Sports
5 Monday, March 25,1996 ! Page 7
Mitch Sherman
Huskers turn
disaster into
respectability
A month ago, nobody expected
the Nebraska basketball team to be
practicing on March 24.
But from noon until 1 p.m. Sun
day afternoon, the Cornhuskers ran
up and down the Dcvancy Center
floor, refining fundamentals and
preparing for the National Invita
tion Tournament Final Four.
Outside the arena sat a bus with
the words, “Go Big Red,” plastered
on the upper left comer of the wind
shield. Shortly after 2 p.m., the play
ers and coaches were shipped to
Omaha, where they flew directly to
New York and Madison Square
Garden.
Oh, how things have changed.
Nebraska is one of only eight
teams in the nation still breathing.
Thcsc^isjbp: sam^players who,,
drew heaps of criticism only weeks
ago, the same players who had no
sense of unity during their disas
trous Big Eight season, the same
players who boycotted practice and
rebelled against their coach.
Nebraska was lucky to earn an
invitation to the NIT. Once in, the
Huskers were supposed to die in the
first round at the hands of upstart
Colorado State.
After that, it was Washington
State’s NBA-bound power forward
Mark Hendrickson who was ex
pected to bury Nebraska. That didn’t
happen, but Jerry Tarkanian loomed
in the way of a trip to the Big Apple.
The Huskers didn’t have a chance
to snap Fresno State’s 15-game
home-court winning streak.
The game wasn’t even close.
The Huskers won by 12 points, and
suddenly they’re headed to New
York on a three-game winning
streak. They’ve won four of their
last five and have averaged 85 points
per game in the NIT.
“We’re not living in the past,” a
smiling, enthusiastic Nee said Sun
day. “We are happy where we are,”
Where the Huskers are is some
where on the road back to respect
ability. They are the only team left
to represent the dying Big Eight
Con ference. Nee’s job, which was
in jeopardy last month, appears to
be secure for at least another year.
Nebraska’s seniors arc playing
like seniors. Somewhere—maybe
it was the end of the regular season,
maybe it was the heartbreaking loss
to Iowa Slate in the Big Eight Tour
nament — these players remem
bered how to have fun. And with
that, they remembered how to win.
“What was then and what is now
arc two different things,” Nee said.
“This is our old team, the one you
saw in early December and Janu
ary. It’s absolutely the old basket
ball team.”
The NIT is not all that impor
tant. Winning it would be nice, but
what is important is that the Husk
ers have found the cure to the sick
ness that was eating away at their
basketball program.
Sbermaa Is a Jaalor aews-edltorlal
major aad tbe Dally Nebraskaa sports
editor.
NU takes growl out of Bulldogs
12-point win over Fresno St. propels Huskers to third NIT Final Four
By Brian R. Fisher_
DN Correspondent
FRESNO, Calif. — When Coach
Danny Nee saw his team fall 13 points
behind Fresno State in the first half
Friday, he wasn’t worried.
Instead, Nee relied on his team’s
experience to beat the Bulldogs 83-71
and advance to the Final Four of the
National Invitation Tournament. The
Cornhuskcrs, 19-14, will play Tulane,
21-9, at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Madison
Square Garden.
Tulane has beaten Illinois State,
Minnesota and Auburn in the NIT.
“Tulane is probably as athletic of a
team as we’ve played since I’ve been
at Nebraska,” Nee said. “They come
out of a conference that I think is a
Underdogs
earn Final
Four spots
DENVER (AP)—Underdogs Syra
cuse and Mississippi State on Sunday
joined top seeds Kentucky and Massa
chusetts to fill the last spots for next
weekend’s Final Four in East
Rutherford, N.J.
Syracuse upset No. 2 seed Kansas
u6Q-57 jq jym thfi, Wctd, fagiqnaj, AP4,,
earn a Final Four berth for the first
time since 1987.
“No one picked us to even get to a
regional final,” Syracuse coach Jim
Boeheim said. “The kids didn’t worry
about that. Theyjust came out to play.”
Kansas managed to hold Syracuse
star John Wallace in check, but in a
game in which the Jayhawks desper
ately needed the outside shot, they
could hit only four of 25 3-point at
tempts.
The final errant attempt by point
guard Jacque Vaughn was symbolic of
Kansas’ inability to hit the long shot.
The Jayhawks had plenty of time, but
Vaughn was forced to take a shot at the
last second.
“I had a pretty good look, but it just
didn’t go,” Vaughn said. “Our thoughts
were to get that shot off a little faster
and maybe get a rebound i fwe missed.”
Syracuse will face Mississippi State,
a 73-63 winner over Cincinnati on
Sunday, in a national semifinal Satur
day at the Meadowlands.
Second-seed Cincinnati was the lat
est high-profile team to fall to Missis
sippi State, which suddenly has
grabbed the nation’s attention.
Mississippi State beat thcn-No. 1
Kentucky in the Southeastern Confer
ence Tournament championship game
14 days ago and knocked out top
seeded Connecticut on Friday night in
the Southeast Regional semifinals.
