University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 6, 1988
Sports
13
Archie Marshall and Danny Manning do the "Cabbage Patch" dance in memory of the vanquished Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners are known for performing the dance after a victory.
Kansas coach Larry Brown holds up the front page of yesterday's Kansas for the crowd at Memorial Stadium.
NCAA swamped with calls for 1989 Final Four tickets
By David Sodamann
Kansan staff writer
Telephone calls on Monday night poured into the National Collegiate Athletic Association's offices in Mission faster than slam-dunk basketballs. Anxious fans nationwide were angling for a shot at tickets for next year's Final Four in Seattle.
Jan Lewis, a spokesman for AT&T in Kansas City, said the company's records showed that the NCAA offices were flooded with phone calls
"That's where we noticed the most
activity." Lewis said.
T. Jay Nichollson, one of the operators taking calls, said that even as the Jahayhaws beat the Sooners, NCAA phones still tangled.
"People just started getting real paired and everybody started calling me. Nick Hitchcock."
Nichollson said eight operators
Those calling the NCAA ticket office receive an application for next year's Final Four tickets. The ticket will be entered in a draw for tickets.
took calls from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from March 1 to April 15 at NCAA headquarters. During an average day, each operator will answer about 150 calls from ticket seekers.
Monday night, Nicholson said, volume peaked. The six operators working extra hours from 6 p.m. to midnight took a little more than 1,500 calls.
"It didn't let up. Even when we left at midnight, they were still ringing." Nichollson said. "We were picking them up one after another.
Marie Hibbard, Overland Park senior, hits a winner in the tennis match against K-State. The match was yesterday at the Robinson Tennis Center.
Women's tennis team beats K-State
Rv Tom Stinson
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas and Kansas State women's tennis teams battled each other and the elements yesterday afternoon at the Robinson Tennis Center.
Yesterday's 30-plus mph winds and 57 degree temperature made the matches frustrating for the players and unsteady for their shots.
"The atmosphere today was the worst I've ever been associated with," said Kansas women's tennis coach Eric Hayes of the opening Big Eight conference match. "It makes it very hard to concentrate. Wind is a great neutralizer."
The Jayhawks doubles play
"I was impressed with our doubles play." Hayes said of the 16-3 Jayhawks. "We finally played well. We didn't pull out a couple of (singles) matches that we should have. I hope it doesn't come back to haunt us. But I was satisfied with the win."
The teams of senior Marie Hibbard and junior Junior Jonesson, senior Tracy Treps and freshman Stacy Stotts, and junior Susie Berglund and freshman Mindy Pelz all won in two sets.
highlighted the team competition as they swept the three matches.
Treps, Jonsson, Stotts and Pelz all won matches matches. Hibbard and Berglund lost in singles, and Hibbard's match went three sets.
was just as windy on her side," Hibbard said. "I'm disappointed in letting the weather frustrate me.
"I kept expecting to step up and hit a winner instead of just scrapping out the point. With the wind as it came, he had to take what you could get."
"The wind did affect me, but it
Kansas continues Big Eight Conference play this weekend. The Jayhawks travel to Stillwater to play 12th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday and then to Norman to play Oklahoma on Sunday.
The Cowboys have won the last seven Big Eight Championships. They are led by the doubles pair of Jane Wood and Monika Waniek, who are ranked ninth in the country.
Job rumors hound Brown Coach says reports of his going elsewhere 'not fair'
By Elaine Sung
Kansan sportswriter
Even as Kansas coach Larry Brown celebrated his first national championship yesterday, he was questioned whether he would remain at Kansas.
The issue surfaced again after the pep rally yesterday in Memorial Stadium. Brown never answered the question, neither saying that he would take a vacancy anywhere else nor saying that he would definitely stay.
The question was brought up immediately after the Jayhawks won the title by defeating Oklahoma 83-79 Monday night. Brown shook his head in disbelief and said, "I'm just trying to enjoy this moment. It isn't fair."
"I have had to answer that issue since I got here," Brown said. "I don't think I need to hold a press conference every year for this. I have a lot of pride in that I'm coach of this program. Every time I step out on the court, I realize what I'm expected to do."
What brought the situation up again was the continuing search for a new men's basketball coach at UCLA. The vacancy was the major topic during the Final Four, and the spotlight was on North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano, who was the primary candidate for the job.
But Saturday, Valvano announced that he no longer wanted to be considered for the job and withdrew his name from the list of candidates, citing family reasons.
