Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • Page 9

I Silent Strategy Works as NU Clips Oklahoma State Joe Cipriano Silent Treatment Huskcrs Calm. Groiii) By RANDV YORK Kansas City, Mo. As far as Nebraska basketball coach Joe Cipriano is concerned, silence is golden. When the Cornhiiskers played their worst half of the season here Wednesday afternoon in triling Oklahoma State, Cipriano decided not to talk to them at intermission. Apparently, the silent strategy worked because Nebraska came back with a respectable second half to dump the Cowboys, 64-56 in the consolation semifinals of the Big Eight Conference Pre- Season Tournament at Municipal Auditorium.

knew what they were doing wrong what else could I tell Cipriano asked. I said was go when I walked in just before it was time to go out for the second Just talked among related Nebraska senior guard A1 Nissen after the game. whole thing was pretty embarrassing. But I thought we played well in the second If Nebraska was embarrassed by its five-point halftime deficit, defending tournament and regular season league champion Kansas must have been humiliated. The Jayhawks trailed Oklahoma, 47-32 at halftime in the other consolation semifinal and went on to lose even worse, 97-69 before 6,777 matinee fans.

It marked the worst KU in the 26-year history of the tournament. By winning, the Comhuskers cffid Sooners avoided another afternoon game to advance into Thursday consolation championship at 7. In its frustrating first hah' Wednesday, ebraska missed its first free throw attempts, but still held a 17-13 lead with 7:22 remaining. Ten straight points, however, allowed Oklahoma State to iissume a 23-17 advantage two later and the typically deliberate Cowboys led, 30-25 at halftime. (Oklahoma State) set the tempo the first half and we just have the Cipriano said.

looked pretty disorganized and took a lot of erratic The Comhuskers, who shot only 37 per cent from the field in the first half, hit .614 after intermission (13-21) to finish with a respectable .442 accuracy mark. In getting 13 secoixi half points from pivot Chuck Jura (who finished with 23), Nebraska wrestled the lead at 43-41 wth 12:13 maining and never trailed thereafter. The Cowboys closed to within 58-56 with 3:35 left, but the Comhuskers went into their delay passing game, which product two Tom Gregory free throws, a Lee Harris layin, a Mike Peterson bucket and sixth win of the season. Oklahoma State coach Sam Aubrey, by our noted: charts had 14 turnovers for Nebraska and 13 for us. a big difference from 29 against Colorado Moniday Nebraska 64' Okla.

St. 56 NEBRASKA (64) fg-fga ft-(tarbpf tp Nissen 1-5 5-7 52 7 Riehl 2-3 5-7 3 3 9 Bryan 3-5 0-1136 Peterson 5-101-36 411 Jura10-16 3-675 23 0-2 0-00 10 Harris 2-4 0-0 4 4 4 Novak 0-1 0-01 00 0-2 4-4 0 0 4 Totals 23-4818-28 27 22 64 OKLAHOMA STATE (56) fg-fga ff-(ta rb tp Fitzgerald 5-12 3-6113 13 Jeffries 3-6 7-734 13 Rasmuson 4-5 2-56 410 Clack 3-6 5-73 111 Cole 0-5 0-0 13 0 Ufhoff 0-53 3 2 Fi-she'" 0-0 0 12 Kraus 2-3 1-12 0 5 Gant 0-2 0 0 0 Totals 19-43 18-31 29 19 56 Nebraska 25 39 -64 Oklahoma State 30 By DON FORSYTHE Miami One thing which has been apparent to the writers who have had their first contact with Nebraska football players here is that the Comhuskers aie a confident bunch. that worry a scribe asked Nebraska coach Bob Devaney Thursday. replied Devaney. happy they feel they can win.

I want them to feel they can The (hmhusker coach added that he saw little problem with his team being overconfident. think you will ever be overconfident against a team like he said. we were a prohibitive favorite over a team which as as Alabama and the players were talking confidently maybe have some cau.se for concern. But I think our players have a gri'at deal of respc'ct for Devaney characterized Alabama as the toughest team the Comhuskers have met in the of their 31- game unbeaten The particular kind of confidence the Cornhusker players have goes back to the 1969 season, when Nebraska opened its seasiHi against Southern Cal. After losing, 31-21, it was the consensus of the veterans on that team that the Comhuskers had been overawed by the Trojans that buy the time they realized they were just as good as Southern Cal it was too late to win the game.

The coaching staff shouldered some of the blame for making the highly-ranked Trojans appear bigger than life. Since that time been no big buildup of a team no scare tactics. Coaches and players think positively. one of the things Iowa State coach Johrmy Majors claimed wa.s an important lesson for him in coaching in the Big Eight. be overawed by but you can't underestimate he says of the mental a'pproach to coachinig.

