Sports potpourri
By Mac Stevenson
Contributing writer
Everything is falling just right for Kansas in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Jayhawks' foe Friday in St. Louis will be Alabama-Birmingham rather than Kentucky. That's a huge lift.
Kansas won't have an easy time with UAB, but the Jayhawks certainly have a much better shot than they would have had against Kentucky.
KU is playing their best basketball of the season. Jeff Graves and Michael Lee have come on strong late in the season. If there's a downer for the Jayhawks, it's Aaron Miles' shooting. Miles has been in a mini-slump the past few games and KU needs for him to snap out of it if they're going to make a run to the Final Four.
Wayne Simien gained momentum in the second half of the win against Pacific. If Simien can play through the pain of his season-long groin injury, he could lead Kansas to an unexpected finish.
UAB of Conference USA was 20-9 during the regular season. Kansas will have a size advantage, but the Blazers are quick and aggressive.
KU would match up well against either Nevada or Georgia Tech if the Jayhawks reach the regional final Sunday. But, first things first: When you reach the Sweet Sixteen, every team that's left is talented and playing solid basketball. UAB will be a challenge.
Bill Self has done a marvelous job of molding the KU team into the force they've become. Self came into a tough situation without a lot of proven players, and he has the Jayhawks believing in themselves.
Self's Jayhawks are bringing another thrilling NCAA Tournament to Kansas basketball fans. No telling how far they might go.
Roy Williams and his North Carolina team will be watching the Sweet Sixteen on TV. The first inclination is to gloat a bit but — after watching Williams on TV during the Tar Heels loss to Texas — that feeling evaporated.
Coach Roy gave it everything he had from the Carolina bench and, for the first time, the ex-Kansas coach looked old and not very healthy.
Dean Smith was most responsible for the awkward parting of the ways between KU and Williams, and Smith should bear the brunt of the ill will that Kansas fans feel toward North Carolina.
Thanks to the clucks at CBS — who are in charge of programming the NCAA Tournament — Big 12 fans missed all but the last three minutes of the first half of the Texas Tech-St. Joseph game Saturday. The reason: we were force-fed the Wake Forest-Manhattan game. This is just one of many examples of inept planning.
If the people in charge at CBS cared enough to check, they'd find out that most of the basketball fans on the Central Plains would prefer to watch Big 12 teams instead of East Coast match-ups.
CBS has the capability of showing the games that both Big 12 and ACC fans want to watch. Unfortunately, they're either too lazy or stupid to care. Or both.
Athletic director Tim Weiser has given K-State basketball coach Jim Wooldridge a two-year extension on his original contract, which expires after next season. It was the right thing to do.
For one thing, it will keep recruiting opponents from telling prospects that Wooldridge has just one year left on his contract and will be gone after next season.
Coach Wooldridge must know, however, that he has to put a much-improved K-State team on the court next season or he'll be history. And that's as it should be. Even though there's been some improvement, five years is enough time to show that Kansas State basketball is truly on the rise.
Spring training has gone well so far for the Kansas City Royals baseball team. Most important, no major injuries have developed, just the normal number of minor bumps and bruises.
Enthusiasm for the Royals is at a high level for the first time since the great teams of the 1970s and 80s. Like so many major league teams, that enthusiasm is tempered by evaluating the prospects for Kansas City's pitching staff.
The bullpen looks good. Even if Mike MacDougal doesn't work out as the closer, Curtis Leskanic is capable of assuming this vital role.
As for the starting rotation, left-handers Brian Anderson, Darrell May, and Jeremy Affeldt appear to have nailed down positions as starters. Affeldt has had a good spring and hasn't suffered any recurrence of the blister problem on his pitching finger.
Another southpaw, 22-year-old Jimmy Gobble, looks like he will begin the season as the fourth starter. But the young man to watch is 20-year-old Zack Greinke. If the Royals are to win their division, Greinke will have to become a solid starter despite his youth. Greinke will be in the Royals' starting rotation before the 2004 season is very old.
