asked when the "drop dead" date would be for losing the entire regular season.
Stern said he didn't want to set a deadline.
"One, we want to be ready to be imaginative," he said. "Two, we don't want to make threats; we want to make a deal."
With that, he and the owners' negotiating committee walked out of their news conference, took an elevator three flights up and went into a conference room where about 100 players had been meeting.
According to several sources who were in the room and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Jordan, Washington Wizards owners Abe Pollin and Stern had one of the most heated exchanges after Jordan asked why increases in franchise values were not being figured into profitability calculations.
After that 90-minute question-and-answer meeting, the sides were to resume formal negotiations at 5 p.m. EST at an undisclosed location.
"We've been trying to take steps to bridge the gap. Now the shoe is on the other foot," union president Patrick
Ewing said. "In my negotiating with the Knicks, they always told me one side cannot monopolize the whole thing. It needs to be a win-win situation."
Two weeks' worth of games already
had been scrapped,
and now the season
can't begin until
Dec. 1 at the earliest.
Stern did say, however, that the league and union would discuss "recapturing" games. That was a change from two weeks ago, when the league announced the first set of cancellations and said the games would not be made up.
"They had told us about games being recaptured. We knew that," said Jeffrey Kessler, the lead outside counsel for the union. "You can add
(games) on later, or put more into the schedule."
Until this labor dispute, the league had never lost a game to a work stoppage.
In all, 194 games have been lost with the latest cancellation of 95 games. Each team's 82-game schedule has now been whittled to about 68 games, and the players have lost about $200 million in salaries.
Among the players on hand were Jordan, Scottie Pipen, David Robinson and Reggie Miller. Jordan was probably the most vocal, several participants said.
"I have an obligation as a veteran player to see that the players of tomorrow have the same benefits and opportunities that I have," Jordan said. "Dr. J and Elgin Baylor and Oscar Robertson and all those guys fought for this collective bargaining agreement and the Larry Bird exception and the freedom to have flexibility.
"I'm obligated to make sure the other players have the same opportunity," Jordan said.
Women's basketball in Big 12 conference loaded with talent, fronted by Jayhawks
Commentary
At the Big 12 women's basketball media day yesterday, I learned that this season's- Kansas women's basketball team is special.
The coaches have picked the Jayhawks to win the conference for good reason. Five starters return for the Jayhawks, and junior guard Lynn Pride, a preseason All-American and plaver of
the year candidate, leads the team.
And she isn't the only star in the conference. E d w i n a Brown of Texas and Angie Braziel of Texas Tech played with Pride on the USA
Jones Cup Team that went 5-0 this summer in Tapel, Taiwan.
Matt Friedrichs
But not every conference school has the coaching stability Marian Washington has given Kansas for 25 years or a history of impact players like Pride, Tamecka Dixon, Angela Aycock and Lynette Woodard.
Brazil also is mentioned among players who could be the national player of the year.
Dick Halterman, who has coached at Oklahoma State since 1983, was among those predicting the Jayhawks will win the conference.
He acknowledged the difference between his team, composed primarily of Oklahoma players and the top teams in the conference like Kansas and Texas Tech.
"We don't have the marquee players year in and year out," Halterman said.
Two coaches will be new to the Big 12 this season.
Texas A&M coach Peggie Gillom enters her first season as a head coach after being an assistant at Ole Miss and for the 1997 and 1998 WNBA champion Houston Comets.
Missouri coach Cindy Stein has moved from Emporia State, just down the road from Lawrence, to Columbia where she will get to coach against Kansas.
She was jokingly surprised that reporters even had questions for her.
"When you're picked last in the Big 12, you never know if anybody is going to come to your press conference." Stein said.
Recognition and attention, however, is not a problem for the conference's best coaches.
Baylor coach Sonja Hogg coached Louisiana Tech to national championships in 1981 and 1982.
Texas coach Jody Conradt was inducted into the Naismith National Memorial Hall of Fame Oct. 2. She coached Texas to a National Championship in 1986.
And, Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp coached the Lady Raiders to the 1993 National Championship.
Good and bad, top to bottom, the conference is one of the best in the nation according to the coaches.
"We have a legitimate shot at qualifying at least six or seven teams in the NCAA tournament," said Kansas State coach Deb Patterson.
That's what makes Kansas special. In a conference loaded with talented teams coached by legends, the Jayhawks are the preseason favorites.
Friedrichs is a Bremen graduate student in journalism.
Before the Big KU-KSU game stop by these participating sights to receive a
Big XII Dr. Pepper Cup
BUCKY'S DRIVE-IN 2120 West 9th.
TACO JOHN'S JAYHAWK FOOD MART 1626 West 23rd. 701 West 9th.
TACO JOHN'S JAYHAWK FOOD MART 1101 West 6th. 1414 West 6th.
TACO JOHN'S 2309 Haskell Ave.
If you're going to drink and drive, drink Pepsi.
Check out the Kansan classifieds for what you need!