University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 1, 1987
Sports
13
Indiana, Syracuse return home to cheering fans
12,000 greet Hoosiers at Assembly Hall
United Press International
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana All-American senior guard Steve Alford still cannot believe that he is part of an NCAA championship basketball team.
"I'm still stunned." Alford said yesterday at a rally honoring the team.
"It hasn't sunk in yet. It's a dream come true and a great way to end some business."
More than 12,000 people cheered in Assembly Hall as the Hoosiers returned home after defeating Syracuse. They also won to win the school's fifth A.C. crown.
Rolls of toilet paper went flying and a loud cheer filled the basketball arena as the team walked into view, led by seniors Alford, Daryl Thomas and Todd Meier carrying the championship trophy.
After helping present the trophy to outgoing Indiana President John Ryan, Thomas said, "This (moment) makes me carry with me. It's unbelievable."
Indiana
"Remember us being down by eight points. As you go through your life, I want you to remember last night, and if ever in your life you are down, I want you to remember this occasion and remember you can succeed." Knight said.
Coach Bob Knight, recalling when his team trailed Syracuse by eight points late in the second half, told the crowd to use the Hosiers' triumph as personal inspiration.
Keith Smart, who hit the winning basket in the final seconds and was voted the game's Most Valuable Player, said that he would work hard
to bring next year's championship to Indiana as well. Back-to-back championships have not been accomplished in college basketball since 1973 when UCLA won its seventh trophy in a row.
Allard, who will not return next season, was more attuned to the team.
“At the beginning of the season, I didn't think this team could do it. But this is a team that kept working and kept trying, and they did it.” he said.
"We did our best to bring this trophy home," he said. "Let's just cherish this moment as long as we can."
In addition to the celebration at Assembly Hall, more than 100 fans team the team at Monroe County Airport in New Hampshire when the Hoosiers' plane landed
Knight said his team came together as the season wore on, menacing him.
While the team was being hailed at home, the U.S. Senate passed a proclamation congratulating Indiana's accomplishment.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim praised the team's fans at a campus rally yesterday, saying their support would help the squad recover from its loss in the NCAA championship game.
United Press International
Orangemen thank 3,000 for their support
Boeheim, center Rony Seikaly, and co-captains Greg Monroe and Howard Triche briefly spoke to about 3,000 fans who waited more than two hours in Manley Field House for the team's return from New Orleans, where the Orangemen lost to Indiana 74-73 Monday night.
"When you go through what we did, when you look at a basketball game, it always comes down to winning and losing." Boeheim said. "But you don't really have a loser in that kind of game. Right now, this reception does an awful lot for us, because no one great you feel about how well you played, it takes an awful long time to recover from a loss like that."
Seikaly, whose play in early tournament rounds fueled the team's trip to New Orleans, said he could see Keith Smart's last-second jump shot that gave the Hosiers the victory "over and over in my sleep . . . but in your hearts I know we're No. 1."
However, the calm reception that greeted the team was different from the reaction Monday night after the team's loss.
About 70 police officers in the Marshall Street area adjoining campus arrested 29 people, 15 of them students, after the game for offenses ranging from fighting to throwing a full beer can that injured a police
Dan Forbush, a spokesman for Syracuse University, said students who have been arrested would go before a university hearing board fc; possible disciplinary action.
"This kind of activity is absolutely unacceptable to us," he said.
horse.
"What would have happened in the team had won? Would the walls have come down too?" asked store owner Vincent Fitzgerald.
Police spokesman Rod Carr said eight police officers and 40 partygoers suffered minor injuries during the mob scene, which erupted at 11:30 p.m. Monday.
The confrontation began when police moved to break up the crowd and a fan began throwing bricks, shattering a plate-glass window at an ice cream shop.
For fans, the loss ended a golden season for the 31-7 Orangemen, whose trip to the Final Four tournament was a surprise for what had "en billed as a rebuilding year.
Jayhawks prefer to compete outdoors
By DIANE FILIPOWSKI
An unusually cold or hot, rainy or windy day in the spring is not enough to make the Kansas men's and women's track coaches or athletes prefer the indoor season to the outdoor season.
