SportsWednesday
Spring is
baseball
timeforNU
A breath
of fresh air
just swept
on through
the sixth
floor of
Memorial
“Our
Skyboxes
Are Nicer
John
Gaskins
Than Yours”
Stadium
and through the Nebraska
sports world Ttiesday - a breath
of fresh air for media and fans
alike.
The baseball team held its
preseason press conferences on
the heels of its season opener,
and you could feel the buzz.
Listening to the coaches and
players talk College World Series
or bust left quite an exciting
chill. . ,
This team is going to be
good. Fun to cover. Fun to
watch. For the third straight
year.
Wait a second. Time out.
What in Bill Byrne’s wallet is
going on here?
They play baseball at
Nebraska?
And they’re supposed to be
good? We’re supposed to care?
All the sportswriters and TV
sportscasters show up at these
press conferences? Sober?
In Nebraska, home of foot
ball and weather that would
make any sane diamond talent
bolt for beaches and sun?
Yep, Nebraska. I never
thought I’d be saying this, but
thank God for that
Couldn’t have arrived at a
better time, considering the
men’s and women’s basketball
teams are muddling through
mediocrity.
Ana, no, tootoau signing aay
today will not feed our hungry
for-something-different souls.
Frank Solich saying “tremen
dous” and “certainly” 50 times
won’t get the blood flowing.
But Dave Van Horn did on
Tuesday. Imagine that.
No baseball season has ever
been so anticipated. The team is
ranked No. 5 and can hear that
older-than-dirt Rosenblatt
Stadium organ playing “Hail
Varsity” for a reason.
Amazing, considering the
way things used to be around
here. John Sanders made the
sport virtually invisible and
could comfortably do so with
the seemingly valid “poor us, we
play in dumpy weather" excuse.
His players walked around
campus wearing Georgia Tech
or LSU clothing, too embar
rassed to admit they played
Nebraska baseball. Buck Beltzer
Stadium would be filled with 10
people - one who won a free
ticket from Tubby’s and nine
drunk guys who came to heckle
Sanders.
Finally, Byrne fired Sanders
- the best move of his brilliant
personnel managing career -
and hired this Van Horn guy
from a Division II school in
Louisiana, who tells us noncha
lantly there’s no reason NU can’t
compete with the southern big
boys.
Is this guy crazy? Nope.
Three years later, Van Horn
is up in the skybox, telling
reporters how good his team
will be.
in three years, he swept right
on in here and, without excuses,
without whorish promotion,
and with a get-your-uniforms
muddy attitude to go along with
good humor and steely confi
dence, he's made believers of
everyone.
This man can coach. And he
can talk, and say the right
things, and make everyone like
him and respect him. And he
handled the expectations and
expected questions the media
threw at him Tuesday like a pro,
much better than Solich ever
has.
Does the Stanford loss still
eat at you? Not really.
Are you concerned about
being ranked so high for the first
time in school history? Not real
ty
Do you talk about making
the College World Series a prior
ity? Sure, why not. We should be.
Will it concern you if you
lose some early games and drop
in the polls? Not really. The most
important performance comes
Please see GASKINS on 9
I Huskers not shying away from CWS talk
■No. 5 ranking takes NU out
of the role of the underdog
against top competition.
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
They’re underdogs no more.
The No. 5 ranking says so.
The deep and talented return
ing pitching staff says so. The
regular talk of playing this June
in Omaha's College World Series
says so.
Just three years removed
from a decade of mediocrity,
Nebraska is a major player in
college baseball. After winning
the last two postseason confer
ence tournaments, the
Cornhuskers are officially the
team to beat in the Big 12. And
the CWS is no longer a place to
bleacher bum and eat funnel
cakes, but a destination.
"I told the players a couple
of weeks ago that we have to talk
about the College World Series if
we’re going to get there,” Coach
Dave Van Horn said at Tuesday’s
annual Media Day luncheon.
Said junior second baseman
and tri-captain Will Bolt: “We
will be disappointed if we don’t
get to the College World Series.
That is our goal.”
NU came close enough to
taste it last season, losing a
three-game Super Regional to
Stanford and ending a 51-17
campaign that served as a mon
ument to overachievement and
gutsy play. NU toiled as the
underdog for much of the sea
son, especially in Palo Alto,
Calif.
