University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 22, 1989
Sports
13
After first practice, Mason sees team improvements
by Scott Achelpohl
Kansan sportswriter
After one day of practice, Kansas football coach Glen Mason said he saw evidence of improvement last year's first spring practice.
"We played pretty good for the first day of practice," said Mason. "I think we've come a lot further than we think why things are going smoother.
An obvious problem with this year's team was its lack of depth, Mason said, but the team was enthusiastic.
The team went through a two-hour workout yesterday including passing drills, individual drills and five-player scrimmages on the main practice field behind Allen Field House.
Mason said the Jayhawks were in better physical condition than at the beginning of last year's spring conditioning program.
"We had 76 total bodies in practice today," he said. "We had no injuries today. I like spring practice long as everyone stays health."
Mason said he had some very
simple objectives for his team after the first day of spring drills.
"During the spring, we want to work on some things offensively and improve our fundamentals," Mason said.
Mason said 6-foot, 185-pound senior quarterback Kelly Donohoe performed well in the first spring practice.
He said competition at the outside linebacker position also should be intense this spring.
Familiarity between coaches and players, something that was lacking last spring, was already reaping advantages, he said.
Mason said competition at the tailback position between 5-6, 175-pound sophomore Tans Sands and 5-10, 195-pound junior Frank Browne. The sophomore spring practice and should be prominent as spring drills continue.
"Sands is a good, tough football player," Mason said. "Hatchett has big play potential."
During the last huddle before practice ended, Mason said he wanted his team to be aggressive not be afraid of making mistakes.
Kansas football players ran onto the practice field behind Anschutz Sports Pavilion for the first day of spring practice yesterday.
Major colleges get American big men, forcing smaller schools to look abroad
Kansan staff writer
Vincentines University basketball coach Dana Sparks went out of his way to recruit big men — several thousand miles out of his way.
Sparks had trouble competing with large schools for big players and turned to sources in Nigeria. Through word of mouth, Sparks learned of Olof Agbaji and James Odhe
Sparks, whose team competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association, said he found the Nigirians to be great students and athletes, but as basketball players, they lacked basic skills.
"They don't have any fundamentals, Sparks said. "You have to start them from scratch. They don't get there by playing basketball over there, just pick-up."
Although Sparks is pleased by the progress of Agaiji and Odeh, he said the risks involved in recruiting in Nigeria outweighed the advantages.
"I'm not going to go back to Nigeria," he said. "It's still Third World. Hell, they've got road blocks and machine guns. The kids are nice, but to go into Lagos (the capital) and come home is one of your better places to travel."
Sparks heard about Odeh and Agbaji from a friend and started writing them letters. After signing the two Nigerian players, Sparks said a link was established that was hard to break.
"Once you get (a player), they're writing all their friends back there telling them where they are and what they're doing." Sparks said. "I get
three or four letters a month from kids over there who want to come over here and play.
"If you ever went over there and saw that country, you'd want to leave. too."
Because American big men usually go to bigger schools, small schools and junior colleges have to look abroad. Snarks said.
"You can get some big kids over here," he said, "but the problem is that the big kids that are going to impact players that we used to get in junior college  the four-year schools are sitting those kids out."
Another problem with American big men is that many who don't qualify under Proposition 48 choose to attend a four-year school and lose a year of eligibility instead of playing at a junior college, he said.
"With Proposition 48, they can't play or practice with the team, but they go ahead and get them in their schools anyway." Sparks said. "We can get good players but not great players like the (bob) McAdoos and the Warrior's." The team used to go to junior college, then be used to sit them out."
Nebraska's Pete Manning, a native of Jamaica who played high school basketball in New York, said he was a graduate or college because of Proposition 48.
"one of the main reasons was I didn't have a 2.0 (grade point average). I would have had to sit out a year, but now I'm a four-year school." Manning said.
Manning said that coming to college with only limited playing time in the United States left him at a
disadvantage and that playing junior-college ball helped improve his game.
Manning played one year at Hutchinson Community College, where he averaged 7.2 points and 5.2 rebounds a game. He redshifted a year and transferred to Seminole (Okla) Junior College when Hutchinson coach Gary Bargen went to Nebraska as an assistant. Manning averaged 13.2 points and 10.7 rebounds at Seminole.
"My only regret is having only two years here (at Nebraska)," he said. "Those two weeks go by so quickly."
Even players from Brazil, where basketball is popular, have trouble adapting to a new style of basketball.
"We improve a lot on our defense," said Caio Da Silvaire, a 6-foot-8, 23-year-old sophomore forward for the College of Southern Idaho. "We play a very soft defense. Our game is mostly based on offense, shooting a lot and stuff. The coaches don't care a lot about defense. There is more contact here. It is more rude, more physical."
Da Silveira originally planned on staying only one season at Southern Idaho but changed his mind after playing basketball in the United States.
