I
ilfe--._
Gregg Madsen
Future looks
brighter for
NU gymnasts
Nebraska Women’s Gymnastics
Coach Dan Kendig didn’t expect his
team to start out the season like it
has.
But Kendig isn’t complaining
about his team’s first showing either.
After getting little respect with
a No. 9 preseason ranking, the
Comhuskers jumped to fifth this
week — the highest ranking ever for
the team this early in the season.
The Huskers’ 193.675-point
performance at Iowa State is the
highest fust-meet score in NU his
tory, and it was the exact opposite
of what Kendig expected.
“We were trying to shoot for a
192,” Kendig said. “Honestly, I
thought it was a pleasant surprise.”
In last season’s opener, also in
Ames, Nebraska managed a medio
cre 189.775. But by the end of the
1996 season, the Huskers had im
proved their overall team score by
six points to a school-record 195.75.
If NU can manage half of last
year’s improvement this season, it
should be in great shape to qualify
for the school’s first Super Six ap
pearance at the NCAA s in
Gainesville, Fla., April 17.
Kendig said he is optimistic
about his team's chances to reach
the NCAA finals. In 1996, the
Huskers just missed qualifying for
the Super Six by .025 of a point.
Assistant Coach Rob Drass said
missing the finals last season serves
as motivation.
“It’s like we’re on a quest.”
One thing that should help NU
attain success is a difficult sched
ule. Of the 18 teams the Huskers
face this season, five were among
the 12 qualifiers for the 1996
NCAA Championships.
Nebraska will face Michigan,
Oregon State, Arizona and pre
season No. 1 UCLA on the road.
“If we can go and beat an Ari
zona or an Oregon State, or even
push UCLA, then we’ll be where we
want to be,” Drass said.
But the schedule doesn’t mean
much without talent, and the Husk
ers have plenty of that.
Seniors Shelly Bartlett and Kim
DeHaan will provide consistent
leadership and scoring.
Complementing Bartlett and
DeHaan will be five sophomores
who gained experience last season.
Courtney Brown, Amie
Dillman, Laurie McLaughlin, Misty
Oxford and Jess Swift will be the
backbone of this year’s Husker
lineup, Drass said.
All the factors add up to a squad
that could become the best ever at
NU. Only time will tell, but if the
first meet of the season is any indi
cation, the Huskers could be headed
toward a trip to the Super Six.
Madsen is a junior news-edi
torial major and a Daily Nebras
kan staff reporter.
Matt Miller/DN
LARRY FLORENCE (left) and Venson Hamilton battle Kansas State’s Mark Young
for the ball. Florence scored 12 points and Hamilton added 10 in NU’s 87-77
come-from-behind overtime win.
Convention
finally gets
the job done
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For
years, the NCAA has taken a beating
from critics as well as its own mem
bers. Kooky rules, paranoia, cheating.
Too much bureaucracy.
Even NCAA Executive Director
Cedric Dempsey scolded the members,
asking them to get their act together at
the 91st NCAA Convention.
By Tuesday, when the convention
came to a close, the NCAA’s stuffy old
image seemed to give way to a wave
of optimism, punctuated by several his
toric decisions — like allowing athletes
to work part time and granting a fourth
year of eligibility to partial qualifiers.
“Have you ever seen a convention
like this?” outgoing NCAA President
Gene Corrigan asked. “You never want
to think you have a pat hand going into
anything. Sure, there was a little con
tention here, a little contention there,
but I think we settled everything.”
For once this much maligned group
did.
From restructuring the way the
NCAA conducts business — no longer
will there be a one-school, one-vote
mentality when it comes to the big
powers — to giving athletes a chance
Please see WRAPUP on 10
By Jay Saunders
Staff Reporter
Just when it looked as if the Ne
braska women’s basketball team
was going to lose its second straight
home conference game, the_
Comuskers relied on its defense to
stop Kansas State.
Although being out-rebounded
and out-shot NU avoided a disaster
beating the Wildcats 53-47 in front
of 3,200 fans at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center Wednesday night.
