Nee’s team still hopes for NCAA appearance
Cyclones ready
to win face-off
with Huskers
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg has started all
four years and was one of four returning starters
from last year’s 14-13 Cyclone team.
That is exactly why Hoiberg said the Cy
clones must finish their season with a win, even
if it is on the road.
When Hoiberg brings his 24.5-point scoring
average to the Bob Devaney Sports Center
Sunday, he expects to leave with his first win
ever in Lincoln.
“We have too much experience to be won
dering if we can win on the road,” Hoiberg said.
“We’ve all played so many games on the road
together, and we really need to win this last one.
It’s tough playing on the road in the Big Eight,
but we can’t use that as an excuse. We just need
to go there and win.”
Iowa State has lost four straight games to the
Comhuskers in Lincoln, but Nebraska already
has lost four conference games at home this
season.
Hoiberg, grandson of former Nebraska coach
lerry Bush (1955-63), said he didn’t think it
would matter that Nebraska hadn’t won at home
since its win over Oklahoma Feb. 1.
“It’s tough when you lose at home,” Hoiberg
said. “We’ve lost some at home, and it’s hard
^h,en your own crpwd gets down on you. Then
you have to try to go on the road and steal some
victories. I don’t think it will matter Sunday that
Nebraska has lost some at home.
“It’s tough playing in the Devaney Center.
They have a very loud crowd, and we’ve never
been able to win there. I think it’s one of the top
three or four toughest places to play in the Big
Eight.”
But Iowa State should have much more on
the line than the Huskers.
Nebraska dropped to 17-11 overall with its
See FRED on 8
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska’s Chris Sallee fights for control of the ball with Kansas State’s Tyrone
Davis, left, and Elliot Hatcher during the Cornhuskers’ loss on Wednesday
night in Manhattan, Kan.
Huskers look
ahead to Cyclones,
Big Eight Tourney
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter —
Back to back losses to the Big Eight’s two
worst teams have damaged the Nebraska bas
ketball team’s NCAA Tournament hopes, but at
least two Comhuskers aren’t ready to give up.
Nebraska’s top two scorers, junior guards
Jaron Boone and Erick Strickland, said Wednes
day night after losing to Kansas State that the
Huskers could still make their fifth straight
tournament appearance.
“We still got to play,” said Boone, who
scored 26 points against the Wildcats, the sev
enth time in the last eight games he has scored
20 or more points. “We still got to go forward.
We still got to go for our goal to get back to
NCAA.”
Sunday at 12:30 p.m., the Huskers play host
to Iowa State at the Bob Devaney Sports Center
in a game that the Huskers need to win, Strickland
said.
“We have just got to keep working,”
Strickland said. “We are playing hard, it’s just
not happening. It just seems like we can’t get
over the hump.”
The Cyclones, much like the Huskers, have
struggled in the Big Eight after a successful
non-conference season. Iowa State, which lost
71-68 at home to Oklahoma on Wednesday, is
5-8 in the Big Eight and 19-9 overall.
If Nebraska beats the Cyclones, the Huskers
still have a chance to finish fifth in the final
league standings. A loss would secure Nebraska
either a sixth or seventh seed in the Big Eight
Tournament next weekend in Kansas City, Mo.
A fifth-place conference finish would pit
Nebraska against Missouri in the first-round of
the conference tournament on Friday, March
10.
If the Huskers finish sixth, they would play
Oklahoma in the first round, and if Nebraska
finishes seventh, they would play the loser of
Soo IOWA CTATE An O
Beck hopes her Huskers have
seventh-seed magic in tourney
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Even though Colorado swept
through the Big Eight undefeated, the
BigEight women’s coaches agree that
any team has a chance to win the Big
Eight Tournament.
The tournament starts Saturday in
Salina, Kan.
Last year, Missouri shocked ev
eryone by winning the tournament as
the seventh seed.
This year Nebraska is the seventh
seed, and Coach Angela Beck said she
hoped that seventh-seed magic held
true again when the Comhuskers play
Oklahoma Saturday at 6 p.m.
