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The University Daily Kansan
No. 12 Virginia ended No. 3 Duke's ACC-record 24-game road winning streak last night in Charlottesville, Va., 91-89. The Cavaliers had lost 12 straight games to the Blue Devils.
Upset in Top 25
Sports
Inside: Stellar defense and clutch free-throw shooting helped Texas Tech propel past the Jayhawks 49-45 last night at Allen Fieldhouse.
SEE PAGE 5A
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2001 For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Sports Columnist
Brent Briggeman
sports@kansan.com
Economics might cloud Royals' cheer
A dark gloom covered downtown Kansas City on Tuesday as members of the Royals attended an annual luncheon to preview the upcoming season.
Was the weather a sign of things to come for the small market baseball team?
teen.
The Royals didn't think so.
Owner David Glass and All-Star first baseman Mike Sweeney were among the upbeat panelists who addressed a crowd of supporters and media at the Downtown Marriott. They spoke of their optimism for the upcoming season, the improvements the club made in the offseason, and their hopes of breaking into the upper echelon of teams in the American League.
The playing field in baseball simply isn't level. Call it greed, call it what you want, but it's just capitalism. The demand of the television market in cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles has provided a handful of teams with more money to supply their players. It's that simple.
The optimism, though painfully genuine, will surely be swallowed by the cloudy economic landscape in baseball in a matter of months.
As one observer at the lunchone noted, it's like a Monopoly game. When the Royals pass 'Go,' they get $200. But when the Yankees' thimble makes the rounds, they get $1,000.
Meanwhile, teams in cities like Kansas City, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are left scurrying to break even every year despite relatively tiny payrolls. When players in these towns develop into star-quality players, they follow the money elsewhere (see Johnny Damon).
The point was punctuated this off-season when Texas Rangers owner Thomas Hicks signed free-agent shortstop Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252 million contract. About the contract, Glass quipped: "I think they're nuts!"
If you listen carefully,you may even hear the line growing between the haves and have-nots.
The scales are tipped in advance. Seasons don't have that aura of unpredictability. Thus, it comes as no surprise baseball has dropped in popularity.
Despite the circumstances, the Royals glowed with optimism as they spoke at the luncheon, presented by the Kansas City Sport Commission & Foundation.
Sweeney said he was entering the season with the intention of winning the American League Central Division.
"If we don't believe that, then what's the point?" he said. "We don't want to just play. 500 ball and collect a paycheck every two weeks. That's not fulfilling. We want to play to win."
Sweeney thought the off-season acquisition of closer Roberto Hernandez would be enough to help the Rovals get into the playoffs.
The Royals' attitude and excitement as they face a constant uphill climb make them worth watching. There's not so much a hint of the selfish, mercenary attitude that has plagued professional sports.
Sweeney even admitted that, though he signed a two-year contract well below his market value, he was vastly overpaid.
"We're all overpaid," he said. "We're playing a game that we love to play. I feel blessed just to go out there every day."
Third baseman Joe Randa said money was a secondary concern in his mind as well.
"My last contract wasn't good enough for my agent," he said. "But it was good enough for me. I love Kansas City. I'm going to live here if I'm playing here or not. Besides, the way I look at it, I'd be just as happy driving a Toyota as I would a Mercedes Benz."
Briggeman is a Proft senior in journalism.
The Royals' slogan of a year ago rings true — "You've Gotta Love These Guys."
Still, reality is reality and, love them or not, don't expect to see the sun shine down on Kauffman Stadium and the Royals' franchise anytime soon.
Jayhawks crumble against Tech
By Jessie Meyer sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
One glaring first half statistic tells the story of the Kansas women's basketball team's 49-45 loss to No.14 Texas Tech last night at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks had more turnovers than points at the half.
Kansas shot 31.8 percent from the field and scored just 16 points in the first half, the lowest halftime number the Hawks have had in a Big 12 Conference game. The 45 points they finished with is also the fewest Kansas has scored in a Big 12 game. On top of that, they turned the ball over 18 times in the first half and finished with a season-high 31.
