Beck: Shot at second place
will keep Huskers fighting
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska women ’ s basketbal 1
team may have two games left, but its
season is over.
Oklahoma State clinched the Big
Eight regular-season title last week.
The Comhuskers can finish second at
best.
But the Huskers, who will play
Missouri tonight, have not quit, Coach
Angela Beck said.
“Second place is consolation, but
it is better than seventh,” she said.
“We’re comfortable with the position
we’re in, and we have something to
prove.”
Nebraska still has something to
gain in the 7:30 p.m. game at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
The Huskers, 16-9 and 7-5, could
secure a better seed in the Big Eight
tournament with wins in their last two
games. Seedings are taken from the
final conference rankings.
They are also on the bubble for a
possible at-large berth in the 48-team
NCAA tournament, Beck said.
“Each win puts us closer to a lot of
things,” she said.
Nebraska stayed close with a win
Saturday. The Huskers avenged the
home loss in their Big Eight opener
by beating Kansas State 79-69 in*
Manhattan, Kan.
Beck said winning the game gave
the team an emotional boost as it
heads into the final games.
“Spirits are a lot higher,” she said.
“It gives us a little momentum.”
The Huskers had been dragging
See BECK on 8
Basketball standings:
Oklahoma State 10-2 21 -4
Nebraska 7-5 16-9
Colorado 7-5 16-9
Kansas State 7-5 14-9
Kansas 6-6 15-9
Iowa State 6-6 11-13
Oklahoma 3-9 9-17
Missouri 2-10 9-16
Wrestlers lack focus
for duel, coach says
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Although Nebraska’s wrestling
team is competing in its last dual of
the season tonight, Comhusker
coach Tim Neumann knows the
real season has just begun.
The Huskers, 10-6 and ranked
seventh in the country, will take on
Drake at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center at 7:30 p.m. in their final
tuneup before the Big Eight cham
pionships March 3 in Columbia,
Mo.
Neumann said he, the other
coaches and the team would just as
soon forget about tonight’s dual.
“We’re not really focused on
this dual,” he said. “But I’m not too
worried. In the past, we’ve always
wrestled Drake in the last dual of
the season, on a Wednesday two
weeks before Big Eights. The older
guys on the team know what they
have to do, and how to do it.
“Plus, they don’t want to have a
bad performance in their last home
appearance of the year.”
Neumann said that for the first
time this season, he and his staff
aren’t having trouble motivating
the wrestlers.
“There have been so many inju
ries that it’s made it tough,” Neu
mann said, “and there are so many
seniors on the team, which also
makes it harder, because they know
that the only part of the season that
really matters is right now.
“But at this point, everyone
knows what they need to do.”
What the Huskers need to do
See DRAKE on 8
Card show
features
Chiefs star
By David Moyer
Staff Reporter
Christian Okoye, punishing
running back for the Kansas City
Chiefs, said he would have
continued his efforts in the non
contact world of track and field
if he hadn’t decided to play
football.
“If I wasn’t playing today, I
would probably be coaching
somewhere,” he said. “Or I would
be in the Olympics. That was
my dream before I started foot
ball.”
That choice led the “Nige
rian Nightmare” to signing auto
graphs and talking with fans at
the Sports Card Show V in the
Nebraska Union on Saturday.
“I enjoy doing it, especially
because I get paid for it,” he
said, laughing. “No, actually it
gives me the opportunity to meet
a lot of people and talk to them.”
V^KUye UCldlllC it pupuuu
drawing card in 1989 when he
led the NFL in yards rushing.
He said he spends most of his
off-season time speaking to
Fellowship of Christian Athletes
and church groups — so many
engagements that they are im
possible to count.
He has kept this busy sched
ule even though he spent most
of the 1990 season splitting time
with Barry Word, and some time
injured.
“Things are still about the
same,” Okoye said. "The only
difference is I didn’t win some
of the awards like I did before.”
But he said he’ll be back in
1991.
“It’s always a vision of a
running back to win a rushing
title eve|7 year.”
Despite Okoye’s successful
career, he didn’t play football
until college.
Bom and raised in Nigeria,
Okoye came to the United States
on a track scholarship at Azusa
Pacific University in Califor
nia. It was there that he discov
ered the game of football and
decided he could play, too.
“Nobody really introduced
me to football, I just kind of
decided to try it out,” he said.
After a college career with
out much notoriety, the Chiefs
decided to take a chance on his
size and drafted him. His run
See OKOYE on 8
_*
Huskers to challenge a tougher
Michelle Paulman/Daily Nebraskan
Nebraska’s Tony Farmer almost lets the ball get away In the ggme that almost got away, Ne
braska’s 82-73 comeback victory over Northern Illinois on Monday.
Tiger team
By David Moyer
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska men’s basketball
team will face a tougher Missouri
team tonight with the return of Tiger
guard Anthony Peeler.
The Tigers, 13-9 overall and 5-5
in the Big Eight, are 10-3 with Peeler,
3-6 without him.
In a Jan. 30 meeting in Lincoln,
Peeler was out with a knee injury as
the Comhuskers, 22-4 and 7-3 and
i ranked 14th, defeated the Tigers, 89
75.
Peeler is averaging 18.9 points and
6.3 rebounds per game, and Nebraska
coach Danny Nee said he thinks he
makes a difference.
“With Peeler in the lineup, he is a
very important part of their game
plan—offensively and defensively,”
he said. “We don’t have anyone who
can match up with him.”
Nee referred to the fact Peeler can
play so many different positions.
“If he plays small forward, he has
the quickness and explosiveness, and
if he plays guard, he has the power at
the guard spot,” Nee said. “He is a
very fine player.”
iviioMJui i aisu piaycu wnai mec soju
was an uncharacteristic zone defense
in their last meeting, sagging on the
Huskers’ inside people the entire game.
The defense allowed Eric Piatkowski
to score 22 points with six three-point
goals while holding center Rich King,
who scored 40 points against North
ern Illinois on Monday, to one point.
Nee said that just shows how
Nebraska can win several different
ways. The Huskers showed they could
come back to win against Northern
Illinois, rallying from as many as 10
points down to win 82-73.
Nee said with Peeler back, tonight’s
game will be more wide open and
higher scoring than the previous
Husker-Tiger clash, although he said
he couldn’t predict how the game
would be decided.
“How the game unravels you don ’ t
have control over,” Nee said. “These
spurts happen and how they happen .
.. It could be a turnover, it could be
defense, it could bean outside shot —
boom, boom, boom, it just happens
that way.”
Nee said playing on the road
wouldn’t be too much of a factor,
although the Huskers are going into
what he calls one of the three toughest
Big Eight areas in which to play.
But he said the Huskers are going
in with the attitude that they can win
and that finishing the season well is
important.
Nebraska will play Kansas Stale,
Oklahoma State and Kansas to end
the regular season.
“The next two weeks arc critical to
keep our winning ways," Nee said.
Nebraska will play Missouri 7 p.m.
tonight at the Heamcs Center in Co
lumbia, Mo.