NelSaskan
Tuesday, February 7,1939
Freshman starter
lacks experience,
NU’s Beck says
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
Nebraska women’s basketball
coach Angela Beck said the Com
huskers are just a point away from
reaching the upper half of the Big
Eight conference.
The trouble is, the point the Husk
crs are missing is a guard.
“ If I’d look at one thing that’s hurt
us, it is our point guard situation,”
Beck said during her weekly press
conference Monday. ‘‘I’m not de
meaning my point by any means. We
have a pretty talented point guard in
Kim Yancey. She’s a pretty talented
little lady, but she’s not as experi
enced.”
Beck said Yancey, a 5-foot-6
freshman from Holden, Mo., lacks
the experience to be a good point
guard.
The point guard’s importance in
basketball is underrated, Beck said.
She said in order to win any kind of
championship, a team has to have a
reliable, mint euaid.
‘‘I think a point guard is really,
really essential to a successful bas
ketball team,” Beck said. “And right
now, I don’t think we’re getting what
we need out of our point guard on our
basketball team.”
Yancey has averaged 3.4 points in
19 games this season, and has dished
out 38 assists. In Big Eight games,
she’s averaging 5.6 points per con
test.
As a senior in high school, Yancey
earned all-state honors by averaging
21 points per game. For her efforts,
she was an honorable mention All
America pick by Street and Smith
and USA Today.
Beck said Yancey is a good offen
sive player.
‘‘I think she creates some things
and helps us offensively,” Beck said.
‘‘But she hurts us because we have no
composure out there. I put all of my
blame on my point.”
Beck said a point guard at Ne
braska must run a team well, and lake
responsibility if she doesn’t.
‘‘I’m a point-guard oriented
coach,” Beck said. ‘‘I put a lot of
emphasis on my point guard. And if
they’re not highly talented, they bet
ter be intelligent. The problem right
now is we haven’t had the quality in
that position that we need.”
‘Young arms will help pitching statt
By Jerry Guenther
Stiff Reporter __
With a number of young arms
returning, Nebraska baseball
coach John Sanders said he is con
fident pitching will be one of the
strengths of this year’s Comhusker
team.
Sanders said because of insta
bility on the entire pitching staff
last year, many of the younger
pitchers on this year’s staff picked
up valuable experience by being
thrust into action last season.
4 We have some younger
L people who pitched last year who
r ’'were inconsistent,” Sanders said,
4‘but having gone through that,
they have learned what it takes to
be consistent.”
Nebraska pitching coach Tom
Prau agreed.
‘‘This year we have some
young phehers who we introduced
to die league last year -- at times
too fast,‘r Pratt said. “But they
know what it takes to win and they
have the talent more so this .year.
“What they lack in maturity,
they ’ U make up for with their over
all ra w talents and abilities.”
Without any senior pitchers on
this year’s staff, Pratt said, he will
be looking for leadership from a
number of players.
“We’ve got a couple of lead
ers,” Pratt said, “but I don’t think
there is any one particular leader.
Pratt said one member of the
staff he will count on for guidance
is left-hander Pat Leincn.
“He’s been around,” Pratt
said. “If you wanted to declare a
leader, he’s probably the one who
is going to be looked at around the
Big Eight.”
During the off season, Leioen
said, he has been working on de
veloping a split-finger fastball.
‘ ’Coach Pratt and I both felt that
a fourth pilch could really help me
out,” Leinen said.
Pratt said the other pitchers
expected to contribute heavily are
Doug Tegttneier, Mike Zajeski,
Dale Kistaitts and Tim Smith, a
transfer front Vanderbilt The rest
of this year’s pitching staff is
McGraw Mil haven, Jason
Abramavicius, Aaron Bilyeu,
Jerry Madison, Todd Mosser and
Joe Purvinc.
With the loss of last year’s two
top catchers in Tim Pettengill and
Enc Helfand, Pratt said, the pitch
ers have been working hard on
adjusting to the new catchers.
“Our main objective last fall
was to introduce our new catchers
to the pitchers and the rest of the
team,” Pratt said “As of right
now, I think all our catchers are
comfortable with all of our pitch
ers.”
“We work very closely with
our pitcher and catcher relation
ships because that is an important
matter.”
Another aspect the Nebraska
pitchers have been working more
on is staying ahead in the count,
Pratt sand.
In the past, Pratt said, Nebraska
pitchers attempted to be “too
fine.”
“As coaches we’ve taken a
little bit different attitude towards
our pitchers this year,” Pratt said.
“We’re letting some of their natu
ral abilities take over. When you
have good talent, you have to let
the talent take over instead of
dominating them too much as a
coach.”
N U coach says
Nebraska didn’t
panic on Saturday
By Steve Sipple
Staff Reporter _
Nebraska men’s basketball coach
Danny Nee liked what he didn^ t sec
from his team during Saturday’s 74
70 win against Kansas.
Kansas erased a 16-point halftime
deficit and pulled to a 66-66 tic with
1:46 remaining at the Bob Dcvancy
Sports Center. But Nee said Nebraska
didn’t panic as the Jay hawks made
their charge.
“I think that in the second half
(our players) had confidence in them
selves,” Nee said Monday at his
weekly press luncheon. “At no time
did I sense a panic or a losing-il type
of thing.”
Nebraska used three free throws
by Eric Johnson, a three-point play by
Clifford Scales and two free throws
by Ray Richardson to post the vic
tory. The Huskcrs raised their record
to 13-9 overall and 1-5 in the Big
Fiohl
Kansas, which is in the midst of a
three-game losing streak, fell to 16-6
and 3-4.
Nee said Nebraska might have had
an easier time with the Jayhawks if it
converted its layups and free throws.
