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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1996)
Antone Oseka New rulings not all good for wrestlers Finally, the NCAA has done something to help wrestlers — in a sense. This year, the NCAA changed its rules for a wrestler who cuts weight during the season. With its new policy, the NCAA took two steps forward and one step back. Under the old system, a wres tler could wrestle at whatever weight he wanted for the entire sea son, with one restriction—he could not change weights between the conference meet and the NCAA Championships. Before this year, wrestlers were required to make weight every day they continued to advance at the NCAA Championships. If a wrestler qualified for the NCAA finals — every wrestler’s goal — he had to weigh in three times, or once every day, during the NCAA Championships. That pro vided the motivation for a wrestler to control his weight all season. This year, the NCAA has taken it upon itself to provide that moti vation. It split the wrestling season in half and allows each team to wrestle only 18 dates before the conference tournament. For the last nine dates of the sea son only, the NCAA ruled, a wres tler must make the weight at which he wants to wrestle at the NCAA Championships 75 percent of the time. For example, Harry Headlock wrestles at 177 pounds for the first nine meets of the season — no problem. Then, he decides his chances at the NCAA Champion ships doesn’t look good at 177. So he cuts weight to 167 pounds. In the second half of the season, Harry wrestles one meet at 177 pounds while he’s cutting to 167. He drops to 167 for his next three meets, and takes the remainder of the season off. rNow narry gets 10 me conier ence tournament.. He has reached the 75-percent requirement at 167, and he gets back to that weight to qualify for NCAA’s. A year ago, Harry would have been worried, because he would have had to weigh in three times at NCAA’s. But under the new system, Harry only has to weigh in once. Harry wins the national title be cause he eats, eats and eats and weighs 190 pounds wrestling in the 167-pound weight class. No one can stop him. Hello, NCAA. Are you listen ing? Bring back the three-day weigh in at the NCAA Championships. If a wrestler is dedicated to train and wrestle all season at one weight, he should have no problem making weight three times at one meet. Oseka is a senior news-edito rial m^jor and a Daily Nebraskan night news editor. aims to stop Davis ISU tailback can rewrite history against Nebraska. By Mike Kluck Senior Reporter Proving people wrong has become as common for Troy Davis as making defenders grasp for air. Before this season, the Iowa State tailback heard all the skeptics who said the 5-foot-8, 190-pound junior would never be able to repeat the success he had last season. In 1995, Davis led the nation with 2,010 yards rushing and 2,466 all-pur pose yards, setting NCAA single-sea son rushing records for a sophomore and becoming the fifth player ever to rush for more than 2,000 yards. This year, Davis leads the nation with 1,822 yards. If he rushes for 178 yards in the Cyclones’ final two games—Sat urday against Ne braska and next - week against Kan- Davis sas State — he will be the first player ever to rush for Please see DAVIS on 11 The challenge of slowing Davis excites NU’s Blackshirts. ByAntone Oseka Senior Editor For teams on the Iowa State sched ule this season, one problem has not been solved. No team can stop Troy Davis. " Davis, the Cyclones’ junior tailback, rushed for 2,010 yards last season and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. On Saturday, Nebraska faces the daunting task of trying to stop Davis, 1^' TYRONN LUE and his NU teammates will play host to Marathon Basketball tonight at 7:05. NU faces realistic test Florence returns, Markowski out for final exhibition game. By Mike Kluck Senior Reporter Over the past seven seasons, whenever the Nebraska basketball team has played a preseason exhi bition game, two things could nearly be guaranteed: an over matched opponent and a Comhusker victory. That may not be the case tonight when the Huskers play host to Marathon Basketball in a 7:05 ex hibition game at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Since a 104-102 overtime loss to Athletes in Action in 1988, Ne braska has won 16 straight pre season games, including an 82-71 victory over Pella Windows on Nov. 7. The average score has been 104-80. Marathon may present a differ ent challenge. It owns a 5-1 mark after defeating Vanderbilt 75-66 Tuesday night in Nashville, Tenn. In a win over Georgia on Saturday, Marathon battled from, a 22-point halftime deficit to defeat the Bull dogs 68-67 in Athens, Ga. Marathon has also beaten Clemson 87-81, Georgia Tech 91 62, Auburn 63-61 and lost to Ala bama 97-85. “This is going to be a very real istic test for us,” Nebraska Coach Danny Nee said. “This should be a good test to play a team of this cali ber. They have a lot of good play ers; they’re good shooting and good shooting 3-pointers. This should be a good, quality opponent. “It just wasn’t good to have any team, but I’m pleased we are going to have a competitive team to play against.” However, Nee isn’t pleased that the Huskers will be without sopho more Andy Markowski, who had arthroscopic surgery on his knee Wednesday night. Nee said he was unsure of Markowski’s status for NU!s season opener Nov. 23 in Aus tin, Texas, against Texas. Sophomore Larry Florence, who missed the first exhibition game because of a knee injury, will be available against Marathon. “We get Florence back, but we lose Markowski,” Nee said. “That’s not a good trade-off. We need them both.” Bsskctbsl fSl ■ ■ Jl ■ ■■■ , . - *mm F 34 Troy Piatkowski 6-5 200 So. G 30 Cookie Belcher 6-3 200 Fr. _I_:__!_ F 30 Kevin Holmes 6-8 G 15 Joe McLean 6-5 Even without Markowski, Nee hopes tonight’s game shows the Huskers what they have to improve on before the regular season begins. “We need to work on every thing,” Nee said. who enters the game after rushing for 228 yards against Colorado last Satur day in ISU’s 49-42 loss in Boulder. Cornhusker - rush end Grant Wistrom said the key to stopping Davis is to sur round him with 11 men each time he touches the ball. ... “If we play team defense like we’re known for, it’s going to be 11 Wistrom on one,” Wistrom said, “and we can stop anybody.” Please see DEFENSE on 11 Huskers may lose Phillips By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter The Nebraska basketball team picked up one player for the 1997-98 season on Wednesday, but may have lost another it expected to sign on the first day of the early signing period. Brant Harriman, a 6-foot-ll, 255 pound center from Mason City, Iowa, signed a letter of intent to play for the Comhuskers. But Devon Phillips, a 6 2, 180-pound guard, who attends classes at Kennedy King Junior Col lege in Chicago, said he was not sure he wants to play for NU. * Phillips, who was supposed to join the Huskers for their Dec. 21 game against Minnesota, said he is still con sidering NU but needs more time be fore announcing his final choice. “I talked to Coach (Jimmy) Will iams earlier this week,” said Phillips, who verbally committed to NU in Sep tember, “and told him I would tell him in the next couple of days about my decision.” Phillips played basketball at Mid land (Texas) Junior College for two years after failing to meet NCAA Di vision-! academic requirements out of Chicago’s Roberson High School. At Midland* he averaged 17 points per game as a sophomore and 16 points as a freshman. Phillips said he enrolled at Kennedy King Junior College over the summer and had met die necessary grade requirements. Harriman had no problem making his decision. “I never wavered a bit,” Harriman said. “I always knew I wanted to come to Nebraska and play.” Last year, Harriman — a left hander — helped Mason City to a 22 1 record and a state championship in Iowa’s largest class. Harriman was a first-team all-state selection, and he was a member of the Class 4A state-tournament team as a junior. He averaged 16.3 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots per game. He also set a state record by mak ing 69.7 percent of his field-goal at tempts and had a school-record 68 blocked shots. Since committing to Nebraska in April, Harriman has added some Please see RECRUIT on 11