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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1988)
Sports Knee injury sidelines Husker senior Bolli for season By Tim Hartmann Senior Reporter Nebraska center Stephanie Bolli suffered what Cornhusker women’s basketball coach Angela Beck termed a season-ending knee injury during the Huskers’ 84-69 loss to Colorado Saturday night in Boulder, Colo. Bolli, a 5-foot-10 senior from Burwcll, tore the anterior cruciate i.. ' ligament in her right knee early in the first half of Nebraska’s loss to the Buffaloes. The ligament supports the knee. Bolli said she was devastated by the injury. Former Nebraska center Dave Hoppen suffered a similar in jury during the 1985-86 season. “It’s really devastating because this is not the way I wanted to go out as a senior,” Bolli said. “I was feeling strong, feeling good, and I just neve would have imagined this would hav< happened to me.” Beck said the loss of Bolli is ; “major blow” to the Huskers bccaus* they will miss her leadership during the rest of the season. Nebraska nov leads the Big Eight with a 5-1 confer cnee record and a 15-3 record overall Beck said she doesn’t know wh( will replace Bolli in the Huskers r starting lineup. She said she will i spend the time before Nebraska’s game against Oklahoma State on t Wednesday evaluating possible can ; didates. 5 “I’m just going to take a couple ' days and see who’s willing to do some ■ of the things she did for our basketball . team,” Beck said. > Bolli, who was leading the Big Eight with a 65.4 field-goal shooting percentage, started in 15 of the Husk ers’ 18 games this season and was fourth on the team in scoring with an average of 9.6 points a game. She was Nebraska’s second leading rcboun der, averaging 5.9 a game. Bolli said she is confident that the Huskcrs can compensate for her loss. “I know they will do well,” Bolli said. “We have a lot of depth, and 1 have confidence in them.” ^-*-^ ^ " WardWItilamWBallyTfera'S Nebraska guard Sabrina Brooks throws a pass over Missouri’s Tracy Kelly (left) and Sharon Bix. Transition from junior college to NU has been enjoyable one for Husker By Tim Hartmann Senior Reporter Transferring to Nebraska was a change for Sabrina Brooks, but -making a successful transition is part of her game. Brooks, a transfer guard from Moberly (Mo.) Junior College, said she loves the up-tempo, transition style of play that is employed by Nebraska women’s basketball coach Angela Beck. “We want to do nothing but run, run, run,” Brooks said. Brooks said she likes to run even though one of her main weapons, the three-point shot, comes from a half court offense. Brooks has made 33 of 72 three-point attempts this sea son. “That’s one of the reasons we recruited her, because we wanted her to nail the three-pointer,” Beck said. Brooks said Nebraska benefits each time she makes a three-point shot. “I think the three-point shot re ally gets us going and is a major factor in our game,” she said. “Also, it pul Is the defense out and opens the inside up.” Bropks averaged 24 points per game last season while leading the Moberly Greyhounds to a third place finish in the National Junior College Athletic Association Tour nament. Before attending Moberly, Brooks attended Odessa (Texas) Junior College, making Nebraska her third team in as many years. “I’m her third different coach in three years, and I’m sure I’m totally different from the other two coaches,” Beck said. “It’s going to take some adjustment for her to get used to the system.” Beck said Brooks must adjust not only to a different coach, but also to a different role on the team. “She used to be the whole show, especially at Moberly,” Beck said. “Here, we are using her in different areas.” Brooks said she is not just an offensive player, but she’s worked hard on her off the- bairdefense and rebounding in hopes of improving in those two areas. Brooks has averaged 14.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game this season, and has made 81.5 percent of her free throws. “I think she’s done a good job,” Beck said. “She came in and played a big partln a couple of early victo ries, so she contributed right away.” Beck said Brooks needs work on her shot selection. Brooks said she expects an excel lent season this year because the Huskers are 15-3 overall and 5-1 in the Big Eight. “From what I’ve seen in my first year of being around the girls, I think we’ve got an excellent team,” she said. Senior leadership, three wins please Comhuskers’ coach By Mike Kluck Staff Reporter Nebraska basketball coach Danny Nee said Tuesday he is pleased with the leadership of his seniors, the play of the younger personnel and three victories after evaluating the Corn huskers’ performance last week. Nebraska raised its record to 12-8 overall and 3-1 in the Big Eight by defeating Colorado 63-57 