Nebraska missed the front end of
four, second-half onc-and-onc free
throw opportunities and hit 17 of 26
free throws (65 percent) in the second
period.
Nebraska has hit 67.2 percent of
its free throws on the year.
“If Nebraska had taken care of the
ball and made its free throws, it
wouldn’t have been a competitive
game,” Nee said. “We had a chance
to be in control.”
Nee said the Huskers need to take
advantage of free throw opportunities
and layups.
“I think a lot of those things are
correctable,” he said. “Of course,
Kansas looks at the game and says
‘We’ll make those shots in Law
rence.’ And they’re right.”
Kansas will gel a rematch against
the Huskers March 1 at Lawrence,
Kan.
Kansas’ second-half surge didn’t
take Nee by surprise. He said he had
a Jayhawk comeback in mind when
he called timeout with 3:34 left in the
See NEE on 7
Walton: Inconsistent judging caused loss
By Mike O’Malley
Staff Reporter
Nebraska women’s gymnastics coach Rick
Walton blasted the judging after seeing the
Comhuskers lose a narrow decision to UCLA.
Walton said Nebraska’s 189.8-187.15 loss
Friday night at John Wooden Arena in Los
Angeles, Calif., was the result of inconsistent
judging. He said the Huskers were leading
UCLA by three tenths of a point entering the
dual-meet’s final event, but judging cost Ne
braska the victory.
“We did well,’’ Walton said. “We were
winning the meet up until the last event. Then
we received a couple of scores that didn’t make
sense.
“(The judges) changed drastically in the
last rotation. There were a couple of routines
we performed that were better than the scores
would indicate, but that’s part of competing on
the road.”
Nebraska’s Michele Bryant agreed.
“I don’t think they outclassed us in any one
event,” Bryant said. “They looked good, but
we hung with them. I thought we looked just as
good as they did.”
Walton said he was pleased with the per
formances of Bryant and Jcancane Smith.
Bryant and Smith tied UCLA’s Kim Hambcl
ton for 1st place in the vaulting competition
with a score of 9.7
Walton said the most pleasing aspect about
Bryant and Smith’s performance was that
UCLA is considered the best vaulting team in
the country. The Huskers finished two-tenths
of a point behind UCLA in the team vaulting
competition.
Walton said the Uth-rankcd Huskers
matched up evenly with the 3rd-ranked Bruins.
“They are a very good floor team but I
didn’t sec them any deeper in any of the other
events than we were,” he said. ‘‘We did a nice
job in vaulting and on the floor.”
In addition to the performances by Bryant
and Smith, Nebraska also received strong ef
forts from Crystal Savage, Angie Burdette and
Lisa McCrady. Savage and Bryant finished
2nd and 3rd in the parallel bars, while Burdette
and McCrady equaled that feat in the balance
beam. Burdette also earned a 3rd-place finish
in the floor exercise cn route to finishing 4th in
the all-around with a 37.45 score.
Nebraska’s next meet is at 7 p.m. Sunday,
when the Huskers face Missouri and Oklahoma
in a triangular meet at the Bob Dcvancy Sports
Center. University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents with ID cards will be admitted free.
Burdette said Nebraska is already anticipat
ing its rematch against UCLA on Feb. 26.
“We can not wait until we face them
again,’’ Burdette said.
Neumann says he was out-coached m Northern Iowa
By Steve Sipple
Suff Reporter
Northern Iowa showed more desire than
Nebraska in its 28-15 wrestling dual win Fri
day, Comhusker coach Tim Neumann said.
“For the First time all year, we didn't
wrestle like we wanted it worse than the other
team," Neumann said. “They were more
aggressive and better mentally prepared than
we were."
Tenth-ranked Nebraska, which had its Five
dual win string snapped, saw its season record
drop to 8-5-2. Unranked Northern Iowa is 10-5
after Friday’s match, which was held at West
Gym in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Neumann said he was out-coached by the
Pmatott’ Don Briggs. He said Briggs did a
better job mentally preparing his team for the
match.
“They were really geared up for the dual,’ ’
Neumann said. “It was a big meet for them.”
year, we didn't wrestle
like we wanted It worse
them the other team.'
-Neumann
Nebraska’s wrestlers have to realize that
unranked teams will wrestle particularly hard
against them, Neumann said.
"We don’t understand that since we’re
rated in the top iO wrestling poll, the teams that
aren’t rated will be looking to make a name for
themselves against us -- like we used to do,” he
said.
Nebraska led Friday’s match IS-14 before
losing the final three matches. Shane Snyder, a
regular 158-pounder, was defeated a 177
pounds, Tommy Robbins was defeated at 190
and Sonny Manley was pinned at heavyweight,
giving Northern Iowa its fifth-straight win
against Nebraska.
At heavyweight, Northern Iowa’s Joel
Greenlee, ranked No. 2 in the nation, won his
34th straight dual match. Greenlee, a senior,
has never Tost a match during a dual, recording
a 55-0-3 mark.
But the turning point of the match came at
its outset, Neumann said. Nebraska lost the
dual’s first two matches, which threw the Pan
thers’ crowd of 1,500 into a frenzy, he said.
Mark Schwab defeated Jim Sanchez 21 -6 at
118 and Duaine Martin beat Jason Kelber 21
15 at 126.
Neumann said he expected wins from San
chez and Kelber.
“We were down 8-0 when I thought we’d be
up 6-0. That was the turning point,” he said.
“It wasn’t a good dual for us.” i,
Neumann said Briggs is doing a good job
with Northern Iowa’s program, especially with
in-state recruiting.
“The thing they got over us is they’re in a
good state,’ ’ Neumann said. “They can recruit
in-state kids. Yet, we just aren’t doing the
job.”
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