Sports
Thursday, January 19, 1995 Page 7
On the mat
Jay CaktoroiVDN
Husker senior wrestler Steve Baer is 24-2 this season, and he could face Penn State’s top-ranked Sanshiro Abe this
weekend at the National Duals.
Wrestler ready to pin the national title
By Clay Short
Staff Reporter
Just two seasons ago, Steve Baer was
fortunate just to be considered a Nebraska
wrestler. Now, after two varsity seasons,
Baer is a completely different wrestler and
probably holds Nebraska’s best shot at a
national title.
Baer first wrestled for Minnesota, but he
transferred to Nebraska after one season,
dissatisfied with his situation.. At Minne
sota, Baer was forced to wrestle at 118
pounds instead of his usual 126 pounds.
“Steve was here for a tournament two
years ago, and he looked dead,” Nebraska
coach Tim Neumann said. “He was wres
tling the wrong weight, and he just looked
dead.”
And he felt dead as well.
So Baer contacted Neumann, and he
packed his headgear and made the move to
Lincoln.
His move has paid off.
Baer was named to the National Wres
tling Coaches Association All-Star dual team
Wednesday. The tournament traditionally
pits the top two ranked wrestlers in the
nation in each weight class against each
other.
“(Transferring to Nebraska) was the best
decision that I have ever made,” Baer said.
“The selection to the All-Star team really
gives me a boost of confidence and shows
how far I have grown.”
Neumann said he didn’t take credit for
Baer’s success.
“The best thing that has happened to
Steve is (assistant coach) Brad Penrith,”
Neumann said. “Brad has allowed us to give
Steve one-on-one, intensive training. Any
time you can go one-on-one with a wrestler,
the result is amazing.”
The additional attention that Baer has
received hasn’t gone unappreciated by the
lone Husker senior.
See BAER on 8
Nee proud,
disappointed,
feels lucky
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Danny Nee was
right.
It isn’t easy to win on the road in college
basketball —no matter where you are playing.
The Comhuskers, up against 3-9 Missouri -
Kansas City Wednesday night, escaped with a
63-60 victory before a crowd of 5,356 at Mu
nicipal Auditorium.
Nebraska, in improving to 14-3, looked to
have the game in hand with a little more than
six minutes to play. After trailing nearly the
entire game, The Huskers took a 49-48 lead on
a Jason Glock jumper with 9:01 to play.
Then UMKC forward Derecko Rawlins
missed the front end of a one-and-one, and
Glock delivered an assist to Erick Strickland
under the basket, giving the Huskers a 51-48
advantage, their largest lead of the night.
Glock and Wald followed with consecutive
baskets to give Nebraska a seven-point lead
with 6:33 to play, but the Kangaroos weren’t
finished.
“I thought we were going to take control and
really open it up,” said Strickland, who led all
players with 16 points. “But they made some
big shots and their players stepped up. We jpst
contained it and were able to hold on.”
UMKC scored the next seven points to tie
the game at 55, the final two free throws
coming from Chris Johnson, who was fouled
by Husker center Chris Sallee.
“UMKC did a lot of things right,” Nee said.
“They played a heads-up, really super game.”
Following Johnson’s foul shots, Strickland
drilled a 3-pointer to giVe Nebraska 58*55 lead
with 3:33 left in the game. Kangaroo guard
Curtis Barnes, who led UMKC with 15 points,
countered with a 3-pointer to tie the game.
On Nebraska’s next trip down the floor,
Husker center Mikki Moore, who played much
of the second half with four fouls, missed a
four-foot shot, but Strickland grabbed the re
bound and was fouled by Barnes.
Strickland hit both free throws to put the
Huskers up 60-58. Jaron Boone nailed two
more free throws to increase Nebraska’s lead to
four points. A layup by UMKC guard Erin
Washington cut the lead in half, but Boone
answered with another free throw after being
fouled by Rawlins.
The Kangaroos had a chance to tie the game
with a 3-pointer, but Washington could not get
a look at the basket and the shot clock expired,
icing the Huskers’ win.
“I felt very lucky to win tonight,” Nee said.
