Wednesday, November 6, 1985
Page 8
Daily Nebraskan
S porta
Quarter toeik not
By Mike Reilley
Senior Reporter
Too much emphasis has been placed on
Nebraska's quarterback position, Tom Osborne
said Tuesday.
At his weekly press conference, Osborne said
the media and fans give "undue emphasis" to
whom the starting quarterback will be each
week. And, he said, the fans and media often
blame the quarterback when the offense doesn't
play well.
"We didn't play well against Missouri, and
people siarted looking at the quarterback," he
said.
Osborne said people fail to realize that several
of the Cornhuskers' starting offensive linemen
were injured for that game.
"It's not always the quarterback that makes a
team go or not go," he said.
Senior Travis Turner and sophomore McCa
thorn Clayton have shared starting quarterback
duties this year. Osborne said Turner entered
the season as first at the position, but injuries
and mental distractions slowed him early in the
season.
"Somehow I didn't feel Travis was quite as
ready to go mentally as he was a year ago,"
Osborne said. "The strong part of Travis' game a
year ago was his aggresiveness, confidence and
the fact that he was just full-blast all the time."
' But that hasn't been the case this season,
Osborne said. He said Turner entered the season
with a knee injury and has injured the knee a
couple of times this year,
"The knee might have been a significant part
of it," he said. "He got married in early August,
so he had a lot of other things on his mind."
Osborne said Turner has "looked like his old
self a couple of times this season. He started
against Kansas State last week but reinjured his
knee while holding the ball on an extra point.
Like TurnerClayton also has played well at
times, Osborne said. But he also has been
plagued by injuries. Clayton will start this week,
Osborne said.
"We hope he (Clayton) can return to the form
he had a few weeks ago," he said. "There's no
reason why he can't."
Osborne said talk about national and confer
ence championships is also an absurd topic.
. "For my purposes, it's premature," he said. "It
might make interesting reading for the fans. It
might be interesting to talk about, but we really
have to focus on this week. If we don't improve,
all the talk about national championships and
Big Eight championships will be wasted motion."
Ex-Big Eight star finds pro
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Osborne said the Huskers have made steady
improvement in some areas, but not in others. He
said the Huskers' running game has been strong.
They lead the nation in rushing offense. Osborne
said the kicking game has improved steadily
throughout the year. ...
"We're pretty competitive there,'.' he said.
Nebraska's passing game needs improvement,
Osborne said. He said the Huskers "aren't throw
ing as many high-percentage passes" as they
should be.
"We need a little more consistency and conti
nuity," he said.
Osborne, who votes on the United Press Inter
national's coaches' poll, said he wasn't one of
the five coaches who voted the Huskers No. 1 this
week. He said he voted Penn State No. 1 because
the Nittany Lions haven't lost yet.
"I'm not sure we're that good yet," Osborne
said. "Maybe in one week we might."
success
By Mike Reilley
Senior Reporter
DALLAS Dallas Maverick guard
Rolando Blackman said he enjoys help
ing other people when he's off the bas
ketball court, but his coach said he
needs to help himself when he's on it.
After leaving Kansas State with Ail
American honors, Blackman joined the
Mavericks, a National Basketball Asso
ciation team, in 1981; Since then, he
has participated in a variety of com
munity projects in Dallas.
Besides regularly visiting a child
ren's hospital, Blackman is the Maver
ick's Special Olympics spokesman,
sponsors a summer youth basketball
team and conducts a clinic for the Dal
las Youth Foundation. Blackman and
Mark Aguirre, who were both drafted in
the first round by the Mavericks, joined
other athletes in Dallas for a fund
raising version of "We Are the World"
earlier this year.
The volunteer work is tiring, but
satisfying, Blackman said.
"I feel comfortable doing it," he
said. "The kids faces light up all the
time when they see me, and being able
to help raise money for all the different
functions means a lot to me."
Basketball also means a lot to
Blackman. Besides getting used to a
longer schedule, Blackman said the
toughest adjustment to the NBA was
learning to cope with poor performance.
"It was real tough for me at first to
have bad games and letting them go,"
he said, "and it's even tougher when
you're playing against the best of the
best."
Dallas coach Dick Motta, said
Blackman still needs to make that
adjustment at times. He said Blackman
has the potential to be the best guard
he has ever coached. Motta said he
rates Blackman closely with Jerry Sloan
and Norm Van Lier whom he coached in
Chicago in the 1970s.
But the problem, Motta said, is that
Blackman is too self-critical. Blackman
"is his own worst enemy," he said.
"The last thing he needs from
me is verbal criticism," Motta said. "I
try to keep things as loose and easy as I
can around here because he's tighter
than a drum."
The NBA season is only a week old,
and Motta said Blackman "is a little
uptight." In his first two games he hit
12 of 34 shots.