The Cornhusker players und erestimating Alabama. got the quickest says Johnny Rodgers. line is bigger than we expected and they have a better inside running game than says Larry Jacobson. But the Comhuskers overawed. Rodgers and Jeff Kinney each claimed It Wednesday, just as Jerry Taigge had a day earlier at a press conference, that they figured the Comhuskers attack Alabama like any other opponent.

confident the offense can run and throw. The question was raised as to whether the Comhuskers had watched films of bowl losses to Alabama in 1966 and 1967. replied Kinney. have no bearing on this game. sure the coaches and fans think of the other games, but the players None of us were two entirely different added Rodgers.

players in this game were in the Devaney added that he think the players were overly concerned with the previous Nebraska losses to Alabama. aware of it, cf course, because been in print a he said. Both the Comhuskers and Alabama started tapering off in ractices. Nebraska was to have a light afternoon workout, then test the Orange Bowl surface in a brief practice Friday. be close, to top physical said Devanoy.

Potent Offenses Net Big Wins For Kansas State, Iowa State AP WIREPHOTO John Brown (50) puts in a layup over Seott Wednian the outstretched hand of (4). Kansas City, Mo. Missouri and Kansas State were offensively awesome in their respective semifinal wiais here Wednesday night in the Big Eight Conference Pre-Season Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium. But defense was equally important as the Tigers rolled to an 86-57 win over Colorado and the Wildcats coasted past Iowa State, 97-75 before a sellout crowd of 10,560. was defenitely Mizzcu coach Norm Stewart said of his aggressive effort to record win No.

9 of the seasoin. could be the best part of our game right Defense, Stewart believed, was responsible for the Tigers rolling up a 49-30 halftime bulge. The pressivTig, man-to- man defense made Mizzou even more relentless in the second half and it never was a game. Kansas State, in erecting a 40-25 halftime lead, never really had a competitive struggle with Iowa State either. Again, although the Wildcats scored almost at will from inside, it was defense which earned the most promise.

State did an excellent job admitted vanquished Cyclone coach John. They played defense the way I like it to be K-State coach Jack Hartman praised the defensive effort of guard Danny Beard most. He held Iowa Gene Mack, who scored 34 points against Kansas Tuesday night, to only nine field goal tries and 11 points. played one hell of a Hartman said. were able to rest our big man and ran a little different offense, which gave us more The new high-low post was offensively productive Lincoln, Neb.

Thursday, Dec. 30, 1971 9 as well as defensively neutralizing. Steve Mitchell and David Hall rotated in the front line and combined for 41 points. Ernie Kusnyer and substitute Gene McVey contributed 29 more front line points against the Cyclones, whose 7-0 center Tom collected only seven rebounds. Missouri may not have had as many offensive leaders as Bears Fire Dooley; Wide K-State, but the Tigers need much more than 6-7 forward John Brown.

He hit 12 of 20 field goals, scored 27 points and added a game high 14 rebounds. Eberhard contributed points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers, who also received a 12- point performance from guard Mike Griffin. Jim Creighton with 14 points and Martinez with 26 points paced Colorado and Iowa State. The Wildcats have won seven pre-season tournament championships and last readied the finals in 1967 when they last lost to Nebraska. last appearance in the championship game was 19.54 when Stewart, the Tiger coach, was a player.

Oklahoma 97, Kansas 69 CHICAGO (UFI) Chicago Bears owner George Halas launched a search for a new coach today, but it was unlikely some stranger would come in to take over the job. Halas fired his protege, Jim Dooley, Wednesday after four unsuccessful years in the job, during which the Bears had three consecutiv losing seasons for the first time in history. He said door is wide open for a new man to step But four times previously, since he founded the Bears in 1920, Halas has chosen a replacement for himself as coach, and each time he looked only into the ranks of Bears players or coaches. Thus Ralph Jones, once a part owner of the club, coached from 1930 through 1932; Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos coached from 1942 through 1945; Paddy Driscoll headed tjie team in 1956 and 1957; and finally Dooley held the title the last four seasons. OklahomaKansas (691 i Jack3 2-3 8 Stallwth 9 1-3 19 Holland 6 4-5 16 Mathews 2 0-0 4 Evans3 7-10 13 Mask12-2 4 85-521 Kivlsfo2 4-6 8 Pettes8 5-7 21 Nash2 2-3 6 Jones 4 4-7 12 laynor 0 0-0 0 Yul3 3 0-16 Barrow1 1-3 3 Gorman00-0 0 Canfield 2 0-14 Lynch 00-10 Haase.10-0 2 Culbrtsn 3 0-0 6 Bosilevc 2 9-9 13 Franklin 0 0-0 0 House 0 0-10 Totals 35 27-39 97 Totals 25 19 27 69 Oklahoma 47 50-97 Kansas32 37-69 Fouled Barrow Total 22, Kansas 32 Florida, Miller KOd by Battling Illini By Associated Press Fighting 1 11 i i knocked Florida from the ranks of the unbeaten and virtually kayocd the Tony Miller in the process.

