Chenowith Is Looking to Rebound

It wasn’t the season Eric Chenowith was hoping it would be.

Chenowith, a 7-foot-1 center, went from a promising sophomore season at Kansas to a junior season that fell below everybody’s expectations.

As a sophomore, he averaged 13.5 points and 9.1 rebounds while playing about 29 minutes per game. This past season, he averaged 8.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 23 minutes.

“It was a struggle at times, and disappointing too,” said Chenowith, a former Villa Park High standout. “I felt a lot of pressure to produce every time I touched the ball, and I guess I didn’t play as comfortably or with as much confidence as I had in the past.”

Chenowith got off to a slow start, scoring a total of 18 points in consecutive games against Illinois, Princeton and St. Louis in December.

“I felt like I started out about two weeks behind because of some back problems I had before we started practice,” Chenowith said. “I think I was a little out of shape from that, and my vertical jump was down from where it should have been. Because of that, I started the season off the wrong way.”

Chenowith rebounded to score 18 points against Colorado and 16 against Iowa State in late January, but then went into another slump. He went 10 consecutive games without scoring in double figures.

But Chenowith said he is committed to improving his game this off-season.

“Coach [Roy] Williams told me after the season was over he was challenging me to get better and that he was expecting a lot from me next season,” Chenowith said. “That was good to hear. I know he believes in me. I’m going to get on the weights and work hard during the summer.”

NOTEWORTHY

Oklahoma State point guard Doug Gottlieb (Tustin High) finished his senior season ranked eighth nationally in career assists with 947. Former Nevada Las Vegas player Greg Anthony is seventh with 950. Gottlieb had 293 assists this season, only six fewer than he had last season when he set the Big 12 Conference record. Gottlieb averaged 8.6 assists this season, second nationally to a 9.1 average posted by UNLV’s Mark Dickel. . . . Jon Alpert (University High) swam on the Carnegie Mellon 800 freestyle relay team that finished seventh in the NCAA Division III swimming championships at Emory University in Atlanta recently. . . . Johann Appell (Estancia High, Orange Coast College), a cross-country runner for Long Beach State, was one of 10 athletes chosen to the GTE All-District VIII academic team for the fall and winter.