That left the position wide open again, and Brown was named as the next likely candidate. Brown, who was named Naismith Coach of the Year yesterday, coached at UCLA for two seasons, from 1979 to 1981, and took the 1979-80 squad to the Final Four.
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick had given his permission for UCLA to contact Brown about the position.
Speculation over Brown's future at Kansas has been a hot topic as he completes his fifth year with the
Jayhawks and since his prize recruit, senior forward Danny Manning, will be graduating and moving on to the next year. He also plays with a team longer than five years.
Other places where observers believe Brown may end up if he chooses to leave include the NBA expansion-team Charlotte Hornets and the Houston Rockets.
Sports broadcaster Dick Vitale of ESPN got into the act several weeks ago with a public challenge. Vitale said he would come to "Late Night Show" at the arena and scrub the floors of Allen Field House if Brown was still at Kansas this fall.
More than 30,000 people greeted Brown and the players as they arrived in Lawrence yesterday, and it was obvious that Kansas wants Brown to stay, preferably forever.
"People at the University of Kansas care about him," said Chancellor Gene A. Budig. "I believe Larry Brown will be for years to come. There is no finer job in America for a basketball coach."
KU women split doubleheader in softball games against MU
Kansan sportswriter
Bv Keith Stroker
Freshman catcher Tammy Cook hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning and led the Kansas women's softball team to a 2-0 victory yesterday against Missouri in the first game of a doubleheader at Javakh Field.
Missouri defeated the Jayhawks 4-3 in eight innings in the second game. Cook's home run was her first in 11 years of competition.
"The ball felt good after it hit it, but I didn't think it was going to go out," Cook said. "It is a pretty exciting thing for me."
The second game was frustrating for the Jayhawks, said Coach Kalum Haack.
In the first game, KU sophomore pitcher Roanna Brazier pitched a two-hitter and improved her record to 12-7 for the season.
Kansas took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, but the Tigers won, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
"We are in the midst of a rebuilding year, and it gets very frustrating at times," Haack said. "We are a very inconsistent team right now, and I think our youth has a lot to do with that. I think maturity on the
field will help to combat our inconsistency."
Kansas is 15-18 overall and 1-1 in the Big Eight Conference. Kansas' 14 player squad has seven freshmen, two juniors and three seals.
Haack said Missouri, 26-8 and 1-1, is also in the process of rebuilding. Although they have a respectable record, Haack said, the Tigers were not one of the stronger teams in the conference.
Kansas will travel to Springfield, Mo., today for a doubleheader against Southwest Missouri State.
Johnson reworks Lakers contract
The Associated Press
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Magic Johnson, who said after last season that he deserved to be paid as much as the NBA's other top players, has agreed to a restructuring of his existing contract, the Los Angeles Lakers announced yesterday.
Johnson, sidedel by a strained groin muscle for the last 10 games, had been playing under a 25-year, $1 million-a-year agreement.
No financial terms of the restructured contract were announced, but Johnson said, "Right now, I have important things to worry
as long as nothing drastic happens, I will play all out until this contract runs out," he said. "I love playing basketball; it's in my heart, and this is what I want to do."
about, and that's getting healthy,
getting back on the court and preparing
for the playoffs."
Asked why he had decided to play longer than four years, he said: "By looking at how we're playing, what has transpired. You look at how Byron (Scott) has progressed or how James (Worthy) has come on.
"Those guys have taken some of the load off me, so it can only help my
game and add years to my career." Johnson said of the negotiations: "Both parties came together on this. If he (Buss) had said no from the very beginning, I wouldn't have said anything.
"The one thing you have to understand is that I won't get any more money out of this. It's just that the years of the contract have been condensed."
Whatever changes were made in Johnson's contract had to be fashioned in such a way as to keep the Lakers' salaries from going over the team cap dictated by NBA rules.
Texas A&M to respond soon to NCAA
The Associated Press
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas &M plans to move quickly to answer NCAA allegations of 31 rules violations and 7 procedural infractions, Coach Jackie Sherrill said.
"We've gone through the process before," Sherrill said Monday after releasing a letter from the NCAA outlining its charges. "We have an outside firm that will go out and interview people."
Sherrill said the school had until the end of June to
prepare its answer to the charges but the school would not take that long to respond.
No academic violations were cited in the 38-point letter. Names of players and coaches also were withheld.
Investigators concluded that the nature of the violations "demonstrate a lack of appropriate institutional control and monitoring in the administration of the institution's intercollegiate football program."
Sherrill said the procedural violations outlined by the NCAA were not major problems.