Nebraskan SpOltS P{T 1
Thursday, March 10,1988 ***A 13
Big Eight competitiveness puts NCAA in a bind
By Iim narimann
Senior^ Reporter __
A highly competitive level of play
this season in Big Eight women’s
basketball has placed NCAA
Tournament officials in a bind.
Patty Viverito, the Gateway Con
ference commissioner and the chair
woman of the Midwest selection
committee, said the NCAA Tourna
ment may take three teams from the
Big Eight rather than the usual two
because of the compclitiveness of the
conference.
The only Big Eight team that is
assured of a bid in the 40-team
tournament is Kansas, which won the
conference’s postseason tournament
by defeating Colorado 70-69
Monday night at the Bicentennial
Center in Salina, Kan.
Viverito said the Jayhawks’
victory created a dilemma because
Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri all
deserve NCAA Tournament bids.
Colorado ended its season with a 20
10 record, while Nebraska and
Missouri finished with 22-6 and 18
11 marks.
“I think the Big Eight has made it
difficult for us to see who the second
team is,” Viverito said. ‘‘It’s a strong
league, and the teams have played
well.”
Viverito said the NCAA
Tournament ran into a similar
dilemma in the Big Ten Conference
last season. She said the problem was
solved by offering bids to four Big
Ten teams.
Viverito said the Comhuskcrs
have a good chance of receiving one
of the 22 at-large berths on Sunday
because they have been successful
against Kansas, Colorado and
Missouri. Nebraska compiled a 2-1
mark against the Jayhawks this
season and is 1-1 against the
Buffaloes and Tigers.
“I think their chances are good,”
Viverito said. “We’re looking at
everyone else in the Big Eight who
still has a chance — Colorado,
Nebraska and Missouri. We’ll look at
how they did against each other, and
I think Nebraska is in as good or
better shape there.”
Nebraska women’s basketball
coach Angela Beck said she is
confident the Huskcrs will receive a
bid even if the selection committee
takes two teams from the Big Eight.
She said Nebraska’s regular-season
Big Eight championship and its
superior record make the Huskers an
obvious choice.
“It has become very
mathematical,” Beck said. “It’s not
just an if, then or but process.
“I don’t think they can take
Colorado over us.”
Viverito said in addition to a
team’s record and head-to-head
competition with other tournament
teams, the selection committee will
consider the strength of a team’s
schedule, good wins (victories
against top-50 teams), bad losses
(setbacks to teams not included in the
top 100) and the team’s play down
the stretch.
Viverito said Colorado’s 9-3
record down the stretch could help
the Buffaloes.
But Beck said Nebraska’s 8-4
mark in its last 12 games will
eliminate Colorado’s hot play.
“We’re the conference champs,
and we weren’t that dead ourselves
down the stretch,” she said.
Beck said although she would like
to see Nebraska and Colorado
selected, she doesn’t think it will
happen. She said a lack of national
recognition for the Big Eight will
keep the conference from sending the
Huskers and the Buffaloes.
The Huskers, who will open play
Wednesday if they receive a bid, have
indicated to the tournament
committee that they would like to
play the first-round game at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
Viverito said in order for the game
to be in Lincoln, Nebraska must
prove it has adequate facilities and
management and be able to guarantee
at least $6,000 in gross ticket sales.
She said if Nebraska meets those
criteria and is seeded higher than its
opponent, the game will be in
Lincoln.
Coach labels depth as key factor in gymnastics meet
By Lori Griffin
Staff Reporter_
Nebraska women’s gymnastics
coach Rick Walton will battle warm
weather and some even hotter teams
when the Cornhuskcrs travel to
Tempo and Tucson, Ariz., for a pair
of triangular meets.
Nebraska will face Arizona State
and No. 3 Alabama at Tempc at 7
tonight. The Comhuskers then travel
to Tucson to face No. 9 Arizona and
No. 13 California State-Fullerton
Saturday at 7 p.m.
Walton said he is confident
entering the meets even though every
team except California Statc
Fullcrton competed in last year’s
NCAA Championships at Salt Lake
City. He said the Huskcrs should be
able to handle the competition
because they have been performing
well.
Walton said Nebraska needs to be
consistent if it is to be successful in
Tempe or Tucson. He said the
Huskers also need to put together all
four events in the all-around
competition.
Walton said Nebraska will have an
advantage entering the meet because
it has greater depth. He said depth
will be a key factor against all four
teams.
“If this was a basketball game,
we’d have a better bench,” Walton
said. “The question for us in a two
meet situation like this is we’re going
to find out how good that bench
really is.”
Alabama women’s gymnastics
coach Sarah Patterson said the
Crimson Tide will enter the meet
drained because they will be
competing in their third meet in eight
days.