"I'm real disappointed with our lack of poise in that area," said Kansas coach Marian Washington of the poor ball-handling. "We had opportunities, numerous opportunities to really do some scoring but we just did not take advantage of them."
But the Jayhawks were down just five at the half.
Kansas (9-14, 3-9 Big 12) stuck to its defensive game-plan and forced Texas Tech (19-4, 10-2) to turn the ball over 13 times and shoot just 34.6 percent from the field in the first half. Kansas continued its defensive pressure, forcing the Raiders to take low-percentage shots and keeping Texas Tech from running away with the game in the second half.
"Our defense did exactly what we wanted it to accomplish," Washington said. "If I was going to play them again tomorrow, I would play them exactly
More Information
For more about Kansas' game against Texas Tech
See page 5A
the same way."
The highlight for Kansas in the second half was the continued consistency from senior Jaclyn Johnson. Johnson led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. No other Kansas players scored in double-digits.
"It looked like we didn't care." Johnson said. "I think a lot of people didn't come mentally ready for this game, and it showed in our offensive play."
With a lid on the basket, the Jayhawks relied on free-throws to keep them in the game down the stretch. They shot 15-of-14 in the second half and 15-for-17 overall from the line. Despite pulling to within two points, Kansas could not pull ahead of the Raiders because the offense never got in the swing of things.
Senior Brooke Reves sat out for much of the second half, committing 11 turnovers and scoring just four points on the night. Senior Jennifer Jackson also struggled on the offensive end with seven turnovers and six points.
"When you're playing as badly as we did as far as taking care of the ball, you're not going to win any games," Jackson said. "Thirty-one turnovers are ridiculous."
While free-throws had kept the Jayhawks alive, the Raiders sealed
See 'HAWKS on page 5A
Kansas senior center Jaclyn Johnson battles Texas Tech's Plenette Pierson for a rebound as senior guard Jennifer Jackson looks on. The 14-ranked Lady Raiders escaped KU 49-45 last night despite Johnson's 20 points and 9 rebounds. Photo by Laurie Sisk/KANSAN
Kansas senior center Eric Chenowith works the ball against Oklahoma State. Kansas file photo
Williams fed up after loss
Bv Chris Wristen
By Chris Wristen
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
The head man's had enough.
Kansas coach Roy Williams has taken the blame for his teams' mishaps during the past 13 years, but times have changed. Yesterday, a fed-up Williams said it was time for his players to get up for games — no pep talks needed.
"The old coach is not doing real well," Williams said. "Part of a coach's responsibility is to get the club ready to play. You can do that by emphasizing to them the strengths of the opponent, emphasizing to them the importance of the game and emphasizing to them how successful they have been recently.
"We had done all those things and yet it still bothers me that I did not get them ready to play. And at the same time the guys need to do that themselves. I have never had a coach in my life that has had to get me ready to play. I think that is the most ridiculous statement that a coach could make."
Nevertheless, Williams said something needed to be done to light a fire under his players' seats. Nothing has worked recently.
The sixth-ranked Jayhawks (194, 8-3 Big 12 Conference) have lost three of their last five games and fallen into deep
"It was the worst case of a team not being ready to play that I've ever been involved with."
ever been involved with.'
Kirk Hinrich
Kansas guard
holes during the first half of each loss. Additionally, they took a narrow two-point lead into halftime against Texas on Feb. 3 after blowing a 10-point lead in the opening period. Williams said Monday's 85-77 loss at Baylor, where the Jayhawks lost in embarrassing fashion, was a case of his players not being ready to play.
"They are accountable and we were not ready to play." Williams said. "I think two or three guys played their hearts out, but there are several guys that did not and they have to make decisions."
Kansas sophomore guard Kirk Hinrich led the Jayhawks with a career-high 26 points against Baylor and forward Bryant Nash chipped in two steals that launched a second-half comeback.
