Thursday, February 6, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 15
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By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Kansas State basketball Coach Jack Hartman received a stand
ing ovation before the game with Nebraska Wednesday night at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center as he was presented with a gift for
his retirement bv the Nebraska Rebounders' Club.
Most of the 9,376 fans didn't think as highly of Hartman and the
Wildcats for the rest of the night, however, as Kansas State
defeated Nebraska 64-54.
Nebraska was without center Dave Hoppen for the first time in
3!2 seasons. Nebraska coach Moe Iba said Hoppen's absence is
Nebraska's main problem now.
"We've got problems right now," Iba said, "but we'll try to work
them out. We'll have to work hard and see if we can get it
together."
Iba said Nebraska's problem against Kansas State was a com
bination of the Huskers' inability to play as a team and that
"Kansas State is a good ball team.
"We had excellent effort in practice for two days, but when
things didn't go right tonight, we just panicked," Iba said. "We've
got to get our intensity up. We weren't getting offensive or defen
sive rebounds tonight." ,
Day
Marshall
Carr
Logan
Matzke
Jackman
Neubert
Bailous
Brown
Martz
Sealer
Kansas State 64
54
17
13
8
6
6
2
2
0
0
0
0
Coleman 26
Wright 21
Mitchell 9
Green 6
Mufif 2
Dobbins 0
Meyer 0
Smith 0
Walker 0
Nebraska's first offensive rebound came with 8:10 remaining in
the first half. The Huskers led 10-7 with 14:12 left in the first half
but lost the lead for good two minutes later after Kansas State
forward Ben Mitchell scored on a alley-oop from Ron Meyer and
then sank a free throw after a foul. The Wildcats led at halftime
30-23.
Kansas State's largest lead of the game came with 6:06 remain
ing in the game when forward Norris Coleman scored on a follow
up shot.
But Nebraska narrowed the margin during the last three min
utes of the game as the crowd began filing toward the exits. After
guard Harvey Marshall connected on a jumper from the right wing
with 39 seconds left, the Wildcats' lead was cut to 63-52. Forward
Bernard Day fouled out with 10 seconds remaining, and the
ensuing free throws by guard Lynn Smith and another free throw
by guard Joe Wright accounted for the final score.
Nebraska connected on only 22 of 64 shots from the field for a
percentage of 34.4, their lowest performance of the season. Day
led Husker scorers with 17 points, while guard Harvey Marshall
added 13. Coleman led the Wildcats with 26 points and Wright
scored 21.
The loss drops Nebraska to 3-4 in the Big Eight and 13-7 overall
this season.
"You win by the jumper and you die by the jumper," Husker
guard Brian Carr said. "We kinda got axed tonight. It's a real
change not having Dave (Hoppen) in there. It's like starting the
whole season over again. It's going to take us awhile, but we're
going to keep our heads up and just do the best we can. It's the
only thing to do right now."
a
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4
Kevin Muff takes in
Kansas State, 64-54
Mark DavisDaily tfebraskan
the ball over Keith Neubert in first half action in Wednesday's conference loss to
Huskers miss Hoppen, KSU coach says
By Bob Asmussen
Senior Editor
Yep, they missed him.
But Kansas State sure didn't.
Nebraska played its first game in more than
three years without center Dave Hoppen. Kansas
State Coach Jack Hartman said Nebraska was a
much different team without the 6-11 All
American candidate. Hoppen injured his knee
Saturday against Colorado and is out for the
season.
"They (Nebraska) miss him tremendously,"
Hartman said. "He's always a tremendous threat
anyplace on the floor."
Hartman said that he was concerned before
the game that the absence of Hoppen would fire
up the Nebraska players. Hartman said he was
surprised by the 64-54 margin.
"I thought the other kids were going to play a
lot harder to make up for Hoppen not being
WW , J
there," Hartman saia.
Because the Nebraska offense has been cen
tered around Hoppen, Hartman said he didn't
know how Nebraska would attack his team.
"I didn't know what they were going to do,"
Hartman said.
Kansas State played 40 minutes of zone
defense for the first time this season. Hartman
said he thought his team's defense made Nebraska
pass the ball more than it wanted to.
"Nebraska's known for their patience, but I
think our defense was making them go beyond
patience," Hartman said.
Before the game, Hartman received a gift from
the Nebraska athletic department and also a
standing ovation from 9,679 fans. Hartman
announced last week that this would be his final
season as Wildcat coach.
"It made me feel very, very good,' Hartman
said of the ovation and gift. "Nebraska fans have
always been great to me and my team. It was a
real nice gesture."
Kansas State's Norris Coleman finished the
game with 26 points. Coleman had not played
well in the Wildcats last two games, losses to
Oklahoma State and Kansas.
"I basically fault myself for the last two
losses," Coleman said. "I had terrible games. I
hope it (the cold streak) is over with. We'll see
Saturday."
Coleman said Nebraska had problems match
ing up with the Wildcat's height.
"The zone defense seemed to bother them a
lot," Coleman said. "I think they anticipated
that we'd be playing man (man-to-man defense).
That was a good game plan."
Hartman said he was glad to see Coleman have
a good game.
"He got it back on track," Hartman said. "I
think Norris was feeling the effects of the last
two games."
Kansas State senior guard Joe Wright finished
the game with 21 points. Three of Wright's
baskets came on layups off of Ron Meyer passes.
Meyer, the Wildcats starting center, finished the
game with a team-leading six assists.
"Those (baskets) came from reading the
defense and Ron getting me the ball," Wright
said. "That's just good offense. They expected
me to go out and take the shot, so I just went
back underneath."
Wright said he didn't think the Wildcats would
win the game by 10 points if Hoppen had played.
"It was a big difference," Wright said. "You
can tell they need him. It's a big loss for them. It
would be like if we lost Norris."
"It would have been a rough game (with
Hoppen playing), I wouldn't have got those shots
underneath."