Saturday night in Boulder, Colo. The win capped off a perfect week in which the Huskcrs defeated the University of Nebraska at Omaha 96-79 Monday and Kansas 70-68 Wednesday. Nee said the win against UNO was significant because a loss to the Divi sion II Mavericks would have “meant his job.” He said the victory against Kansas was also good because the Jayhawks, with All-America center Danny Manning, tire one of the lop teams in the countrv. Nec said the leadership shown by seniors Henry T. Buchanan, Jeff Rekeweg and Derrick Vick helped the Huskers to their three wins. He said Buchanan, who sank the winning shotduring Nebraska’s two-point win against Missouri, has helped with offensive and defensive leadership and has provided needed clutch play. Nec was pleased with the seniors’ play even though two of them lost their starting positions during the first three weeks of the season. Vick and Buchanan were benched in favor of freshman guard Clifford Scales and freshman forward Beau Reid earlier this year. “The three seniors have done well,” Nec said. “I was concerned with how I or the coaching staff was going to get them to play to their potential. Without them we could not be a successful basketball team.” Nec said freshman Rich King, who made his first collegiate start against Colorado, adds a new dimension to the Huskers. He said the ball moves better when King is in the game be cause the 7-foot-2 center is able to find the open person. Nee said junior transfer Eric Johnson is also starting to aid Ne braska after sitting out last season as a redshirt. He said Johnson’s biggest impact is making the defense work. Nee said the Huskcrs arc able to win games and be competitive with the combination of the old and young players. “I think were just settling down and enjoy ing the success,” Nee said. “I just think each person, old and young, is just trying to do their job the best they can.” Nee said the success of a coach depends on two objectives: the coaches’ ability to recruit good play ers and being able to find ways to help the recruits succeed. Although Nee has had success the past two seasons with senior leader ship, he said, that is not the way a coach would usually go about build ing a new program. ‘ It just happens that at Nebraska for two years in a row, we have been top-heavy,” Nee said. “If you were going to design a program, you w ould start with freshmen and make them sophomores. But the change in re cruiting philosophies, the quality of the seniors left behind and the junior college impact on collegiate coach ing have become very significant on programs. Now you have time to rebuild, but people still expect you to win while you’re rebuilding.” Now that the Huskers have posted a pair of two-point victories against Big Eight rivals Missouri and Kansas, Nee said, this season’s team is re minding him of last year’s squad that finished third in the National Invita tional Tournament. “We seem to be thriving on being down and coming back on clutch situ ations and believing we can compete with anybody at home,” Nee said. “Right now, we’re just trying to grab as many wins as quick as we can before the other teams find out about us.” Gymnasts split at Iowa State: Davis leads men; women fall By Richard Cooper and Lori Griffin Staff Reporters It took a clutch performance by senior Kevin Davis, but the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team opened its season by defeating Oklahoma and Iowa State Sunday at Ames, la. Nebraska, which was helped by Davis’ 9.45 in the high-bar competi tion, came from behind to defeat Oklahoma 271 -270.3. Iowa State fin ished third with a score of 254.15. The Nebraska women’s team, despite compiling a school-record 47.5 points in the vaulting competi tion, dropped a 186.2-186.1 decision to Georgia Saturday night at Ames. Oklahoma finished third with 184.7 points. Allen said he wasn’t expecting Oklahoma to give the Huskers a good meet. “Oklahoma really showed some character; they put up quite a fight,” Allen said. “But we had an awful meet. We had way loo many breaks in our routines, and that’s what hurt us.” Nebraska women’s gymnastics coach Rick Walton said the Huskers also received all they could handle from Georgia. Walton said Georgia won the meet despite tallying a team score of 46.3 on the uneven bars, which was the Bulldogs’ final event. The Huskers then broke their old record of 47.2 in the vault by tallying a team score of 47.5, but it wasn’t good enough as the defending NCAA champion Bull dogs posted the narrow victory. “It could have gone any way at any time,” Walton said. “We did what we went down to do, and we almost beat the defending national champion.” Walton said Nebraska was shaky at the start of the meet. He said the Huskers had some problems on the uneven bars but did an outstanding job in the balance beam and floor exercise.