Changes result in win against Iowa State
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter__
When the Nebraska women’s bas
ketball players got to the point where
they had nothing to lose, they didn’t
lose.
Led by Kim Yancey’s career-high
19 points, the Comhuskers broke a
six-game losing streak with a 68-60
come-from-behind victory at Iowa
State on Saturday.
Yanccy came off the bench to lead
the Huskers, 9-10 and 1-5 in the Big
Eight. The sophomore from Holden,
Mo., started the first 16 games at
point guard, the one-guard in coach
Angela Beck’s system.
Bui Yancey’s 74 turnovers (to 45
assists) and 8.0 point-pcr-game scor
ing average bumped her to the bench
in favor of freshman Sara 01 lringa, a
move Yancey agreed with.
“I deserved to get yanked,” she
said.4 41 would have yanked me, too.
Yancey also got moved to shoot
ing guard, or the two- guard position,
and it was there that she came alive.
4 4Saturday 1 just went in and shot
it,” she said.4‘I feel more open than
I did at the one.”
Beck joked that switching Yancey
to the wing was a 4‘genius move.”
“When you win, you’re a gen
ius,” she said.
Beck’s other changes - a positive
attitude, a new defense, Carol Russell
at point guard and fewer substitutions
.. must have been brilliant moves,
too.
Beck said she changed her altitude
after losing to Kansas State on Wednes
day, with a sports psychologist ana
lyzing Beck’s every move. The de
fense mixed a three-player perimeter
zone and a two-player, man-to-man
inside.
Russell played most of the game,
scoring 11 points with five rebounds
and three steals. Her play earned praise
from the team’s former point guard.
“She’s a real heady player,’’
#
Yancey said. “She reads tlK floor
well and reads situations well.”
The substitutions gave more min
utes to the team’s veterans. Newcom
ers have played 47 percent of the
team’s minutes, but only 38 percent
of the minutes against the Cyclones.
Beck said she wanted to use the
veterans so when the new players did
play, they would feel less pressure.
Freshman Karen Jennings did that
best, with 11 points and 10 rebounds
in 18 minutes.
But the best game still came from
the player who was new at her posi
tion.
“(Yancey’s) had such a frustrat
i
ing two years here,’ ’ Beck said. For at
least one game, though, the coach
could compare Yancey with former
Huskcr stand- out Amy Stephens.
“(Yancey) was reading screens and
running through screens like Stephens
used to do,” Beck said.
After the game, Beck said, the
players threw her into the shower.
Beck called the win the biggest of
their lives, one indication of the pres
sure building up on the team. Beck
mentioned another indication as the
Huskers cased into the win column.
“The last minutc-and-a-half of that
game took, I think, Five days,” Beck
said.
--1
Nebraska gymnastics team s weakness
becomes strength at Tigers’ expense
By Julie Naughton
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska women’s gymnas
tics team turned a weakness into a
strength Sunday against Missouri.
Nebraska assistant coach Dan
Schermann said the Comhuskers’
performance on the balance beam was
the deciding factor in their 190.30
188.30 victory against the Tigers in
Columbia, Mo.
Nebraska scored 47.25 points in
the beam competition, which was an
improvement over the 44 thcHuskcrs
scored on the event one week ago.
Schermann said the improvement
in the beam was not an accident. The
improvement helped Nebraska post
one of the top-five scorers nationally
this year, and also offset the highest
score ever compiled by Missouri.
“We were shooting for a belter
beam score this week,” he said.
“We’ve trained the girls hard.”
Schermann said Nebraska gained
confidence from its beam improve
ment. The beam problems had upset
the girls, he said, because the event
was the team’s strongest last season.
Seniors Angie Burdette and Mich
ele Bryant lied for first place on the
beam with 9.70 scores. That perform
ance helped Burdette place second in
the all-around competition with a score
of 38.50, while teammates Lisa
McCrady and Jane Clemons were
fourth and fifth with scores of 37.80
and 37.75.
Missouri’s Kim Leslie won the
meet’s all-around title with a 38.80
score.
Schcrmann said Nebraska also
received a strong performance from
freshman C.C. Occl in the floor exer
cise. Occl scored a 9.55 in the event.
McCrady tied Missouri’s Julie Dorn
for the floor exercise title with a 9.70
score.
Schcrmann said the vault also was
a strong event for Nebraska, as the
Huskers recorded five of the top seven
scores. The top mark was earned by
Burdette, who finished with a 9.60
mark.
Clemons and Bryant tallied 9.55
marks.
scnermann said mat c.icmons
vaulting has improved this year. In
past years, he said, the senior did not
have enough difficulty in her vault to
qualify for the all-around competi
tion.
But this year, Schcrmann said,
Clemons’ skill level has taken a leap
forward. So far forward, in fact, that
Nebraska now uses her in all four
events.
“It’s not easy to make our lineup,”
Schcrmann said.
Schcrmann said Nebraska needs
to train hard this week in order to
prepare lor the second-annual Mas
ters Classic, which will take place
this weekend.
The meet, which is described by
Nebraska coach Rick Walton as the
premier, regular-season competition
of the year, will feature three of the
top six teams — Nebraska, UCLA and
Cal-Statc Fullerton.
The Huskers captured the title last
year. Schcrmann said the meet will
be tough, but Nebraska proved Sun
day that it is capable of retaining the
title.
•
Forming minor leagues is answer
to athletic scholarship problem
1 love college sports as much as the
next guy, and more than the guy after
him.
