Sooner or later, Kansas University’s women’s basketball team will halt its Big 12 Conference regular-season losing streak, now at 18 games.
Tonight is the next opportunity. The Jayhawks will be playing Oklahoma State, the team with the worst overall record (4-9) in the league. But with the game in Stillwater, there’s an added challenge for KU.
“There are some environments where it is just tough to play,” KU coach Marian Washington said, “and I think Oklahoma State has been that type of environment for us. So we just have to try to keep it as fresh as we can.”
Tipoff is 7:05 p.m. in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
“I think it is always hard when you have to bus for five hours and keep your legs,” Washington said.
Kansas hasn’t won a regular-season conference contest since knocking off Texas A&M, 66-56, in the last game of the 2000-2001 season. The Jayhawks were 0-16 in the league last year and have dropped their first two outings this season.
KU bowed to powerhouse Kansas State, 88-49, at home Wednesday, then suffered a heart-breaking 72-70 defeat Saturday at Iowa State.
“Even though we dropped both of them, they have really helped us a lot,” Washington said of the setbacks. “We just have to play our best basketball every single night.”
Kansas, 7-6 overall, is led by three players in double-figure scoring. Sophomore Aquanita Burras paces the team at 11.8 points per game, while freshmen Crystal Kemp and Tamara Ransburg both average 10.7 ppg. Freshman Erica Hallman is tops in assists with 4.2 per game. Burras ranks near the top of the league and leads the team with 2.7 steals per game.
Oklahoma State, also off to an 0-2 league start, is led by junior center Trisha Skibbe and freshman forward Meghan Craig. Skibbe scored a career-high 31 points Saturday against Texas A&M. Skibbe also pulled down a season-high 14 rebounds.
| When: 7:05 tonight.Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla.Records: Jayhawks (7-6 overall, 0-2 Big 12); Cowboys (4-9, 0-2). |
Craig had a career-high 14 points against the Aggies, including a career-best four three-point baskets.
Kansas’ next two games will be in Allen Fieldhouse — against Colorado at 1 p.m. Saturday and Oklahoma at 7 p.m. a week from today.
F — Blair Waltz, 6-0, Soph., 8.2
F — Crystal Kemp, 6-2, Fr., 10.7
C — Tamara Ransburg, 6-4, Fr., 10.7
G — Aquanita Burras, 5-9, Soph., 11.8
G — Leila Mengüç 5-6, Jr., 3.5
F — Shelby Hutchens, 5-10, Sr., 6.2
F — Meghan Craig, 5-11, Fr., 8.0
C — Trisha Skibbe, 6-2, Jr., 16.0
G — Lori Allen, 5-11, Fr., 7.3
G — Deidra Johnson, 5-6, Jr., 2.0
Tipoff: 7:05 p.m., today, Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Radio: Jayhawk Network, including KLWN (1320).
Hutchinson ? Oklahoma State’s stranglehold on men’s golf in the Big 12 Conference might be slipping just a bit.
That would be just fine with the rest of the league.
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Kansas won the Big 12 title in 1999 and finished runner-up to the Cowboys last year. OSU has won three of four Big 12 tournaments and a total of 48 league golf titles, but it won’t be the favorite when the 2001 league tournament tees off this morning at Prairie Dunes Country Club. That distinction goes to No. 5-ranked Texas, which garnered the most votes in a poll of the Big 12 coaches last week.
Of course, no one is quite ready to hand the trophy to the Longhorns. There’s 36 holes of golf to be played today and 18 more on Tuesday. And UT will have plenty of company on the leaderboard. No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 34 KU and No. 49 Colorado are also ranked in MasterCard’s top 50.
“Obviously, this is our most important tournament so far,” KU coach Ross Randall said. “If we play well, we’ll be very competitive with everybody.”
Trouble is, Kansas doesn’t always play well. The Jayhawks do have eight top-four finishes, including victories at the Kansas Invitational, Rice Intercollegiate and Stevinson Ranch Invitational. But they also placed seventh at Stanford, sixth at Louisiana Classics and, most recently, ninth in the Intercollegiate on April 14-15 at Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Carolina event featured 10 of the nation’s top 12 teams.
“It was a tough field, but we didn’t play well,” Randall said. “We haven’t played well all spring, even though we’ve won some tournaments. We don’t have the consistency we’d like.”
In other words, seniors Conrad Roberts and Andy Stewart, juniors Travis Hurst and Casey Harbour, and sophomore Chris Marshall all have played well. They just haven’t done it at the same time.
“I think our biggest frustration is that we know we’re a good team,” Randall said. “When you’re not clicking, everybody gets frustrated. A couple of them are trying too hard.”
Hurst has been the Jayhawks’ most consistent performer and ranks fourth in the league in stroke average at 72.57. Hurst, a junior college All-American last year at Butler County Community College, was medalist at the Purina Classic in St. Charles, Mo., and at the Stevinson Ranch Invitational in California.
“Travis Hurst has one of the best records in the Big 12, but he’s never seen Prairie Dunes before,” Randall said.
Hurst got his first look at the private course during Sunday’s practice round.
“He has been a pleasant surprise,” Randall said of the junior, who was a two-time state champion and two-time state runner-up at Erie High School. “He hasn’t played as well this spring as he did in the fall. Every place he’s played has been new to him.”
