The University Daily Kansan
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Former Kansas players Jacque Vaughn, Danny Manning and Greg Ostertag and former Kansas recruit DeShawn Stevenson are averaging a combined 19.4 points per game for the Utah Jazz. Former Jayhawk Paul Pierce is averaging 23.8 ppg for the Boston Celtics.
Inside: Lots of activities are on the agenda for the spring intramural season, including wrestling and a new T-shirt design.
SEE PAGE 5A
For comments, contact Shawn Hutchinson or Shawn Linenberger at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Ballard hoping to crush K-State
Freshman guard Lella Menguc is heavily covered by Oklahoma's forward Caton Hill. Menguc started the game and played nine minutes. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
After extending one of the most incredible streaks in Kansas basketball Monday, the men's team will embark on another this Saturday and no Jayhawk is more excited about it than junior reserve Brett Ballard.
"I've always kind of hated K-State," Ballard said. "I've always been a KU fan so I'm definitely looking forward to playing them."
Though he's never played in a Kansas vs. Kansas State game
before, Ballard is well aware of the series' tradition. Kansas leads the all-time series 158-88, and the Wildcats' last victory against Kansas came on January 17, 1994, when Ballard was in eighth grade.
Williams: Hopes to continue win streak against K-State.
No. 4 Kansas (16-1, 5-0 Big 12 Conference) won its 23rd straight game against Colorado on Monday night and has defeated Kansas State (8-8, 2-3) in each of the last 19 meetings. The Jayhawks have also won the last 17 played in Manhattan.
The Jayhawks will play the Wildcats at 3 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse and will try to keep the streak alive.
"I know the streak of beating them's gonna end sometime," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "I know the streak of beating them over there is gonna end. I just try to put it off one more year each time we play them."
Ballard, a Hutchinson native, is one of four Kansans on the Jayhawk roster. Ballard's Hutchinson Community College teammate Chris Zerbe (Andover), and fellow juniors Lewis Harrison (Kansas City) and Todd Kappelmann (Augusta) are also from Kansas. Ballard will be making his first appearance as a participant in the Sunflower Showdown and said he anticipated a championship-type atmosphere when the 'Cats came to town.
"The (Allen Fieldhouse) atmosphere has been a lot crazier since the Big 12 season started and I'm sure it's going to be even more on Saturday," Ballard said. "There's a lot of students camping out already and I'm sure that the crowd's gonna be more electrified, especially considering this is the K-State game."
For Ballard, Kansas was a natural choice. A secondary-education major who hopes to go into coaching, he said Kansas and Williams provided the best opportunity for him to learn about the field.
More than 20 groups have already set up camp in the fieldhouse concourse for the game to show support for the Jayhawks.
"That was a huge factor in coming here," Ballard said. "I definitely want to coach. Coming here I knew I wasn't going to play a lot, but at the same time I knew I was going to be learning from a great coach. That was a bigger positive than going somewhere else."
Bullard will have an opportunity to learn from Williams at his finest on Saturday. Williams is 28-4 all-time coaching against K-State.
Sooners help 'Hawks continue losing trend
By Jessie Meyer sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
The high hopes the Kansas women's basketball team had of turning this season around dwindled a little more last night after suffering its most treacherous loss of the season.
The Jayhawks (7-10, 1-5 Big 12 Conference) dropped their third-straight game last night, 88-64, to No. 12 Oklahoma in the Hawks' worst home loss this season.
"I don't think it can get any lower," senior forward Brooke Reves said. "I'm hoping this is the bottom of the barrel."
The loss is the team's ninth in its past 11 games, and drops the Jayhawks into a three-way tie with Kansas State and Oklahoma State for last place in the Big 12.
"This is not something that we're used to." Kansas coach Marian Washington said. "I personally have not been in this situation in a long time. It is frustrating."
Washington has not coached a team that ended with a losing record since the 1988-89 season and has not lost more than 10 games since the 1994-95 season when the 'Hawks lost 11.
