Cepero somebody to keep eye on
CEPER0frompage9
fleabag, but the front desk man
ager, through his Spanglish
speaking maid from southside
Monterey, still places a crispy,
Crunch-like chocolate on the
crest of your sweaty pillow. This
is that chocolate.
***
Greichaly Cepero has a
mushroom cloud of hair. This
fact, having already been estab
lished needs now to be known as
the pre-eminent thing that you
need to know about her, if, in
fact, I were able to discern that
anything did. If “Boogie Nights”
is right, and we are all bom with
one special thing, then this thing
is her hair in its current form, a
wondrous collection of kinks
and straws and curves, black,
brown and red - a straight-up
Diva presentation crossed with
top-shelf Chia.
it s sometnmg. Ana you ao
not bring yourself to ask her
about it. But it is the thing, if
there was one, that you oughta
know. These things, if they were
there to have, are important
There is her talent, and
Cepero, being a two-sport ath
lete at 6-foot-1 who (now comes
the succinct "the reason this
story is even being written"
words, as if her hair couldn’t
have been a story alone) won a
volleyball national champi
onship with Nebraska months
ago, recording a perfect season
along with winning player-of
the-year honors as a setter.
She now plays basketball for
NU, a team that seems to get
worse each time it plays. It is Il
ls, but its record hardly suggests
die recent futility.
There is the obvious, glaring
contrast between these two
teams, and you would think:
now there is the thing. But it is
not the thing (remember, there
weren’t any) because Cepero
brushes off the comparison of
saying "one is nothing like the
other," meaning: the composi
tion of the volleyball team, laden
with seniors and talent, is in one
way different from the basket
ball team, which is laden with
talent and sophomores and
freshmen, of which, technically,
Cepero is one.
i ms maxes sense. Ana smce
you tire of trying to fit round
pegs into square holes (Cepero
notes, correctly, that the ques
tions dealing with this contrast
are essentially an attempt "to
start some sort of scandal.") you
try not to make it the thing
because it’s a dead end anyway,
and blindingly clear to anyone
who can see that one team wins,
the other loses. Yeah, they're dif
ferent Who cares?
There is an offshoot of the
contrast, (My God, it took up so
Cyclones
beating
all odds
CYCLONES from page 10
men Shane Power and Jake
Sullivan hit 10 of 12 3-pointers.
Senior post players Martin
Rancik and Paul Shirley have
been efficient, both averaging
double figures in points.
And senior guard Kantrail
Horton, who
Texas Coach
*Whether Tom Penders
wneiner called one of
it’s score, the most
rebound, underrated
, r j players in col
defend, lege basketball,
pass, hit 4 of 4 from
whatever LgafnstSjfn
it iSt he Lawrence.
■ Horton also
gives scored 27 in a
them blowout win
"hat they
need,” t h e
Cyclones, 10-2
Qvin Snyder in the Big 12,
Missouri coach navel to Kansas
■. State on
Wednesday.
Wooldridge
said beating them would be a
tough task. ,
“You just have to hope that
they're not going to have a great
shooting night," Wooldridge
, said. “They have a lot of confi
dence in what they're doing.”
many of your questions, could
you possibly throw it all away?)
which deals simply with the
fraught of losing, coupled with
Cepero's development as a play
er. There's something. Not a
thing, but some of one.
Cepero is second on the
team in minutes since her
arrival in late December during
a holiday basketball trip to
Puerto Rico, so a transition from
one sport to another has not
been hard. Nebraska Coach Paul
Sanderford and teammate and
friend Shahidrah Roberts mar
vel at her conditioning. She's
built like a tall long distance run
ner.
For his part, Sanderford
claims he could ask no more of
Cepero, who averages 6.2 points
and 5.7 rebounds per game. She
rebounds, she hustles. In one
game, a home loss to Colorado,
she had only two points but
seven assists. She can play posi
tions 2-4 well, could play point
guard and is tall enough to play
center.
She still passes up some
shots in the offense. Cepero
insists that she has a green light
from Sanderford and puts it up
when she can. Sanderford
admits that, if she could score
more, it’d be better, but nothing
more can be asked of a player
who’s been in the system so
short a time. When Cepero leads
a teammate too far on one pass,
it almost seems she’s back on
volleyball time, expecting a
completion, expecting the back
of-the-hand communication
she had there.
On one night, Nebraska is
playing, and at halftime the vol
leyball team takes center court
to wave their hands and smile.
Earlier that night, they
signed autographs for many
adoring fans, some of whom
made up the largest crowd of the
season (there were many par
ents there, too, to watch their
kids clog right after the volley
ball team left the floor). Cepero
was inside the locker room.
This thing has ended.
***
You like the phrase concen
tric circles. You do not really
know what it means, though you
pretend to, and though you may
sorta know, that one circle is
inside another, and they’re both
the same type of circle, you see
no connection to Greichaly
Cepero.
