SWIMMING Results and scores from the second day of the Big Eight Championships in Oklahoma City. Page 2.
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1996
Since his arrival last fall, Kansas freshman forward Paul Pierce has been...
Tyler Wirken / KANSAN
SECTION B
Kansas freshman forward Paul Pierce signs an autograph after Wednesday's game in Allen Field House. "At home, people say 'hi' to you," he said. "They don't treat you like here — like a celebrity. But I don't really mind it."
Flying High
By Jenni Carlson Kansan sportswriter
Paul Pierce can see no way out.
In front of him, to his left, to his right — he is boxed in.
They're closing in from behind.
And all of these kids are waving pens and pieces of paper in his face.
Pierce wants to enjoy a women's basketball game in Allen Field House. All everybody else wants is his autograph.
"At home, people say 'hi' to you," Pierce said. "They don't treat you like here — like a celebrity. But I don't really mind it."
People have been noticing Pierce, a freshman forward from Inglewood, Calif., for quite a while. But the high school McDonald's, *Parade* and *USA Today* All-American wasn't always known for his basketball abilities.
While growing up in California, Pierce showed promise on the baseball field. He threw and hit baseballs better than kids two years older, said Jamal Hosey, Pierce's oldest brother.
Pierce had a good teacher. His other brother, Steve Hosey, is a minor league outfielder who recently signed with the Kansas City Royals.
"Paul was a great baseball player for his age," Steve Hosey said. "He really picked up baseball very fast. It came very easy to him."
So did football. So did basketball. Maybe that was because Pierce played sports all the time.
Playing sports was better than the alternative. When his family lived in a Los Angeles apartment, drug deals went down in the nearby alley. Buildings in the neighborhood were spray-painted with graffiti. Gangs were the only family for many kids the same age as Pierce.
"It's easy to start hanging out with the gangs, then bam, you're right there with them," Pierce said. "I just thank my brothers for steering me in the right direction."
Pierce's two brothers didn't just get him involved w athletics instead of gangs. They drove him to practices They rebounded for him. They threw batting practice. And they were also his fathers.
But after the family moved to Los Angeles about 10 years ago, George Pierce never was seen again.
George Pierce and Lorraine Hosey, Pierce's birth parents, never were married and never lived together. As Paul was growing up in east Oakland, Calif., his father only visited from time to time.
"I don't think that I've ever lost anything from that," Pierce said. "There's just a lot of love that comes between us four."
Much of that has to do with Pierce's mom. She has worked as a nurse for 26 years. She has held down other jobs during that time, too, to pay for new basketball shoes, a replacement baseball glove or a pair of cleats.
"She would do anything for anybody," Jamal Hosey said. "I remember times when she had holes in her shoes."
She was able to send Jamal to Wyoming, where he was a forward on the Cowboys' basketball team. A few years later, Steve headed to Fresno State on a baseball scholarship.
But by far the biggest buildup of interest in one of Lorraine Hosev's sons before college was around Paul.
Pierce had focused on basketball by his sophomore year of high school. After he was invited to several summer basketball camps between his sophomore and junior years of high school, the letters and calls started coming.
"Paul's last year in high school was utterly hell," Lorraine Hosey said, carefully searching for the precise words. "I was glad when that was over."
The remnants remain, though. Pierce's mom has boxes of mail — much of it unopened — sitting in her garage. Schools might send 10 to 30 pieces of mail some days.
"I kind of played with it at first, but then after a while, it
really got hectic," Pierce said. "And I didn't know whether to answer the phone. You don't know whether it's your friends or a coach."
Amid the overflow, Pierce narrowed his choices to Kansas, UCLA, California, Arizona and Oregon. Very few people, including Jamal Hosey, who called him "mama's boy", didn't think he could stray far from his mother's doorstep.
With his mom living in Inglewood, Pierce thought long and hard about staying 15 minutes from home and playing for the Bruins.
"Then I started realizing: This is my life. What's going to be best for me?" Pierce asked.
to be best friend! I have asked.
His family thought that somewhere other than UCLA
See PIERCE, Page 4.
Title hopes hinge on road trip
Women want to hold back Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
By Evan Blackwell
Kansan sportswriter
There seems to be a dim light at the end of the tunnel for the Kansas women's basketball team in its race to become the final Big Eight Conference champion.
That glimmer of light appeared Wednesday night when No. 18 Colorado stumbled in its pursuit of the first-place Jayhawks. The Buffalo loses at Nebraska, dropping them a full game behind Kansas entering this weekend's play, and into third place.
The Colorado loss wasn't missed by the Jayhawks, who are preparing to make their final road trip of the regular season to Oklahoma on Sunday.
Kansas women's basketball coach Marian Washington said she and the assistant coaches called each other with updates on the score throughout the game.
"I stayed up working until about 2 a.m." she said.
All the late-night work might pay off with the Big Eight title if Kansas takes care of business this weekend. The Jayhawks will play No. 24 Oklahoma State tonight in a battle of the top two teams in the conference.
With only two weekends left in the regular season, Kansas remains in first place at 8-3. The Cowgirls are right behind at 7-3.
"We're not focusing on our position, other than the fact that we know we're in contention," Washington said.
Although the Jayhawks do control their own destiny, Washington said Kansas must be careful not to worry about the standings.
