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Beck glad Huskers not tourney’s favorite
By Tim Hartmann
Senior Reporter
Although the Nebraska women’s
basketball team had the best regular
season record in the Big Eight, the
Comhuskers are not the clear-cut
favorites to capture the Big Eight’s
post-season tournament.
But that’s just fine with Nebraska
coach Angela Beck.
“We’ve been on top and we’ve had
pressure all year to stay there, and
there has been people attacking us,”
Beck said. “But I don’t feel we’re the
one people think is going to win the
Big Eight championship.”
Beck said the fact that the confer
ence coaches named Colorado as the
favorite to win the Big Eight Tourna
ment will benefit the Huskers. Ne
braska will be less pressured, she said.
Nebraska will face Kansas State at
2 p.m. Saturday in the first round of
the tournament, which lasts until
Monday at the Bicentennial Center in
Salina, Kan.
The other first-round games Sat
urday pit Kansas against Oklahoma at
noon, Missouri against Iowa State at 6
p.m. and Colorado against Oklahoma
State at 8 p.m.
Sunday’s semifinal games will be
played at 2 and 4 p.m., and Monday’s
championship game is at 7 p.m.
Kansas State women’s basketball
coach Matilda Mossman said that
although several teams could win the
tournament, Nebraska should have
entered it as the favorite.
“I guess you’d have to say Ne
braska is the favorite, but Nebraska
lost to three teams — Missouri, Okla
homa State and Colorado — and I
think any of those teams could win it,”
Mossman said.
Missouri women’s basketball
coach Joann Rutherford said she can’t
predict a favorite.
She said the parity of the Big Eight
will force the winning team to put
three good games together.
Rutherford said Missouri has not
played well recently. Missouri, sec
ond-seeded in the tournament, has a
17-10 record overall and is 9-5 in the
Big Eight.
“Towards the end of the season
you want to be playing your best,”
Rutherford said, “and we’re not doing
that.”
7 think if we play
well we can make
it to the finals’
—Goodwin - Colbert
Rutherford said she expects a
tough lest from Iowa State,
Missouri’s seventh-seeded opponent.
Iowa State enters the tournament with
a 13-13 overall record and is 5-9 in the
Big Eight.
“They’re scary,” Rutherford said.
“That’s a team we beat twice, but
they’ll be difficult to beat again.”
Iowa State women’s basketball
coach Pam Wcttig said Missouri is
one of the most talented teams in the
conference. She said the Tigers’
Tracy Ellis, a first-team All-Big Eight
selection, is the best player in the Big
Eight.
“Missouri always gives us prob
lems,” Wettig said. “We’ve never
played them well, and consequently
we’ve never beat them.”
Several coaches said the three-day
tournament gives their teams a sec
ond season. The winner of the eight
team tournament gets an automatic
bid to the NCAA tournament.
Oklahoma Slate women’s basket
ball coach Dick Halterman said the
Cowgirls arc more talented than their
7- 7 conference record indicates. He
said Oklahoma State, sixth-seeded, is
the best team in the Big Eight when it
shoots the ball well.
Halterman said Oklahoma State
would like to make up for a disap
pointing season by performing well in
the tournament. He said the Cowgirls
will benefit from playing at a neutral
site because they have not played well
at opponents’ gyms.
Halterman said recent victories
against Nebraska in Stillwater,
Okla., and Kansas Stale in Manhat
tan, Kan., have helped Oklahoma
State’s confidence.
“The win at Kansas State will
probably help the most because we
haven’t been successful on the road,”
he said.
Halterman said Colorado is the
team to beat in the tournament. The
Buffaloes, who enter the tournament
as the No. 3-seed, are 18-9 overall and
8- 6 in the Big Eight.
“They struggled early, but they’ve
come on of late and that should be a
great game,” Halterman said.
Oklahoma women’s basketball
coach Valerie Goodwin-Colbert said
she is optimistic that the Sooners will
^'R^MHiam*/D»lly Nebraskan
Nebraska center Kim Harris dribbles between three Colorado
defenders.
play well. She said Oklahoma, fifth
seeded, has the talent to do well if it
plays to its ability.
“I think if we play well we can
make it to the finals,” Goodwin
Colbcrt said. “If we play average, we
probably won’t make it past the sec
ond round.”
Goodwin-Colbcrt said she thinks
Nebraska is the favorite entering the
tournament because of the Huskers’
strong showing in the regular season.
