Nebraska's Richard van Poelgeest battles a Czechoslovakian player as Jeff Rekeweg
moves in.
Cornhuskers attempt to get revenge
for Aggies’ basketball win last season
By Tim Hartmann
* Senior Reporter
Probable Starters:
Nebraska (1-2)
Jeff Rekcweg F
Derrick Vick F
Richard van Poelgeest C
Henry T. Buchanan G
Eric Johnson G
Texas A&M (1-1)
Donald Thompson F
Tyrone Harbin F
Doug Dennis C
Darryl McDonald G
Anthony Booker G
Nebraska basketball coach
Danny Nee will attempt to avenge
a 66-64 loss his team suffered at
Texas A&M last season when the
Comhuskcrs face the Aggies to
night at the Bob Dcvaney Sports
Center.
Nee said he expects a tough test
from Texas A&M because the
Aggies qualified for the NCAA
Tournament last season. Texas
A&M dropped a 58-51 decision to
Duke in the tournament’s first
round.
Nee said the Aggies have a tal
ented squad.
He said Aggie guard Darryl
McDonald is “pro material.’’
McDonald, a 6-fool-4 senior
who is Texas A&M’s only return
ing starter from last year’s 17-14
team, has averaged 22 points per
game this season.
Texas A&M coach Shelby
Metcalf said McDonald is the
Aggies’ key player.
“He’s our best player,” Metcalf
said. “It’s important that he plays
well for us, but we can’t depend on
him to do everything.”
Metcalf said 6-foot-7 forward
Donald Thompson, who has aver
aged 22 points and seven rebounds
per game this season, has also
performed well.
The Aggies’ other two inside
men, junior-college transfers Ty
rone Harbin and Doug Dennis,
have averaged a combined 1.5
points per game.
“We have a little way to go right
now,” Metcalf said. “We’re not a
good ball club right now.”
But Metcalf said he thought this
season’s team had achance to be as
good as last year’s once the new
comers have a chance to adjust to
the program.
Tonight’s contest will be
Nebraska’s second home game of
the year. The Huskers competed in
the Maui Classic in Lahainta,
Hawaii, last Friday through Sun
day and finished seventh by de
feating Chaminade 76-65. Ne
braska lost to Villanova 70-53 and
to Baylor 82-79 in the
tournament’s first two rounds.
Seniors Henry T. Buchanan and
Derrick Vick led Nebraska in scor
ing in the tournament. Buchanan, a
6-foot-0 guard, averaged 15 points
per game, and Vick, a 6-foot-6
forward, added 13 points per
game.
NU team plays first match
of NCAA tourney at home
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
Since only 16 teams in the country
are staging a first-round match in the
NCAA volleyball tournament, the
home-court advantage will play a big
part in most matches.
But Nebraska volleyball coach
Terry Pettit said Tuesday that playing
an opening-round match against
Northern Iowa in the NU Coliseum
will not make a big difference in the
match’s outcome.
“They’re used toplaying in front of
crowds,” Pettit said. “They’ve had
three or four crowds at their Uni
Dome of over 1,000. They’ve played
in front of 800 people at Iowa State.
“So I don’t know if a large or
consistent crowd here will have much
of an effect on them as it will on us.”
The No. 9-rankcd Cornhuskers
will face Northern Iowa Thursday at
7:30 p.m.
Pettit said a big crowd would have
a major effect on the Huskers.
“I think our players have earned it,”
Pettit said. “I think that sometimes in
a program like this with athletes like
these there is a tendency to take so
much for granted. They ’re not robots,
and just because we’ve been success
ful doesn't mean that at times we don’t
need a crowd behind us.”
Although the attendance at the
Coliseum this year averaged 561 pa
trons per game, Pettit said Husker fans
are quieter than most fans in other
parts of the country.
“Nebraska crowds are not inlum
dat ing crowds parti y because we don' t
have any fans close to the match,”
Pettit said. “Secondarily, people in
Nebraska athletically are so used to
being successful that their lives don’t
revolve around winning or losing with
any particular team. But that may not
be true with the football team to some
extent.”
Pettit said the Nebraska fans can
help the Huskers.
“I respect our fans,” Pettit said.
“They’re good people to play in front
of. They’re knowledgeable and enthu
siastic. But 1 think teams do dread
coming in here because of the talent.”
