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Nebraskan
Tuesday» March 1» 1994
Sports
League basketball coaches split on merger
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
The early reviews are in and not all
of the Big Eight’s basketball coaches
are pleased with the conference’s
merger with four teams from the South
west Conference.
Athletic directors have expressed
their pleasure with the addition of
Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and
Baylor to the Big Eight.
Iowa State coach Johnny Orr
seemed the most unhappy with the
merger, which will take place prior to
the 1996 season.
Orr
mere is no
sense in me getting
involved in this,” he
said during the Big
Eight’s coaches’
teleconference
Monday. “I’m not
going to be here in
1996, but I see no
reason to go down
with those schools.
That doesn’t get me
excited. Flnancially, yes, it will help.
Kansas coach Roy Williams said
expansion was not always the answer.
“I am not one that thinks bigger is
better,” Williams said. “From a bas
ketball perspective, I’m not sure it’s
going to help. But from an athletic
department perspective, it will help.”
Athletic department officials
project that the alliance will net a
lucrative television contract.
Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton
said he thought the merger also would
help basketball.
“I think it’s a tremendous day for
Big Eight basketball,” Sutton said.
“This league will be the best confer
ence in America.”
Texas is the only SWC team that
has fared well against Big Eight foes
this season.
The Longhorns beat Nebraska 78
75 in Lincoln on Nov. 28. They also
beat Oklahoma 87-75 in Austin, Tex
as, on Dec. 27.
The Big Eight also recorded two
wins tins season over the conference’s
new schools. Kansas State beat Texas
A&M 63-54 on Dec. 1, and Oklahoma
beat Baylor 118-91 on Jan. 5.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee was as
pleased as any coach in the conference
over the merger.
“I think it’s a very pro-active
move,” Nee said.
He said he was pleased that the Big
Eight initiated the alliance.
“It’s one of the most progressive
and good things for the Big Eight that
I have seen,” Nee said. “Not only for
basketball but for all sports.”
NOTE:
• Nebraska’s Eric Piatkowski was
named the Big Eight’s player of the
week for the second time this season.
Piatkowski averaged 29 points and
seven rebounds a game last week. He
tallied 33 points and 11 rebounds
against Kansas and 25 points and
three rebounds against Kansas State.
NU gymnast Harrison looks at national title, Olympics
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
Dennis Harrison has accomplished just
about everything in his career as a Nebraska
gymnast.
The 5-foot-7 senior from Ralston has
qualified as an All-American five times in
the last three years. He holds the school
record on the floor exercise and is a front
runner for the Nissen Award, which is given
annually to the nation’s top senior gymnast.
And Harrison has the motivation to add to
that list.
He wants a national title — something
that has eluded him and his teammates dur
ing his three years as a Husker.
Nebraska has finished second at the
NCAA Championships in each of the last
two years and hasn’t won a championship
since 1990, one year before Harrison arrived.
“We are aiming at nothing short of a
national championship,” Harrison said. “This
team has done everything except win a na
tional championship. Really that is our only
goal.”
Any questions about whether this team
has what it takes to accomplish its goal will
be answered in the next two weeks.
The 8-1 Huskers, who are ranked No. 2 in
the nation, face two-time defending national
champion Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., Sat
urday, before returning home to play host to
No. 1 Ohio State on March 13.
“Those two meets are really big,” Harrison
said. “We will have to have everything to
gether. Most of us aren’t too sharp yet.”
Harrison has been sharp most of the sea
son. He won the all-around competition in
Minneapolis, Minn., on Feb. 12. Harrison
also finished second at the Rocky Mountain
Open’s all-around competition, Nov. 26 and
27.
But, he said, there’s room for improve
ment.
“1 am looking to improve my work on the
rings, especially in the strength area and
then just get more consistency in the other
events,” Harrison said. “But I am getting
closer, and I think everybody else is, too.”
Harrison said the Huskers were especially
focused on beating Oklahoma, which beat
Nebraska on Feb. 19 in Norman, Okla. It was
Travis Heying/DN
Nebraska’s Dennis Harrison, a candidate for the 1994 Nissen Award, performs Sunday on the still rings.
Nebraska’s first defeat in a dual or triangular
meet in two years.
The Sooners will not have such an easy
time when they meet Nebraska March 25 at
the Big Eight Championships in Lincoln,
Harrison said.
