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Duke breaks streak to win tournament
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Duke
ended six years of frustration with a
72-65 victory over Kansas Monday
night in the final of the NCAA men’s
basketball tournament, the Blue Devils’
first national title in five champion
ship-game appearances and nine trips
to the Final Four.
The scoring and rebounding of
Christian Laettner and the passing
and court smarts of Bobby Flurley
gave Duke (32-7) the victory one year
after a 30-point loss to UNLV in the
championship game.
It also capped a run of five Final
Four appearances since 1986, includ
ing the past four years. No school had
been to the Final Four as many times
as Duke without taking home a title.
Duke had the game in command
from halftime, when the Blue Devils
led 42-34.
After Kansas closed within 44-40,
Duke look off on a 9-3 run, the final
points coming on a dunk by Brian
Davis off an alley-oop pass by Hurley,
who had nine assists and played all 40
minutes as he had in the last three
tournament games.
The Blue Devils were able to ex
tend the lead as Kansas repeatedly
missed shots inside. The lead reached
14 points three times, the last at 65-51
with 6:10 to play, on a rebound basket
by Laettner on a missed three-pointer
by Hurley.
Laettner finished with 18 points,
including 12 on 12 free throw at
tempts, and 11 rebounds. Bill McCaf
frey had 16 points, Hurley 12 and
Grant Hill 10 for Duke.
Mark Randall had 18 points for
Kansas (27-8), Terry Brown 16 and
Adonis Jordan 11.
“We are much more mature than
the previous teams that have come
here,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve won
Um PylHk/Daily Nebraskan
a lot of games in March. It feels good
to win one in April.”
Kansas, which was making its sixth
title-game appearance and was look
ing for its third championship, made
one Final run but came up short. Duke
came through at the free throw line,
making four of four in the final 1:30.
Kansas was within 70-65 with 0:32
left, but a dunk by Davis 12 seconds
later ended any thoughts of a miracle.
When the buzzer sounded,
Krzyzewski turned to his staff and
joined in a long group hug that ended
the years of a title search.
Laettner, the tournament’s high
scorer with 125 points in the six games,
proved as tough a matchup for Kan
sas as he had for UNLV in the Bide
Devils’ semifinal revenge victory.
Duke’s defense was as intense as a
midseason game at Cameron Indoor
Stadium. Krzyzewski substituted lib
erally to help seme rubbery legs.
Defense was the key in the decid
ing run. Kansas went 7:30 with one
field goal—a tip by Richard Scott—
and two free throws.
That’s when Duke managed its
first 14-point lead, 61-47 with 8:30 to
play on two free throws by Hurley.
The Jayhawks finished 27 of 65
from the field, but it was the shots in
close and from the foul line that made
the difference.
Kansas missed nine layups and
was 4 of 16 from one to nine feet.
Duke had no trouble with the most
wide-open 15-footer—the Blue Devils
were 20 of 28 from the free throw
line, compared with Kansas’ 4 of 8.
McCaffrey, who had five points
against UNLV, finished with 16 on 6
of 8 shooting.
Duke had reached the Final Four
the last four times through the East
See DUKE on 12
Nee tries to keep
connection alive
By Todd Cooper
Staff Reporter
Nebraska men’s basketball coach
Danny Nee apparently is busy trying
to keep his Maywood, 111., connec
tion alive.
Sherrel Ford, a 6-foot, 7-inch, 195
pound forward from Proviso East High
School in Maywood, is being recruited
by Nebraska and five other colleges,
according to his high school coach,
Bill Hiu.
Selected Illinois’ player of the year
by the Chicago Sun-Times, he also is
considering Southern Cal, Northern
Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Southern Il
linois and Northern Iowa.
Should Ford choose Nebraska, he’ll
be the third recruit from Maywood in
Nee’s career, joining Clifford Scales
and Carl Hayes.
“He is a great scorer, great shooter
and he’s got great hands," Hitt said.
Ford averaged 22.5 points and eight
rebounds per game on 64-percent field
goal shooting while leading Proviso
East, 32-1, to the Illinois state cham
pionship. He also shot 41 percent
from beyond the three-point line.
Hitt said Ford could fit into any
style of play.
“He really is just a pure shooter.
So he’ll make a great up-tempo or
slow-tcmpo player,” he said.
Ford will bring more than scoring
to die school he chooses, Hilt said.
“One of Sherrcl’s greatest assets is
he’s very coachablc and he’s a pretty
dedicated young man,” Hiu said. “He’s
a person that’s fortunate to be a bas
ketball player because that will give
him a chance academically.”
Ford, who’s in the special educa
tion program at Proviso East, won’t
meet Prop48 requirements, Hitt said.
“But he’s told me that he doesn’t
want to go to a (junior college),” Hitt
said. “Nebraska has indicated that
they have a special needs program
- II
(Ford) is a great scorer,
great shooter and he’s
got great hands.
Hitt
high school coach
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and that he would be accepted.”