***
Well, now, wait a minute.
New section, new course of
thought. Cepero, you once
wrote, was part of a growing
movement of female athletes in
America, a movement that gains
force by the boatload daily. Since
Iowa State moved up to sixth
in the AP poll this week with its
win over Kansas on Saturday. The
Cyclones are riding a nine-game
winning streak.
Kansas dropped to 11th, while
Oklahoma is 16th. Texas and
Missouri are the only other con
ference schools receiving votes.
***
Kansas’ loss to ISU was its fifth
straight against the Cyclones. It is
KU’s first five-game losing streak
versus one team in the 13-year
Roy Williams era.
***
The game between Oklahoma
State and Texas Tech originally
scheduled for Jan. 30 will be
piayed Feb. 26 in Lubbock.
It was postponed because of
the OSU plane crash on January
27. The Baylor-Oklahoma State
game scheduled for Feb. 27 will be
moved back one night
It is the second time that the
Cowboys, on the NCAA
Tournament bubble at 15-7, will
be forced to play three Big 12
games in five days this season.
**»
Texas Tech has lost seven
straight games. Red Raider Coach
James Dickey said one reason for
the slump has been rebounding
difficulties.
Sunday’s game at Kansas State
was evidence of those problems.
Wildcat senior Kelvin Howell
pulled down 20 rebounds and
converted many of them into a
career-high 21 points in KSU's
win.
***
Where Cepero is in this litany of circles is
somewhere in the middle, tom two ways
between a sport That Could Make It - basketball
- and one That Might But Probably Never Will -
volleyball.
the passage of the 1972 law com
monly referred to as Title DC, the
greatest benefits have not been
trumpeted for the increase in
women doctors or lawyers, but
athletes.
This does not confound you.
Equal rights movements often
trumpet such gains. To draw that
thought out, you draw a line
between Billie Jean King’s tennis
revolution in the 1970s to the
richest woman athlete today,
another tennis player who has
yet to even win a tournament.
Her name is Anna Kournikova.
What is that? Well, not a concen
tric circle.
Where Cepero is in this
litany of circles is somewhere in
the middle, torn two ways
between a sport That Could
Make It - basketball - and one
That Might But Probably Never
Will - volleyball.
Basketball’s where it’s at in
women's team sports. Some see
it as the last pure bastion of bas
ketball left, so said by no less
than basketball legend John
Wooden himself, who has not
yet, apparently, seen an NU
game. There’s a pro league.
Some endorsements. Opport
unities.
Volleyball is a fine sport
without a television contract,
which largely determines a
sport’s popularity anyway. It has
few stars. Its biggest is Gabrielle
Reece, who makes more money
doing the Koumikova thing than
she does the Billie Jean thing.
It is quite possible that with
Cepero’s skills, she is not far
from a legitimately grand volley
ball career, as far as those types
of things go, anyway. During a
Summer Olympic volleyball
broadcast, her name was men
tioned among those who have
great future promise.
Basketball, however, is the
sport she describes as her origi
nal love. She equates it, like
many athletes do, to life (war is
not so fashionable a comparison
for the female set), establishing
parallels in the “ups and downs”
of both and “the ability to fight
through adversity” as a keystone
to success.
She has three years remain
ing of basketball and two of vol
leyball. She has little left to
accomplish in volleyball outside
of winning again and again,
establishing an unbeaten streak
of sorts; maybe, some legendary,
memorable, North Carolina
women's soccer-type stuff.
Kansas guard Kenny Gregory,
labeled inconsistent throughout
his career, is doing his best to shed
that tag in his senior season.
Gregory has scored in double fig
ures in all 21 games he has played
this season while averaging 16.2
points per game.
***
Texas junior Chris Owens is
the Big 12 player of the week after
averaging 19.5 points in two
Bi
games last week. Owens had 24
points and 12 rebounds in UTs
80-69 overtime win at Oklahoma
State on Saturday.
***
Freshman Jake Sullivan of
Iowa State is the conference's
rookie of die week. Sullivan hit six
of eight 3-pointers in ISU's win
over Kansas.
Compiled by Dirk Chatelain.
Each of those final two years,
the volleyball season will eat
into all of preseason and about
10 season games of the women's
basketball set. Cepero obliges
that lost time equals lost experi
ence. If she is to star, she must
hit the ground running. And the
volleyball season cannot have
been too draining or hard. She
does not accept the possibility
where she leaves the sport of
volleyball.
That's where the “scandar
stuff starts coming in. You ask
her about that, and her nose
curls up and chin falls down to
her balled up fists. There will be
no more entirely cordial
answers.
