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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1999)
Sports I—__ IfTXl—Hi | Sam McKewon Postseason selections for hoops Bored? Me too. Basketball’s in that in-between land, right? And it’s just not interesting. A couple of weeks before the conference tourna ments is the worst time of all. But there’s a speculation role one can take on, predicting just what’s going to transpire over the next month. for me, that means prognostica tion of postseason awards and such. Start with the All-Big 12 team. Sure, Venson Hamilton’s on it, though he won’t win player of the year. Who will? Desmond Mason of Oklahoma State. Joining Hamilton and Mason on the team ought to be Albert White of Missouri, Kris Clack of Texas and Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma State. Rookie of the year: share it between Keyon Dooling of Missouri and Jeff Boschee of Kansas. Coach of the year: Rick Bames will get it, but Danny Nee deserves it. Bames gets to play the three worst teams in the league - Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor - a combined six times. Big 12 teams that will get into the NCAA Tournament: Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri. Nebraska, Kansas. Six? Yes. Look, every confer ence but the Big 10 is down - way down. The ACC might only get, and should only get, three teams in. Two or three will advance past the first round. Only Missouri will survive the second. Nationally, no player in the Big 12 has a chance of making the First Team All-American squad. Connecticut will get two, with Richard Hamilton and Khalid El Amin. Duke adds Trajan Langdon and Elton Brand to the team. That leaves one player. I say Wally Szerczbiak of Miami-Ohio who is consistently the best player in the country. The rookie of the year is easy. Quentin Richardson of DePaul might sneak onto some All American lists after averaging 19.7 points and 11.1 rebounds a game. The coach of the year is easy. too. Cliff Ellis of Auburn has taken an overlooked team to No. 3 in the country at 25-1. There's no way he wouldn't wm it. I'm not willing to concede any Final Four lists, that'd be stupid. But I will give the four No. 1 seeds. Duke and Connecticut are absolute locks. Auburn ought to get one and is a lock with a title in the SEC Tournament. Same goes for Michigan State, which would probably get to stay in the Midwest Region. If either slip up, look for Stanford, which should win out, pos sibly to get the nod in the West Region.But there'll be more to come. Sam McKewon is a junior news-editorial and political sci ence major and a Daily Nebraskan senior editor. NU gymnasts to battle No. 4 Iowa Nebraska hopes to prove itself against Hawks By John Gaskins Staff writer There was no one to be found in the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team’s practice facility in the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday. No, the No. 8 Huskers weren’t slacking off, they just had other places to be. Like right next door in the track arena, where because of this weekend’s state high school wrestling tournament, their duals with Minnesota (Friday at 7 p.m.) and No. 4-ranked Iowa (Sunday at 1 p.m.) will be held this weekend. The team members were found scattered throughout the track arena set ting up equipment, trying to put every thing into place. And putting everything mto place is what the Huskers need to do Sunday for a win in their border war with the Hawkeyes, one of the top teams in the nation. “This will be a big one,” Men’s Coach Francis Allen said. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got the best team in the West (Regional: NU) taking on the best team in the East (Regional: UI). It’s our biggest dual of the year, at least so far,” he said. Allen said that since its first dual in 1968, the Nebraska-Iowa series has seen many classic match-ups. In their 1 1 duals, both won five against the other, and they tied once. “It seems as though every time we go there, they kick us, then every time they come here, we kick them,” Allen said. “So I guess that means we've got a lot going in our comer this weekend.” As Allen looked around the track area, he said that although it’s not the team’s usual home-competition floor, it has competed in duals there before. In Matt Miller/DN DEREK LEITER WILL HELP LEAD the Huskers this weekend against fourth-ranked Iowa on Sunday. fact, it was the site of what he considered one of the best duals in history. “UCLA came up m here in 1983 when they had three Olympians, and we had three Olympians,” Allen said. “And we fought them in this room. It was awe some. They packed the place full. In fact, we had to grab extra folding chairs to put on the floor - the bleachers were all full. People were lying down on the race track. “And we beat the hell out of them, too. The place just went nuts. It got loud. That was one of my best memories here. