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Sports
Tuesday, February 27, 1996 Page 7
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Bit
Notebook 1
The Kansas State women’s bas
ketball team will forfeit 11 games
for using ineligible player Carlcne
Mitchell this season, school offi
cials announced Monday.
The Wildcats, who finished their
season with a 14-15 overall record
and 5-9 mark in the Big Eight, now
will drop to 3-26 overall and 3-11
in the conference.
Because of the forfeits, Kansas
State now will be the eighth seed in
the Big Eight Tournament and play
top-seeded Kansas in the 2 p.m.
game Saturday at the Bicentennial
Center in Salina, Kan. Oklahoma
will move up to the seventh seed
and play Colorado in the 6 p.m.
game.
On Feb. 9, before the Wildcats
were to play Nebraska, Kansas
State athletic director Max Urick
suspended Wildcat third-year coach
Brian Agler and Mitchell, a senior
point guard. Urick said Kansas
State was looking into possible
NCAA violations by Agler and
Mitchell.
Former Wildcat men’s coach
Jack Hartman was named interim
coach two hours before the Ne
braska game on Feb. 9 and coached
the Wildcats to an 81-75 win.
On Friday, Kansas State officials
announced Agler had been reas- ?
signed to a position with the Office
of the Vice President for Institu
tional Advancement.
Before her suspension, Mitchell
was averaging 5.5 points per game
and was the Wildcats’ fourth-lead
ing scorer.
AAA
Kansas junior point guard
Jacque Vaughn was named the Big
Eight player of the week Monday.
In wins over Nebraska and Kansas
State last week, Vaughn made 12
of 20 shots. He had 13 points, seven
assists and three steals against the
Huskers and 20 points against the
Wildcats.
With the Jayhawks’ victory over
Kansas State on Saturday, Kansas
clinched its 43rd conference title
and 13th and final Big Eight crown.
* * +
No Nebraska players were
named to the players’All-Big Eight
women’s team. Comhusker senior
guard Kate Galligan and junior for
ward Tina McClain were named to
the second team. The teams were
selected by a vote of the conference
players.
Named to the first team were
Missouri senior Erika Martin, Colo
rado junior Erin Scholz, Oklahoma
senior Pam Pennon, Kansas junior
guard Tomeka Dixon and Okla
homa State senior Stacy Coffey.
* * *
The RPI report for Feb. 17 listed
the Big Eight as the second stron
gest conference behind the ACC.
The Feb. 20 USA Today/Sagarin
Computer Rankings listed the Big
Eight No.4 behind the ACC, the Big
East and the Big Ten.
+ * *
Nebraska center Pyra Aarden
was erne of five players named to
the District VII Academic All-Dis
trict team Monday. Aarden, a 6
foot4 senior from Hudson, Wis.,
has earned a 3.63 cumulative grade
point average and is averaging 13.3
points and 5.8 rebounds per game
for 18-8 Nebraska.
Noteboofccomptkd by sealor reporter
Mike Hock.
Big 8 teams fighting for NCAA bid
By Vince D’Adamo
Staff Reporter
\ ' £* 7 ■* ;/
With only one week of regular-sea
son play remaining, Kansas and Iowa
State are the only NCAA Tournament
certainties among the Big Eight
schools.
The rest of the league, including
four teams still fighting for a bid, have
emerged black and blue from a gruel
ing conference season, league coaches
said Monday.
Big Eight champion Kansas is 24
2 overall and 12-1 in the conference
after Monday night’s victory over
Missouri. The Jayhawks have earned
the No. 1 seed in the league tourna
ment, March 8-10, and will play ei
ther Colorado or Nebraska in the first
round.
With a win at Oklahoma on Satur
day, Kansas would be in good posi
tion to also claim a No. 1 seed in the
NCAA Tournament. The pairings will
be announced March 10.
Iowa State coach Tim Floyd, who
has led his troops to a 19-7 and 8-4
mark, defended the Big Eight, which
has been called a weak conference this
season.
“This is a very good league,” Floyd
said. “I think we’ll be well repre
sented.”
Since the NCAA Tournament ex
panded its field to 64 teams in 1984
85, every Big Eight team that has fin
ished its regular season with seven or
more wins in conference play and 17
Division I wins has advanced to the
NCAA Tournament.
Other than Kansas and Iowa State
—which already have met those stan
dards — Oklahoma, Kansas State,
Missouri and Oklahoma State still
have hopes of going to the big dance.
But the NCAA Tournament prob
ably will not take more than four Big
Eight teams, which will leave two of
those teams disappointed and bound
for the NIT.
The Sooncrs, at 16-10 and 7-5, are
the on the verge of securing an NCAA
bid. Oklahoma, which has games re
maining against Oklahoma State and
Kansas, controls its own fate, Sooner
coach Kelvin Sampson said.
