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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1990)
Sports Offensive styles differ in intramural final Jeff Apel Senior Reporter Tonight’s all-university intramu ral basketball tournament final will resemble the fable about the tortoise vs. the hare. The A Team will meet Beta Theta Pi A-l in the championship game, which begins at 6 pm. in the Lee & Helene Sapp Recreation Facility. Brian Sattem, captain of the Beta team, said the game will be an inter esting one because it matches his team’s slow-paced, half-court offense against a quick attack that is described by A Team captain Reggie McGaugh as “disciplined punishment.” All University of Nebraska-Lin coln students who present their stu dent ID cards at the door will be admitted free. Sattem said the No. 7-ranked Be tas have used a slow paced tempo lo their advantage, as they opened their year winning the preseason intramu ral tournament and then rolled to a 10-2 record. One of Beta A- l’s losses was to Bela A-2, which claimed the regular-season fraternity A champi onship. “We’ve been playing slow the whole year,” Sattem said. “The A Team is quick, but we think we can pretty much handle anybody.” Sattem said the Betas are not in awe of the A Team, which finished the regular season ranked No. 4 with an identical 10-2 record. One of the A Team’s losses was by forfeit, and the other occurred against the Running Reptiles in the finals of the independ ent A championships. The Running Reptiles finished the regular season ranked No. 1, but were upset in the tournament. Saltern said the Betas are entering tonight’s contest with a lot of confi dence. “If we play like we usually play, we can come out on top,’’ he said. McGaugh said the Betas will have to handle the A Team’s pressure de fense if they are going to claim the title. He said the A Team pressures opponents defensively, hoping to create an up-tempo game. McGaugh said the press is well controlled and disciplined. He said expects the Betas to try and slow the tempo down. ‘ ‘Almost all the teams we’ve played this season have tried to slow it down,” McGaugh said. McGaugh said the loss to the Running Reptiles has been beneficial to his team. “It made some of our guys realize they needed to do more,” he said. “It made everyone give more of a com mitment and made everybody more focused. “It made us start doing things we weren’t doing in the past.” David Hansan/Daity Nebraskan Nebraska l-back Terry Rodgers eyes a pitch-out Monday during the first day of spring practice at Ed Weir Field. Comhusker football team kicks off spring practice By Paul Domeier Senior Reporter _ March was a nice break, Tom Osborne said, but it’s nice to get back to football. The Nebraska head football coach pul his team through the first of 20 spring practice sessions Monday. The Comhuskers used the opening day as one of the five days they must work without pads. Osborne said his players will scrimmage Wednesday and Saturday. He said he has been relaxing, compared to his fall schedule, since recruiting ended in February. Now it’s back to the practice field. “We just got organized today,” he said. “We’ll get the pads out tomorrow and find out more about them.” Finding out means figuring out who will play for the Huskers next fall. Osborne pinpointed the areas of emphasis for the spring of 1990. “Offensively, I can’t remember a spring when we had only two starters reluming,” he said. “Defensively, we need to stabilize the defensive line.” Instead of starting in Memorial Stadium, the Huskers practiced on the grass in the track infield and javelin area. “We’d like to come out here more,” Osborne said. “It gives us more room to throw the ball.” Ah, yes, throwing the ball. Neither of the returning starters on offense plays quarter back, and Mickey Joseph and Mike urant are sharing first-leam status in the high profile fight to replace quarterback Gerry Gdowski. Osborne repeated Grant’s and Joseph’s different strengths: Joseph’s speed and quick ness, Grant’s size and throwing ability. And second-teamers Tom Haase and Jerry Dun lap are also contending. “Tom Haase is coming along well,” Osborne said. ‘ ‘ At the end of last season we thought he was turning into a pretty good quarterback.” Decisions won’t be final until 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 1, when the Huskers open the 1990 season at home against Baylor (officially moved from Sept. 15 to be televised by ESPN), and Osborne said he likes the re laxed pace of spring ball, when the coaches can take more time with each player. ' The first day of workouts had the normal assortment of absentees, too. Osborne said William Washington missed because of a pulled hamstring, SteveCarmer missed with a bruised heel and Terry Rodgers left early with a pulled groin. Lance Lewis, coming off a redshirt season to recover from a pinched nerve in his neck, did not participate in drills. 