Home crowds, opponents
taking note of NU defense
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
“Defense” for the Nebraska men’s
basketball team last year was a chant
as empty as the plank seats rimming
the Sports Center arena.
This year, the plank seats are Fill
ing up and the Comhuskcrs are shut
ting teams down.
Through eight games, Nebraska
has allowed 71.3 points per game,
down from last year’s 86.1 ppg. In
their five-game winning streak, the
Huskers have given up 65.4 ppg, with
fewer than 70 points each game.
Nebraska held the opponent to fewer
than 70 points only four times all of
last year.
No one appreciates that more than
senior guard Clifford Scales.
“I’ve always liked to play defense,”
Scales said. “As a team, collectively,
we can win on defense.”
Scales said he and Keith Moody
have set the tempo for the Huskers
with their perimeter pressure.
“I think the rest of the team is more
or less taking the example of how the
guards arc playing,” Scales said.
Opposite Scales is junior forward
Carl Hayes, who didn’t gel the nick
name “Sco” (short for “Score”) be
cause of his defense.
“I was young and inexperienced,
he confessed. “1 gambled a whole
lot.”
Hayes, the team’s leading scorer
with 16.4 ppg, said he isn’t ready to
switch to a nickname like “De,” but
he has improved enough that he was
given the first crack at guarding
Michigan Stale All-American Steve
Smith earlier this season.
Last year, Hayes said, the team
didn’t play like a team.
“It was if you got beat, you got
beat. ‘My man didn’t score,”’ Hayes
said.
This season, Scales said, the Husk
ers play five-on-five or suffer the
consequences.
“You can have four guys playing
aggressively, one not, and break down,”
he said. “Nobody wants to sec that.”
Nebraska opponents have shot 40
percent from the field, down from 48
percent, 36 percent from three-point
territory, down from 40 percent, and
have turned the ball over 19.8 times a
game, up from 14.8.
Scales said the Huskers have even
discussed the exhausting effect of tight
defense on frec-lhrow shooting.
Nebraska opponents have shot 51
percent from the line.
In 1989-90, Hayes said, the team
would think offense during bad parts
or games. I hat resulted in losses oy
scores like 98 93 and 111-95. Now,
Hayes said, the team thinks offense
and defense.
“We’ve got to do both,” he said.
“Set them down first, but definitely
score and take the crowd out of the
game.”
Scales said he isn’t surprised at
Nebraska’s defensive turnaround. The
Huskers are a huge team, with seven
regulars 6 foot, 7 inches, or taller, and
have some good individual defend
ers, he said.
Now they are playing together.
“We can score a hundred and hold
them to 60, 70 points,” Scales said.
He used the 97-63 rout of Creighton
as an example. The guards helped
inside on post players Bob Harstad
and Chad Gallagher. Creighton’s wing
shooters weren’t hitting. And when
ever point guard Duan Cole drove,
the Huskcr inside players would jump
out and make Cole pull up.
Scales broke it down to a simple
equation.
“If they’re not hitting the outside
shot and we’re helping out inside —
there’s outside and there’s inside,” he
said. “If you don’t have that, you
don’t have anything.”
Grant
Continued from Page 13
Grant isn’t being challenged by
Joe Montana or even Joseph. Haase
is a walkon who has completed 2 of
7 passes for eight yards this fall
with one interception, and has run
15 times for 101 yards. McCanl
has completed two of three passes
for 32 yards with one interception,
running six times for 23 yards.
These aren’t impeccable cre
dentials.
If Haase can lead the Huskers to
a win over the Ramblin’ Wreck,
Osborne has found his quarterback
for next year. Forget Grant, Jo
seph, Malt Jones or Todd Gragagno;
that would be the second coming
of Gerry Gdowski.
But even Gdowski got to start
with Northern Illinois and was a
fifth-year senior and a legitimate
second-string back-up.
Does Osborne want Haase
making his first career start in a
bowl game, leading the 18th-ranked
team against the ferocious defense
of the undefeated second-ranked
team?
Whatever happened to Ne
braska’s unwritten rule that always
deferred to experience, for years
keeping lousy linebackers and line
men in the game while raw recruits
sat?
If Joseph had gotten hurt and
Nebraska didn’t have Grant, every
day would be a desperate search
for an adequate replacement. Now
Osborne is thinking about starting
this search, even though Joseph
has an replacement.
Shunning Grant would make
Osborne look like he was filing
away the game, building for the
future. If he’s doing that, he should
start freshman* Jones. Otherwise,
Grant is the man.
Nebraska’s season will be a wash
no matter what the outcome of the
Ciuus Bowl. Anything less than a
national championship is seen as a
failure, so the Huskers in effect
played a single-elimination sea
son. After losing to Colorado, the
year was over and the bowl game
doesn’t matter.
Georgia Tech will be playing
for a possible national champion
ship. The Yellow Jackets have
nothing to lose, since this is their
best season in years no matter what
happens in the Citrus Bowl, and
they have everything to gain. I
think that will be enough of a psy
chological advantage4hat Tech will
win.
But the Huskers have an excel
lent chance, and Nebraska should
go with the best available players.
Grant is the best available quarter
back. Osborne should slop using
his spring-practice motivational
tactics and start supporting Grant.
Domeier is a senior news-editorial
major and Daily Nebraskan sports senior
reporter.
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Coaches
Continued from Page 13
year before by Texas. Nebraska lost
to Long Beach State in the finals,
while Texas won the 1988 title by
beating Hawaii.
Banachowski said his team has
something to prove this year.
“We’re definitely hungry to win
it,” Banachowski said. “But as we’ve
seen the last two years, anything can
happen.”
Nebraska’s Terry Pettit refused to
say there was a favorite. He only said
that LSU may be the underdog.
“I don’t there is one (a favorite),”
Pettit said. “LSU is the team that
would figure not to be the favorite,
but of the other three, I’d say they’re
pretty equal.”
Final Poll
Co-rec Basketball
1. Bonchcads (7-0)
2. Blue Devils (6-2)
3. Who Cares (7-2)
4. Abel Bulldogs (6-1)
5. Delta Sigma Pi (6-1)
6. Guns-n-Roses (5-3)
7. T A (6-2)
8. Quashcrs (6-1)
9. Phi Slamma Jamma (5-4)
10. Rcdhousc (6-2)
Co-rec lnd(K>r Soccer
1. Psychedelic Undcroos (7-1)
2. Lambda Chi Alpha (6-2)
3. Della Upsilon/Phi Mu (5-2)
4. Bela Thcia Pi (5-2)
5. We Play For Kicks (5-3)
Regular Season
Men’s Volleyball
1. Fluff Monkeys (7-0)
2. Home Court Advantage
(4-2)
3. Lambda Chi Alpha-A (7-1)
4. Pi Kappa Phi-B (8-0)
5. Phi Delta Theta-A (7-1)
6. Acacia-B (6-1)
7. Munk’s Bar & Grill (6-1)
8. Schramm 2-B (7-1)
9. Beta Sigma Psi-A (5-1)
10. Seven Dwarves (4-2)
Women’s Volleyball
1. Big Thing * (7-0)
2. ThcRJ’s (8-1)
3. Platte River Posse (5-1)
4. Gamma Phi Bcta-A (6-2)
5. Alpha Omicron Pi-B (6-1)
6. Rebels (4-2)
7. Brew Crew (7-2)
8. Wailing Banshees (6-2)
9. Alpha Delta Pi-C (8-0)
10. Alpha Chi Omega (6-3)