Sports
Tomorrow Coverage of tonight's Wichita State/ Kansas baseball game. PLUS: coverage of Kansas' softball game against Missouri.
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The University Daily Kansan
Amanda Kim Stairret/Kansan
Junior outfielder Sean Richardson slid to complete a steal during last Sunday's game against Oklahoma. Kansas lost the three-game series after the 5-2 loss.
State rivals face off
By Ryan Colaiani
rcolaianni@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
When the Kansas baseball team faces Wichita State tonight at Hoglund Ballpark, there will be more on the line than just a notch in the win column. The game has recruiting and pride implications as well.
"We are trying to take a step up and we want to be the best program in the state of Kansas and that goes through Wichita," coach Ritch Price said.
Wichita State has long led the state in college baseball. The Shockers have gone 26 straight seasons with 40 or more wins. The Shockers are 16-3 on the season, and have traditionally dominated the head to head match-ups with the Jayhawks.
But this is Price's team, and he has transformed Jayhawk baseball into a contender, going 57-42-1 in his year and a half at the helm. Price has also helped the Jayhawks close the gap against Wichita State in his two years, the teams split the two games they played last year.
couple of recruiting battles with them this fall for kids next year that turned down Wichita State to sign with us," Price said.
"It's a huge rivalry, and we've won a
Price will be facing legendary coach Gene Stephenson who literally built the Shocker's baseball program from the ground up. Stephenson is 1,422-452-3 in his 27 seasons as head coach.
The Shockers have won eight of their last nine games and are currently ranked 10th in the nation by Baseball America.
SEE STATE ON PAGE 9B
FOOTBALL
Judge sentences Kansas player to two prison days
Kansas football running back John Randle was sentenced Friday to two days in jail and $450 in fines in Lawrence Municipal Court.
Randle was charged with attempted theft, disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a driver's license.
A fourth charge, interfering with the duties of a law enforcement officer, was dismissed.
Randle
The charges were for two separate incidents.
The attempted theft charge was for a Nov.19 incident when he was caught stealing beer from a convenience store in Lawrence.
The disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a driver's license were related to a fight that broke out at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St., on Mar. 5.
SEE RANDLE ON PAGE 9B
MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
Niang considering transfer
San Diego State University received a release allowing them to speak with sophomore Moulaye Niang about transferring, according
to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Niang, who hasn't said publicly that he'd like to leave Kansas, has reportedly been considering a transfer because of a lack of playing time.
Niang
The paper
reports that Niang, a 6-foot-10-inch center, will visit the school some time in the next two weeks.
In Niang were to transfer, it would open a scholarship up for Kansas, possibly making room for 6-foot-6-inch swingman Malik Hairston, who is still considering Kansas.
Kansas associate head coach Norm Roberts has been wooed in recent weeks by two Big East school's with coaching vacancies.
Roberts a wanted man
Former Kansas assistant and former North Carolina head coach Matt Doherty has also interviewed for the post.
St. John's University in New York, who has been looking for a replacement for Mike Jarvis, reportedly interviewed Roberts, a Queens, N.Y., native.
Kansas tops pre-rankings
ESPN.com's college basketball guru Andy Katz has released his pre-pre-season top 25. His number one? The Kansas Jayhawks.
The key question the Jayhawks face, Katz writes, is how well incoming freshman Russell Robinson gels with the rest of the team.
— Henry C. Jackson
Shortstop finds destiny
By Jonathan Kealing
jkealing@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
Kansas sophomore plans to keep softball a part of her future
Sophomore shortstop Destiny Frankenstein has played softball since the age of six and a half. In that time she learned one maxim to live by:
"If you don't love it, don't play it."
"If you don't love it, don't play it. Since those early days, Frankenstein has never stopped playing the sport. Only once did she consider quitting, and that passed like one of her homers passes over the fence.
Frankenstein, who has developed into a key player on the Kansas softball team, will be playing the sport she loves next at 6 p.m. today in Missouri. The Jayhawks, who are 23-16-1 overall, will look to improve their 2-3 Big 12 Conference record against the Tigers.
Frankenstein grew up in Broken Arrow, Okla., a suburb of Tulsa. Even though they replaced "her field" last year, she still can recall the memories from that ball park when she walks out onto the new one.
"It seems like that's what I did when I was little, I played softball," Frankenstein said.
Many American girls play softball but leave because they become disinterested or because they're not good enough to progress past pitching-machine ball. Frankenstein certainly never lost interest and, most spectators will agree, she's good.
Abby Tillery/Kansan
One time early in her career she was surprised by her own strength.
"I overthrew first and hit a cow once, which is probably something you only do in Oklahoma," Frankenstein said. "It was over a fence, across a road and into a pasture."
Destiny Frankenstein, sophomore shortstop, leads the women's softball team with 296 batting average. Frankenstein said it was a struggle to maintain the balance between softball and school.
SEE DESTINY ON PAGE 8B
President pressing for student vote on KUAC
By Joe Bant jbant@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Corporation Board of Directors.
Student Body President Andy Knopp hasn't given up his campaign to give students a vote on the new University of Kansas Athletics
Last month,
Student Senate
passed a petition
outlining the reasons why a voting student should be included on the board that governs the Athletics Department
Knopp
Department.
After its passage in Senate, the petition was distributed to various University bodies, including the Senate Executive Committee, University Council and the Athletics Department.
The petition came in response to KUAC's February vote to restructure. The KUAC board voted to reduce its size from 23 members to five voting members, with the five not including a voting student.
Also at the meeting, Knopp introduced two amendments that would have added a student to the board. Both narrowly failed, one by a single vote.
Board members who voted against the amendments said students would still be represented in Kansas athletics because they would continue to have input in policy decisions, even without a vote.
Knopp said last month's petition indicated Student Senate's agreement that students deserved a vote. Actual change will have to come from the KUAC, but Knopp said he was fairly confident the change would happen.
"As long as everybody shows up to the meeting, it should pass," Knopp said.
He said he believed the amendment's failure last time around was due in part to absent board members, particularly one student member who walked in to the meeting after the board had voted on the issue.
SEE KUAC ON PAGE 9B
Recess is back
Danny Mason, Omaha, Neb., Junior and Asja Eckertson, Lawrence freshman, fought over a ball during a dodgeball scrum yesterday on the lawn in front of Strong Hall. Mason, Eckertson and other students are attempting to start a dodgeball club team at the University of Kansas. "We are a diverse group of individuals that come together to remember a long-forgotten playground sport." Eckertson said.
TALK TO SPORTS: Contact Henry C. Jackson or Maggie Newcomer at SPORTS@KANSAN.COM
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