The lunch-pail mentality
stuck so much that nearly every
Husker was caught off guard by
the fifth-place Baseball America
ranking and the No. 4 slot in
Collegiate Baseball. A glance at
NU’s opening season weekend
tournament in Houston, and
the matchups against Rice,
Lamar and No. 1 Georgia Tech
seem winnable if the rankings
are right. By Monday, it’s con
ceivable Nebraska could be No.
1.
And yet... it doesn’t seem
that way. While the Huskers
await a new stadium that could
open by May (Van Horn said he’s
backed off talking about it until
the opening pitch is thrown
there) and rattled off several
milestone wins last season, the
team doesn’t fit the Rolls Royce
persona of a Lousiana State or
Southern Calfomia. Not yet.
“In a sense, we still are the
underdog,” Bolt said. "We
haven’t proven that we can get
(to the College World Series)
yet.”
Which may serve as an
advantage. The case can be
made that what Bolt, Van Horn,
pitcher Shane Komine and des
ignated hitter Matt Hopper all
preach as baseball’s get-dirty
attitude - play harder, longer,
more fundamental than the
other team - has worked as well
as any three-year plan could.
“We're still the hardest work
ing team in college baseball,”
Bolt said. "That hasn’t changed.”
And neither has the formula
for winning. It’s a little like this:
■ Run and steal bases well,
which NU did on 126 out of 162
attempts last season. Despite
losing Jamal Strong (35 steals)
and Adam Shabala (14), Van
Horn said there were five guys
who could do as well, if not bet
ter. The list includes Bolt (18
steals of 25 attempts), likely
right fielder Adam Stern (12 of
15) and John Cole (16 of 20).
“We’re not slow,” Van Horn
said.
■ Get pitching to the tune of
Please see BASEBALL on 9
Mike Duren,a
freshman out
fielder, tries to
outrun a
squeeze play
between third
base and home
plate during
practice
Tuesday. The
Huskersare
preparing for
their first games
against Rice,
Georgia Tech
and Lamar this
weekend.
Nate Wagner/DN
Signing day begins amidst questions
BY SEAN CALLAHAN
With national football letter
of-intent day upon them, the
Nebraska Cornhuskers appear
to have 16 seniors willing to
head to Lincoln this fall.
It's the few players who
aren’t certain which college jer
sey they want to wear next sea
son who are making things
interesting for NU.
As high school players make
their college allegiances official
today, the Huskers are waiting to
see if the final pieces of their
2001 recruiting puzzle will fall
into place. If they do, it will fin
ish off what many recruiting
experts consider a top-10 class.
Macon, Ga., standout
LeKevin Smith, rated as the No.
14 defensive tackle by
Rivalsl00.com, is one of the
players the Husker coaching
staff will be waiting on.
Newspaper reports a week
ago said Smith committed to
NU, but people close to Smith
said those reports weren’t true.
"He’s going to announce it in
the school gym,” said Betty
Jennings, Smith’s guardian. “I
don’t really have a clue what he’s
doing because he’s not telling
anybody.”
Along with Nebraska, Smith
is considering Auburn and
Florida State.
The other two players the
Huskers hope to receive letters
of intent from are Davenport,
Iowa, running back Marques
Simmons and Los Angeles cor
nerback Terrence Whitehead.
Simmons said he had
already made a decision on
what he wanted to do, but
wouldn’t make it public until a
noon press conference today.
Simmons has narrowed his
choices to NU and in-state
schools Iowa and Iowa State.
Whitehead planned on giv
ing his commitment to
Nebraska until a last minute
visit to Oregon this past week
end.
One of the deciding factors
for Whitehead is where he will
play.
Nebraska wants him at safe
ty, he said, while the Ducks want
to use him on both sides of the
ball, as a wideout and defensive
back.
“It would be easier if there
was one thing about each school
that stood out, but they’re both
so equal in every way that it
makes it so tough,” Whitehead
said. "Both have great facilities,
both schools have great coaches
Please see RECRUIT on 9
Early momentum key against Cowboys
DNRIe Photo
Guard Rodney Fidds and Nebraska are striving to get off to a
quick start against Oklahoma State.
£ a A
BY JOSHUA CAMEN21ND
Nebraska Coach Barry Collier realizes his team’s
margin of error is limited.
Considering that, Collier isn’t ecstatic about
NU’s inability to get out of the gates quickly as of late.
