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SPRING FOOTBALL Major changes are ahead for Kansas football. Page 2B NATION Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett break up. Page 5B
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 1995
For NCAA the money motivates
Fairness and the NCAA; these are two words that never should be said in the same sentence.
SECTION B
CBS commentator Billy Packer made sure that no Kansas fan watching the Jayhawks' disappointing loss to Virginia Friday forgot that the game was being played 40 miles away from Lawrence in Kansas City, Mo.
SPORTS EDITOR
He continually pointed out that the Javahaws
Having a regional final in Kansas City makes sense. No matter who plays there, basketball-hungry fans and alumni will flock to the games. The NCAA isn't worried about fairness. It just wants to know how many tickets and T-shirts can be sold at a location.
Talking about fairness, was it fair for the officials at Friday's game to make Kansas guard Jacque Vaughn take off his lucky rubber band from his wrist? I'm surprised Kansas coach Roy Williams didn't protest the game on the spot — the biggest travesty of the tournament.
were the crowd favorite. And even when the Cavaliers had control of the game, Packer said that having Kansas play in Kemper Arena was a travesty, an unfair advantage.
The NCAA never has been concerned about fairness. Money is the basis for any NCAA decision, always has been and always will.
Vaughn wears a rubber band around his wrist as negative reinforcement for himself. If he makes a mistake, he snaps himself with the rubber band.
After the game, Williams couldn't explain how the Jayhawks lost, but I can. It was unfair to take Vaughn's lucky charm, and that's why Kansas lost. I am now wearing a red rubber band the rest of the school year to memorize the Jayhawks' controversial defeat.
That makes as much sense as Packer's complaints about the regional site. Forget that Kansas senior center Greg Ostertag couldn't catch the ball, no Jayhawk could hit a three-pointer and the free-throw line was an execution line for Kansas. Forget that Virginia's tempo and solid defense took Kansas out of its game. Those factors must have had nothing to do with why Kansas lost — the Jayhawk fanatics just didn't cheer loud enough.
Finally, at the end of the game, Packer admitted that he thought the crowd would have more of an impact on the game than it did. Thank goodness that he is a commentator instead of any of us, laymen when it comes to real basketball knowledge.
I thought that Packer was professional enough to shy away from that commentary and get to the real differences between the two teams. Maybe he will learn from this and other instances.
If Packer was right, maybe the Connecticut women's basketball team had an unfair advantage as well even though the Huskies are undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation. After all, the Huskies played all four of their tournament games in their own arena.
Why? The NCAA knew that the games would be sellouts. Money, money and more money.
The NCAA seems like such a nice organization, looking out for the student-athlete and regulating in the name of fairness.
It's so nice that it hasn't moved the College World Series from Omaha, Neb., in the name of tradition even though there are other bigger cities bidding for the championship. But what many don't know is that the NCAA keeps the series in Omaha because it has the city in a choke hold. Every few years the NCAA threatens to take away the series, and every year Omaha is forced to increase the seating at Rosenblatt Stadium. The capacity already has increased from 15,000-21,672 in the last six years.
Gerry Fay (pronounced Gphy I) is an Omnibus, Neb., student in Journalism.
Why? Money, money and more money.
You just can't win...
Three possible sites for the Big 12 headquaters are Dallas, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo. One of the 12 universities would be more than 500 miles from the headquarters if any of the three is chosen.
Noah Musser/KANSAN
Big 12 office may fly south
Leader picked; other questions abound
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
The hiring of Steve Hatchell as the Big 12 Conference's first commissioner answered the question of who will lead the new league.
But other questions were left unanswered.
Still to be discussed are the location of the new conference's headquarters, the city where league tournaments will be played and whether the conference might be split into North and South divisions.
"It's going to be a long time before those decisions are made," Kansas men's basketball coach Roy Williams said.
But speculation is rampant, especially about the location of the Big 12 headquarters. The rumored sites are Kansas City, Mo., Dallas and Oklahoma City. The Big Eight headquarters are now in Kansas City.
