Nebraskan
Wednesday, March 2,1094
SPORTS
A
Four SWC schools left hunting for options
By Tim Pearson
SeniorReporter
Texas Christian University want
ed an opportunity to join the Big Eight
W A
SW Cdhferonce
along with the rest
of the Southwest
Conference
schools.
But it didn’t get
the chance.
Southwest Con
ference teams
Texas, Texas
A&M, Texas
Tech and Baylor
were invited to join the Big Eight last
Friday. That left TCU, Southern Meth
odist, Houston and Rice as the only
remaining SWC teams.
TCU athletic director Frank
Windegger said the four remaining
SWC schools were denied the oppor
tunity to join the Big Eight before the
merger was announced.
“It doesn ’ t leave a bitter taste in my
mouth, but I wish we’d have been
better informed,” he said. “I thought
we’d go through step No. 1, which was
the television contract, and then talk
about a merger.”
But the process occurred in reverse
order.
The merger was announced last
week, with a television contract ex
pected by the end of the month.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chancellor Graham Spanier said he
found no fault in the Big Eight’s deal
ings with the four slighted SWC teams.
“We in the Big Eight tried very
hard to be sensitive to the circum
stances in the Southwest Conference,”
he said. “The other four schools were
informed of what was developing.
“It was as entirely professional and
as sensitive as could be.”
TCU is left looking for options,
Windegger said.
“We’re looking at our options in
what’s in the best interest of TCU,” he
said.
One option may be joining the new
12-team conference if it decides to
expand to 14 schools.
“We have strong hopes that the Big
12, if that’s what you want to call it,
will be looking to add two teams,”
W indegger said. “We want to have the
opportunity to show them what TCU
can offer.
“We’ve looked at several options.
We will play them through as we go.”
TCU basketball coach Moe Iba,
who coached at Nebraska from 1981
to 1986, said he was disturbed by the
recent trend of teams leaving confer
ences for more money.
“That’s their choice,” he said.
“That’s the way they want-to do it.
“It’s a situation, like it or not,
where it’s the way things are being
done. I guess you have to like it.”
Windegger said the move by the
four SWC teams to the Big Eight was
purely a business decision.
“It’s called scrambling for dollars,”
he said. “They made business deci
sions, and I have no fault with that.
“We broke up everything. It’s a
shame we couldn’t keep it together.”
Nee hopes emotion
carries NU to win
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter__
Nebraska’s four seniors will be
playing their Final home game at the
Bob Dcvaney Sports Center tonight at
7:05 as the Cornhuskcrs take on Okla
homa State.
And men’s basketball coach Danny
Nee said he hoped the emotion of
saying farewell to seniors Tom Best,
Bruce Chubick, Jamar Johnson and
Eric Piatkowski would help avenge
Nebraska’s 98-80 loss earl icr this sea
son.
“We will play good, but will we
play well enough, 1 don’t know,” Nee
said. “I think there will be tremendous
elec tricity and enthusiasm in the build
ing. I do believe our players have
confidence they can play with Okla
homa State.”
Nee said Nebraska s wins over
Kansas and Kansas State last week,
which boosted the Huskers to 16-8
overall and 6-6 in the Big Eight Con
ference, gave Nebraska a good idea of
the level of play at which it needed to
be to beat Oklahoma State.
“We have to go out and play with
the same efficiency and intensity as
we did against Kansas and we’ll be in
it,” he said.
The Cowboys, 20-7 overall and 9
3 in the Big Eight, shot 63 percent
from the field in their win over the
Huskers in Stillwater, Okla., on Feb.
IX.
“Wc have to match their physical
ncss,” Nee said. “Oklahoma State shot
the ball extremely well down there.
There were a lot of contributions from
different people.”
Piatkowski, who led Nebraska wi th
17 points in the first meeting, said
poor defense from Nebraska aided the
Cowboys’ hot shooting.
“If we can come out and have our
defense play like it should, wc should
be in it," Piatkowski said. “When we
went down to Oklahoma State, our
defense was just terrible. We left their
guards wide open, and they knocked
— »»
If we can come out
and have our defense
play like it should, we
should be in it. When
we went down to
Oklahoma State, our
defense was just
terrible.
— Piatkowski
NU men's basketball
forward
w w
down the open shots.
“If we come out and really stick to
those guys and collapse down on ‘Big
Country’ (Oklahoma State center
Bryant Reeves), we should have a
chance at winning it.”
Stopping Reeves, who is averaging
20.6 points and a Big Eight-leading
9.9 rebounds a game, will be Nebras
ka’s first objective.
“The big men in the middle haveto
be guarded,” Piatkowski said. “I be
lieve that still needs lobe done. They’re
a road team. They’re not intimidated.
They’re going to come in and play
well. We have to step up.”
Nebraska’s 6-foot-7-inch, 230
pound Bruce Chubick will again be
assigned the duty of guarding the 7
foot, 285-pound Reeves.
In the first meeting. Reeves scored
18 points and got 12 rebounds, while
Chubick scored four points and
grabbed five rebounds.
“I look forward to these kind of
matchups,” Chubick said. “When I
was guarding him last time, I didn’t
feel like he really went off on me. I’m
looking forward to the same results. I
feel like I have to go in ready to go to
battle, because the guy outweighs me
by 60 or 70 pounds.”