But Patterson said she still expects
a tough competition when Alabama
faces Nebraska and Arizona State
tonight because the Crimson Tide’s
top performers will not be
competing. She said Alabama’s top
performers include freshman Tina
Rinker and sophomore Marie
Robbins, both of whom have been
scoring consistent 38s in the all
around competition.
Patterson said she is impressed by
Nebraska and Arizona State. She said
the Huskers have had an exceptional
year and the Sun Devils are a force to
be reckoned with on their home
floor.
Arizona Stale assistant women’s
gymnastics coach Lisa Zeis said the
Sun Devils have been plagued by
inconsistency this season. She said
Arizona State is a young team that
needs to work on hitting its routines
and stopping its falls.
Zeis said Arizona State will rely
on Omaha native Karli Urban in the
all-around competition. She said
Heather Carter and Molly Carpenter
are also capable of achieving high
scores in the all-around competition.
Zeis and Arizona women’s
gymnastics coach Jim Gault said they
are looking for consistency in their
squads.
‘B’ is for basketball—and the Huskers and Coach Nee
It’s traditional for Philadelphia
Eagles coach Buddy Ryan to grade
himself after each football season.
Now that the Nebraska men’s
basketball season is all but over, it’s
time to give Comhusker coach
Danny Nee a grade based on this
season’s performance.
But rather than let Nee grade
himself and shower his Brooklyn
accent with praise, let’s take a look at
what he accomplished this season and
determine a grade ourselves.
Nee’s problems began this season
when Henry T. Buchanan and
Derrick Vick — instrumental forces
on last year’s team, which finished
third in the National Invitation
Tournament— failed to live up to the
high expectations bestowed upon
them.
It’s true that Buchanan almost
single-handedly guided Nebraska to
a 70-68 defeat of Missouri earlier this
season. But the senior guard became
stuck in such a slump at one point this
year that Nee benched him.
And the same for Vick. Although
the senior forw ard led Nebraska to its
only victory in its last 10 games by
scoring 19 points to propel the
Huskcrs to a 75-67 win against
perennial cellar-dweller Colorado,
he also joined Buchanan on the bench
earlier this season.
Although it’s true that playing
freshmen now will help Nebraska in
the future, there’s a prerequisite
known as talent necessary for the
experience to be successful.
Guard Clifford Scales and
forward Beau Reid possess the
needed skills to become fine players,
but the rest of Nebraska’s freshman
class — perhaps excluding redshirt
forward Kelly Lively — lacks that
talent now.
If there is one area where Nee
erred this season, it was in not
redshirting 7-foot-2 freshman Rich
King. King, a lanky center from
Omaha, learned the hard way that
225-pound players don’t survive
underneath in the Big Eight. He
needs an extra season in the weight
room next year to correct his
problem.
The rest of Nebraska’s freshman
class is somewhat of a mystery.
Guard Rodney Curtis shows great
potential when Ncc chooses to play
him. But forwards Jed Bargen and
Richard Smith don’t get into the
game enough even to be evaluated.
Rumor says Nee is going to pull two
scholarships at the end of the season,
and these two players appear to be the
likely candidates.
Oklahoma State freshmen
Richard Dumas and TerrenceMullins
are the premier youngsters in the
conference. With Scales, Reid and
Missouri center Doug Smith, they
make up the Daily Nebraskan’s all
freshman team.
The award for the conference
player of the year goes to Kansas’
Danny Manning, who lived up to his
prescason and National Basketball
Association billing by being
spectacular throughout the season.
Manning teams with Oklahoma’s
Stacey King, Harvey Grant and
Ricky Grace, and Missouri’s Derrick
Chicvous to form this year’s All-Big
Eight team
The second-team All-Big Eight
selections include Dumas, Kansas
State’s Mitch Richmond, Colorado’s
Scott Wilke, Oklahoma’s Mookie
Blaylock and Iowa State’s Jeff
Grayer.
The award for the comeback
player of the year goes to Iowa State
center Lafester Rhodes, who came
out of virtual obscurity this season to
help lead the inconsistent Cyclones to
a probable NIT bid. The runner-up is
Nebraska forward Jeff Rekeweg,
who emerged from the depths of,
being entirely unknown to becoming
a consistent, non-flashy player loved
by photographers for the unusual
expressions he makes during games.
With all of this aside, it’s time to *
give Nee his grade. Given the tough
level of competition he faced and tnc
youthfulncss of his squad, he earns a
B.
If Nee wants to raise this grade to
an A, he needs to redshirt King, start
younger players earlier next season if
it’s obvious Nebraska is going to
finish as an also-ran, and quit
pretending to be so pleased with all
younger players when he’s obviously
not with some of them.
Apel is a junior news-editorial and
Portuguese major from Lincoln and is Daiiy
Nebraskan sports editor.
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