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The University Daily Kansan
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In the Navy
Colorado did not play basketball in 1943 or 1944 because the Navy used all of the team's facilities during World War II.
Where were you when:
Go back in Jayhawk history
with Flashback.
SEE PAGE 2B
Inside: Although no team points were recorded, Kansas track members found success at the Missouri Invitational.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2001 For comments, contact Shaun Hutchinson or Shawn Linenburger at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com
SEE PAGE 6B
Scoring woes plague team in losing skid
By Jessie Meyer
Sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
BOULDER, Colo. — Basketball is a five-player game, and it takes a complete team to make things work — a fact Kansas women's basketball seniors Jennifer Jackson, Brooke Reves and Jaclyn Johnson are learning the hard way this season.
Amber Swartz, Granby, Mo., senior, is hoisted over the crowd following a layup by Kenny Gregory that was part of a 22-3 first-half run for Kansas. Tonight, the Jayhawks will face Colorado without the home-crowd support. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
The Jayhawks (7-9 overall) and 1-4 in the Big 12 Conference) suffered their second loss in a row and the eighth loss in ten games Saturday to the Colorado Buffaloes 72-63. The Buffaloes (13-3 and 4-1) extended their win-streak to four games despite the 45 points, nine assists and 17 boards the three seniors produced.
"I've got a group that's not going to stop trying," said coach Marian Washington. "But we're just having
to depend on some new faces."
some new faces.
And those new faces are where many of the problems lie. Washington has seen consistent, positive efforts from Jackson, Reves and Johnson, but the supporting cast has been quiet
Washington
and, for the most part, unproductive. Ten Jayhawk saw playing time Saturday, taking away the three seniors, and the other seven scored 18 points collectively — none of whom scored more than six...
The 'Hawks put together a 19-6 run midway through the second half — with Johnson, Jackson and Reves scoring all but two of those points — and showed signs of life that had been missing in last week's loss to Oklahoma State. But as the senior Jayhawks began to tire and were forced to sit out and take a breather, the Buffalooes ran away with the game on a 14-4 run of their own.
"We're still trying to get our new players to help put some points on the board, bottom line," Washington said. "We have, I think, a couple really fine junior college players but we just haven't been able to get them to consistently put points on the board for us. And that has been really challenging."
Junior college transfers KC Hilgenkamp and Fernanda Bosi were supposed to provide a scoring threat to fill the voids Kansas super-scorers Lynn Pride and Suzi Raymont left when they graduated last year. But lately, neither Hilgenkamp nor Bosi has made an impact on the scoreboard.
Hilgenkamp transferred in this year from Hutchinson Community College, averaging 14.5 points, 7.5 assists and four rebounds a game. Bosi came from Western Nebraska Junior College, averaging 15 points and eight rebounds a game. But in the past four games combined — three of which the 'Hawks lost — Hilgenkamp has scored just 18 points, dished out 13 assists and grabbed six rebounds, and Bosi has 17 points and seven rebounds. Together, they scored just four points against the Buffaloes.
"There's no way that three or four people are going to beat a team of 12, 13." Johnson said. "We're just going to keep losing. We're going to keep losing if we don't have everybody come to play."
"She was a real gamer today." Washington said after the game Saturday. "I think for her to come out tonight and try to play hard for us was great.
Johnson led the way Saturday, despite suffering a bruised bone and strained ligaments in her left ankle in Wednesday's game against Oklahoma State. Johnson worked in the paint against Colorado's 6-foot-4 junior Britt Hartshorn and 6-foot-5 freshman Tera Bjorklund, but still grabbed nine rebounds. Her team-high 16 points put her higher in the record books as Kansas' 12th all-time scorer with 1,165 points, passing Lisa Dougherty, who scored 1,163 between 1985-88.
"Jaclyn, she competes. You can't say enough for a kid like that. She's done a great job for us, for our program."
—Edited by Jason McKeen
Colorado to test 'Hawks
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
When No. 5 Kansas travels to Boulder, Colo., to take on the Colorado Buffaloes at 8 tonight, the 'Hawks will be shooting for the century mark.
specifically, Kansas will be looking for its 100th win against the Buffaloes in school history. The Jayhawks (15-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big 12 Conference) are riding an eight-game winning streak and scored a big road win at Oklahoma nine days ago.
But Coach Roy Williams knows tonight's road game might be even tougher.