Anyway, her actual success
may mean less than the cumula
tive effect of her success upon
the fans. In both sports, young
girls scream her name before,
during and afterward. These
girls, bright-faced and giggling,
mussing and braiding each
other’s hair between timeouts,
mugging for the giant
HuskerVision screen that often
lingers over them in the floor
level bleachers, represent the
largest roar in the bustling pop
ulation of the new woman: Girls
who can get down like that in
sports, who want to and pay
their bills along with it.
These girls also like Cepero’s
hair.
***
I was granted a deadline
reprieve. So I am able to ask
about the hair. The pre-eminent
thing, remember, if there was
one.
Cepero’s shoulders throw
together in laughter when she's
asked, in plain language, to talk
about it '
She used to have long hair,
always, but over the summer she
wanted to “go through the expe
rience of having short hair.” She
agrees that, when viewing it, it
looks much a mushroom cloud.
It keeps its cloud state by insert
ing a head band (by Nebraska’s
official sponsor, Adidas!), elevat
ing the poof! to lofty levels after
it ziiiiiiiiips!
“I found out that it com
pletely matches my personality,”
she says.
“Little kids come up to me
and say, ‘Look at her hair, look at
her hair!’
“I let them touch my hair.”
Kids think its the coolest
Athletic programs
cutting spending
BUPQETtrom page 9
Basketball Operations Mike
Broughton, is busing to three of
its games this year and flying
commercially to four of them
instead of chartering planes for
almost all road trips.
Broughton said the travel
parties on road trips have been
reduced in numbers from the
mid-40s to the high 20s. To help
keep travel expenses low this
year, not all walk-on reserves
are making every road trip.
Ultimately, Broughton said,
it has been mostly Coach Barry
Collier and himself that have
determined cost-cutting meth
ods in men’s basketball.
ihese were areas we
thought we could cut back and
still have a quality program,” he
said.
The NU track team has cut
back too. It has had four road
meets in its indoor season - an
abnormally high but necessary
figure to accommodate the
construction of its $2.9 million
hydraulic track, just one of
seven in the world.
Coach Gary Pepin’s team
bused to meets in Wichita, Kan.,
Cedar Falls and Ames, Iowa,
and Fayetteville, Ark.
"We’re just diligently trying
to be as conservative as we
can,” Pepin said.
Besides that, expenditures
like hotel and meal costs, as
well as the expense of part-time
student help, are being cut
back, not just in the track pro
gram, but all over the depart
ment, he said.
The infrastructure of the
department also has seen mild
adjustments.
Computers in the depart
ment, replaced on a three-year
rotation, are not being replaced
this year, Fouraker said.
ousDoom saia ceil pnone
plans throughout the athletic
department were being exam
ined as well. For example, it
may be feasible, he said, to use
more expensive cell phones
with free long-distance minutes
rather than using desktop
phones for long-distance calls.
While things are looking
better - because of a combina
tion of the cutbacks and an
increase in men’s basketball
attendance this year - Fouraker
said he wasn’t certain that the
adjustments would cease once
NU was back in the black as far
as its budget
There could be unexpected
road bumps, Fouraker said,
such as inflation or higher than
normal utility costs.
Still, watching the athletic
department’s weight would be
prudent, Fouraker said.
“Who knows what will hap
pen in the future?” he said.
NU baseball losing
ground in polls
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Nebraska’s baseball team
moved out of the top 10 in
Baseball America’s weekly poll
released Monday.
After finishing 2-1 at the
Applebee's Baseball Fiesta in
Albuquerque, N.M., NU slipped to
12* in the poll. Pepperdine, No.
14 last week, occupied the
Comhuskers’ previous ranking of
10th with an 8-1 record. Notre
Dame is No. 11, while Florida State
(3-4) is behind Nebraska at 13*.
Georgia Tech remains No. 1 at
4-1, while Southern California is
No. 2 at 8-2. The top-ranked unde
feated team is South Carolina, No.
7 at 8-0.
Big 12 Conference member
Oklahoma State moved up to No.
19, while Baylor rode a 4-0 week
end to a No. 22 slot
In-state rival Creighton was
swept over the weekend by No. 5
Arizona State with lofty scores of
23-1,15-2 and 14-4.
The full poll can be found at
http://unuw.baseballamerica.com/
leagues/NCAAJtop25.html. A
weekend wrap-up of top 25 action
can be found at http://www.base
baUamerica.eom/leagues/NCAA/w
eekend021901.html
As a Fiidniser for the Liacata/Laacaster Caasty
Habitat for Haaaaity “Waaaa’s BaiW",
tba Wfea’s CaaacH af Retailers presaats...
m: • . : • : , . . ,n .....
At the Llocl Center
February 23, 2001 7:30 PM
For Tickets call: 472-4747
Underwritten by: Additions! Sponsors:
FannieMae B
0KCS& GEb-nk.
