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BY BJ RAINS
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Kansas prepares for Western Illinois' top player
For the second consecutive game, the Kansas women's basketball team will have to deal with an All-American and player-of-the-year candidate. This time it's 6-foot-7 Zane Teilane, who hails from Riga, Latvia.
Teilane is the oil that runs the machine for the Western Illinois Westerwinds, which will visit Allen Fieldhouse for the game against the Jayhawks, scheduled for tip-off at 7 tonight.
"She's definitely capable of taking over a game," said Western Illinois coach Leslie Crane. "She's a great player. She's been doing very well in our system."
Not only is Teilane contributing with her points and rebounds, she is only one assist shy of leading the team in that category. One of the tallest girls in all of college basketball, she possesses a rare quality in post players. She has excellent passing skills, and can find the open player when she gets double-teamed, her coach said.
"That's the last thing you want your 6-foot-7 kid to be doing, having that many assists," Crane said. "But when people double down on her like they have all season, she does a good job kicking the ball back out to the open girl."
Kansas wants to contain Teilane like they did Minnesota's Janel McCarville on Sunday. McCarville, also an All-
American and player of the year candidate, was held in check by the Kansas defense, scoring 15 points for the Golden Gophers in their 62-45 defeat against the Jayhawks.
"I'm sure they are going to do everything they can from letting her get the ball." Crane said. "It's difficult to defend us, because we have other scorers, and players who can hit the open shot."
Those other scorers include senior guards Jessica Cook and Rita Castans. Cook, who averages a team-high 31 minutes per game, is averaging 15.2 points and five rebounds a game. She also leads the team in field goal percentage, shooting 54 percent from the field.
Castans is the only other Westerwind averaging double
Crane's career victory number is 100. She has spent her entire six-year coaching career at Western Illinois. Her team hasn't played since last Wednesday's victory and has used the extra time to prepare for the Jayhawks.
figure scoring, posting 10.8 points per game. She had 15 points on four of seven shooting from the field and was a perfect five-of-five from the free throw line in the Westerwinds' 72-57 victory against Bradley last Wednesday.
Crane thinks Kansas junior guard Erica Hallman will be the best guard her team will face all season.
"She's the real deal as far as being an all-around great player." Crane said. "We feel that we
need to keep her contained, and try to do some things to rattle her cage a little bit. I haven't seen the preseason selections, but I'm sure she will be a Big 12 All-Conference selection at the end of the season."
Along with stopping Hallman, the Westerwinds also want to counter Kansas junior forward Crystal Kemp. Kemp has been the go-to player for the jayhawks this season, averaging 15.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
"She has progressed and become a very good player for them," Crane said. "She's somebody they rely on to do a lot of scoring for them."
The Westerwinds have played four of their five games on the road, but Crane said beating the
Jayhawks at the fieldhouse would be no easy task.
"We've definitely got our hands full when it comes to trying to beat KU." Crane said.
Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson was proud of her team's effort on Sunday against Minnesota. The Jayhawks led the 18th ranked team in the country at halftime, but surrendered the lead in the second half.
Henrickson is impressed with the Westerwinds and knows the Jayhawks must play as they did in the first half of the Minnesota game if they want to win.
"They are a good team," Henrickson said of Western Illinois. "We're going to have to play well."
Cardinals seek new starter
Edited by Rupal Gor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS — Woody Williams, the St. Louis Cardinals' Game 1 starter in both rounds of the playoffs and the World Series, was all but certain yesterday that he wouldn't be back next season.
The deadline for offering salary arbitration to free agents was 11 p.m. yesterday. Players not offered salary arbitration can still re-sign with their current teams but won't be eligible to play until May 1.
Williams, who battled injuries early in the season and finished with 11 victories, said he and his agent had not been in contact with the team. He couldn't see the team offering him arbitration at the last minute, either.
"I haven't heard a word from them," Williams said. "I think they've got irons in other fires. I'm sure they have some kind of plan, but whether I'm in it remains to be seen."
The Cardinals faced decisions on four other key members of the team that won 104 games. Pitcher Matt Morris also is a free agent, along with shortstop Edgar Renteria, catcher Mike Matheny, second baseman Tony Womack and left-handed reliever Steve Kline, among others.
Kline hadn't been in contact with the team, either. He's recovering from surgery on his left index finger on Nov. 11, an injury that kept him off the World Series roster.
fish to fry than worrying about a left-handed reliever. It's a great organization but whatever happens, happens."
"I doubt if they'll do anything with me," he said.
"They've probably got bigger
The Cardinals did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday afternoon.
The team has been seeking a No. 1 starter since being swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox. They've expressed interest in acquiring Randy Johnson from Arizona, but the Diamondbacks have reportedly wanted ton prospects
— including right-hander Dan Haren — that the Cardinals may be unwilling to give up.