“Dreams are coming true for us,”
said Dontac’ Jones, who led the Bull
dogs with 23 points and 13 rebounds.
great basketball conference.”
The Green Wave were 9-5 in Con
ference USA, which sent Memphis,
Louisville, Marquette and Cincinnati
o the NCAA Tournament.
St. Joseph’s and Alabama will play
in the other semifinal game Tuesday
light. The consolation and the cham
lionship games will be played Thurs
day.
“We are happy to be where we are,”
Nee said. “We appreciate the opportu
nity, and now we are going to New
York to try to put another good game
together.”
The Huskers put a solid game to
gether against Fresno State, silencing
a sellout crowd of 10,132 at Sclland
Arena.
Nebraska had trouble early han
Matt Miller/DN
Nebraska senior Jason Christie competes on the parallel
bars Saturday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Christie tied Ohio State’s Blaine Wilson for first place on
the horizontal bars, but the Nebraska lost to the Buckeyes
despite a season-high team score. The Nebraska women
also competed against Southern Utah and set an all-time
record with a score of 195.75. See story on page 8.
National Invitation Tournament Final Four
Madison Square Garden, New York
Tuesday, 6 p.m. Thursday, 6 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Nebraska (19-14) Consolation Game st. Joseph's (18-12)
VS. Thursday, 8 p.m. VS.
Tulane (21*9) championship Game Alabama (19-11)
tiling the quickness of Bulldog guard
Dominick Young and beating the
Fresno State full-court pressure.
Young scored the first nine points
of the game for the Bulldogs on three
3-pointers. He finished the game with
a game-high 25 points. Darnell
McCulloch added 18 points for Fresno
State.
The Huskcrs committed 11 turn
overs in the first 7:20 of the game and
trailed 24-11. In the first half, Ne
braska committed 17 turnovers, but
had only four in the second half.
See NIT on 8
place 5th
at NCAAs
By Antone Oseka
Staff Reporter
MINNEAPOLIS — It was said
before the NCAA Wrestling Champi
onships began that no team could beat
Iowa.
A Jot of learns tried. A lot of teams
failed.'
Iowa won its second consecutive
and 16th overall NCAA Champion
ship with 122.5 team points in front of
a crowd of 13,979 fans at the Target
Center. It was the second-largest total
crowd in tournament history with
77,489 fans attending the three-day
event.
Nebraska held the No. 2 spot for
most of the day Friday, but all of
Nebraska’s wrestlers lost before the
championship round, dropping the
Cornhuskcrs in the team race.
Iowa coach Dan Gable said he had
ups and downs in the tournament. Gable
gave away the secret to winning 16
NCAA titles.
“Never be satisfied with what you
accomplish,” he said.
Nebraska finished fifth behind
Iowa, Iowa State, Cal-Statc Bakers
field and Penn State. The Huskcrs
brought home four wrestlers with All
American honors, but no national
champions.
158-pounder Temoer Terry, 190
pouirder Ryan Tobin and heavyweight
Tolly Thompson all placed third. 167
pounder Chad Nelson earned his-first
All-American honor with an eighth
place finish this year.
The other five of Nebraska’s nine
qualifiers were out of the tournament
Friday.
118-pounder Brad Canoycr
couldn’t match his All-American fin
See WRESTLING on 8
Nebraska hones to learn from NCAA loss
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
STANFORD, Calif.—Losing 66
62 to Colorado State in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament won’t hurt
the future of the Nebraska women’s
basketball team—as long as the play
ers learn from their experience, Coach
Angela Beck said.
The Comhuskers finished 19-10
after losing to the Rams on March 17
at Maples Pavilion on the campus of
Stanford University in the NCAA West
Regional.
The Huskers must continue to im
prove, Beck said, but the first-round
JL
“This team made tremendous strides from last
year, bringing us to an NCAA level. ”
ANGELA BECK
Nebraska women’s basketball coach
loss will help them.
“I think it issomethingweean learn
from and build on,” Beck said. “This
team made tremendous strides from
last year, bringing us to an NCAA
level. And with our recruitment next
year, 1 look for us to learn from this
experience and become a little bit bet
ter in the future.”
One reason for Beck’s optimisn
was the performance of Nebraska’:
underclassmen against Colorado State
especiallyjunior guard LaToya Doage
The transfer from Lincoln (111.) Jun
ior College, who earned honorabk
mention All-Big Eight, scored 1(
points for the Huskers — including
back-to-back baskets that cut the Ranis’
lead from six to two points with four
minutes remaining in the game.
She also led Nebraska with three
steals, including two against Ram se
nior guard Dee Dec Dominguez. Those
two steals brought praise from Colo
rado State coach Greg Williams. >
“They bring Doagc in off the bench
and she picks Dec Dee Dominguez a
i couple of times,” Williams said. “That
; never happened to Dec Dee Dominguez
, in her entire career, let alone in a three
, minute stretch. So we had to make a
■ change there.” ,
\ See END on 8
NU gymnasts fail short Wrestlers
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