Wednesday, March 26, 1986
Sports
University Daily Kansan
13
Duke maintains its poise despite outside pressures
United Press International
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke's All- America Johnny Dawkins ranks his No. 1 Blue Devils high on low pressure.
"We've played fairly loose for the most part (in the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tour) and Hawkins said after practice yesterday.
"We've had some jitters early in the games, but we got over them fairly rapidly and I think our victories have proven that we are a strong team."
Dawkins is one of four seniors on the 36-2 team who makes Duke's play cohesive and mature. Junior point guard Tommy Amaker, who has started in each of the 103 games of his college career, rounds out the starting five of Dawkins, Mark Alarie,
Jay Bilas and David Henderson.
"We have handled the pressure of the media and all this exposure all season," Dawkins said, "The guys have kept their heads on straight. Our guys have made it fun and not something that is annoying.
"We're going to be keeping a straight head when we go to Dallas," he said. "We know we can get the best of both worlds — having fun while we're there and also being successful."
Duke meets Kansas Saturday for only the second time in their school histories. The last time was in December when the Blue Devils beat Kansas 92-86 on their way to the championship of the inaugural Big Apple National Invitation Tournament.
The second-ranked Jayhawks, 35-3,
lost only two other times this season
and entered the Final Four with a 75-67 victory over North Carolina State in the Midwest Regional final.
Dawkins reiterated coach Mike Krzyzewski's views on the tournament.
Duke became the fourth Atlantic Coast Conference team to reach the Final Four since 1982 by topping Navy, 71-50, in the East Regional final.
"The ACC prepares you for all the hype, because you're always on television," Kryzewski said at a news conference Monday. "We're not going to lock anybody in their rooms; we're going to enjoy the moment."
Alarie, Duke's second top rebounder at 6.2 a game, agreed.
"If you can rise to the top in the ACC, you can rise to the top in any conference." Alarie said. "No one can belittle the ACC."
LSU out to confuse Cardinals by relying on a freak defense
United Press International
BATON ROUGE, La. — The secret to Louisiana State's successful march to the NCAA Final Four on four stunning upset victories was something Tigers head Coach Dale Brown called the "freak" defense.
Ask Brown what his game plan is for Saturday's NCAA semifinal meeting with Louisville in Dallas and he will answer: mass confusion.
"We're trying to confuse the offense on what we're actually in," Brown said. "Are we actually playing man-to-man, 2-3 zone or are we playing 'the freak'?
"It's difficult to figure out, and we are playing all of the defenses very
well at the moment, particularly our man-to-man."
Louisville head coach Denny Crum is not impressed by the multiple defense, however.
"There's nothing that they can throw at us that we haven't already seen this year," he said. "We've seen all those things numerous times this year."
But Brown says Crum cannot possibly have prepared for "the freak" because it's a new development of his own research and experimentation.
According to Brown, the freak is designed to stop a specific strength of the opponent. The Tigers employed the box-and-one defense against Georgia Tech All-America Mark Price, but Kentucky All-America Kenny Walker saw a variety of defensive maneuvers last Saturday.
with me. People are running it in Turkey. They're running it in Iraq, in Belgium. Most of the people who are using it have had great success, and the reason is because it is new."
"I think I invented it," said Brown, never known for understatement or modesty.
"I've taken it all over the world
For every offensive action, Brown says the "break" provides him with a save.
The freak gets its next big test Saturday when LSU tries to win its first Final Four victory.
Louisville sees defense as key
Cardinals look to shut down Louisiana State in semifinal
United Press International
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Defense will be the key when seventh-ranked Louisville and upstart Louisiana State meet in Saturday's NCAA Final Four semifinal, Cardinals guard and play-maker Jeff Hall said yested.
"We do feel like the team that plays the best defense will win the game," said Hall, a 6-foot-4 senior, in a conference call previewing what will be only the third meeting of the schools. Louisville won the first two games.
Hall said he compared the LSU team to Memphis State as far as he had seen, but he doesn't.
"Plus, we'll have to do a good job on John Williams," he said, referring to the 6-8 forward.
Don Redden as "another guy we can't slide by."
Hall cited the post-season play of
The game at Reunion Arena in Dallas will mark the second Final Four appearance for Hall and fellow seniors Milt Wagner, the Cardinal's star guard, and Robbie Valentine, a little used substitute.
Asked to compare the two Final Four entries, Hall said the 1982 Cardinals, who lost to Georgetown 50-46 in New Orleans, were confident because of their experience.
"We feel very confident. We feel that as long as we do what Louisville does well, we'll have a good shot."
