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University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 26, 1988
Sports
13
Two sports keep Normore active
By Keith Stroker
Kansan sportswriter
"Clint has athletic ability that most athletes only dream of," Manning said. "He has a winning attitude and is respected by all of the guys on the team. I think it says a lot for him when he wins two sports and can still keep a positive attitude about everything."
Many high school athletes only dream of participating in one collegiate sport and are thrilled if they can make it. An athlete who competes in two sports is almost unheard of because of the physical demands and the amount of time involved.
Kansas assistant basketball coach Ed Manning said that Normore had everything it took to be able to compete in two sports.
The basketball ability Normore displayed in high school is one reason the Kansas basketball coaches thought he could help the
But Clint Normore, Wichita junior, is an athlete who has been successful competing in two sports. A 6-foot, 200-pound defensive back in football and a point guard on Kauai have all played basketball team, Normore is plenty busy and does not have much time for anything else.
team.
"Clint is a real tough guy who can handle the basketball and plays an aggressive style of defense," Manning said. "We needed a player like him to help us accomplish what we were able this season. He's the kind of guy coach would want on his team."
"I've seen his athletic ability on the basketball court, and I think he will be a fine player in our secondary." Browning said. "We need skilled players to be able to cover the necessary to be able to cover the great receivers in the Big Eight."
"It itakes a big commitment for a person to be able to do that." Browning said. "Look at Bo Jackson and how he has been struggling by playing football and baseball. I haven't seen enough of Clint to know how he can handle it, but so far, he's been able to."
Manning said that because of Normore's talent, Normore would be able to compete in both sports and have significantly affecting the other.
Kansas assistant football coach Mitch Browning will coach Normore and the other defensive backs in the fall. This is Browning's first year at Kansas, and he has yet to work with Normore.
Browning has not seen Normore play football but watched him during the basketball season. Browning said that Normore could make a big contribution to the football team.
One of the things Normore has to
Clint Normore
alter is his weight training program during the football off-season. Playing basketball means Normore must not lift heavy
A basketball player lifts lighter weights because his muscles cannot function well on the court if they are tight. Normore said tight muscles were the result of
heavy lifting.
A basketball player trains his muscles to be longer and more flexible, Normore said. "During the basketball season, I have to lift like a basketball player and are constantly on my feet in the football team. That hurts me somewhat."
basketball player, Normore said that he would have a tough time adjusting to playing football for a struggling team. But he said he expected the team to improve under football coach Glen Mason.
After winning the NCAA basketball championship as a Kansas
Normore said the physical toughness that he and Marvin Mattox acquired from football carried over to the basketball team.
"It makes me feel good to be able to help KU in two sports," Normore said. "I was fortunate that God gave me the ability to do both. I consider myself a total athlete."
Normore thought he and Mattox were able to push the starters in practice, which helped to improve the team's play.
Pirates' hot start brings Pittsburgh fans to life
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — On a blustery, windy, April Sunday — more fit for football than baseball — the Pittsburgh Pirates were accepted by the city that has long considered them as the best in baseball. The training camp opened.
The Pirates, baseball's hottest team with 13 victories in 17 games, received several lengthy ovations as they came into play. 42. Competing a three-game sweep
But the crowd of nearly 20,000 booed resoundingly when the Steelers' top draft choice, defensive end Aaron Jones of Eastern Kentucky, was announced on the Three Rivers Stadium scoreboard.
But the Pirates have become a happening in a town that was known as the City of Champions in the 1970s but was a haven for losers in the 1980s.
The Pirates cheered? The Steelers booed? Certainly this couldn't have happened in Pittsburgh, which is so devoted to football that the Steelers' flagship radio station devoted 12 consecutive hours to HUOL draft
the Pirates not only are off to their best start in 26 years and have the National League's best record, and
the second-best in baseball, their attendance is up 20 percent despite miserable weather.
"It's nice to turn around and see fans cheering you instead of empty seats," said center fielder Andy Van Skke.
Just three years after finishing 57-104, the NL's worst record since 1977, and drawing fewer than 800,000 fans, the Pirates have been as hot as Pittsburgh's weather has been cold.
They are 13-4 for the first time since 1962, lead the NL East for the first time since September of 1983 and, counting a 28-11 finish last year, have a 40-15 record in their last 55 games. They are 8-1 at home this season and have won 12 of their last 13 home games.
“Are we a fluke? I don’t know yet,” said pitcher Bob Walk. 3:1. “But we don’t think like that. I’m sure people on other teams were asking that, but they’re starting to feel different now.”
