a
Thursday, March 20, 1986
Sports
University Daily Kansan
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Davids of Midwest regional look to knock off Goliaths
Mary Burger/KANSAN
Calvin Thompson and the Kansas Jayhawks will attempt to stretch their season a little further when State plays North Carolina State in the first game of the Midwest Regional semifinals, play Michigan State at 9:37 p.m. tomorrow night at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Iowa
SEC teams dominate in Southeast regional
United Press International
ATLANTA — The Southeastern Conference includes three of the four teams in the NCAA Southeast Regionals — Kentucky, Alabama and Louisiana State. But the league is still the underdog because the fourth team, Georgia Tech, will be playing on its alternate home court.
In tonight's regional semifinals the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats, 31-3, meet No. 19 Alabama, 24-8, in their fourth clash this season, and the No. 6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 27-6, take on LSU. 24-11.
All four of the SEC teams selected for the original 64-team field including Auburn, which is in the West Regionals, made it through the first two rounds. But two of the three placed in the Southeast are doomed to elimination this week.
The winners pair off Saturday in their bid for a Final Four berth. All four of the SEC teams selected for the original 4-team field, in
Southeast Regional Semifinals
"There was an injustice done when three SEC teams were put in the same region," said Georgia coach Hurd Duhm. "Nobody (on the NCAA selection committee) will tell you why they did it."
Georgia Tech normally plays on campus but had a half dozen games this past season in the 16,000-seat Omni, site of the NCAA Southeast contests. Georgia Tech won all but two of those games — losing in overtime to North Carolina, when the Tar Heels were No. 1, and losing to Illinois by two points.
{"text": "The Omni isn't really our home court," said Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins. "But we do have an advantage playing in Atlanta. We won't have to travel and we should have good fan support."}
Kentucky, which won both the regular-season and tournament titles in the SEC, beat Alabama 76-52 at Lexington, Ky., and 73-71 at Tuscaloosa. Ala., during regular-season play and again 83-72 in the
"We know what Alabama is going to do and they know what we are going to do," said Kentucky coach Eddie Sutton. "It allows the coaching
As far as Kentucky being 3-0 against Alabama this season, Sutton said, "Psychologically you can look at it two different ways. People say you can't beat a club three times in one season let alone four, but maybe it works in reverse."
Sutton said Kentucky, led by a队America Kenny Walker, was a team of overachievers, a team that would do anything it took to win.
staff a few more hours of sleep instead of scrambling for scouting reports."
Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson said, "I don't think our three other games this season will be a real factor in how we do this time. In recent years, we've had a lot of success against Kentucky.
Sutton said of Kentucky, "This team is very mature. They understand that we're not so powerful that anybody couldn't beat us."
"We've won a lot of basketball games against them, probably more than anybody else in our league." Sanderson said.
Kentucky and Alabama advanced to Atlanta via Charlotte, N.C., where the top-seeded Wildcats knocked off Davidson, 75-55, and Western Kentucky, 71-64. Alabama beat Xavier, 97-80, and Illinois, 58-56, on a last-second shot by Terry Coner.
Georgia Tech, the No. 2 seed, and LSU advanced via Baton Rouge, La., where the Yellow Jackets beat Marist, 68-53, and 1985 NCAA champion Villanova, 66-61. The Tigers, playing on their home court, beat Purdue, 94-87, in overtime and 12th-ranked Memphis State, 83-12, on a last-second shot by Anthony Wilson.
Drug-testing program announced by NFLPA
Cremins said, "For LSU, even on their home court, to beat Memphis State says a lot. If Memphis State made it to Atlanta, they probably would have been the favorites."
Tech center John Salley said, "I think it's going to be a very aggressive game. We watched (LSU sophomore star) John Williams and some of the other people they have. It's going to be a very tough game."
LSU forward Don Redden said, "At the beginning of the year, our goal was to win the national championship. That's still our goal. I figure we've got just as good a shot as anybody in the country right now."
WASHINGTON — The National Football League Players Association announced yesterday a new drug abuse prevention program. The program includes random urinalysis testing of players who test positive for illegal drugs in presession physical exams.
The Associated Press
Under the program announced by Gene Upshaw, NFLIPA Executive Director, first-time drug offenders would be treated by an independent medical center and required to accept random testing for the remainder of the season.
