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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1987)
Friday, February 27, 1987 Daily Nebraskan Pago 7 Standing room only for NU vs. KU; seiies continues as season ends By Tim Hartmann Senior Reporter Saturday's men's basketball game against Kansas is the last home game for five Nebraska seniors Anthony Bailous, Brian Carr, Bernard Day, Bill Jackman and Mike Martz. However, those five could get an extension on their last home game by receiving a home bid from the National Invita tional Tournament. After defeating Oklahoma State 79 77 in overtime in Stillwater Wednesday night, the Cornhuskers now have a Mi ll) record overall and a 6-7 record in Big Eight Conference play. Kansas, 2 1-8 and 9-4, is coming off an upset loss to Colorado'on Wednesday. Nebraska assistant coach Arden Reid said Kansas will be ready to avenge its loss to Colorado against the Huskers. "I think they're going to be pumped up and ready to play," Reid said. - - ' 1 " i i i IL ommmy w J'.-.'"i- nil., i i i i f-' .... . Ji, V ' "i y f - . Doug CarrollDaily Nebraskan Nebraska's Henry Buchanan looks for someone to pass to during the Cornhuskers' 66-65 win over Iowa State on Feb. 1 1 . Nebraska will try to close its regular season on a winning note Saturday against Kansas. Brian Carr led Nebraska in its win over Oklahoma State with 24 points, including two free throws with one second left to force the overtime. Reid said the seniors' leadership down the stretch was the key to the victory. "I felt we played a very heady bas ketball game. We kept our poise," Reid said. "I though the kids showed a great deal of resilence. They played with a great deal of intelligence, and our seniors really came through for us." 'We don't want to let Danny Manning get going. They have an inside-outside game with him and Cedric Hunter, and if they can't go to one, they'll go to another.' -Reid The Nebraska-Kansas series began with a Nebraska 48-8 victory in the 1899-1900 season. The Kansas team that year was coached by Dr. James Naismith, the founder of basketball, and the 40-point loss is still the worst in the school's history. Kansas leads the series 127-60. More recently, Kansas has posted a 3-7 career record against Nebraska in the Bob Devaney Sports Center, but all three of those wins have come under Kansas' current coach, Larry Brown. Earlier this season, Kansas defeated Nebraska 86-65 in Lawrence behind forward Danny Manning's 23 points. -Reid said stopping Manning, who's 6-11, See KU on 8 iniiiGLiero compete at By Rich Cooper Staff Reporter In the last two years that Nebras ka's gymnastics teams have com peted at the Southwest Cup Invita tional in Tuscon, Ariz., they haven't had much success. , This year may be different. The men's and women's teams scored season highs last weekend. The women defeated Big Eight Confer ence rival Oklahoma in Tulsa with a school-record time of 177.40. The men defeated No. 1-ranked UCLA Sunday night, scoring a 283.80. That score is the highest in the nation so far this season. Nebraska women's coach Rick Walton said he remembers last year's meet well. "Last year at the Southwest Cup, it was our worst meet of the season. Nothing seemed to go right," Wal ton said. "It seems like we have never done well at this meet because of the caliber of competition we face." Walton said the team has com peted well against top-caliber com petition this year. Yet, both of Nebraska's teams will face three top-10 teams Saturday. Walton said the favorite in the women's competition is No. 1-ranked UCLA, which scored a 190.10 last week at the UCLATimes Tribune Invitational. The Bruins' top per formers are sophomores Tanya Ser vice, who holds the school record for all-around scoring with a 38.60, and Birgit Schier. Schier has scored 38.25 this season. Freshman Jill Andrews has scored a 38.20 and could be a scoring threat. "UCLA has a good, solid team and they will be tough to beat," Walton said. "But if we don't fall any and do ' well on the last rotation, we could beat them." Nebraska will also face No. 6 ranked Arizona State and No. 10 ranked Ohio State.: Ii, will fre the second time the Huskers have com peted against the two teams this season. At the Heartland Invitational in Lincoln Feb. 7, Arizona State de feated Nebraska 185.10 to 184.90. The top performers for the Sun Dev ils are Suzy Baldock, Shari Mann and Karli Urban. Mann's highest score on the all-around is 37.70 while Baldock and Urban have scored 37.35 and 37.45. Nebraska men's coach Francis Allen said UCLA will be coming out with "fire in their eyes" after the loss to the Huskers last Sunday night. "UCLA will be out for blood this time," Allen said. "I think they took us too lightly last weekend and they know that if they do it again, they'll get beat by us again." Allen said that the Bruins know they have to perform well in every event to defeat Nebraska. He said he doesn't think UCLA is as good as its scoring average would indicate because West Coast judges are "easier." In order to defeat UCLA, Allen said, Nebraska's upperclassmen Kevin Davis, Neil Palmer, and Tom Schlesinger will have to score more than 57 each in the all-around. Allen said the meet should be competitive, but the battle for the invitational championship will be between Nebraska and UCLA, while Arizona State and Ohio State will compete for third place. Allen said he's concerned about his team because it is "beat up" after the UCLA meet. Davis is still having problems with his wrist after injuring it two weeks ago while practicing on the high bar. Allen said the freshman will be the key factor for Nebraska against ucla. ' :. v The Huskers will compete next weekend against Oklahoma and Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. auric slhames UN Enough is enough. Except, of course, here at NU, where there never seems to be enough, unless you happen to play football. The big debate over whether to build the indoor football practice complexstudent recrea tion center is certainly nothing new. It's been going on for months now. Often, though, it's hard to believe that so many basic points in the matter are so difficult to see. Chuck Green 1 -aWfc. V- The Gillette Dairy Company recently began running a printed message from Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne on their milk cartons. The message said, in effect, that the new facility is needed for Nebraska to maintain its glorious football image among the hearts and minds of college football fans everywhere, and that the. university read athletic department needs "our" help. In other