"I told the guys in the locker room that this is the best Colorado team that anyone in this locker room has faced." Williams said.
The Buffs' record (12-6 and 23) might not show it, but Colorado has won two of its last three games, and lost by only six to No. 20 Missouri two weeks ago. Saturday, Colorado dominated in its 88-71 win against Texas Tech. D.J. Harrison has been lighting up the nets for 16.5 points per game and Jamahl Mosley has added 13 points per game. Those numbers have caught the Jayhawks' attention.
"He's a strong player and he's athletic," said Kansas senior center Eric Chenowith.
Mosley leads the Buffalooes with 7.2 rebounds per game and will be the main player whom Chenowith and sophomore forwards Nick Collison and Drew Gooden must contend on the boards. Kansas outrebounded Texas A&M 49-41 Saturday in Kansas 100-70 win and have out-rebounded their opponents in all 15 wins this season. But Mosley still will be a challenge.
Making things more difficult, Kansas continues to battle foul trouble. Gooden fouled out and Collison had four fouls in Saturday's game. Chenowith fouled out on Wednesday against Nebraska.
"Foul trouble is the only thing that can stop us," Gooden said. "But as long as we take care of that we'll be just fine."
He may be right about that, too. Kansas has taken care of business in its last eight games by out-rebounding its opponents in each game. They've also been on a shot-blocking spree. In the last three games Collison logged 10 swats and Chenowith blocked four shots.
If those blocks continue tonight, then junior guard Jeff Boschee said he expected that the team would receive accolades from the opponent's crowd — or the Kansas crowd, as the case may be.
"For the past three years, a lot of Kansas fans have been there," Boschee said. "But they're a lot better team than they've had in the past, so we'll have to be ready."
Gooden recorded his conference-leading
Kansas leads the all-time series against the Buffalooes in Boulder, 30-25. Williams is 27-1 all-time against Colorado and 11-1 in Boulder. Buffalooes coach Ricardo Patton is 0-1 against Kansas.
sixth double-double of the season on Saturday against Texas A&M with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Kansas is 8-0 against Colorado since the Big 12 Conference was formed in 1966-97.
NO. 5 KANSAS (15-1, 4-0) AT COLORADO (12-6, 2-3)
Edited by Jason McKee
Time: 8 p.m. CST
Time: 8 p.m. CS1
Place: Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo.
TV/Radio: ESPN, 980 AM, 105.9 FM
Coaches: Kansas — Roy Williams, 13th season.
344-83. Colorado — Ricardo Patton,
sixth season. 87-68.
Series: Kansas leads 99-38.
Kansas overpowers plucky Aggies
Rv Chric Wriston
Kansas forward Drew Gooden reaches for a reverse layup during Saturday's game against Texas A&M. Photo by Christina Neff/KANSAN
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
For 12 minutes, Texas A&M may have played its best basketball of the season. The team's final 28 minutes were a different story, though, as No. 5 Kansas roasted the Aggies 100-70 on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.
With eight minutes left in the first half, the Jayhawks barely led 26-24 — something nobody would have expected after Kansas jumped out to an early 9-2 lead. But the Aggies refused to back down and stayed with Kansas.
"The first 10 or 11 minutes, I think they clearly out-hustled us," said Kansas coach Roy Williams. "They were getting more rebounds and more loose balls, so I got on (our guys) during a timeout and told them that if we continued playing like that then this was going to go down to the wire."
Message received.
A lay-in by Kenny Gregory with 8:38 left sparked a 23-3 explosion. Meanwhile, A&M didn't make a field goal for another six minutes.
"I was pleased with our defense today," Williams said. "From the nine-minute mark of the first half, down to the last two possessions we played real good defense, we're really good defensively and got what we wanted on offense. We stretched it out and played really good basketball."
Gregory, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden got successive feeds inside for easy baskets and Gooden had an acrobatic putback of a Collison miss as the Aggies fell into a 21-point pit that they would never escape from.
"We just started playing," Collison said. "We started pressuring a lot. We weren't really doing that early, so we just got into it and started playing."
Kansas got sloppy in the final minute of the first half and the Aggies closed the gap to 50-33 at halftime. Nick Anderson then hit a free throw at the start of the sec-
and half that cut the lead to 16.
Texas A&M never got an closer.
Kansas (15-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big 12 Conference) continued pounding the ball to its big inside players. Collison and Gooden made short jump shots and layups at a scorching pace as the lead ballooned to 85-48 with five minutes remaining. The duo
scored 19 points apiece.
