_ _ -Daily,
Nebraskan
Monday, September 24,1990
Minnesota coach finds few positive moments
By Chris Mopfensperger
Senior Reporter
Minnesota football coach John Gutekunst
said it was hard to be positive after watching his
team lose to Nebraska 56-0 Saturday at Memo
rial Stadium.
The Golden Gophers fell to 1-2 this season,
with this being their most lopsided loss since
being squashed by the Comhuskers 48-0 last
season.
Gutekunst said his team was beaten on both
sides of the ball.
“We got our butts kicked by a good football
team,” he said. “Defensively, we never gave
ourselves a chance to win the football game.
Offensively, we dropped the football early and
then didn’t do anything to get ourselves back
into the game, to put any pressure on them.
“The game was over in a hurry.”
Minnesota had fallen behind early in both of
their first two games, but managed to fight
back and beat Iowa State 20-16, and lose in the
final seconds against Utah, 35-29.
Saturday, however, was a different story.
“Our first two games, we scrapped and
overcame some deficits,” Gutekunst said. “We
were able to win one and gave one away.
“It was our job to be good and give Ne
braska a good game, but when every handoff
goes for eight to 10 yards, there’s just no way
you can do that.”
Nebraska racked up 564 total yards, includ
ing 433 rushing yards behind the play of Ne
braska’s offensive line. Most of those rushing
yards were to the outside, where the Gophers
defensive ends were ineffective at turning play
back inside.
Gutekunst was critical of the play of his
defensive ends.
“I thought Nebraska’s tackles really kicked
them,’ ’ Gutekunst said. * ‘They didn’t doa very
good job on the perimeter at all. They just
handled us there.”
Minnesota starting quarterback Marquel
Fleetwood credited Nebraska’s defense, but
said the Gophers poor offensive execution was
more of a factor.
“I don’t think they stopped our offense,”
Fleetwood said. “We had some mental break
downs in certain situations. We didn’t execute
as well as we should have.
“We just didn’t get the breaks today.”
Coming into the game, the size of Minne
sota’s offensive line was considered to be a
major factor. It wasn’t, Gutckunst said.
“It was no factor,” he said. “What are we
going to do, stick the ball at them for five yards
and keep trying to work it that way? We couldn’t
do it. They’re a tremendous defensive team
with tremendous speed. I don’t know if you can
exploit any of it.
“You can’t give them good field position
and turn the ball over.”
That, exactly, is what Minnesota did.
Three lost tumbles, an interception and a
botched fake punt allowed the Huskers to start
four of their scoring drives inside Minnesota
territory. The Gophers did not cross their own
45 the entire game.
Gutekunst said the foiled fake punt was
especially upsetting.
“We had it open and we dropped the foot
ball,” he said. ‘‘We dropped it a couple of
times.”
If anything in the game was positive for
Minnesota, Gutekunst said, it was the fact that
a number young players saw action.
“We played a bunch of people in the second
half,” he said. “They got a lot of snaps. That’s
the only thing I can see positive at all.”
Basketball tickets
to go on sale today
From Staff Reports
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
student ticket applications for home
men’s basketball games will be ac
cepted starting today and continuing
through Friday. Applications are avail
able at the South Stadium ticket of
fice, the Student Accounts Office and
the East Campus Union information
desk.
Nebraska will have 17 home games.
UNL students can purchase season
tickets for 14 of those games for $35.
That averages out to $2.50 a game for
students. A spouse ticket will cost an
additional $70. The three games ex
cluded arc between the fall and spring
semester break.
Of the 14 games in the student
ticket package, five — Michigan Stale,
Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and
Kansas State — arc against teams that
played in last year’s NCAA tourna
ment. Two — Creighton and Okla
homa Slate - were invited to the NIT
post-season tournament.
The three games over break are
against Miami of Ohio, Idaho and
Iowa State. Idaho played in the NCAA
tournament last season. UNL students
will be able to purchase tickets for
those games for $7.50.
Nebraska Basketball Schedule 1990-91
Nov. 9 High Five America
(exhibition)
14 Czechoslovakia
Nationals (exhibition)
23-25 at San Juan Shootout at
San Juan, P.R.
(Nebraska, Illinois,
Old Dominion,
American-Puerto Rico,
Murray State, Bucknell,
St. Louis, Northern Iowa)
28 Michigan State
Dec. 3 at Eastern Illinois
6 Creighton
8 Toledo
11 at Wisconsin
14-15 Ameritas Classic
(Nebraska, Tennessee
Tech. Alabama St.,
Bowling Green St.)