words, "Please send money!" How long can this unbelievable streak of absurdity continue to go virtually unchallenged? I was born in Lincoln and have lived here all my life, and sometimes, like right now, I'm almost ashamed to admit it. It's hard to accept that seemingly nothing is as important to the people of this state as Cornhusker football. It's little wonder the rest of the country stereotypes Nebraskans as "isolated and ignorant." Very little is being done to change this perception. During this year alone, at least $3.1 million will be cut from UNL's budget. The university is in more financial trouble now than ever before. Professors are underpaid, existing campus build ings are in desperate need of renovation and several colleges are in danger of being cancelled due to lack of funds. So what happens? Nebraska's athletic depart ment demands a multi-million-dollar barn for the football team to practice in for maybe two weeks out of the year so the players won't get their toes cold. And the students can use it, too! Yeah, right. Can they use the proposed $995,000 meeting room that will be added to South Stadium? Probably not. Officials kept it a secret until last week. Where are the priorities of this state? Aren't there any left? Maybe not. Given the state of the farm and university economies, the timing of this project is horrendous. Granted, none of the funds for the construction and maintenance of the building will come from state taxes, but if $16.6 million can be raised for a university project, there are surely more urgent needs.-, - Yes, compared to other Big Eight Conference schools, Nebraska's recreation program is lack ing. But that deficiency shouldn't be made while more important programs are ignored. A new rec center isn't what is needed most around here. But I guess that depends on whose argument , you're listening to. A few months ago, Osborne had the nerve to say that Nebraska's football program can!t con- , tinue to compete on a national level without the new practice complex. Hmmm. Evidently, finish ing in the post-season top 10 for the last 17 years isn't good enough. Obviously, playing in New Year's Day bowl games 12 of those 17 seasons isn't a satisfactory achievement for those elite few who evaluate the performance of UNL by how well its weekend entertainment performs 12 weeks out of the year. At any rate, it was quite a statement for the third-highest paid man on this campus to make. Another point that needs to be considered is that of student fees. The latest projections indicate that every student will pay $30 to $35 more than the $211.90 bill that is now paid. I know I have other uses for $35 than to help the football team keep warm. It's also safe to assume that the athletes who will use the new complex the most the football team won't contribute a cent for the construction, unless they happen to be walkons. Why not? After all, if these same players have the money to buy expensive sports cars, $1 million insurance policies and two or three pounds of gold to wear around their necks, then surely they have an extra $35 lying around, just waiting to better the cause of the football team. But, the argument goes, the recreation center will be used by-all the students. Sure. Just like the Bob Devaney Sports Center was once pro posed to be? The point is, the student recreation center is likely to eventually become an "athletes-only" hangout. If not, that's great. Lots of students want an on-campus health club, and that's fine. But let those students pay for it. I belong to a health club in east Lincoln for which I pay $35 per month, not to mention a three-figure initia tion fee. I don't need the rec center. I'll never be in it, and I'm sure several other students feel the same way. Why pay for something I don't need? Would Devaney ever pick up my monthly bill? I doubt it. . ' - - :- The bottom line is that if not for the university, there would be no football team. It's the age-old "chicken and the egg" argument. Since UNL is supported by state tax revenue, it's unlikely that it would ever go bankrupt. If it could happen, athletic administrators and Touchdown Club members would finally realize that there's a problem. It's sad, though, that it would take that big of a kick in the head to wake someone up. It's not unheard of and certainly not impos sible for the athletic department to help the university climb back onto its financial feet. Joe Paterno, the football coach at Penn State University, diverted $100,000 to the school's library and another $50,000 to a minority-student scholarship fund last year. After Paterno won his first national championship in 1982, he urged Penn State's Board of Regents to raise the academic entrance requirements and to spend more money on the maintenance of Penn State academic facilities. And they say Osborne is the best on-and-off-the-field coach in America Back in October, I wrote a column about Illinois' indoor practice facility. It's an air supported dome that covers the existing football field on the Champaign campus. The dome, similar to the-one that covers the tennis courts at Woods Park just south of 33rd and O streets, cost the Illinois' Athletic Department $1.5 mil lion. That's about $15 million less than what's going to happen here. But my concerns, and the concerns of anyone who cares to express them, will fall on deaf ears, as does most controversy in Nebraska. However, a few things should be remembered through all of this. National championships, as important and scarce as they may be to all of us, aren't nearly as important and scarce as a good educa tion and a lifetime career. Though most of the money for the construction of the complex will come from private donations,1-it still leaves a lump in my throat to think that Nebraskans care more about hovf many yards the Huskers roll up against Oklahoma and LSU than how many A's their children roll up during their college educa tion. Why not raise $16.6 million or so for the university? " r 1 When Devaney learned that more than $300,000 would be cut from Nebraska's athletic budget, he complained bitterly. A few days later, the suggestion came to close the architecture and dentistry colleges. That's quite a trade-off. It's that kind of thinking that will one day leave the whole state out in the cold, in more ways than one. Maybe the athletic department and Husker football fans should consider the following sce nario: The nation's best high-school running back, who wants to pursue a career in dentistry, would like to become a Husker. But alas, NU has no dentistry college. See GREEN on 8