Sports
Wednesday, February 8,1995 Page 7
Nee notes three keys to Big Eight success
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
Danny Nee did a little coaching Tuesday
afternoon at his weekly press conference.
Nebraska’s basketball coach outlined three
areas in which the Comhuskers must improve
if they are to make a run to get back into the
thick of the Big Eight Conference.
First and foremost, he said, the Huskers
need to shoot the ball better. Also, Nee said he
wanted to see the bench players contribute
more and the forwards and center to continue
to improve.
At 2-4 in the Big Eight and 15-6 overall.
Nee said Nebraska needed a win tonight over
Colorado, which is 10-8 overall and 1-6 in the
Big Eight. Tipoff at the Coors Event Center in
Boulder, Colo., is set few 8:05 p.m.
Nebraska has beaten the Buffaloes six out
of the last seven times the teams have met. Last
year in Boulder, though, Colorado topped the
Huskers 86-81.
In six Big Eight games, Nebraska is shoot- -
ing 38.9 percent from the field, seventh in the
conference. Nee said the Huskers could not
expect to win many games, especially on the
road, if they didn’t shoot the ball better.
“That really hurts Nebraska basketball,” he
said, “because we are an offensive type of
team.”
In games outside of the conference, the
Huskers are hitting 52 percent of their shots.
That’s the kind of shooting Nee said he would
like to see the entire season.
For the first time in conference action, the
Nebraska big men played a significant role in
Sunday’s 71-59 win over Oklahoma.
Forwards Terrance Badgett and Melvin
Brooks and centers Chris Sallee and Mikki
Moore combined to score 37 points. Nee said
that was an encouraging sign, considering that
guards Jaron Boone, Erick Strickland and Tom
Wald are the only Huskers averaging double
See COLORADO on 8 -
Kansas City point guard wants
to sign with Huskers in April
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
Tyronn Lue, a point guard from Rayton,
(Mo.) High School said he told the Ne
braska basketball coaching staff last week
end that he intended to sign a letter of intent
in April to play for the Comhuskers next
fall.
However, the 5-foot-ll, 165-pounder
said Tuesday night that his commitment
wouldn’t become official until afterheshares
the news with his mother.
“Personally, I committed,” Lue said. “I
told them that they are my No. 1 choice and
I have to talk to my mom.”
Lue, who is averaging 23 points and
eight assists per game this season, lives
with his aunt and uncle in Kansas City, Mo.
His mother lives in Mexico, Mo., a town of
12,000 people 30 miles northeast of Colum
bia.
He said he was going to visit his mother,
who doesn’t have a phone, on Feb. 17. and
tell her that he plans to sign with the Husk
See TYRONN on 8
President
continues to
pitch plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Clinton, unable to bring base
ball players and owners any closer to
settling their strike, said Tuesday
night he would ask Congress to order
binding arbitration.
Clinton said he would make his
request on Wednesday, only eight
days before the start of spring train
ing, and said he hoped Congress
would act “expeditiously.” But ear
lier in the day, the Republican lead
ership in Congress discouraged
Clinton from turning to Capitol Hill
for a solution.
Clinton has no legal power to end
the six-month-long strike and would
need Republican support to approve
a measure to force binding arbitra
tion.
“I’m sony I can’t report success,”
Clinton said after he and Vice Presi
dent A1 Gore met with players and
owners for several hours at the White
House Tuesday night.
“Clearly, they are not capable of
settling this strike without an um
pire.”
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole
and House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
having heard the president’s plan,
said they were reluctant to step into
the problem.
“The president has apparently
thrown the ball into Congress’ court.
We maintain our view that Congress
is ill-suited to resolving private labor
disputes,” Dole and Gingrich said in
a joint statement.
Malesev leaps at chance of high jump record
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Petar Malesev finally got a per
sonal best.
Now he wants to set a Nebraska
best.
Malesev began the 1995 men’s
indoor track and field season by
setting an automatic qualifying
record with a 7-foot-5-inch leap in
the high jump against North Caro
lina Jan. 28.
But even though he hap quali
fied for the NCAA meet March 10
11 in Indianapolis, there is no time
to let up.
“You don’t want to relax too
much,” Malesev said. “I don’t think
any of us are relaxing; we still
want to perform better and better.”
