8B the university daily kansan
sports
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thursday,may 6,2004
RECRUITING: Many prospects in key year
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on my decision," he told Rivals.com. "He's had a lot of success in college and in the NBA. He knows a lot about the game, has a great feel for the game and is the person that could develop me into a great player. Yes, coach Manning could have a big impact on my decision."
Mario Chalmers, 6-foot-1, 165 pounds, Point Guard, Bartlett HS, Anchorage, Alaska.
Rivals.com ranks Chalmers as the No. 25 recruit in the nation, as well as one of the country's elite high school point guards. Landing Chalmers would be huge for the Jayhawks, as he would be the likely successor right away to Aaron Miles. Kansas is in Chalmers' top-3 list of schools, which also includes Arizona and Wake Forest. An advantage for the Jayhawks is that both Arizona (Mustafa Shakur) and Wake Forest (Chris Paul) have stellar young point guards who will both be just sophomores next season. Both could also make the NBA leap, though, if they avoid a sophomore slump. Chalmers will take his official visit to Kansas next weekend, and has become a fan of
coach Self.
"Mario has followed coach Self since his days at Illinois," Chalmers' father, Ronnie Chalmers, told Rivals.com. "He is a genuine man that gave us a great presentation. It was great because we did not spend the entire time talking about basketball."
talking about backups.
Micah Downs, 6-foot-8, 185
pounds, Shooting Guard, Bothell
Hos. Bothell, Wash.
A 6-foot-8 shooting guard is enough to make any college coach salivate. Downs will be visiting Kansas next weekend as well. He has clearly indicated on his final list of three schools - Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas - that Kansas is well in the lead.
"It's going to be tough for the other schools to overtake that lead," Downs told Rivals.com. "Coach Self is a real outgoing guy, which is something I like about him. He wants to build a relationship with me outside of basketball." Other names to remember:
Julian Wright, 6-foot-8, 200 pounds, Small Forward, Homewood HS, Flossmoor, Ill.
Rivals.com Rank -12
Rivals.com rank 14
Brandon Costner, 6-foot-9,
230 pounds, Power Forward,
Seton Hall Prep, East Orange,
N.J. Rivals.com Rank - 18
David Huertas, 6-foot-5, 190 pounds, Combo Guard, Arlington Country Day HS, Jacksonville, Fla. Rivals.com Rank - 19
Tyler Smith, 6-foot-7, 210 pounds, Small Forward, Giles County HS, Pulaski, Tenn. Rivals.com Rank -24
Bobby Frasor, 6-foot-3, 180 pounds, Combo Guard, Brother Rice HS, Chicago, Ill. Rivals.com Rank: 33
Rank 93
- Chris Douglas-Roberts, 6-foot-5, 170 pounds, Combo Guard, Cass Tech HS, Detroit, Mich. Rivals.com Rank -41
■ Marcus Williams, 6-foot-6,
185 pounds, Small Forward,
Roosevelt HS, Seattle, Wash.
Rivals.com Rank - 64
Terrence Williams, 6-foot-7,
207 pounds, Combo Guard,
Rainier Beach HS, Seattle,
Wash., Rivals.com Rank - 69
(Williams will make his official
visit to Lawrence next weekend)
C. J. Henry, 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Shooting Guard, Putnam City HS, Oklahoma City, Okla. Rivals.com Rank - 89
— Edited by Nikki Nugent
Labonte stays consistent
NASCAR
The Associated Press
Bobby Labonte is NASCAR's stealth racer.
Unlike teammate Tony Stewart, whose off-track tantsrums keep him in the headlines, Labonte generally goes about his business without the fanfare.
"Other people just get more attention than we do," Labonte said. "I guess we probably do keep a low profile. We don't hunt
extracurricular stuff."
He certainly hasn't generated any headlines in the first 10 races this year. Still, Labonte is ninth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings with three top-five finishes and five top-10s.
