Nebmyskan SPORTS
Lindland stunned
with early upset;
Huskers in third
By i im rearson
Staff Reporter
AMES, Iowa—Matt Lindland sat
outside with his wife and baby in the
Hilton Coliseum concourse, knowing
his hopes for a national title had gone
up in smoke.
Lindland, ranked No. 1 in the coun
try at 158 pounds, was hoping to
become the first Nebraska wrestler
ever to go an entire season without a
loss.
Those hopes were also gone.
At the NCAA Wrestling Champi
onships Thursday, Lindland’s hopes
were stopped in the first round. He
was upset by unseeded Earl Walker of
Boston University 134.
The upset surprised Lindland and
almost everyone in the crowd of al
most 11,000 fans.
“It was very disappointing,”
Lindland said. “It sort of puts a damper
on my whole season.”
Lindland said he hoped people
would remember him for what he did
during the season rather than judge
his performance at the NCAA meet.
“Most people probably will just
look at how I did in the tournament
and not how I did in the regular sea
son,” he said.
Lindland’s loss hurt the Nebraska
wrestling team ’ s scoring chances, with
the Comhuskers standing third be
hind Iowa and Penn State after first
and second-round competition.
In the first-round matches held
Thursday afternoon, the Huskers ad
vanced seven of their 10 wrestlers to
the second round and five of those to
Friday’s quarterfinals.
Senior Tony Purler, the No. 2 seed
at 126, recorded two technical falls in
his two victories to advance.
Sophomore Mike Eierman ad
vanced to the quarterfinals with two
wins, including a 3-2 upset of No. 6
seed Steve Marianetti of Illinois.
After losing their matches at the
Big Eight championships, Huskers
Corey Olson, Ovanes Oganisian and
Rulon Gardner all advanced to the
quarterfinals.
At 118, senior John Buxton won
his first-round match against Gary
Baker of Pennsylvania 10-2. But
Buxton was stopped by eighth-seeded
David Land of Maryland in the sec
ond round 6-2.
Junior Frank Velazquez, coming
off a Big Eight title at 134 pounds,
won his first-round match but was
stopped by Arizona State All-Ameri
can Marco Sanchez in a 9-7 decision
in the second round.
Lindland said the Huskers still had
a shot at winning the team title despite
his loss.
“We’re still in it,” he said. “We
need to get three or four guys in the
finals to have a shot.”
Huskers heading west
to win national respect
By Beau Finley
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska women’s basketball
team is preparing to show the country
Sunday something it has known all
season: that it can plav with anybody.
The Comhuskers left early Friday
for Los Angeles and a date to play
Southern California on Sunday in the
second round of the NCAA tourna
ment.
Husker coach Angela Beck said
although her team had a 23-7 record,
it had not gotten the notice it de
served.
“We’re still a mystery to a lot of
people,” Beck said. “The West Coast
gets all the attention. They have all
the glitz and glamour.”
The Huskers, fresh off their 81-58
victory overSan Diego Wednesday in
the tournament’s first round, are hop
ing to continue their winning ways.
Beck said much of the team’s suc
cess came from its confidence.
“I didn’t think we would body
slam (San Diego) so bad,” Beck said.
“They bel ieved that they could hop on
them hard, and they did.”
The Women of Troy lost only one
game—that with Arizona State—at
home this season. Nebraska defeatbtj
the Sun Devils 86-79 in the opening
game of the season.
Beck said USC was talented in
many respects but that the momentum
for the game was in the Huskers’
favor.
“They’re not playing their best
basketball right now,” Beck said. “I
don’tthink they’re clicking, and their
confidence level isn’t where it should
be.”
Basketball for Southern California
means junior sensation Lisa Leslie.
The 6-foot-5 forward averaged 20
points and 10 rebounds per game this
year and led her team to its ninth
appearance in the tournament.
Nebraska guard Meggan Yedsena
said that although Leslie was a force,
Southern California had little else to
depend on.
“They’ve got Lisa Leslie but not
much outside shooting; and in that
way, I think they are very one-dimen
sional,” Yedsena said.
Beck said she was not as con
cerned about the game as she was
aboutplaying on the USC homecourt.
The Huskers have lost both games
they have played against the Women
of Troy in California, including an
100-82 loss in 1987 in the first round
of the NCAA tournament.
Beck said that although her team
had never won in California, they
would be motivated to win.
“The fact that this team hasn’t
done it before only inspires them,”
Beck said. “I walked into the team
meeting and didn ’t say much, showed
them tne films (of USC) and said,
‘You tell me?’ And they said, ‘We can
beat them, coach.”’
Men gymnasts to compete
for automatic NCAA berth
From Staff Roports
The Nebraska’s men’s gymnastics
squad is competing for an automatic
berth into the NCAA finals this week
end.
