NU hopes win rekindles NCAA hopes
By Jay Saunders
Staff writer
With four games left in the regular
season and a 5-7 Big 12 conference
record, the Nebraska women’s basket
ball team is putting a lot of labels on the
final stretch of the season.
Crunch time. Gut-check time.
In order to get to the NCAA tourna
ment, NU Coach Paul Sanderford said
starting with tonight’s game at Texas
A&M, it’s a “must-win situation.”
• “We need to win three of four, so
every game is a must-win,” Sanderford
said. “I’d like to win four out of four and
get some momentum.”
Momentum is something the
Huskers have been unable to find since
December, which is the last time NU
won three games in a row.
Another thing Nebraska isn’t easily
stumbling across is points.
“We have a tough time scoring,”
Sanderford said. “The way we are strug
gling, we wouldn’t take Hobart State
lightly.”
Hobart State is a fictional team
Sanderford describes as an easy win.
But one won’t fmd a Hobart State in
the Big 12, which is the second-tough
est conference according to the latest
Ratings Percentage Index.
Texas A&M may be the closest
thing to Hobart State on the schedule.
The Aggies (7-15 overall and 2-10 in the
Big 12 Conference) are in last place in
the Big 12.
Something has to give tonight. The
Aggies have not won a conference game
at home this season. In contrast,
Nebraska is 0-6 in road conference
games.
“We lost games we weren’t sup
posed to,” junior Brooke Schwartz said
“Now it comes down to these games,
and we have to win them.”
First-year Coach Peggie Gillom’s
Aggies are in the middle of a five-game
losing streak.
To make matters worse, starting
point guard Kim Tarkington has a
bruised wrist and will see limited
actioa
The possible loss ofTaikington lim
its A&M’s options. The Aggies usually
use a seven-player rotation.
“A&M is struggling right now,”
Sanderford said. “But they are strug
gling close with everybody. We still
have to prove we can get after it”
Schwartz said the goal of three wins
in the next four games would help die
Huskers charge towards the NCAA
tournament, part of which is during
Nebraska’s spring break.
“I think our team is coming together
when other teams are starting to fold,”
Schwartz said. “I don’t have any tickets
to Cancun; I plan on tying up my sneak
ers.
I Eligibility standards differ
RULES from page 7
qualifiers.
The Pac-10 copied the same initial
eligibility standards of die Big 12, and
developed the exact policy, said Bill
Morgan, assistant athletic director of
compliance at the University of
Arizona.
The Southeastern Conference has
similar standards as the Big 12 and the
Pac-10, but it’s a little less restrictive.
Four male partial qualifiers (two in
football, one in basketball and one in
any other male sport) and four females
(one in women’s basketball and three in
other sports) are allowed each year, said
Associate Southeastern Conference
Commissioner Jim McCullough.
“Our presidents’ felt that only these
individualshad die best chance to grad
uate,’’ McCullough said.
In 1997, McCullough said the SEC
added the clause that one nonqualifier
I. , ; _ .. . \
could also be accepted, provided he or
she posts at least a 2.25 grade point
average and an 820 SAT, or a sum score
of 68 on die ACT. The nonqualifier then
counts against one of the four partial
qualifier totals.
Since die new rules in the Big 12,
Nebraska Basketball Coach Danny
Nee said he hasn’t felt the negative
effects he originally feared.
He hasn’t lost recruits to other
schools with more lenient conference
rules. But he still doesn’t like the
change.
“I didn’t think there was anything
wrong with die old way,” Nee said. “It
wasn’t being abused. It was successful
for several athletes. It cuts down on giv
ing kids opportunities.”
While NU hasn’t felt the effect in
basketball, Morgan said it could only be
a matter of time.
“Those schools that do have stan
dards and such rules for preventing
nonqualifiers put themselves at a
recruiting disadvantage,” Morgan said.
And Osborne contends that there is
a recruiting disadvantage, especially
when searching for the big-time, high
profile athlete.
‘Tf that player is on die bubble and
hasn’t gotten the ACT score yet,”
Osborne said, “he probably is going to
choose Ohio State because he knows he
can sit out, pay his own way and then
play his second year ifhe doesn’t get the
score.”
Paul Eggers knows of what he writes; his years
working in U.N. Vietnamese refugee camps in
Malaysia and the Philippines are the inspiration for t
Saviors, a stirring debut novel about the life and
romance of camp workers Reuben Gill and Bobbi
“Porkpie” Sortini. Meet local and Discover Great
New Writers author Paul Eggers when he reads
from, discusses, and signs copies of, Saviors.
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Markowski
plays as coach
on the floor
MARKOWSKI from page 7
say, ‘Don’t foul. Foul. Who to foul?’
because it’s tough to communicate
in a lot of arenas, just with the noise.
I want to think I am kind of a play
er/coach out on the floor.”
Tonight, Markowski plays
against one of the best coaches in
the NCAA, Eddie Sutton. Sutton, in
his 29* year, has compiled a 624
249 overall record, and has taken
four different teams to the NCAA
tournament.
“Coach Sutton has a huge win
ning percentage, so I pay attention
to what he does,” Markowski said.
'The Big 12 is a conference of qual
ity coaches. I get the scouting
reports and jot down notes as to how
they .do things, plays they run and I
pay attention to that stuff.”
Markowski gets exposure to
various styles of play in the Big 12.
Oklahoma State will slow the ball
down and try to make it a half-court,
ball-control game, Markowski said.
Other teams NU has played push the
ball up and down the court.
When Markowski starts coach
ing, he wants his teams to find a
nappy medium.
“Everybody has a unique phi
losophy,” Markowski said. “I want
to be an up-tempo team, yet I want
them to understand time and score. I
want my players to be patient when
it’s time to be patient. I took stuff
from Tim Floyd. I take stuff from
Coach Nee. I take stuff from Sutton.
I got the Kansas break written
down.
“I think I’m in a great position to
be a coach just because I have had
the opportunity to play against all
these (coaches) and to see the differ
ent schemes these teams run against
us.”
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