Pity. The Dunes can make the best golfers look foolish with its high rough and constant wind. The course, which will be the site of the 2002 Women’s U.S. Open, has been ranked 13th nationally by Golf Digest and 17th in the world by Golf Magazine.
While Hurst and Marshall will be playing in the league tournament for the first time, Stewart, Harbour and Roberts have been there before.
Roberts finished sixth in the league tournament last year and was 20th two years ago when the Jayhawks won the title. Stewart tied for 15th last year, while Harbour was fourth.
The top returning finisher is UT’s Matt Brost, who was third last year. Texas has seven top-four finishes this year, and freshman Jason Hartwick is third in the league with a 71.8 stroke average.
OSU hasn’t won a tournament yet this year, but there’s still time. Junior Anders Hultman and sophomore J.C. DeLeon return from last year’s NCAA championship team. Hultman ranks among the top 10 nationally and leads the league in stroke average at 70.44.
Top individuals include Baylor senior Jimmy Walker, who ranks second in the league with a 71.6 stroke average.
“There’s a lot of good players,” Randall said. “It could be any one of several guys.”
AP PhotoHow hot is it? So hot that Kansas University football coach Terry Allen has been forced to change his practice plans.
Scheduled for two sessions in full pads on Wednesday, the Jayhawks instead practiced in full pads in the morning and shoulder pads and shorts in the afternoon.
Allen cut about an hour off the afternoon work as well.
“We had a pretty good go this morning and it got hot fast,” Allen said after Wednesday’s long day under the blistering sun. “It was rotten at the end of the morning practice, and some guys had some heat problems.”
Thus Allen prescribed the shorter, padless session in the afternoon.
Senior tight end Jason Gulley, who had been forced out of a couple of early practices with cramping, was a heat victim again on Wednesday morning, and was excused from the afternoon work after taking intravenous injections of saline solution.
“Once you have heat problems, you tend to have them again pretty quick,” Allen said, referring to Gulley’s difficulties.
With no break in the heat expected today, Allen has scheduled a morning workout in full pads, and another light session in the afternoon. The morning work will be at Memorial Stadium and, Allen said, it will include “15 to 25 plays.”
On Friday, a group of Big 12 Conference football officials will be in town to work the practices and talk about the rules.
On Saturday, Allen has tentatively scheduled a morning scrimmage at the stadium, yet nothing is tentative about the afternoon plans.
From 1 to 3 p.m., Allen, his aides and the players will be on Daisy Hill to help students move into the five campus dorms that hover west of the practice fields.
The Daisy Hill goodwill session is, in essence, damage control for the bad publicity the football team received when two players one no longer on campus were linked to an alleged sexual assault against another student last spring.
No charges have been filed in that incident, but the damage has been done .
“We’re trying to repair some of the things that have happened,” Allen said.
Following those two hours of campus service, the Jayhawks will head back to Parrott Complex for their annual preseason watermelon feed sponsored by the Topeka Quarterback Club.
Coker Injured: Tony Coker, a freshman offensive lineman from Hoisington, suffered a broken middle finger on his left hand during the morning practice. However, Coker was able to practice in the afternoon. Like most freshmen, Coker will likely be red-shirted.
Winbush Healing: Senior running back David Winbush pulled a hamstring in last Saturday afternoon’s padless drill and hasn’t been at full speed since. “I anticipate he’ll have some action Saturday,” Allen said.
If you can’t stand the heat of Kansas University’s sun-drenched preseason football practices, you don’t have to get out of the kitchen.
All a player has to do is go to a “cool zone.”
Tents have been set up at both ends of the practice fields, and plastic garden wheelbarrows full of water and sponges have been strategically placed so a player who needs to cool off can soak his head and neck.
“We’ve tried to be innovative and create a better environment,” coach Terry Allen said following Saturday’s two-a-day sessions in near equatorial heat on the grass fields south of Anschutz Pavilion.
“Yesterday it was 100 degrees on the practice field with 60 percent humidity,” Allen said. “Today it was 106 degrees on the field, but with only 35 percent humidity so, believe it or not, it was better.”
On Friday, three players tight end Jason Gulley, wide receiver Termaine Fulton and running back Reggie Duncan suffered severe cramping during and after practice and were held out of Saturday’s drills.
On Saturday, heat cramps weren’t a problem. The only injury occurred when senior running back David Winbush went down. Winbush had caught a pass during a dummy no-tackling drill and, while trying to keep from falling, tweaked his right hamstring.
“It scared him and that’s understandable,” Allen said, “but the doctors checked it and didn’t feel any type of damage.”
Also held out of Saturday’s work was wide receiver Byron Gasaway, who had suffered a slight ankle injury during Friday’s work.
Allen shouldn’t have to worry too much about the effect of heat and humidity on his players today. A low-key, walk-through session in the late morning at Memorial Stadium is the only item on the agenda.
On Monday, the Jayhawks will resume two-a-days. On Tuesday, full pads will go on for the first time.
All the while, Allen will pay close attention to the weather. Coaches like hot weather for conditioning purposes, but
“This is scary hot,” Allen said. “Because you want to stay away from cramping, you don’t run between drills. Guys are virtually walking. You have to change your practice tempo.”