4 4I don’t think they’re going to let him do much this spring,” Osborne said. Keilhen McCanl and Tyrone Hughes are out with academic problc as, he said, and four or five others are out for a week for disciplinary reasons. NU softball coach anxious to showcase team’s speed By Darran Fowler Staff Reporter Twenty-four games and 60 stolen bases into the spring season, Nebraska’s softball team finally is bringing its high-speed act home. In the season’s home-opener, the 13-11 Comhuskers will play Wisconsin-Green Bay today in a doubleheader at the Nebraska Soft ball Complex. The first game starts at 3 p.m. Nebraska coach Ron Wolforth said the games finally will give him the opportunity to show case his team’s speed to the home fans. “We’re 13-11, and that in itself is not too exciting,’’ Wolforth said. “But I think we do play an exciting brand of softball. 1 have a fun time coaching the bases with this bunch.’’ Wolforth, who is in his fourth season at Nebraska, said utilizing team speed fits his coaching style and the type of players he re cruits. That style has the Huskers on course to fulfilling their goal of 100 stolen bases this season. “We’ve been giving teams a lot of prob lems this year, and I’m encouraged by that,’’ Wolforth said. “Against the best people, we’ve been able to push across runs, and that’s impor tant.” The school record for stolen bases is 86, and was set last year in 60 games. “We create opportunities for our offense with aggressive play and I think you’re going to see that (today),” Wolforth said. “We do puta lot of pressure on people.” He said the Huskers could place further pressure on opponents by improving their hit ting. “Our hitting is starting to look better,” he said. “It’s slowly coming around but our de fense has not followed suit We’ve been kick ing the ball around too much lately.” The Huskers have showed their potential this season in victories over ranked Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Conversely, Wolforth said, against teams Nebraska should beat, youth and inconsistency has emerged. Wolforth said he does not want a repeat of that against Wisconsin-Green Bay. “I hope the players don’t take this team lightly,becausel’m not,”hesaid. “Weshould beat those people. “But we have lost to some teams this year that we shouldn’t have.” Track teams warm up to Florida By Sara Bauder Staff Reporter The Nebraska track teams got their outdoor season off to a good start in some good weather, winning four events during the Florida Relays. Twenty-one Comhuskers made the trip to Gainesville, Fla., for the March 30-31 relays. Nebraska assistant coach Dave Harris said many of them ran personal best limes or came close to it. No team scores were kept at the meet. Harris said the meet was important because it allowed the Huskers to start off the season in warm weather. “With the weather like it is up here, you can never be guaranteed a good day,” Harris said. “By going south, we can be sure of a little better weather.’* Warm weather helps almost all track ath letes perform better, Harris said, with the ex ception of distance runners who can have trouble adjusting if the weather is too hot. The performance of Dieudonnc Kwizera, who is just recovering from an injury, was a pleasant surprise for Harris. Kwizera won the 1,500-meter run in 3:44.64 minutes. Harris said he also ran a strong anchor leg of the sprint relay. “We know he is capable of running those kinds of limes, but because of his injury I was not really expecting it,” he said. The Huskcrs had to scratch their 1,600 relay team because of a foot injury to Tamas Molnar, Harris said. He said the coaches did not want to take any chances by running Molnar when he was hurt. Heidi Helm won the shotput with a throw of 45-feet-10 3/4, and placed fifth in the discus. Sprinter Kim Walker finished second in the 200-meter dash with a lime of 23.75 seconds and fourth in 100 dash. In addition, high jumper Meredy Porter finished fourth with a jump of 5 10. In the men’s competition, Jeff Hooper won the discus with a throw of 183-9 and finished fifth in the shotput. Kevin Coleman placed second in the shot at 57-5 3/4 and fifth in the discus at 171-11. Harald Graham won the 5,000-meter stee plechase in 8:51.72. The men’s 800 relay of JamcsCobb, Mark Perry, BobJclksand Molnar took second place in 1:24.16. Stephen Golding was fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.62, Anthony Adkison was sixth in the 100 dash in 10.87, Jacques van Rcnsburg was third in the 1,500 run in 3:45.81 and the 400 relay team (Adkison, Jelks, Cobb and Perry) was fifth in 40.21. Women’s golf team wins Hawkeye Invitational The Nebraska women’s golf learn won the Hawkeye Invitational last weekend at Rio Rico, Ariz., by finishing with a 925 team total. The Cornhuskers were led by Susan Dougherty, who placed third in the individual standings with a 227 total. Teammate Joanne Brooks finished fourth with a 229 total, while Ann Guiberson was fifth with a 230 total. Minnesota finished second in the team standings with a 951 mark, followed by Iowa, Missouri, Washington State, Iowa State, Pepperdinc, Michigan and California State Long Beach. NU baseball team competes in doubleheader today The Nebraska baseball team will face Northern Iowa in a pair of games today at Buck Beltzer Field. The Cornhuskers, 20-10, opened their Big Eight season by splitting a four-game series against Kansas last weekend. The doubleheader against Northern Iowa, which is free to all University of Nebraska Lincoln students who present their student ID cards, begins at 4 P-nt. _^_