Ford would have gone to Illinois
but he didn’t meet the school’s aca
demic requirements, Hitt said.
“It’ll be like weighing apples and
oranges when he decides,” Hitt said.
“Certainly, Nebraska would be the
highest level he could play, but that
doesn’t necessarily make his deci
sion. He’ll have to pick what’s com
fortable for him and that may mean
he’ll stay closer to home with the
schools in Illinois."
Hitt said Ford is comparable to
Hayes, at least to a certain extent.
“From what I saw of Carl when he
was a senior, I’d say Carl may have
been a little bit better defender and
rebounder but Sherrel is just a flat-out
better shooter than Carl,” Hitt said.
Ford’s only weakness is moving
without the ball, Hitt said. But that
may have resulted from his team’s
dominance, he said.
“I think we were ranked sixth in
the USA Today’s final national rank
ing with three all-state players,” Hitt
said. “We were very good and it was
hard for opposing teams to defend all
three of them.
“He didn’t have to work really
hard to get the ball.”
His two star teammates also are
Division I caliber. Forward Donnie
Boyce has orally committed to Colo
rado and point guard Michael Finley
has committed to Wisconsin.
Hitt said Ford will start making his
recruiting trips next week.
CBS clowns ruin tournament
As I watched the NCAA Tour
nament’s final game last night, I
was in an especially cheery mood.
There were two reasons for my
delight: One, that UNLV had been
beaten by Duke on Saturday and
was not playing, and two — and
more importantly — that I had the
sound or. my television turned down
to avoid the moronic commentary
by CBS’ announcers.
Watching the game in silence
was a lot more fun than listening to
the CBS clowns second-guess
coaches in their annoying, conde
scending tones.
For some reason, CBS officials
seem to track down the most an
noying sports broadcasters they can
find and sign them to S12 billion,
Chuck
Green
20-year contracts to plague the sports
world for the next generation or so.
Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, Pat
Somerall and Brent Musberger are
a few of the past scourges to take to
the CBS airways. All three had
annoying broadcasting mannerisms
that made them comparable to
bamboo shoots under the eyelid.
But all three have mercifully
gone bye-bye. Unfortunately, the
next generation is here to stay.
The last two NCAA men’s bas
ketball tournaments have been
ruined by these jokers, at least for
me.
Last season, Musberger was the
top play-by-play man at CBS. Just
before the tournament started,
Loyola Marymount's Hank Gath
ers collapsed during a ganatf and
died later that night, becdwe of
heart problems.
Without a doubt, it was one of
the saddest things to happen to the
sports world in several years, and
the stOiy of Gathers’ LMU team
mates dedicating their tournament
play to their fallen comrade was
touching indeed.
See CBS on 12
Nebraska vs. Creighton
Huskers hoping to change luck
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
Nebraska’s softball team will be
history-wary against Creighton tonight.
The Comhuskcrs, just returning
from a California road trip, will travel
to Omaha to play a doublcheader
against the Lady Jays, a team which
has bedeviled them in the past.
Creighton has won five of the past
seven meetings between the schools,
including a sweep over Nebraska in
Omaha last season.
That fact is not lost on Husker
coach Ron Wolforth.
“There have been limes when we
have gone up there thinking we were
the better team,” Wolforth said. “And
still we’ve come out with two losses.”
Wolforth, whose Huskcrs arc 9-7,
said Creighton pegs Nebraska as its
“designated rival.”
“They ’re going to step it up for us,
there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“The coaches and players might not
say it outright, but it’s pretty obvious
we’re the team they want to beat
most.’’
The Nebraska-Creighton series is
good for not only his players, but
softball in the slate overall, Wolforth
said.
“Some of my younger players that
haven’t lived here for a long time
might not know about the rivalry as
much,” Wolforth said. “But it’s a
good rivalry. I enjoy playing
Creighton.”
Nebraska went 4-5 during its Cali
fornia swing, losing in the champion
ship bracket of the Bud Light Invita
tional to Missouri and Michigan. In
the Huskers’ last outing Saturday,
they split a douhlchcadcr with San
Jose State.
Wolforth said he saw' improve
ment from his team in some aspects,
but added that he saw backsliding in
others.
“We’re a belter team now than
when we left/’ he said. “But we’ve
still got a lot to do to achieve our main
goal — and that is to be Big Eight
champions.”
The main problem, Wolforth said,
is getting his players to get hits with
runners on base.
"It seems we have base runners
galore," Wolforth said. “But we don’t
get the key hit.”
Wolforth said outfielders Kristin
Davidson and Misti Guenther played
wcil on the trip. Guenther leads the
team with a .330 balling average and
Davidson has raised her average to
.280. *
Senior pitcher Stephanie Skcgas,
who pitched 15 innings in one day
against San Jose State, also drew praise
from her coach. Skcgas is 6-2 with a
0.40 earned run average.
" Stephanie is very close to being
8-0 Wolforth said. "Shegotacouple
bad breaks in earlier games, but she’s
been doing exactly what we’ve ex
pected from her up to this point in the
season.”