8A
High Draft Pick?
Cleveland Browns draft pick Jeremiah Pharms was arrested on charges he shot and pistol-whipped a man for $1,500 worth of marijuana last year. The fifth-round draft pick from Washington was released yesterday on $250,000 bail.
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: Kansas assistant basketball coach Neil Dougherty has interviewed for the coaching vacancy at Xavier.
THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2001
SEE PAGE 7A
Inside: The Chicago Cubs fined pitcher Julian Tavarez for making derogatory comments.
For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Sports Columnist
sports@kansan.com
Michael Rigg
Sports season wrapping up after a wild, indelible ride
The roller coaster that was the 2000- 2001 Kansas sports season is finally coasting to an end.
Pass the Tums.
Pass the Truns.
We've seen highlights, like a Sweet 16 appearance and a ridiculous winning streak on the softball diamond. And — for darn sure — we've seen plenty of lowlights, such as the football team's loss to Southern Methodist and the slicing of two teams from the Athletic Department's budget.
Department's advice.
In fact, this school year was probably the most eventful year in the history of Jayhawk athletics, and the aftershocks of this season will be felt for seasons to come. This year showed us pretty much every side of sports. In fact, everything I need to know about Kansas athletics, I learned from this school year. Such as:
■ Forget about halfback option passes or double reverses. The snap from center to punter is absolutely the most difficult play in football. Ever.
■ Forget about the Sweet 16: The best feeling in the world was watching the Jayhawk football team silence Faurot Field by slaughtering Missouri. 38-17.
most difficult play in football. Ever.
■ SMU was the best team in college
football last season in defending the
center-to-punter snap.
Still, Memorial Stadium will never be full of Jayhawk fans for a home football game. Kansas fans are too fair-weathered to even be considered average fans, much less good ones. Perhaps Kansas men's basketball coach Roy Williams could schedule an "I'm staying" announcement during every home football game to make the fans show up.
Sports psychologist Mark Thompson speaks to members of the Kansas softball team. Kansas coach Tracy Bunge got Thompson involved to pump up her team, and it seems to have helped. The Jayhawks are in third place in the Big 12 Conference with a record of 9-6. Photo by Joshua Richards/KANSAN
And speaking of Williams' announcement, it was absolutely the most ridiculous news story I've ever been a part of. I'm sure Williams agrees.
Speaking of Jayhawk basketball fans, they deserve a stronger home non-conference schedule than what they're seen in recent years. On the bright side, I got in some pretty good naps while watching Kansas blow out "Who Cares? State" and "I've Never Heard of 'Em University."
- Something also tells me that Williams did the best coaching job of his career last season. Never before had any of his teams overcome so much adversity.
But we still shouldn't talk about that Sweet 16 appearance as if it were the greatest Jayhawk basketball memory of the last five years (even if it was). Kansas fans should expect to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
The best coaches at this school are two people most Kansas followers have never heard of — volleyball coach Ray Bechard and softball coach Tracy Bunge.
My old townhouse made a great fire starter. And so did my ESPN internship application.
If you thought this year's women's basketball season was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. We'll see how the Jayhawks respond next year without seniors Brooke Reves, Jennifer Jackson and Jaclyn Johnson around to carry them.
Kansas will never field a competitive baseball team. It's just the nature of college baseball, and it's not Bobby Randall's fault.
Rigg is a Greenwood Village, Colo. junior in Broadcast News.
Still, you can't help but get the feeling that the new Athletics Director won't be as understanding. The search process for Bob Frederick's successor will certainly be a long and wild ride, culminating with the hiring of somebody that we've never heard of.
- wild rides are what sports are all about.
Playing those mind games
Sports psychologist helps softball team find winning ways
By Brent Briggeman sports@kansan.com
Kansas writer/sportwriter
Kansas softball coach Tracy Bunge needed a blueprint.
She had to find a way to turn virtually the same group that had finished 5-13 in the Big 12 Conference last season into winners this season. The talent was in place, but she needed a plan to unleash the potential.
"We knew we needed to work on the mental aspect of the game as much as the physical." Bunge said.
She didn't want to rely on speeches or motivational gimmicks, she wanted an actual game plan to help the team's mental development.
Bunge called sports psychologist Mark Thompson, an instructor in the Health, Sports and Exercise Science Department, fpr.help.
It's paid off. The Jayhawks are seven games above .500 this season, compared to two games below .500 last season. They are in third place in the conference with a 9-6 record.
The first step of the plan involved building team unity.
After Christmas, the team left for a retreat. The players, coaches and Thompson spent a night at an old cabin south of Lawrence. The players brought clips of movies that described their on-field personalities as well as keepsakes from home.
As a transfer from Syracuse, first baseman Leah Hanson said the trip helped her get to know her new teammates.
"I had known some of them before, but this really helped us to bond as a team."
said Hanson, a sophomore from Olathe.
The team spent the night talking and setting goals. They even wrote a mission statement: "Believe with passion and perseverance."
The plan was starting to take shape.
The plan was starting to come.
"It means everything to know that you aren't going to have to do every thing by yourself," said Erin Garvey, the team's
only senior. "We knew after that night that we would have each other's backs and everyone were working toward the same goal."