Mo., and the tournament is played at Kemper Arena there.
Some have said that Hatchell, the Southwest Conference commissioner, would favor the Texas schools, Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Baylor, in Big 12 decisions. Some viewed Hatchell as the SWC's commissioner candidate and Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick as the Big Eight Conference candidate.
Hatchell does not have ties solely to the SWC. He worked as the sports information director at Colorado and was the director of the Big Eight's service bureau as well as associate and interim commissioner.
"I like to think my closeness with the people in the Big Eight over the years has remained very strong, very meaningful," Hatchell said at a news conference on Monday in Kansas City. "To say that I come with any particular mandate or agenda is not accurate at all."
Even though the conference does not begin business operations until July 1, 1996.
the expectations already are mounting for Hatchell.
"The expectations in a lot of ways are enormous," Hatchell conceded. "But there's a lot of excitement, too."
Some of that excitement was expressed by Kansas women's tennis coach Chuck Merzbacher. The addition of the four Southwest Conference schools will bring with it two top 40 teams, Texas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns have been nationally ranked as high as No. 2 this season.
Merzbacher said he hoped his team was not forced into a northern division and the cooler weather that would go with it.
"Southern schools would have the advantage in the split," he said. "You don't want it to be a detrimental split."
However, Merzbacher and Bockrath both said they felt Hatchell would do what was in the best interest of the Big 12.
"Right now, you've got a lot of growing pains," Merzbacher said. "That's just natural."
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Kansas senior Manny Ortiz returns a forehand shot against New Mexico. Kansas lost the match, winning only one set against the Lobos.
Kansas tennis loses despite its national rankings
Sean R. Crosier / KANSAN
"We got hammered," Kansas tennis coach Michael Center said. "They played harder, better and more intensely than we did. We got outplayed and outcoached. We didn't deserve to win. We didn't do anything right."
Sweet revenge for New Mexico
KANSAN
By Robert Moczydlowsky Kansan sportswriter
The New Mexico Lobos feasted on Jayhawk yesterday at Alvamar Racquet Club, leaving nothing behind but a downrodden Kansas team and a couple of loftener feathers.
In interviews before yesterday's match, Kansas coaches and players stressed the importance of playing focused, emotional tennis against the No. 14 Lobos.
But what happened on the court appeared to be just the opposite.
"This was probably the worst performance by a team I've coached," Center said. "When you have a big match like that, you have to come out excited to play. When I woke up today I was excited for us to play. I didn't see any of that in our players' eyes. I just don't know how to describe it."
The New Mexico team came to Lawrence with a chip on its shoulder. Earlier in the season the Jayhawks traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., and escaped with a 4-3 win over the Lobos.
Kansas' chances at a season sweep
of the Lobos slipped away early in the match when New Mexico won all three doubles matches to earn the day's first point.
The three losses were uncharacteristic of the Jayhawks, whose most consistent weapon has been their doubles play.
"We lost serve right away in doubles, and it went from there," Center said. "We've dominated in doubles all year. Today we didn't care about a big match."
Two of the three Jayhawk tandems are nationally ranked — No. 12-ranked juniors Reid Slattery and Mike Isroff and No. 31-ranked freshman Enrique Abaroa and junior J.P. Vissepo. Yesterday marks the first time this season that both teams have lost on the same day.
"We got some respect with the ranking," Kansas senior Manny Ortiz said. "We started to think that we were pretty good. We can't think that way though because everybody wants a piece of us."
New Mexico was even more dominant in singles play, winning all but one set in four matches. Abaroa, the third Jayhawk to play at the No. 1 singles spot in as many matches, was defeated by No. 37-ranked Tad Berkowitz, 6-3, 6-3.
Senior Martin Erikkson, who was the Jayhawks' No.1 when the two teams played in January, has struggled as of late and was not in yesterday's Kansas lineup.
"We can either fall down and feel sorry for ourselves or we can come to practice tomorrow ready to work and defend our conference title," Center said. "We'll see what happens tomorrow."
