Sports
Nebraskan
Thursday, Juna 23,1994
Piatkowski works hard
for higher draft spot
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
All that former Nebraska forward Eric
Piatkowski has to do now is sit back and
wait.
But the waiting may be the hardest part.
Piatkowski has spent the past month on
the road, working out for different NBA
teams in hopes to improve his stock in the
June 29 NBA draft.
“Everywhere I went was a little differ
ent,” Piatkowski said. “Usually I worked out
for a hour to an hour and a half. Then I went
through different interviews with the coach
ing staff and from offices. It’s been exciting,
but I’m tired of all the traveling. I’m ready
for the 29th to be here.”
Piatkowski didn’t doing anything to hurt
his chances when he was named the Most
Valuable Player of the Desert Classic in
Phoenix in May.
“A lot of people told me it helped out a
lot,” Piatkowski said. “The top seniors that
will be in the draft were there, so it was a big
tournament. To me. I’ll just wait and see on
the 29th if that helped or not. It might have
helped a lot or it might have been just
hogwash.”
The MVP award came after the 6-fool-7
inch Piatkowski capped off his career with
an outstanding senior season.
Piatkowski averaged 20.6 points a game,
led Nebraska to the Big Eight tournament
title, earned the tournament’s MVP and was
selected All-Big Eight for the second con
secutive year.
There is no surprise that Piatkowski is
expected to be a first-round selection in the
draft.
— it
Nobody wants to tip their
hat to anyone. They don’t
want you to know what
they’re thinking. It’s all
pretty secretive right now,
so I just have to wait until
the draft to see what kind of
a impression I made.
—Piatkowski
Former NU basketball player
-ff -
But for now, Piatkowski is keeping is
options open and doesn’t want to predict
where is will go in next week’s draft.
“Right now 1 don’t feel much like trying
to guess who will take me or where I’ll
probably go,” he said. “I don’t have any
preferences. I’m staying really open-mind
ed because I can’t make the final decision.
All I can do is try to impress people as much
as I can.”
PartofPiatkowski’s low-keyed approach
stems back to the various NBA teams’ ap
proach to him.
“Nobody wants to tip their hat to any
one,” he said. “They don’t want you to know
what they’re thinking. It’s all pretty secre
tive right now, so I just have to wait until the
draft to see what kind of a impression I
made.”
What kind of an impression does
Piatkowski think he made?
“To this point I feel confident that I have
done everything to help myself on the 29 th,”
he said. “I am confident and excited about
what I have done so far. Now I just have to
sit back and see what happens on the 29th.”
Courtesy of NU Sports Information
Eric Piatkowski, Nebraska’s leading scorer each of the last three seasons,
will likely be a first-round pick In this year’s NBA draft, held on Wednesday.
UNL international students focus on soccer’s World Cup
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
The United States has a world of
eyes looking upon it during the cur
rent World Cup competition it is host
ing.
The 24-team World Cup, being
played at various sites around the
United States, is drawing particular
interest from some University of Nc
braska-Lincoln students.
Maria Villalobos from Chihuahua,
Mexico, knows she isn’t the only
member of her family that is follow
ing the competition. Mexico is cur
rently 0-1 in the Group E bracket.
“My mom really likes football (soc
cer) and gets really excited when the
games arc going on,” Villalobos said.
“She is especially excited now that
it’s the World Cup. In Mfcxico, we
have a lot of soccer teams and we play
all year round.
“Then when an event such as the
World Cup comes around, everyone
is interested. When Mexico partici
pates in an event 1 ike this, it is very big
and everyone follows our team.”
The United States is currently 0-0
1 in Group A following a 1-1 tic with
Switzerland Saturday.
UNL junior Dan Farley said the
United States should be proud of its
effort in the World Cup.
“We don’t seem to take soccer as
seriously here as they do in some of
those other countries,” he said. “I
think it’s a good sign for the training
and the athletes here that we’re right
up there hanging with some of those
teams.
“To some of those teams that we
are playing, they have the support of
their entire country and it’s probably
the biggest sporting event for them*
ever.”
India, which is not competing for
the World Cup title, is trying to get to
the level that the U.S. is at, according
to UNL student and India native
Kamalakar Vuggumudi.
“It (soccer) is quite popular in our
big cities,” he said. “But we’re not up
to the world’s standards in compet
ing. It makes a country proud to see a
team in there and we wish we had a
team playing now, but the basic skills
are lacking in Ind ia. It’s very popular,
but there isn’t enough money to start
a good program.”
Ana Cillcro, a Spanish teacher at
UNL, said her home country of Spain
was as used to be on top of the soccer
world as Nebraska football fans were
with nine-win seasons.
“We arc accustomed to this com
petition and the teams from Spain win
it quite often,” she said. “(If Spain
wins it this year) It will be talked
about for probably a week. They will
remember it forever, but there are too
many problems in Spain.
“Other topics arc much more im
portant right now. If they win it, it will
be a relief— a breath of fresh air. It
would be something to make the peo
ple happy for a while.”
Spain is presently 0-0-1 in Group
C.
Some students don’t have the lux
ury of cheering for their country in the
World Cup.
Malaysia, which has soccer leagues
throughout the year, did not qualify
for the World Cup competition.
Senior business major Sun Tay
said Malaysia would erupt with ex
citement if it ever had the opportunity
to play for the World Cup.
“It’s the biggest sport ever in Ma
laysia, so it would be like a holiday,”
he said. “We watch every night of the
World Cup and there is a time differ
ence of 12-14 hours, so we stay awake
until sometimes four in the morning
watching. So soccer is the most pop
ular sport there.”
Tay is from Johor, one of Malay
sia’s 13 states, each of which com
petes in a semi-pro league.
“Every state has their own team
and they all play each other,” Tay
said. “Singapore also has a team in it
and those 14 teams draw big numbers
of people when they play.
But whether this World Cup com
petition will spurt the popularity of
soccer in the United States is yet to be
seen.
“There arc a lot more people who
arc starting to follow it and the World
Cup will only help that following,’’
Nebraska gymnast Nicole Duvall said.
“Personally, I don’t find it as exciting
as other contact sports and I think a lot
of other people think the same way. I
think that is why it will never have the
following that football docs in this
country.”