NU earns
By Jeff Apel
Senior Editor
Nebraska women’s swimming
coach Ray Huppert did not let a 39th
place finish at the NCAA champion
ships cast any gloom over his team’s
success.
Huppert said Nebraska had a
“phenomenally successful’’ year even
though it failed in its attempt to rec
ord a top-25 finish at the NCAA’s.
The Comhuskers tied Notre Dame for
39th-place by tallying six points this
weekend at the Texas Swim Center in
Austin, Texas.
Texas won this year’s title with
632 points, while heavily favored
Stanford finished second with 622.5.
The only other Big Eight team be
sides Nebraska to score at the meet
was Kansas, which finished 36th with
seven points.
Huppert said he was proud ol
Nebraska’s performance.
' ‘Our team did a phenomenal job,”
Huppert said. “I’m not going to tell
you I was content on scoring six points.
‘‘But to say I was disappointed
with the team, no. We had a great
year.”
Huppert said the highlight of the
meet occurred when junior Jcncll
Garcia finished 14th in the 100-yard
fly and freshman Michelle Butcher
tied for 24th in the 200 freestyle. He
said those performances were a sur
prise because the Nebraska coaching
slat! dui not consider mem m
swimmers’ best events.
Garcia tallied three of Nebraska s
points when she recorded her 14th
placc finish in the 100 fly. Butcher
tied for 24th in the 200 freestyle with
a lifetime best clocking of 1:50.75
minutes.
The Huskers remaining top per
formance was compiled by junior Amy
Aarsen, who tallied three points by
finishing 14th in the meet’s tower
diving competition. Points were
awarded on a 1-through-16 basis, with
16 given to first-place finishers.
Huppert said Nebraska knew it did
not have much of a chance to cam a
top-15 finish entering the meet be
cause it did not have any relay teams
U 1141 -J
double at the meet.
Huppert said the meet was a valu
able experience for Nebraska.
“There’s certainly a certain amount
of disappointment, but not at the kids,
he said, “because I think the people
we took down are all going to come
back next year as improved swim
mers.”
Huppert said the meet was an
exciting one, as Texas and Stanford
battled nip and tuck throughout the
three-day competition. The Lxinghorns
claimed their sixth national champi
onship in seven years by winning the
400 relay, which was the meet s final
event- , ,
Stanford’s charge was led by Janet
1988 Olympics wno sei a /am recoiu
in the 400 individual medley with a
4:07.59 clocking. She also broke her
own American record en route to
defeating Butcher in the 1,650 frees
tyle with a time of 15:39.14.
Butcher finished 19th in the 1,650
with a 16:38.35 clocking.
“That meet was probably the most
exciting NCAA I’ve watched,’’
Huppcrt said. “I thought Stanford
would win, but Texas swam better. "
Huppcrt said he docs not have much
time to recover from the NCAA’s, as
he will travel to Nashville, Tenn., to
watch the U.S. senior national cham
See NCAA on 8
« • 1. A TT T
Nr A A tournament shows weakness ot big bignt, inu
If there is one area that shows the
Nebraska men’s basketball program
needs a change in its direction, it’s the
NCAA tournament.
Throughout the year, Nebraska
coach Danny Nee masked his team’s
sub-par performance behind an ex
Jeff
Apel
cuse that the B ig Eight was the tough
est conference in the nation. He ar
gued that the Cornhuskers could have
done belter if ihcy were playing in a
weaker conference like the Missouri
Valley, which watched in horror as
conference-champion Southern Illi
nois lost to Wisconsin-Green Bay in
the first round of the National Invita
tion Tournament.
Well, Danny, the NCAA tourna
ment has shown that the Big Eight
isn’t as strong as you made it out to be
by disposing of Missouri and Kansas
Stale in the first round, and getting rid
of Oklahoma and Kansas in the sec
ond. Those losses show that the Big
Eight still is striving to establish itself
firmly in the basketball world, and
also show that a change is needed at
the helm of the Nebraska program.
Think bac k to fo ur years ago, w hen
Nee took his first team to the the
finals of the NIT. He was hailed as a
lifesaver, as he took a team that wasn't
expected to do anything to Madison
Square Garden.
Bui since ihcn, consider lhal Ne
braska Ians have had to:
• suffer through frustration with
Nebraska basketball, the most obvi
ous of which is the lack of a decent
point guard.
It is amazing that it’s going to take
Nee and his staff at least th rcc years to
realize they can’t win without a true
point guard. Nee had a point guard
during his first season in Brian Carr,
but has been operating with a bunch
of makeshift players who are playing
out of position ever since.
Even Eric Johnson, who now plays
for the National Basketball Associa
tion’s Utah Jazz, wasn’t a true point
guard. He arrived at Nebraska as an
off guard, and switched to the point
during a redshirt season so he could
follow brother Vinnie to the NBA.
• put up with Nee’s comments,
which occasionally border on ridicu
lous.
The best comment Nec ever made
occurred before Nebraska’s final
regular-season home game this year.
