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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1989)
Sports Cornhusker linebacker coach announced v,\ Mevc hippie Staff Reporter • Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne announced Tuesday that former Tennessee assistant Kevin Steele will replace John Mel ton as the Comhuskers’ linebacker coach. “We interviewed Kevin over the weekend and we were pleased with his qualifications and that he will be joining our staff,” Osborne said. “He should be in Nebraska by the end of the week and prepared to start with spring football. Steele, ’(), coached the secondary and in side linebackers the last two seasons for Ten nessee coach Johnny Majors. Tennessee fin ished last season with five straight wins after an 0-5 start. Steele coached Volunteer linebacker Keith DeLong, who earned All-America honors. Steele graduated from Tennessee in 1981 after playing linebacker for the Volunteers from 1976-79. He stayed as linebackers coach at Tennessee until 1982, when he left to be come recruiting coordinator and linebacker coach at New Mexico Stale. In 1983, he joined Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones’ staff where he coached the lightends in 1984 and the inside linebackers during the next two seasons. Nebraska athletic director Bob Dcvancy said he was impressed with Steele, although he said he met him “just briefly’’ at Lincoln’s American Legion. “Kevin made a positive impression on all the coaches I talked to,” Devaney said. Dcvaney said he was unsure whether arc Nebraska assistant coaches applied for Me lon’s job. “I don’t know if there’s anybody on the stall who felt they were qualified for the job, he said. Melton, 61, retired Friday from coaching and will now concentrate on fund-raising proj ects for the Husker athletic program. Melton, who coached for 27 years at Ne braska, is recovering from quintuple-bypass surgery that he underwent Feb. 14. Third attempt at season opener scheduled today By Jerry Guenther Staff Reporter For the third time, the Nebraska baseball team will attempt to open its season when it faces Wayne Slate in a double header today. Nebraska baseball coach John Sanders said the Comhuskers have been working to maintain a positive mental attitude because the early portion of their schedule was cancelled. Nebraska’s scheduled sea son-opening series against Minne sota was postponed because of bad weather, while road games against Northern Colorado and Metropolitan State College of Denver were snowed out last weekend. “It’s been tough,” Sanders said. “But we just have to take it in stride.” Sanders said he hopes to resched ule the Minnesota and Northern Colorado contests. But he said it gets more and more difficult to make up games against Division I teams be cause they get further into their schedule and conference commit ments. Sanders said many Division 1 schools are also already committed to a 60-game schedule, which is the maximum amount of regular-season games allowed by the NCAA. He said that limit means teams cannot add any games unless they also have make-up games that they cannot re schedule with their original oppo nent. In order to keep the regularly scheduled 60-game season at Ne braska, Sanders said he will have to add games against teams who have open dates that coincide with Ne braska - even if it means playing Division II schools. Nebraska has already had eight games against Division I opponents postponed because of inclement weather. The Huskers will make up two of those games by facing North ern Iowa in a double header on Thurs day. To make up for the lost game experience, Sanders said, Nebraska has been working through simulated game-type drills during practice in side the Schulte Field House. Nebraska pitching coach Tom Pratt credits the indoor practice fa cilities with enabling his staff to have good workouts despite the inclement weather outdoors. Pratt said the pitchers have worked hard, but are anxious to get the season under way. Pat Leinen and Mike Zajeski are scheduled to start the games against Wayne State today, but Pratt said he and Sanders plan on using a lot of pitchers, provided everybody plays as anticipated. Wayne State is 0-1 this season after losing the first game of a double header to Kansas State 7-4. The Wildcats led 4-2 after four innings in the nightcap when the game was called because of darkness. Wayne State Coach Lenny Klazcr said his team has also been hampered by bad weather. He said the Wildcats will be looking forward to playing outdoors again. The Wildcats lost 10 seniors off last year’s 29-17 squad, but Klazcr said his club returns a lot of talent “We have the majority of a pretty good pitching staff back,” Klazcr said. “But they struggled a little bit against Division I last year.” Klazcr said his players are always enthused when they get a chance to play a Division I school. But he said , his team will approach the game like , any other. i Today’s action is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. at Buck Beltzer Field. This season’s home games will feature free admission for all Univer sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln students who present their IDs. Walton: Biased judges sprang NU to third-place finish tty viiKe u iviaiiey Staff Reporter -lomctown hospitality was not , hat the Nebraska women’s gymnas ts :cam expected when it competed n inc Bulldog Invitational. Nebraska coach Rick Walton said icsday that hometown judging pro filed Georgia to the team title last veekend in Athens, Ga. Oabama finished 2nd with 187.85 oints, followed by Nebraska with 87.60 and Penn State with 181.55. Walton said he was upset with the udging because Georgia, Alabama and Nebraska performed equally well. Georgia had two of the top three finishers in three of the invitational’s four events. The Bulldogs also had two gymnasts tie for the all-around title. Nebraska placed two gymnasts among the top three. Senior Crystal Savage ucd Lucy Wcncr of Georgia for the uneven bars title with a scor • of 9.8 and junior Michele Bryant tied Alabama’s Marie Robbins on the vault with a score ol 9.6. “On a neutral ground, if all three teams compete, it would lie a tossup. No one in the meet dominated,” Walton said. “If you iall on your face, you deserve