BASKETBALL Oklahoma's Minor is Big Eight Player of the Year, Page 2B
HOCKEY NHL Notes. Page 3B
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 7. 1995
Kansas awaits seeding
'Hawks don't have lock on NCAA No. 1 seed yet
MEN'S TENNIS
By Christoph Fuhrmans Kansan sportswriter
When Jayhawk fans fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets Monday, they might want to copy Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton's bracket.
After the No. 2 Jayhawks defeated the No. 20 Cowboys for the Big Eight Conference championship Sunday, Sutton said that Kansas had a chance to advance to the Final Four.
Sutton affirmed that recommendation when he recently told the media that he thought UCLA and Kansas would be in the title game.
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Kansas coach Roy Williams said he didn't mind Sutton's prediction.
"Well I hope he's right," he said.
"I'd take that and go to the golf course a happy guy. But it's the same thing you always have when you're getting ready to play somebody — the opposing coach acts like your the best thing since sliced bread."
"I do think that you can use the (conference) tournament like that to really improve your team and see how they react to playing one day and turning right around and playing the next," Williams said. "Being able to make adjustments on the run like that is something that you're going to have to once you get into (NCAA) tournament play."
Williams said winning the conference tournament this weekend could help solidify a No.1 seed for Kansas and prepare the team for the NCAA tournament.
But Williams said that he wasn't concerned with the Jayhawks being one of the four No.1 seeds.
Kansas might not be as good as sliced bread, but the Jayhawks could be good enough to earn a No. 1 seed. Kansas will learn of its seeding Sunday when the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee announces the 64-team field.
Juniors Mike Isroff and Reid Slattery, the No. 5 doubles team in the nation, are undefeated so far this spring.
"We went to the Final Four as a No. 3 seed and went to the Final Four as a No. 2 seed," he said. "We didn't have to be a No. 1. Seed those years to make it. We could be a No. 2 seed and still possibly go to Kansas City."
Even though the Midwest regional will be at Kemper Arena, Williams said that he didn't even know Kansas had a chance to play in Kansas City. Mo.
"I don't pay attention to that stuff," Williams said. "But if the sucker was in Maui, by God, then I'll know where that one is. I wouldn't care if I was a 12th seed."
Tennis duo gets the job done
Confidence,work build No.5 ranking
By Robert Moczydlowsky Kansan sportswriter
Reid Slattery and Mike Isroff are one of the most formidable doubles teams in the country. Just don't ask them to describe their successful tennis partnership in one word.
"Focused."
"Focused." Determined."
Determined. "Enthusiastic."
That's three words, guys.
"How about confident?" Isroff suggests.
"Yeah, that's it." Slattery says. "We're confident. That about sums up it."
But there is much more to Isroff and Slattery than one-word descriptions and statistics. The two juniors have played together since their freshman year, and a lot of tight matches and hard work have gone into building the No. 5 national ranking they now hold.
"They are very blue collar," Kansas coach Michael Center said. "They are not a pretty team, but they usually find a way to get it done. They have really evolved as a team."
When they lined up together in 1992, there were few clues of the tandem's impending success. At that time, Kansas men's tennis was in the midst of a team-wide youth movement.
"Mike came here a year before me and redshirted," Slattery said. "We were part of three totally new teams as freshmen.
We had a little success,but nothing really started to get going until last year."
Isroff agreed.
"We got really pumped up after that Kentucky win," he said. "We were wacked up, and that really carried over for us. It was a pretty good rest of the season."
The rest of that season saw the Jayhawks capture their first Big Eight Conference championship since 1988.
The team went on to make an NCAA tournament appearance. Slattery and Isroff competed in the individual tournament as a doubles team, suffering a first-round loss to Paul Rosner and Vaughn Snyman of Alabama-Birmingham, 6-1, 6-1.
To get back to the NCAA tournament, Slattery and Isroff won't have to do anything drastically different. They were dominant in the fall season, winning the Region V championship. Thus far this spring, they are undefeated in dual matches.