The battling Illini won the Gator Bowl Basketball 0 rnament championship Wednesday night with a hard- earned 76-75 decision over Florida leaving Miller sprawling on the floor at the finish. Miller, named the most valuable player and the top scorer with 31 points, was set up to take the final shot in hopes of pulling out seventh straight victory. As he fired the ball toward the hoop, he was slammed to the court by two Illinois players. And to add insult to suffered a broken ring finger on his right hand during the officials ruled that he get the shot off before the final buzzer and he was not awarded any free throws. knew I was said I have no way of knowimg whether I got the shot off before the buzzer.

There was so much noise I hear Neither Florida coach Tommy Bartlett nor Illinois coach Harve Schmidt would comment on the controversial play. While Florida was suffering its first setback, top-ranked, unbeaten UCLA rolled to its seventh blasting Texas 115-65 in the first round of the Bruin Classic. It was the seventh game the Bruins have exceeded the 100-polnt mark. Ohio State, the No. 6 team, also posted a first-round victory in the Bruin Classic, crushing Arizona 90-47 as Hornyak led the way with 27 points, 24 in the first half.

Fourth-rated North Carolina, seeking its third championship in 10 days, beat St. Pa. 93-77 in the opening round of the Sugar Bowl Tournament. The Tarheels, led by Dennis 21 points, face Bradley tonight for the title. The Braves whipped Purdue 7264 in the opening game.

North Carolina won the Big Four Tournament at Greensboro, N.C. and a tourney in Spain before playing in the Sugar Bowl Classic. Seventh-ranked Indiana, with the help of John five free throws in the final two minutes, edged Old Dominion 88-86 for the championship of the Old Dominion Classic. Joby Wright, named the most valuable player, paced the Hoosiers with 24 points and Ritter had 23. Brigham Young, rated eighth, took third place in the Old Dominion Classic, walloping Rice 96-73 behind Kresimir 27 points.

St. N.Y., the No. 9 team, beat Harvard 94-88 and 16th-ranked Maryland trounced Western Kentucky 103-67 in the opening round of the Maryland Invitational Christmas Tournament and will meet for the title tonight. Bill Schaeffer scored 29 points for St. and Mel Davis had 22 points and 15 rebounds.

A 13-2 spurt and two 11-0 bursts helped Maryland whip Western Kentucky. Long Beach State, rated 10th, won the International City Classic championship, 0 helming California- Riverside 109-89. Jim Dooley Record Speaks for Itself These facts indicated that while any applicant, from college or pro ranks, could send his recommendations to Halas, the 76-year-old club owner was most likely to dip into his present staff. Front runners for the position thus had to be Bill Austin, a former head coach of National Football League teams at Pittsburgh and Washington, and Abe Gibron, the defensive coach. Halas, though, said he would consider coaches with professional CAperience, or college The new coach was to be named before the NFL draft Feb.

1-2. Halas said he would pay Dooley for the year remaining on the five year contract he signed when he became head coach, but added that Dooley was free to seek any other job he wished. Should Dooley take a job in pro football. Halas might not have to pay his full salary for next year. Halas said Dooley was let go because record speaks for On the record teams won 20 and lost 36 games and he was in charge in when the team had its worst record ever, one win and 13 defeats.

