Bill Cowgill, who has worked as an NCAA Division One trainer for 13 years at five schools, has been named head trainer for men’s basketball and Olympic sports at Kansas University.
Cowgill, a 1994 graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., comes to KU from the University of Miami (Fla.), where he worked as head trainer for men’s basketball, track and field and volleyball the past four years.
“He came highly recommended, not only from people in the sports-medicine field, but the coaching field,” said Dr. Larry Magee, KU’s director of sports medicine.
“He was highly recommended by coaches that had worked with him, trainers and sports medicine physicians. He appears to be a person that gets along well with players and has the reputation to get people well. That’s what we were looking for.”
Magee received more than 60 applications for the position to replace Mark Cairns, who recently accepted a post as KU clinic director after working 17 years with men’s basketball.
“Probably half would have been well qualified for the job,” Magee said of the applicants. “It was a difficult search. Obviously, a lot of good trainers didn’t get the job. It was nothing against them, just that we thought Bill fit what we were looking for.”
Cowgill spent two seasons as assistant trainer at Notre Dame, where he worked with women’s basketball, cross country, track and spring football. He also worked a year as assistant trainer at St. Joseph’s College and two years as a graduate assistant at Arkansas, where he earned a masters in education in 1997. He also was a student trainer at Ball State.
“We were very impressed with him, and I think he’ll add a lot to the program here,” Magee said of Cowgill, who starts Aug. 1.
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Freshmen numbers assigned: KU has issued jersey numbers to its five incoming players for next season. Omar Wilkes will wear No. 2; Jeremy Case No. 10; J.R. Giddens No. 15; Nick Bahe No. 21; and David Padgett No. 44.
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Giddens update: Giddens, a 6-foot-5 guard who will compete this week for a Texas Select team in the Global Games in Dallas, likely will have surgery within the next few weeks to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. The surgery, which could include inserting a pin or screw in the foot to speed healing, will be performed in Giddens’ hometown of Oklahoma City.
“The NCAA will allow us to do physicals on the (incoming) student-athletes and allow us to evaluate them, but we cannot treat them until August,” Magee said. “If we did something to him, we’d have to wait until he was here and enrolled in mid-August. We’d lose five weeks of healing time. It’s kind of a screwy rule. If one of our (incoming) football players blows out a knee this summer, we can’t do anything for him. He’d have to pay for it. Our surgeon could operate, but we cannot pay for it.”
Magee said Giddens “should be ready to go for fall.”
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Self on lineup: KU coach Bill Self Monday was asked which five Jayhawks would start next season.
“We’ll start the three best perimeter players and the two best big guys,” he said. “I’m not set on starters by any means. To me, starting is a nice carrot for guys, but it’s far more important who finishes than who starts. I don’t get hung up on size. It’s two big guys and three small guys, and that’s how we’ll always play.”
It’s been speculated the big guys could be Jeff Graves and Wayne Simien and the small guys Keith Langford, Aaron Miles and Giddens.
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No ring for Pollard: NBA insiders figured Scot Pollard would be fitted for an NBA championship ring this summer. But the former Kansas forward’s Kings, who stormed to a 59-23 record during the regular season, lost a seven-game Western Conference semifinal series to Dallas after besting Utah in the first round.
“Last year was the year,” Pollard said of 2001-02. “We were a better team. We had a healthier team. This year (Mike) Bibby broke his foot, and Chris (Webber) was hurt pretty much all year and went down in the playoffs. You can’t win a championship without your best player.”
Webber suffered a knee injury in Game Two of the playoff series against Dallas. He and Pollard are two of 10 players under contract for next season.
The Kings had no picks in the NBA Draft, adding only 6-9 former Wake Forest forward Darius Songalia in a trade with Boston.
Sacramento media sources believe Pollard, who has three years left on his contract, will be back next year, especially with 6-11 Keon Clark likely to leave via free agency.
“Anything is possible,” Pollard told the Journal-World. “I’ve heard, ‘You are going to be here a long time’ from two other general managers and this one will be the third one,” said Pollard, who also played for Detroit and Atlanta. “I’ve been there a long time, so maybe my time’s up. I don’t know. I hope not.”
Pollard has a house in Lawrence and will not be selling it despite the fact his former coach, Roy Williams, left for North Carolina.
“I’m definitely staying here. I still don’t know for sure if I’ll be living here forever,” he said. “Unless I hit the lottery, I don’t think I can afford to live in San Diego where I want to live, so we’ll probably just stay here.”
The 28-year-old Pollard, who had a back injury and broken bone in his hand last season, played in just 23 regular-season games, averaging 4.5 points and 4.6 boards. He averaged 3.0 points and 3.8 boards in eight playoff games.
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More on Manning: Danny Manning may have several job offers to consider in coming weeks. The former Jayhawk All-American, who is considering joining the KU program as a graduate assistant, reportedly is being sought by at least one NBA team to work as an assistant. New Toronto Raptors head coach Kevin O’Neill is reportedly interested in bringing in Manning as a full-time coach.
Jayhawks promote trainer (6-6-03)