Net>raskan
Thursday, March 23,1989
|Hosers,Runnin’ Rebels advance to finals
Hoofers tackled;
Hosers advance
to today’s final
By Jeff A pel
Ijfr-nior Editor_■ , ,
I A sleeper suffered a reccurring
nightmare during the semifinal round
of the all-university intramural bas
ketball tournament Wednesday at the
HU Coliseum.
The Hoofers, who stormed into the
tournament's Final Four despite
being unranked all season, suffered
their third loss of the season to the
top-ranked Hosers when they
dropped an 8149 decision.
The loss ended the Hoofers season
at 8-3, while the Hosers advanced to
tonight’s championship game against
the Runnin’ Rebels. The Runnin’
Rebels defeated the Delta Upsilon
A’s 76-74 in Wednesday’s other
semifinal matchup.
The Runnin’ Rebels and the Hos
ers will meet for the tournament’s
title at 6 p.m. at the NU Coliseum.
ine 11 -u nosers, wno nave occn
ranked No. 1 since the beginning of
the season, handed the 10-1 Runnin’
Rebels their only loss of the year - a
five point overtime setback.
Hoofer team spokesman Morey
Wade said his team expected to give
the Hoscrs a tough battle. But he said
the Hoscrs were too strong and in too
good of physical sii c to contend
with.
The Hoscrs roster includes Ne
braska football players Kenny
Walker,Gerry Gdowski, Tim McCoy
and Monte Kratzenstein. Their
' ■1 coach, Dave Clare, is a former Ne
braska running back who is the son of
Pat Clare, the chief orthopedic sur
geon for the Comhuskcr athletic
department.
“They’re one of the athletic teams
so they’re in real good shape,’ ’ Wade
said. “We knew they would be good,
but it’s always nice to play a team like
that. It’s good competition.”
Wade said he wasn’t surprised by
the Hosers’ speed. He said the quick
I ~~ See HOSERS on 14
David Frana/Dally Nebraskan
Andy Applegate of the Hosers grabs a rebound surrounded by Jim Boeve, Bob Wolsensky,
Bill Wolsensky and Morey Wade of the Hosers. The Hosers won the semi-final game 81 - 49.
Runnin’ Rebels get
their goal: rematch
with No. 1 Hosers
By Nick Hodge
Senior Reporter
The Runnin’ Rebels got what they
wanted — a rematch with the No. 1
ranked Hosers.
The Runnin’ Rebels defeated the
Delta Upsilon A team 76-74 Wednes
day in the semifinal round of the all
university intramural basketball tour
nament at the NU Coliseum. The
game was witnessed by a crowd of
19.
Runnin’ Rebel guard Dan Kumm
said the Rebels have been thinking
about a rematch with the Hosers ever
since the Hosers’ overtime win ear
lier this season. They’ll get that
chance tonight when they face the
Hosers at 6 p.m. at the NU Coliseum.
The Runnin’ Rebels, now 10-1,
utilized their distinct height advan
uigc iu overcome noi ouisiue-snooi
ing by Delta Upsilon.
“They really shot the ball well,”
Kumm said. “We were able to play
good defense on them - we got a
rematch with the Hosers.”
Kumm said the Runnin’ Rebels
are ready for the rematch with the
Hosers.
‘ ‘They won by five points in over
time the first time,” Kumm said.
“Four of our six guys fouled out, so
we think we can win. They’re a really
good team and we’ll have to play our
best game to beat them.”
The Hosers, 11-0, defeated the
Hoofers, 8-3,81-49 in the other semi
final game.
Kumm said the Runnin’ Rebels
haven’t been overlooking anybody to
get to the Hosers.
“We just take care of one game at
a time,” Kumm said. “We had to
play a lot of good teams to get this far.
They’ve been in the back of our
minds, but we knew we had to play
other good teams first.”
The Runnin’ Rebels got five
points from Kumm, and they couldn’t
See REPTILES on 14
NCAA assures itself against all Big Eight final game
I The Big Eight’s day as producing
toe top basketball team in the confer
ence won’t be repeated this year.
Last season, Kansas defeated
Oklahoma 83-79 in the NCAA cham
pionship game in Kemper Arena in
Kansas City, Mo. But the NCAA has
ensured itself that the Big Eight
'''On t be the only representative in
toe national title game.
This season, Missouri and Okla
homa have dominated the Big Eight
and have been ranked among the top
teams in the country all year. But
don’t look for the two teams to battle
for the title. They can’t — the NCAA
guaranteed it
Missouri and Oklahoma advanced
to the the Sweet 16, and if they con
tinue their winning ways, they could
end up playing in the Final Four.
