UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 14, 1997
3B
Winning is everything
Teams capture intramural titles for basketball
By Aerica Veazey Kansan sportswriter
More than 254 teams, 500 games and 2,500 players later, one group of men and one group of women can boast that they are basketball champions.
Retro-Active, the women's team sealed the Intramural Basketball Hill Championship by cheering the Rock Chalk Chant after its victory.
Bottoms, the men's team,
ended the season with an upset
Wednesday night at Robinson
Center.
Jan Madlock, assistant varsity volleyball coach and captain of Retro-Active, had gathered a team that was not so traditional.
Madlock said the team got together because most of its players were staff from the athletic department.
"I put up signs everywhere to see who wanted to play," she said. When the team finally came together, some of the members had other collegiate experience, including playing
for Wake Forest and Oklahoma. Since the beginning of the season, Madlock and the rest of the team had hoped to win the championship.
"We're all pretty competitive; we didn't get into it for fun. I like to win," she said.
"This was the closest game we've played," she said. "Except for the first game, which was a loss."
Retro-Active defeated Alpha Delta Pi by nine points in the championship game. The margin of victory impressed Madlock.
Meagan Leahy, Salina freshman and captain of the Alpha Delta Pi basketball team, was disappointed with the loss to Retro-Active. She attributed the loss to a lack of players.
"It would have been nice to have a bench," she said. "We also gave them too many fast breaks."
On the men's side, Bottoms squeaked passed Phi Delta Theta and won the championship.
Phi Delta Theta fraternity has won the Hill Championship the past three years. This year's loss in the championship game shocked the team.
was our senior year," he said.
Although the loss came as a surprise, Livermore wasn't bitter.
Ryan Livermore, Quincy, III,
senior and captain of Phi Delta
Theta, expressed his disbelief.
" They played a good game," Livermore said of Bottoms. "It's a lot of games to play. Tonight we ran out of gas."
Hit with its first loss in the championship in three years, Phi Delta
"We expected to win. This
Theta still will be a factor in future tournaments, Livernore said.
"We're pretty confident we'll get [the championship] back," he said.
The co-captains of Bottoms, Manuy Ortiz, Condoado, Puerto Rico, second-year law student, and Ryan Kruse, Watertown, S.D., junior, were excited about the win.
"This was rewarding after a half-semester of this," Ortiz
said. "It was nice to win one that counts."
Since the start of the season, Kruse wanted the team to go all the way.
"We were in it for the 'W,'" Kruse said.
Even though Bottoms clinched the championship, the competition doesn't stop.
This weekend the team will compete in the 5-on-5 Speed Stick Regional Basketball Tournament.
KU to hold judo tournament
By Aerica Veazey
Kansan sportswriter
For the first time in history, the National Collegiate Judo Championship will be in Lawrence.
tomorrow at Robinson Center, 41 teams and more than 180 competitors from the United States and Virgin Islands will descend upon Lawrence to compete.
The local judo club has waited two years for this day.
Schedule
Last year, the championship was held in San Jose. Calif.
In 1995, the University of Kansas put in a bid to bring the tournament to Lawrence. Iowa State, Ohio State and Michigan State also were in the running.
Adrien Lewis, Springfield, Mass., senior and captain of the judo club, said competitors in the national tournament had to meet requirements.
"In order to compete in the National Collegiate Judo Championship, you have to be a third-degree brown belt,"
When: Tomorrow
When: Tomorrow
Where: Robinson Center gymnasiums
Time: Ceremonies begin at 8 a.m.
Admission: Free.
■ Competition is at 9 a.m.
■ Finals begin between 4 and 6 p.m.
he said. "The first place winner gets to go to the Olympic trials."
Since the club formed eight years ago, no one competing for Kansas has made it to the finals. Sensei Hikaru Murata from Tokyo started the judo club in Lawrence and was active in bringing the tournament to Lawrence.
"I sent over 600 invitations to clubs all over the United States. People recognized the University of Kansas," he said. "I'm so happy to see that the national sport of Japan is also a sport in the United States."
The Sony Co. and the Consulate General of Japan at Kansas City are helping to sponsor the tournament.
