AVILA'S RANK CLIMBS
Kansas men's tennis player XAVIER AVILA jumped to No. 36 nationally in the singles rankings. Avila was formerly ranked No. 52. It is the highest ranking the junior from Barcelona, Spain, has ever attained. Avila has a record of 17-10 on the season. Junior Enrique Abaroa dropped in the rankings from No. 15 to No. 25. Together Avila and Abaroa
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
Together Avila and Abaroa are ranked No.
KANSAS TENNIS
16 in doubles, a drop from their former No. 11 ranking.
As a team, however,
the Jayhawks' ranking dropped to No. 21 after previously being ranked No. 17.
FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK ARRESTED
Former Colts quarterback ART SCHLICHTER was arrested for violating conditions of his probation, federal officials said. Schlichter, 36, violated probation conditions stemming from a bank fraud charge
in Indiana, U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force officials said. In January, the former Ohio State star pleaded guilty in Indianapolis to two counts of forgery and one count of theft.
LSU LOOSES OUT
THURSDAY, MARCH 20,1997
ROB EVANS will remain the University of Mississippi's basketball coach, bypassing an offer to become Louisiana State's new coach. Louisiana State's athletics director Joe Dean said in a statement late yesterday afternoon that Evans had informed him that he would remain in Oxford.
Evans just completed his fifth and most successful season at Ole Miss. Without any seniors, the Rebels went 20-9, won the Southeastern Conference Western Division title and advanced to the NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history. Dean had offered the job to Evans, 50, on Tuesday.
PAGE 10
Evans spent about nine hours Tuesday in Baton Rouge, La., meeting with Louisiana State officials.
Fast BREAKS
Victory against Arkansas ends Kansas' losing streak
The Kansas baseball team stopped a four-game losing streak yesterday by defeating Arkansas 8-2 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Kansas (15-9) took an early lead against Arkansas (13-8). The Jayhawks led the first inning with three runs on five hits.
Kansas pitcher Chris Williams picked up the win, allowing just three hits and one run in 6 1/2 innings of work. The Kansas pitching staff allowed Arkansas to get only six hits.
Arkansas pitcher Mike Moriarity picked up the loss. In two innings, he gave up four runs and eight hits. The Jayhawks lit up the Razorback pitching staff for 15 hits.
Second baseman Joe DeMarco led the Jayhawks. He had four hits on five at bats and one RBI. First baseman Aaron Wilmes had three hits on five at bats and one RBI.
Kansas recorded two errors.
Kansas' Paul Pierce and Scot Pollard battle for a rebound during the Jayhawks' first round game against Jackson State. The Jayhawks will take on Arizona Friday in hopes of advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
The three game series is now tied at 1-1. On Tuesday, Kansas lost to Arkansas 8-5.
The series resumes today.
Swim team sends women to NCAA championships
The Kansas women's swimming and diving team will send two representatives to the 1997 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships which will be held today through Sunday.
Senior Rebecca Andrew will compete in her fourth NCAA Championship in four years and junior Kristin Nilsen will be making her third appearance.
Andrew will compete in the 50 freestyle today, the 100 butterfly tomorrow and the 100 freestyle on Saturday. Nilsen will compete in the 200 individual medley today, the 400 individual tomorrow and the 200 breaststroke on Saturday.
Both Nilsen and Andrew are All-Americans. Andrew has collected eight All-America awards in her four years and Nilsen has three All-America awards. To receive All-America status an athlete must finish in the top 16 of an event at the NCAA Championships.
Andrew will try to become the fifth Jayhawk woman swimmer to earn All-America honors in each of her four years.
Men's tennis beats Florida, but loses to Mississippi
The No. 21 Kansas men's tennis team defeated No. 24 Florida State on Monday. The Jayhawks then beat No. 11 Middle Tennessee State 4-0 on Tuesday at the Blue-Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala.
Kansas beat Florida State 4-2, in a match that saw Trent Tucker win his sixth consecutive tennis game. Tucker improved his record to a team best 20-8.
Overall, Kansas went 2-1 at the tournament.