Second-time offenders would forfeit a paycheck for one game. Third-time offenders would be suspended from the league, but could appeal for reinstatement after one year before a joint committee made up of union, management and medical members.
According to the proposed plan, drug test results would be confidential and the club would have limited information in the testing procedure.
said drugs were eroding the financial health of the league as well as the physical health of its affected players.
The proposed program calls for a private drug tester in each of the league's 28 cities to administer the preseason urinalysis. The teams would not be informed of the results.
The union's proposal comes nine days after NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle called for unilateral drug testing of league players. Rozelle
If the player tests positive a second time, his team would be informed and the player would lose a percentage of his salary.
A collective bargaining agreement now allows drug testing at the opening of training camp and upon reasonable cause during the season.
"It's between a player and his doctor." Unshaw said.
The proposed program, hammered out Saturday by the NFLIPA executive committee, will be presented to the league's 28 player representatives at an April 22 meeting.
United Press International
West regional showdown set
HOUSTON — The Louisville Cardinals and North Carolina Tar Heels, both of whom have won national titles during this decade, will try to take a giant step toward another night in the NCAA tournament's West Regional semifinals.
National powers Louisville, North Carolina meet tonig
The Louisville-North Carolina matchup should provide the quality of play usually found in the
West Regional Semifinals
Final Four. The winner, however,
still will have to win three more
contests to claim the NCAA crown
— the first of those tests coming against either Auburn or NevadaLas Vegas.
The Tigers and Rumin' Rebels will meet in the first of Thursday night's regional semifinal contests
a potentially high-scoring affair between teams looking for national attention.
"I'd say we are the underdog," said Nevada-Las Vegas senior guard Anthony Jones. "We're the only Western teameh."
The Louisville-North Carolina game features two of the traditional powers in college basketball. Louisville was the national
crown in 1980 and North Carolina won the crown two years later.
This is the sixth straight year the Tar Heels have made it to the Final 16.
"We have a great program and they have a great program," said Louisville coach Denny Crum. "But all the teams that are in left this tournament can beat anybody else. It is just a question of who plays the best on which night.
"Anything can happen in this tournament. You have seen that already."
Louisville (28-7) has won its last 13 games, following their tradition of coming on strong at the end of the season.
However, North Carolina won its first 21 games and then fell victim to the injury bug. But the Tar Heels (28-5) are healthy again and as much of a challenger for the national crown as any team remaining.
"I don't think it makes any difference which team is on a run right now," said North Carolina center Brad Daugherty. "What matters is who does the little things on the night you play — which one blocks out on the rebounds and which one plays good defense.
Crum said the key for his team was to handle North Carolina's changing defenses and to do their best against Daugherty.
Nevada-Las Vegas (34-3) survived a 14-point run by Maryland in the second round to advance to the regional semifinals, but Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian was more impressed with Auburn's victory over top-seeded St. John's than he was with his own team's victory.
"I think we are in good position right now. It's nice to be the hunter instead of the hunte. It takes a little of the pressure off us and allows us to just go out and have fun playing basketball."
"Auburn (21-10) won by 16 points and the score still doesn't tell the story," Tarkanian said. "They beat St. John's from the start of the game.
The survivor from the West regional will move on to the Final Four in Dallas and will meet the Southeast Region champion in the national semifinals — either Kentucky, Alabama, LSU or Georgia Tech.
"I think Auburn will run with us. They sure did run against St. John's. I'm more concerned about their running game than they probably are about our running game."
By Matt Tidwell
Sports writer
Who says you have to have a 7-footer or a couple of 6-10 guys to win in the NCAA Championship Tournament?
Two of the teams in this weekend's Midwest Regional Finals, Michigan State and Iowa State, and several of the squads that have pulled-off upsets in the tournament, feature small, quick line-ups.
The Michigan State Spartans, who use a three-guard offense, will face Kansas in the regional semifinals at 9:10 Friday in Kansas City, Mo. The Spartans upset Georgetown, a much bigger team, Saturday by using their speed and quickness.
quickness can do," North Carolina State head coach Jim Valvano said earlier this week. The Wolfpack will take on the Cyclones in the first game Friday night.
Kansas head coach Larry Brown compared teams like the Spartans and two others who have scored upsets, Cleveland State and Arkansas-Little Rock, with basketball teams of the distant past.
"Iowa State and Michigan State"
"have shown us what a little speed and
Men's Basketball
"I haven't seen anybody play like them." Brown said about Michigan State. "They remind me of old-time teams with their great quickness and perimeter shooting."