The Huskers have a 21 -5 record over
all and are 11-3 in the Big Eight.
New plan needed to determine state basketball champ
What’s good for Indiana is good
for everyone else. Even for Nebraska.
During the next two weekends,
Lincoln will be engulfed by high
school basketball fans from all over
— I
the state. The Nebraska slate girls’
tournament will be today, Friday and
Saturday at various sites around the
city, and the boys’ tournament will
come to town next weekend.
The stale tournaments arc greal
limes for just about everyone in
volved, but it could be made even
moie enjoyable if Nebraska adopted
the system Indiana has established tc
decide its state basketball champion
ships — an open-class system.
Indiana high school basketball
doesn’t have Class A, B, C or D, or
any other form of dividing the slate’s
high school teams. Because of this,
every team in Indiana has an equal
chance to win the state championship
any season, no matter how big or
small the school is.
Basketball has long been thought
of as a truly equalizing sport. In other
words, any team really can beat any
other on any given day.
Anyone who has seen the movie
“Hoosicrs” can appreciate that fact.
The film was based on the true story of
tiny Milan High School, which de
feated perennial basketball power
Muncic Central in the finals of the
1954 Indiana Stale Championship to
capture its first state title.
In Nebraska, six teams are
crowned champions each March, one
from each of the state’s classes. It’s a
sound, traditionally respected sys
tem, but arguments often arise con
cerning whether a team from one
class could beat a team from another.
Among the latest Omaha World
Herald boy’s slate lop-10 basketball
poll is Atkinson West Holt High
School — a Class C-l team. The
Huskies, ranked No. 6, arc 21-0 this
season and have averaged more than
80 points per game.
The primary reason for Atkinson
West Holt’s success this season is
Bruce Chubick, a 6-foot-7 1/2 junior.
Chubick has shot about 80 percent
from the field and frcc-throw line this
season. Two weeks ago, in back-to
back games, he scored 48 and 46
points. He is averaging just under 35
points per game this season.
But as World-Herald sports writer
Larry Porter wrote on Feb. 23 in a
feature on Atkinson West Holt’s team
members, few of Chubick’s field
goals come from more than 6 feel
away from the basket. That’s his job
as a center, but for someone who is 6
7 1/2, it’s far from an earth-shattering
accomplishment.
When Chubick isn’t scoring, 6
foot-2 junior guard Chris Peacock is.
Peacock hit 56 percent of his two
point field goals this season and 47
percent of his three-point shots.
Both players have attracted much
attention from several Division I col
leges, and not just Nebraska and
Creighton. More than half of the
schools in the latest Associated Press
men’s top-20 poll have contacted
Chubick alone.
But with Atkinson West Holt’s
success come questions and doubts
concerning the team’s ability. With
the state top-10 rating comes a lot of
head-shaking. Are the Huskies really
the sixth-best team in Nebraska?
Could they really hold their own
among the Omaha and Lincoln
schools, or against Columbus and
Norfolk, or any team in the Class B
top 10, for that matter?
Maybe, but probably not. At least
not consistently. Atkinson West Holt
is certainly a great team with two
major Division 1 prospects, but
above-average teams and players
lend to look better against weaker
opponents. It’s just like when
Nebraska’s men’s team plays the
Czechcxhibilion team, or the Univer
sity of Nebraska at Omaha. It looks a
little different when the Huskersplay
Oklahoma or Missouri, doesn’t it —
at least most of the lime.
Atkinson West Holt is, without a
doubt, the best team in Class C-1, but
what would happen if the Huskies
played a few Omaha and Lincoln
Class A teams, and sprinkled in Class
B powers Seward, Blair, Ord and
Lincoln Pius X for good measure?
They could kiss their undefeated
status goodbye. IK).
Granted, no learn could survive a
^chcduliTikc that without a loss, bul
Wj>ca.noCUM>s B teams ar/CfatQd,apt|
Atkinson West Holl is, somelxxly’s
perspective is a bit out of whack. The
Huskies wouldn’t be able to win the
Class B state title, let alone the Class
A championship. And Chubick
probably wouldn’t look quite as hot
being guarded by a player from
Omaha Burke or Westside as he
would playing someone from Rav
enna.
Of course, all this is speculation
and opinions, but maybe someday
high school basketball fans in Ne
braska will know things like these for
sure.
Green is a junior news-editorial and
criminal Justice major and is a Daily Nebras
kan senior reporter.
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