Sports
Minnesota dual an eye-opener for NU
By Jeff Apel
Senior Editor
The Nebraska men’s gymnastics
team battled vision problems, then
endured an eye-opening experience
during its dual meet against Minne
sota.
Coach Francis Allen said the Com
huskers’ 281.65-281.65 tie with
Minnesota on Saturday in Minneapo
lis will help because it showed his
team that it can be beaten. The Husk
crs may have entered the meet over
confident, he said, because they had
little trouble against other opponents
and have been ranked No. 1 through
out the season.
‘ ‘When you have a team that’s this
good, it’s easy to become overconfi
dent,” Allen said. ‘‘Especially when
you’re blowing everyone out. Until
now, we hadn't said at the end of a
meet, ‘God, that was a challenge,’ so
I think this opened our eyes.”
The Huskers now are 18-0-1 this
season.
Allen said Nebraska had problems
preparing for the meet because ground
fog delayed the Huskers’ flight for
more than six hours. He said the
conditions delayed the start of the
meet 30 minutes.
The Huskers usually spend about
two hours warming up for a meet, but
their warmup time against Minnesota
was cut to one hour because of the
flight delay, Allen said.
“Everything was rush, rush, rush,”
he said. “We spent the day running
around, wondering what we were going
to do.”
Allen said he was happy with the
way his team responded to the ad
verse circumstances.
“I feel very fortunate,” he said.
“Minnesota is a good team, and we
had trouble.”
Allen said the Huskers will prove
they are a better team than the No. 2
ranked Golden Gophers at the NCAA
championships in Minneapolis on April
19-21.
‘ ‘ I can see M innesota doing a 1 ittlc
better, but not a lot” he said. “We
can do a lot better.”
Allen said one of the highlights for
Nebraska was the performance of Bob
Stelter. The senior from Burbank,
Calif., tied career-high scores in the
still rings and parallel bars to win the
meet’s all-around title with a 57.25
total.
Stelter scored a 9.80 on the rings
and a 9.70 on the parallel bars. The
scores helped him edge teammate
Mark Warburton, who finished sec
ond in the all-around with a 56.70.
Nebraska’s Patrick Kirksey, the
defending NCAA champion in the
all-around, finished fifth in that event.
Kirksey’s all-around total was 56.00.
But, Allen said, the lower-than
average score isn’t cause for concern.
“He just had a bad meet,’’ he said.
“He had problems on the rings, hori
zontal bar and the parallel bar.
“I don’t know what happened, but
he will be back.”
Baseball owners gamble
with billion-dollar stakes
In ihc year after Pete Rose was
suspended from baseball because he
gambled on the game, the major league
owners have suspended the game it
self in a gamble with billion-dollar
stakes.
Since Oakland swept San Fran
cisco in the World Series last fall, the
owners have positioned themselves
to make a bigger change in the sport
g^^ Domeier
than the one caused by the split-fin
gered fastball.
And the players know it, which is
why this year’s lockout continues, a
year earlier than the owners planned.
The owners have bet they can make
the players’ union accept revenue
sharing and a salary cap. Baseball
owners were not the first sages to
come up with these ideas. National
1 (xxhall League owners once discussed
revenue sharing and the National
Basketball Association has a salary
cap.
Owners first proposed these changes
in their initial offer to the players last
fall, and these suggestions arc so radical
that they were pulled early in negotia
tions. These proposals were the base
ball equivalent of Congress suggest
ing we scrap the Constitution.
First, an explanation of the con
cepts. With revenue sharing, the play
ers gel a percentage of gross receipts.
The suggested rate has been 48 per
cent, which is more than the players
are making now, even after this win
ter’s contracts that are more astro
nomical and comical than economi
cal.
With a salary cap, owners have a
two-tiered salary ceiling. Teams could
not go over the top level, and teams
over the bottom level could not bid
for free agents, which would limit
players’ choices.
Of course, the actual workings of
both are more difficult, and lawyers
would get another large percentage to
play around with the legal workings.
Still, players would be earning more
money than they do today.
But the players plan on earning
more through the present system. To
them, a salary cap and revenue shar
ing mean nothing more than an upper
limit to salaries. They would leave
today’s arbitration and free agency
intact so they can earn more than 48
percent if the game isn’t as prosper
ous in 10 years and gross receipts
decline.
With revenue sharing, the players
would get X dollars and would look
silly complaining about the system,
since they would profit when owners
profit and lose when owners lose. The
salary cap would hinder free-market
bidding and limit individual contracts.
Arbitration probably would be gone.
The guys on the field have incen
tives to fight for the present system.
The guys in the skyboxes have given
themselves incentive through the
contract signings of recent months.
See STRIKE on 8
Coach Calvin says wins
too easv, no challenges
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
Nebraska women’s tennis coach
Gregg Calvin found one fault with his
team’s 6-3 victory over Texas Tech,
its 6-0 victory over Texas-El Paso
and the 5-0 victory over Tulsa this
weekend - they were too easy.
“I was disappointed we weren’t
challenged more by the other teams,’ ’
he said.