22 Miami of Ohio
28 Idaho
30 at The Citadel
Jan. 2 at Wisconsin-Green Bay
5 at Kansas St.
9 at Missouri-Kansas City
12 Iowa St.
22 at Colorado
26 at Oklahoma
Jan. 30 Missouri
Feb. 2 Oklahoma St.
6 at Kansas
9 Colorado
13 at Iowa St.
16 Kansas St.
18 Northern Illinois
20 at Missouri
23 Oklahoma
27 at Oklahoma St.
Mar. 3 Kansas
8-10 Big Eight Tournament
1
John Bruce/Dally Nebraskan
Huskers to open solid schedule against MSU
By Sara Bauder Schott
Staff Reporter
Size, strength and speed will
combine to create a “fun-to-watch”
atmosphere for Nebraska men’s bas -
ketball games at the Bob Dcvancy
Sports Center this season, said Com
husker coach Danny Nee.
“I think fans
will like the style
of play,” Nee said.
“We’ll be a big,
strong, quick bas
ketball team.”
After two home
exhibition games
and a preseason
tournament in Nee
Puerto Rico, the Huskers open the
regular season at home against last
year’s Big 10 champion Michigan
State. The Spartans return four start
ers from their 28-6 team. This was a
team that lost at the buzzer in over
time to Georgia Tech in a game that
decided who advanced to the Final
Four of the NCAA Tournament.
The Spartans have one of the pre
mier guards in the nation with senior
Steve Smith, who averaged more than
20 points a game a year ago, Nee said.
In Smith, he said, the Spartans once
again have the “Magic Johnson of
college basketball.”
Johnson, of the NBA’s Los Ange
les Lakers, played for Michigan State
coach Jud Heathcote, where he led
the Spartans to the NCAA title in
1979.
Nee said the Huskers’ entire sched
ule is solid.
During the season, the Huskers play
14 teams that participated in post
season play last year.
The Huskers open Big Eight play
Jan. 5, on the road against Kansas
Stale.
Nee said the Big Eight will be a
tough conference again this year,
despite losing three coaches, and
having a number of players who w ill
miss ail or part of the season.
“The Big Eight is the Big Eight,”
he said. “This year it will be as good
as ever.”
Colorado, Kansas State and Okla
homa State are all under new leader
ship this season with the Buffaloes’
Tom Miller being fired and now a
coach at Army, the Wildcats’ Lon
Krueger taking the job at Florida and
the Cowboys’ Leonard Hamilton
leaving for Miami.
In addition. Missouri and Okla
homa will be without some important
players. Oklahoma’s Jackie Jones and
Smokcv McCovery will not return,
while Damon Patterson is ineligible
to play the first half of the season.
Missouri guard Anthony Peeler also
is ineligible part of the season.
Nee said he still expects those teams
to be strong.
“Any time you lose a starter it has
an effect, but I don’t think it will
change the team,” he said.
Nee also expects the conference to
be a lighter race, saying that the teams
that have finished at the bottom have
improved.
He said one of Nebraska’s goals is
to win the Big Eight title, but achiev
ing that is difficult because Nebraska
has not been able to establish a win
ning tradition. The Huskers finished
seventh in the Big Eight last year with
a 3-11 conference record.
Nebraska Basketball
Returnees
Pos. Ht Class Pts Avg. Reb. avg.
Rich King
C 7-2 Sr. 16.1 7.4
Clifford Scales
G 6-2 Sr. 12.2 3.6
Carl Hayes
F 68 Jr. 12.1 4.9
Dapreis Owens
F 6-8 Jr. 8.4 4.4
Chris Cresswell
G 6-4 Jr. 4.8 1.2
Keith Moody
G 5-10 Sr. 4.7 2.0
Beau Reid
F 6-7 Sr. 3.0 1.9
Kelly Lively
C 7-0 Sr. 1.9 1.4
‘‘Wc don’t have the tradition, the
confidence to build on,” Nee said.
‘That is our Achilles’ heel. Wc just
have to be willing to do what it takes
to get it done.”
The Huskcrs have the talent and
senior leadership to get something
done this season, Nee said.
He said three of the seniors, center
Rich King, forward Beau Reid and
guard Clifford Scales, have had a
major impact on the team from the
moment they arrived at Nebraska.
Center Kelly Lively and guard Keith
Moody also are returning seniors.
These seniors, with their experi
ence and leadership, have an impor
tant role, Nee said. That role: consis
tency every night, he said.