The team's confidence, including reliance on the solid play of 6-foot-10 center Purvis Ellison, the Metro Conference freshman of the year, has helped the Cardinals stay in contention, Hall said.
"Any time you get into the last four minutes of the game, it's a crucial point," he said. "We feel we have a good, experienced background."
While defense will be the key to the game, Hall said the Cardinals had been more consistent running their fast-tempo offense than defense.
On offense, the Cardinals, who beat Drexel, Bradley, North Carolina and Auburn to make it to the Final Four, have improved during the season by reducing turnovers, Hall said.
"Definitely we play good in spurs, but I don't think we've played well for a whole game. Offensively, we seem to have scored enough points to keep us in the game."
"We got better offensively as far as not turning the ball over as much," he said.
Cralo Sanda/KANSAN
Bob Stancilft, Kansas softball head coach, and Phil Grom, home-plate umpire, argue about an appeal call. The fifth-ranked Jayhawks defeated the eighth-ranked Creighton Blue Jays yesterday, 1-0 and 2-0, in a double-header at Jayhawk Field.
'Hawks beat Creighton twice
By Jim Subr
Softball
By Jim Sum
Sports writer
Kansas softball pitchers Tracy Bunge and Sherri Mach each threw complete-game shutouts yesterday, leading the Jayhawks to a 1-0 and 2-0 double-header sweep of eighth-ranked Creighton at Jayhawk Field.
Bunge, who threw a one-hitter to raise her record to 9-2, and Mach, 11-3, each led Kansas defenses that held off several late Creighton rallies.
Kansas head coach Bob Stancill said Monday that the Jayhawks' performance against the Blue Jays would affect both regional and national rankings. Creighton head coach Mary Higgins was a chairman of a national committee
that determined national rankings and final selections for the National College Athletic Association playoffs in May.
"I don't think we impressed her that much," he said after the game. "I'm proud of the wins and I think they are good wins, but they had scoring opportunities and left them on base. They had chances to win."
Kansas, which lost three of its five games last weekend in the Hall of Fame Classic at Oklahoma City, Okla., dropped one place in the polls released yesterday from No. 4 to No. 5. Creighton, 13-9, slipped to third to eight.
In yesterday's first game, the Jahyhaws scored its only run in the second inning on a one-out ground-rule double by Chris May.
Bunge took out the only Creighton hit in the fourth inning and struck out eight Blue Jay batters despite suffering from a sore muscle in her lower back. Bunge pitched in only one game last weekend in the Hall of Fame classic because of back pains. Kansas lost that game, 1-0, to Louisiana Tech.
"We want to get her at full strength without having her sit out for a couple of weeks." Stancift said. "She looked good and strong today, but her back started to tighten up towards the end of the game."
Crew profits from puppet
Sports writer
By Dawn O'Malley
"No fan is complete without one." Turner said. "It is a novelty. It makes a great gift. Parents eat them up."
They have been seen in the stands during the Kansas men's basketball games. They have appeared in newspapers and on television. They are the Punching Jayhawks.
A Punching Jayhawk is a blue, red and gold puppet, a replica of the Kansas mascot, whose wings can be manipulated from the inside for some sock-it-to-you cheering.
The money the team makes from the sales will be spent on the coach's salary, new equipment and other improvements.
The Kansas Crew team is selling the puppet for $10 and it can be purchased from any crew member, said Sean Turner, crew manager.
"The crew student is paying almost all from his pocket," Turner said. "It costs about $500 to race on the track, out of the money of a college student."
There are about 100 crew members, and Turner expects the size to double and maybe triple by next year. Yet, because of the prohibitive costs, many members quit. Selling the Punching Jayhawk is a way to help decrease costs, Turner said.
The team has tried door-to-door selling, but they need to sell more to help ends meet.
The Crew team also has put together a catalogue of items that can be ordered.
There is a limited edition T-shirt for $10 and $12.
Also available are KU crew posters for $7 and foam rubber can and bottle holders for $5 and $8.
KU will be first team to check into Dallas
United Press International
DALLAS — Notes from the site of the 1986 Four:
Kansas will be the first of the four participating teams to arrive in town, touching down tonight. Duke plans to arrive tomorrow morning and Louisville and Louisiana State are to arrive tomorrow afternoon.
If travel plans mean anything, the Kansas Jayhawks already have the upper hand in the race for the NCAA basketball championship.
And the outcome of Saturday's semifinal games will make no difference to the Duke Blue Devils' travel plans.