Still, the possibility of signing Johnson or some other pitcher — and freeing up the money to do so — would affect the approach to signing the Cardinals' own free agents, several of whom have expressed a desire to stay in St. Louis.
Morris, 30, is a 1995 No. 1 draft pick for St. Louis who won 22 games in 2001. In seven seasons, he is 87-52 with a 3.53 ERA.
And though he was 15-10 last season, Morris' ERA ballooned to 4.72, he gave up 35 homers, and his velocity, once in the mid-90s, was off considerably. Last month he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder, which bothered him throughout the season.
Morris earned $12.5 million in 2004 in the last year of a three-year contract. The team may want him back, but at considerably less money.
through the 2001 season and though he trailed the staff in victories the Cardinals won 16 of his last 19 starts. He was a compromise No. 1 starter in the postseason after Chris Carpenter sustained nerve damage to his right biceps late in September, but was 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in his first three playoff starts before making an early exit in the World Series.
Williams, 38, is 45-22 since coming to St. Louis midway
In that game, he gave up seven runs in 2 1-3 innings. Williams made $8 million last year and after the season the Cardinals declined to pick up a club option on his contract.
Renteria is a lifetime 289 hitter and two-time Glove Glover winner who, at 29, is still relatively young. But his value — some believe he will command $10 million or more per season — may be too high for the Cardinals.
Matheny, 34, has been a starter since coming to St. Louis in 2000. Though a lifetime .247 hitter, he has won three Gold Gloves and is considered a leader in the clubhouse. The Cardinals are expected to phase in additional playing time for Yadier Molina, who hit .267 in 155 at-bats as a rookie in 2004.
Other free agents include right-handed reliever and outfielders Ray Lankford and John Mabry.
Womack, 35, was acquired in what appeared to be a minor trade with Boston in March. Instead, Womack hit .307, stole 26 bases and was a catalyst as the leadoff hitter.
Committee to investigate Marion Jones doping charge
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — The International Olympic Committee opened an investigation yesterday into doping allegations against Marion Jones, who could eventually be stripped of her five medals from the 2000 Olympics.
IOC president Jacques Rogge set up a disciplinary commission to look into the claims made by Victor Conte, head of the California-based lab accused of illegally distributing steroids.
Conte told ABC's "20/20" in a broadcast aired Friday that he gave Jones performance-enhancing drugs before and after the Sydney Olympics. He said he watched Jones inject herself with human growth hormone.
"The allegations made by Mr. Conte are extremely serious and the IOC is fully committed to bringing to light any elements that will help the truth prevail," the IOC said in a statement.
Jones won three gold medals (100 meters, 200 and 1,600 relay) and two bronze (long jump and 400 relay) in Sydney. She repeatedly has denied ever using banned drugs, and has threatened to sue Conte for defamation.
Jones' lawyer, Richard M. Nichols, did not return a phone message left at his office yesterday. The U.S. Olympic Committee also did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound, a senior IOC member, has said Jones should be
stripped of her medals if Conte is telling the truth. Any decision on the medals would be made by the IOC executive board.
Rogge advocates a "zero tolerance" policy on doping.
"I hope the truth will emerge," he said last week. "We want the truth. We want to know what happened and the more we know, the better."
Under the IOC charter, Olympic decisions can be challenged within three years of the games' closing ceremony. The Sydney Olympics ended more than four years ago, on Oct. 1, 2000.
But Thomas Bach, the German lawyer and IOC member who heads the three-member investigative panel, said the three-year rule shouldn't apply in this case.
"I don't think it plays a role," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Jones, who did not win any medals at the Athens Olympics, has been under investigation for months by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, but has not been charged. USADA has said it will take Conte's allegations into account.
Conte, head of the BALCO lab, said he worked with Jones from August 2000 to September 2001. He said he designed a doping regimen for her that included the previously undetectable steroid THG, the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO, human growth hormone and insulin.
Pound said there was no actual decision taken in Sydney and the allegations are only coming out now.
Bach said his first move will be to request a transcript of the ABC program.
"First of all we have to check carefully whether the allegations concern the time of the Olympics, and then we have to determine who is concerned," he said.
Bach said the investigation could cover athletes other than Jones mentioned in the program. The panel will ask for athletes' statements and could ask them to appear at a hearing, although "we are not in a position to force anybody to appear," he said.
Bach said he doesn't expect to finish the probe before the next IOC board meeting, which takes place Feb. 10-11 in Turin, Italy.
Under Rogge, who succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001, the IOC has taken a much tougher stance on doping. The IOC sanctioned a record 24 athletes for doping offenses during the Athens Olympics in August.
The IOC has also been investigating the 1999 doping case involving American sprinter Jerome Young. He tested positive for a steroid in 1999 but was cleared by a U.S. appeals panel and won a gold medal in Sydney as part of the 1,600 relay team.
The IOC could strip the entire team — including five-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson — of the gold medals. The IOC is waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to rule on an appeal by the U.S. Olympic Committee.