Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Thursday
August 26,1999
Section:
B
Forward Sharonne Spencer has come a long way from her home in Compton, Calif., to the Kansas women's basketball team.
Braves are Back
SEE PAGE 3B
The Atlanta Braves, plagued by injuries, completed a three-game sweep of Cincinnati yesterday.
SEE PAGE B
Page 1
Crystal Ball
Kansan sportswriter Chris Wristen and columnist Brad Hallier break down the women's soccer teams in the Big 12 Conference.
SEE PAGE 3B
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Jayhawks to score big money
By Mike Miller
By Mike Miller sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
Kansas will have a lucrative day Saturday, even if its football team doesn't win.
For playing in the Eddie Robinson Classic against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., the Kansas football team benefited by having two extra weeks of practice and national television exposure — which can only help Terry Allen's football team.
"It's never gonna hurt us unless we lay an egg," Allen said.
But the thing that made the game really attractive to Kansas was the money involved — almost $1 million for the school — more than twice the amount Kansas received for playing Florida State in 1993.
"It's a minimum of $600,000, but it's going to be more like $800,000 to $1 million dollars," said Richard Konzem, associate athletics director.
Projected profits from first game
Richard Bachroan / KANSAN
The $600,000 minimum is guaranteed to the school. The real money comes from 30 percent of the total game revenue: ticket sales, concessions, parking, television revenue and other money-making opportunities. The $1 million is
projected from figures obtained from last year's games and will not be known for certain until late September.
Subtracting the $90,000 in team travel expenses, the school will reap a financial windfall that makes playing an extra game worthwhile.
At least financially.
For Allen, his main concern lies both in the outcome of the game and how the Javhawks play.
"If we go in and get beat by 70 points, it's not going to look good because you've embarrassed yourself. But if you have a good showing or win, then it gets some good national recognition for your players," he said.
That national recognition Kansas gets could help Allen in training, and it appeals to the Kansas players themselves.
toulton Kansas gets out help Allen im- recruiting, and it appeals to the Kansas players themselves. "It's something you dream of," said wide receiver Termaine Fulton. "Playing at Notre Dame the first game of the season at their house. We're gonna give a lot of people out there a great show."
See POT on page 2B
Newcomers bring flavor to team
Kansas newcomer Sara Kidd bumps the ball during practice yesterday after noon. Kidd, ranked second in the Colonial Athletic Association for an outside hitter, is one of six new players to join the team. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
By Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
When the Jayhawk volleyball team began practicing three weeks ago, the team boasted six newcomers. As it stands now, they'll have to settle with five.
The Jayhawks, 15-17 a year ago, welcomed six new players to the team this year, but an injury has already claimed one.
Amy Billings, a freshman who was to see significant playing time at the setter position, broke her right kneeep during practice Aug. 10. Her status for this season is still in doubt.
That leaves the Jayhawks with five available newcomers on their roster heading into the season opener Sept. 1 against Missouri-Kansas City at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Even so, those newcomers look to make an impact.
"They all bring something that I think can enable our team," Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. "They are going to bring a new dimension to our team and somewhat of a different flavor."
So far in practice, newcomer Sara Kidd, a junior transfer from James Madison, said that the new players and the 10 returning players had responded well to each other.
The returners have been very welcoming to us and made us feel right at home," said Kidd, an outside hitter who ranked second in the Colonial Athletic Association with 330 digs last season.
Danielle Geronymo, who last season was a NJCAA All-American at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, agreed.
"We had a great connection right away," said Geronomy, an outside hitter and middle blocker who holds two Barton County single-season records.
The team's remaining newcomers are Kyle Thomas, a freshman middle blocker from Sutherland, Nebraska; Jamie Morningstar, a freshman defensive specialist from Lawrence's Free State High School, and Jennifer Kraft, a freshman defensive specialist from Saratoga, Calf.
Thomas earned first team Division I all-state honors last season en route to breaking seven school records, while Morningstar led her team last season in kills (303) and digs (164).
Kraft, who led her high school team to back-to-back state championships in 1997 and 1998, was originally going to be a redshirt, but may play this season after all, Bechard said.
Kristi Kiyabu, a senior who is a returning starter at the defensive specialist position, said the newcomers would play a significant role for this year's team.
"I think everyone that came in is working their (tails) off, and it's pushing everybody else," Kiyabu said. Bechard, beginning his second year as coach of the Jayhawks, agreed.
"I think everybody is in full support of each other, and we hope that continues when playing time is starting to be dished out," he said. "Early on comments were that everybody was excited about the different personalities on our team and how they were all trying to contribute to what we're doing in a positive way."
Edited by Kelly Clasen
Award not enough for Chenowith
By Matt Tait
Kansas Jayhawk center not satisfied by receiving preseason accolade
By Matt Tait
events@kansan.com
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Earlier this summer, Kansas center Eric Chenowith was selected to Playboy Magazine's pre-season All-America team, an honor he was quite proud of. At the same time, however, Chenowith was reluctant for the selection to have any real meaning.
Amidst the college football world's Heisman Trophy hype and preseason promises and predictions, college basketball is conducting a version of the same.