"Our focus is not the ranking or our streak," Isroff said. "We need to improve our games in every match, but that comes from hard work and consistency. The ranking is nice to have for the recognition, though."
Slattery and Isroff may be recognized as one of the best tandems in the country, but they are not always considered the best tandem on their own team.
In recent matches, Kansas' entire doubles lineup has looked invincible, and Slattery and Isroff often have lined up at the No. 2 doubles spot behind the pairing of freshman Enrique Abaroa and junior J. P. Visssepo.
"We don't have just one solid doubles team," Center said. "We have three. Some days Reid and Mike are the best, other days they aren't. If you asked them about their record against Manny Ortiz and Victor Fimbres, it would probably be about 2-20."
Taking an occasional back seat to their teammates is fine with Slattery and Isroff, who admit to being the most laidback members of the flamboyant Kansas team.
"We're part of a solid team," issoff said. "We don't mind where we play or how much noise we make. We leave the talking to Manny and J.P. We'll be the guys sitting around listening to our headphones."
The music on those headphones is fairly indicative of their more mellow personalities.
"We're huge Grateful Dead fans," Slattery said, laughing. "We like to relax. If I need to get pumped I'll slip in a little Green Day. That new CD gets you jacked."
Slattery and Isroff admit to discussing their shot at the national title, but they are quick to add that they are by no means the only capable team.
"We feel like we are capable of beating any team in the country," Slattery said. "Doing well at the NCAA's means putting four or five wins together with a little bit of luck."
Isroff agreed, and said that their level of success was entirely up to them.
"The most important thing for us is to continue to help each other," he said. "Our fate is pretty much in our hands."
Lisa Perry / KANSAN
Lincoln, Neb., sophomore, Kit Grove works on his swing during practice at Alvaramer Club.
Bad Kansas weather limits golf teams' practice time
Poor scores mean no fun in the sun
Both teams competed Monday and Tuesday. The women went to the Utah/Dixie Classic in St. George, Utah, while the men played at the Bell South Mobility Golf Classic in Orlando, Fla.
By Jenni Carlson
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas cold forced the KU men's and women's golf teams elsewhere to get their games warmed up.
The women shot a two-day total of 648 and finished 10th in the 18-tournament. With a 898 stroke team total, the men placed 14th out of 21 teams.
Despite escaping from the Kansas winter, the women could not completely elude the elements. One and a half inches of rain fell on the Sunbrook Golf Course on Sunday night causing Monday morning's round to be canceled. Flooding and mud flowing onto the course presented obstacles once the golfers got onto the course Monday afternoon.
"I've never seen flooding like that before," said Kansas senior Michelle
With bad weather, you can't make the progress you need to
make."
Jerry Waugh
Jerry Waugh Kansas women's golfcoach
Uher, who led Kansas, finishing 28th.
SECTION B
"I thought we did fairly well," Kansas women's golf coach Jerry Waugh said. "We weren't able to sustain ourselves on the last three or four holes the last day."
However, Uher said the course conditions didn't make much of a difference because the weather was near perfect on Tuesday.
Not only was the Utah/Dixie Classic the women's first spring competition, but it was also the first time they were able to play outside in more than a week.
Waugh said the Jayhawks' short
games and putting suffered because of it.
"That just takes practice," he said. "With bad weather, you can't make the progress you need to make."
The men had no weather-related problems. Temperatures soared into the 80s in Orlando. But like the women, cold weather limited the team's practice prior to the tournament.
Kansas junior Alan Stearns said not being able to fine-tune their games hurt the Jayhawks. They opened with rounds of 307 and 300 on Monday and sat in 18th place.
"No one had problems striking the ball well; it was the short shots," said Stearns, who led the team with a 221 to finish in a tie for 30th. "After playing awhile, you remember how to do the little things," he said.
Kansas did just that. In the tournament's final round, the Jayhawks posted a team total of 201 and the fifth-best score of the day. The team members started to regain a competitive mindset and got their games into shape, said Kansas junior Dan Rooney.