The Tigers, seeded 3rd in the
Midwest Regional, will face
Syracuse, while Oklahoma, the No. 1
seed in the Southeast Region, faces
Virginia.
• If Oklahoma gets by the Cavaliers,
it will face the winner of the North
Carolina-Michigan game with a Fi
nal Four appc .trance at stake. If Mis
souri wins its third-round game, the
Tigers will play Louisville or Illinois
to get to the Final Four.
The NCAA couldn’t afford to
have two Big Eight teams playing for
the national title again. This was
indicative to their pairings.
Since the Big Eight doesn’t have
the population base of some of the
other big conferences, like the Atlan
tic Coast or the Big Ten, it doesn’t
have the potential viewers to increase
television ratings.
The NCAA did seed other teams
from the same conferences. North
Carolina could end up playing Duke
or North Carolina State in the cham
pionship game. But that’s different -
it would be an in-state rivalry, plus
the Tar Heels and Blue Devils are
good draws no matter which teams
they play.
But the NCAA’s dream would be
a Big Ten Final Four, and it could
have happened. Iowa was defeated in
the second round of the East Regional
by North Carolina State to end the
dream. But Indiana is still alive in the
West, Michigan in the Southeast and
Illinois in the Midwest.
What would the NCAA do if Iowa
played Indiana and Illinois played
Michigan in the Final Four? A lot of
Big Ten coaches would realize that a
conference tournament does exist.
But the NCAA would love that.
Think of the population base of the
Big Ten. Many cities or areas over, or
near, one million people would have
a rooting interest in the games, in
cluding Detroit, Indianapolis, Min
neapolis-St. Paul and Chicago. Hav
ing a team from Illinois in the Final
Four would have almost the impact as
a team from New York City or Los
Angeles.
Just imagine if St. John’s, UCLA,
Illinois and Houston met for the Final
Four. The NCAA would be in a bas
ketball euphoria along with ESPN
commentator Dick Vitale. In those
teams, four of the biggest population
bases would have an interest in the
tournament representing every area
of the nation.
It would probably work so well for
the NCAA that they would adopt a
rule stating at least one of those teams
were required to appear in the Final
Four every year.
And conferences like the Big
Eight would be left remembering
Danny Manning and Kansas' upset
against Oklahoma in one of the many
exciting national championship
games on record.
Derowltsch is a junior news-editorial
major from Lincoln and Isa Daily Nebraskan
senior sports reporter and columnist.
m. A A
I Heavy competition awaits Huskers at California invite
B> Darran Fowler
Reporter
. The Nebraska softball team plans on enjoy
mg some fun and sun when it travels to Califor
niadar>ng spring break, but will also face some
l°ugh competition.
. Nebraska softball coach Ron Wolforth said
he Comhuskers will not have an easy lime
during their week-long trip even though they
w!ii mix business with pleasure.
i he Huskcrs, 10-11, will open their trip by
ompetmg in the fpur-day Pony Invitational
his weekend at Fullerton, Calif. The Pony
L'CLA°nal ^calurcs evcry top-10 team except
Nebraska will also play a double-header
against Calif. Northridge, the top-ranked team
in Division II, Tuesday and will travel to San
Diego to face 18th-ranked U.S. International
on April 1. The Huskers defeated U.S. Interna
tional 3-2 and 5-2 at the Arizona Invitational in
February.
‘ The reason we play this kind of schedule is
because if we can figure it all out, come Big
Eight tournament time we can win that,”
Wol forth said. “We’re trying to bring the girls
along in the right mind set.
“The kids are really excited about it. It’s not
going to be all work. We’ll have a couple days
off.
Wolforth said unranked Nebraska is not
intimidated by the highly ranked teams in the
Pony Invitational. He said the Huskers possess
enough talent to compete with anyone.
‘‘If wc play well we can beat any one of
those teams,’’ he said. “We can even beat (1 st
ranked) Furman. There is no doubt in my mind
that we can beat them and we wouldn’t even
have to play a perfect game and they wouldn’t
have to play a terrible game.
“Ii’s just going to lake seven innings of
playing at a very solid level.’’
Wolforth said Nebraska’s success in Cali
fornia depends on if the Huskers can play
consistently.
“It depends on which team will show up,”
he said. “We have a tendency to play sporadi
cally and it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.
We’ve played exceptional ball ai times and
we’ve also proven we have the ability to really
stink it up. We need to focus on ourselves and
not who we’re playing.”
Wolforth said pitchers Marie Bowie and
Stephanie Skcgas will need to be in top form if
Nebraska is going to be competitive in the
tournament.
“A big key is pitching,” he said. “Our
pitchers must throw well for us if we arc to be
respectable in the tournament. If not, we arc
going to have some long days.^’