Harrison, who has been the top scorer in
his class at the NCAA meet each of the last
three seasons, said he was focusing on team
goals but that he also wanted to win the all
around title.
“If I don’t win,” he said, “I will be a little
disappointed.”
The all-around title, Harrison said, would
mean even more than the Nisscn Award.
“The Nissen Award is important,” he
said. “It is a big honor to be nominated for it.
But as far as winning it, you really can’t
control what is going to happen.
“As far as the all-around goes, I can1
control that.”
Financial score clinches gold medal for new conference
Hey, have you heard the news?
The SWC is history.
What? You were too enthralled by
the excitement of the Whiner Olym
pics in Lillehammer, Norway, to keep
up on other news?
If you didn’t hear about the Big
Eight and Southwest Conference
merger because you. couldn’t break
away from the never-ending story of
Tonya “1 didn’t do it” Harding and
Nancy “I hope I can at least do some
York Peppermint Pattie commercials”
Kerrigan, that’s OK.
The Ice Capadcs in Lillehammer
were enough to fog up anyone’s view
of the rest of the news.
But since all the frozen follies are
finally finished, let me bring you up
to-date with some real sports news.
The SouthwestConferenceisdead.
Well it’s not really dead; it has just
been decapitated.
The Big Eight and the four best
teams in the Southworst Conference
(Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and
Baylor) have decided to join forces to
ensure profitable financial futures for
all.
The Big Eight has always meant
big-time college sports, but now it’s
going to be even bigger time with the
est and brightest teams from the once
proud but now pitied Southweakest
Conference.
The merger had been anticipated
for some time, and the financial con
sultants to all the schools involved
decided it would be in the best inter
ests of all the schools’ bank accounts
to join forces now.
They’re right.
College football is becoming even
more divided and factional ized than it
has been in the past.
The days of the generic CFA are
over, and the era of tne conference or
even single-team national television
package are here.
All the major conferences are now
forgetting about the NCAA or the
CFA and are just looking out for who
can give them the best deal.
And with the four SWC teams and
the Big Eight, the deal couldn’t have
been any sweeter.
Jeff
Griesch
Television deals already are being
considered. Dollar signs are sailing
through administrators’ sleepy heads
while they rest at night.
The coaches and players are excit
ed about a stronger conference, a
broader recruiting base and more pres
tige.
And even the fans can’t lose.
The border wars between the Texas
and Oklahoma schools have longbeen
desired and with this new deal, don’t
be surprised if the cowboys from both
states start carrying their shotguns in
their saddlebags when they ride hors
es to the game.
And overall, the competition is
simply going to be better.
It looks like everybody is a winner,
right?
Not exactly.
The other poor chumps from the
SWC — Rice, SMU, TCU and Hous
ton— were left out on the range to
search for greener grasses somewhere
else.
The four teams that weren’t good
enough to make the cut didn’t play in
big enough stadiums, didn’t have large
enough fan bases and didn’t win
enough games last year to be consid
ered.
For the once-proud traditions of
the “Pony Express” at SMU and the
winning seasons of the run-and-shoot
at Houston, the timing wasn’t so good.
And how about Iowa Slate? Unless
the “Big 12” divides into two divi
sions, the Cyclones will be playing for
11 th place every year instead of sev
enth.
But that’s all just football. This is
more than just a football deal.
The “Greedy Dozen” will be a little
stronger in basketball with Tom
Penders running and gunning in Tex
as and Tony Barone screaming, strip
ping and swinging at Texas Tech.
And in baseball, the “Terrible 12”
could make up the best conference in
America, with Texas, Texas A&M
and Oklahoma State as perennial
College World Series teams.
The new “Big Southwest” really
offers everyone within the borders of
the conference something better.
So even if you’re not a big fan of
major college athletics and you only
watch sports for the chilling scenes
and the shivering sagas that surface
during the We-hit-her Olympics ev
ery four years, take notes.
If ‘Terrible” Tony Barone steps
into the ring twice a year against Billy
“The Tyrant” Tubbs, tempers are sure
to reach a boiling point.
The complaining will be unparal
leled and punches may be thrown,
making these two middle-aged men
look more like female figure skaters
than respectable college basketball
coaches.
Grtcack Is ■ Junior aews-edltorial major
a ad is tb« Dally Nakraskaa assistaat sports
editor.