Baylor sends
NUtoUth
straight loss
By David Wilson
Staff Reporter
The cold March weather was sup
posed to give the Nebraska baseball
team an advantage over Southern
schools.
It didn’t happen.
Sixty-degree temperatures at Buck
Beltzer Field this weekend made
Baylor feel at home as it swept a three
game series from the Comhuskers,
who fell to 5-11 and 0-6 in the Big 12
„ Conference.
Senior left-hander Kris Lambert
allowed one earned run on five hits
through eight innings on Sunday as
the Bears (12-5 and 5-1) defeated Ne
braska 12-3. Baylor downed the Husk
ers 7-6 and 13-4 in a doubleheader
Saturday.
“He’s an outstanding pitcher ” NU
Coach John Sanders said. “They
pitched exceptionally well keeping
their pitches down in the zone. We
were throwing up in the zone. So they
were able to drive the ball and we
weren’t.”
me Bears knocked 15 nits out ot
four Husker pitchers, while the Ne
braska bats were held to seven. In the
series, the Bears out-hit NU 50-22.
Baylor catcher Chad Polk went 5
for 6 and was one of seven Bears with
multiple hits in Sunday’s game. Sec
ond baseman Eric Nelson also added
four hits for Baylor.
Nebraska right-hander Steve Fish
(2-3) took the loss for the Huskers af
ter throwing four innings and allow
ing eight earned runs on 12 hits. Fish,
who has thrown the Huskers only two
complete games this season, raised his
eamed-run average to 5.34.
“That was uncharacteristic of
him,” Sanders said. “Usually, he can
walk out to the mound and match up
with anybody. He just had an off day
and they took advantage of it.”
Baylor scored in all but the third,
sixth and seventh innings and were
never retired without having at least
one runner reach base.
But for the Huskers, offense came
sparingly.
In the third inning, third baseman
Cliffton Durham took a pitch in the
elbow with the bases loaded to knock
in NU’s first run. Durham, who started
all three games against Baylor, raised
his average to .321.
“He’s a spark of hope for us,”
Please see SKID on 11
NU is not among six
Big 12 teams to make
the NCAATbumament.
ByMikeKluck
Senior Reporter
The expression said it all. But
it wasn’t an indication of joy.
When Nebraska Women’s Bas
ketball Coach Angela Beck fell out
of her chair after the announcement
that Iowa State had made the
NCAA Tournament, she knew the
Comhuskers’, who finished the
year at 19-9, chances of making the
field of 64 were gone.
Although Beck, like the rest of
the Husker players and boosters
who gathered at the Hewitt Center
on Sunday night, waited and hoped
through the remaining 26 teams
selected for a spot in the tourna
ment she knew NU’s dream of
making the Big Dance for the sec
ond straight year had vanished.
Iowa State — which finished
me season 1 /-i 1 — eameu a izui
seed in the West Region and be
came the sixth Big 12 Conference
team to get in the NCAA Tourna
ment. The Cyclones join second
seeded Colorado, third-seeds Kan
sas and Texas, No. 8-seed Texas
Tech and lOth-seed Kansas State.
“I left front and center because
I knew that it Would be a miracle
to get seven,” Beck said. “I really
felt we would probably get six and
we would be the sixth one.
“I didn’t have a lot of fear Iowa
State would get in it, except for the
fact they had the senior women’s
administrator on the committee.”
Beck said having Elaine Hieber,
ISU’s senior associate athletic di
rector, as one of the members on
the NCAA Tournament selection
committee helped the Cyclones.
,, “It just means they have a lot
more knowledge about that team,”
Beck said. “If that’s our represen
tative for the Big 12, how much is
she really going to battle for me at
that point versus Iowa State.”
Other factors that surprised
Beck about Iowa State’s placement
in the tournament was that the Cy
clones had only one win this sea
son over a top 20 opponent, while
the Huskers had two.
Also the Huskers beat Iowa
State by 24 on Jan. 30 in Ames.
Iowa State, which will be making
its first appearance in the NCAA
Tournament, beat Nebraska 57-55
on Feb. 23 in Lincoln.
“I’m shocked at the Iowa State
situation,” Beck said. “I think
head-to-head we would beat them
anytime. Iowa State over Nebraska
doesn’t make sense to me.”
Although senior Tina
McClain’s initial reaction to ISU
making the tournament wasn’t as
visible as Beck’s, she still knew the
resounding effect.
“My hopes just kind of crashed
right about then,” McCain said.
“Not two seconds before that,
Coach Beck told us that if Iowa
State popped up, there’s probably
a good chance we aren’t going to
go. When they popped up, all the
hopes th$t we had just kind of
crashed.”