“This is a real dangerous matchup,”
Beck said. “I know it’s not the matchup
Oklahoma wants.”
Beck could be right.
Nebraska beat the Sooners in last
season’s tournament, 73-56.
This year the Sooners have beaten
Nebraska twice by a combined three
[joints.
Oklahoma coach Burl Plunkett said
Nebraska presented a problem for his
19-6 Sooners.
“Nebraska is scary,” Plunkett said.
“It’s a tough draw because they have
the kind of team that can win it all.”
Although the Huskers have played
well, Beck said things would not be
sasy.
“They’re the type of team that if
fou overly focus on one player, some
>ne else could have a great game,” she
1 9-99199■nnHi—“—*
said.
If the Huskers get by the Sooners,
they will continue to have their hands
full.
The sixth seed and last year’s cham
pion, Missouri, will play Kansas in the
first round.
Missouri coach Johann Rutherford
said she wouldn’t be surprised to see
the lower-seeded teams like Nebraska
do some damage like her team did last
year.
“The parity is unbelievable in the
league,” Rutherford said. “If Iowa
State won the tournament, that
wouldn’t surprise me.”
If the Cyclones have any chance of
doing that, they will have to defeat
No. 3 Colorado in the first round.
Iowa State coach Theresa Becker,
a former Nebraska assistant, said her
team could build off last year’s tough
66-55 loss to the Buffaloes.
“It would take a tremendous effort
from tip-off,” Becker said. “We’re
going to have to play defense like I
haven’t seen before.”
Colorado has sealed up a tour
nament bid with a 24-2 record.
Colorado coach Ceal Barry said
her team was focusing on earning a
No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Beck said it would be interesting to
see what happened in the tournament
this season.
“I think there are several danger
ous matchups in the first round,” Beck
said. “A concern that I have is that in
the last three or four contests, we have
built some major leads in the first half
and have not really played the quality
second half that I’d like to see.”
Huskers hope to pin
Big 8 championship
By Andrew strnad
Staff Reporter 1
With the home-mat advantage
and the No. 3 ranking in the nation
in its comer, the Nebraska wres
tling team is looking for its second
Big Eight title in three seasons.
Playing host to the Big Eight
Championships at the NU Coliseum
is definitely an edge for the
Comhuskers, Comhusker coach
Tim Neumann said.
The Big Eight Championships
begin at noon on Sunday with pre
liminary matches. Semifinal
matches start at 1 p.m. The champi
onship matches are slated to begin
at 8 p.m.
“We had the conference tour
nament here in 1990,” Neumann
said, “and we had either the third
or fourth-best team in the tourna
ment and wound up finishing sec
ond.
“The crowd really was incred
ible that year. Having the meet at
the Coliseum gets the crowd even
more behind us, and our guys are
getting used to winning in the Coli
seum.”
But second-ranked Oklahoma
State is also used to winning in the
Coliseum. The Cowboys defeated
Nebraska there at the National Du
als, and they enter the tournament
as the favorite, Neumann said, but
thisyear’s tournament will godown
to the wire.
“This is the most competitive
Big Eight Tournament in recent
years,” Neumann said. “Oklahoma
State is still favored to win, but not
by as much as in the past.”
Neumann’s positive outlook is
directly related to the fact that four
Nebraska wrestlers will likely re
ceive top seeds in their respective
weight classes.
Nebraska’s top-seeded wrestlers
are 126-pounder Steve Baer,
Temoer Terry (150), Erik Joseph
son (167) and heavyweight Tolly
Thompson.
“If our top guys wrestle to their
seeds, it’s going to be hard for any
one to beat us,” Neumann said.
“Then we feel like we’ve got sev
eral guys who should also get us
some key points that could put us
over the top.”
As well as determining the con
ference champion, the top three fin
ishers in each weight class will au
tomatically qualify for the NCAA
Championships, set for March 16
18 in Iowa City, Iowa.
Neumann said he thought all 10
of his wrestlers had a good chance
to qualify for the national meet.