daily nebraskan
monday, february 23, 1981
1 J1II.K11MIII1IIIMIII.1II1II II I I I Mil I J
Husker gymnasts blow away Sooners 280,15-273
By Kim Hacliiya
In gymnastics, seven points is a blow
out, and by that standard, Nebraska blew
away the Oklahoma Sooners Sunday aft
ernoon 2X0.15 273.00.
Senior gymnast Chuck Chmelka tallied
his best-ever all-around score, a 55.75 to
take second in the all-around competit
ion to teammate Phil Cahoy's 55.85.
"I'm pretty psyched right now,"
Chmelka said after the meet. "This is by
far the best I've ever done. I beat my best
by over a point."
Chmelka said both head coach Francis
Allen and assistant coach Jim Howard
have been pushing him extremely hard
this last week in preparation for the
meet.
"I'd been having a lot of screwups.
so they really pushed me." Chmelka said.
"1 guess it's starting to pay off."
Allen said Chmelka's good performance
was not unexpected.
"I knew he had it in him," Allen said.
"We just couldn't get it out of him. At the
beginning of the season, he was the number
five all-around, now he's number two.
"This is the level Chuck should have
been at all year. I'm glad to see he's finally .
getting there.
"Chuck puts his time in, he trains hard,
lie just doesn't have some of the showman
ship some of the others have. But he's ob
viously getting there."
Allen said Chmelka's performance indi
cated the depth the Huskers have this
year. With all-arounder Hartung compet
ing in only four events, and Scott Johnson
competing in only two, the llusker's
still never trailed the Sooners, whose star
all-arounder Bart Conner competed in only
two events.
"You gotta have kids in there backing
you up," Allen said. "You just can't win
a national championship without depth.
Johnson competed on the rings and
parallel bars despite a knee-high cast on his
ankle. Allen said he entered Johnson
because he adds "dazle and sparks" to the
team, plus competition would keep him
sharper and aid his recovery.
Johnson said performing with the cast
was not as difficult as it would appear to
be, adding that it actually helped him on
the parallel bars, lie said it hampered his
dismounts however.
Nebraska swept every event, with Jim
Mikus winning the high bar with a 9.7,
Phil Cahoy taking the parallel bars with
a 9.65, Steve Elliott winning both the
vault and the floor exercise with scores
of 9.8 and 9.75.
"They (OU) don't perform or train with
the kind of aerial skills our gymnasts
have," Allen said. "They really need to be
on balance to hit well. I'll take my kind of
gymnasts any day. They're powerful and
they're not afraid to show off."
Hartung said although the win was a
good one, he hoped to win the Big Eight
Championships in Norman. Okla.
"I want to win in Oklahoma, just be
cause it's in Oklahoma," he said. "That
will be especially satisfying. OU is gonna
be tough. They have a lot of potential,
even though they didn't really show it
today.
Photo by Mark Billingsley
Chuck Chmelka
"They didn't really give the meet away, the routine. You can't win doing that,"
but it kind of looked like it sometimes. If Hartung said.
they made a mistake, it was like they "The OU gymnastics team is just a
didn't care, they didn't fight to st; whole different breed of people."
Post-season hot streaks weaken NCAA play-offs
Who will represent the Big Light in the NCAA basket
ball play-offs? It will all come down to whoever is playing
best the first week in March.
The Big Eight regular season champion, be it Nebraska,
Missouri, Kansas State or Kansas, will have little, if any,
advantage of the other three first division finishers. They
will all have a first-round, home-court advantage in the
conference post-season tournament. So the real challenge
during the regular season is merely to finish in the top.
four.
It should not be this way. The regular season champion
should automatically represent the Big Eight in the
NCAA's. A post-season tournament opens the way for a
weaker, less consistent team to grab all the marbles by
getting hot for a week or two. Several conferences have
such tournaments, and every year a longshot emerges
from one of them and steals the NCAA tournament bid
that automatically goes to the conference champion.
UNL tied for 1st
after Mizzou loss
Jack Moore led Nebraska with 16 points, follow
ed by Kenny Walton with 10 and Smith with eight.
Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas State are all tied
for the conference lead with 84 records. The Husk
ers will put their share of the lead on the line Wed
nesday when they play at Kansas. Also Wednesday,
Missouri will play at Colorado and Kansas State will
host Iowa State.