The ‘we’ the 6-foot-7 senior
from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, is talk
ing about is he and felloW high
jumper Sheldon Carpenter. Car
penter has also had an NCAA quali
fying mark in the high jump. ~
Malesev and Carpenter are first
and second in the Big Eight in high
jump height this year.
But now is no time to stop,
Malesev said.
“I really would like to break
both indoor and outdoor records.”
Those records are held by a
high jump tandem other than
Malesev and Carpenter.
The duo of Jeff Loescher and
Darren Burton set those records in
1985.
Loescher set the indoor record
JeffHalbqfpN
Nebraska high jumper Petar Malesev has qualified for the NCAA meet in the high jump
with a jump of 7-feet-5-inches.
with a leap of 7-6.
Burton set the outdoor record
with a high jump of 7-5 1/4.
Malesev, the Big Eight men’s
track and field athlete of the month,
for January, is only one inch be
hind Loescher and two inches be
hind Burton.
Maiesev said he hadn't done
anything special to try and catch
Loescher and Brown.
In fact, he has done things that
might hurt him.
“I’ve been doing the upper
body,” Malesev said. “In order to
be successful in the high jump, you
want to be skinny and I don’t want
SeePETARon8
Baseball strike is all part of the American dream
Phil Harrison was offered
another chance to chase his dream
0 two weeks ago.
The Nebraska assistant baseball
coach walked away from the game
more than a year ago. He was
puzzled, confused, angry at the
game he loved and the life he was
leading.
Unlike thousands of other
baseball addicts, Harrison couldn’t
walk away from the game after
being released from his minor
league contract.
He refused to believe the words
of the geniuses pulling the strings
in management and player develop
ment for the Chicago Cubs and
Montreal Expos.
At age 25, Harrison was told he
was over the hill.
He was out of the game for two
months before signing with the
Expos. He had a strong season for
the Harrisburg Senators in 1991,
posting a 7-1 record and 2.20 ERA.
Harrison spent the winter in the
Mexican Pacific Winter League
with Expos players and coaches,
but despite another strong season,
the Expos released him during
spring training.
To help put his baseball career
out of its misery, Harrison should
have called Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
But Harrison wouldn’t accept
the inevitable.
He hung onto baseball by
seeking an exotic South American
cure.
After two months away from the
game, Harrison found his way to
Venezuela to pitch for the Caracas
Crocodiles in the summer of 1992.
When he was offered a chance
to pitch in Venezuela, Harrison had
no idea what he was getting into,
and he wasn’t sure if the move
would help his career.
But he knew he wanted to play
somewhere, anywhere, so he
followed the game to Caracas.
“Before I left I made sure I got
Jeff Gnesch
all my shots, so I wouldn’t get
malaria eating a bad taco or
something,” Harrison said. “1 knew
it might not be the best, but at least
I was playing, right?’
But an attempted coup made the
political situation in Caracas
unsettling. Even more disturbing
for Harrison was the absence of
scouts in the stands.
Harrison went 11-3, with a 1.24
ERA and two no-hitters, but his
career was all but dead. He was a
year older and no one saw him
play.
Although he was disappointed,
Harrison felt lucky to be alive.
Earlier in the season he and another
American were almost stoned in
the streets by demonstrators
because they were Americans. All
this for $1,500 a month.
Harrison returned for a winter in
the Mexican League and earned
$3,000 a month, but was buried in
the rotation and didn’t get a chance
to play.
“I was bitter at the coach, but I
still wasn’t bitter at baseball,”
Harrison said. “I still loved the
game.”
After a frustrating year in
Mexico, Harrison sensed the end of
his career, but he hung onto hope
and tried a comeback in the
Mexican Summer League in 1993.
Mexico was warm and sunny,
and Harrison earned $4,500 a
month, but it was far from paradise.
Once, he was threatened at
knife-point by a taco-stand owner
in Mexico City because he was
American.
Somehow, Harrison found away
to laugh about the threats and poor
living conditions.
But he rarely found humor,
excitement or fun in baseball
anymore.
He struggled with his control
and confidence.
His numbers were bad, and his
life was worse. _
One late night in the middle of
the season, he stood on a rooftop in
Puebla, Mexico, reflecting on his
life with a bottle of Corona in his
hand.
He was unhappy. He wasn’t
playing well. The game wasn’t fun.
He was tired of living out of bag.
He was almost broke. His life was
in ruins because he couldn’t stop
loving the game.
Harrison left the rooftop, packed
his bags, caught a Volkswagen taxi
See GRIESCH on 8