Nebraska’s non-invite to the
NCAA Tournament comes after a
season in which the Huskers opened
with a school record nine straight
wins and by the end of January had
compiled a 16-1 record.
At that point, the Huskers
looked to be a lock to make the
NCAA Tournament.
However, it was the month of
February that did NU in. Nebraska
finished the season 3-8 including
losing six of its last eight games by
26 points.
NU,UW
to meet
in NIT
_
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska
play host to a
vitation Toumame
night at 7:05
against Washing
ton at the Bob
Devaney Sports
Center:
The Huskies,
who finished sixth
inthePac 10 Con
ference with a
league record of
10-8 and an over
all mark of 17-10,
lost in the first
round of the NIT last season at Michi
gan State. NU won five straight
postseason games a year ago en route
to the NIT championship.
pair ui uiuxsexs, xviaxu. aaiuuxu
and Todd MacCulloch, lead the Hus
kies. Sanford, a 6-foot-9 junior who
is one of 39 finalists for the Wooden
Award, averages 17.9 points and 8.7
rebounds per game.
MacCulloch, a 7-foot freshman
center, averages 14.1 points, 7:2 re
bounds and shoots 67.8 percent from
the field, ranking him second nation
ally. NU Coach Danny Nee said
Comhusker coaches tried to recriiif
MacCulloch a year ago.
UW beat Southern California 94
84 Saturday in Seattle to finish with a
winning conference record for the first
time since 1987. The Huskies lost 87
85 to UCLA on Thursday and own a
3-5 record against ranked foes with
wins over Oregon, Arizona and
Stanford.
Until Sunday night, Nee said, the
Huskers had not met as a group since
losing 78-72 to Missouri Thursday in
the first round of the Big 12 Confer
ence Tournament.
“I told them to take a couple days
off and get away from basketball,” Nee
said. “The goal was to go to the
NCAA. You didn’t achieve that. Now,
the next opportunity we have is to play
another game, and that happens to be
in the NIT.”
Nee said sophomores Alvin
Mitchell and Larry Florence, sus
pended for NU’s loss to Missouri, will
rejoin the team today in practice.
Wednesday night’s game will mark
Please see NIT on 11
Lank Hickknbottom/DN
UPON LEARNING they did net nake the NCAA Teamanent, sealers Tina
McClain and Sheila McPherson shew their feelings. NU finished the
year 19-9.
SEC dominates crowns
as NU is ninth, 18th
By Andrew Sthnad
Staff Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS—Three letters can ac
curately describe the show put on at the RCA
Dome this weekend at the NCAA Indoor
Track and Field Championships.
S-E-C.
y The members of the Southeastern Confer
• ence flexed their muscles as the Arkansas
men’s team captured the title for the 13th time
in 14 years, scoring 59 points, far ahead of
second-place finisher Auburn, which scored
27.
. The Louisiana State women, who scored
49 points, also showed the nation their
strength, by winning the crown for the fifth
straight year, outdistancing Wisconsin and
Texas which each scored 39.
For both the Nebraska men’s and women’s
teams, it was a different story. The Comhusker
men couldn’t match last year’s second-place
finish. NU settled for just 12 points and fin
ished in 18th> place.
Once again two Husker men long jump
ers came home empty-handed, as Joe Laster
and Chris Wright, both amongst the nation’s
best, failed to place in the top eight.
“It was real frustrating to watch, since
they’re both such good jumpers.” NU Coach
Gary Pepin said. ‘1 don’t know why Joe has
problems here at nationals. Last week he
breaks the school record and this week, I wish
Please see TRACK on 11
• ,
Shot put championship i
fine with Thompson i
ByVince PAdamo
Staff Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS — Nebraska women’s
shot putter TYessa Thompson talked about be
coming a national champion throughout the
1997 season.
After Saturday’s NCAA Indoor TVack and
Field Championship, Thompson, a senior from
Bloomfield, left the RCA Dome swaggering
with the championship hardware.
Her throw of 59 feet outdistanced a 57 1/2
toss by Southern Methodist’s Marike Tblineme.
Thompson and the NU coaches were smil
ing like a butcher’s dog after the meet.
“You looked like the best,” NU Throws
Coach Mark Colligan said to Thompson as the
*
two embraced shortly after she accepted her
first-place plaque.
“IPs just really super,” NU Coach Gary
Pepin said. “It couldn't happen to a better per
son and a harder worker.”
Thompson, who set the collegiate indoor
record earlier this season with a heave of 60-7
3/4, said winning the national title is the ulti
mate achievement.
“I thought I'd pop a bigger throw,” Thomp
son said. **But I was consistently in the upper
50s. IPs just been one weekend at a time. I was
trying to peak at this meet.”
Thlineme defeated Thompson at the Frank
Sevigne Husker Invitational on Feb. 8. This
Please see SHOT on 11