The Huskers will travel to Norman,
Okla., on Friday and Saturday for the
Big Eight Championships, with the
winner receiving an at-large berth in
nextmonth’s NCAA Championships.
“The conference means a lot to us
and a lot to NCAA,” Nebraska coach
Francis Allen said. “You can just
expect our champion to be in the
finals.
“We just hope we will be that
team.”
Allen said his team, the favorite in
the three-team meet, can use last
week’s school-record score of 288,
scored against New Mexico, for mo
mentum.
“We are expected to run away,”
Allen said. “We can use the New
Mexico meet as a lever.” L
Robin Trimarchi/DN
Nebraska’s Erick Strickland drives past Kansas State’s Askia Jones In the Big Eight
Tournament.
Team seeks trailblazing
win in NCAA tourney
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter
Nebraska's men’s basketball
team has made school history by
receiving its third-straight bid to
the NCAA Tournament.
But the Comhuskers want to
add a new chapter to the history
books by winning their first-ever
game in the tourney.
Nebraska will get its chance to
end its NCAA tourney blues against
New Mexico State at 6:37 p.m.
(CST) l°day at the Carrier Dome in
Syracuse, N.Y. The game will be
televised live by CBS.
The Huskers are 0-3 in NCAA
tourney play and have suffered first
round losses the past two years —
to Xavier (Ohio) and Connecticut,
respectively.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said
a win over the Aggies would be
monumental.
“It would really be another giant
accomplishment for the program
of something that we haven’t done
before,” Nee said. “And it’s the
next logical step if we’re going to
ke< ' nproving.”
Huskers, who received the
No. 10 seed in the East Regional
after finishing their season with a
20-10 record, will take on the Big
West Conference’s regular-season
champions in New Mexico Stale,
who finished the year with a 25-7
overall mark and earned the East’s
seventh seed.
Nee said if Nebraska was going
to register a win tonight, it would
need to control Aggie point guard
Sam Crawford.
Crawford, a senior, was named
an honorable mention All-Ameri
can this season while leading New
Mexico State to its fourth-straight
trip to the NCAA tourney.
But Nee said the Huskers wcrcn ’ t
going to concern themselves with
Crawford and the Aggies.
“The things that got you to the
dance, you stay with,” he said.
“We’re not overly focused on New
Mexico State. Everything that
we’re going to do, we’ve done be
fore; we just have to do it at a very
high level.”
Nebraska is coming off a 47-45
loss to Kansas State in the first
round of last week ’ s Big Eight tour
nament.
Several Nebraska players said
the Huskers should be able to put
the Wildcat loss behind them.
“We’re going to come together
like we never have before and just
lay it on the line,” Nebraska guard
Andre Woolridge said.
Fellow Huskcr guard Jamar
Johnson agreed.
“When we go out and we just
play and we play together, I think
we’re a good basketball team/’
Johnson said. “I think the sky’s the
limit for this team.”
Aggie coach savs NU, NMSU alike
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
Although New Mexico State
basketball coach Neil McCarthy
has not seen much Nebraska bas
ketball, he is very familiar with the
Comhuskers’ style of pLay.
The Huskers’ offense is very
similar to hisown team ’ s, McCaithy
said.
“I haven’t had a chance so far to
look at Nebraska much,’’ he said.
“But 1 think we probably play very
similar type games.’’
The two teams will meet at the
Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.,
tonight in the first round of the
NCAA Tournament. Game time is
6:35 p.m.
The Aggies, who average 77.1
points a game, enjoy the same fast
paced game the Huskers do,
McCarthy said.
“We both like to get up and
down the court,” he said.
Both teams are also blessed with
good guards and good leaders,
McCarthy said.
The matchup between point
guards Jamar Johnson and Sam
Crawford could be a major key to
the game, he said.
Crawford, who averages 12.8
points each game, was named to
the AU-Big West and Big West
Tournament teams this season. He
also has set a school record for
career assists with 569, with 287 of
them coming this season.
But several differences between
the two teams concern McCarthy.
Nebraska, he said, has a height
advantage over the Aggies that
could give a rebounding edge to the
Huskers. *
That advantage has become even
greater with the absence of the
Aggies’ second-leading rebounder,
Enc Traylor, who will be ineligible
for the game for academic reasons.
The senior forward, who aver
aged 9.4 points and 6.8 rebounds
per game, was declared ineligible
by the NCAA just before the start
of the Big West Conference Tour
nament.
But McCarthy said it was too
late to change his game plan.
“We will stick to the things
we’ve been doing all year,” he said.
“And I think Nebraska will too.”
Although McCarthy has not seen
much of the Huskers, he said he had
heard enough about them to be
concerned.
And the individual Huskerplay
ers haven’t remained a mystery to
McCarthy.
“Piatkowski is a really good
player; he got first-team All-Big
Eight,” he said. “The freshman
group is tough, and Derrick Chan
dler was honorable mention in the
Big Eight. Wow!”
