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Daily
Nebraskan
Wednesday, March 30,1994
SPORTS
Ice-cold bats baffling Nebraska’s Sanders
By Jeff Griesch
Senior Editor
Coming into the season, Nebraska
baseball coach John Sanders’ main
concern was pitching.
But because h is pitchers have com
bined for a 5.83 ERA overall and a
3.33 ERA in the Big Eight so far —
without All-American ace Troy
Brohawn—Sanders has switched his
focus from the mound to the plate.
Nebraska’s bats produced only four
runs in three losses at Missouri this
weekend.
That lack of ofTense has Sanders
concerned as the Huskers prepare for
five games against Oklahoma State
this week. The series begins today
with a 2 p.m. doubleheader in
Stillwater, Okla.
“We’re kind of stumbling along
right now,” Sanders said. “Our lack of
hitting is as much of a mystery to us as
it is to anybody.”
Last year, the Huskers averaged
7.63 runs per game and scored in
double figures 16 times. This year, the
Huskers have averaged 5.42 runs and
have put up double digits only once.
Just two Nebraska hitters— Derek
Dukart and Darin Erstad — have
batting averages better than .300. Last
season, eight Huskers hit better than
.300.
“Darin Erstad and Derek Dukart
are doing well, but after that it has
dropped off significantly,” Sanders
said. “And the part that really con
cerns me is that we have a lot ofother
players that we know can hit better
than they arc.”
Erstad, who is hitting .352, said
the Huskers’ problems at the plate
began in their heads.
“I think it’s all mental right now,”
Erstad said. “Guys just don’t have the
confidence that they should at the
plate, and we’re just not feeling com
fortable.
“Our swings arc fine; it’s just all
mental.”
Erstad said the Huskers’ 0-3 start
in the Big Eight had also put them in
danger going into this week’s series
with the league-leading Cowboys, who
arc 19-7 and 6-0 in the league.
If the Huskers lose the series to the
Cowboys, Erstad said, they will find
themselves in the same position as
Nebraska shortstop Darin Petersen attempts to turn a double play during action earlier this season. The Cornhuskers
will try to end a three-game losing streak against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla. on Wednesday.
they were last season, when they
missed a regional berth after a slow
start.
“If we are going to have a serious
shot at regionals, we are going to have
to turn it around this week,” Erstad
said. “But right now. we can’t even
look ahead to regionals. We need to
concentrate on winning this week and
getting our confidence back at the
plate.”
While the Huskers have struggled,
the Cowboys have won eight of their
last nine games.
“Weshould have won that series in
Missouri, but we just didn’t take care
of business, Erstad said. But now,
with three losses, I think, realisti
cally, winn ing the scries is pretty much
a must.”
After Wednesday’s doublchcadcr,
the Huskers will return home this
weekend to play host to the Cowboys
for three games.
NCAA decision lets N U keep coaching position
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter_
After months of struggling, the
Nebraska football program finally
earned a rare victory over the NCAA.
Proposition 30,
which called for
the elimination of
the recruiting co
ordinator posi
tion, suffered a
blow last weekend
when the NC AA
——r— ruled that each
Gillespie university could
interpret specific parts of the proposi
tion on its own.
After lobbying from Nebraska and
other schools, the NCAA decided not
to fully define the new legislation,
which was passed at the NCAA Con
vention in January.
That means Nebraska will not have
to get rid of one of its nine full-time
assistant coaches.
The football program’s interpreta
tion of the proposition w ill allow Dave
Gillespie, Nebraska’s recruiting co
ordinator since 1985, to remain on
staff as an assistant athletic director
for football operations.
Gillespie said he would carry out
most of the same tasks he did as
recruiting coordinator.
“Primarily, my work will be the
same,” Gillespie said, “with the ex
ception that I can not idcntifyorevalu
atc athletes. I had some administra
tive tasks prior to this legislation, and
1 will continue to do that.”
Under the new interpretation, Ne
braska has officially eliminated the
recruiting coordinator job, and only
on-field coaches can view film ofplay
ers.
“It’s going to be a change,”
Gillespie said. “It will require that
different people spend a lot of time on
-41—
It's going to be a change. It will require that
different people spend a lot of time on things
they did not do in the past.
— Gillespie
assistant athletic director
things they did not do in the past.”
Identifying and evaluating athletes
on film will add to the coaches’ al
ready busy schedules, Gillespie said.
Coach Tom Osborne said all of the
coaches would need to find time to
look at film.
“We’ll try to make sure they all
have projectors at home to view film,”
Osborne said. “They’re just going to
have to work every night.”
Gillespie estimated that the Husker
staff reviewed film of 1,500 to 2,000
n
football players each fall.
The possibility ofschools violating
the rule restricting film viewing has
Osborne worried.