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’d be nice if we could get a crowd like that this week end.” That year, the Huskers went 10-0 and won the national championship. Allen said that while he was not sure this year’s team, with senior co-cap tains Jim Koziol and Marshall Nelson both injured (although Koziol will compete), was that caliber yet, he did think a win over Iowa would go a long way toward boosting his team’s confidence and sending a strong message to the rest of the NC AA gymnastics world. “This is very important to us. We’ve got to show people how good we are. I think we can do it.” Allen will have to rely on more outstanding per formances from this year’s all-around thorough breds, junior All-American Derek Leiter and sopho more Jason Hardabura, who won the all-around at NU’s last home dual meet against Oklahoma on Feb. Please See GYM on 14 Huskers need to help to win Big 12 Conference By Adam Klinker Senior staff writer The game of basketball is played on the court, but for certain purposes, one can play it on paper with more imagination. Nee Nebraska's men's team, fresh off a 60-48 Wednesday loss to Oklahoma State, and with its conference champi onship hopes all but extin guished, will head south to Lubbock. Texas for an 8:30 p.m. Saturday game with Texas Tech. It will be the beginning of the rest of the season - all three remaining games. Husker senior forward Andy Markowski said the loss to OSU may have been just the thing to shake NU out of its comfort zone after having won nine of its last 10 games. “This might be a wake up call for us,” Markowski said. “(NU Assistant) Coach (Jimmy) Williams has a saying that those who feel safest are in the most danger. We were feeling pretty good about things, and maybe this woke us up. Hopefully, we can refocus and win our next three.” And up until the OSU game, the Husker comfort zone had extended beyond winning and into the uncharted waters of Big 12 title dreams - dreams that may still endure. A finishing flurry with three wins would obvi ously be optimum, but NU, at 9-4 in the conference and 17-9 overall, will still need some help if it were to salvage a Big 12 title, something NU Coach Danny Nee said was not yet out of reach for his squad. “Thank God it w’asjust one game," Nee said, following the OSU loss. “But now we're on the road against a very dangerous Texas Tech team and a dangerous Kansas State team. There’s no guaran tee of anything.” simply, conterence leader lexas, at I l-z, would need to lose its last three games against Texas A&M, Baylor and Missouri. Texas has already beaten A&M 71 -59 and BU 71 -56. Oklahoma, the No. 2 team right now at 10-3, would have to lose at least two of its final three against Kansas, A&M and BU. The ideal situation for the Buskers would be a Sooner win over KU and losses to the Aggies and the Bears. Should all this happen and the Huskers did win out, to gain sole possession of the title. KU and Mizzou. the teams w ith which NU shares third place, would need to lose at least one game each in their remain ing contests. KU closes out on the road with the Sooners, at home against Oklahoma State and at Iowa State. As stated, a loss to OU would be a watershed for NU. However, presuming Texas stumbles and OU falters, KU wins their remaining games to tie with the Huskers, Nebraska would take the title, having beaten the Jayhawks in head-to-head competition. As for the Tigers, the\ 're at OSU. at home with Please See MATH on 14 Bin Twelve standings Conference Overall W L PCT. W L PCT. Texas 11 2 .846 16 10 .615 Oklahoma 10 3 .769 19 7 .731 Missouri 9 4 .692 18 6 .750 Kansas 9 4 .692 17 8 .680 Nebraska 9 4 .692 17 9 .654 Oklahoma St. 8 5 ,615 17 8 .680 Kansas St. 5 8 .385 16 10 .615 Iowa St. 5 8 385 14 12 .538 Colorado 4 9 .308 13 13 .500 Texas A&M 4 9 .308 11 12 .478 Texas Tech 4 9 .308 12 14 .462 Bayior 0 13 .000 6 20 .231