"I'm not going to concede, but I have to be realistic," Washington said. "We're having to start over and it's hard to face it. It's real frustrating and it's real frustrating for our players."
Washington knew going into the game against Oklahoma (14-4 and 5-1) it would take one of the Jayhawks' best games to break out of their losing slump — a game Kansas didn't come close to playing.
The Sooners controlled the pace of the game from the opening tip, starting the game on a 12-0 run on their way to an early 23-4 lead. The Sooners never slowed down.
Kansas failed to make the easy buckets in the paint, shooting 34.8 percent from the field, and faltered from three-point range where the Jayhawks shot just 10 percent. With a lid on the Kansas basket, Oklahoma capitalized on a shell-shocked Jayhawk team, shooting 66 percent from the field and 85.7 percent from behind the arc.
"When you get wide open shots under the basket you have to take your time and knock those down and we didn't," Washington said. "I thought that really hurt us."
Once again, seniors Jennifer Jackson, Jaclyn Johnson and Reves were the only offensive threats for Kansas. The three veterans put up 46 points and shot 21-48 while their supporting cast shot just 3-21 from the field.
"With just Jac and Brooke and me scoring we're obviously not being that successful," Jackson said. "We've got to find some more people to score."
Washington said sooner or later more than three players were going to have to score if the Kansas women's basketball team was to be successful.
"We have the same three players that have been doing a good job for us," Washington said. "As much as we had hoped that (the junior college transfers) would be able to come right on in and maybe help us, they haven't been able to do it. Unfortunately we're having to depend on them. That's the tough thing
about that rebuilding year."
The lack of depth has left Reves, Jackson and Johnson searching for someone, anyone, to step up and help them play the rest of the season with the heart and determination the three seniors bring to the court.
"I think and at some point people have to care and step up and really play for Coach Washington," Reves said. "I can't take anything away from Oklahoma, they're a phenomenal team. We just have to focus on us at this point and get us together."
Jackson moved to fourth place on Kansas' all-time career-assists list with 339, passing Tamecka Dixon. Dixon had 337 assists from 1994-97.
Shooting does in Jayhawks
By Brandon Stinnett
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Oklahoma did nothing to jeopardize its spot atop the Big 12 Conference scoring standings against Kansas last night.
Oklahoma was red-hot in every scoring category. The Sooners shot 66 percent from the field, 85.7 percent from behind the arc and 84.2 percent from the free-throw line.
The Sooners well-surpassed their 83.3 points per game scoring average on their way to a 88-64 decimation of the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse.
Oklahoma (14-4, 5-1 Big 12 Conference) was coming off a 94-77 victory against North Carolina on Sunday in the Big 12/ACC Challenge. And the Sooners play at home against No. 9 Texas Tech on Saturday.
All that in a game Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale feared her team might have overlooked.
"It was a game I was worried about because it was sandwiched between two such high-profile games," Coale said.
Junior center Dalton Brown (left) fights to steal the ball back after losing it during a rebound attempt. Brown scored four points and captured three offensive rebounds before fouling out. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
Oklahoma hit the gate running in the first half, streaking out to a quick 24-3 lead.
Kansas (7-10, 1-5) battled back to within 10 later in the half, but the Jayhawks could never overcome Oklahoma's hot shooting.
But if the Sooners were looking past the Javahawks, they sure didn't show it.
Junior LaNeisha Caufield led the Sooners' offensive onslaught. The 5-foot-9 guard was 7-for-9 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line, and led all scorers with 20 points.
It was Caufield's second-straight 20-point game. She scored 23 against the Tar Heels on 11-of-18 shooting on Sunday, and said the key had been an increased reliance on her teammates.
"In the last two games we've learned to trust each other and make that extra pass," Caufield said. "I think more of our shots now are coming out of rhythm.
Everyone knows when to shoot."
Caufield wasn't the only Sooner with a hot hand last night. Junior Rosalind Ross was perfect from the field, knocking down all three of her shots, including two three-pointers.