After defeating the Seminoles, the Jayhawks faced No. 3 Mississippi. The match was tied at 3-3 going into the doubles matches, and each team needed to win two of the three doubles matches to win.
Ole Miss and Kansas split their first two matches, and the game came down to the last doubles game of the day. Kansas' Enrique Abaroa and Xavier Avila lost to the Rebels 8-6 and Ole Miss captured the victory.
A boost from bench
Kansas bounced back in its final match.
The Jayhawks roiled to a 4-0 victory against Middle Tennessee State. Kansas' Fernando Sierra and Luis Uribe defeated Tennessee State's sixth ranked doubled team of Anthony DeLuise and Fred Niemayer, 8-5.
—Kansan staff reports
B.J. Williams' play was key in 1996 win against 'Cats
By Bill Petulla
Kansan sportswriter
Although the Kansas men's basketball team returns all five starters from last season's 83-80 victory against Arizona, the most influential force in that game will be coming off the bench in tomorrow's game.
Center B.J. Williams scored 18 points in the Sweet 16 matchup against the Wildcats, second only to forward Paul Pierce's 20 points.
Kansas men's basketball coach Roy Williams remembered how critical B.J. Williams' performance was for the Jayhawks.
"Raef (LaFrentz) really struggled, and B.J. stepped up and played more minutes than Scot (Pollard) or Raef that game." Roy Williams said.
The first team All-American LaFrentz scored only one point in 23 minutes of play.
Roy Williams partially blames himself for LaFrentz's poor outing.
"The coach gave him a bad matchup," Roy Williams said. "Everybody talks about how he only had one point, but defensively, other than the first two possessions, he did a really good iob."
B. J. Williams said filling LaFrentz's void had been a huge mental boost.
Roy Williams said that what he remembered most about B.J. Williams performance against Arizona was that one of the center's cousins stood up after he scored a basket and yelled, "Somebody better guard B.J."
"It was special that I contributed to a win," B.J. Williams said. "After that, I'd had more confidence than I'd ever had before."
"He's wild out there leading the crowd in cheering." B.J. Williams said of his cousin, Kevin Hopkins.
*The Lawrence Journal-World reported that Bernard Smith visited Kansas last weekend. Smith is a 6-foot-3 point guard from Conroe (Texas) High School in suburban Houston.
He averaged 20.8 points,10
and 4.4 assist last season.
Smith also is considering Indiana,
Purdue, Arkansas, Penn State and the University of Houston.
"He loved it," Smith's high school coach Tommy Johnson told the Journal-World. "He was impressed with all the players. That was what
he talked about the most."
The Kansas-Arizona game tomorrow is sold out. A Kansas ticket representative said that the best way to find tickets would be to check the classified sections in local newspapers.
$175 for upper-level to $350 for lower-level seats, according to Preferred Tickets, based out of Indianapolis.
According to Ports Unlimited Travel and Services, 601 Kasold Drive, the cheapest round-trip airfare from Kansas City to Birmingham is $561 on Northwest Airlines.
Ticket prices for all three games in Birmingham, Ala., range from
Traveling time high for'Hawks
Softball team on the road until April 2
The Kansas softball team will play in a tournament with a name almost as long as the team's on-the-road streak of 19 games: The Sacramento State AT&T Wireless Services Capital Classic Tournament.
By Matt Woodruff Kansan sports writer
The team will be in Sacramento, Calif., to compete in the four-day tournament, which begins today and features 12 teams.
"We'll be playing a nice variety of teams from all over the country," Kansas coach Tracy Bunge said. "I think this is a tournament that we should do well in and one that we can win if we play well. But we have to be more consistent."
Bunge said she was pleased with the team's batting but that several mental mistakes had cost the team wins.
Sophomore Sarah Workman has pitched in 14 of the team's 19 games, with a 7-7 record. Freshman Christy McPhail, who was recruited as an infielder, has pitched her way to a 3-1 record. Bunge said McPhail sometimes struggled with control, and the defense had struggled behind her.
"We just haven't taken advantage of some opportunities." Bunge said. "We're finding ways to give away ball games."
"When you have a freshman pitcher, you have to step up defensively, and we haven't been doing that." Bunge said.
