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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1989)
Sports psborne doubts validity of OU allegations Jy Jeff Apel Senior Editor Nebraska coach Tom Osborne discredited statements by a convicted felon that could lead to the suspen sion of the Oklahoma football pro gram. Osborne said Wednesday that he * doesn’t put much stock” in the alle gations by Otha Armstrong III, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for breaking into the home of former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer and stealing 25 champion ship rings, shotguns and beer. Armstrong told the Dallas Morn ing News Tuesday that Oklahoma freshman tailback Dewell Brewer received illegal benefits that in cluded at least one unofficial paid visit to Norman, Okla. Armstrong also said he delivered packages of money to former Sooner quarterback Charles Thompson. Thompson was sentenced to a two-year prison term after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Osborne said Armstrong’s allega tions have been blown out of propor tion. The allegations would subject Oklahoma to “the death penalty” if they are proven true because the Sooners are in the midst of a three year probation, stemming from re cruiting and various other violations. Teams receive the death penalty if the NCAA discovers rule violations that occur within five years of a pro bationary period. “A lot of this has been over blown,” Osborne said. “I doubt if there’s a whole lot of truth to this.” Richard Van Horn, president of the University of Oklahoma, denied the allegations. ‘‘The allegations of Mr. Arm strong were called to the attention of the NCAA months ago, and the NCAA and '"U have looked into the charges,” Van Horn said. “On the basis of all the available evidence, we believe the allegations are incor rect.” Osborne said the allegations would hurt Nebraska if they arc proven true because they would force the Comhuskers to find another op ponent for their schedule. He said finding a suitable opponent is a diffi cult process because most teams al ready have their schedules made. Osborne said Nebraska was forced to find a substitute opponent this season when Tulanc asked to be re leased from its two-year contract to play Nebraska. Tulane was replaced by Northern Illinois, a team that Nebraska defeated 48-17 ttys season. Osborne said the allegations are damaging to the Big Eight because several conference teams are in the midst of serving NCAA probations. In addition to the sanctions imposed against Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Stale football program is on proba tion, while the Kansas men’s basket ball program just completed a proba tionary period that kept it out of the NCAA tournament last year. The Missouri men’s basketball team currently is being investigated for alleged recruiting violations. Osborne said the Big Eight would not be helping itself if Oklahoma was given the death penalty. “It would be very bad for the conference,” he said. “It certainly would hurt its image.” Gary Fouraker, the assistant ath letic director for business affairs, said the death penalty also would hurt Nebraska financially. He said the Huskcrs received an additional $350,000 in revenue by increasing ticket prices for this year’s Ncbraska Oklahoma game. General admission tickets cost $25 for the Oklahoma game. Those tickets normally cost $18.50. Fouraker said he doubts that Ne braska could raise the ticket prices for a lesser-known opponent and achieve the same type of success. “That’s the general assessment,” he said. Beck s recruits give NU safety in numbers The Nebraska women’s basket ball team has had only one win bigger than its 110-61 romp over Oral Roberts Tuesday, and this win came well before the season started. In November, during the early letter-of-intent signing period, Meg gan Yedsena took pen in hand and committed to join the Comhuskers next season. At the time, Nebraska coach Angela Beck fell all over herself praising her recruit, a 5-foot-9 guard from Mahanoy City, Pa. “We believe that we have turned the comer as far as signing Meggan, ’ ’ Beck said. “She is the most-heralded recruit in Nebraska history, meaning she was voted by several coaches and a lot of magazines as the lop point guard in the country.” And this signing came just as Beck was practicing with her best-ever recruiting class. The women’s team is going to be good for the next few years. Beck has proven she can recruit, and college coaching IS recruiting. Look at men’s basketball. Bill Frieder won 25 games a year at Michigan with great talent before getting waxed in every NCAA tour nament, while Kansas Stale’s Lon Kruger, who could take a junior high school basketball team and go .500, won’t crack the top 10 until he gets more than mediocre junior college players. This year’s Husker class was rated the seventh-best in the nation by Dick Vitale’s Basketball. Of course, that was with junior college Player of the Year Kristi Kincaid, who left school early in the semester, but Nebraska still has a host of solid newcomers. Karen Jennings, rated the No. 5 freshman in the country, led the Huskers in scoring in the first five games this year. Freshman LeeAnna Hiestand has come out of nowhere to grab a spot in the starting lineup with her athletic ability and effort. Junior-college All-American Kristi Dahn provides stability. Fresh man Sara Offringa, who has been in a shooting slump, has had trouble get ting any court time. Even without Yedsena, Beck has a strong