Coming into tonight’s 6 p.m. matchup with 14-4
and 5-2 Oklahoma State, the 10-11 and 3-5 Huskers
are averaging nearly 13 points more in the second
half (39) ofits last six games than it is in the first stan
za (26.3).
“I don’t know if there is anything specific we can
do for the slow starts,” Collier said.
The last time the Huskers entered the locker
room with a halftime lead was Jan. 6, when NU led
Missouri 34-26 in Columbia, Mo. That game also
marked the last time NU scored more points in the
first half (34) than it did in the second (32).
Nebraska went on to lose the game 68-66 to the
Tigers, but since then, the Huskers have stumbled
out of the gates, suffering through long, scoreless
droughts and allowing opposing teams to break
down their defense.
Saturday’s 60-57 loss to Colorado showed no
relief for NU as the Buffaloes opened the game on a
10-0 run.
While Collier doesn’t have a definitive answer to
fixing the problem, he said he knows where it starts -
practice.
“It's basketball within every one of those posses
sions - both offensively and defensively,” said
Collier, who will coach his 350^ game against OSU.
"We are working specifically on starting better every
single day on every drill that we do.
"It still comes down to being fundamentally
sound, playing with some anticipation and being
focused.”
Please see BASKETBALL on 9
Softball seeks both
strong start,finish
BY JOHN GASKINS
Through all her team’s success
in the last two years, there are a
couple of trends ninth-year NU
softball Coach Rhonda Revelle
said she could do without in 2001.
Namely, starting a season with
few spades and flaming out in the
NCAAToumament
Revelle was her usual opti
mistic self at her 12th-ranked
team’s season-opening press con
ference Tliesday, as she should be.
Her last two teams have been
among the Big 12's best - NU won
the league tournament over even
tual national champ Oklahoma
last year and made it to the Sweet
16.
But despite losing die school’s
best all-time pitcher Jenny Voss
and third-best all-time hitter
Jennifer Lizama, Revelle said she
wants more. The top priority is
making the College World Series,
something that has eluded the
Huskers the last two years after
trips in 1997 and 1998.
"Anything less than a trip there
would be a disappointment,"
Revelle said. “We talk about it quite
a bit. Most of the players on this
team weren’t here in ’98, and we
play the highlight tape (of that sea
son) for them.”
Senior co-captain Jamie
Fuente is one of three who last
experienced the CWS, and don't
want to go out missing it again.
“In my eyes, we won't be happy
with ourselves if we don’t make it,”
shesaid. “The rest of the team feels
the same way.”
OU taking the CWS crown last
year was both encouraging and
frustrating for the Huskers, but,
most of all, it was motivation.
“To me, that means we
could’ve won the whole thing,”
1999 second-team All-American
I^igh Ann Walker said.
But the CWS is months away.
Revelie said the Huskers were
focusing just as much right nowon
starting die season with a bang as
they were going out with one -
another thing they’ve failed to do
the last two years.
Against stiff competition, NU
wobbled to a 13-15 start in 2000
before winning 39 of its last 45
games for a school-record 52 wins.
“This team has made a reputa
tion for itself starting off slow and
ending up a great team,” said
Revelie, whose last six teams have
qualified for the NCAA tourna
ment. "Part of our mission state
ment this year was to not be
known for that anymore.”
That won’t be easy. NU starts
the season on Friday in Teippe,
Ariz., where they will play four top
20 teams, including No. 3 Arizona
(4-0) and No. 5 Washington.
A thletes balance work, sports
■ Despite hectic schedules
some students find part-time
work essential for experience.
BY TOBY BURGER
Nebraska sprinter Lesley
Owusu bums up tracks regular
ly, but she also scorches up the
phone lines.
When Owusu isn’t blowing
away the competition, she
works as a UNL operator, pro
viding students and faculty with
phone numbers they are
searching for - and usually in
under 10 seconds.
Owusu is one of a handful of
Cornhusker student athletes
who hold part-time jobs during
the school year.
According to Theresa
Becker, assistant compliance
coordinator, approximately 120
student athletes have been
employed in the current aca
demic year.
Owusu has worked as an
operator since September of
last year. The sprinter is on a full
track scholarship, but she said
the work was for the experience.
But she doesn’t shy away from
the paychecks that help with
the things her aid doesn’t cover.
“I am very fortunate to be on
full scholarship,” Owusu said,
“but I still need additional
money for my own personal
Please see JOBS on 9
v c*