The team also has struggled at times in the pitching department.
| NAME | POSITION | AVG | HR | RBI | SB |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Sara Holland ...lf | .475 | 6 | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| Heather Richins ...2b | .277 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 3 |
| Kristina Johnson ...c | .305 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 6 |
| Michelle Huber ...ss | .233 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| Sarah McCann ...3b | .291 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Shannon Stanwix ...1b | .315 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Jennifer Funkhouser ...rf | .286 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| Julie True ...cf | .265 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Katie Malone ...dp | .149 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Bunge said that the offense had impressed her this season.
Kansas has scored 90 runs in its 19 games, a 4.74 average. The team has a .293 batting average, and it has produced 16 home runs and has stolen 28 bases.
Softball probable starters
The team will try to pull together its pitching, defense and offense in the A&T Tournament, where it will compete against Sacramento State, Wisconsin, Arkansas, San Jose State, Nebraska, California, Michigan State, Pacific, Iowa, Harvard and Toledo.
Pitcher: Sarah Workman (7-7) 2.79 ERA 81 SO, 28 BB
1
The players will travel during spring break when they play Iowa on Tuesday in Sacramento, and they will begin Big 12 Conference play on March 28 against Baylor in Waco, Texas. Then the team will play Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, the following day.
But the game that Kansas coaches and players are looking forward to is on April 2, when they will play their first home game of the season.
"I can't tell you how much we're
The players are looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd.
looking forward to that," Bunge said. "People keep asking me, 'When do you play at home?' and I keep telling them I didn't make the schedule."
But first things first. Bunge said.
"It will be really great to get back home and see some familiar faces in the stands," said Shannon Stanwix, who plays first base.
the things first, Bunge said.
"The kids are excited about getting home after the long, winding road we've been on," she said.
"But it should be an interesting couple of weeks before we get back home."
Big 12 strives to become dominant
By Tommy Gallagher Kansan sportswriter
While the Big 12 Conference boasted a second-best six teams in the women's NCAA tournament, only Colorado survived the first weekend of play.
Kansas and Texas were the only schools to play host to first- and second-round games and not make the Sweet 16. Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas State all lost on the road.
By comparison, six of seven teams from the Southeastern Conference have advanced to the Sweet 16. Its lone loss came from No. 7-seeded Auburn's defeat by No. 2-seeded Louisiana Tech in the second round.
Iowa State women's basketball coach Bill Fennelly said that the Big 12 had room for improvement when compared to the SEC.
The only conferences with more than one team in the Sweet 16 are the SEC (six), the ACC (two) and the Big East (two).
"When compared to other conferences across the country, the Big 12 did fairly well," Fennelly said. "But there's a lot of work to do to catch up with the SEC. This year the SEC has shown itself to be a great league, and, to no one's surprise, they have been dominant in the tournament."
SEC teams that are still in the tournament are Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana State and Vanderbilt. Only Vanderbilt and Auburn had to play first- and second-round games on the road.
No. 3-seeded Kansas lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Vanderbilt, which advanced to the Sweet 16 for the seventh consecutive year. Commodore fans chanted, "SEC! SEC!" during the final seconds of Kansas' first home loss of the season.
Vanderbilt women's basketball coach Jim Foster said that the SEC schedule had prepared his team to play in almost any environment.
"We weren't intimidated by this crowd since we play some of the toughest road games in the country," Foster said. "We've played at Tennessee, at Alabama, at Georgia. When you play in those places, you develop a mental toughness that prepares you for games like this."
Kansas State women's basketball coach Deb Patterson agreed. She had been a four-year assistant coach at Vanderbilt under Foster and just led K-State to the NCAA tournament in her first year at Manhattan.
Patterson said that the Big 12 had the resources to catch up with the SEC but that it would take time.
"The Big 12 needs to build more depth and get more experience in big tournament games to catch the SEC," Patterson said. "If we can get five or six teams in the tournament each year, that will give the conference more credibility, which attracts better recruits and brings more success for each team.
"There's no substitute for experience," she said. "I think the SEC is the league that every conference tries to model themselves after. That's a tribute to the strength of the SEC, and it's something for us to aspire to become."