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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1992)
NelSaskan Friday, March 13,1992 • . ... ___ __ Huskers face Sooners in opening game AlSchaten/DN Nebraska’s Jamar Johnson fights two Kansas State players for a rebound during the Corn huskers’ 91-62 win against the Wildcats on March 4 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Johnson and his teammates will begin Big Eight tournament play today against Oklahoma. By Thomas Clouse Senior Editor Repeal in reverse. The Oklahoma men’s basketball team will attempt to do today what the Comhuskers did to it last year — win all three of the season’s games. Nebraska Coach Danny Nee said that the Huskcrs should have the advantage going into the opening round of the Big Eight Tournament against the fourth-seeded, 24th-rankcd Soon ers. “I think the team that has the two losses has the emotional and psycho logical edge,” he said. “But that goes out the window after the first 10 minutes because you still have to execute and play.” Nebraska lost Saturday’s game 1 Ob 97 to the Sooners at Norman. The Huskcrs also lost the first game, in Lincoln, 79-76. The loss dropped Nebraska to 19 8 overall and 7-7 in the Big Eight. Oklahoma is 20-7 overall and 8-6 in the conference. Nee said the key was Oklahoma’s ability to run the floor, which cost Nebraska 38 points in the last matchup. “Their quickness really bothers us,” he said. “We have to play better tran sition defense.” Nee said the game between Ne braska and Oklahoma demonstrated how far Big Eight basketball had come in recent years. Before last Saturday’s game in Norman,Okla., both teams knew they would meet again in the Big Eight tournament, but both teams played with high intensity throughout the game, Nee said. “Big Eight basketball has reached the level that no team is just going to come out and play,” he said. “Okla homa and Nebraska have a lot of pride. This is a great rivalry, and it was a really good game both ways. We wanted to win, but they wanted to win more.” Nebraska guard Jamar Johnson, who scored 21 points in the game, said Nebraska’s effort against Okla homa today would be just as intense. “We’re going to play hard, and we’re going to keep knocking on that door,” he said. “We just put it all out there (last Saturday night). I think we enjoyed that style. This was Nebraska basketball at its best.” On Tuesday, Iowa State Coach Johnny Orr and Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs both agreed that the Big Eight tournament was a poor way to try to get more conference teams into the NCAAs. Their argument was that for a team like 19-11 Iowa Stale, which is an uncertain selection for the NCAA’s See SOONERSon8 NU vs. Oklahoma Fri. Mar. 13, 12:08 p.m. Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Mo dc kin onvnoun NU track coach says teams to exceed expectations of experts at magazine By John Gardner Staff Reporter A panel of track and field ex perts at Track Wire Magazine isn’t giving Nebraska much respect going into this weekend’s NCAA Cham pionships, but Comhuskcr coach Gary Pepin said he thought his teams would throw it a surprise or two. According to the magazine, the Huskcrs have a slim chanccof win ning the meet, but Pepin said he wasn’t worried about its predic tions. “In the Midwest, teams tradi tionally get very little recognition,” Pepin said. “We aren’t picked to do much this year, but I think we can do considerably better than what people think. “In fact, we always do better than they expect us to. The prob lem is, there is very poor publicity in this area about track and field.” The two-day event will be to day and Saturday at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Ind. In all, Nebraska will send 19 athletes to the meet — eight women and 11 men. Both the men’s and women’s tcamsarc coming off Big Eight victories last weekend. It was ihc 13th-straight indoor title for the women, and the fourth in the Iasi seven years for the men. Leading the way for the men is Kevin Coleman, whose shot-put effort leads the country this sea son . Coleman ’s toss of 65 feet, 3 1 / 2 inches at the conference meet puts him in position to win the NCAA title. But, according to Track Wire Magazine, a second-place finish forColcman is all thatcanbc expected. Pepin disagrees. “I think Kevin can do better than that,” he said. ‘‘I really feel he can win this meet. I’m sure the guy they have picked to win it thinks he can, too.” Stephen Golding returns to the “show” in the 55-meter hurdles as the Big Eight Champion once more. Golding’s lop mark of the season is 7.26 seconds, and is picked to fin ish fourth. ‘‘Stephen has been there before, and I believe he’ll do a good job,” Pepin said. Petar Malescv,a freshman from Y ugoslavia, posted a personal-best mark of 7-2 1/2 in the high jump at the conference meet to qualify for nationals. Malescv is nursing a sore F ankle. Earlier this season, he said that he could jump much higher than he had so far. The 1,6(X) and 3,2(X) relay teams also qualified. In the 1,600 relay, All-American sprinter Tamas Molnar had to be replaced by .Travis Grant, but it seems to have been for the better. At the conference meet, Nebraska ran a 3:09.86 with Molnar in the lineup. Last weekend at the Last Chance meet at Iowa State, the relay team ran a school-record 3:07.64 with Grant. Mark Jackson, a three-time member of Nebraska’s outdoor All American 1,600 relay team, will join Grant, Patrick Trainor and Ken Waller this time out. In the 3,200 relay, a team con sisting of Renier Henning, Kevin Miller, Kirk Petitand Jeremy Skin ner ran a school-record time of 7:21.66 at the Last Chance meet to get in. On the women’s side, Pepin said, Nebraska definitely wasn’t getting very much respect. The Husker women arc only expected to finish in a lie for 14th place. “That could very well happen,” Pepin said. “But with the quality See TRACK on 8 Coach says NU psyched for meet against UCLA By Chuck Green Senior Reporter Traditionally, preparing his gym nasts for meets against UCLA has never been a problem for Nebraska men’s gymnastics coach Francis Al len. When the top-ranked Cornhuskcrs travel to Los Angeles to meet the Bruins on Saturday, Allen expects intensity — from his team, not from UCLA. UCLA won NCAA team titles in 1984 and 1987, and has finished in the country's lop 10 the last 12 sea sons. The Bruins placed third at last year’s NCAA championships. UCLA currently is ranked 10th. The Bruins have been slowed all season by injuries to top performers. Before the season began, UCLA’s roster looked to be one of the best Coach Art Shurlock had ever fielded. But injuries to five-time All American Scott Keswick and USA Championships runner-up Chancy Humphrey have lowered both UCLA’s ranking and the Bruins’ chance of qualifying for the NCAA team cham pionships in April. Allen said this injury-riddled UCLA team wasn’t what it used to be. “Without Chancy, they’re in trouble,” he said. “At the beginning of the season, we thought this would be one of those classic UCLA-Nc braska clashes that have been so good over the last several years. But you never count on injuries.” In addition to UCLA, Nebraska will faccCal-Santa Barbara and Army at the meet, which will be at 9 p.m. . CST at the John Wooden Center on the UCLA campus. Cal-Sania Barbara returns 11 letter men from last year’s team, which finished the season ranked in the lop 20 for only the second time in the program’s history. Army, which earned a 6-10 record last year, lost its top three gymnasts from last season. The Cadets finished 28th last season. Without Keswick in UCLA’s lineup, Nebraska’s Dennis Harrison should have a relatively easy lime winning the all-around competition. Harrison turned in the best day of his two-year career at Nebraska last week in a triangular meet with New Mexico and Washington’s club team, posting a 58.50 all-around score. The score was just .05 short of the school record set by Jim Hartung in 1981. The Huskers won last weekend’s triangular with a season-best team ■score of 286.20, blowing past New See GYM on 8