"We felt more comfortable and calmed down," Rooney said. "We progressively got better. We just need to build on this."
Swimmers prepare for NCAAs
Divers go to zone meet before championships
By Tom Erickson
Kansan sportswriter
Behind closed doors at Robinson Natatorium, several members of the Kansas swimming and diving team have been preparing for the NCAA Championships later this month.
Five Kansas dives left yesterday along with diving coach Don Fearon for the NCAA Zone meet, which takes place Friday and Saturday in Austin. Schools from the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences will attend the event along with a few other schools such as Arkansas and Southern Illinois. Fearon said.
The women's team will compete Thursday through March 18 in Austin, Texas, and the men will swim March 23-25 in Indianapolis.
The Jayhawks will be represented by senior Chris Martin and junior Kris Hoffman from the men's team and senior Erika Rasmusson, junior Michelle Rojohn and freshman Amy Hathaway from the women's side.
Fearon said he was confident that the divers were well prepared for the meet.
"We looked great at Big Eight's and had a good week of practice," he said. "I'm telling them to do it to the end."
Scoring for the Zone meet is a bit different than regular season and conference meets, Fearon said. Competition is held in one- and three-meter springboards and platform diving. Each diver then chooses two events to enter.
Because Kansas does not compete in the platform category, the Jayhawks will enter the other two events. Each diver is given a number of points based on how they place in the two events.
The points are then added up and the top nine women and the top six men advance to the championships in either Austin or Indianapolis.
Kansas' goal is to send one diver from each team to the next level, Fearon said.
Approximately 10 Kansas swimmers have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for the NCAA meets.
"It would be the first time since I've been here to have a girl go," he said. "There is always good competition, so we'll see."
Kansas swimming coach Gary Kempf said that although he had not heard officially which swimmers were eligible to go, he thought there would be six women and two men representing the Jayhawks in Austin and Indianapolis.
Kempf said the swimmers had done well in their practices despite not even knowing if they would be able to go or not.
"They're focused, and their attitude has been fantastic," he said. "Obviously, to have an opportunity to go to the NCAA Championship is quite a privilege, and they are approaching it that way."
Kansas men's senior captain Marc Bontrager is expected to compete in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events at Indianapolis.
"I'm kind of bummed that we only have two guys going," he said. "I'm really excited. It's coming together so well. I have a good chance of winning."
Junior Donna Christensen will most likely be making her first appearance at the championships.
"I'm really excited because all the top swimmers will be there," she said. "I also very nervous."
INTRAMURAL BASKETBALL POLLS
Men's Top 10, as of March 9, 1995
| | Rec | Prev | Pts |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1. Z State (8) | 12-1 | 1 | 80 |
| 2. Dog Pound | 13-2 | 2 | 72 |
| 3. Booger | 11-3 | 3 | 64 |
| 4. Ph Delta Theta A1 | 9-3 | 4 | 56 |
| 5. Addictions | 5-0 | 5 | 44 |
| 6. Delta Chi | 9-3 | 6 | 38 |
| 7. The Aerial Display | 9-1 | 7 | 26 |
| 8. Ph Kappa Psi (Red) | 9-3 | 8 | 24 |
| 9. Zeta Beta Tau | 10-3 | 9 | 22 |
| 10. Beta Theta Pi | 11-3 | 10 | 20 |
Women's Top Five, as of March 9.1995
| | Rec | Prev |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 4U2NV | 4-0 | 1 |
| 2 KUVB | 4-0 | 2 |
| 3 The Pearletts | 6-1 | 3 |
| 4 K.A. | 3-1 | 4 |
| T-5 Alpha Gamma Delta | 9-4 | T-5 |
| T-5 Delta Delta Delta | 9-4 | T-5 |
Co-Rec Top Three, as of March 9,1995
| | Rec | Prev |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1. Smooth Strokers | 4-0 | 1. |
| 2. The Aerial Display | 4-0 | 2. |
| 3. Mayberry | 4-0 | 3. |
.