Seeing the progress in the preseason,
Bunge asked Thompson to continue working
with the team throughout the season.
He meets with players individually, but works with the whole team at least once a
week. Rather than taking ground balls and running, the team uses the time performing visualization drills, working on mind games and talking.
"It's still practice," Bunge said. "It's just as important as anything else we do."
For Megan Urquhart, Kansas' junior
Overpowering performance
By Ryan Malashock sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
Jayhawks rally in fourth inning to beat Park University 8-2
Park University pitcher Eric Peltzer breezed through the first nine Jayhawk bat-ts perfectly, and the Pirates
Things looked bleak for Kansas after three innings last night at Hoglund Ballbark.
took a 2.0 lead into the fourth inning.
But a four-run Kansas fourth inning, sparked by sophomore infielder Casey Spanish's two-run home run, erased Park's early lead and started a string of eight unanswered runs in the Jayhawks' 8-2 victory.
Kansas coach Bobby Randall said some external factors contributed to the Jayhawks' slow start.
"I could tell in batting practice that we weren't ready," Randall said. "It took
"I thought we gave them a couple of runs in the
In addition to Spanish, the only Kansas player with a multi-hit game was sophomore reserve catcher Clay Wheeler. Wheeler knocked his first career double in the seventh inning and singled in the eighth. Last night was only Wheeler's second start of the season behind the plate.
first two
innings,but after
Wilcher, Jeff Davis, Dan Olson
three innings for us to get going, and I was pretty fired up for a while. Casey's home run really opened things up in the fourth."
Bobby Randall Kansas baseball coach
and Randy Strann held the score down and gave us a chance
to win."
Spanish broke out of a month-long slump by going 3-for-4 with his second homer of the season and two RBI against the Pirates. Spanish also added two solid singles.
"I've been in a slump for about the last month, and I was just trying to figure out what to do." Spanish said. "In the last week or two, I've been starting to get it back and get the looseness back. It feels great to hit the ball hard like I know I can."
Freshman outfitter Matt Trible corrals a fly ball in the middle innings of the Jayhawks' 8-2 victory against the Park University Pirates on Wednesday. Photo by Laurie Sisk/KANSAN.
"When you get rare chances at the plate like I do, you want to get all you can out of that attbat," Wheeler said. "The season's almost over, and I'm going to help the team as much as I can."
Kansas' victory last night was a team effort in every sense of the word. Each Jayhawk starter collected at least one hit, and five Jayhawk pitchers combined and limited the Pirates to two runs on eight hits.
Kansas (21-29), but surrendered two runs in the first two innings. Smart lasted only 1 2/3 innings before junior Justin Wilcher entered the game and threw three innings of scoreless relief against Park (24-14). Wilcher recorded his third victory of the season in relief as three more Kansas relievers sealed the win.
Freshman Chris Smart started for
"I thought we gave them a couple of runs in the first two innings," Randall said. "But after that, Justin Wilcher, Jeff Davis, Dan Olson and Randy Strann held the score down and gave us a chance to win."
Kansas wraps up its Big 12 Conference season this weekend with a three-game series against Kansas State, starting tomorrow night at 4 p.m. in Manhattan.
Edited by Brandy Straw
LINESCORE
Park 110 000 000 — 2 8 4
Kansas 000 401 21x — 8 12 2
WP: Wilcher, J. 3-9, LP: Peltzer, E. 8-5.
2B: KU: Wheeler, C. (1), HR: KU:
Spanish, C. (2), Wheeler, K. (2).
By Shawn Linenberger
Kansan associate sports editor
Rowing captains preparing for honors banquet
Practicing on the Kansas River, going to class and hiring a caterer all are part of a day's work for the Kansas rowing team's captains.
The team's sixth annual banquet, which honors accomplishments during the season, is tomorrow at the Holidome. Senior captains Ali Brox, Shannon Gribbin, Heather Muir and Jen Page are in charge of much of the event's organization.
Muir said the captains split duties with the coaches. Some of the preparation includes reserving a hotel convention room, sending out invitations, getting coaches' gifts, decorating, and gathering clips and pictures for a team highlight video.
Although the organization has taken more work than she thought, Muir said the combination of rowing and the upcoming banquet had been fine.
we haven't had a lot of problems," Muir said. "I was really proud of us for being so organized."
The most tedious job has been stuffing envelopes, but it could have been worse.
The captains sent out 600 envelopes to booster club members, family and friends. Assistant coach Heather Galvin said she expected around 200 people for the event.
"We didn't have to lick them, just had to stuff." Brox said.
"I think they're doing a pretty good job," Galvin said about the captains. "I think it gets a little better each year. It comes at a really busy time for us."
The Jayhawks season isn't quite finished. Kansas competes at the Central Rowing Championships May 12-13 in Oak Ridge, Tenn. If the Jayhawks compete well there, they advance to the NCAA Championships May 24-26 in Gainesville, Ga.
Galvin said there had been some discussion in the past of moving the banquet to the fall so accomplishments at Centrals and possibly NCAAs could be recognized. Doing this, though, would leave out a senior class the first year of the change. At this point, the team prefers the banquet at the season's end.
Edited by Malinda Weaver
— Edited by Melinda Weaver