The Nebraska DasketbaU team dropped into a
three-way tie for the Big Eight lead with a 5545
loss to Missouri Saturday in Columbia, Mo.
For the first 38Vi minutes, it looked like Nebr
aska might have been on its way to its first victory
in Columbia in seven years.
With 1 :34 remaining in the game, Husker center
Andre Smith found himself open under the basket
and went up for a lay-in. Smith was called for
traveling, though, and the basket that would have
narrowed the Missouri lead to two was nullified.
After the traveling call, the Tigers raced for eight
unanswered points to account for the 10 point win.
Missouri's Curtis Berry may have been the big
gest difference in the game. Berry led the Tigers
with 22 points. He played only six minutes and was
held scoreless when the Huskers defeated the Tigers
66-53 in Lincoln last month.
I grant that the tournament format usually makes
things more exciting at the end of the year, especially for
teams at the bottom of the conference. The main reason
for the tournament, I imagine, is the extra money generat
ed by the large crowds at Kansas City's Kemper Arena for
the semifinals and finals.
One of the most exciting tournaments in the country is
the annual Atlantic Coast Conference post -season war. It
has produced its share of upsets, which is not necessarily
bad, but the regular season champion always seems to lose
something in the deal. It has been said the ACC teams,
usually do poorly in the NCAAs because they are mental
ly and physically drained, having just survived going
through the wringer. This goes for any at-large teams
chosen from the conference, as well as the champion.
This logic could be extended to the Big Eight, but
Missouri's upset of Notre Dame last March coupled with
Kansas State's wipeout of Arkansas and narrow loss to
eventual champ Louisville tend to dispel that. Maybe the
Big Eight is almost as good as the Big Ten, just like
Johnny Orr says.
The Big Ten still is ahead of the Big Eight when it
comes to selecting i s conference champion, though. They
aren't afraid to let the regular season champion really be
the champion. Maybe they lack an exciting post-season
tournament, but right now their late season regular season
games mean much more than the Big Eight's do.
Random Shots: The job Jerry Shoecraft and Kenny
Walton did shutting down Iowa State's Robert Estes in
last Wednesday's second half shows that even a red-hot
shooter can be rendered ineffective if he can't get the ball.
Estes scored 18 points in the first half and none in the
second. Often, teams with a hot shooter don't go to him
often enough. The Cyclones played a part in keeping the
ball out of Estes' hands, too.
Andre Smith is trying to finish his career with a bang.
Smith has never been accused of overhustling, but he has
dived onto the floor chasing a loose ball the las' two home
games.
Husker women tie for division lead;
qualify for tournament with victory
By Cindy Gardner
The Nebraska women's basketball team has qualified
for the Region VI Tournament and remains tied for the
top spot in its division foflowing a 68-64 win against St.
Louis University Saturday night at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
i was pleased with our defensive effort," Matsuhara
said. "We got a lot of free throws, but this is the first
game I can remember where we haven't had anyone in
real serious foul trouble."
The Billikens committed 24 team fouls and hit four of
nine from the line. The Huskers hit 18 of 30 charity
tosses and committed 13 team fouls. All 28 of the Billi
kens' first-half points came from the field while seven of
the Huskers' 29 came from the free-throw line.
Nebraska's Janet Smith opened the second half scoring
and the Huskers seemed to be in control of the game until
St. Louis' Caroline Drain became a one-woman scoring
threat from the right side. With 2:56 remaining in the
game, Drain hit her 20th point on the evening and pulled
her team to within five.
After Nebraska Coach Colleen Matsuhara called a time
out to regroup her forces, St. Louis continued to answer
the Huskers bucket-for-bucket and with 1:39 left in the
contest the score was 64-63, Nebraska leading.
The key plays for the Huskers were provided by Ami
Beiriger and Susie Wickham. With 1:12 showing on the
clock, Beiriger hit a quick outside shot. A disoriented
St. Louis squad made a poor down-court pass that was
intercepted by the Huskers' Wickham, who was fouled
in the process. Wickham hit both ends of the one-and-one
situation to make the score 68-63.
Drain led all scorers with 22 points. Nebraska was led
by Wickham with 17, and Beiriger and Smith had 14.
Matsuhara had special praise for Wickham, who re
placed Kathy Hagerstrom in the starting lineup for Satur
day's game.
The Huskers travel to Texas next weekend for games
against Texas A&M and Texas.