Pettit said he doesn't put more
emphasis on playing at home.
“We really haven’t focused (on
playing at home), and one of the rea
sons that’s happened is that we want
our team to be successful on the road,”
Pettit said. “You don’t want to act like
it’s a totally different environment at
home or on the road, but I think fans
arc different.”
The Huskers, 28-4, will be playing
in their sixth consecutive NCAA
Tournament and seventh overall this
season. Nebraska is also the top seed
in the Mideasl region.
Pettit said fans have supported the
team in past tournaments.
“Our fans have really enjoyed this
tournament in the past,” he said. “Last
year, I think you could have scraped
them out of the Devaney Center be
cause they were so exhausted after the
Penn State match.”
Nebraska defeated the Nittany
Lions in five sets in the 1986 Mideast
regional semifinals.
Even though the Huskers are the
lop seed in the region, Illinois will
stage the regional semifinals and final
if the Fighting Illini defeat Pittsburgh
in the tournament’s opening round.
Pettit said the Illini outbid Ne
braska for the regional finals.
i Nebraska's basketball team
gets crash course in Hawaii
By 1 im Hartmann
Senior Reporter
Nebraska basketball coach Danny
Nee said the Comhuskers got a crash
course in his style of basketball last
weekend in the Maui Classic in
Lahaina, Hawaii.
Nebraska played three games in
three days, finishing with a 1 -2 record.
“It’d be like going to something on
the weekend, a seminar, where you go
in and boom, boom — you try to get
what you should learn in weeks in
three days,” Nee said.
Nee said the tournament will help
Nebraska’s younger players pick up
the system and will help the team
prepare for the five games the Huskers
will play in the next week.
Nee said the newcomers on the
team arc just beginning to adjust to
him as a coach and as a person.
He said one example was when
Derrick Vick shot an air ball in the
Maui Classic. Nee said he got off the
bench and started talking to Vick and
smiling, which led some of the new
players to think he wasn’t taking the
game seriously.
But Nee said that was his way of
coaching and keeping the players re
laxed. He said the players will learn
that eventually.
Nee said his recruits understand the
style of basketball he wants to play.
“I think that this group philosophi
cally understands what we arc trying
to do offensively and defensively,” he
said.
Nee said last year’s team, which
included several players who were
recruited by former Husker coach
Moc Iba, never completely believed
in his up-tempo style of play.
Nee said he was pleased with the
play of freshmen Rich King, Clifford
Scales and Beau Reid throughout the
Hawaiian tournament. King,a7-foot
2 center from Omaha, scored four
points in the tournament, Scales
added six, and Reid scored 32 points.
Reid led all scorcrsduring Nebraska’s
76-65 victory over Chaminade with
20 points.
“Those three freshmen I was
pleased with overall because I do
think thccxpcricncc of playing helped
them,” Nee said.
Nee said in order to develop new
players on the team, there comes a
time when it may be necessary to
sacrifice a win.
“You have to play the balancing act
and try to get as much as you can, do
everything possible to win the game,
and then there is a certain point where
you have to make a commitment to
rebuilding your program through
playing younger players,” Nee said.
“You have to do it. Otherwise
you’re facing the same thing of inex
perience again next year.”
Nee said the fact that Nebraska
plays eight or nine players a game will
give the new players some experi
ence. He said one of the players who
must get experience is King.
“I have to get playing time for Rich
King,” he said. “No matter what hap
pens, he has to be on the floor, because
he’s our future.”
Nee said he is excited about the
future of Nebraska basketball, espe
cially after signing three high-school
recruits: 6-foot-6 forward Lewis
Geter, 6-foot-7 forward Carl Hayes,
and 6-foot-9 center DaPreis Owens.
Nee said Geter is “a slashing-type
player, a good outside shooter and
overall a good, solid all-around bas
ketball player.”
Nee said Hayes will be a solid
player.
“(To gel) Carl Hayes we went back
to the back again in Chicago and stole,
we think, another sleeper,” Nee said.
“ He ’ s probabl y one of the most under
rated players in the country right
now.”
Hayes attends St. Joseph High
School in Westchester, III., the same
school Scales attended.
Nee said Owens is the most well
known of the recruits and will give
Nebraska a strong inside player.