He trails leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. by just 188 points and is only 51 points behind Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, who are tied for fifth place.
"We've had a little bit of bad luck or we'd have been higher in
the points," Labonte said, shrugging. "We've had two second-place finishes and we easily could have won both of those races."
"We should have. But at least we ran good."
we're keenly aware of NASCAR's new championship formula, with the top 10 drivers in the standings and any others within 400 points of the leader after the first 26 races eligible for a 10-race "Chase for the Championship."
BASKETBALL: Football should follow basketball
Fifteen of the 65 teams in this year's NCAA Tournament had African-American coaches, and so did all four teams in the NIT Finals.
This success has made it easy for Athletic Directors to hire African-American basketball coaches. College basketball could still do better than 22 percent African-American head coaches, considering that 55.9 percent of its athletes are African American.
Finals.
Paul Hewitt reached this year's national title game with Georgia Tech, and national titles belong to Nolan Richardson and Tubby Smith.
College football, however, needs to catch up in the worst possible way. If its top African-American assistant coaches are given the head coaching jobs they deserve, college football will see the same kind of success that college basketball has achieved.
But that ratio has increased considerably and should continue to grow.
NCAA: Task force formed to combat rash of recruiting violations
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Robinett is a Austin, Texas, junior in journalism
lodging and meals for recruits and end personalized promotions of game-day activities, such as presenting recruits with jerseys that have their names on them.
David Berst, chairman of the recruiting task force, said these measures were meant to reduce the "culture of entitlement," in which recruits have come to expect special treatment.
"What we're really trying to do is shift from an environment where all we are doing is competing with each other and trying to influence a prospect to come to our schools; not necessarily for the right reasons," Berst said.
The NCAA formed the task force in February in response to recruiting scandals that have rocked collegiate athletics this year — most notably at the University of Colorado, where women have alleged they were sexually assaulted at a party where football recruits were present. The task force was charged with reforming the NCAA's recruiting policies to prevent similar scandals from happening in the future.
the future. The task force presented its work to the NCAA Division One Management Council two weeks ago and to the Board of Directors last week. The force is still investigating and its recommendations
have not been finalized.
University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway, NCAA board of directors chairman, said the recruiting issue is an important one for the task force to examine.
examine. "You ought to have a level playing field for recruits." Hemenway said. "The way you do that is convince the student-athlete that this is the best place to come and play and study and be a student- athlete."
Hemenway said Kansas had examined its recruiting practices in the wake of the national scandals and hadn't found any wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, Kansas would
have to adjust some of its practices if the reforms were passed.
Tim Jankovich, assistant men's basketball coach, said Kansas sometimes flew recruits in on private aircraft because it helped Kansas compete with other schools in more favorable locations.
He said if commercial airports and planes were the only available options, schools in metropolitan areas or areas with large pools of talent might gain an advantage.
Other than that, Jankovich said the effects of reform on the University would be mostly insignificant.
"We try not to go overboard in
terms of extravagance," Jankovich said. "We try to show our recruits a pretty realistic perspective of what life will be like when they're here."
beyond the reforms, Hemenway said, it is important for individual universities to root out wrong on their own and not just rely on NCAA rules.
This is also a value that the task force is trying to promote, recommending that institutions also be required to develop their own specific rules regarding treatment of recruits.
Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director for external affairs, said that rules alone would not prevent all infractions.
"You're never going to get 100 percent of the people doing things the right way in any profession," Marchiony said.
He said it was important for a program to hire people who would exercise good judgement.
The task force plans to introduce formal legislative proposals at the end of summer. Then the NCAA will decide whether to adopt them for next year.
Berst said that any number of changes could occur to the recommendations before they are finalized. For example, he said that after its discussion with the management council, the task force decided to look at ways to increase the accountability of schools to abide by new rules. It will also look into reducing the number and duration of official visits a recruit can make.
Edited by Abby Mill
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