"I was tired of school and tired of my girlfriend." he said. "I wanted something new. I came only for one season, but I changed my mind because of the school and the opportunity to learn."
The Southern Idaho team has four Brazilians: Da Silveira, Jose Jube, Sergio Gomes, and Caio Guidon.
In Brazil, basketball is not as
popular and therefore not as competitive as the nation's number one snort, soccer. Da Silveira said.
Sparks said his Nigerian players were academically gifted.
"They're real good kids," he said. "They're 4.0 students. They work hard, they want to learn. They are intuitive of everything you do for them."
Not all of their peers share the enthusiasm that Southern Idaho coach Freed Trankle and Sparks have for recruiting foreign athletes. While Sparks and Trankle still schools to the abroad, Sparks and Trankle are still in the minority.
San Jacinto College Central, which has won the National Junior College Athletic Association crown three times in the 1980s and took third in 1989, has produced a number of great players including Walter Berry of the Houston Rockets and Alon Lister of the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA.
San Jacinto has never recruited outside of the United States.
"We've always been successful recruiting American kids," said San Jacinto coach Scott G庸德尔. "And we we've had to go looking elsewhere."
"I get calls all the time: 'There's a kid over there and he's so big.' It's like Akeen Olaijuwan. Everybody thinks there's one of him everywhere. We could come up here some year, and I might have an African center and a Venezuelan guard. It could happen. It's just that we don't go looking for it. I think there are enough good players in America."
Rose to be banned if betting charges aren't just rumors
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Pete Rose is accused of betting on baseball and could be banned from the game if he does it. The court trated said in this week's issue.
The magazine quoted an unidentified source as saying that the Cincinnati Reds manager "exchanged signals somehow relating to baseball betting" from the dugout at Riverfront Stadium.
SI also reported allegations that the all-time hit leader placed bets on baseball through friends.
Under Major League Rule 21-1d, if Rose bet on games in which his team was not involved, he would be suspended for one year. If Rose bet on games involving the Reds, he would be banned for life.
In another report released yesterday in Gentleman's Quarterly, Rose was rumored to have lost $13,000 in one day at a raracket. Rose's ex-wife and daughter were released from the magazine's April issue, his daughter calling him "the world's worst father."
Karolyn Rose, however, said she was misquoted in the story and said her former husband "has never bet on baseball. Never."
In the GQ story, she is quoted as saying her former husband once refused to acknowledge a gamble he had received a dead fish in the sea.
"He said he was Pete Rose, and he didn't have to pay no gambling debts," GQ quoted her as saying.
"We didn't expect anything from him, except to just like us. All we ever did was love him and want him to love us back," she said.
Rich Levin, a spokesman for the commissioner's office, said baseball officials had no comment on the baseball betting report, other than Monday's statement that they were investigating "serious allegations" against Rose. Baseball's top officials were briefed on the investigation yesterday at a meeting in Phoenix.
Sports Illustrated, in its March 27 issue, said Ron Peters, the owner of a restaurant in Franklin, Ohio, 40 miles north of Cincinnati, had been linked to possible baseball betting involving Rose.
It said that Alan Statman, Peters' lawyer, described his client as Rose's "principal bookmaker" and approached Sl last week in hopes of selling Peters' magazine the magazine said it declined.
Rose has admitted betting on horse and dog races and has denied betting on college basketball. He previously had not been linked to the teams by Sports Illustrated as saying, "I'd be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball."
Tennis captain says her game is at its best yet
bv Laurie Whitten
Kansan sportswriter
Since her freshman season on the Kansas tennis team, captain Susie Berglund said her tennis game had steadily improved.
Berglund, a 5-foot-8 Salina senior, has moved up from the No. 6 to the No. 2 position since coming to Kansas as a freshman, and has established a 61-41 record. Although she is currently bothered by shin spines, Berglund said her senior year had been the best of her tennis career.
"I'm playing better tennis now than I have my whole life," she said. ("Couch (Eric) Hayes has taught me to play tennis well, and I'm good shape mentally and physically."
Berglund said the best singles match she ever played was against 23th-ranked Clemson on March 11, when she defeated No. 2 Diana Van
Gulick 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Hayes, who has coached Bergland since 1988, said that the younger girls viewed Bergland as the team's player. Bergland is Kansas' only senior.
"That was personally a good win for me," Bergland said. "She had beaten several girls that I had lost to, and that I was able to keep her down."
He said that Berglund had the lead early in the Clemson match, but started to fall behind in the second set and was forced to finish aggr-
"They look at Susie as their role model," Hayes said. "When I put them through tough situations, such as the Clemson match, a lot of them don't react until they see how Susie is going to react."
"I think Susie is playing better than ever, and I predict good things for her at the end of the season. Right now she's been bothered by injuries
letting up in the middle of a match but not that time,” Hayes said. “She’s got a toughness work ethic and she doesn’t stand out the points in tough situations.
