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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2001)
Keeping up kills NCAA MONlYfrompaqelO absolutely necessary. You will not see NU forfeit ing a laugher at home for a great game on the road - it costs too much money to do it Next season, the Huskers get the rare seven home games to pad their wallet with, courtesy of Troy State, a late replacement for Texas Christian. For Byrne to fill the lost game with a stern test on the road would have been more fun for the fans, but less profitable. And thus, the wrong option, because in order for the other sports to spend money, football has to make it The point Dempsey made Sunday was eventually, all these issues come back to haunt the school (not that the NCAA should talk; it moved to Indianapolis because the city promised some fancy digs). One bad year can lead to anoth er, and so on and so on. If Nebraska were to fail to go to a bowl game one year, what, would that mean financially? A serious tightening of the belt, for one. Program cutting? Eventually, it could. it raises rair concerns - not accusations, however - of how far a program might go to stay competitive, including above and beyond the rules. Recent shake-ups in the wrestling and swimming departments seem to suggest Husker athletics is a high pressure atmosphere geared on winning, where cre ative tactics may have been used to nudge the odds toward the plus category. While department officials have seemed to ferret out the problems without long-term damage, you wonder if Camelot is beginning to crack around here, if the pressure for Frank Solich to win will not rise even more next season. Former UNL administrators like James Moeser seemed to bemoan the onus of NU athletics; it is con ceivable the future holds a less er degree of autonomy for the athletic department Dempsey advocated schools take a larger role in managing their athletic depart ments, an about face of the long held position depart ments could handle them selves. “Not only has the philoso phy been less than effective," Dempsey said, “it’s had the psy chological effect of pushing accountability for the athletics programs away from campus scrutiny - exactly the opposite of what hoped to accomplish." While Nebraska is self-sus taining, it sullies its image with purists and old boosters a little more every year with its pursuit of money and better facilities. In ten more years, the tradi tional inner circle of fans will look a lot like the folks who live in giant suburban homes in Omaha. Or, possibly, the investment risks the depart ment has made will result in a margin call. For now, the baseball stadi um is the next big thing, and its existence can do no wrong. During football press confer ences last fall, sportswriters would often huddle against small windows to point at its construction and wax energetic on the day it would open. When it does, I’m sure, the honeyed prose will flow from all our pens, and patrons will find the new digs verifiably sweet. The same, though, could be said of Charles Foster Kane’s Xanadu Mansion. But Kane at least remem 1 ered his Rosebud. So many schools, mired in a money pit, have forgotten. Will Nebraska? BY VINCE KUPPIG The ninth-ranked Nebraska wrestling team will take it’s unde feated record into tonight’s dual against second-ranked Minnesota, starting at 8 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. With a No. 9 national ranking, first year Coach Mark Manning has guided the Comhuskers to a 9-0 record, the best start in school history. However it’s what is behind the record that impresses the first year coach. "(The record) is not a big deal to me,” Manning said. "It’s the way we’re wrestling as a team. I just care how we’re doing and how we’re improving.” On paper, NU faces much more of a challenge against sec ond-ranked Minnesota than it has all season long. The Gophers fea ture eight wrestlers in the top lOat their respective weight classes, four of whom are in die top three. But luckily for the Huskers, matches aren’t decided on paper but out on the mat "Nothing athletically is meas ured on paper,” Manning said. “It’s measured in competition.” Nebraska counters Minnesota with five of its own in the top 10 and three in the top two. Senior All-Americans Todd Beckerman and Brad Vering are each ranked first, with junior All American Bryan Snyder ranked second. Also ranked in the top 10 are redshirt freshman Jason Powell and senior