“Personally, I am a 1 ittlc concerned
about how it’s going to be enforced.”
he said. “I assure you that here we will
adhere to i t, but you worry about some
body sitting in a dark corner some
where else looking at film.”
Gillespie said the NCAA left ev
eryone in the dark about the proposi
tion, because it did not specify exactly
n
1 _ _ _
j
wnai me scnoois couiu or couiu noi
do.
“We still are not sure about every
thing. But from what I understand, I
can arrange visits and plan travel and
activities.”
After all of this, Gillespie said, the
NCAA did not accomplish what they
set out to do.
“I do know that the intent of the
legislation was to eliminate a posi
tion,” he said. “And the way we have
interpreted it actually docs not elimi
nate a spot, it just changes it.”
But Gillespie said he wasn’t sure
exactly what caused the NCAA to
back down.
“1 don’t know of any overt pressure
put on the NCAA by Nebraska.”
Gillespie said. “We were pretty typi
cal of most schools. We really didn’t
know where this legislation was go
ing or what it meant. Now, we have a
better idea.”
__ 7*77 J
Big Eights tourney performance reflects downhill trend
w >—
Big Eight basketball is slowly ap
proaching mediocrity.
After only four Big Eight teams
were chosen to compete in the 64
team NCAA tournament, one of the
teams not good enough to qualify for
the real postseason tournament —
Kansas State — played longer than
any other Big Eight team, qualifying
for the National Invitation Tourna
ment Final Four.
But noone seemed to notice or care
about the Wildcats’ success in the
“NOT” tournament.
All Kansas State proved in the NIT
was that it was at the height of medi
ocrity, and so did better Big Eight
teams in the NCAA tourney.
Missouri was the only team to sal
vage some pride for the Big Eight by
beating Navy, Wisconsin and squeak
ing by Syracuse in overtime.
But in the regional final the Tigers
looked like kittens. They were embar
rassed by the bigger Cats from Ari
zona 92-72.
Missouri assumed Kansas’ usual
role in the tournament, because the
Jayhawks are consistently the only
conference team to even make a noise
in the tournament.
Without the Jayhawks, the Big
Eight’s tournament record was 12-19
going into this year’s tournament.
But this wasn’t your typical Kan
sas team either.
The Jayhawks finished third in the
conference with a 25-7 record, but
they were a far cry from the dominat
ing KU teams of the past.
Aftereaming the fourth seed ih the
southeast region, the Jayhawks up
ended unheard of Tcnncssce-Chatta
nooga and beat 20-11 Wake Forest in
the second round before being bitten
by the “Big Dog” — Glenn Robinson
—for 44 points, as top-seeded Purdue
moved into the Sweet 16.
For Kansas, which made it to the
Final Four in 1991 and 1993,
Derek
Samson
Robinson’s rampage produced a fit
ting end to a rather disappointing
season.
Oklahoma State had a chance todo
some damage in the tournament. With
the most balanced team in the Big
Eight, the Cowboys appeared to be a
tough team.
The Cowboys won their first-round
game against New Mexico State —
remember the Aggies, Nebraska? —
and fell to the devastating Golden
HurricancofTulsa in the second round.
Yes, Tulsa, a top team from the
“Misery and Valium Conference” —
you know, Creighton’s conference.
Sorry, Eddie Sutton, but if you’re
looking for another Final Four ap
pearance with a different school, you
better look elsewhere.
And now to Nebraska, definitely
t he biggest conference d isappoi ntmen t
in the tournament.
For Huskcr fans, it was like a bowl
game.
So much talk going into it.
“After we beat Florida, 1 think
we’ll knock off Connecticut,” many
Huskcr fans gloated.
But those fans forgot about two
things: (1) Pennsylvania and (2)
Nebraska’s 0-4 record in the tourna
ment.
After Penn made the Huskers look
like they belonged alongside Okla
homa and K-Statc in the NIT, the Ivy
League champs were sent packing by
Florida in convincing fashion.
So what has happened to the Big
Eightwhichhighlightedthe 1988 tour
nament with a Kansas-Oklahoma
championship game?
Oklahoma suffered its worst sea
son in years, not even making it to the
20-win plateau.
Iowa State, which may be the ugli
est team ever assembled, had enough
talent to make the pathetic NIT but
failed.
The lack of respect for the Big
Eight was shown in the rankings all
year long and for once, the writers
knew what they were talking about.
And just think, the conference will
get only more average with the addi
tion of the traditional basketball pow
ers in the Southwest Conference.
Texas was solid this year, but just
considering the addition of the sorry
Southern schools of Texas A&M,
Baylor and Tekas Tech in 1996 is an
ugly thought.
Samoa is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter
and columnist.