Post by Administrator on Oct 26, 2003 7:18:48 GMT -5
......that men, women tip off on same night
Here's a headline just waiting to blaze across the Herald-Leader sports page: DeMoss debut deflating.
Like any first-year coach, Mickie DeMoss hopes to begin her tenure with a bang. She wants a large crowd to come to that opening game and be charmed by a revitalized team.
"Playing with a lot of passion and enthusiasm and playing with a new sense of urgency," DeMoss said. "That's something we've been trying to instill in the players."
The UK women may show those qualities in their opening game on Nov. 21. But like that philosophical tree falling in the uninhabited forest, will anyone notice? The UK men's team plays its first game the same evening.
"It's unfortunate," DeMoss said. "It really is. I'd hate for anything to spoil our opener."
Not that DeMoss is antagonistic toward the men's team. Just the opposite. She came from Tennessee's women's program, which has been just as dynastic as UK's men. So she appreciates the tradition built by Adolph Rupp and sustained by a succession of coaches, currently Tubby Smith. She hopes to look for ideas by attending several men's practices.
"I wouldn't want to change the tradition of men's basketball here," she said. "I think it's fabulous. We sell men's basketball in our recruiting and the notoriety that men's basketball brings to the whole university."
Her practical mind accepts the inevitability of being overshadowed by the men. "I don't think you can fight battles you're not going to win," she said.
But that clash of opening-game dates is a skirmish DeMoss would like to change.
"Even though it's not a powerhouse opponent (the women play IUPU-Fort Wayne), it's still our opener," she said. "We'd like to have a crowd."
The conflict arose after the men went to Plan B. The courts upheld an NCAA rule that prohibited the Cats from playing in a Black Coaches Association tournament. Plan B was a game against Winthrop on Nov. 21.
Neither team could play on an earlier date because Nov. 21 is the first day the NCAA permits games. The women play again two days later against Northwestern, so they could not move the opener to Nov. 22.
As for the men, Winthrop would have declined to move the Nov. 21 opener if asked, said spokesman Jack D. Frost, who once upon a time worked for Eastern Kentucky. Winthrop plays again three days after its opener at UK. The Eagles plan to take a seven-hour bus ride back to their Rock Hill, S.C., campus on Nov. 22, which leaves Nov. 23 for practice before the Nov. 24 game against Maine.
UK's athletic brain trust considered a doubleheader in Rupp Arena. But DeMoss declined. Would fans of the women's team be able to get inside Rupp Arena? Would Rupp be a vast expanse of empty seats for much of the women's game?
"That's probably as disheartening as (playing in Rupp is) uplifting for them," DeMoss said of her players.
UK finally decided to separate the tip-off times. The women's game begins at 6 p.m. and the men at 8 p.m. Fans can attend the women's game in Memorial Coliseum, then get to Rupp Arena or home for the telecast of the men's game.
"We just didn't want to run a conflict with the men," DeMoss said. "That's why we tried to stagger the times."
LHL
Here's a headline just waiting to blaze across the Herald-Leader sports page: DeMoss debut deflating.
Like any first-year coach, Mickie DeMoss hopes to begin her tenure with a bang. She wants a large crowd to come to that opening game and be charmed by a revitalized team.
"Playing with a lot of passion and enthusiasm and playing with a new sense of urgency," DeMoss said. "That's something we've been trying to instill in the players."
The UK women may show those qualities in their opening game on Nov. 21. But like that philosophical tree falling in the uninhabited forest, will anyone notice? The UK men's team plays its first game the same evening.
"It's unfortunate," DeMoss said. "It really is. I'd hate for anything to spoil our opener."
Not that DeMoss is antagonistic toward the men's team. Just the opposite. She came from Tennessee's women's program, which has been just as dynastic as UK's men. So she appreciates the tradition built by Adolph Rupp and sustained by a succession of coaches, currently Tubby Smith. She hopes to look for ideas by attending several men's practices.
"I wouldn't want to change the tradition of men's basketball here," she said. "I think it's fabulous. We sell men's basketball in our recruiting and the notoriety that men's basketball brings to the whole university."
Her practical mind accepts the inevitability of being overshadowed by the men. "I don't think you can fight battles you're not going to win," she said.
But that clash of opening-game dates is a skirmish DeMoss would like to change.
"Even though it's not a powerhouse opponent (the women play IUPU-Fort Wayne), it's still our opener," she said. "We'd like to have a crowd."
The conflict arose after the men went to Plan B. The courts upheld an NCAA rule that prohibited the Cats from playing in a Black Coaches Association tournament. Plan B was a game against Winthrop on Nov. 21.
Neither team could play on an earlier date because Nov. 21 is the first day the NCAA permits games. The women play again two days later against Northwestern, so they could not move the opener to Nov. 22.
As for the men, Winthrop would have declined to move the Nov. 21 opener if asked, said spokesman Jack D. Frost, who once upon a time worked for Eastern Kentucky. Winthrop plays again three days after its opener at UK. The Eagles plan to take a seven-hour bus ride back to their Rock Hill, S.C., campus on Nov. 22, which leaves Nov. 23 for practice before the Nov. 24 game against Maine.
UK's athletic brain trust considered a doubleheader in Rupp Arena. But DeMoss declined. Would fans of the women's team be able to get inside Rupp Arena? Would Rupp be a vast expanse of empty seats for much of the women's game?
"That's probably as disheartening as (playing in Rupp is) uplifting for them," DeMoss said of her players.
UK finally decided to separate the tip-off times. The women's game begins at 6 p.m. and the men at 8 p.m. Fans can attend the women's game in Memorial Coliseum, then get to Rupp Arena or home for the telecast of the men's game.
"We just didn't want to run a conflict with the men," DeMoss said. "That's why we tried to stagger the times."
LHL