Ati Conner at sixth and 10th, respectively. “I think each one of them are improving and getting better,” Manning said. “Sometimes they’ve won, but have been disap pointed because they might have not performed at their highest level. That's what makes them where they’re at” One of the biggest matches of the night will occur at 133 pounds, where top-ranked Beckerman takes on third-ranked Brett Lawrence. Powell, who entered the sea son unranked at 125 pounds, will look to extend his seven-match win streak with a bout against third-ranked Leroy Vega. While the five top 10 wrestlers —Vering, Snyder, Beckerman, Powell and Conner have been paving tire way for NU, Manning said he needed the whole team. “We going to get out there and compete and not look at the scoreboard until the end,” he said. “We want to have all ten guys do that If we do that, we’re going to come out okay.” Powell makes it known he is a top-ten wrestler POWELLfrompagelO top-ranked Big 12 wrestler in his y weight class. The soft-spoken Powell, who leads by example on the mat, doesn't personally take credit for his recent success. “The coaches have helped me with different stuff, stuff that I’m doing wrong in my matches,” he said. “They’ve corrected me. That’s how I've improved.” Assistant Coach Tferry Brands, who works with Powell during practice, credits his success to his high level of confidence. “No matter who he’s going to go out and wrestle, he thinks he’s going to pin diem,” Brands said. “Anything less, he’s not happy with himself. He holds a high standard for himself and that goes a long way.” Said Manning: “He’s got a big heart and a big desire. He’s a very determined wrestler. He’s putting in die work to make it happen.” Leading the team with six pins, Manning said Powell was a crowd pleaser. That’s just his style. “He's exciting, is dangerous and can put you on your back at anytime,” Manning said. “He’s fun to watch. He gets out and gets after it He's the ultimate competi tor. He finds a way to win and is a gamer.” Utilizing those qualities, Powell may have the opportunity Sports Profile Breakdown of Jason Powell, FR #6 at 125 pounds 13-3.8 6 - leads team The Midwest City Okla.. native has beaten three other wrestlers ranked to make some history at Nebraska. In its prestigious wrestling history, NU has never had a four-time All-American. Powell, with his talent and atti tude, has coaches believing he could be the first to do that, and maybe even more. "He has the potential to win four national championships,” Brands said. The 19-year-old, who said he hoped to sometime compete at the Olympics, has nowhere to go but up. Powell is on his way there, but still said he hasn’t reached his potential “I still have a long ways to go as far as getting better,'’ he said. Cepero paces Huskers in tenth straight home win KSUfrom page 10 Wildcats would go through another major drought as they failed to hit a shot from the floor for seven minutes in the middle of the second half. Greichaly Cepero, playing in just her sixth game after playing volleyball this fall, led the Sports News that continues to Kill It- Boom. Huskers in both scoring and rebounds with 14 points and was a major force on the defen sive end. Cepero’s eight boards led the Husker’s who had three others with seven rebounds. "Greichaly played really good defense,” Sanderford said. “And she finally got on the boards tonight.” ! So long Michael Vick, hello Big 12 recognition So, Michael Vick is leaving Virginia Tech for the NFL and the big money. Big deal. Ever since he was billed the man to revolutionize the quar terback _ position, we all knew old Mikey wouldn't finish his eligibility at Tech. J R ,, f ^ - J. Josl what exact- . ly does this Camenzind mean for college football? Well, for one, Virginia Tech will drop back down into a level of low-Top 25 mediocrity - you know the one that got spanked 41-21 by the Huskers in 1996 when they had a guy named Druckenmiller. And secondly - this is the most important part - maybe the average college football fan can get a rest from seeing Mr. Vick every Thursday night on ESPN. The guy’s mug was on SportsCenter nightly, College Gameday weekly and CBS whenever the network could get its hands on the slippery, slimy quarterback. But Vick s departure to one of the bottom-feeders (hopeful ly not the Chargers for Vick's sake) of the NFL will open some doors. How will networks and newspapers fill their time slots and pages without exciting