The last two seasons the Bears finished 6-8, and this year, with a 6-3 record to be contenders for the Central Division title after nine games, they lost the last five to fall into third place. Missouri Colorado 5 2 3 3 1 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 86 Wedman Haven Criqhtn Wriqht Teets Pickens Bush Kelly Smith Kennedy England Totals Colorado Missouri Colorado Missouri 1-1 11 Ebrhrd 2-5 8-13 14 Brown 1-1 7 Flaker 2 Griffin Salmon 3 Stock Link 5 Foster 0 Flamank 0 Ptrson 2 Blind Love 19 19-29 57 Totals 57 0-0 0-1 3-3 1-1 1-2 0-0 0-0 2-2 5-8 4-7 3-3 1-3 2-3 0-1 0-0 6 0-0 2 0-0 0 0-1 0 0-T 4 1-1 3 0-0 0 35 16-28 30 27-57 49 Fouled Wedman Total 21, Missouri 21 Kansas State 92, Iowa St. 75 Kansas State (92) Iowa State (75) Hall 6 0-1 12 Harris Kusnver 6 4-6 16 Willms Mfchll 8 13-16 29 O'Connr Beard 4 4-4 12 Mack Chioman 1 0-4 2 Denmon Kruaer 3 2-3 8 Miller McVev 3 7-9 13 Heft Willms 0 0-0 0 Hock Thomas 0 0-0 0 Enqel White 0 0-0 0 Caoobo Lull 0 0-0 OCtshll Brown Totals 31 30-43 92 Totals Kansas Slate lo'va State Fouled State, liams, Denmon. Total fouls Kansas State 15, Iowa State 29. 1-1 4-4 2-2 2-3 6-7 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-2 29 17-19 7S 40 25 Harris, Wil- .1 3 4 4 10 0 1 0 5 0 1 0 3 10 10 11 26 0 2 0 10 0 2 1 Milchell of Alahaiiia FoolbaW Blacks Regret Joining Crimson Tide MIAMI (AP) To be a black man in a white world such as the Alabama football team in the heart of the Deep exactly an inviting situation, but John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson trade it for anything.

was a little uneasy at first, but everything turned out I have no said Mitchell, a 6-fcot 3, 230-pound junior college transfer from Mobile, who turn'ed down bids from Southern California and Texas to play in his native state. chimed in Jackson, a willowy 6-1. 187- pound sophomore hallback frorr; the little Alabama town of Ozark. treat me great. I wo.uldn’t want to play anywhere Mitchell is a starter on defense and Jackson is a speedy reserve on the unbeaten, No.

2 ranked Crimson Tide which challenges 31-game unbeaten streak and national collegiate football title in the Orange Bowl here Sakirday night. the first blacks ever to play for the Tuscaloosa, uiiiversity where campus integration created a crisis back in the early 1960s. Mitchell, son of a civil engineer, is something of a symbol. He is football Jackie Robinson. His coming to Alabama was a unique story in itself.

When the Crimson Tide played' in the Bluebonnet Bowl at Houston at the end of last season, Southern California Coach John McKay was principal speaker at a Houston quarterback dinner. McKay, in his talk, extolled the virtues of a player from Eastern Arizona Junior College who he said would be playing for the Trojans the next year. Paul (Bear) Bryant, the Alabama coach, was listening. got a call from Mr. Mitchell recalled.

know how Mr. Bear talks, so low I could hardly hear him. I just kept saying sir Yes, to everything. turned ofit he wanted me to come to Mitchell said the offer presented a challenge, so he talked it over with his mother. I was reluctant to go to Alabama.

I know what kind of reception get or whether ever get to play ball there. I told my mother there would be too many problems. Mama said to me, no matter where you go, always have problems. Come on down here to Alabama so your mother can see you always had a lot of faith and trust in my mother. So I entered Mitchell said he was amazed at the cordial reception he got.

bent over backward to be nice to he added. found out my fears were nothing but fantasies. Danny Taylor, a white boy, asked me to be his roommate. Later I was put in the room with Robin Parkhouse. Bryant told me, you ever have any problems of any kind, come to see I never had to go into Mr.

Jackson, son of a railroad laborer, said he was recruited by Pat Dye, assistant Alabama coach, and his reception at Tuscaloosa was similar to that of Mitchell. Jolm, I was worried at Wilbur said. had other offers but my ambition was always to play at Alabama. And not Football George Allen has been named the top NFL coach by The Sporting News. Jeff Siemon, a linebacker for Stanford, has won the Pop W'arner Award given to the top senior footballer on the West coast.

Veteran Cleveland Brown all- pro offensive tackle Dick Schafrath has announced his retirement. Rice University has released football coach Bill Peterson from the last four years of his five-year contract with the school so that he can take over the head coaching job with the Houston Oilers. The Denver Broncos have interviewed South Carolina head football coach and athletic director Paul Dietzel about their vacant head coaching job. Rice has interviewed former Oklahoma assistant coach Homer Rice with regard to their head coaching job. iior se Racing Ack Ack, a 5-year-old, has been voted the 1971 Horse of the Year, while 11 has been selected as the best 3- year-old.

Fonner Park officials in Grand Island announced Jan. 3 as the nominating date deadline for the $4,000 added Fonner Juvenile Stakes and the $4,000 added Special Stakes. Other Sports Former Kansas State eager Jeff Webb, recently released by Milwaukee of the NBA, has been picked up by Phoenix of the NBA..