The Comhuskers split the singles
and swept the doubles for the deci
sion against the Texas Tech Red
Raiders on Friday in Lubbock, Texas.
Ildiko Guba scored her first big win of
the weekend with a 6-2,6-1 decision
over Mallory Grantham.
Calvin said the Huskers survived
one scare on their way to winning in
doubles. Guba and Ann Flannery had
split the first two sets at No. 2 singles,
he said, and were up 4-1 in the third.
Texas Tech’s Amy Ryan and Cristy
Cudd stormed back and forced the
Huskers to survive three match points.
Nebraska’s duo then swept the
tiebreaker to lake the match.
Winning in Lubbock on Texas
Tech’s home courts was important,
Calvin said. This year, he said, he has
seen a home-court advantage help
Iowa, UNLV and the Huskers, so
playing well outdoors in Lubbock is a
good sign for the upcoming confer
ence season.
Calvin said the heat and humidity
hurt the Huskers at first.
“Our feet were pretty dead for a
while,” he said.
The next day the humidity turned
into rain, and the teams had to move
inside for one match. With the weather
problems, the squads played to five,
and Nebraska swept through Tcxas
E1 Paso and Tulsa without losing a
set.
The only challenge for the Husk
ers, Calvin said, came in Guba’s 6-3,
6-4 win over Tulsa’s Laura Eubanks,
who is ranked ninth in the region.
“Now we have to gel the next
level,” Calvin said. “We have to
figure out how to be competitive with
the top 25.”
The Huskers will play lop-15 San
Diego State during their Spring Break
trip. Calvin said he wished UTEP and
Tulsa could have given Nebraska a
suffer challenge to prepare for the
California trip and Big Eight play in
April.
“We should have won those
matches, and we won them pretty
easily,” he said.
- Joe Hefnzie/Defiy leeoreeKen
Nebraska’s Steve Barley executes a return during the No. 1 singles match with GraceJand’s
Mark Matisons on Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
House of horror pitfalls have
little effect on NU tennis team
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter _
The Nebraska men’s tennis team
turned a house of horrors into home,
sweet home in dual wins over Drake
and Graceland College this week
end.
The courts inside the Bob De va
ney Sports Center, where the Com
huskers scored their victories, are
surrounded by a red mesh curtain
to catch the balls. The lighting
outside the courts is dismal, and
each shot echoes in what usually is
the indoor track. The whole effect
makes the courts look like the set
of a Vincent Price movie.
But the Huskers also happen to
practice there during the winter,
and they had no trouble defeating
Drake, 7-2, on Saturday and
Graceland, 9-0, on Sunday.
Nebraska coach Kerry McDer
mott said his team accomplished
what he wanted them to accom
Rlish in the duals, the first matches
lebraska has held in the Sports
Center in at least four years.
‘‘I was really satisfied with
Drake,” McDermott said, ‘‘espe
cially singles, going up 5-1.”
Nebraska’s Ken Feuer lost the
first completed match, 7-5,6-4, to
Doug Failla at No. 2 singles. Steve
Barley at No. 3 split the first two
sets with Marcus Mabo, 4-6,6-3,
and had to win a third-set tiebreaker
to take the match. After Barley
won, the Huskers took the next
four matches, two in three sets.
Barley spent much of his match
berating himself- muttering, slap
ping his leg, whacking the^all into
the outside nets after losing a point.
‘ ‘1 felt like I should have beaten
him worse,’ ’ he said.
Emotional outbursts aren’t
-4 4
When I force play
ers to go out ana
concentrate when
they know they
should win, it
makes them better
players in the long
run.
McDermott
men's tennis coach
-9 9
common with the Huskers, but
Barley said he uses his two-second
tantrums to release pressure. When
he tried a stoic style last year, the
junior transfer for Northeast Lou
isiana said he felt sluggish.
“Some people find it offensive,
but it works for me,’’ Barley said.
It has been working well re
cently In addition to the victory
Saturday, Barley played No 1
against Graceland as McDermott
took top players Feuer and Mat
thias Mueller out of the lineup and
moved up the rest of the players.
Barley defeated Mark Malisons,
6-3, 6-1. McDermott singled out
Barley for his play in last week
end’s HEB Invitational, too.
The coach said he doesn’t mind
the show of emotion, either, as
long as Barley yells at himself, not
his opponents, and staysaway from
profanity.
“He’s the team psycho, but he’s
a nice psycho,’’ McDermott said.
Barley said he is playing well,
though he said his inability to put
away opponents in two sets has
been annoying him lately.
“I was in situations where I felt
I had matches won, then I lost
concentration,” he said.
But, he said, he can’t complain
with the results as long as he wins,
McDermott was taking the same
stance after the matches. He said
Drake is similar to Iowa Stale, a
team which has beaten the Bull
dogs twice by 5-4 scores this sea
son. The Huskers won because of
their mental toughness, he said,
and they think they could steal a
Big Eight title if they keep improv
ing.
Graceland also gave some Husk
ers not normally in the lineup a
chance to gather some wins, and
the regular Huskers who played
had to bear down.
“ When I force players to go out
and concentrate when they know
they should win, it makes them
better players in the long run,”
McDermott said.