"We're real confident right now. I know there was a question last year about whether we could do it from the start of the season and not just after we were out of the race, but we think we have a good team."
Mike LaValliere, the hottest hitter on baseball's hottest team, agrees. Considered a good-field, no-hit
catcher until he batted .300 last season, LaVaillere has 12 hits in his last 15 at-bats, boosting his average to a league-leading. 404.
Can the Pirates really be contenders in a division where many expected the New York Mets, a team that has won 10 games and lost to Pittsburgh's, to win 100 games?
"In our minds we know we can contend." LaValliere said. "Others may be asking if we can stick in there until September. But the important thing is the hardest part. They are the ones who have to go out there and play."
Van Slyke said the momentum the Pirates generated last season has carried over because "we found out we really do have a good team."
Van Slyke said: "If we hadn't finished the way we did, I don't think we'd be in the position we're in. We discovered we could win with the players we have now. And were a bit more smarter and more mature."
Van Slyke predicted in spring training the Pirates would contend "if five or six guys have career years, because that's what you have to have with a young club like ours."
So far, they are. The Pirates have three of the NL's top 10 hitters:
LaValliere, Bobby Bonilla (.338)
and Sid Bream (.321). Bonilla is tied for the NL lead in runs (six)
and RBI (17).
Starting pitchers Walk, Brian Fisher and Doug Drabke already have three victories each and Jeff Robinson, who shares the short relief pitcher's job with Jim Gott, leads the NL with four saves.
About the only people in Pittsburgh who don't consider the Pirates' swift start a big deal are Manager Jim Leyland and his players, who begin their first West Coast swing of the season today in San Francisco.
Leyland said: "I've never emphasized getting off to a good start. What happens if you don't? You can't cancel the rest of the season. But, obviously, as a manager you're related with a start like this. What I like is that even when we've lost a game, there's some kind of attitude in the clubhouse.
"Nobody celebrates a lot when we win and nobody gets way down when we lose. This is a job, a responsibility we have, and it's nothing to get real excited about because we have 145 students in the clubhouse but not in the clubhouse is making a big deal out of it. Everybody's being low key about it."
Lakers set to defend NBA title
The Associated Press
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In June, after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship, Coach Pat Riley personally guaranteed his club would repeat as titleholders, becoming the first team in 19 years to accomplish such a feat.
A round-table discussion was aired Sunday on CBS, in which none of the network's so-called expert commentators appeared in the title, despite their NBA-best 2-0 regular-season record.
Now, it's put up or shut up time,
and Riley has some fresh ammunition
to fire up his troops as they
request for a second straight title.
"That's OK," Riley said, referring to the opinions of Tom Heinsohn, Billy Cunningham and Billy Packer, all of whom tabbed the Boston Celtics to win the title, and Hubbie Brown, who selected Detroit. "People are basing their opinions on history.
"We don't have anything to lose this year. Nothing. The only thing we have to lose is a great opportunity that took us eight years to get."
1988 NBA playoff schedule
The Lakers officially open defense of their title Friday when they entertain the Seattle Supersonics in best-of-five series. Game two will be best-of-five series. Game two will
be Sunday night, with the series then moving to San Antonio for a third game May 3 and a fourth game, if necessary. May 5.
"There are no consequences," Riley said. "None. They won't lose their respect, their identities, their money, their rings, their pride, if they don't get the job done. The just want to enjoy a great opportunity. And they'll never have it again. Not as a group."
What if the Lakers don't win the title?
"When we embark on trying to win 15 more games, that's what it's all about. We don't need any artificial motivation, but I think this (the CBS poll) will unify the team even more."
Knight-Ridder Graphic
The Celtics are the last team to
win back-to-back championships doing so in 1968 and 1969.
"Boston got three of the four picks?" Laker guard byron Scott said of the CBS poll. "Great. We like it when the oats are all lil' and they need us for cookies, but we get us fired up, and makes us want to win even more."
"When everyone's against us, it brings the group tighter and closer."
The Lakers have won four titles since Magic Johnson joined them in the fall of 1979.
"We haven't been picked to win it in one of those years," Johnson said. "We make our own way. We don't need any favors. Whatever we get (in terms of respect), we've got to earn it. I like it better that way."
The Lakers compiled the NBA's best record despite the fact that Johnson and standout six man Michael Cooper were sidelined for lengthy periods with injuries. But they're healthy now.
Riley's prediction of a second straight title resulted in a popular-selling T-shirt at the Forum, which reads "Repeat" with "Guaranteed" stamped across the front.
