ALL-BIG 12 NAMED
there is a definite red cast to the initial Associated Press Big 1.2 All-Conference football team; seven Nebraska players, including five of its dominating black shirt defenders, made the first team, with five more on the second team.
While no Jayhawks were selected to the first team, senior wide receiver Isaac Bynn
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
senior running back June Henley and senior linebacker Ronnie
Ward were second team selections. The teams and players were selected by sports writers and broadcasters who cover the conference.
For a complete listing see page 2B
LABOR AGREEMENT ACCEPTED
Baseball players unanimously approved a labor agreement yesterday, ensuring the sport will not be interrupted by work stops for the next four seasons.
"With this unfortunate period behind us, my fellow players and I can once again focus on the game on the field," said New York Yankees pitcher David Cone.
The California Angels acquired catcher-infielder Jim LeYritz from the New York Yankees yesterday in exchange for minor league players to be named later.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1996
LEYRITZ TRADED
Leyritz hit. 375 in four World Series games against the Atlanta Braves in October, collecting three hits in eight at-bats.
His big hit was a three-
lift in hues a threepun, eighth-Inning homer in Game 4 off Braves relief pitcher Mark Wohls, tying the game that the Yankees eventually won.
SECTION B
Outfielder, pitcher sign with Kansas baseball team
Despite the cold weather, the Kansas baseball team has been active. It has been building the team by signing two players so far in December.
Cliff Bryson, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound outfielder from Flagstaff, Ariz., will finish his sophomore year of college playing for Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz.
As a freshman at Yavapai, Bryson batted .297, had 23 RBI and 2 home runs. Kansas baseball coach Bobby Randall sees Bryson as a gifted outfielder with enough talent to find a spot on the team.
The second player signed in December, Chad Schuster, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound pitcher, is entering his sophomore year at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Ariz.
As a college freshman, Schuster recorded a 2.78 ERA with a 7-4 record, including one save. He will enter his sophomore year as the preseason sophomore all-star starting pitcher.
—Kansan staff report
Wichita North High School to keep 'Redskins' mascot
WICHTA — North High School will keep its Redskins nickname and mascot despite objections that these symbols demean Native Americans.
Principal Ralph Teran announced the decision on Wednesday after he consulted with the site council, which consists of parents, teachers and community members who examine issues that concern the school.
The site council overwhelmingly recommended keeping the nickname after it reviewed the findings of a special committee.
Nakita Vance, a junior at the school, was one of those opposed to the decision.
"I'm not surprised, but I'm really disappointed," said Vance, who is Cherokee.
The Associated Press
The committee found that Native Americans in the community had a variety of opinions about the issue. More than 90 percent of parents, students and staff who responded to the survey wanted to keep the name. And alumni of the high school also expressed support for keeping the Redskins nickname.
robi Slimmons is also Cherokee, and he wanted the nickname to stay.
"I didn't want to put them in the middle of this, but that was a real powerful one," Teran said. "What I heard from them is 'We're going to feel kind of betrayed if you change it.' I think that's pretty powerful."
Teran said that many Native-American students at the school also wanted to keep the nickname.
Steve Puppe / KANSAN
Teran said a compromise had been considered in which "Redskins" would be changed to "Indians" or "Braves." But he said there was little support for either of those options.
"We have a lot of tradition behind this name, so it should have stayed," said Simmons, a junior.
Teran said that site council members offered suggestions on how students and the community could learn more about Native-American culture. The suggestions included adopting an Native-American studies course and inviting more Native Americans to serve as advisers during school activities.
Kansas' go-to man
Kansas sophomore forward Paul Pierce dunks the ball after faking a three-pointer in the Jayhawks' 72-65 victory against the once No. 1 ranked Cincinnati. Pierce came on strong in the second half, scoring 15 of his 17 game points. Pierce has averaged 18 points a game this season.
Pierce steps up his performance on the court
By Evan Blackwell
Kansan sportswriter
CHICAGO — If Kansas forward Paul Pierce's performance in the No. 1 Jayhawks first five games wasn't enough proof of his new role this season, his second half Wednesday night against No. 4 Cincinnati was.