"It's the best honor I've gotten for now, other than honorable mention All-American last season," he said. "But I don't want to get satisfied with that—it's all preseason."
that -- it's an proclamation. Chenowith joined Big 12 Conference players Texas center Chris Mihm and Oklahoma forward Eduardo Najera on the team, and said that hanging out with those guys and others who were selected was a summer highlight.
"That was a first class weekend," he said.
said. Other summer highlights for Chenowith included those of a normal
college student. He hung out with friends back home in California, played lots of basketball, went to the beach and went to Dave Matthews Band concerts, eight of them to be exact.
Listed at 7 feet and 235 pounds, Chenowith said he was in really good shape and has worked all summer to get there. During the summer he lifted weights four days a week, ran long distance two days a week and shot in gym nearly every day.
Chenwith, a junior, joins the ranks of upperclassman this season and he said that the honor of being selected to Playboy's team has motivated him to work harder in the off season.
His weight lifting focused mainly on his upper body and his distance running was done in hopes that he would retain his quickness and stamina.
Specifically what he worked on was developing a jump hook shot from the block. He and a coach of his made a pact that he would have to make 25 every day, which he did.
Along with the jump hook, Chenowith has focused his off season work on getting to the basket more from the perimeter, getting stronger and preparing to become more of a leader on the team.
"I like the shot a lot," he said. "I wasn't a big fan of it when I came here because I thought it took you out of rebounding position."
One of last season's leaders, forward
Former Kansas Forward
"He'll be a very good leader. He learned to lead by example and he's learning to be more vocal.."
T. J. Pugh
Although Pugh said the role of team leader was not something he and the other seniors from a year ago talked about with the underclassmen, he anticipates the system working as usual.
"He'll be a very good leader," Pugh said. "He learned to lead by example, and he's learning to be more vocal."
T. J. Pugh, who graduated last May, said that he thinks Chenowith will have no problem becoming a leader.
"The older you get in the system the more natural a leader you'll become," Pugh said.
Chenowith said he understands that and is ready and willing to embrace the role.
"Towards the end of last year we hinted as to who would need to step up," Chenowith said. "I am an upper-classman now, and I think I'm going to become more of leader this year."
Being selected as a member of Playboy's preseason All-American team is a good start.
Kansas center, Eric Chenowith, goes up for a block during the Sprint Shootout last year. Chenowith was recently named to Playboy Magazine's preseason All-American team. Kansas file photo
Fighting Irish should be wary of improved Kansas football
Call it the department store escalator effect.
While Notre Dame's football program is headed down toward the basement of college football, the Kansas Jayhawks continue to ascend.
It's the Fighting Irish, after all, who recently have run up a rap sheet uglier than alumni Regis Philbin's toupee. Point shaving and illegal contact with boosters are two of many illegal charges confronting Notre Dame into
the next millennium.
Michael T.
Rigg
columnist
email@kansan.com
These allegations are on the brink of making Notre Dame's once-proud program into history. This is just one of the reasons why Kansas can not only stay competitive on Saturday, but will pull of the biggest upset in the school's 109-year football history.
Jayhawk fans, be
Kansas boasts the most improved linebacker corps in the Big 12, and the Irish questionable offensive line and two nonname running backs may not be enough to keep the Jayhawks off of Jackson's back.
sure to wave at the Irish as you pass them on the way up to South Bend, Ind. On paper, all signs point to a Notre Dame victory.
The 1999 Irish feature quarterback Jarius Jackson and littie else. Their offensive line features four new starters, and coach Bob Davie has elected to go with two inexperienced guys named Tony at running back, platooning junior Tony Driver with sophomore Tony Fisher.
The question marks for the Irish also linger on the defensive side of the ball, as Notre Dame lost five standout starters from last season's unit. The Jayhawks' receivers are too strong for an inexperienced defense to hold down, while the quarterback competition has improved both Zac Wegner and Dylen Smith immensely.
Of course, this is in complete contrast to earlier times when Irish greats such as Tony Rice, Rick Mirer, Ron Powlus and Raghib "Rocket" Ismail left South Bend and went on to "illustious" pro careers. Last time I checked, Mirer and Ismail were overrated backups, while the last time I saw Rice and Powlus, they were collecting my garbage. Also, Notre Dame missed a bowl in 1996 for the first time in 10 years and have put together two unconvincing seasons since then.
The Irish, after all, have won 11 National Championships, boasted seven Heisman Trophy winners, are in possession of the nation's only premiere television contract, and, until recently, had a reputation as golden as the dome on which their campus is centered.
But that was then. This is now.
The Irish have fallen on hard times since their glory days of the early 1990s (which, coincidentally, ended with a clipping penalty in the 1991 Orange Bowl) and are looking to regain its place among college football's elite. They can't. The program's too overrated, the boosters are too corrupt, the movies about the school are too b-qualify, and, after Saturday's Kansas upset, the team will have fallen too far.
I'm not saying that Kansas has the better team or the better program. But you have to like the way they match up against the Irish. The 1999 Kansas Jayhawks are too determined and not intimidated enough to lose to the Irish during this improbable bowl season.
Kansas 31, Notre Dame 28.
Kansas wins again Bizarre, indeed.
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Rigg is a Greenwood Village, Colo., sophomore in journalism.
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