But they were two of the few Jayhawks with their heads on straight Monday night. Hinrich said he was worried that a repeat performance could happen Saturday when the Jayhawks play No. 7 Iowa State in Ames, Iowa.
"It was the worst case of a team not being ready to play that I've ever been involved with," Hinrich said. "We're got to work on that and a bunch of other things. If we don't then it's going to be embarrassed."
Hinrich agreed with Williams the players needed to take responsibility for being ready to play. He said he and his teammates needed to care enough to start motivating themselves for games.
Kansas forward Nick Collison said there was no emotional leader among the players in the locker room who gave the team a lift on Monday night.
"Maybe we could use a little more of that." Collison said. "But if you need some kind of speech to get you fired up and ready to go every single night, I really don't think you're going to be ready to play anyway. Each player's got to be ready to go and take more of a businesslike approach to it."
Kansas basketball notes
Drew Gooden will miss Saturday's game against Iowa State because of a sprained right wrist, which he injured in the Feb. 3 win against Texas. Gooden will meet with doctors again on Monday, Williams said. If all goes well, the sophomore forward would be able to play in Wednesday's game against Colorado.
Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
'Hawks roll into tournament as favorite
By Ryan Malashock
Kansan sportswriter
The Jayhawks take on the St. Mary's (Calif.) Gales today at 3 p.m. in their first of four weekend games. The Jayhawks (3-0) play Northwestern tomorrow, Northern Iowa on Saturday and Ball State on Sunday.
The Kansas baseball team enters this weekend's Rawlings Tournament in Phoenix in an unfamiliar role — as the favorites.
Although coach Bobby Randall dismissed the notion Kansas was the clear-cut favorite in Phoenix, he acknowledged his squad would have a target on its back.
"Every team down there is going to save their best pitcher for us, for the Big 12 team. The same thing happened last week." Randall said, referring to the Round Rock Classic the Jayhawks played in Texas. "When you wear that Big 12 logo, it's going to happen. We need to go down there ready to play four tough games."
St. Mary's presents Kansas with perhaps
its toughest competition of the weekend. The Gales (3-4) took two of three games from Pacific-10 power Arizona earlier in the season.
last start of the season today against St. Mary's. Justin Wilcher, Jake Wright and Pete Smart round out the weekend's starting rotation. Smart was initially scheduled to start today's game, but a nagging back injury forced Randall to bump his start to Sunday.
Kansas junior Dan Olson will make his
Randall: thinks teams will be gunning for Kansas
Randall said he
planned to use a wider variety of lineups this weekend and hoped to get more playing time for multiple players. He also said he hoped to go much deeper into the bullpen this weekend.
The Jayhawks are in a different position entering the Rawlings Tournament than
they were last week in Round Rock, Texas. The Jahayhaws played their first games of the season last week against three game-experienced clubballs.
This week, the tables are turned. Northwestern, Northern Iowa and Ball State will all be playing their first games of the season this weekend. Randall stressed the Jayhawks should not take any team lightly based on its lack of game experience.
"We came right out of the gate and beat three quality teams in our first games, so we should assume that those teams could do that to us." Randall said.
The Jayhawks started 8-1 last season, but swooned in the middle of the season and finished 25-30.
"I think it's bigger to get better every
The Jayhawks could use the Rawlings Tournament as a stepping stone to another fast start this season. Junior third baseman Ryan Klocksien said a winning streak was important early in the season, but game-by-game improvement was the main objective.
time out than to just win games," Klocksball said. "Last year we started out 8-1, but I felt that we didn't improve every game. In the tournament (last week), you could tell that we were doing better each game, and we need to keep that going." Baseball notes
Randall said sophomore infielder Ryan Baty would have season-ending shoulder surgery next week. Baty played in 23 games last season and batted .279. Randall said Baty's presence would be missed.
"Ryan's injury is a big blow to us." Randall said. "That hurts desperately because it takes an inflider out of the mix. Ryan's an experienced guy who was going to play some second and first base for us."
— Edited by Jason McKee
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