Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
more coverage of the Jayhawks 71-14 victory of California State-Northridge from Saturday night.
Monday
September 13, 1999
Section:
B
Kansas soccer
The Jayhawks suffered their third defeat of the season, a 4-0 loss at Missouri.
Tennis
Page 1
SEE PAGE 3B
Andre Agassi reclaimed the world's number one ranking with a five-set victory in the final of the U.S. Open.
SEE PAGE 4B
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Tyrus Fenenton, McDermott and Seadhye smother kick on a 50-yard second quarter kickoff by Joe Garcia.
returner Terrence Jones. The tri dropped Jones for a loss of 2 yards Photo by Jay Sheperd/KANSAN
Quarterback leads Kansas to 71-14 win
Bv Mike Miller
By Mike Miller sports@kansan.com Kansan sport.com
It was unlike anything he'd ever encountered at junior college.
Quarterback Dylen Smith, a junior transfer from Santa Monica Community College in Santa Monica, Calif., was amazed at all the attention he garnered from the media after Saturday's 71-14 win against California State-Northridge.
"At home it was shower, get dressed and go home," he said.
Instead, Smith answered questions from about a dozen reporters and squinted under the lights of half a dozen cameras. He did his best to answer questions succinctly and carefully, then watched as the reporters were shooed out of the locker room.
"I could get used to this though. Especially if we start winning like this." Smith said.
The attention was deserved because Saturday's win served as a break-out performance for Smith. He completed 13 of 15 passes for 172 yards and three touchdowns and had great touch on his passes all night.
One touchdown was a 27-yard pass to running back Henri Childs, who caught the ball without breaking his stride. Another was an over-the-shoulder grab by wide receiver Michael Chandler.
Or were they?
The Matadors brought only 45 players— half as many as Kansas—and their defense was on the field for more than half the game. They were worn down by the end of the game, as Kansas ran the ball twice as often as it passed. But that
See OFFENSE on page 3A
Chandler honors mom with touchdown catch
By Michael T. Rigg
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
For Chacha Chandler, not everything comes easily.
His run of bad luck started on a crisp, cold night in Kansas at the end of February, when Chandler's life hit the first wall in a series of roadblocks.
At 5 a.m. Feb. 28, three men, armed with a firearm and a baseball bat, stormed into Chandler's apartment in Lawrence, beat him with the bat and shot him in the groin with the handgun.
When the news broke in eastern Kansas, no one knew how much the incident would influence Chandler's job as a receiver for the Kansas football team. The prognosis worsened when the Jayhawks opened spring practice weeks after the shooting. Chandler, who also was recovering from ankle surgery, saw his name in the lower left-hand corner of the roster page of the spring press guide, under the heading "Injured - Ruled out for contact in the spring."
But that's not the way Chandler operates.
"The doctors are so conservative sometimes," Chandler said at the time. "I just told them I'm all right to play."
So all spring, Chandler defied the doctors and headed out to the Kansas practice fields, took hits with the first team and hauled in touchdown passes. This fall.
nuded in tochtown Chandler worked his way back into the starting wide receiver rotation while his body held up under the strain of two-a-day practices in the swellering Kansas sun.
While his mother's health was failing near the end of August, Chandler headed to South Bend, Ind., on Aug. 28 with his
"Isn't Michael Chandler something?" Allen said. "He is an inspiration in every sense of the word."
everything seemed to be going so well,
Chandler's life off the field started heading
downhill again.
His quick recovery even amazed Kansas coach Terry Allen.
Chandler dedicated a touchdown to his mother at her funeral
But right when
Jayhawk teammates and caught his second career touchdown pass against the Fighting Irish in a 48-13 Kansas loss. Chandler led the Jayhaws in receiving against the Irish with four catches for 38 vards.
Last weekend, during the Jayhawks' week off, his mother died.
Allen was looking on when Chandler told his deceased mother, "Mom, I'll meet you in the end zone with my next touchdown catch."
Chandler missed Tuesday's practice to attend his mother's funeral and to deliver the eulogy.
"The first couple of days back at practice, it was hard to concentrate on football," Chandler said. "But after a while, it was nice to come in and do some things to keep my mind off the tragedy in my family."
On Saturday against California State Northridge, the Jayhawks were ahead of the Matadors 50-14 with 3:07 left in the third quarter and had the ball at the Northridge six yard line after Muhammad Abdul-Rahim's 29 yard interception return.
Her untimely death made Chandler put football in perspective.
Kansas quarterback Dylen Smith
"Mom, I'll meet you in the end zone with my next touchdown."
