Teams enter NCAA regional tourneys
By I ne Associated Press
The Syracuse Orangemen, last-second los
ers in the NCAA Championship game last
season, are prepared for pitfalls and booby traps
as they begin their bid tonight to return to the
Final Four.
The Orangemen, who were beaten by Indi
ana 74-73 in the 1987 title contest, finished the
season with a 25-9 record and were ranked No.
9 in the nation.
They open NCAA play against North Caro
lina A&T, 26-2, in the second game of an East
Regional afternoon doubleheader at Chapel
Hill, N.C. In the opening game, Missouri, 19
10, meets Rhode Island, 26-6.
In an evening doubleheader at Chapel Hill,
Southern Methodist, 27-6, faces Notre Dame,
20-8, and No. 5 Duke, 24-6, opposes Boston
University, 23-7.
Meanwhile, the Southeast Regional begins
at Atlanta, with Auburn, 18-10, facing No. 11
Bradley, 26-4, and No. 4 Oklahoma, 30-3,
playing Tennessee-Chattanooga, 20-12, in an
afternoon doubleheader. Then No. 19 Brigham
Young, 25-5, meets North Carol ina-Charlotte,
22-8, and Louisville, 22-10, opposes Oregon
State, 20-10, at night.
In the open ing round of the West Regional at
Salt Lake City, No. 7 North Carolina, 24-6,
plays North Texas State, 17-12, and No. 13
Wyoming, 26-5, meets No. 15 Loyola, Califor
nia, 27-3, in the afternoon; and No. 10 Michi
gan, 24-7, faces Boise State, 24-5, and Florida,
22-11, opposes St. John’s, 17-11, at night.
Sixteen more games, four of which will be
played at the Bob Devancy Sports Center in
Lincoln, will complete the first round.
“Nothing less than a return trip to the Final
Four will make me happy,” Syracuse forward
Stephen Thompson said.
Syracuse center Rony Seikaly agreed.
“We’ve been there before,” Seikaly said.
“We are an experienced team, and that should
help. We know the short cuts. We’ve learned
how to handle the distractions. We know what
we need to do to focus on the games—what we
need to do to win.”
Syracuse guard Sherman Douglas and Earl
Duncan said last season’s experience taught the
Orangemen how tough the64-team tournament
is.
“We learned last year you have to play hard
from the first game to the last because every
body here is capable of beating you if you
don’t,” Douglas said.
“This is the NCAA’s; you can’t underesti
mate anyone,” Duncan said.
“I’ve seen it year in and year out. Teams gel
knocked out early by unknowns. We want to be
around for the beginning of April,” Duncan
said, referring to the Final Four weekend April
2-4 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
One of those unknowns could be North
Carolina A&T.
Despite losing only two of 28 games, tying
their school record for victories, winning their
last 16 games and capturing the Mid-Eastern
Athletic Conference regular-season title, the
Aggies have received little national recogni
tion.
Blaylock best newcomer; Tubbs top coach
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) —
Mookie Blaylock preys upon point
guards the way a
pickpocket works
a crowded bus.
Sometimes it
almost seems un
fair. Their atten
tion is distracted, if
only an instant,
and his hands arc
so quick.
‘‘It’s amazing Blaylock
some of the things he gets away with
because of his quickness,” said Okla
homa coach Billy Tubbs. ‘‘But his
biggest asset is the basic instinct to
smell out where the ball is going to be
or where it’s coming from.”
While helping the Sooners to the
FJig Eight regular-season and postsea
son titles, the 6-foot Blaylock set
conference single-game and season
records for steals. He also averaged
more than 17 points and four re
bounds and was named the Associ
ated Press Big Eight newcomer of the
year Wednesday.
Tubbs has mined Midland (Texas)
Junior College for both starting
guards on the fourth-ranked, 30-3
team he takes into the first round of
the NCAA Tournament today. Ricky
Grace transferred to Norman two
seasons ago, and Blaylock followed
last fall.
“For what we do, 1 think they’re
the best pair of guards in the country,”
Tubbs said. “I don’t see anybody I’d
trade for.”
In his sixth game, Blaylock plun
dered Centenary for a conference
record 13 steals and took off running
on one of the finest seasons any Big
Eight guard ever had. In addition to
his 122 steals—the NCAA record for
a junior — his 179 regular-season
assists were second in the conference
only to Grace’s 216.
“I’d like to say he didn’t have any
of that ability when he came in, and I
worked with him for about three days
and taught him all that stuff,” said
Tubbs, who on Tuesday was named
the Big Eight coach of the year. “You
just tell him what you want him to do
as far as who he’s supposed to be on
defensively, and he can do it.”
It must be frightening for other Big
Eight coaches to think Blaylock’s
season was the product of quickness
and instinct. Tubbs said Blaylock will
look even more menacing after he
adds experience to his weaponry.
“He breaks a lot of our defensive
rules,” Tubbs said. “And you allow
him to do that because he comes up
with good results. Some people can
just smell the ball. He has that great
anticipation of what the guy he’s
guarding is going to do. You can’t
teach that to a guy. If we could, al I our
players would be doing it.”
Blaylock said he takes pride in
playing defense.
“You’ve got to want to be a great
defensive player,” Blaylock said.