All of the coaches in this weekend's tournament agreed that smaller, faster line-ups had been a big factor this season. If they had their druthers, however, most said they wouldn't turn down a solid big man.
"Sometimes you go in cycles where quick, smaller teams are successful." Spartans head coach Jud Heathcote said, "but if you take the total picture you usually find that teams with dominant big men are always the best teams. Maybe this is just a year when there aren't as many Patrick Ewings.
"There's no question that if you're a small, quick team you can be effective — like Cleveland State or ourselves."
The Iowa State Cyclones also pulled the giant-killing act last weekend, dispensing with Michigan 72-69. The Cyclones don't have great size, but were able to attack Michigan anyway with 6-3, 165-pound Ron Virgil leading the way with 14 points and four assists.
"Big men have an advantage, particularly if they have good mobility," Iowa State head coach Johnny Orr said. "But our quickness was a big factor in winning the Michigan game."
Valvano said he learned about the value of big men from a coaching legend.
"I personally think size is overrated," Valvano said, "but my first year in coaching, John Wooden told me he felt the secret of success was getting as much quickness as you can with as much size as possible. The name of the game in basketball is quickness."
Javhawks breeze past Missouri Western
Sports writer
By Jim Suhi
Steve Purdy and Paul Henry each pitched complete games while batting blustery winds and falling temperatures, leading the Jayhawks to a 4-3 and 11-2 double-header sweep of Missouri Western yesterday afternoon at Quigley Field.
"We had two great pitching performances," Kansas head coach Marty Pattin said after the sweep. "Purdy struggled early, and got his control around the second or third inning. But it seemed like he never really got warm up."
Warming up might have been difficult for both Purdy and the Jayhawks, who fought 10-15 mph winds, temperatures in the low 40s and snow flurries.
Despite the unseasonably cool weather, both Purdy and Henry threw heated pitches.
In the opener, Purdy struck out five Griffon batters and gave up three runs and seven walks en route to his first win of the season against three losses. In the nightcap, Henry struck out eight Griffons, walked two and gave up two runs while improving his season record to 4-2.
The two pitchers sparked a Kansas defense that made only one error in the two games. Pattin said errors by his fielders and walks by his pitches had plagued his team throughout the season, costing his team several victories during its March 6-15 road trip in Texas.
The Jayhawks, 11-10, committed only seven errors in their first five games, but had 43 errors during the road trip and lost 10 of 14 games.
"I think a lot of it was just a case of some people trying to play too hard and putting added pressure on themselves," Pattin said. "We hope we got the mistakes out of our system in Texas."
Pattin said his team also had overcome an offensive problem by getting key hits with runners on base.
Baseball
Kansas, after stranding 138 base runners during the Texas trip, left only nine on base in westerday's games.
Missouri Western, whose record fell to 5-8, jumped out in front early in the opener, scoring two runs in the first inning and one in the second. Kansas scored a run on centerfield Hugh Stanfield's fielder's choice.
The Jayhawks used a three-run fourth inning to take the lead for good. With two out in that inning, Kansas left fielder Mike Ingram hit a bloop single to left field to score one run, and catcher Darrel Matthews followed with a two-run single.
In the second game, Kansas scored all the runs it needed in the first inning, jumping out to a 3-1 lead that was highlighted by a two-out, two-run scoring double by Jayhawk right fielder John Hart.
Kansas put the game out of reach with five runs in the third innings, two in the fifth, and one more on a towering home run to left field by second baseman Geno Nebbitt in the sixth innning.
Missouri Western scored its only runs of the game in the fourth inning.
KU 4, Mo. Western 3
Mo. Western . . 210 000 0-3 5-1
Kansas . . . . 001 300 1-3
Ludlow and Leland Ludlow and Mathews. W — Purdy 1-3, L — Reed 3-1.
KU 11, Mo. Western 2
Mo. Western. .000 200 0—2 22
Kansas...305 021 x1—11 91
Jennings, Sealer (6) and Lau;
Henry and Boeschen. W — Henry
4-2. L — Jennings 0-3. HR — Nebbitt,
Vestal.
KU second baseman Geno Nebbitt prepares to tag out Missouri Western center fielder Jeff Jennings. The action occurred during the first game of yesterday's double header at Quigley Field. The Jayhawks won both games, 4-3 and 11-2.
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