Sam McKewon
Fans still
crazy over
Nebraska
Missouri’s Chris George pitched
a masterful game Saturday in a 7-1
win over Nebraska. He did it on a
broken foot, too.
And so he comes over afterward,
readying himself for the post-game
interview. Sure, he wants to talk
about his ability to change speeds
and keep hitters off balance. Hell,
that’s all the reporters cared about.
But Chris had something else on his
mind.
“You know that crown you guys
have on the football stadium?”
George asked. “Have you seen that
thing? You know it’s high in the mid
dle, but it slopes. It slopes. Is that for
drainage?”
Yeah, sure. About that third
inning...
“Bet it helps you run the option
better, going downhill.”
It continually amazes me (well,
actually it doesn’t) that this state,
both people in it and people that visit
it, has a one-track mind. People live
and die football, football, football.
Mr. George, a Missourian, clearly
had visited the stadium, which is
what people do, I guess, when they
come. It’s NU’s Taj Mahal.
When Texas played here, the
writer from the Austin American
Statesman wanted to talk about one
thing as we waited for UT Coach
Augie Garrido: die football team.
This state’s going overboard.
Really, truly. People showed up to
watch grass grow and paint dry at
the Spring Game. They show up in
malls to get autographs of former
Huskers. They have a Web site - a
Web site! - to try to get Kent Pavelka
and Gary Saddlemeyer back on the
radio to call Husker games. Even the
Omaha World-Herald, reputable and
rarely wasteful, used valuable news
space to hold a poll determining if
Warren Swain and Adrian Fiala
were popular enougn.
In Monday’s Lincoln Journal
Star, there was a front-page picture
of Lawrence Phillips in the sports
section, playing for the Barcelona
Dragons. Remember him? The
Antichrist? Does he deserve front -
page coverage? But readers do want
to see, and actually care, how
Phillips is doing.
In this multimedia age, the hype
will only get bigger. Debates will
rage on the Internet about Eric
Crouch and Bobby Newcombe.
There was even a debate about me in
a chat room about the fact I’m
always so “negative.” When / start
becoming a topic of conversation,
there’s- something seriously wrong.
I feel the same way about a mas
terful pitching performance that’s
prefaced by a discourse on football
fields.
So swings the pendulum. One
day, it will swing back.
Sam McKewon is a junior
news-editorial and political sci
ence major and a Daily.
Nebraskan senior editor.
1 Matt Miller/DN
NICOLE WILKINSON focuses on her upcoming uneven bars routine in a meet earlier this season. The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team
finished its season with a sixth-place finish in the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships. *
NU gym teams look to future
Optimism abounds for Nebraska as it enters the next century
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
As all three Nebraska women’s gymnas
tics team coaches looked out of the window of
their office to their gym floor Monday after
noon, they saw an unfamiliar sight - nothing.
For the last several months, they had seen
about a dozen gymnasts tirelessly tumbling,
dismounting, sticking their landings. But
Monday the gym was practically vacant, giv
ing them a chance to reflect on what was one
of the program’s most successful seasons, as
they finished sixth in the nation for the second
time in three years.
“You look at how we’ve only finished
higher than this twice (fourth in 1989 and
fifth in 1990),” Kendig said. “I think this
ranks right up there as one of our best teams
ever.”
The same could go for the men’s coach,
Francis Allen, whose mood was the same as it
ever was Friday night after Nebraska’s third
place finish at nationals - optimism.
“We were a great team this year,” Allen
said. “I’m a bulls-eye kind of guy, and we’ll
shoot for the bulls-eye next year.”
Not since 1990, when the men won the
national championship and the women fin
ished fifth, have both teams experienced so
much success in the same year.
Both teams went undefeated at home and
won their conference title. Both teams quali
fied for the championship round of the
NCAA Championships, and had multiple All
Americans.
After a double loss to Washington and
Arizona in their second meet of the season,
the women reeled off nine straight meet victo
ries.
“The team grew up at Washington,”
Kendig said. “It was a struggle they all
learned from. They got back in the gym and
worked hard to make sure that didn’t happen
again.”
Three NU seniors in 1999 broke school
records, equaling the feat from the previous
two teams.
Junior Heather Brink, senior Courtney
Brown and senior Misty Oxford earned eight
All-America honors between them. Brown,
Oxford and Laurie McLaughlin are three of
the five seniors Kendig said would be tough to
u
“The team grew up at
Washington. It was a
struggle they all learned
from happen again.”
Dan Kendig
NU coach
replace. Fortunately for Kendig, he was able
to sign four recruits and pick up one to fill the
gaps left by the seniors, including “the class
of the class,” A.J. Lamb, a Lincoln junior
prodigy.
“Athletically, on paper, and skill-wise,
they’ll probably do the same, if not more, than
our past classes,” Kendig said. “Realistically,
though, a freshman is not a senior. We’ll defi
nitely lose experience and leadership.”
But Kendig will not set his sights any
Please see GYM on 12
Volleyball scoring debate rages in NCAA
■ New scoring systems
would involve rally scoring
and 11-minute timed sets.
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
When NCAA women’s volleyball
committee chairwoman Marcia
Saneholtz joined the committee in
1993, she remembered discussing pos
sible scoring format changes for colle
giate volleyball.
Six years later, the traditional best
three-out-of-five format is still used.
However, talk of a new system is still
beingheard.f ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
“You know what they say about
change,” said Saneholtz, the senior
associate director of athletics at
—| Washington State
University.
“Change is diffi
cult to accept.”
But Saneholtz,
; a majority of the
| volleyball com
mittee members
and some college
volleyball coaches
1-: ■■T-rSl.:-- believe a change in
Meenaermg game format ig
necessary for volleyball to remain a top
women’s sport in the next century.
“Volleyball is a sport I care about a
l9t;” said Saneholtz, a former player
and official. “I think if volleyball does
n’t change, it will lose its preeminence
in women’s intercollegiate sports.”
To keep volleyball near the top in
terms of popularity, two new scoring
systems were experimented with the
past two springs, Saneholtz said. The
aim of the scoring systems is to make
volleyball more fan- and media-friend
ly by standardizing the length of
games.
The new scoring system adopted
by the Federation Internationale de
Volleyball and USA Volleyball earlier
this year is a best-out-of-three set for
mat with the first two sets being rally
scoring played to 25 points, winning by
two. If the teams split the first two sets,
they play a tiebreaker set to 15 points
using rally scoring and winning by two.
Saneholtz said the NCAA likely
would have adopted a 21-point, best
out-of-three set format this year, except
that the FIVB and USA Volleyball were
having some problems with their sys
tems.
A more consistent length of game
would make it easier for television sta
tions to cover games, said Michigan
State Coach Chuck Erbe. Erbe and
other coaches are currently filling out
evaluative surveys. Then the NCAA
will take the surveys and make its next
move based on what the coaches rec
ommend. For the 1999 season, the tra
ditional scoring system will remain.
Please see NCAA on 12