SOCCER With high expectations, the Kansas women's soccer team kicks off the regular season tomorrow. PAGE 6B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2004
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Running back job in air
www.kansan.com
Kit Laffler/KANSAN
Football position up for grabs, new and former players compete
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Editor's Note: As the Kansas football team prepares for its season opener against Tulsa on Sept. 4, sportswriters Ryan Colaiani and Jonathan Kealing will be taking a position-by-position look at the team's depth chart. A position breakdown will appear every day leading up to the game.
Clark Green is certainly no stranger to competition. Each year he has faced stiff competition for the Jayhawks' starting running back spot, yet throughout his collegiate career he has received it.
This season is no different, as the Tampa, Fla., junior once again is challenged for the job by sophomore John Randle.
"It's been making me better ever since I have been here," Green said of having to fight for his spot. "I have had competition ever since I was a freshman. There is going to be competition when I leave, and when I am here; it is just going to make all of us better."
This year, the team features several new contributors that will also push Green and Randle, making for a crowded backfield.
"We don't have enough footballs for the running backs that we have," coach Mark Mangino said. Green and Randle are joined by sophomore Jon Cornish and freshman Gary Green II, who are both fighting to be part of the mix.
Clark Green will likely see the most playing time again, this season. He began his career with a bang when he earned the starting job as a redshirt freshman. During that season, Green led the team with 813 yards. He also broke the school record for receptions by a running back with 37. Last
year, challenged by Randle, he broke his own record by catching 44 balls. Green improved on his rushing totals last year, as well, rushing for 968 yards.
Junior Clark Green and sophomore John Randle are the top two runningbacks on the depth chart. The pair will be joined by sophomore Jon Cornish and freshman Gary Green II, who will also fight for playing time this season.
well, he wants me to go.
"I think Clark Green is a person that outside of our program maybe has been taken for granted a little bit," Mangino said. "He put up some great numbers last year, yet we spelled him sometimes with Iohn Randle."
John Randle will likely be the first to back up Green again this season. Randle ran for 503 yards on just 88 carries last year. Randle, like Green, has the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.
catch the bulb out of the fire." "John Randle is having a very good camp," Mangino said. "He is more explosive than he has been at any point. He has only been here two years, but when you compare him as a freshman and now, he is stronger and more explosive than what he was a year ago."
Randle may have to sit out against Tulsa because of off-the-field problems, such as being arrested last year. Mangino has not announced how much time Randle might miss. At first he thought that Randle might miss the entire game against Tulsa, but he said RANDLE had been doing the right thing and the suspension might be lessened to a few quarters of action.
If it were not for Randle's performance on the field last year, Green would have easily broken the 1,000-yard plateau. Green still could eclipse that milestone this year, even if Randle gets the amount of carries he received last year. The duo have different running styles. Green is more of a power running back, who is able to run up the middle and plow through hits, while Randle is faster, enabling him to burn defenders.
Cornish has also impressed coaches
SEE BACKS ON PAGE 6B
Robinson could give Miles rest
Jared Soares/KANSAN
BY JESSE NEWELL
jnewell@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWITER
Russell Robinson, freshman guard, will vie for the backup point guard position this season and try to give Aaron Miles a break. Robinson also said he wanted to be a driving force in preseason workouts.
Editor's Note: Bill Self's first recruiting class at Kansas has been highly touted. Kansan sportswriter Jesse Newell will profile each of this year's freshmen as they prepare for their first game as Jayhawks on Sept. 4 in Vancouver, Canada.
"I asked him what his goals were this year, and I've never heard anyone say it, but he said, 'My goal is that I'm a sophomore by December.'" Self said. "What he meant was obviously that he understands and has a feel for everything going on and has gotten through the freshman things. That's a pretty good goal for a guard."
The Jayhawks will need Robinson to grow up quickly, as the 6-foot-1
Coach Bill Self had asked the same question hundreds of times to hundreds of players, but he had never heard an answer quite like Russell Robinson's.
point guard represents the most likely backup for senior Aaron Miles.
Robinson said his self-made goal would be the driving force in early-season workouts.
"I'm going to use that as my motivation," Robinson said. "That's going to motivate me every day in practice and every day in Canada. I'll just try not to let coach down."
In last year's 79-71 NCAA Tournament loss to Georgia Tech, Miles played 43 of the 45 minutes, wearing down late in the game.
Self won't be let down if Robinson can give Miles even a few minutes of rest at the point-guard position.
Not only will he attempt to give Miles some rest, he will also try to work toward the starting position for next year's team.
Robinson said he could give Miles a much-needed break.
"If I can help this team," Robinson said, "I think he'd be glad to give up some of his playing time."
His teammate is helping him out.
"I'll just try to be a positive influ
ence on him," Miles said, "because when a couple of us seniors are gone, he's going to be a leader."
Robinson will have to win the backup point-guard position over junior guard Jeff Hawkins and sophomores Nick Bahe and Jeremy Case, but Self has pointed him out as the early favorite.
"I think there will be some competition for Russell," Self said, "but I also think he's got a chance to be a really good guard here at Kansas."