Kansas baseball team stops defending champs
Kansas 6, Oklahoma 5
KANSAS (10-16)
| | ab | r | h | rbl |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| dh Turney | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| rf Headley | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| b3 Wilhelm | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| c English | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 1b King | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2b Kliner | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| if Igou | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| cf Byrd | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| ss Rude | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 33 | 6 | 9 | 5 |
| | ab | r | h | rbl |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| cf Thomas | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2b Zeppa | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| f Brown | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| 3b Paul | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| ss Hills | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| c Flores | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| p/dh Shackelford | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1b R. Minor | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ph/1b D. Minor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| br Bradshaw | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| rf/ph Hanson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
**Totals** | **36** | **10** | **5** | **0** |
OKLAHOMA(16-8)
Kansas  IP H R ER BB SO
Garola 7.18 4 3 1 2 0
Keens 1.2 2 1 1 2 0
Oklahoma  IP H R ER BB SO
Shackelford.30 6 4 4 2 2
Glacee 4.0 3 2 1 3 6
Wimot 1.0 0 0 1 0 1
Oklahoma's Minor not a factor in game
O E-Uzepada, KU-Wilheim DP
Kansas 2.1OB Kansas 9, Oklahoma
3 BU 3Oradshaw, Brown 2,
Thomas, KU-English, King HR
UK-English(2) BU-Oflues, Thomas,
KU-Igou.
By Tom Erickson
Kansan sportswriter
Valerie Crow / KANSAN
Kansas survived a late-inning rally by No. 11 Oklahoma to claim a 6-5 victory last night at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium.
With the win, Kansas evened its Big Eight Conference record at 2-2 and uppped its overall mark to 10-16. Kansas sophomore pitcher Robert Garola (2-2) struck out five in 7 1/3 innings on his way to the victory, and freshman Robert Keens finished the game for his third save of the season.
The Jayhawks took a 6-2 lead into the top of the inighth, but the Sooners scored two in the inning and added another in the ninth before Kansas turned a double play to end the game.
Kansas coach Dave Bingham said Garola threw a good game.
"Robert did a great job," he said. "He had them confused and finally got in a good rhythm and had good control."
Garola said making good pitches was the kev to beating Oldahoma.
Kansas shortstop Dan Rude advances to first base on a walk. He later scored a run, helping the Javahawks beat the Oklahoma Sooners 6-5.
"I came into the game thinking I had to throw strikes to get people out," he said. "I tried to stay on top of the plate and throw strikes and was able to get them to ground out and pop up."
Oklahoma scored single runs in both the first and third innings before the Jayhawks answered with four in the bottom of the third. Senior shortstop Dan Rude scored the first run for Kansas on a bases-loaded wild pitch by Sooner junior pitcher Brian Shackelford (1-2).
Senior third baseman Brent Wilhelm then drove in junior designated hitter Brian Turney on a fielder's choice to even the score at 2-2 with one out. Senior catcher Brandon English followed Wilhelm with a double. The line drive knocked in sophomore right field Justin Headley and put Kansas ahead 3-2.
English scored the final run of the inning on a solid hit to left field off the bat of senior first baseman Alex King. King then took too big of a turn off second base and was thrown out by Oklahoma senior shortstop Rich Hills.
After a two-out single by junior second baseman KJiln Kissler, senior left fielder Josh Igoh flew out to right field to end the inning.
The Jayhawks increased their lead in the seventh inning when Wilhelm reached on an error to lead off. English followed with a towering two-run home run off Oklahoma junior reliever Derek Glascoe to give Kansas a 6-2 lead.
"I just gook up on a fastball," English
said of the hit. "I was just trying to get Wilhelm over, but it did the job."
Oklahoma junior first baseman Ryan Minor was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his 1995 baseball debut. Minor missed Oklahoma's first 23 games because he is also a member of
the Sooner basketball team.
The two-game series will conclude at 3 p.m. today. Junior pitcher Jamie Splittorff (2-4) will start for Kansas, and the defending national champions will counter with junior Mark Redman (5-2).