Sports c mini »aiwn nrw - 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 -1» - 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.”