The Huskers were out-re
bounded 38-32, but the NU defense
came through forcing 33 KSU turn
overs. The Wildcats, who average
19 turnovers a game had 20 in the
second half.
Nebraska turned the ball over 20
times, but forced Kansas State into
a season-high for turnovers.
Coach Angela Beck said the de
fense was the backbone of the vic
tory.
“Our defense was real critical
down the stretch,” Beck said. “I
thought the effort was there and we
had a couple of good skills.”
Although the Huskers (12-1,2
1 in the conference) only shot 40
percent from the field, senior Anna
DeForge sparked the offense mak
ing 6 of 12 shots from the field for
a game-high 15 points. DeForge
Nebraska defense
smothers Wildcats
\
Matt Miller/DN
ANNA DeFORGE dribbles around
Andria Jones in NU’s 53-47 win
Wednesday night.
also grabbed a game-high 12 re
bounds.
Despite her performance,
DeForge credited the win to her
teammates.
“I didn’t have the best game to
night,” DeForge who averages 14.5
Please see WOMEN on 11
---i
Cats can’t
match Nll’h
sacand half
Lue hits for 29 in the
Huskers’ second
straight league win.
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
Down 18 points at halftime and
beaten in every aspect of the game, the
Nebraska basketball team could have
hardly been blamed for throwing in the
towel on Wednesday night.
But the cardiac Comhuskers re
fused to lose focus and managed to chip
away at Kansas State’s seemingly in
surmountable advantage in a game as
two-faced as any NU Coach Danny
Nee can remember.
By the final minute of regulation,
Nebraska finally tied the game at 72,
forcing overtime and eventually forg
ing an 87-77 win before 10,019 fans at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
“A lot of guys would have folded
and went home down 18, 19 points,”
Nee said. “But my guys never panicked
and found a way to win.”
Nebraska (10-5 overall and 2-1 in
the Big 12 Conference) won its third
consecutive game and second straight
in the conference, out-scoring Kansas
State 57-29 after the the first half.
“Basically everybody started ball
ing like they were supposed to ball,”
said NU senior Mikki Moore, one of
seven players — including three Husk
ers — to foul out of the contest. “It just
shows that we don’t give up. This team
has heart, and we want to win.
“We didn’t have any doubts.”
All doubts aside, NU’s hopes
looked grim after the first 20 minutes.
Kansas State (7-6 and 0-3) led the
Huskers 48-30, shooting 52 percent to
NU’s 33 and out-rebounding the taller
Huskers 26-15.
Nebraska’s gigantic comeback be
gan on the defensive end, where the
Huskers used a 1-3-1 trapping zone to
scramble the Wildcats’ offensive game
plan.
“Give them credit,” said KSU
Coach Tom Asbury, whose team had
lost its three previous road games by
114 points. “They made a change at
halftime that really bothered us. We
just couldn’t get shots. We were con
servative and we stopped attacking.”
At the offensive end, Nebraska also
stepped up its intensity, looking once
again to point guard Tyronn Lue, who
delivered 29 points for the second
straight game. The 6-foot sophomore
also recorded six assists and six steals.
The Huskers held KSU to two field
Please see MEN on 10
New rule
pleases
NlPs Allen
NCAA legislation
supports Olympic
sports.
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
With the approval of legislation that
promises the NCAA will financially
back all Olympic sports, one Nebraska
athletic program
can breathe a big
sigh of relief.
Tuesday, the fi
nal day of the
NCAA Conven
tion in Nashville,
Tenn., delegates
passed a bill that
ensures the preser
vation of several
collegiate sports *'"®n
like men’s gym
nastics, lacrosse and water polo that
were on the verge of extinction.
For the Nebraska men’s gymnastics
team, the legislation means a somewhat
secure future for a sport that has won
eight national championships.
Nebraska senior men’s gymnast
Ted Harris, who served as a represen
tative on the Student Athletic Advisory
Please see NCAA on 10