Paul Pierce is the Jayhawks' go-to man.
The 6-foot-7 sophomore exploded for 15
second half points against the Bearcats,
finishing with 17 for the game to lead
Kansas to a 72-65 comeback victory.
In the absence of senior All-American point guard Jacque Vaughn because of his injured right wrist, Pierce has stepped up his game and leads the Jayhawks in scoring with 18 points a game. Pierce's performance before a national television audience against Cincinnati may have put him on the map.
"I prepared myself for this situation a long time ago. Last year, I didn't know if Jacque would come back, and I knew this year I would have to step my game up," Pierce said. "I knew I was going to have to be some kind of leader on the court. We have three seniors who are vocal leaders, but I have to lead by example on the court."
Kansas men's basketball coach Roy Williams said Pierce and the rest of the Jayhawks drove to the goal aggressively against the harassing Cincinnati defense, which is something they didn't do in the first 20 minutes.
"They had us starting our offense at the 10-second line instead of getting it in an area where we can do something with it. We talked at halftime about how we couldn't be intimidated. I think their strength and aggressiveness intimidated us." Williams said. "At halftime, it seemed like we had 8 for 400, and it was 8 for 30. That's not the way you play, if you want to beat a good basketball team."
Other notes from the Cincinnati game:
■ The Jayhawks 12-point halftime deficit at 35-23 was their largest since last season's UCLA game at Allen Field House when they trailed 41-26 to the half. Kansas rallied to win that game 85-70.
Kansas' first half total of 23 points was its fewest in any half since the 1994-95 season.
The Jayhawks have defeated their last five opponents ranked in the top 10 since December 1994.
By hitting two free throws with 3:29 left in the game, Kansas senior center Scot Pollard became the 32nd player in Kansas
history to score 1,000 career points.
Kansas senior guard Jerod Haase and junior forward Rafel LaFrentz both went over 900 points for their career in the win.
Kansas won't have long to bask in the glow of the Cincinnati win. The Jayhawks will head to Los Angeles for a rematch with No. 17 UCLA tomorrow.
Senior excels with team
Tamecka Dixon leads Jayhawks
By Adam Herschman Kansan sportswriter
Kansas senior Tamecka Dixon won the Big Eight Conference Player of the Year last season for her performance at point guard.
Dixon led the Kansas women's basketball team in both scoring and assists last season. Her average of 16.7 points per game was second best in the conference, and her average of 3.2 assists per game was ninth in the conference. She also helped Kansas win the Big Eight Conference Championship and reach the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Dixon, however, was not recruited from Linden High School, in Linden, N.J., as a point guard.
"She's got to be considered one of the top two or three point guards in the country," Oklahoma State women's basketball coach Dick Halterman said. "I think she penetrates to the basket as well as any
"We recruited her really as an off
Dixon, a 1997 preseason All-American candidate, has evolved into one of the top point guards in the nation.
guard," Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington said. "We had to put her into a point guard position."
See Dixon, Page 3B
In my first-ever column I want to hark on what annually has become the biggest fraud that college athletics has to offer: the Heisman Trophy. I know Bill Petulla touched on the topic just two days ago, but two paragraphs cannot tell the whole story behind why Iowa State running back Troy Davis stands alone as college football's best player.
We all know that Davis led the country in rushing for two consecutive years, posting season totals of 2,010 last year and 2,185 this year. We all know that he plays for a team that has gone 5-17 in the past two
Iowa State's running back merits trophy
seasons. We all know that defenses gear up to stop him because no one knows the names of any other Cyclones that play offense.
SPORTS REPORTER
So why is Davis such an underdog to win the Heisman?
dog to win the resilient Critics claim that too many of Davis' yards come against low-quality teams but according to The NCAA News, the Cyclones played the second-toughest schedule of any Division I school in the country based upon winning percentage. The Cyclones played five bowl teams — Birmingham Iowa, Colorado Neb
raska and Kansas State — during the season, and
Davis was the ton performer in each game.