foundation. It’s not like she has been losing every game, cither. The fourth-year coach has posted a 55-37 record and won a Big Eight championship in 1987-88. This year’s team is 3-3. Nebraska played No. 4 Georgia tough and could challenge for another confer ence title if the younger players con tinue to improve. And the Huskers are hustling. Tuesday they played the closing minutes like they had spotted Oral Roberts 50 points. That sort of hard work and the competition of having 11 players hauling for court time only can make the youngsters better. All the freshmen can look at Kim Yancey as an example. Yancey earned more and more minutes as the season went along as a freshman last year, and she has begun to come around at point guard in the past few games. Beck has said Yancey, the team’s primary outside threat, is better than former Husker star Amy Stephens was as a sophomore. With her shoot ing touch, Yancey may follow Stephens’ example and switch to the off-guard position. With all the returning talent, Beck can ease in her new recruit. Plus, the coach demands so much of her point See BECK on 17 Veteran player injured on inexperienced team By Paul Domeier Staff Reporter The already inexperienced Nebraska women’s basketball team will play without one of its veterans tonight against Georgia State. Nebraska women’s basketball coach Angela Beck said junior forward Kelly Hubert will miss tonight’s game because of tom ligaments in her ankle. Hubert suffered her injury during Ne braska’s 110-61 win Tuesday against Oral Roberts and will be out for six to eight weeks. The Comhuskers will make their first appearance of the season without Hubert at 7 p.m. in the Bob Devancy Sports Center. The game, which is free to all University of Nebraska-Lincoln students who present their student ID cards, will be broadcast by KRNU (90.3 FM). Beck said Sarah Muller will replace Hubert in the starting lineup. She said Muller was given the starting nod because of her tough defensive ability. With Muller moving inside, guard Sara Offringa will get some minutes, Beck said, and either Rissa Taylor or Sue Hesch will get more time at forward. Beck said Hubert’s injury could help if the young players respond and improve, and if Hubert can come back strong. “The negative of that is I’ll be giving freshmen more minutes, and I wanted to keep more experi enced players in,’’ she said. Hubert and Ann Halsne are Nebraska’s most experienced players. Muller is a sophomore, Offringa a freshmen, Taylor a re dshirt freshman and Hesch a sophomore who is in her first year on the team. Beck said it is time for the young players to start producing. “I’m not going to look at the freshmen all year and say, ‘They’re freshmen,”’ she said. Georgia Stale also has prob lems with inexperience. The 1-1 Lady Crimson Panthers haven’t played since Thanksgiving week end, when they dropped a 102-71 decision to Alabama in the finals of their own tournament. Georgia State coach Brenda Paul said her team has been idle while wrapping up the academic quarter. ‘‘We just finished finals yester day,” she said. ‘‘It hurts having finals, with kids staying up all night.” Beck said her team is still ex cited from its win Tuesday. The Huskers were led by guard Kim Yancey, who scored a career-high 16 points against Oral Roberts. Five other Huskers scored in double figures. Beck said she was surprised Nebraska blew out the Titans so easily. The Huskers led 44-36 at halftime. ‘‘I thought we could be kind of tired and relaxed, and we scored 66 points (in the second half)/’ she said. Beck said the Huskers will continue to employ the up-tempo style that worked against Oral Roberts. She said her bench is deep even though it has been strapped by the loss of Hubert. “Wecan run when (opponents) gel tired because we play so many people,” she said. David Hansen/Daily Nabraskan Nebraska’s Karen Jennings’shoots over a Georgia de fender. ' I bxtended allotment of football tickets already sold out By Cory Golden Staff Reporter There’s a home-away-from-home situation developing for Nebraska football fans. Sun Devil Stadium in Tcmpc, Ariz.., which will be the site of the Fiesta Bowl matchup between Ne braska and Florida State, will become a home away from home for at least 14,000 Comhuskcr fans who want to see their team compete in the New Year’s Day contest. Joe Sclig, the Nebraska ticket manager, said Wednesday that the 14,000 requests he received by the Dec. 1 deadline was 3,000 more than the 11,000 allotted toboth teams. He said he solved his dilemma by obtain ing 3,000 tickets that Florida State fans did not purchase. “We will get enough tickets,” Sclig said. “As of this morning, we have enough to accommodate all the requests made by the Dec. 1 dead line.” Sclig said the ticket demand for this year’s game is a sharp contrast to the 1989 Orange Bowl, for which the ticket office sent 3,900 of its 12,500 allotted tickets back. He said the rea son for the increase is that the Fiesta Bowl traditionally has been more attractive to Huskcr fans. Sclig said that in 1987, Nebraska purchased an extra 1,000 tickets from Florida Stale. The Huskcrs also bought additional tickets for the 1985 contest against Michigan, he said. Nebraska dropped a 31-28 deci sion to Florida State in the 1987 Fi esta Bowl, and the Huskcrs lost 27-23 to Michigan in 1985. “We’ve always had a good re sponse to the Fiesta Bowl,” Selig said. “I’m just speculating as to why, but there are a lot of ex-Nebraskans in Phoenix and they want tickets. “There are a lot of Nebraskans See TICKETS on 17