Oklahoma State coach Dick Halterman said the Jayhawks were more than just in contention they're the team to beat.
"We want to win the Big Eight, and we know we have to win our games at home," Halterman said. "The Eagles must win."
"Especially after what they did to us up there."
Kansas pounded the Cowgirls 85-58 earlier this season in Lawrence, and the Jayhawks have been near the top of the standings ever since. Washington said the team knew Oklahoma State would have plenty of motivation tonight.
"They haven't lost at home this year and I'm sure they want to try and even things up," she said.
It will be the Jayhawks who will be looking to even the score Sunday afternoon when they travel to Norman to take on Oklahoma.
Kansas suffered one of its more disheartening losses of the season when the Sooners upset them 71-68 in Allen Field House last month.
Kansas senior guard Charisse Sampson said that mistake wouldn't be made again.
"I'm not taking anything away from Oklahoma, but we just weren't ready to play that night," Washington said.
"We'll be ready," Sampson said. "We're this close to the Big Eight title, and we're going to fight for every game."
Sharp Texas Longhorns may spear dull Jayhawks
Kansas baseball team is off to a slow start
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas baseball team is going to get a history lesson this weekend when it travels to Texas to lock horns with the No. 20 Longhorns.
ing a school that is up to its cap in winning tradition.
He has led Texas to 17 College World Series appearances and two national championships.
Texas coach Cliff Gustafson is the winningest coach in NCAA Division I baseball history with 1,427 victories.
Although the Jayhawks will play a Texas team that is 5-5 this year, they will be play-
For Kansas senior pitcher Clay Baird, keeping focused on the present Texas team and not the past will be vital to Kansas' success.
"Everybody's pumped up to go down there," he said. "But they've been beat. They're not 10-0.
In contrast, Kansas has been to the College World Series once.
Kansas is counting on Baird for another solid pitching performance. He led the Jayhawks (1-2) to their first win last weekend at the Duel in the Desert.
"To us, even though they've accomplished a lot, we're looking at them as just another team."
Kansas baseball coach Bobby Randall has simple goals for the weekend.
"Our goal is to go down there and play well," he said. "Winning will take care of
itself.
The Jayhawks didn't throw many strikes or play a strong defense last weekend. They gave up 29 runs and made nine errors in three games.
"Pitching-wise, we haven't made the progress this week that I'd hoped we'd have made," Randall said. "The pitchers have not pitched enough games and we haven't been outside enough, which doesn't help us."
"Our concentration is going to be on throwing strikes, swinging the bat well and playing good defense.
Kansas senior catcher Ted Meadows said the pitching was going to have to make drastic improvements for the Jayhawks to succeed.
"We've got to get the ball down and throw more strikes," he said. "Last week, we were throwing it high and getting hit hard."
But Texas is off to an uncharacteristically slow start, which disappoints Gustafson.
"We've really been struggling. I anticipated starting off a little bit better than that," he said. "We're not happy to be 5-5. But it looks like we're starting to come around a bit."
Steve Punno / KANSAN
High jumper known for his talent, humor
Kansas freshman high-jumper Jason Archibald, a Garden City native, was a two-time Kansas state champion in high school.
By Adam Herschman Kansen sportwriter
At the beginning of fall training last year, Kansas senior high jumper Debbie Jacobs didn't know any of the freshmen.
Kansan sportswriter
Jacobs said she told the newcomers to introduce themselves so everybody would get to know each other.
She proceeded to walk to 6-foot-4-inch Kansas freshman high jumper Jason Archibald as he was stretching on the ground.
"I got to him and asked him his name," Jacobs said. "He said, 'Chaz, with a z.' I was like, 'OK. Chaz.'
For the next week, Jacobs called Archibald "Chaz" until she found out his real name.
TRACK & FIELD
"He totally played it off the whole time," Jacobs said. "He jokes around a lot."
One person who knew Archibald's name last fall was Kansas assistant track and field coach Rick Attig.
"For a long time they were calling him Chaz, until they heard me call him Jason," Attig said. "He's really quiet, and sometimes you don't know whether he is serious or not."
Archibald, a Garden City native,
was a two-time Kansas 6A high jump
champion in high school, and he was
ranked as the best high school
jumper in the country by Track and
Field News.
When it was time for Archibald to choose where to attend school, he
decided to stay in his home state.
Archbald took first in the Kansas Invitational, the Missouri Invitational, and the Jayhawk Invitational.
"I wanted to go to school here; they just happened to have a track team," Archibald said.
Last weekend, he finished third in
Archibald has not equaled his preseason performance; his best jump during the season has been 7 feet.
In high school, Archibald jumped 7-3 1/4 inches, and at the team's preseason meet before winter break, Archibald jumped 7-4. However, the preseason meet was not an official meet.
Kansas sophomore high jumper Erica Low said if the meet had been official, Archibald would have qualified for nationals.
the Husker Invitational.
Despite his success, Archibald has had to face the tough transition from high school practices to college practices.
Low said in high school teams, high jumpers are basically allowed to do whatever they want.
"The training here is a whole lot different from what he was used to in high school," he said.
Although Archibald will spend this weekend preparing for the Big Eight Conference Indoor Championships Feb. 23-24, several of the Jayhawks will travel to Manhattan tomorrow for the KSU Meet.
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