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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1998)
Mike Kluck Role change unfortunate for Barone The ugliness of college athletics reared its head Monday with the reas signment of Texas A&M Coach Tony Barone. Barone, who was hired away from Creighton seven seasons ago to bring the Aggies back to national promi nence, now will probably never coach another college basketball game. Granted, Barone had only one winning season at Texas A&M, but did his basketball knowledge melt when he went to College Station, Texas0 Barone was hot property when he was hired away from Creighton after leading the Bluejays to a victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He then took over an Aggie pro gram that had just been placed on NCAA probation and was facing scholarship reductions. He also was promised to have the use of a new building, so he could compete in recruiting battles against schools with mega complexes. The new building is expected to be ready next season. One thing not measured by wins and losses is Barone’s love for the game. I worked Barone's basketball camps for three summers, and the two things I learned most about him were he knew how to coach and he cared about the people and children around him. Barone helped me with jobs and lent support when I needed it. 1 didn’t have a long-standing relationship with him - just worked his camps three dif ferent weeks, three different years. I had nothing to offer Barone. My jobs at the time didn’t put me in con tact with children who could compete at the Division I level. But that didn’t matter to Barone. He still treated me with respect and acceptance and was willing to help. Barone’s roster this season was dropped to eight because of injuries to five players, including two who would have been major contributors for the Aggies. However, that didn t stop Barone from coaching. His Aggie team this season was one of the hardest-playing teams in the conference. Even Nebraska coaches and players said Texas A&M was a dangerous team. But Barone was teaching more than basketball. On Monday during the Big 12 teleconference$|Jarone said his players have had mortofaif oppor tunity to learn this season about life and the unfairness of it. “We have to be a little lightheart ed,” Barone said. “If we don’t under stand that sport in general is a micro cosm of how we live, then something is wrong Getting criticized and not winning is all a part of life.” And no matter how wrong it may be. so is reassignment. Mike Kiuck is a graduate stu dent and a Daily Nebraskan special projects reporter. NU sneaks past Mizzou I2gg By Sam McKewon Senior Reporter Nebraska gave Missouri plenty of chances to win Wednesday night. The Tigers didn’t take them. MU missed three shots in the last seven seconds allowing the Cornhuskers to escape with a 67-66 overtime win. NU moved to 16-10 overall and 7-6 in the Big 12 Conference. “It was just one of those games where you’re happy to win,” Nebraska Coach Danny Nee said. “No one’s going to look at it any different.” A crowd of 10,854 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center watched the Huskers jump out to a 67-62 lead with 52 seconds left in overtime with a Tyronn Lue free throw. Missouri (14 12 and 6-7) cut the lead to one with 28 seconds left. On NU’s inbounds play, Lue mis fired on a pass to forward Larry Florence, setting up Missouri's last three chances. MU forward Albert White missed a shot from 10 feet. Forward Kelly Thames missed from 3 feet. Then guard Dibi Ray was long on a 3-point er as time expired. Nee said the late turnovers almost cost Nebraska the game. “We just wanted to take care of the ball and basically we did that for four minutes,” Nee said. “But then Lue had two or three turnovers right at the end.” The game went into overtime tied at 59, although both teams had chances to win m regulation. Tiger forward Jeff Hafer missed from 8 feet away with eight seconds left in regulation. Then NU forward Venson Hamilton missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportu nity with seven seconds left. “I felt we had dodged a bullet get ting into overtime,” Nee said. But Lue said it was the Nebraska defense that gave the Huskers a chance to win. NU limited Missouri to 34.3 percent shooting for the game and forced 19 turnovers. “I thought our defense was strong,” Lue said. “The beat us on some offen sive rebounds, but our initial defense was great.” Nebraska was paced by Mexico, Mo., natives Lue and guard Cookie Belcher. Lue finished with 24 points Please see WIN on 8 Ryan Soderun/DN NEBRASKA FORWARD Chad Johnson loses a hair to Missouri center Monte" Hardge Wednesday night. The Huskers downed the Tigers 67-66 in overtime. Missed shots kill Tigers By Andrew Strnad Staff Reporter The Missouri basketball team could have played the last five minutes of Wednesday night’s game to Ben Folds Five’s “Brick.” The Tigers made a dismal 1 of 8 shots from the field in overtime - including three misses in the last seven seconds - during a 67-66 loss to Nebraska. Stewart “We had the ball point-blank - had it point-blank - but it wouldn’t go in,” Missouri Coach Norm Stewart said. The shots never did seem to fall for Stewart’s Tigers, as the team finished the game missing 14 of its last 16 attempts from the field. The Tigers had several opportuni ties to win the game in regulation, as the