He was discussing his senior class of
Richard van Poelgeest and Ray
Richardson, and said he wasn’t going
to try to make either player graduate.
“I’m through trying to make people
graduate,’ ’ Nee said. ‘ ‘That’s not my
job.”
Hmmmm.
That comment seems strange con
sidering it’s coming from a coach at a
school whose chancellor, Martin
Massengale, is president of the NCAA
President’s Commission. The com
mission was formed to, among other
things, find ways to improve gradu
ation rates for student-athletes.
• continue to hear an avalanche ot
excuses after seeing one blowout af
ter another.
Setbacks against real teams like
Michigan State and Oklahoma arc
understandable, but diowoui losses iu
patsies like Northern Illinois and Miami
of Ohio are inexcusable. Perhaps the
most difficult aspect about these losses
is Nee refuses to recognize them as a
fair barometer of how little his pro
gram has progressed.
Rather than admit that Nebraska’s
program has declined since he ar
rived, Nee continues to argue that he
is rebuilding it. The only thing that is
being rebuilt at Nebraska is the rec
ord book, which continues to enter
new marks for losses.
Apparently, all of these shortcom
ings have not sunk in to Nebraska
athletic director Bob Dcvancy, who
continues to show strong support lor
Nee. Dcvancy even went so far as to
say recently that he still fell Nee was
the man to rebuild the Nebraska pro
See CHANGE on 8
Baseball team scores
four weekend wins
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
Mike Zajeski and Kevin Jordan sparked the
Nebraska baseball team to four weekend victo
ries, including 2-0 and 17-11 wins over Tarkio
College on Sunday.
Zajeski tossed a one-hit, seven-inning shut
out in the first game Sunday. He had 10 strike
outs, tying his career high, and no walks. Joe
Shapley homered in the second inning to give
Zajeski, 4-0, the only run he needed.
In the second game, Jordan went 3-for-5
with three runs scored as the 17-7 Comhuskers
used 13 hits and seven walks to rally from a 8
6 deficit. Charlie Colon, 1-1, took the second
victory.
Nebraska defeated Briar Cliff College on
Saturday, 9-5 and 7-6 (in 11 innings). Dave
Matranga won both games in relief to push his
record to 5-0.
Huskcr coach John Sanders said he was glad
to get four more games in before the Big Eight
season. The weather gradually dropped from
frosty to frozen, but the teams were able to play
the Tarkio games which had been rescheduled
from March 15.
banders said he was pleased to work some
reserves into the games. Going into extra in
nings against Briar Cliff was bad, he said, but
at least they have an 11-inning win on their
record.
That win was particularly good, he said,
because the Huskers came within one out of
losing. Nebraska was down 6-5 with two outs
and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth but
came back-to lie.
The offensive outburst on frigid Sunday,
when the ball doesn’t carry as well, didn’t
surprise Sanders cither.
‘ This team is capable of scoring,” he said.
4 ‘This team could make the temperature rise.”
For the weekend, the red-hot Jordan, a jun
ior transfer from Canada (Calif.)College, went
9-for-18 with five runs, five RBI and his fifth
home run. Jordan, who raised his average to
.376, is batting fourth for the Huskers, but said
he considers himself a line-drive hitter, not a
home-run hitter.
“I concentrate on pulling the ball in play,”
said the team’s new second baseman.
See HUSKERS on 8
taMM.Ahi ***««, 1 OCR-sponsored contest
l«ys m-d ? b “■to reward winner with
rri 1 network guest appearance
Al.„ ", CAMFUS Fron.S^FeFcns
■r “** ' a s pm MEdEATHON -
University of Nebraska-Lincoln students
who always have dreamed of seeing them
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Beta M | pm PLAYOFFS
Gratehan Boahr/Daily Nabraakan
their fantasy.
Craig Christensen, the relations director
at the Office of Campus Recreation, said his
organization is sponsoring an intramural
basketball contest which will reward the
winner with a guest appearance on the OCR
Network. The contest is being held in con
junction with the all-university basketball
playoffs, which begin tonight
Christensen said people interested in
entering the contest should predict the win
ner of each of the games listed in the tourna
ment bracket. He said people should con
tinue picking winners until they have se
lected a champion in the single-elimination
competition.
Christensen said the Office of Campus
Recreation will reward persons with one
point for each first-round game they cor
rectly pick. Two points will be awarded for
each second-round game, while third-round
matchups will be worth three points and the
championship game worth four. The person
who tallies the most total points will be
declared the winner.
in case ol a tie, Christensen said all
persons entering the contest should predict
the total number of points which will be
scored in the championship game. The per
son who comes closest to that total will be
declared the winner in the event of a dead
lock.
Entries for the contest must be received
by 5:30 p.m. today at the Office of Campus
Recreation, which is located in the Lee &
Helene Sapp Recreation Facility. All en
tries must include the student’s name, ID
number and a telephone number which they
can be reached at.
The winning student will be contacted
about making an appearance on the OCR
Network and also will be rewarded with an
intramural champion T-shirt.