Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1997)
V The Big 12 Conference had 33 players taken in this weekend’s Na tional Football League draft. Texas comerback Bryant Westbrook was the highest Big 12 selection as the fifth pick overall by the Detroit Li ons. The last Big 12 player was also a Longhorn. Texas tight end Pat Fitzgerald was picked in the sev enth round as die 226th pick by Buffalo. Nebraska had the most players chosen with eight. UT and Colo rado followed with six, Texas A&M with four, Kansas had three, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Kansas State each had two and Baylor and Texas Tech with one player taken apiece. ■ I Oklahoma catcher Javier Flores and Texas right-hander Rad Weaver have been chosen as the Big 12 baseball pitcher and player of the week. Flores, a senior from Broken Bow, Okla., sparkled at the plate last week going 11 for 17 (.647) as OU went 4-0 against Arizona State and Nebraska. He had one home run, three doubles, six runs scored and five RBI. Weaver (4-4) pitched the first complete game of his career in shutting down Texas A&M 6-2 over the weekend. He had a career best nine strikeouts, two walks and did not surrender an earned run. ■ Nebraska football players Brian Schuster, Jeff Ogard and Damon Benning all signed free agent con tracts with the Carolina Panthers on Monday. Nebraska has a major connection to the Panther organi zation through former NU line backer coach Kevin Steele who is now the linebackers coach for Carolina. ■ Kansas State has found a re placement for the vacancy left by Volleyball Coach Jim Moore. Jim McLaughlin, a former Notre Dame assistant and coach of the South ern Cal men’s team has been named the Wildcats’ new coach. McLaughlin, who won a national title in 1990 with the Ttojans, re places Moore, who filled the job at Texas when Mick Haley took over as the U.S. National Team’s coach. ■ Oklahoma will play at North western in die Pigskin Classic. The game will take place at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Sooners fin ished the 1996 season with a 3-8 record, while the Wildcats were 8 4. Nebraska had agreed to play host to the game but could not find a suitable opponent. ■ Former Comhusker Basketball star Eric Piatkowski and his Los Angeles Clipper teammates face Utah in first round of the NBA playoffs Thursday night. It will be the first playoff appearance for Piatkowski since he was drafted in 1994. This season, Piatkowski is averaging 11.5 minutes, 6.0 points and 1.6 rebounds per game. Big 12 notebook compiled by staff reporter Peter Marhoefer. Husker women’s basketball coach will join ABL team. ByMikkKluck Senior Reporter Nebraska Women's Basketball Coach Angela Beck will accept the head coaching and assistant general manager position of the American Basketball League San Jose Lasers on Thursday. The 11-year Comhusker coach said accepting the job with a profes sional women’s team was the most difficult decision she has ever made. “I’ve always felt those difficult de cisions in the long run will turn out to be the most challenging and reward ing ones you can nuke,” Beck said. “Those decisions will test your will and challenge you to be the best that you can be.” Beck, who has directed the Huskers to three NCAA appear ances and more than 17 wins a season in her Nebraska career, - will be leaving itCk one of her most talented teams behind. With five freshmen on its roster, NU finished the season 19-9 and will have all Big 12 and All-America hon orable mention player Anna DeForge returning for her senior season. “I know I’m leaving a great situa tion, one that was built with a lot of time, pride, love and personal invest ment not only from myself but from my entire staff,” Beck said. “I feel I’m able to leave with my head high and that the program is sitting in a good situation. By no means do I think my leaving means the demise of women’s basketball at Nebraska.” Beck said the opportunities pre sented with coaching the Lasers, who finished last season 18-22 with a sec ond-place finish in the Western Divi sion behind Portland, outweighed the negatives of leaving behind an estab lished program. “I now have the opportunity to coach some of the greatest players in the game,” Beck said. “At this time the league is so much in its infancy that it’s clean. There is a lot of inno cence to it. At this stage it’s pretty healthy and people want it to happen. “I have the opportunity to build and be a part of history. I’m somebody who can be a founding person in the game and help the players who have given up so much for the game. You have to risk some comfortability to become a leader.” Gary Cavalli, the ABL’s vice presi dent for communications and market ing, said he learned about Beck a year ago from Columbus Quest Head Coach Brian Agler. Agler, the former Kansas State coach who helped lead the Quest to the first-ever ABL title this year, highly recommended Beck, Cavalli NU’s Allen sees bright future By Gregg Madsen Staff Reporter ■ ■_ i It was hard for NU Men’s Gymnastics Coach Francis Allen to miss the team portion of the NCAA Championship meet for the sec (Mid year in a row. It was even more difficult for him to watch as three teams the Comhuskers defeated during the regular season advanced to the team finals at Iowa City, Iowa, Friday night and battled for the National Championship. But missing the team championship wasn’t enough to ruin the Huskers’ 1997 season or dampen Allen’s hopes for the future of NU gymnastics. Allen said Nebraska’s strong showing at Satur day night’s individual event finals helped take away the heartbreak of not competing for his ninth na tional championship. “That means that we had some success actually,” Allen said. “I mean, look at our season. We won Please see MEN on 11 Kendig hopes team improves -——.■-' By Gbegg Madsen Staff Reporter All great things must end, even the Nebraska women's gymnastics team's 1997 season. The most successful year in school history is over, and so are the careers of Kim DeHaan and Shelly Bartlett. NU Coach Dan Kendig said the thrill of mak ing the Super Six team finals this season hasn't worn off. And despite losing DeHaan and Bartlett to graduation, Kendig said the future is bright for Comhusker gymnastics. “You’ve always got to be looking ahead,” Kendig said. “But it hasn't really hit me yet that we won't have Shelly and Kim next year.” Kendig said replacing Bartlett in the all-around and DeHaan on the floor exercise and uneven bars will be a difficult, but not impossible task. “We lost six big-time routines in losing Kim and Please see WOMEN on 11 Please see BECK on 11 Huskers start run at UNI ByMkeKluck Senior Reporter Nebraska turns its marathon soft ball season into a sprint today when the Comhuskers step out of the Big 12 Conference to face Northern Iowa. NU (20-18 overall and 6-4 in the Big 12) will play 10 games in the next seven days as it prepares for the Big 12 Tournament May 2-4 at Oklahoma City. After today’s doubleheader, which starts at 2 p.m. at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, NU travels to Iowa State to finish a doubleheader with the Cyclones on Thursday in Ames — a makeup of NU’s April 5 rain out. The doubleheader against ISU will start with NU ahead 8-0 in the bottom of the second inning. “Hie next two weeks is our sea son, literally,” NU Coach Rhonda Revelle said. “Every game within the next two weeks is like a champion ship game in my mind. Hie season is a marathon and now we are sprinting the 10K and you can t really ease your pace.” The Huskers did a good job pre paring for the next two weeks last weekend, splitting a doubleheader with conference leader No. 9 Missouri and sweeping No. 24 Kansas, which is third in the league. After losing the first game 2-0 to Missouri, which Revelle said NU had a chance of winning in the later in nings, the Huskers then outscored their opponents 16-3 in the next three games. NU pitcher Jenny Voss pitched all four complete games over the week end and finished with an eamed-run average of 1.30. She struck out 17 batters in her 27 innings of work. The freshman from Ankeny, Iowa has pitched 26 complete games this season, which ties her for second on NU’s all-time chart. “She’s going to a different place mentally,” Revelle said. “She’s find ing out what the difference is from a mental standpoint to pitch Division I softball from high school. I told her I wanted her fresh the first of May and I think she is.” Revelle said she didn’t want to make any projections about what NU needs to do to ensure a return trip to the NCAA Regional Tournament.