Huskers continued to turn the ball over. Missouri forward Jeff Hafer missed a jumper with seven seconds and the game tied, but thanks to a missed free throw by Husker center Venson Hamilton, the Tigers would get another chance to end their 22-game road losing streak. “It was in the clutches of our fin gertips,” Hafer said. “It just seems that nothing’s going our way when we’re on the road.” Please see BRICKS on 8 Swede leads NU toward title By Shannon Heffelfinger Senior Reporter Terese Aishammar likes yoga. She likes to meditate. She likes to dye her hair blue - or red or green or orange. her native Sweden, she was est woman by a popu lar magazine. She is a celebrity. In Sweden, people compare her to Dennis Rodman. And tomor row - the Swedish Aishammar sw,in™cr, who credits her fame to her wild personality as much as her world-class swimming - will attempt to help lead the Nebraska women s swim ming and diving team to its second straight Big 12 Conference Championship title. The No. 7 Huskers (7-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference), who upset Texas for the title last season, enter the cham pionships leading the conference in 11 of 18 events. The league meet begins today in Justin, 'fecas^ and few people inNebras|J%lfiW»^ lUTflUOLti Alshammar, a freshman freestyle specialist, has grown used to living in relative anonymity in Lincoln. “I think its because I'm not from the United States,” Alshammar said. “Sweden is my country, and it's hard for people here to feel proud for me and with me.” Alshammar, a Swedish National Champion and Olympian, ranks third in the nation in the 50-yard freestyle (22.73 seconds, an automatic NCAA qualifying time) and eighth in the 100 yard freestyle (50.04 seconds). In addition to those events, Alshammar will also compete in the 100 yard backstroke and will swim on four relays. Her time of 56.66 seconds in the backstroke is the best mark posted by an NU swimmer in that event this season. Alshammar also competed at the World Championships in Perth, Australia, in January, earning a sixth place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, if Alshammar $»s re*iered in Sweden after ihe World Championships, but i / barely recognized in Nebraska. Until she competes for her country in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Alshammar remains focused on the Big 12 Championships. And, of course, she hopes to contin ue to shake thmgs up a little. “I have a tattoo that says Diva,” Alshammar said “It is the word for god dess in Latin. “I've done a lot of mediation, and I think I am a goddess. I think everyone is. Everyone should think they are, in a natural way of speaking.” Huskers win despite \'poor’ performance By Sarah Dose Staff Reporter The Nebraska wrestling team did not perform Wednesday like a team that has only one meet left before the Big 12 Championships. The No. 10 Cornhuskers went against an unranked Missouri team Wednesday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in front of 1,102 fans. Although Nebraska extended its dual winning streak to three matches with a 22-15 win, NU Coach Tim Neumann said he was disappointed with his team’s performance. “We’ve trained for meets like this for 10 years and never wrestled this poorly,” Neumann said. Nebraska did not wrestle two seniors, Ryan Tobin and Jeramie Welder. Neumann said that may have had something to do with the score. “I knew it would be tough without Tobin and Welder,” he said. Another tough part of the meet was seventh-ranked Brad Vering’s near-loss at 177 pounds. Vering defeated MU’s Kevin Stroh 7-5 in overtime. l didn t wrestle my match, Vering said. “I got in a couple of situa tions where I wasted a lot of my ener gy” Vering had an illegal hold early in the match that he said hurt him a little. “Brad got frustrated, and instead of changing his a|tack, he just contin ued the same stuff that wasnlyyofIc ing,” Neumann said. Despite a few other disappointing losses, Neumann pointed out that wins by Brad Canoyer (134), Temoer Terry (158) and Brad Cooper (167) helped NU. “Canoyer was warming up with Welder before the match and had some back spasms,” Neumann said. “He wasn’t even going to go out on the mat, but he did great.” Neumann said Nebraska would have to be as fresh as possible for this Sunday’s dual with top-ranked Oklahoma State. Legendary broadcaster Caray dies RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) - Harry Caray, who took millions of fans out to the ballgame in a broad casting career that spanned almost 60 years, died Wednesday four days after collapsing at a Valentine’s Day dinner. He was believed to be 77. The often offbeat Hall of Fame announcer covered baseball’s greats from Musial to Mays to Maddux. “Holy Cow!” as he would say. “We’re going to miss old Harry,” sai^<§tai?.Mfi^, thqformer St Louis Cardinals superstar once chosen by tCarayiss the beg baseball plajerhe * had ever seen. “He was always die life of the party, the life of baseball.” Caray had a heart attack Saturday at a nightclub-restaurant with his wife, Dutchie. He died at 4:10 p.m. of brain damage caused by the attack, said Harlan Corenman, Eisenhower Medical Center spokesman. “Harry was one of a kind and nobody could sing Take Me out to the Ballgame' like he could” said first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Chicago native. “And 1 hope he's doing a seventh inning rendition in heav en.”