East Coast publicity to run until the cows come home? Media outlets and highlight shows should look out west. To the Big 12 conference, that is. The Big 12 has always been a league looked upon as overrated and watered down. But the con ference showed in the bowl sea son it was a group to be reck oned with in tiie coming years. A perfect example took place Wednesday night in Omaha when Tennessee defensive tack le John Henderson accepted the Outland Trophy he won over Texas’s Leonard Davis and NU’s own Dominic Raiola. Do people have that short of a memory that they have already forgotten last year's Fiesta Bowl in which the Huskers ran rabid over the Volunteers? My point was proven when K-State buried Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl. The Outland was voted upon before Jan. 1, but voters should keep that in mind when con templating making Henderson a back-to-back winner in 2001. Florida State'Coach Bobby Bowden probably would vote now for Davis or Raiola after admitting to overlooking the league. His opinion quickly changed to the tune of a goose egg for his offense in the Orange Bowl, so why can’t others come to realize what type of football is played in the plains? Sure, Texas Tech got waxed in the first half of its game against East Carolina and Texas A&M’s Independence Bowl matchup with Mississippi State was unexpectedly moved to the Arctic North and the team man agers from Texas forgot to pack the stick-um for its game with Oregon. But the Big 12 was impressive. Nobody gave Iowa State much of a shot to win against a surely dominant Pittsburgh team from the great Big East, which just happens to be one of the most overrated football con ferences in the nation. But the Cyclones proved their nine-win season was no fluke. Nebraska showed it had plenty of heart left after having it crushed twice at Oklahoma and Kansas State. All NU did was crush the co-Big Ten champion Northwestern Wildcats 66-17 - easily the most impressive bowl win of the year. Oh, by the way, the Big Ten is overrated as well - maybe even more so than the Big East. Then there comes the Wildcats from the Little Apple. As much as this hurts for me to say, KSU looked as solid as ever against Tennessee, which should appeal to the NCAA for a hiatus from playing the Big 12 in a bowl game ever again. And lets not forget the cur rent national champion hails from the Big 12. Oklahoma shocked everybody by shutting out the mighty Semmoles Jan. 3. OU showed not all great ath letes are forced to reside in a politically inferior state and if Josh Heupel’s replacement can get the ball to those young wide receivers, the Sooners will stay on the national map for a while. So, next season should shape up to have some great story plots. OU will try to repeat without Heupel, but practically the entire rest of the crew returning. This guy named Crouch will make another run at the Heisman with another reconstructed shoulder and Bill Snyder and K-State fans will finally find out if this Ell Roberson kid is capable of being the next Michael Bishop. Great story lines. Good foot ball. No Vick to block out the tel evision time slots. Go ahead, give the Big 12 some love. Tonight The Zoo Bar Presents: The Darlings &Alligator Recording Artist Sherman Robertson 1 Saturday Nigni Rock-a-Billy with The Domino Kings DOMINO KINGS Coupon Q0 °</y^ ONE FREE WASH iMun.PfZ'f' Va*vd 1340 N. 27th 1 block So. of 27th & Holdrege 56th & Holdrege 48th & Old Cheney 21st &J Not good w/ any other offer. One coupon per person or household. Maximum value of $1.00 Expires 1/18/01 Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back BEER LIQUOR WINE KEGS 22nd & “0”st 477-7516 lTHqour^Mon-Sat 8am-1am Prices good thru 01-17-01 Sundays noon-1 am *10.49 Natural Light or Ice ^ Warm case cans ^o«43 Busch Reg. or Light Warm case cans _ Keystone Icehouse & J Light $ Q no Red Dog $_ RQ Warm 30pk cans 9 ■ Warm 18pk cans f B 09 Southern Comfort 750 ml *7.99 Jim Beam 1.75 L *16.99 McCormick Vodka 1.75 L $7.99 Canadian Springs 1.75 L $9.99 Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back • Welcome Back Want to be an NU Mascot? 1 Pick up a registration packet at the Athletic Marketing Office, 117 South Stadium, and return it to tht*ame office by Friday. January 12, 2001. 2 If selected, interview on January 16.2001 3 Tryouts will be held on January 17. 2001, during the NU women's basketball game vs Texas Tech at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.