Critics claim that too many of Davis' yards came when games were out of reach. Davis rushed for 225 yards in a 15-point loss at Kansas State and 228 yards in a seven-point loss at Colorado. Keep in mind that those teams were playing for alliance bowl bids and a shot at the Big 12 Conference championship game when they faced the Cyclones in late November. Also, four of Iowa State's nine losses were by a total of 10 points, and in those games Davis averaged 171 yards rushing.
Critics claim that no one from a losing program could win the Heisman. They're right only because they usually have a preconceived notion as to who is going to win the Heisman before the season begins.
Davis accounted for 55 percent of Iowa State's primitive offense, while Weurffel was responsible for 58 percent of the Gators' complex Fun 'n' Gun offense. While Weurffel basked in the limelight and directed what might have been the nation's best offense, Davis was anonymous in the Heartland, hoping that he could transform Ames, Iowa, from fields of corn into his own field of dreams.
Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning was the front-runner until the Volunteers lost to Florida in September. The voters said that Manning never could win the big game and promptly switched to Florida quarterback Danny Weurffel, who led the Gators to Nebraska's memorable January Flesta and Florida State's Tail-Gator party.
Davis bypassed Miami and Florida State to attend Iowa State, even though he had never been outside of Florida before his first recruiting trip to Ames. On that visit he bottled snow in a jar hoping to bring it home to show to his family, excited because he had never seen snow. He would frequently stop to build a snowman or lie on the ground to do snow angels.
When Davis was penalized 15 yards for striking a Heisman pose after a touchdown on Nov. 23 in the Cyclones' season finale, he was living out his dream of the past two years. The Heisman is within arm's length for Davis, but it appears that he will get another stiff-arm from the Downtown Athletic Club for Christmas.
To all of Davis' naysayers: You're a mean one, Mr Grinch!!
Tennis coach stresses academics
By Tommy Gallagher
Kansan sportswriter
As a student stood in the doorway outside his office, Kansas men's head tennis coach Mark Riley noticed that the student was wearing a Penn University sweatshirt.
"You ever take Latin?" he asked the student, spotting the Latin motto under the school's shield. "That phrase at the bottom means 'Rules are nothing without morals.' I learned that when I coached at Penn."
Like the motto, Riley has made rules with morals for the men's tennis team since he replaced Michael Center on Aug. 1. Riley said that while having a No. 10-ranked team nationally, tennis would never be at the forefront as long as he was head coach.
"No. 1 is academics. No. 2 is tennis. No. 3 is everything else that doesn't involve number one or two," Riley said. "The key to being a good head coach, or any coach, is that you have to be understanding with
your players. They have classes, homework, travel for tournaments, the competition and practice aside from everything else that a usual student does. That's hard for anyone."
Riley served as the team's assistant coach under Center in 1993, before he left to become men's head tennis coach at Drake. He coached there three years before he returned to Kansas this year. Two players remain from the 1993 squad Riley helped coach: junior Trent Tucker, who was a redshirt freshman, and senior Scott Marshall, who was a true freshman.
"He was way over-qualified when he was hired here as an assistant coach," Marshall said. "His philosophy's the same as when he was here before, but now he can run the program the way he wants to. He made sure we took care of our grades, homework, went to class and was always the coach we turned to whenever we had a problem."
Tucker said Center never made grades a priority and that he welcomed Riley's demeanor.
"Center wasn't involved as to how tennis interferes with class and your personal life," Tucker said. "I told Riley that I had a huge test to study for the next day, and he gave me the day off. With Center, that would never happen."
Tucker said the name was only natural for the role he played as an assistant coach but might not hold as true now.
Some of the disciplinary measures he was responsible for as an assistant under Center led the players to nickname Riley "The General."
"He had to do all of the grunt work and make sure none of us fell out of line," Tucker said. "He's at his best when he rags on a freshman, but he doesn't need to do that anymore because now it's his team to run and not someone else's."
GR Gordon Ross / KANSAN
Mark Riley was named head men's tennis coach on Aug. 1 and brings a new attitude of learning to the Jayhawks