Sports
Showdown with the 'Cats
KU
Look in tomorrow's Kansan for coverage of the Kansas/Kansas State women's basketball game.
The University Daily Kansan
1B
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Coach wants fans'support
By Jonathan Kealing jkealing@ku.edu Kansan sportswriter
In Big 12 women's basketball, it seems there is no rest for the weary.
With five teams in the Big 12 ranked in the Associated Press top 25, games against ranked opponents are a common occurrence.
Kansas will face yet another ranked team tonight when it faces instate rival, No. 9 Kansas State, at 7 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.
Woodard
Last time the two teams met, K-State came away with a convincing 79-50 victory. During that game, though, Kansas was without the services of two of its starters, sophomore forward Tamara Ransburg and
Ervin
junior guard Larisha Graves, as well as junior reserve forward Kandis Bonner.
During Saturday's loss to Nebraska, Graves lit up the scoreboard with 17 points. At one point, she was responsible
PROJECTED STARTERS FOR WEDNESDAY'S KANSAS-KANSAS STATE GAME
Kansas:
Guard junior Aquanita Burras
Guard junior Larisa Graves
Center soph. Tamara Ransburg
Forward soph. Crystal Kemp
Forward junior Blair Waltz
Kansas State:
Kansas State
Guard junior Laurie Koehn
Center senior Nicole Ohlide
Forward senior Amy Dutmer
Forward junior Megan Mahoney
Forward junior Kendra Wecker
Amanda Kim Stairett/Kansan
Projected starters are based on the players who started each team's last game.
for four straight Kansas field goals.
While this is a home game for the Jayhawks, over the last two years. Wildcat fans have turned the Fieldhouse purple.
Last season, the Jayhawks had set a attendance record of 5,318 when Kansas State came to town. The crowds saw the Jayhawks fall to the Wildcats 49-88.
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 4B
Crystal Kemp, sophomore forward, dribbed around two Oklahoma State opponents during the first half of the game on Saturday, Jan. 31. The Jayhawks will take on Kansas State tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
Rehab key for injured athletes
bromdon Johnson, baseball pitcher and Lawrence senior, threw for the first time in five months Feb. 3 in Anschutz Pavilion. Johnson had surgery 14 weeks ago to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. Johnson does daily rehab exercises using light weights and rubber bands.
By Doyle Murphy
dmurphy@kansan.com
Kansan senior sportswriter
It was just 15 throws from no farther than five yards.
A Little Leaguer wouldn't even have called it a good warm up, but Brandon Johnson hadn't thrown a baseball in five months. After surgery 14 weeks ago, using his right hand to toast a piece of crumpled newspaper into a trash can would have seemed like an act of stupidity, if not madness.
Megan True/Kansan
Earlier in the day, Johnson was one of dozens of student athletes in the Dean Nesmith Training Facility. The facility is used to treat athletes from all of the Kansas varsity sports, and today it looks like the Athletic Department's version of the United Nations with representatives from baseball, football, basketball, cheerleading, volleyball and soccer They jostle amongst each other in a daily routine of stretching, lifting weights, riding stationary bikes and lying on padded tables.
While most fans never see this part of sports, it has become as important to being competitive as coaches and players.
"I believe it's vital," said Lynn Botts, director of athletic training at the University. "Because you can track a student, you can monitor a student."
According to American Sports Data, Inc., of the 35 to 40 million injury-related emergency room visits each year 10 percent are sports-related, making the rehabilitation process essential to success throughout a season. If athletes aren't properly cared for, recovery time can be lengthened indefinitely, robbing teams of valuable players.