Junior forwards Carl Hayes and
Dapreis Owens also will be crucial to
the learn, Nee said.
NU handed its first loss
By Cory Golden
Staff Reporter
Pacific, ranked No. 3 in the Ameri
can Volleyball Coaches Association
poll, upset No. 1-ranked Nebraska
Saturday night and added wins against
Illinois and Florida to secure a first
place finish at the Illini Invitational in
Champaign, 111., last weekend.
The Comhuskers, 10-1, rallied
Friday night to beat the host team,
sixth-ranked Illinois,6-15,13-15,15
9, 15-8 and 15-8.
Nebraska assistant coach John Cook
said time was needed for the Huskcrs
to get used to the surroundings before
exploding with .528 hitting to break
away from a 9-9 tic in the third game
to win.
“We just got crushed the first
game,’ ’ he said. “It was nip and tuck
in the second, we missed a chance to
win.
“In the third game, we just hit
i
rhythm. Once we did that, they just
couldn’t play with us.”
Nebraska was led by junior Cris
Hall’s 26 kills.
Nebraska fell 13-15, 4-15, 15-5,
10-15 Saturday night — the victim of
not just Pacific, 10-1, but emotional
drain from the night before, Cook
said.
‘ ‘There was a lot of pressure on the
Illinois match,” he said. “Not just
because of what it meant that night,
but what it meant for hosting region
al at the end of the season.”
The hitting was close in percent
age: .205 for the Huskcrs, .235 for the
Tigers, but Pacific did the job at the
net defensively, out-blocking Nebraska
22-14.
“They’re good, but it’s not that
they were a better team,” Cook said.
“We justdidn’tdo the little things we
needed to. I’d feel more than com
fortable playing them again.”
•1 - • 1 i
Coach: JV team prepared for,
confident about Bethany game
By Todd Cooper
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska junior varsity
football team usually puts on a
pretty good offensive show when
ever it plays the Bethany (Kan.)
JV.
First-year JV coach Bill Weber
expects the Comhuskers to gener
ate plenty of offense again today
when the two JV teams meet at 1
p.m. today at Memorial Stadium.
“We feel we should be fairly
successful with our power running
game,” Weber said, “We feel
confident in all phases of our of
fense.”
Certainly all phases of Ne
braska’s offense clicked last year
against Bethany — the Huskers won
76-0.
Besides last season’s wipe out,
Nebraska beat Bethany 55-0 in 1987
and 68-0 in 1988.
Those whippings probably won’t
weigh on the minds of this year’s
team come kickoff, Weber said.
“This is a new group of kids so
they’re not sure what’s ahead,” he
said. “We’re not going to dwell on
the points, we’re just going to play
Weber said that he’s not sure
what Nebraska will sec offensively
from Bethany.
“It’s hard to say,” Weber said.
“It’ll depend on how many varsity
kids they bring down.
“We don’t have any films of
them this year. But from last year
we know they like to run a lot of
different things.”
Weber said Nebraska is prepared
for any of those sets after it opened
with a victory over Snow Junior
College 14-7 a couple weeks ago.
Snow mixed formations often dur
ing that game.
‘ ‘They (Bethany) run some one
back sets,” Weber said. “Thev
probably run the ball a little better
than Snow though.”
On offense, Nebraska will see
less stunting than it did against
Snow, Weber said.
“They don’t blitz and there’s a
difference in sets,” he said.
Nebraska’s passing game should
click a little better against Bethany,
according to Weber, although he
sometimes has premonitions about
airing the ball out.
During the Snow game, Weber
said that whenever he w ould call a
passing play he had this sensation
that someone or thing would “jerk
on my shoulder.”
“There’s something on that
sideline, some spirit or something
(that warns against the pass),” he
said jokingly.
But Weber didn’t sec any glar
ing weaknesses from his offense in
the first game to warrant any con
cern.
“There’s really nothing we can
single out,” he said. “I thought we
had a pretty solid game all-around.
“We can always improve on
our execution. 1 felt we did very
well against Snow but we can always
do a little better.”
Considering the outcome of the
last three Nebraska-Bethany meet
ings, Weber said he hopes the
Huskers will guard against any
concentration gaps if the margin of
score gets big.
“We just need to play well with
intensity,” he said. “Letdowns
sometimes happen in games where
you have a chance to win big.”
Weber said two freshmen will
probably miss the game. Fullback
Rick Blatny injured his foot and
light end Erich Hohl has a knee
injury that might keep him out.
“We re set to go in all other
areas," he said.