Ross was coming off a 19-point outing against North Carolina, matching her career-high. She was 5-for-9 from behind the arc against the Tar Heels.
"My team has a lot of confidence in me now and I have a lot of confidence in myself," Ross said. "I feel that if I'm open I can shoot it regardless. They tell me to just keep on with my stroke and they're behind me whether I make it or miss it."
The Sooners would have scored even more points had they not turned the ball over 34 times. Coale said Oklahoma had struggled with turnovers in recent games, but tonight she didn't feel the problem was with the starting five.
"We've been somewhat plagued with turnovers, but our starting five wasn't too bad," Coale said. "When you look at all the people that we played and the amount of minutes that they had, you're going to have more than you ordinarily have. We had three or four walking calls on moves we've been able to make all year. I'm not concerned with those. It's the passes that go into the third row that I'm concerned with."
Caufield said the Sooners couldn't afford to give the ball away as much on Saturday against Texas Tech.
"We need to keep playing like we've been playing and cut down on the turnovers," Caufield said. "We need to just stay together as a team. I think our transition game is really working for us."
Sports Columnist
Allan Davis
sports@kansan.com
Controversial mascots stay heated topic on campuses
Have you ever seen the Kansas City Chiefs arrowhead logo in the Kansan? Probably not.
But controversies about the use of Native-American names and symbols as mascots or nicknames for athletic teams continue, and nowhere is it more fierce than in North Dakota.
Usually, out of deference to Native American groups, Chiefs stories are accompanied by a plain helmet with the word "Chiefs" on it. I remember seeing the arrowhead once maybe two semesters ago. Most of the time the arrowhead will not be there, and that's a Kansan editorial decision.
That's nice, you might say, but what does it have to do with me here in Kansas?
And although we heard nothing about it, there is an ongoing controversy in North Dakota about the use of the nickname "Fighting Sloux."
Well, something the Kansan Political Correctness Committee missed was that the first official visiting men's basketball team to Allen Fieldhouse this season was the North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
Two quick points:
First, many Native Americans live in the Dakotas.
Second, North Dakota is the defending NCAA hockey champion. The Fighting Sloux — oops, excuse me — North Dakota has won seven NCAA titles and finished second three times.
Hockey in North Dakota is so popular that the defending national champions are getting a new arena.
Alumnus Ralph Engelstad is personally paying for the $85 million new arena, to be named the Ralph Engelstad Arena. Engelstad is a former Fighting Sioux goaltender, a casino owner and real estate developer with a very full wallet.
And that is where we pick up the story.
Meanwhile, North Dakota University president Charles Kupchella said in e-mails to State Board of Higher Education members he was leaning towards eventually changing the name of the mascot and logo.
"I see no choice but to respect the request by Sioux tribes that we quit using their name," he wrote.
At this point, Engelstad, the rich builder, re-entered in support of the old nickname. Engelstad wrote Kupchella a letter that said if the nickname "Fighting Sioux" were dropped, he would halt construction of the arena.
"Please do not consider this letter a threat in any manner," Engelstad wrote. "As it is not intended to be. It is only notification to you of exactly what I am going to do if you change this logo and this slogan. It is a good thing that you are an educator, because you are a man of indecision, and if you were a businessman you would not succeed. You would be broke immediately."
The letter reached Kupchella on Dec. 20, the same day it was faxed to some of the members of the board.
On Dec. 21, the board voted 8-0 to retain the nickname "Fighting Sioux" and adopt the proposed logo — a Native American profile designed by a Native American. The profile has feathers and war paint.
As it stands now, North Dakota will get its $85 million arena and the other $15 million Engelstad promised. President Kupchella, undoubtedly bothered by having the nickname decision taken out of his hands, is left with that increasingly popular excuse, "It wasn't me."
I wouldn't blame him if he looked for a new job.
I certainly would.
Javia is a Topeka graduate student in journalism.