The Aggies (6-11 and 0-5) chipped away at that lead with a basket and an assist by Bernard King. But A&M's leading scorer never found his rhythm. King scored 18 points, but hit just five of 18 shots — just the type of play that Kansas expected.
"We knew he was going to get a lot of shots," Collison said. "He always has, but if he's going to get 17 (points), then we're going to make him do it by taking them out of what they're trying to do."
King wasn't the only Aggie who struggled on offense. As a team, Texas A&M shot just 33 percent from the field and Carlton Brown was the only Aggie player to have any success on the offensive end. The guard hit seven of 13 shots, many of which came on put-backs from his six offensive rebounds.
"We wanted to get them off of their sets and what they wanted to run." Gooden said.
Chenowith shined on the defensive end on Saturday when he blocked two shots. Those swats moved Chenowith into the No. 2 spot in career blocks at Kansas with 219. Former Jayhawk Greg Ostertag is the all-time leader with 258.
- Kansas continues to lead the nation in field goal percentage, shooting 52 percent for the season. The Jayhawks hit that mark against Texas A&M, shooting 52.2 percent. It was the 12th time Kansas has shot better than 50 percent this year.
- Edited by Joy Pilgroen
Conference is a force to be reckoned with
I am the Big 12 Conference. All other conferences must bow before me. Who dares challenge my unmatched strength?
At this juncture, no one. The Big 12 has supplied college athletics with Hercules-like strength in the fall season.
Oklahoma won the national championship in football. Nebraska defeated Wisconsin in five games for the women's volleyball title, capping a 34-0 season. And the Colorado women's cross country team claimed the crown in late November at the NCAA Championships in frigid Ames, Iowa.
Championships in frigid Ames, Iowa.
Last spring, the Texas men's swimming and diving team won the national title, as did the Oklahoma State men's golf team, and Oklahoma won last spring's softball College World Series.
This amazing list has been great for the Big 12, but also indicates that the Big Eight brethren have messed with Texas.
The Lone Star annex to the conference in 1996 has added excitement to the league, but the former Big Eight schools have held firm ground on the national scene.
isn't it intriguing that the Big Eight invites the Texas schools in its home, then the league offices move to Dallas, as did the conference football title game?
Sure, you've heard this cry before, and perhaps everything has even out. St. Louis and Kansas City have been hosts for the football championship game, and although the conference basketball tournaments will migrate to Texas, they have been played in Kansas City for the first four years of the Big 12.
But although the Big 12 has been king of the mountain in many sports as of late, one sport has been way too steep for some time. Ah, yes, the sport Jayhawks take extremely seriously — basketball.
OK, so maybe we can share and make compromises. Texas schools have provided extra competition in preparation for national postseason play, and they've brought new rivalries.
Kansas claimed the conference's last national title in 1988. No Big 12 Texas school has won basketball's national crown.
On the flip side, no former Big Eight school has won the women's national title. Only Texas and Texas Tech did when they played in the Southwest Conference.
After documenting these droughts, it appears the league's national supremacy will come to a halt in early April. Not so fast. Mr. Big Ten.
Iowa State came close to stopping last year's eventual champion Michigan State in the men's Elite Eight; in 1999, the Cyclone women upset top-seeded Penn State in the Sweet 16. Penn State has rivaled Tennessee as the women's dynasty recently.
This year in the recent women's poll, Iowa State is ranked seventh, followed by No. 9 Texas Tech, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 17 Texas and No. 25 Baylor.
The Jayhawks are ranked fifth in the men's poll, followed by No. 20 Missouri,
No. 22 Oklahoma and No. 23 Iowa State.
The Big Eight was always perceived as a great men's basketball conference, with member schools roughing each other up during the year, only to lose their fizz come NCAA Tournament time.
This year wasn't supposed to be grand, but the trend may change.
grand, but the field may change.
Big 12 basketball has quietly had success (i.e. sweeping three Big Ten men's teams on Dec. 23). Oklahoma and Iowa State won the two women's Big 12/Atlantic Coast Conference games yesterday.
Hmmm. Maybe the national title run will continue for the conference.
If so, you can say "I saw the national champions play in Allen Fieldhouse." It might even be the team that wore the white jerseys.
Linnberger is a Washington, Kan., senior in journalism.
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