College notebook

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Mar 10, 2004 by Capital-Journal

KU pair honored

Kansas juniors Wayne Simien and Keith Langford were named Tuesday to the All-District 6 team by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

The pair of Jayhawks were joined on the team by Tony Allen and John Lucas of Oklahoma State, Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson of Missouri, Curtis Stinson of Iowa State, Nate Johnson of Nebraska, Brody Deren of Creighton and David Gruber of Northern Iowa.

OSU's Lucas was named player of the year in the district, while his coach, Eddie Sutton, was named coach of the year.

WU, ESU drop

Washburn and Emporia State both fell two places in the USA Today/ ESPN/WBCA women's national rankings released Tuesday. The Lady Blues enter the South Central Regional, which begins Friday in Springfield, Mo., with a No. 13 ranking and the Hornets are No. 8.

Other ranked teams in the South Central Regional are No. 2 Drury, No. 17 Northwest Missouri State, No. 18 Angelo State and No. 23 West Texas A&M.

WBCA poll

1. Seattle Pacific; 2. Drury; 3. California, Pa.; 4. Shaw; 5. Glenville State; 6. North Dakota; 7. Concordia-St. Paul; 8. Emporia State; 9. Merrimack; 10. South Dakota State.

11. Rollins; 12. Quincy; 13. Washburn; 14. North Dakota State; 15. Lake Superior State; 16. South Dakota; 17. Northwest Missouri State; 18. Angelo State; 19. Georgia College; 20. North Florida; 21. Holy Family; 22. Cal State-Bakersfield; 23. West Texas A&M; 24. Fort Valley State; 25. Bentley.

- No MIAA women's players made the first team on the All-South Central Regional team. Missouri Western's Danielle McKinley and Missouri Southern's Aubrie Hallman named to the second team.

- Northwest Missouri State's Sarah Vollertsen, MVP of the MIAA Tournament, was named women's conference player of the week. The MIAA men's player of the week also was the tourney MVP from Northwest Missouri, Kelvin Parker.

No deck hoops

Michigan State won't be playing basketball above water, at least not next season.

The Spartans, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy and North Carolina had been discussing playing a November doubleheader on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier at a naval base near Jacksonville, Fla.

The U.S. Navy told the Spartans that the games couldn't be played next season because all ships need to be battle-ready while the military is involved in Iraq.

"It's not something they can do during this time," coach Tom Izzo told the Detroit Free Press for a Tuesday story. "They can't hold up an aircraft carrier, which I totally understand.

"It's no big deal to me either way, but it would have been kind of impressive for the cause."

Tickets available

Tickets are still available at six of the 13 preliminary-round sites for the 2004 NCAA Division I basketball tournament. The seven remaining preliminary-round sites are sold out.

Tickets are on sale for the opening-round game in Dayton, Ohio; the three first- and second-round sites in Kansas City, Mo.; Orlando, Fla.; and Denver; and two regional sites in Atlanta and St. Louis.

The finals at the Alamodome in San Antonio have been sold out since July 2003.

Araujo admonished

Brigham Young center Rafael Araujo was reprimanded by the Mountain West Conference on Tuesday for hitting an opponent during the Cougars' victory at UNLV last week.

Araujo received a technical foul for hitting UNLV guard Jerel Blassingame in the second half Saturday. He denied throwing a punch at Blassingame, who was knocked to his back and sat out for several minutes.

Araujo later made the game-winning basket in the final second to give BYU an 89-88 win.

Staff and wire reports