He said Nebraska stepped up its intensity
level after trailing 30-24 at half.
“I was just really proud of our kids,” Nee
said. “How we made the free throws, how we
didn’t quit at the end. For a Nebraska team, I
was just disappointed in our performance. We
didn’t play well.”
49ers thoroughly primed to drain San Diego’s charge
After days of thought, I finally
figured out a playoff system that
would work for college football.
If two teams finish the college
season undefeated, say Penn State
and Nebraska, let them meet in the
American Football Conference
championship game. This way, the
AFC can produce a team that will
actually present some kind of
challenge in the Super Bowl.
But that won’t happen this year.
And for everyone who is excited
about Super Bowl Sunday, I have
news for you — you already missed
it. Last Sunday’s NFC title game
between San Francisco and Dallas
matched the two bestleams in the
league.
San Francisco beat Dallas 38-28,
and, in a consolation game, San
Diego beat Pittsburgh. As a reward
for winning, the Chargers get the
unfortunate opportunity to be the
team the 49ers hit triple digits
against.
If the AFC hasn’t already proven
itself a joke in the past 11 consecu
tive Super Bowls, it will reaffirm a
reason to rename its conference the
Arena Football Conference.
The 49ers currently are favored
by 19 points, the largest
pointspread since Super Bowl III,
when the New York Jets gave the
AFC (then the AFL) its first Super
Bowl win — a 16-7 upset over
Baltimore.
So wouldn’t it be fitting for the
Chargers to once again earn the
AFC some respect by beating the
unbeatable odds?
Sorry, Bolts’ bandwagon
jumpers, but it ain’t gonna happen.
Better hop off.
The Niners will easily cover the
spread and be well on their way to
their fifth Super Bowl Champion
ship by halftime, and it’ll be ugly
for the AFC — again.
After San Francisco leaves Joe
Robbie Stadium Jan. 29 with a 56
17 win, the NFL may seriously
consider realigning the conferences
to give the extremely inferior AFC
a chance next year.
Derek Samson
Consider the facts:
• The Los Angeles Raiders —
way back in 1984 — were the last
team from the AFC to win a Super
Bowl.
'• If a consolation game were
played between Sunday’s losers —
Dallas and Pittsburgh — it would
most likely end up like the teams’
meeting in the regular season,
when the result was Dallas 26,
Pittsburgh 9.
• When San Diego and San
Francisco met a little more than a
month ago, the Chargers appeared
to be a Class C-2 team, as the
Niners rolled to a 38-15 win.
• The Chargers also lost to
Atlanta, the third-place team in the
NFC West, 10-9 in November.
But now, the Chargers are about
the 14th team in the AFC that was
expected to break the NFC’s
dominance.
Before the season, the AFC’s
savior team was supposedly the Los
Angeles Raiders, until the season
opener when San Francisco put the
AFC favorite in its place with a 44
14 win.
The next “hot” AFC team was
Kansas City. At least that was until
it was shut out 16-0 in week four by
the Los Angeles Lambs — I mean
Rams — who finished with an
impressive 4-12 record.
Enter the Miami Dolphins.
After losing to Minnesota (NFC
Central), Miami was swimming
circles around AFC opponents such
as Cincinnati and Indianapolis,
until they were beaten by the NFC
Central’s fourth-place team,
Chicago, in mid-November.
The AFC’s hopes were loaded
onto the shoulders of the Cleveland
Browns, but after the Browns lost to
the New York Giants — a team
that couldn’t even qualify for the
playoffs in the NFC — Dec. 4,
many began wondering if a good
AFC team could even beat a bad
NFC team.
Finally, the Steelers, who were
crossed off the list of Super Bowl
hopefuls after being humiliated by
the Cowboys, were back on top of
the list.
Luckily for them, they lost to the
Chargers, thus saving them the
embarrassment of losing by 40
points to San Francisco.
So if you taped the NFC Cham
pionship, or even the Orange Bowl,
pop that in the VCR Jan. 29 and
pretend it’s the Super Bowl.
It will be a lot closer.
SamsoB Is a jailor aews-edltortal mqjor
and a Dally Nebraska! seal or reporter.