4B
Friday, March 14, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Hot Sooner bats are on the plate for Kansas
By Harley V. Ratliff
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team seems to be afflicted with a severe case of March Madness.
Kansas has stormed into the first month of spring by capturing nine of its last 11 games, including the last eight. The eight-game winning streak is the team's longest during head coach Bobby Randall's two-year tenure
Although the team has been playing better with each outing, the Jayhawks still have room for improvement, Randall said.
"I've been real impressed with both our hitting and pitching lately," he said. "For a while I thought we had hit a wall, but we've really started to grow again as players. However, we're still a little ragged around the edges, and there are some little things that need refinement."
Kansas will have a chance to make some of those improvements at 3 p.m. today in Norman,
Okla., when it begins the first of a three-game series with Big 12 Conference rival Oklahoma.
The Sooners (9-6) are considered one of the premier baseball programs in the Big 12 and have participated in two of the last three College World Series. Although the team slumped a little last year, Oklahoma won the National Championship three years ago.
Reliever Josh Wingerd said that a key to the Jayhawks' success would be the ability to carry winning momentum into a hostile environment.
"There's no question that we can do it," he said. "We just want to go in there and take at least two out of three games. It's going to be tough at OU. You've got all those fans yelling and screaming things at you."
Winged, who has been Kansas' best pitcher this season, will play a key role in shutting down the red-hot Sooner bats.
While Oklahoma has hit only 10
home runs this season, the Sooners are batting .354 as a team and are on pace to break several other team hitting records. Catcher Javier Flores, who was first team All-Big Eight, is batting .500 on the season and has a 17-game hitting streak.
Freshman Mark Corson, who starts today, and seniors Aric Peters and Tim Lyons have been given the job of keeping Flores in check and the rest of the Sooners off base. If the pitchers can come through, centerfielder Justin Headley is confident the Kansas hitters can put runs on the board.
"We have really been swinging the bat well," Headley said. "We just want to keep the team in the game."
Kansas designated hitter Aaron Wilmes dives back to first base before Missouri first baseman Aaron Jaworowski can tag him. The Jayhawks will not be playing
Pam Dishman / KANSAN
at home again until after spring break. They face Oklahoma, considered one of the premier teams in the Big 12, today in Norman, Okla.
North Carolina's Dean Smith tough to prepare for and to beat
By David Droschak The Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Matching wits with Dean Smith through the years often has been like solving basketball's version of a differential equation.
From the four-corners offense to zone traps to Smith's famous "blue team" of five subs coming off the bench at one time, rival coaches say his innovations made the Tar Heels tough to prepare for—and to beat.
"I found that practices leading up to a North Carolina game were very difficult, and it often took two days of preparation to be at your best," said former Virginia coach Terry Holland, who battled Smith in the early '80s when Michael Jordan was a Tar Heel
and Ralph Sampson was a Cavalier.
Vic Bubas, Duke's coach in the '60s, became Smith's biggest rival at the beginning of his North Carolina career. Bubas noticed consistency in Smith's teams from the start.
"They were willing to make that extra pass and do the things necessary fundamentally to be strong every year," Bubas said. "I thought they were always well-motivated, well-organized. ... So, there was this consistency with excellence."
In other words, Smith's teams often resembled his best traits — organization, drive and a competitive spirit. With this year's Tar Heels, Smith is on the verge of becoming the winningest NCAA basketball coach in history.
NCAA Coaches With Most Wins
The coaches with the most wins at NCAA Division I schools through March 12, 1997 (number of years as coach in parentheses):
876 (41) — Adolph Rupp, Kentucky, 1931-52, 1954-72
875 (36) — Dean Smith, North Carolina, 1962-present
767 (41) — Henry Iba, Northwest Missouri State, 1930-33; Colorado,
1934; Oklahoma State, 1935-70
759 (42) — Ed Diddle, Western Kentucky, 1923-64
746 (48) — Phog Allen, Baker, 1906-08; Kansas 1908-09; Haskell, 1909;
Central Mississippi State, 1913-19; Kansas 1920-56.
"What Dean has done will be very hard to duplicate," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Smith's biggest rival of the '90s. "There is no luck involved. He is well-prepared."
Smith and Krzyezwski have had their disagreements, but Krzyezwski
admitted that his Chapel Hill rival had made him a better coach.
"Dean has been here the entire time that I've been here, he's been the guy I've competed against the most. You better not miss a step or he'll hold you accountable for it," Krzzyzewski said.
Alamodome to be Big 12 championship site
"We have been pleased with the bids we received from a number of cities for the game, and we are really happy about the 1997 site. San Antonio offers a great atmosphere, many local attractions and a fine facility in the Alamodome."
The game will take place on Saturday, Dec. 6.
The TWA Dome in St. Louis held the first game between Texas and Nebraska and fell short of capacity, but it produced $500,000 in additional revenue for conference schools. Texas won 37-27.
game will be squarely on South land
Missouri's Joe Castiglione, the Big 12 director-of-athletics chairman, said, "The directors liked the idea of moving the championship to different geographical sites to offer increased exposure in new areas for the Big 12. We were very pleased with the support and the reception we had in the inaugural game in St. Louis last December."
SAN ANTONIO — The Alamodome was named yesterday as the site for the Big 12's football championship game between North and South divisions.
"We're excited about giving football fans in this region a chance to see one of the nation's premier championship games," said commissioner Steve Hatchell.
Capacity in the Alamodome is 65,000. ABC will televise the event, sponsored by Dr Pepper.
Softball team to play in Cowgirl Classic
That site fell in Big 12 North territory. The second
By Matt Woodruff
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas softball team will try to continue its strong start to the season this weekend when it competes in the Oklahoma State Cowgirl Classic in Stillwater, Okla.
Last week, the team competed in the Hall of Fame Tournament in Oklahoma City and finished with a 3-1 record.
Kansas softball coach Tracy Bunge said she was pleased with several aspects of the Jayhawks' play, but the team sometimes made mental mistakes at crucial times.
The Associated Press
"I think we're a better team than what we looked like last weekend, and that's something we'll talk about in practice." Bunge said. "I'm looking forward to get us back on track. It will be a tough tournament, and it will be a good test to see if we can bounce back."
Shannon Stanwlx
Among the teams Kansas (10-6) will compete against are Big 12 Conference rivals Nebraska (4-8) and Oklahoma State (17-7).
The other teams in the tournament are Wichita State, Mississippi and Southwest Missouri State.
Bunge said the team had been inconsistent at times but had shown itself capable of scoring runs and had two solid hitters in junior Sara Holland, who has been playing with a sore ankle, and Freshman Shannon Stanwix.
"She's still not 100 percent with the ankle, but she's a tremendously talented hitter with tremendous bat speed. It's unusual to see her get out," Bunge said.
Bunge said she was pleased with the progress of Stanwix, who hit two home runs in the Hall of Fame Tournament.
"It's exciting to see Shannon hitting the ball as hard as she is," Bunge said. "With her being just a freshman, she's only going to get better."
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