NU’s Kubik hopes scoring spree continues
By David Diehl
Staffuniter
Nicole Kubik, a health nut? Not
totally. An outstanding basketball
player? Yes.
Nebraska’s senior guard is on a
tear heading into today’s 2:20 p.m
game with Baylor in the Big 12
Conference Tournament. The senior
from Cambridge, who recently was
named to the All-Big 12 team, has
been averaging 23 points in the
Comhuskers’ past three games.
“It’s definitely not the food I’ve
been eating,” Kubik said about any
possible causes of her recent hot
streak. “I’ve been eating worse as the
season has gone on.”
Whatever Kubik is eating, maybe
the rest of her teammates should dig
in for some, too. Kubik has been the
spark lighting the fire under the
Huskers’ four-game winning streak.
She led the team in scoring in the past
three contests. The 26 points she put
up in NU’s win at Missouri on March
2 was her second-highest total of the
year.
“I think she’s playing with a lot of
confidence right now and also a kind
of a sense of urgency,” Coach Paul
Sanderford said. “I think all of our
seniors are.”
Nebraska, at 16-11 overall and a
SSC success might
come with a price
Most high school
powers are built
through either
religion, money
or size
Samuel McKewon
South Sioux City is a northeast
ern Nebraska town sandwiched in
between a massive beef plant and
the financial empire that is Sioux
City, Iowa, meaning two things:
1. Prevailing winds are not
friendly to the nasal region.
2. There is not much to do.
There are the cheap casinos in
South Dakota, or maybe a weekend
of boating in the Big Sioux river.
You could look at the scenic bridge
for a while.
Natives or the area will push to
make it sound different, but there is
no escaping its relative mediocrity.
South Sioux City does win the prize
among its bigger brother, Sioux
City, Iowa, and its bastard cousin,
North Sioux City, S.D., as the nicest
of the Sioux. Alas, this is not much
of a prize.
It is a comer of the world where
rain seems perpetually imminent,
where old people look older, where
young people look trashed-up.
Don’t try dressing it up for me; all
times accumulated, I’ve spent damn
near a year of my life up there. My
parents spent 30 years there. So I
know if you’ve got a room at the
Marina Inn, (It’s not called that any
more, but it’s still the Marina Inn.)
you’re pretty well off.
Amidst the gray arrives the
South Sioux City girls’ basketball
team, the most powerful Nebraska
high school sports dynasty since the
Boys Town football teams of the
1960s that used men in their 20s
and 30s. It won its fifth state title in
six years this weekend with a 65-36
pounding of Alliance in the final
game. It is ranked No. 6 in the
nation by USA Today. It does not
lose often, only once this season.
Within the town, the team has
created a sense of pride unseen
before it, much like a high school
football team still invigorates the
tiny steel towns of Ohio and
Pennsylvania. This time, it is girls’
basketball, and the town is doing in
the most unconventional ways
imaginable.
Most high school powers are
built through either religion, money
or size. Catholic schools have been
a force in America for years; they
have clout and funding other
schools don’t have. Omaha’s
Creighton Prep, Falls City’s Sacred
Heart, Lincoln’s Pius X - these
schools, among the many others,
owe all of their athletic prowess to
God.
The money of suburbia flourish
es, too. Lincoln Southeast fits into
this paradigm, as does my alma
mater Millard North. Now, Millard
West is making a ton of noise right
now solely based on the pocketbook
Please see GIRLS on 14
Ffriend nabs all newcomer
honors in first season at NU
From Staff reports
In only his third year of orga
nized basketball competition,
Kimani Fffiend proved he’s a pretty
quick learner.
Ffriend, along with five others,
was named to the Big 12
Conference’s All Newcomer team
Monday. There was a tie in voting,
resulting in a six-member team.
Ffriend also was honored with a
spot on the All-Conference second
team.
Ffriend emerged this season as
an inside force in the Big 12 this
year after playing two years of junior
college basketball.
The junior from Kingston,
Jamaica, leads the Big 12 in blocked
shots with a 2.86 per-game average.
He leads the team in rebounding
with an average of 8.9 boards a
game. His 12.2 points per contest is
second on the team.
Ffriend was joined on the team
by Baylor’s Terry Black, Darren
Kelley and Chris Owens from Texas,
J.R. Raymond from Oklahoma and
Iowa State’s Jamaal Tinsley.
regular season conference record of
10-6, probably needs to win one more
game to ensure itself a spot in this
year’s NCAA Tournament.