When Kansas senior quarterback Bill Whittemore suffered a broken collarbone against Kansas State, Jayhawk coach Mark Mangino said Whittemore would likely miss the remainder of the regular season and possibly any postseason games for which Kansas qualified. Entering the game against the Wildcats, Whittemore was leading a Jayhawk offense that was averaging 37.0 points per game. Kansas had won five games and needed just one victory out of its final five to become bowl eligible for the
42-60. The Jayhawks faltered in their next three games, and there was nothing Whittemore could do. He watched from the sidelines, and while he wouldn't say his absence cost Kansas games, he was tortured, knowing he could help his team. Meanwhile, Whittemore's teammates and coaches tried to convince
first time since 1995. Whittemore went down in the first quarter, and Kansas lost 42-6.
media members, opponents, fans and ultimately themselves that the Jayhawks were bigger than Bill Whittemore
It may have seemed callous, but Whittemore had been an athlete for a long-time and understood. His teammates didn't ignore him, and he was still included in team activities, but the role of star and injured star were vastly different.
SEE INJURY ON PAGE 4B
Heard on the Hill
What does the Kansas men's basketball team's blowout loss to Oklahoma State mean for the Jayhawks?
Eric Buschelman,
Edmond, Okla., senior
"It means we gotta play better defense, score more points and don't let the Conference title slip away from us."
Buschelman
"I think its good for us to lose once in a while just so we don't get a big head."
Andy Dang, Overland Park freshman
Dang
"It shows everybody else we're not perfect. We do lose and we're doing pretty good for a new coach."
Jon Larance,
Houston, Texas, fresh-
man
Larance
Hamel
"It's like a reality check and showed us what we need to work on and there's a lot of good teams in the Big 12."
Elizabeth Hamel, Chapman freshman
—Keith Pinkelman,
Kansas City, Kan., freshman
"I think its just another hurdle. It's been a long year and they're just learning a new system with a new coach and everything. Just as long as they get it together for tournament time, I think we're OK."
Pinkelman
"I'm hoping it doesn't mean anything and we can show them who the better basketball team is come March."
—Bridget Franklin, Topeka freshman
Franklin
—Amanda Kim Stairrett
FacEx to submit basketball ticket plan
By Joe Bant
jbant@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Answers are still pending and details still need to be worked out,but the Faculty Executive Committee will submit a draft of its ticket plan to the University Council tomorrow.
The plan outlined a method of distributing the 1,822 seats available for current and retired University of Kansas faculty and staff. It gives approximately 1,600 seats to current ticket holders and uses a lottery to distribute the remaining 200 seats to faculty and staff without tickets.
At the meeting tomorrow, the Council will vote on the draft.
"Why don't we do whatever makes sense and not try to please everyone, because we're not going to anyway." Jill Kleinberg ForFy member
FacEx wants an up or down vote from the Council, allowing it to accept or reject the plan, but not amend specific details.
"I think people are going to understand this is not something people who
have not been close to it can just take an afternoon and start suggesting amendments and so forth," said Ray Davis, FacEx chairman.
Davis does not expect the Council to reject the plan, but if it does, FacEx will take it back and work on revisions.
Points of the plan that remain blurry include the exact way seating will be assigned. The plan assigns seating on a seniority basis for lottery ticket holders and current ticket holders, but does not specify how that will be done. Representatives from the Athletics Department were present at yesterday's meeting to discuss what specific seating arrangements would be possible.
Details also need to be worked out about the types of ticket packages available. The plan originally stated that four-game, eight-game and 16-game packages would be available to current ticket holders and four-game packages would be available in the lottery.
FacEx amended the plan to say quarter-season, half-season and full-season packages instead, noting that some seasons had more than 16 home games. But that still does not explain what a quarterseason package would be if the season does not divide evenly into quarters.
FacEx member Jill Kleinberg said her group was agonizing too much over small details.
"Why don't we do whatever makes sense and not try to please everyone, because we're not going to anyway," Kleinberg said.
One thing FacEx did agree on was the need to appoint a committee to control the seating process once the plan was in use.
The committee will consist of three people: one faculty member, one classified staff member and one unclassified staff member. Davis said the University Senate Executive Committee would nominate people to serve on the seating committee.
TALK TO SPORTS: Contact Henry C. Jackson or Maggie Newcomer at SPORTS@KANSAN.COM
- Edited by Amanda Kim Stairrett
---