Steve Heffernan, left, and Gerald Harder warm up with a jog. The two were working out at Memorial Stadium last week in preparation for the outdoor track season.
To Bob Timmons, men's coach, outdoor track is just more exciting.
Fred Sadowski/KANSAN
"Everybody perks up when it is
spring, just like the students on
campus. Timmons says, 'It's
the athletics that just and the
athletes just feel better.'
The women's track team opened its outdoor season March 21 at the Southern Westfield RELays in Lafayette, La. The men opened their season Saturday at Memorial Stadium where the team's first ever alumni meet.
Both teams will finish their seasons with the Big Eight Conference Outdoor Championships May 14-16 in Lawrence and the NCAA Outdoor Championships June 3-6 in Baton Rouge, La.
Cliff Rovelo, assistant women's coach, said many athletes preferred outdoor track because it was more prestigious.
"Outdoor" is more important than indoor because indoor does not have an Olympics, "Roverte" means that there was a world indoor resort."
In outdoor track, the athletes performed better, and their national qualifying marks and times outdoors were more competitive, said Carla Coffey, women's coach. "I think it is just a psychological advantage for the athletes," Coffey said. "They know that they will have that good performance outdoors."
Outdoor-track has fewer sprint events, more field and distance events, and a greater variety of middle-distance events. But the biggest difference, Rovelo said, is the size of the track.
Rovello said outdoor tracks were 400 meters, and indoor tracks, such as Anschutz Sports Pavilion, were 252 yards but vary from track to track.
Steve Kueffer, men's assistant coach, compared the size difference to car racing; the longer the car is, the more speed an athlete could gain.
Timmons said, "Anyone who circles the track has to relearn pace and strategy of a race because the track is twice as big."
For men and women, the 60-yard dash indoors is replaced by the 100 and 200-meter dashes outdoors. The 60-yard dash is replaced by the 400 and 500-meter dashes, and the 1,000-yard run is replaced by the 800, 1,000 and the 1,500-meter runs.
Outdoors, the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000-meter are run compared to the 1 and 2-mile runs indoor. The nine-sephelease is also an outdoor event.
Coffey said the variety in the running events allowed the ath-
leters to shift over and run different events, depending on their level of conditioning. She said it also allowed variety in the line-up.
At the conference meet, the mile and distance medley relays are run compared to the 4X100 and the 4X400 relays outdoors.
Two hurdle events are run outdoors, the 100 and 400-meter hurdles for the women and the 110-meter high hurdles and 400-meter intermediate hurdles for the men. Indoors, the men and women compete only in the 60-vard hurdles.
All of the coaches agreed that outdoor track's biggest advantage was wind, but they also said it could be a disadvantage.
Rovetto said the athletes usually ran, jumped, vaulted or threw with the wind at their backs, which could help their performances tremendously.
Outdoor track includes more field events, including the javelin and discus for men and women and the hammer for the men, which Timmons said was an advantage because it allowed the whole team to compete.
Coffey said that some athletes liked having the controlled atmosphere of an indoor track, but that most preferred the better performances outdoors and the warm spring days.
However, If the wind velocity is faster than 2 meters a second, then an athlete's performance is not official and cannot be used to qualify for the NCAA championships.
Mike Tribolet practices jumping over a steeplechase pit, which usually is full of water. Tribolet worked on his form last week at Memorial Stadium.
Kansas pitchers having to adjust to new distance
By ROB KNAPP
Staff writer
Sherri Mach is on the losing end of a numbers game.
Three, as in 3 feet, is the number that's giving Mach A and a lot of other collegiate softball pitchers problems this season. The pitching rubber, 40 feet from the plate last season, has been moved back 3 feet this year.
The 3 feet gives batters an extra split-second to swing at each pitch, and the new rule has produced more hits and more runs.
But for Mach, a senior who was 22-6 with a 0.55 ERA last season, the numbers do not look good. She is 1-4 this season with a 3.33 ERA.
"I've had a hard time adjusting to this mess," I'm still having a hard time adjusting.
The extra distance has left only the fastest throwers unaffected, she said. Mach and the other Jayhawk pitchers are working hard to overcome a rule that has caused change in the game.
The NCAA passed the rule in hopes of getting more offense into the game and making it more exciting for fans, Kansas coach Bock Stancill said.
