Thursday, March 1. 1979
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Spring camp nears for Gilmore
Sports Writer
By TONY FITTS
Last year at this time, Andy Glimour was preaching with the KU baseball team, preaching that they would win.
This year, he is still practicing with the ten
ten-second season he is preparing for will be a little difficult.
Gilmore, whose final year as a Jayhawk
"I've been catchin' in organized ball
was one was eight," the "6-2 Gilmore said
Crawford uses basics
John Crawford, KU's 6-7 forward, says that when he was in high school he thought that he would not be successful in college basketball.
Now he's KU's number three scoreer,
averaging just more than 11 points a game.
When Crawford was in high school in Kansas, Mr. He, he says, never watched a Big Eight match.
Now he's on the way to playing in a Big Eight post season tournament there.
Success came to the rubber band man this season. Crawford has started each of KU's 27 games for a chance to be the third leading receiver in the league. Darnell Valentine. Not bad for a virtual rookie who played in only nine games last before becoming an academic casualty.
This season, Crawford says, he's got a course load he can handle—15 hours—and he's progressed through what he says to be well-played basketball—fundamentals.
"I TAID OFF, sticking to the basics," Crawford says, running a brush through his short cropped black hair. "I found out I'm getting by with the basics, so I'll stick it in."
Fundamentals were foreign to Crawford until he started playing organized basketball as a high school sophomore. Before that, he says, he was a freemance ball player, pursuing the sport on outside courts since he was nine years old. Now, he plays in his team's game of his profession Chuck Sanger, still with him, has learned more than what he calls the basics of freedom ball—dribbling, shooting and guarding.
baseball player ended last April 29 when he injured his thumb in a game against Missouri, signed a minor-league contract with the New York Yankees organization and was suspended for two weeks before he goes to training camp this month.
He's learned well, too, as evidenced by his improvements in defense. Against Iowa State he had four steals. For the season, he leads KU in blocked shots, with 54, the second best in the conference. He's ranked fourth on the team in conference game scoring, the second leading rebounder, averaging just more than five a game, behind Mokeski.
CRAWFORD ALSO IS the best pure shooter KU has, hitting a team-high 54.4 percent of his attempts from the field. There's more to that figure than accuracy. It's patience, something the KU squad has had a hard time acquiring this season.
"I like to take good shots," Crawford
说. "I like to square off, I open
ake shots."
"I'm just being natural."
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So, naturally, Crawford hits a combination of 15-footers, dunks, tips and turnaround jumpers—every game. He probably is the best follow-through shooter Kansas has. Not only does he successfully follow on his misses, but also on his teammates'.
If I cease, 175-pound fluid forward has a problem, it will be his temper. And he thinks he has it litched. Following an ejection in last week's Colorado game on his fifth foul for some shoving, Crawford was on his way to the Cycles and their villainous Dean Uthoff. A reputation for losing his cool with any given team in the league in any given town.
University Daily Kansan
"I've been trying to cool out lately," he says. "I just want to keep my cool.
BUT HE SAYS it won't happen again.
"I can't understand why somebody would try to cause harm to me or my body else, but hitting and pushing underneath, and I just will not stop," she added. "After all, we're all brothers in a sense."
Now, Crawford says, he will concentrate on good defense and the blocked shot, his favorite move in the game, instead of fistfuchs to settle scores.
"I like the crowd loving the block, and the plumber, well. I have him worried the time," he says.
This season, the second time around for Crawford, he has plenty of opponents worried about his improved play and fun with him. He doesn't need to bother them with his fists.
recently. "My dad, who played a little minor league ball, told me and my brother that our best chance to make it in baseball would be as catchers."
Gilmore led the 1978 Jayhawks in homers with eight, and had a 321 batting average, even though he missed the last 10 games of the season.
ACCOUNTING TO Russ Sehon, the Yankee scout who signed Gilmore, his left-handed power will be an advantage if he makes it to the Yankees.
"Center and right field are about nine miles deep in Yankee Stadium," he said.
Gilmore hasn't set his sights quite that high for his first professional season. He hopes to be assigned to Fort Lauderdale in the League, the Yankees' Class A team.
"I want to go somewhere where I'll be able to play," he said. "And I can't complain about it."
Another possibility would be one of the Yankees' two rookie league teams. But Gilmore doesn't look forward to that prospect.
"Because of my age," he said, "they'd probably cut me before they assigned me to
GLMORE IS 22, about four years older than most of the players on a rookie team.
He is assigned to the Yankees' cookie league team in Oneonta, N.Y., but this is only a temporary assignment, necessary because he was signed as a free agent. Final assignments will be made later in spring training.
Gilmore suffers another possible disadvantage besides his age. His injured thumb has kept him from playing for almost a year.
"I'm not used to that much time off," Glimore said. "Usually I play baseball from January to October or November, depending on the weather.
"WHEN I FIRST hurt the thumb, I went back and caught the rest of the nanking. I was scared."
"I went to the doctor, and he worked it around—he laid it back up along my forearm. I didn't want him to operate, but when he asked me if I ever wanted to open a car door with my left hand, let alone catch a baseball. I decided to let him cut."
"I since I got the cast off, I've been working on my hand—squeezing balls and hand exercisers—and it's back to 100 percent, as far as I can tell."
The time off can affect a player as much as the actual injury, according to Sehon.
"AFTER A YEAR off, he said," Andy will have to work to regain his timing, rather than any loss of skills. It's like typing or riding a bicycle—you never really forget the skills, but the timing isn't as good after time off."
"Last summer," Gilmore said, "after they took the cast off and I had a while to work on the hand. I tried to play a little baseball in a league out in Hays.
"I got jammed really bad one day during practice, and the hand swelled up to where it hurt."
"But this winter, I've been taking batting practice off a pitching machine, and it hasn't bothered me at all—and the machine has jammed me as bad as any pitcher."
Gilmore has been spending most of his time for the last few weeks in Allen Field House, running, lifting weights and taking batting practice with Lee Ice.
ICE WAS THE Jayhawk third baseman last year. He will be going to training camp with the Kansas City Royals organization this month.
"Ron MacDonald has been coming over twice a week and working out with us," Glumare said. "He's one of those guys who's had a lot of fun, and he's spun Lee and I—make us run step by step."
Macdonald joined the Jayhawks from 1975 through 1977. He signed with the Nets in 1980 and was a member of the
Sebon said that Gilmore would be doing a lot of running when he gets to camp, along with a lot of throwing, and a lot of batting practice.
"Andy will be able to show his potential in batting practice," he said. "In the past, he has lacked consistency in hitting, which is something he needs to develop.
"He also needs to develop a quick release from behind the plate with runners on base."
GILMORE SAID, "I need to go down there and relax. I've always been a slow starter. If I go 0 for 19 at the beginning of camp like I did at the beginning of last season, I won't get much of a chance to prove I can do better.
"Right now, I'm just getting totally prepared so I can relax and play when I get ready."
"If I go down there in shape, I think I can make it."
Staff photo by CHRIS TODD
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