History says no, but history doesn't have, among other things, the homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. The Lakers do. And they were 36-5 at home during the regular season.
"I don't think anyone should underestimate this team." Riley said. "They smell it (the championship)."
Softball team wins two against UMKC
Kansan sportswriter
By Elaine Sung
It was a short and relatively easy day of work for the Kansas softball team yesterday.
The Jayhawks, with a 31-25 record, swept a doubleheader from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kaneohe and first the game in 4-3 in the second.
UMKC is fielding its first-ever softball team. The Kangaroo did not offer much competition against the Jayhawks, committing a total of 170 hits and 423 runs games were called in the fifth innings because of the seven-run rule.
"I was pleased with our base-runner. We got to see a lot of base runs that we haven't normally seen," said Kansas coach Kausha Haack.
"We're getting into the part where we're playing Big Eight teams, and if anything happened to our catcher, I wanted to make sure Gayle could work in a game," Haack said. "She practices in that position in practices, but she hasn't played that in a game."
The Jayhawks also switched several players in the lineup Gayle Luecke, normally a third baseman, was put in as a catcher in place of Tammy Hancock. Hancock had Noble at second base, switched left fielder Jessica Henning to third base and put Shelly Burke in left field.
In the first game, center fielder Sara Marchant started the scoring in the first innning, coming home on a triple by Nobile. The scoring barrage continued in the fourth innings with 10 runs against the Karangaroas. Pitcher Roanna Brazer recorded a no-hitter and her 19th victory this season.
Pitcher Reenie Powell was scheduled for the second game but was
sick and could not pitch. Jenny Splitorrif, who serves as both pitcher and as a first baseman, pitched a three-hitter and improve her record to 2-3.
The Kangaroos scored their only run in the doubleheader in the first innning. UMKC center fielder Maryann Mutt reached first on a single and stole second. Shortstop Meredith Wilcox hit a simple deep into center field, sending Mitte home for the only UMKC run.
The Jayhawks tied the score 1-1 when Luekie hit a line drive past the UMKC third baseman, sending Marчart home from second base.
Two UMKC errors and strong hit by the Jayhawks resulted in a 7-1 score by the of the inning Kansas added a final run in the fifth when Heming singled, sending right jerelle Janea Gaeddert home.
The Kangaroo's defense disintegrated in the second inning, allowing Kansas to run away with the game. UMKC catcher Kim McDowell mishandled the ball several times during the inning, which let the Jayhaws advance on the bases.
nine Jayhawks will play a double-leader today at 3 p.m. against Reignition at Jayhawk Field.
KANSAS 12. UMKC 0
DKR2
UMC: Muldoff 20 (190k)xx-12.8
UMC: Muldoff and McDowell, KU, Brazier,
Cook and Lundel, W-Brazier (1913), L-Muldoff
(1928), Bibc-Wickham
KANSAS 8 UMKC 1
UMKC 100 00x 1x - 3 1
Kansas 100 6x 11 - x 8
UMKC Muhdif and McWilford KU, Splitter
UMKC Muhdif and W. Splitter (2-3), LMudfif (1-
15) LMudfif (15)
Sedman going 'home after selection by Chiefs
The Associated Press
A NANSAS CITY, Mo. - As the first Washburn Ichob player ever taken in the NLF draft, Troy Stedman is not about to lose his perspective.
"Only the strong survive in this league," said Stedman, the Kansas City Chiefs' seventh-round choice yesterday. "I think I have the physical capabilities to do it. I just think I need some special coaching."
Stedman was a second team NAIA all-American at linebacker for Washburn. The school's drive is only an 90-minute drive from Kansas City, adding to the excitement for the 6-3, 25-19 win of his selection early yesterday after being ignored during Sunday's first five rounds.
"I extremely excited," Stedman said. "It couldn't have worked out better. The Kansas City Chiefs are so close, it just worked out great."
The first thing the Chiefs did yesterday was use their sixth round choice for running back James Saxon of San Jose State in the eighth quarter. The Giants beat Fla. (lra). Light end Alfredo Roberts.
The Chiefs used their nine-round pick for a receiver from Maryland who is certain to give announcer fits. Azizuddin Abdur-Aziz in of the Kansas City office another running back, Kenny Gamble of Colgate.
Stedman probably will get his first playing opportunity to play in the NFL on the special teams, a weakness for the Chiefs throughout their 4-11 season in 1987.
"He has good size and speed and he'll hit you," said Chiefs coach Frank Gansz. "He played mostly outside games, and he played inside as well. He's an aggressive, tough guy. It's a good pick for us."