KU Participants
KU students participating in the National Collegiate Judo Championship tomorrow in Lawrence:
Eric Conyers, Merriam freshman
Todd Halstead, Topeka sophomore
Hyun Wanhoo, Korea senior
Josh Lester, Tulsa, Okla., senior
Adrien Lewis, Springfield, Mass.,
senior
Gabriel Rivera Velazquez, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Junior
Chad Trautman, Silver Lake senior
Brad Westbecker, Wellsville senior
"Judo is unlike any other martial arts," he said. "We have the task of mixing grace with sheer power."
Williams' prodigies Robinson, Stallings have bright future
Dean Smith has done his job almost too well.
The North Carolina men's basketball coach is known for coaching Michael Jordan and James Worthy to greatness in the NBA.
His basketball knowledge also has molded two of the game's finest college coaches in Rov Williams and Eddie Foeller.
Williams and Fogler were assistant coaches under Smith before they took head coaching jobs. This season both have had career years, leading their teams, Kansas and South Carolina, to the NCAA Tournament.
Williams, like his mentor Smith, also has passed his basketball knowledge on to his assistant coaches.
Steve Robinson and Kevin Stallings used to attend the NCAA Tournament as Kansas assistant coaches.
This season both Robinson and Stallings have led their own teams to the tournament.
After years under Williams' guidance, Robinson became head coach at Tulsa two years ago, and Stallings became head coach at Illinois State four years ago.
After leading Tulsa to the NCAA Tournament last year, Robinson's team is back in the tournament. The Golden Hurricanes will face Boston University in the first round of the Midwest region tonight.
Robinson showed his coaching abilities after facing major changes this season. Tulsa lost five seniors last season, and it moved from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Mountain Division of the Western Athletic Conference.
Athlon Sports magazine said in a preseason publication, "Tulsa may not fashion as impressive a record as it did last winter." Tulsa was 22-8 last year.
But Robinson and his Golden Hurricanes did not let that happen. Behind third team All-American senior guard/forward Shea Seals and the low post presence of sophomore forward Michael Ruffin, the Golden Hurricanes finished 23-9.
"They allowed me the opportunity to coach them." Robinson said.
Robinson has taken a couple of things with him from Kansas.
Tulisa's practice form is similar to the Jayhawks'.
Robinson said that after stretching and before practice drills, the team has a discussion time when they talk about offensive emphasis, defensive emphasis and the thought of the day.
Robinson said one thought of the day was, "Nothing great was ever achieved
without enthusiasm."
SPORTS REPORTER
Besides running practices, Robinson said Williams also taught him about being fair and honest with players and around programs.
Williams has earned my respect because he exudes class in his program. After I interviewed Robinson, I felt the same could be said about him.
Both Robinson and Stallings learned
about the importance of tradition while at Kansas. Robinson said.
One tradition Stallings has carried to Illinois State is winning. In his first four seasons, Stallings has improved his record each year.
Illinois State won both the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship and the conference tournament. The Redbirds became the first team to achieve that in six years.
Stallings' first conference tournament victory clinched the team an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore forward Rico Hill is the Redbirds' top player. He averaged 18.9 points and eight rebounds a game.
Although Illinois State, 24-6, lost to Iowa State in the first round of the Midwest region in the NCAA Tournament yesterday, the team will be back. The team is young and will not lose a starter next season.
Unlike Smith, Williams and Fogler, Robinson and Stallings are not expected to take their teams deep into the tournament.
Provided there are no upsets, Smith probably will have to face at least one of his prodigies in the NCAA Tournament.
Williams has led Kansas to a No. 1 Southeast region seed and to a 33-1 record. Fogler's South Carolina club is 24-7 and a No. 2 seed in the East region.
The Jayhawks and Gamecocks could keep Smith's Tar Heels from advancing to the NCAA Tournament final.
Although Tulsa and Illinois State may not get far this year in the tournament, they're teams that are headed in the right direction. Robinson and Stallings are bright young coaches who should only get better in time.
In a couple of years Williams may have to worry about facing his two former assistant coaches, just like Smith will this year.
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