But I don’t understand this whole
recruiting thing.
The Nebraska football coaches arc
scurrying around the country to get
scholarship commitments for next fall.
Paul
Domeier
Last November the basketball coaches
signed a few players to letters-of
inlent. Coaches in other sports arc
striking similar deals. But why?
Why do colleges give athletic
scholarships?
General academic scholarships arc
given so bright students can study in
part of the curriculum.
So why give these scholarships?
The present grants make as much
sense as a music conservatory that
would give a young journal ist a schol
arship so he or she could come help
with the student paper, regardless of
his or her talent in music.
Some people understand this. The
Ivy League schools don’t give ath
letic scholarships. You may laugh,
and say “That’s why they don’t win
anymore.”
True, and that’s why athletic schol
arships were started in the first place;
to give incentive to the best athletes
to go to a certain school and bring in
the money that comes with a success
ful football program.
According to the NCAA, the NCAA
first officially recognized scholarships
in 1952, but the practice of “subsi
dizing” athletes had been going on
and too much prestige to be aban
doned.
But examine one alternative to the
present system, an alternative which
could work.
Establish minor leagues in foot
ball and basketball. Minor leagues
already exist for baseball and hockey,
and club systems for tennis, swim
mi ng and si m i lar sports thri ve in some
richer areas. These leagues have been
suggested before, usually because of
the increasing number of athletes who
don’t belong in col lege, but scrape by
for a couple years so they can prepare
for professional sports.
“But wait!” the purist yells. “What
about the sanctity of the sports? Col
lege and pro basketball arc different
games because the rules and the cali
^r —l____j:rr_« ir _
Nebraska's Mark Warburton competes on the parallel bars.
NU coach not surprised
by team’s good showing
ay juite Naugmon
Senior Reporter
Nebraska’s triumph in a week
end triangular came as no surprise
to men’s gymnastics coach Francis
Allen.
Allen said he wasn’t surprised
that Nebraska rolled past Oklahoma
and Iowa State on Sunday at the
Bob Devaney Spor^ Center.
v The Comhuskcrs, the defend
ing Big Eight champions, scored
278.65 points to outdistance Okla
I *_l
bar and the parallel bars, sharing
the high bar tide with Oklahoma’s
Brian Halstead and the parallel bars
title with Warburton.
Dimas tallied a 9.65 mark on
the high bar and scored 9.5 on the
parallel bars.
“Dimas’ scores are excellent
for a freshman,” Allen said. “I
(think he is) one of the finest re
cruits we’ve ever had. We’re r6hl
pleased to see him doing so well.”
Nebraska senior Patrick Kirkscy,
the defending NCAA all-around
champion, won the all-around with
a score of 56.00.
ia/i ui ^layus ait umuuii. 11 cvuy
one plays in the minor leagues, every
game will look like the NBA!”
Not if the new minor leagues have
the same rules as the original minor
leagues did in baseball. Those leagues
started with team autonomy ; the play
ers didn’t belong to a major-league
club. Player development wasn’t as
important as winning.
But following the lead of baseball
executive Branch Rickey and the
Brooklyn Dodgers, the big-league clubs
bought up all of the minor-league
teams, creating the present-day farm
systems.
The new basketball leagues could
keep collegiate rules and have a rule
that no NBA franchises could own
minor- league clubs. The Continental
Basketball Association already acts
^ee ELIMINATE on 8
for years. The 1952 legislation lim
ited the aid to the schools, and the
money from boosters was forced under
the table.
Maybe some of these scholarships
arc a good investment, but they don’t
make sense with the rest of the uni
versity’s scholarships. And the schol
arships for non-revenue sports aren’t
even a good investment.
So make way for the First Domcicr
Proposal:
ELIMINATE ALL ATHLETIC
SCHOLARSHIPS.
Now that all of you have laughed
out loud and interrupted your biology
class, let me say that this proposal
will get as far as the bookrack under
your desk. Comhusker football, for
example, generates too much money
I’vui'a oiiu u;wfl OUUt, WIIIWII Iin
ished with scores of 270.65 and
255.90, respectively.
Allen said he was not overly
excited about Nebra$ka’$ perform
ance.
“They’re supposed todo well,”
he said. When you see those types
of performances in the gym day
after day, it’s hard to gel real ex
cited when they do it here.’*
Allen saidhe was pleased by the
Bjrformance of freshman Trent
imas, who tied senior Mark
Warburton for second place in the
all-around competition with a score
of 55.90.
Dimas tied for first on the high
an academic discipline. Music schol
arships are given so students with
musical talent can study music. Engi
neering scholarships are given so
students with engineering promise can
study engineering.
And so on, until athletics. Athletic
scholarships are given so students with
athletic talent will play an extra-cur
ricular sport — not to study, to play a
sport. If a player quits the team, the
player loses the scholarship.
Most scholarships are given for
talent in an academic field or for a
basic condition (race, hometown,
disability). Athletic talent falls into
the first group, yet athletics aren’t
Alien said the results oi Sun
day’s meet were about what he
expected from his team. He said
his team has been working hard
since returning from Christmas
break, and he expects it to be one
of the strongest teams that Ne
braska has ever had.
Allen said Sunday's meet was
a kickoff competition for the Busk
ers, who improved their record to
5-0. He said the gymnasts need to
start tuning up for their next com
petition.
See DOMINATE on 8