"The end result is that more balls are hit into play, and more are hit back home."
The Jayhawks are 13-13 this season after finishing 2-3 in San Jose, Calif., last weekend. Their next game is against Missouri in Columbia.
Pitching coach Gary Hines said the new distance put more pressure on the pitchers.
"Mentally, they've almost never been in the position where they can go into the bottom of the seventh with a kick on one swing of the bat." Hoe's said.
Hines said the Kansas pitchers were working on keeping their pitches down so that any balls hit hard would be ground balls.
Three feet may not seem like a very big change, but the pitchers and the hitters both are noticing the difference.
The end result is that more balls are hit into play, and more are hit harder.'
Bob Stanclift softball coach
"I don't think you realize it when you're in the box," catcher Kelly Downs said earlier in the season, "but if they moved it back to 40 feet again you'd be able to tell the difference."
Downs and a couple of other Jayhawk hitters are taking advantage of the change and fattening up their offensive statistics.
Downs, the Big Eight Player of the Week last week, leads the team with three home runs and 20 RBIs and is hitting .361.
But aside from senior first baseman Laura Cramer, who suffered a hand injury at the San Jose tournament, no other Kansas player is hitting above.240.
Meanwhile, Mach continues to hope that she will make up some ground on the numbers she posted last year.
"At first it was really frustrating,
said him, but everybody has had
to death with it."
"Each tournament we go to,we learn something new we can do to get better."
Vaughn will return to KU football team
By a Kansan reporter
The Kansas football team has regained the services of wide receiver Willie Vaughn, who announced yesterday that he wanted to return to the squad and represent the Jayhawks in the fall.
Vaughn, the team's only first-team All-Big Eight Conference selection and honorable mention All-American last season for Kansas, announced March 25 that he was leaving the team because of personal reasons.
Coach Bob Valesente said yesterday that Vaughn had worked out his problems, and that the team was happy to have him back.
Vaughn, a 6-foot, 185-pounder,
started in 10 games last year and
caught 41 passes for 341 yards, the
saison's Kansas performance in a
season single.
Vaughn, who ranks eighth on the Kansas all-time reception list with 69 catches for 782 yards, scored twice last season.
Vaughn, who missed three practices before returning, announced last week that he had considered transferring to San Diego State.
"I just don't like it here anymore." Vaughn said last week. "It's nothing against KU, but I want to go and try my luck elsewhere."
KU competes with Louisiana Tech and Tennessee for recruits
By DAVID BOYCE
Staff writer
Louisiana Tech and Tennessee battled in the women's NCAA Basketball Championship game Sunday, and now Kansas will battle both teams in recruiting.
"I was hoping that those two teams would not make it to the championship because two players we want also have indicated that they are interested in those schools," Coach Marian Washington said yesterday.
Women's Basketball
She said the two players she was recruiting had the height the team needed at 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-4. But Kansas will be competing against the national champion and the runner up for recruits.
Washington said she was not able to give the names of the recruits who have from April 8 to 15 to decide what school they will sign with.
Kansas has already signed 5 foot-8 shooting guard Cheron Wells during the early signing period last semester.
Wells played at Patterson Cooperative High School in Ohio and averaged 25 points during her senior season.
"I knew who she was," assistant coach Kevin Cook said. "She played in a program that I started six years ago."
Both Cook and Washington became
interested in her last summer when she was playing on a summer league team.
Wells considered Old Dominion, Purdue and Ohio State. She received letters from every top 20 school before choosing Kansas.
One player the Jayhawks are recruiting may be leaning toward Tennessee. Washington said it might
One reason she picked Kansas was its tradition and because Lynette woods
Washington thinks the Jayhawks have the inside track on the other prospect, who is also being recruited by Louisiana Tech.
be difficult to get her because Tennessee won the national championship.
"We are working very hard," she said. "The past few years we have been able to attract the blue chipper."
Both Washington and Cook spent part of last week recruiting.
From Wednesday through noon Monday, women coaches were not allowed to recruit because of the NCAA tournament.
"But once the dead period ended, we were back working hard, trying to get these recruits," Cook said.
The women's team needs height, Washington said. Only one player, Lynn Page, stands above 6-feet.