From Rice High School in New York City, Robinson will look to renew an East Coast interest in the Jayhawk program.
Former Kansas coach Roy Williams recruited sparingly east of the Mississippi River to avoid competing against schools such as Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina for potential players.
self did not put a border on his recruiting territory and brought in two players from the East Coast.
SEE ROBINSON ON PAGE 3B
Rules keep Hawks from tournament
BY MIRANDA LENNING
mlenning@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWRIVER
Basketball team opts out of Coaches versus Cancer games
The Kansas men's basketball team will step foot on Canadian soil during Labor Day weekend. For the players, it will be a matter of packing a bag, boarding a plane and shooting some hoops. But University Athletics Department officials had to jump through hoops of their own to make sure the trip complied with the complex NCAA rulebook.
The NCAA outlines strict regulations regarding teams participating in preseason tours and exempt events, which are additional tournaments added to a team's regular season schedule, said Larry Keating, senior associate athletics director. Such tournaments include the Maul Invitational, the Preseason NIT and the Coaches versus Cancer Tournament.
Bylaw 30.7 of the NCAA rules said that a team can participate in a foreign tour once every four years, said Terry Hines, associate athletics director for compliance and legal affairs.
NCAA rules also said that a team can participate in an exempt event twice
every four years. But a team cannot participate in a preseason exhibition tour during the same year that it schedules an exempt event.
At the beginning of the year, event operators challenged the NCAA rule that restricted teams to an exempt event only twice every four years. Event operators are in favor of allowing a team to participate in such an event every year because it is better for their business, Keating said. The challenge made it to the district court, which ruled in favor of the event operators. However, the NCAA challenged that ruling. The NCAA's case was heard in February, but Keating said the judge had not yet issued a ruling.
Originally the team was scheduled to
participate in the Coaches versus Cancer Tournament, an exempt event scheduled for the second weekend in November. Keating said this tournament was drawn up to consist of 16 teams — four teams would serve as host teams and would play on their campuses, and three additional teams would play at each site. Kansas, Duke, Syracuse and California were scheduled to be the host sites. Kansas would have played at home Nov. 11 and 12. Each site would have a bracket-style playoff, and the winner of each site would advance to play at Madison Square Garden in New York City the following weekend.
SEE PRESEASON ON PAGE 3B
SPORTS COMMENTARY
PAUL BRAND
pbrand@kansan.com
Olympic team needs golden dreams
The dream is over.
After 12 years of NBA players dominating Olympic basketball, visions of 1992's epic Dream Team are all but distant memories.
Even after a 102-94 victory over Spain in the quarterfinals, the U.S. men's basketball team is at its lowest point ever. True, Team USA is only two victories away from another gold medal, but the way this team has played lately, that finish seems as improbable as the 1988 Jayhawks' national title run coached by current U.S. Olympic team coach, Larry Brown.
Why is a golden finish unlikely for the 2004 roster of NBA Americans? The answer is in the embarrassing basketball already shown by Allen — "The Answer" — Iverson and the other players.
Strike one was a 92-73 preliminary round loss to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico? Are you serious? It is a U.S. commonwealth! Losing to the Puerto Ricans is like Kansas losing to Fort Hays State
Strike two came later in preliminary play against a tougher foe, but the loss was still a damaging blow to U.S. hoops. Lithuania came out on top 94-90 in a game initially controlled by the Americans, who collapsed late in the fourth quarter.
While NBA players fumbled a game in its most important stages, Lithuania's Sarunas Jasikevicius, an undrafted and unsigned former Maryland player, torched the American defense with his 28 points.
Strike three is only a matter of time
for being so tall. It is not that young stars like LeBron, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade are not talented. They certainly are but simply do not belong on the U.S. Olympic roster.
On Thursday, LeBron James said he did not think it was a failure if Team USA did not bring home the gold. Since when does American basketball settle for being second best?
After cutting out many talented players, the remaining team still has stars, but it is not a real team. There are five small forwards. There is no back-up point guard. The team banks jumpers off the side of the backboard and plays lazy defense.
Some of the best players — Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett and Cole Bryant
No one on this year's team should be there.
Strike three is only a matter of time. Gone are the days of Team USA drawing the best American talent. During the past 12 years, the Dream Team has eroded into a poorly constructed roster of overpaid marketing plovs.
Sure, it was fun for a while to put NBA all-star teams on the court against nations like Cuba and Angola, but the novelty has worn off. Even American fans are booing our team.
all turned down offers to play in order to build a new house, get married and stand trial in Eagle, Colo., respectively. A score of other players turned down invitations because of security concern
The only way to solve this problem is to field a team that wants to be there, plays together well and is not depleted after the demands of an 82-game NBA season.
We need a team of undrafted college stars, such as Jeff Boschee, who are available to practice year-round and are used to international play.
Slapping together a patchwork line-up of players that resembles a Nike ad more than a team is lazy and no longer entertaining.
The dream is over, and it is time for Team USA to wake up.
Brand is an Overland Park senior in history