Sampson said it was difficult to say
how the selection committee would
view the Big Eight this season.
Big ght Standings #
Team Conference Overall
Wins Losses Wins Losses
Iowa State 8-4 19 7
% 5 b 1 a—
Kansas State 6 6 15 9
Oklahoma State 5 7 15 9
IH t 1 I ^ 9 1 Hi
Colorado 2 10 8 16
Kansas State is 15-9 and 6-6. Wild
cat coach TomAsbury said every game
in the Big Eight this season had been
a fight, causing teams to wear each
other out.
“You’ve got teams in the middle
beating up on each other,” Asbury said.
“There’s so much balance in the
middle, and you’ve got a lot of great
coaches.”
Missouri is 16-12 and 6-7, but the
Tigers still have hopes of qualifying
for the tournament with a win over
Oklahoma State on Saturday in Co
See BIG EIGHT on 8
On the rise_
Travis Heying/DN
Sophomore gymnast Jim Koziol came to UNL on a partial scholarship in 1994. Koziol has
been Nebraska’s top all-arounder this season.
Koziol leads NU in all-around
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Five years ago, Jim Koziol didn’t
even think about gymnastics.
In his freshman year of high
school, after six years of training at
the Cahoy School of Gymnastics in
Omaha, Koziol decided to quit the
sport because of bone chips in his
elbow and chronic knee problems.
He spent the next three years at
tending high school at Millard
South and working a part-time job.
But in his senior year, a friend con
vinced him to come back to gym
nastics.
So after a three-year hiatus and
only two weeks of practice, Koziol
competed in the all-around at the
1994 High School national cham
pionships.
He won.
“I didn’t think things would de
velop like they did,” Koziol said. “I
was just doing it for fun.”
7didn’t think things would develop like they did. 1
was just doing it for fun. ”
JIM KOZIOL
Nebraska gymnast
Nebraska coach Francis Allen
saw Koziol compete in high school,
but Allen said he never considered
recruiting him.
But in the summer of 1994,
former Husker Dennis Harrison and
1980 Olympian Phil Cahoy con
vinced Allen that Koziol had the
potential to be an outstanding gym
nast.
“He (Cahoy) called me on the
phone and told me this kid was go
ing to come around,” Allen said.
“That was enough to convince me
to give him a chance.”
Allen gave Koziol a partial
scholarship, and Cahoy’s prediction
began to come true.
“He came in here with some
thing to prove,” Allen said. “He was
OK, but he wasn’t an outstanding
gymnast like he is now.”
Since coming to Nebraska,
Koziol has proven that he is not
only worthy of the scholarship, but
one of the nation’s top all
arounders.
At this year’s Winter Cup Chal
lenge in Colorado Springs, Colo.,
Koziol won the all-around in the 19
and-over division, earning a spot on
U.S. Team 2000.
' See KOZIOL on 8
Frazier ill
with sinus
infection
From the Associated Press
All-American quarterback Tommie
Frazier, struck with a serious sinus in
fection, has been treated at a hospital,
the son of Nebraska’s football coach
said Monday.
Mike Osborne, whose father Tom
Osborne was not reached for comment,
said that Frazier was ill and had been
hospitalized, but he would not elabo
rate. He then referred questions to the
Nebraska Athletic Department.
“I’m not able to confirm any medi
cal information at this time,” said Chris
Anderson, Nebraska sports informa
tion director.
Anderson said she didn’t know if
there would be a time when she could
confirm any information.
The Associated Press checked with
every hospital in Lincoln and with the
University of Nebraska Medical Cen
ter in Omaha. All said Frazier was not
a patient.
Mike Osborne said Frazier was
quite sick last weekend when he vis
ited Norfolk to appear at a book store
to sign posters.
Osborne is involved in a Lincoln
business called Husker Video, which
helped with the promotion in Norfolk.
He was reluctant to talk about Frazier’s
condition.
“You’re safe to say that Tommie is
sick,” he said.
As a matter of courtesy, Osborne
said he wanted to let the Norfolk book
store owner know how Frazier was
doing.
1 wanted to let her know that, yes,
he was in the hospital,” Osborne said.
The book store owner, who did not
want to be identified, confirmed that
Frazier was ill and had to take several
rest breaks during his appearance on
Saturday.
Frazier missed seven games in
1994, his junior year, because of blood
clots in his right leg. The clots were
successfully dissolved and he returned
to play in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1,
1995.
As a senior, he led Nebraska to its
second straight national championship
and was named the most valuable
player in Nebraska’s 62-24 Fiesta
Bowl win over Florida on Jan. 2.
Frazier, the 1995 Heisman Trophy
runner-up, is the all-time total offense
leader in Comhusker history.