Chubick said that shutting down
the Cowboys was more complex than
just containing Reeves.
“They do so many things well,” he
Jon Waller/DN
Kansas State forward Demond Davis is fouled by
Nebraska’s Terrance Badgett during the Comhuskers’ 86
77 win at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday.
said. “They are really disciplined. If
they get you behind, they don’t let you
get back into it.’’
NOTE:
• The American Cancer Society
will be seeking pledges for the “Three
Point Attack” on cancer at tonight’s
game. Volunteers will be handing out
brochures with pledge forms at the
door.
Relay team
sets record
From Staff Reports
The Nebraska women’s 400-mcter
medley relay team set a conference
record at the Big Eight Swimming
and Diving Championships in Okla
homa City Monday.
Jane Glazcbrook, Penny Hcyns,
Julia Russell and Melanie Dodd were
clocked at 3 minutes, 43.34 seconds
during the second day of the meet,
which runs through Wednesday.
Although Dodd anchored the
record-setting relay, she also suffered
the biggest upset on Monday. She lost
to Kansas’ Ronda Lusty in the finals of
the 50-meter freestyle.
Dodd was the defending Big Eight
champion in the event.
The Nebraska men’s 400-meter
medley relay team of Chris Ford,
Conny Wenberg, Justin Finney and
Francois Boshoof also brought home
first place with an NCAA consider
ation time of 3:18.43.
The Comhuskcrs’ Jonathon Kerr
also won the 200-meter individual
medley.
Jennifer Harnly started the meet on
a high note for the Huskers, winning
her second straight 1-meter spring
board title on Sunday.
Both the men and women were in
second place after Monday’s events.
Brown is named
to Big Eight team
From Staff Reports
Nafccsah Brown, a forward on the
Nebraska women’s basketball team,
was named to the All-Big Eight first
team by conference coaches Monday.
Brown, a senior from Chicago,
averaged more than 20 points and 10
rebounds per game this season.
Nebraska senior point guard
Meggan Yedsena was named to the
All-Big Eight second team for the
third straight season.
Former wrestler ‘one of the guys ’ as assistant coach
Corey Olson sat with Nebraska
wrestlers Frank Velazquez and Scott
Gonyo watching videos and joking
around.
Olson is just one of the guys.
A guy who has been there before.
A guy who has experienced the
agony of defeat and the triumph of
victory.
A guy who has come oh-so-closc to
a national title — finishing second to
Ohio State’s Kevin Radleman two
years in a row.
But Olson is not going to dwell on
the past. He’s geared toward the
present.
And he’s hoping to use his past
experiences to guide the Nebraska
wrestling team to the top.
Olson is back and ready to go for
the Big Eight title.
Except this time, Olson will be on
the sidelines coaching, instead ofgrap
pling on the mat.
Now a volunteer assistant, Olson
capped a brilliant career at Nebraska
last season by helping the Comhuskcrs
to their highest finish ever at the
NCAA Championships.
He ranks third on the Nebraska
career victories chart and second on
the career falls list.
He earned All-American honors
three times, but two honors escaped
him—a Big Eight title and a national
title.
Olson came close to getting both.
He finished runner-up at the Big
Eight meet twice. Last year he lost to
Iowa State’s No. 1-ranked Matt
Johnson in the finals.
In 1990 he fell to eventual national
champion Chris Barnes of Oklahoma
State.
But the real jewel would have been
a national title, and the same wrestler
took it from him twice.
“It wasn’t as bad last year,” Olson
Tim
Pearson
said. “When I walked ofF the mat, I
knew I did everything I could do to
win.”
Now Olson is doing everything he
can to help Nebraska coach Tim
Neumann achieve his goal ofwinning
the national title.
Olson, while finishing school this
year, volunteered his services as an
assistant.
Neumann knew what Olson could
do, and obviously he knew that Olson
could help his young Husker team.
Senior Velazquez, an All-Ameri
can and defending Big Eight champi
on, said Olson had been a steadying
influence on a team with only three
seniors.
“Corey’s helped everybody out,”
Velazquez said. “I ask him questions
all the time.
But Olson is hoping Velazquez’s
position brings a national title, not a
second-place spot.
Olson couldn’t get the national
title on the mat, so he’s going to do his
best to get the Huskers a title on the
sidelines. \
And he’s going to do his best in
grooming the Huskers’ young talent.
Not the young talent training every
day at the Bob Dcvancy Sports Center,
but Nebraska’s talented grade school
and high school kids.
Olson heads the Huskerland Wres
tling Club, which was organized this
past summer.
The club is a noncompetitive club,
open to kids of all ages, which stresses
training, practice techniques and oth
er aspects of wrestling.
But Olson isn’t through with wres
tling just yet.
He has his sights focused on the
Olympics and international competi
tion, and he’s continuing to compete
to prepare himself.
This spring Olson will wrestle in
the U.S. Open for a spot on the U.S.
team for the World and Goodwill
Games.
Olson has been a runner-up one too
many times.
But if he doesn’t wrestle his way to
a title, Neumann knows that someday
Olson could be a national champion
— as a coach.
“He’s done a great job,” Neumann
said. “He’s got a natural coaching
attitude.
Pretty fitting for one of the guys.
Pearson is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Daily Nebraskan senior report
er and columnist.