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"He's normally a 50 percent shooter,"
Motta said. "He's been having a little
trouble with his shot right now, but I
tell him to keep shooting."
Blackman managed to break loose in
his third game, a 116-107 loss to the
San Antonio Spurs. In that game, he
made nine of 18 shots and was perfect
on all 11 free throw attempts for 29
points.
That, along with some last-minute
heroics in a game against the Sacra
mento Kings the next night in Dallas,
should give Blackman's confidence a
boost, Motta said.
The Mavericks trailed the Kings by
as many as 15 points in the third quar
ter. But Aguirre, who scored a game
high 42 points, and Blackman fueled a
fourth quarter rally to give the Maver
icks a 119-1 13 victory.
Blackman finished with only 14
points, but had two key baskets with
less than three minutes left, The first
was a layup with 2:42 remaining, which
brought the Mavericks to within one,
108-107 After two other Maverick
baskets, he hit a jump shot from the
right side of the free throw line with 55
seconds left to stretch their lead to
five, 113-118.
"He buried that big one at the
end of the game," Motta said. "We set
him up for that one. That's got to help
his confidence." -
- "Eventually along' the line I had to
give him something like this. Last year
he was in a slump and won a game for
us last year on a last-second shot. He
was in high heaven for eight games."
Blackman said comebacks like the
Mavericks had against the Kings occur
often in the NBA. He said the league's
24-second shot clock allows teams
enough possessions to catch up quickly.
"With the clock you've got to shoot
it," he said. "You just can't hold onto it
like in college."
The clock can work both ways
though, Blackman said. For example,
he said the Mavericks were leading the
Los Angeles Lakers last week before
losing 133-1 15. He said losing that way
"sticks in your mind for a while."
Blackman said stressing the
positive aspects of his teams' play is
especially important when trailing late
in a game.
"You're down already and if you
think about anything else it will take
you out of the game," Blackman said.
"You never know if you're going to
come back. You just try not to give up."
Giving up is something Blackman
doesn't do. He said that when he
becomes frustrated in a game, he usu
ally talks to himself to calm down.
Blackman has had many more posi
tives than negatives during his five
year tenure in Dallas. He averaged 32.8
points a game for the Mavs during the
playoffs last year, and had his "dream '
come true" when the fans voted him to
play in the NBA All-Star game last
season.
Blackman said he doesn't think he's
having an early-season slump. He said he
"feels good" about his play and the
team's play so far this season.
"If I can just stay up there and
score about 20 points a game I'll be
fine," he said. "We're trying out a new
I
0 ;
y,
Blackman
Photo courtesy Dallas Mavericks
offense right now and we're having a
tough time getting settled into it."
The win against the Kings raised the
Maverick's record to 2-2. Blackman
said he would like to have more wins,
but that the team has played fairly well
and that's all that matters.
"I'd say overall we're right on sche
dule for the rest of the season," he said.
Blackman said he likes Dallas. He
and his wife, Tamara, have lived there
year-round since he signed a five-year
contract with the Mavericks in 1981.
Dallas offered a 10-year extension to
that contract, which will take effect at
the end of this season.
The long-term contract, Black
man said, has taken some pressure off
him because he doesn't have to worry
about becoming a free agent.
"It's all predicated on whether or
not I stay healthy," he said. "If I stay
healthy, they're going to want me
here."
Settling down is something new to
Blackman. He was born in Panama City,
Panama, and moved to New York City
with his parents when he was seven.
While he grew up in Brooklyn, he gave
up his original love, soccer, to learn to
play basketball. He tried out for teams
in junior high and was cut three times.
But Blackman stuck with basket
ball. He made the varsity team at Wil
liam E. Grady High School and eventu
ally signed a letter-of-intent to play at
Kansas State. He said he chose Kansas
State because its campus reminded
him of the greenery of his homeland.
Blackman had a big impact on the
Wildcat's program when he arrived on
campus. He averaged 15.2 points a
game and made 51 percent of his shots
over his four-year career. He was also
named Big Eight Player of the Year
three times.
During his senior year, Black
man was named to several Ail-American
teams. He also led the Wildcats to the
quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
He hit the winning shot in. the Wild
cat's 50-48 upset of top-ranked Oregon
State in the first round of the tourna
ment. Winning the Big Eight post-season
tournament in 1980 and making the
1980 Olympic squad were the most
memorable parts of his college days,
Blackman said.
But in the NBA, playing against "the
best of th-i best" leaves a lot of memo
ries. Good memories, Blackman said.
"You eventually realize how talented
you are and that you can go out and
play against these guys," he said. "You
find out you can create an impact in
the league. Sometimes it's fun just to
step back and look at it all.