"She'd been having trouble with
— her shins are hurting her — so my main concern is that she stays healthy for the Big Eight (Conference Championships) in May."
An accounting major and Jayhawk scholar, Berglund was medically redshirted in the fall of 1984 because shin splints and did not play at the varsity level until the spring of 1986. At the Big Fight Championships that year he received three singles, detaining Iowa State's Kathy Reinger 6-4, 6-2.
placed fourth in the conference in No 5 singles. In 1988, she and Mindy Pelz, Malibu, Calif., sophomore, was third in the conference in No 3 dancers.
"Everyone, including myself, is playing the best they have played all year," she said. "This is the best team." She agreed. I predict we'd do well at Bie Eight.
In both 1987 and 1988. Berglund
This year, Berglund said she hoped to do well in the conference's No. 2 singles division.
"I watch these younger girls as they progress, and I have a lot of respect for them. Coach got a great bunch of recruits."
Laura Hagemann, a Dallas freshman, said the younger Jayhawks depended on Berglund for support during practices and matches.
"Susie is an excellent role model," Hagemann said.
A roof overhead may give Syracuse advantage against Missouri in NCAA semifinal matchup
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Syracuse may have an unusual advantage Friday when it takes on Missouri in an NCAA semifinal game in Minneapolis.
The Associated Press
"By them playing in a dome all the
The game will be played in Minneapolis' Metrodome, and it will be the first time all year that the Tigers have played in a domed stadium. Syracuse plays all of its home games in the Carrier Dome.
It could be called the "dome factor."
time it gives them maybe some sort of an advantage." Missouri interim coach Rich Daly said yesterday during his weekly press conference.
Daly said that he feared that playing inside a dome with high ceilings and distant seating might hurt his players' shooting.
To try to help the team adjust, Missouri practiced yesterday inside the Hearnes Center's cavernous field on Thursday. The soft soundly practices and plays.
The field house, which has a ceiling
more than three stories high, is used mostly by the baseball and track teams during the winter. It was outfitted with a basketball court and goals for this week's practice sessions.
"I have never been in the (metro dome), and I've never seen it on TV," Daly said. "But I would imagine it would have more of an effect on us when we get out there on Friday. Our players will feel good about it because they've gotten to prepare in more of a dome atmosphere."
Missouri (29-7) lost to Syracuse (29-7) Nov. 25 in the championship of the Big Apple National Invitational Tournament in overtime 86-44.
"I've watched the (game) film a number of times, and I feel like we both made a lot of mistakes," Daly said.
One aspect of Syracuse's game that worries him is the alley-oop slam dunk. Daly said.
"We are going to work against it because it is a momentum builder," Daly said.
Wet baseball grounds slowing start of season
Coach is keeping an eye on weather
The television set in Kansas baseball coach Dave Bingham's office is usually tuned to the Weather Channel.
Kansan sportswriter
Bingham said that he kept posted on the latest weather reports so that he can be aware of the chances of playing each game.
by Mike Considine
The Jayhawks, 5-10, are scheduled to play a doubleheader against Creighton at 1 p.m. today at Hogland-Maupin Stadium. Yesterday's game against Northwest Missouri State was postponed because of wet grounds. The game has not been rescheduled yet.
"We're much more comfortable here," Bingham said. "We know what to expect, so we won't have to make adjustments."
Five Kansas home games have been canceled or postponed this spring.
The Northwest Missouri State game was to have been the start of an eight-game home stand for the Jayhawks. Kansas has a 2-10 record at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium and is 3-10 on the road this season.
Creighton, 9-5, had a 6-5 record on their spring trip. The Bluejays lost a
"The field (was) soaking wet, and we've had a hard time getting it dried out this spring. Bingham. Who knows what can be done but that the tar on you and it keep it that way."
"They're a well-rounded team," Bingham said. "They have four new starters, so they're kind of a new team in the field, but it's a good program. They can just fill in with more good players."
pair of one-run games to Miami (Florida),ranked fourth by Baseball America Magazine.
Creighton is led by senior pitcher Russ Menczyk, who had an 8-3 record last year. Junior third baseman Pat Mooney is the leading returning hitter. Mooney batted .353 last season.
Bingham said that his starting pitchers would be senior Craig Mulcaby (6-3) in the first game and Brad Hinkle (3-2) in the second.
Behind the plate, sophomore Garry Schmidt will start the first game, and senior Jarrett Boeschen will work the nightcap.
The infield starters are senior Tom Buchanan at first base, senior Pete Simmerson at second base, junior Brian Linder at third base, and senior Mike Byrn at third base.
Bingham said that he had not decided whether senior丹Benninghoff or freshman Jason Spalttie would start in left field. Rightfielder Jeff Mentel and centerfielder Pat will occupy the other outfield spots.
He said that the designated hitter could be junior Jeff Spencer, Benninghoff or Spaltio.