“I’ve always been a good defensive
player. Y ou can get a lot of easy points
oft'of it with breakaways and layups.”
Blaylock was named newcomer of
the year on 11 ballots distributed to
full-time Big Eight media observers.
Oklahoma State freshman forward
Richard Dumas, who averaged more
than 17 points and six rebounds, re
ceived four votes, and Missouri fresh
man center Doug Smith got one.
Tubbs, 195-70, is the winningest
coach in the Big Eight since joining
the league in 1980 and was an easy
winner in coach-of-the-year ballot
ing. Kansas’ Larry Brown was named
on one ballot, and two voters split
their ticket between Tubbs and Kan
sas State coach Lon Kruger. Ne
braska coach Danny Nee, whose
squad finished the season 13-18, was
not named on any ballot.
Gymnasts expect close meet with Tigers
By Lori Griffin
Staff Reporter
A tuneup for the Big Eight meet
will await the Nebraska women’s
gymnastics team when it faces Mis
souri Saturday at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
Nebraska women’s gymnastics
coach Rick Walton said the dual meet
is important because it is the Huskers’
final competition before the Big
Eight Championships March 26 in
Arnes, Iowa. He said Nebraska’s
main emphasis against the Tigers will
be to gam a good home score so it can
gel a good seed entering the regional
meet April 9.
Walton said Nebraska should be
able to challenge for this year’s Big
Eight championship. He said he ex
pects a close meet with Oklahoma,
whom the Huskers defeated by .05 in
1987 to win the conference crown.
Walton said the difference in this
year’s Big Eight meet will be the
Huskers’ depth. He said Oklahoma
has a lot of talent, but lacks the depth
it possessed in the past.
Walton said he does not expect a
high-scoring meet. He said the con
ference championships have never
been high-scoring affairs.
Oklahoma assistant women’s
gymnastics coach Dave Henley
agreed with Walton. He said the
conference meet should be a good
lead-in to the regional meet.
Henley said the Sooners* main
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concern will be to defeat Nebraska
and win the conference title. He said
the meet will come down to who is
healthy and which team is able to hit
its routines.
Henley said Oklahoma will rely on
juniors Kelly Garrison-Sieves and
Kassie Fry, who have been scoring in
the 38- to 39-point range throughout
the season. He said Garrison-Sieves
will not be affected by a cast she’s
wearing to heal a stress fracture.
Missouri women’s gymnastics
coach Jake Jacobson said the Big
Eight meet will be good because all
four teams that are competing are
improving. The conference’s four
teams include Nebraska, Missouri,
Oklahoma and Iowa State.
Both meets begin at 7 p.m.
Gymnasts score high in meets
WALTON from Page 13
vidual record in the floor exercise
with a 9.7 score.
Nebraska also set school records in
the balance beam with a 47.1, in the
floor exercise with a 47.5, in the vault
with a 47.65 and in the all-around
competition with a 38.3 score.
Junior Crystal Savage set an indi
vidual school record in the uneven
bars by scoring a 9.85 to win the
event.
Schermann said the Huskcrs “had
the fire of the eye of the tiger in their
eyes’’ against Arizona and California
State-Fullerton.
Schermann said the Nebraska
coaches were impressed with the
Huskers’ performance. He said they
performed up to the coaches’ expec
tations because they did a tremendous
job.
Schermann said the Nebraska
coaches are looking for the Huskers to
do better in their final home meets of
the season. Nebraska will face Mis
souri in a dual meet Saturday night
and then face New Mexico April 1.
“The girls are beginning to jell at
this point,” Schermann said. 4 We
need to show off our potential against
Missouri and New Mexico.”
Huskers try for consistency
HUSKERS from Page 13
“Anybody in the lop 20can always
beat the No. 1 team.”
Wolforth said the San Jose Stale
Invitational is the premier tourna
ment before the NCAA World Series
in May. The teams participating in the
three-day tournament include No. 1
ranked UCLA, Northwestern, Cali
fornia-Berkeley, Arizona Slate, Illi
nois State, Michigan, San Jose State,
Oklahoma and Utah State.
Wolforth said Nebraska is capable
of winning both tournaments. He said
the next nine days are very important
because the Huskers will be able to
learn where they stand among other
learns.
“It is a really exciting time for us
because we can find out what we are
really capable of doing,” Wolforth
said. “Absolutely the first thing you
have to do is aim to win every single
tournament you are in. We can win
and have the opportunity to win every
single ballgamc. We could very well
come out of here winning both tour
naments.”
Wolforth said Nebraska has to be
one of the favorites in the San Jose
Stale Invitational because it won the
tournament last season.
“If we play the type of softball we
are capable of, we will win,”
Wolforth said. ‘‘Our whole purpose is
to get to the championships. We need
to play well when we get there.”
bxtra police to patrol tourney
From Staff Reports
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
police plan extra security for the
NCAA tournament rounds scheduled
in Lincoln Friday and Sunday, said
I t. Ken Caublc of the UNL Police
Department.
Caublc said seven or eight extra
police officers will be on duty during
the games. Usually about 18 officers
are on duty during a regular Nebraska
basketball game, he said.
Extra security is needed to comply
with NCAA rules and because there
will be*, more referees and eight visit
ing teams instead of one, he said.