Michael Chandler Kansas wide receiver
Kansas wide receiver
locked on Chandler and connected on a fade route in the corner of the end zone for the Jayhawks' seventh touchdown of the game. While many fans had left the game, Chandler's teammates swarmed him in the end zone, giving the 6-foot, 200-pound wide receiver from Kansas City, Kan., hugs that would last long after kicker Joe Garcia added the extra point. The score after the touchdown was 57-14, but the lopsided result did little to dampen the moment for Allen and the Jayhawks.
"That was special," Allen said. "I'm sure it meant a lot to him and meant a lot to me."
I meant a lot to him and meant a lot to me. Chandler finished the day with two receptions for 17 yards. One went for a first down, while the other went for a touchdown for his mother.
- Edited by Brad Hallier
It's a long road from Mayans to the WNBA
I'm screwed
You see, I have a problem. An addiction, really.
Let's just get that out there, because there's no depaying it.
I watch too much sports. Put me in the bleachers, press box or on the couch, and I can watch any game — even one as boring as Kansas' drubbing of California State-Northridge on Saturday.
Not a problem during the summer or winter break. The problem in my wacked- out life starts the same time classes do, and we're headed right towards my prime problem time.
It's pathetic. I can be bored after five minutes in class, but put a game on that big monitor in 110 Budig, and I'll be there all day.
Take this weekend. From 7 p.m. Friday until fall asleep last night, I was watching, thinking or talking sports (save for sleep, a trip to Station Casino late Friday night and a beer break or two, of course).
And I'm not getting any help. More top college football teams are playing each other this year than I can ever remember. The NFL just started, baseball is about to get interesting and college basketball's right around the corner.
How in the name of Monday Night Football am I supposed to study the Mayan tribe with all this going on?
Please humor me in me addiction.
Please honor me in my addiction:
- Give the circus act known as the New York Mets credit. I don't know how they've done it, but they're in the National League baseball playoff chase despite more distractions than any presidential scandal. Let's see, Bobby Bonilla has not only cost the team millions of dollars while batting below 200 most of the season.
Sam
Mellinger
sports columnist
sports @ kansas.com
but he also has refused to enter the game as a pinch hitter. The entire team's coaching staff was fired in what many thought was an invitation for manager Bobby Valentine to quit. Then Valentine served a short suspension after returning to a game he was ejected from wearing a makeshift costume that included eye black as a moustache. And most recently, Rey Ordonez had six stitches above his left eye after being punched by his backup, Luis Lopez.
- Seriously, WNBA vs. NBA is like California Dreames vs. Family Matters.
Bad sitcoms that make you want to watch something else.
Anybody notice that un-andro-fied Mark McGwire is well behind the pace of last year's more moody, chemically enhanced version? Still think the controversial performance enhancer had nothing to do with any of his power?
The press box at the football stadium was money well spent. It has air conditioning, comfortable seats, the biggest TV I've ever seen and even a diaper changer in the men's bathroom. That's the only one on campus, by the way.
- Kansas played Chicago State in volleyball this weekend, a team that hasn't won a match in more than two seasons. At what point do you stop?
■ The first real test of my problem comes tonight, when I have a class during the first half of the Dolphins-Broncos game. Wish me luck.
Mellinger is a Lawrence senior in journalism.
Mary Both Albrecht,
senior outside hitter,
collides with
Amanda Reves,
senior middle
blocker, after miss-
ing a dig in a game
again Auburn.
The Jayhawks lost to
Auburn and finished third in the a
Hampton Inn
Jayhawk Classic.
Photo by Roger
Nomer/KANSAN
Weekend loss shocks Jayhawks
Volleyball finishes 3rd in annual tournament
By Shawn Hutchinson
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas volleyball team did a good job of keeping its opponents on the ropes this weekend. The only thing it didn't do well was following through with the knockout punch.
The Jayhawks endured two big blows during the Hampton Inn Jayhawk Classic
Tournament at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. After sweeping Chicago State in the opening match, Kansas suffered back-to-back losses on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, blowing seemingly insurmountable leads against Texas Christian and Auburn.
Kansas' weekend had the makings of something special. in beating Chicago State 15-4, 15-7 and 15-3 on Friday afternoon, the
"It's definitely not how we wanted to end the weekend," said Kansas junior outside hitter Amy Myatt after the Jayhawks, 5-2, finished third in the tournament, and Auburn went home champions.
Jayhawks got big contributions all around. Junior outside hitter, Sara Kidd recorded nine kills, Myffa had seven kills and sophomore sitter Molly LareMade 44 assists.
Then came the heartbreaker against Texas Christian. Kansas won the first game, 15-5, then was serving in the second game with a 13-10 lead when the wheels fell off. The Horned Frogs scored five straight points and won the game, 15-13. The Jayhawkw won the third game, 15-9, behind four kills from Myatt and three
See VOLLEYBALL on page 3B