what you get. It should be whoever hits the most rou tines (wins).” Nebraska’s Tami Bair agreed. ‘ We did better than the score would indicate, ’ Bair said. “The scores were ridiculously low. We didn’t expect the udging to be that baa.” rvant said Nebraska should have scored higher even though it did not pertorm up to its capabilities. ''he judging was tough, but we had some falls.” Bryant said. “We’ve had belter outings.” V alion said Nebraska performed well considering the circumstances. “On beam, we got caught be tween i he cheerleaders with their megaphones and Georgia being on the floor,” he said. “We had three kids fall off, but the ones who stayed on did well.” Walton said the Huskers may face the same type of unruly situation later this year if they compete n the NCAA Championships. The NCAA Championships will be held April 17 m Atnens. “That’s an experience you re going to team Irom because if you figure Georgia’s in the NCAAs and we are too, the crowd is going to be there and ihcy'rc going to be in volved in the meet,” Walton said. “I think the next time we’re there, it won’t affect us in a negative way.” Walton said Nebraska is anxious to leave the loss behind. “At this point in the season, we know we're a very good gymnastics team. We know we can compete with the best teams, ’ he said. “Alabama is ranked No. 2 in the country and we lost to them by two-tenths of a point. Everything we do from here out we can take to Athens to help us.’ ’ i Nebraska’s next meet is on Sun- < day, when the Huskcrs face Winona State, a Division II college from Winona. Minn. The meet, free for ail University of Ncbraska-Lincoln stu dents who present their IDs. begins at 7 p.m. at the Bob Dcvaney Snorts Center. , NU seniors hopeful for NIT tourney By Nick Iiodge Senior Reporter A berth in the National Invita tional Tournament would give the four seniors on the Nebraska men’s basketball team a satisfying end to their collegiate careers. Unless Nebraska wins this week end’s Big Eight Tournament, guards Eric Johnson, Todd Koca and Matt Svchla and forward Pete Manning will have to rely on a call from the NIT to continue their Comhusker careers. The winner of the Big Eight Tournament, which will be held Fri day through Sunday at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tourna ment. Koca and Manning said the possibility of playing in the NIT keeps them working. “It would be a nice reward,” Koca said. “That’s what we’ve been striving for. You go through a lot of work trying to get into post-season play.” Koca, a 5-foot-11 walk-on from Papillion, said Nebraska’s goal this season was to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. But he said qualifying for the NIT would definitely fill the gap left by not being selected for the NCAA Tournament Manning, a 6-8 native of Jamaica, said being one of 32 teams selected for the NIT would be special. “It’d be really sweet/’ Manning said. ‘‘It would cap the year off to make it to any post-season tourna ment” Manning said his first experience with Nebraska basketball came when the Huskers laced Washington in the third round of the 1987 NIT. The Huskers’ victory propelled them to New York and an eventual 3rd-place finish. “Everybody was into the game,” Manning said. “If we could get into the NIT and play at home, that would be even better.” Manning, who came to Nebraska after playing a year at Seminole (Okla.) Junior College, led the Husk ers in rebounding this season with an average of 6.2 per game. Last year, Manning led the Big Eight by con necting on 59 percent of his field goal attempts. Manning hauled in a career-high 14 rebounds in Nebraska’s 86-77 victory against Creighton earlier this season. In the Huskers final regular season game last year, Manning scored a career-high 27 points in a loss at Oklahoma. Koca said the biggest highlight of his two-year career came in a 103-76 loss to Ohio State. Against the Buck eyes, Koca scored a career-high five points. One of his two baskets in cluded the only successful three point shot of his career. That shot came in front of a national television audience, as the game was televised by ESPN. “When 1 came off the bench to hit that three-pointer against a quality team like Ohio State, that was the biggest thrill," Koca said. “It had also always been a goal since high school to play on national TV.** Koca has spentxnuch Of the season backing up Johnson al the point guard position. Johnson, a 6-fooi-2 native of Brooklyn, N.Y., transferred to Ne braska in 1986 from Baylor. In his two years as a Huskcr, he has scored 591 points to raise his career total to 1,007. Johnson, a team captain for the 16 14 Huskcrs, ranks 3rd in Nebraska history in total steals and 4th in as sists. In two years, he snared 121 steals. Johnson also contributed 235 assists, while former Nebraska guard Brian Carr leads the list with 682. Johnson led Nebraska in minutes played, assists and steals the last two years. He ranks 3rd in scoring this season while averaging 11 points per game. Johnson began the season by scor ing 31 and 30 points in successive games against Creighton and Michi gan State. Svehla, a 6-3 walk-on from Clark son, saw limited action during his two-year career as a Husker. He scored a career-high three points in Nebraska’s 89-70 win against Sam Houston State. Prior to coming to Nebraska, Svehla played at Northeast (Neb.) Technical Community College in Norfolk. The seniors were treated to one going-away celebration when Ne braska defeated Iowa State 77-74 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The game marked the foursome’s final regular-season home contest. Koca and Manning said winning what was their final home game I-^ The seniors on the Nebraska basketball team include (Hon left): Matt Svehla, Eric Johnson, Pete Manning and Todi Koca. could only be topped by a place in the NIT. “When we’re at home with fans that are good, it gives us a lot of momentum,” Manning said. “If we do go into post-season play, we know its down to where if you lose once, you ’re out We have to go in and play and hope to win." Koca said "Making it lo the TIT would really be nice," "Anything can happen and may be we can go lo New YoA like they did a couple years ago." The NIT field will be announced Sunday. itl * *»i i I • 4%i{