But Kubik helped get NU in a spot
to play its way into the tournament
with her recent performance.
Down by ten points to Oklahoma
State in the second half, Kubik
torched the Cowgirls for 14 points
during a 19-7 run late in the game,
spurring them to a 75-71 overtime
win with her 24 points in the game.
The brilliance that Kubik has
shown in the recent weeks of the sea
son was missing early on. Sanderford
said Kubik really made a turn for the
better after Christmas.
“Early in the year she tried to do
too much,” Sanderford said. “Getting
her off the ball and moving her to a
wing helped her some and has taken
some pressure off her.”
Coming into the tournament on
the heels of a winning streak is obvi
ously something the Huskers will use
in the tourney, Kubik said.
“It really gives us some momen
tum going in,” Kubik said. “We’re on
a high right now, and we want that to
go on.”
Sanderford echoed those senti
ments.
“Anytime you can win in this
league, especially on the road,”
Sanderford said, “it definitely gives
you some confidence. I think we
gained some confidence over the last
month of the season.”
Baylor will have a chance today to
end the Husker hot streak that it
helped originate. NU handed the
Bears an 82-71 home loss Feb. 19, the
first in NU’s current string of wins.
But that is the very reason that
Sanderford said the Bears are danger
ous.
“They scare me to death because
they’re the No. 12 seed,” Sanderford
said. “They have nothing to lose;
they’re not going to go anywhere. So
basically they’re going to play very
loose.”
NEBRASKA SHOT-PUTTER Carl Myerscough waits to find out if he will compete in the near future for the Nebraska
track and field team.
Myerscough waits while
his future is determined
■U.S. track official
questions athletic director
Bill Byrne’s decision.
By Jamie Suhr
Staff uniter
While the Nebraska Track and
Field team prepares for the NCAA
Indoor National Championships,
NU’s top shot-putter Carl Myerscough
sits and waits.
NU Athletic Director Bill Byrne
said last week the International
Amateur Athletic Federation must
hold a hearing to determine
Myerscough’s eligibility after he
allegedly tested positive for steroids in
the United Kingdom last May.
Until then, Byrne said,
Myerscough, though eligible by
NCAA standards, won’t compete in
the collegiate ranks. No dates have
been set for the hearing.
Myerscough’s sabbatical from
competition began two days before the
Big 12 Indoor Championships, when
Byrne called Track Coach Gary Pepin
and told him sit Myerscough out. He
will continue to sit out here unless he
is cleared for international competi
tion.
The Appeals Process
For Myerscough to become inter
nationally eligible again, Throws
Coach Mark Colligan said, the follow
ing things must happen:
■ United Kingdom Athletics will
review the case and either uphold or
overturn the initial decision of suspen
sion, made in November.
Myerscough, who has declined com
ment for this story, has contended he is
innocent of steroid use.
■ Either way, the IAAF will
review the UK Athletics decision, and,
again, decide to uphold or overturn the
decision.
■ If the IAAF decides that
Myerscough is eligible, then he can
compete immediately. If not, he will
likely receive a two-year ban from
competition.
There’s no way for Myerscough to
know when these hearings will hap
pen, Colligan said. He might get a call
next week, maybe later.
Former Husker sprinter and gold
medalist Charlie Green, Myerscough’s
ombudsman and member of the 1997
U.S. Track and Field Drug and
Contamination Review Board, said the
IAAF could take a while to determine
Myerscough’s eligibility. He couldn’t
be specific because of Myerscough’s
right to privacy.
Green said it was unfortunate for
Myerscough because he is eligible by
NCAA standards.
“With the IAAF, if you don’t fol
low, you’re out. With the NCAA, if
you don’t follow, you’re out. How
come when Carl follows the rules, he’s
out?” Green said.
Myerscough, Colligan said, has
two choices.
One, he could take the test to court
and challenge the test results. Or he
could accept the UK decision, whatev
er it may be, and possibly take a two
year ban.
If the ban were imposed, Colligan
said, Myerscough would stay in
Lincoln and continue to practice with
the team and wait the ban out. He’D
only lose one year of eligibility if it’s a
two-year ban, Colligan said.
In reality, Myerscough can com
pete right now. It’s Byrne’s decision
that keeps him out.
Questionable reasoning
Byrne’s reasoning remains
unclear, beyond his saying last week
that it was “best for Carl and best for
the program.” Though there’s specula
tion Byrne was pressured by the Big
12 Conference to hold Myerscough
Please see SHOT PUT on 14