NCAA
Notebook
Over the last quarter of a century only two teams from west of the Mississippi have won the National College Athletic Association basketball title. One of them - UCLA
"We're staying until Tuesday morning, no matter what," said Duke coach Mike Kryzewski. "We've worked to get to the Final Four and we're going to enjoy it all."
To celebrate the hosting of the Final Four, city officials purchased an entirely new basketball floor to be placed in Reunion Arena.
— won the championship 10 times.
The other was Texas-El Paso,
which won the crown in 1966, when
the school was known as Texas
Western. Kansas will try to become
the third this weekend.
The floor normally used for college games and Dallas Mavericks NBA games is trimmed in blue with "Reunion Arena," written in block letters at both ends of the court.
The new floor will be trimmed in green with "NCAA Dallas," replacing "Reunion Arena," on the ends of the court. In the middle of the court will be a map of the state of Texas.
This is the seventh trip to the Final Four for both Louisville and Kansas, but the Jayhawks have a better track record than the Cardinals. Kansas has won four of six trips to the national semifinals. Louisville has advanced to the championship game just once in its six attempts. Both have one national title to their credit.
Duke, meanwhile, has advanced to the championship game twice in its four Final Four trips but has not won the national crown. LSU has been to the final four on two previous occasions but has yet to reach the finals.
- The Final Four consists of Duke, ranked first; Kansas, second; Louisville, seventh; and LSU, unranked. The rankings are based on the final UPI coaches poll taken at the end of the regular season. But the coaches apparently had a better idea of how things would turn out before the season started.
Louisville, however, fell out of the top 10 after the first week and did not enter it again until the final poll was taken. LSU was not ranked among the top 20 after the 10th week of the season.
In the preseason rankings all of the Final Four teams were in the top 10 — Kansas fourth, Duke fifth, LSU ninth and Louisville 10th.
Duke, never ranked lower than fifth during the season, took over the No. 1 spot from North Carolina after the thirteenth week. Kansas fell as low as ninth, but took the No. 2 position in the fourteenth week of the season.
Mark Mohler/KANSAN
Mike Wolt, KU's No. 1 singles player, lost yesterday to Bob Boag of Tulsa, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. Kansas, however, rallied to defeat Tulsa 5-4 at the Allen Field House tennis courts.
Tennis team rallies to defeat Tulsa, 5-4
By Dawn O'Malley Sports writer
The Kansas men's tennis team had to rally to beat Tulsa, 5-4, when its top three players lost their singles matches in a dual plagued by blustery winds yesterday at the Allen Field House courts.
Kansas improved its season record to 8-4.
Kansas' No. 1 singles player, Mike Wolf, lost his second match of the season, 7.5-3.6-5.7 to Boo Bog.
"The wind is always a factor." Wolf said. "But you have to deal with it. Things happen, it's over. I'm not too worried."
In addition to Wolf's loss, No. 2 Kevin Brady and No. 3 Darin Herman lost their matches.
"I've seen all of them play well," Scott Perelman, head men's coach, said after the match. "But we need to be more consistent.
"It itseaws. Only God knows how good this team could be if they play well on a given day."
No. 4 Larry Pascal, No. 5 Jim
Men's Tennis
Secrest and No. 6 Reggie Hodges won
their matches to even the match 3-1.
The sophomore player said his challenge was to keep his emotions in perspective. After he lost the first set, 5-7, he said he regained his concentration by thinking about comedian Eddie Murphy and he went on to win the final two sets 6-2, 3-1.
Tulaa took a 4-3 lead when the doubles team of Richard Alexander and Lane Wilson defeated Wolf and Hodges a 5-4, 7-6. But doubles team Pascal and Brady won 6-0, 7-6 to tie the match and Secrest's and Herman's 6-1, 6-3 doubles win wrapped up the victory for the Jayhawks.
Hodges was moved to the No. 6 singles spot after Mike Center, No. 2 player, twisted his ankle in a tournament over spring break in California.
"When one of those things happen I think about Eddie Murphy." Hodges said. "He's a funny guy."
Namath dumped by ABC
Limited Press International
Several newspapers reported in yesterday's editions that Namath, who has a reported salary of $850,000 a year, was fired and that Simpson was reissigned to college football coverage.
Industry sources close to "Monday Night Football" confirmed the developments, and said the shakeup
would probably be announced within the week.
Namath is a former pro quarterback and Simpson is a former pro running back.
In other moves at ABC, the No. 3 network, published reports said Frank Gifford, who has worked on "Monday Night Football" since 1971, would move from play-by-play author to color commentator The Michaelws would replace Gifford as the play-by-play man.
Namath, who led the New York Jets to the Super Bowl III title, debuted on the show last season and still has another year left on his contract.