Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1991)
Different Husker weapons shoot down Tiger zone It must be depressing for Missouri. Fhe Tigers had to imitate Kansas State in order to stay with the Nebraska men’s basketball team. The Tigers did their best Wildcat imitation Wednesday night against the No. 11 Comhuskers, sagging into a zone, slowing play down, trying to make the game as ugly as possible. “I think that’s the way people think they can beat us,” Nebraska guard Beau Reid said. But Missouri, a team ranked No. 1 last year, a team known for athletic ability ... Who could have expected a collapsing zone? “I did,” Reid said. ‘‘I think Coach Nee did, too. He told us to watch for it.” Missouri coach Norm Stewart said the Tigers would have played a zone even with injured superstar Anthony Peeler. Beating Nebraska is going to require an ugly game. But it’s impossible to make Eric Piatkowski’s jump shot look ugly. It’s impossible to make a Carl Hayes reverse layup look ugly. It’s imposs ible to make Beau Reid’s best passes look ugly. It’s impossible lo take everything away from the Huskers. Even Mis souri, one of the best team sin the Big Eight, has to give Nebraska some thing. On Wednesday, Nebraska took what was available and Nebraska took the game, easily, 89-75. Early on, the Tigers showed that were not going to let Rich King beat them. King had one point but played a huge role, since Missouri had all members of its 3-2 zone near King at all times. Tony Farmer had to battle the same collapsing zone, and Keith Moody didn’t get many minutes—he’ll play more against small, quick defenders playing man-to-man. That’s fine. Except for a couple of possessions near the end of the first half, King didn’t force anything, let ting Piatkowski and Hayes do the scoring. Farmer and Moody stayed under control, too. The Huskers showed the depth of their weapons, the depth that can make them the best team in the Big Eight. Piatkowski, Hayes and Reid were the weapons against Missouri, and they combined for 59 points. Maybe most importantly, Ne braska’s defense was a weapon, too. Nebraska followed two rules: One, a great team plays tough man-to-man defense. Two, Missouri can be zoned, since the Tigers can’t shoot. Paul Domeier Nebraska mixed up the zone de fenses and the man-to-man. The Huskers held the Tigers to 44 percent shooting and Nebraska forced 23 turn overs. The defensive leader was pesky Carl Hayes. You normally don’t think of a 6-foot, 8-inch player as pesky, and you normally don’t think of Carl Hayes for his defense, but Hayes was causing all sorts of problems and had four blocked shots. There are just some things that no team can match. Missouri’s Jeff Warren tried to press Reid full-court one time, and the pity for Warren turned to awe as Reid whipped around the Tiger power forward and passed to Farmer, who two-handed jammed it. Then the Huskers had to be sneaky occasionally, like the time Missouri freshman Melvin Booker let Piatkow ski have inside position on a Ne braska free throw. The missed shot came out long, Piatkowski got the rebound because of Booker’s lapse (Boy, I’d hate to be in the film room when Norm points that out!) and Moody hit the shot. Nebraska’s weapons have put the Huskers into the Big Eight lead, with a crucial game Saturday against Okla homa State. The Cowboys are my pick for the team that will give Ne braska the most trouble, especially without Dapreis Owens using his prodigious posterior on defense against Cowboy star Byron Houston. Oklahoma State won at Colorado Wednesday, something the Huskers couldn’t do. But that loss a week ago, Nebraska’s only conference defeat, woke the Huskers up so that they are playing the way they did against Missouri — smart, tough and well. “Ever since Colorado we’ve been a little bit more focused,” Reid said. “I knew that was a good sign,” King said, “when, after we beat Okla homa, we got on the bus and we were immediately talking about Missouri.” I’ll bet Missouri is still talking about Nebraska, though. I’ll bet ev ery Big Eight team is talking about Nebraska, trying to find a way to beat the Huskers. Domeier is a senior news-editorial major and the Daily Nehnukan sports editor. Shaun Sartin/Daily Nebraskan NU’s Clifford Scales guards Missouri's Reggie Smith in the first half of Wednesday night’s game at Bob Devaney Sports Center. NU men flood Missouri By John Adkisson Staff Reporter The Nebraska men’s basketball team went to the well often Wednes day and drowned Missouri in sea of threes. The Comhuskers canned a school record 10 three-point field goals and held off the pesky Tigers 89-75 in front of a sellout crowd of 14,584 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The win put the Huskers in sole posses sion of the Big Eight lead with a 4-1 record. Nebraska coach Danny Nee said Missouri surprised him with a zone defense, forcing his team to hit from outside. “That’s the first time they played zone all year,” Nee said. “The way the zone was set up, (Missouri) did a nice job of covering our post people. And they gave us the outside shot.” Redshirt freshman Eric Piatkow ski hit six of those outside shots, set ting a school record for three-pointers in a game. He finished with a career high 22 to lead Nebraska. Piatkowski said he was in a shoot ing groove. “It’s just a really good feeling,” Piatkowski said. “It’sjustoneof those things that every time you shoot the ball, you feel it’s going to go in.” Nee praised his freshman, but said the offense wasn’t geared to Piatkow ski. “He just took the shots and was making them,” Nee said. “But there are other players who can make them, too.” The shots weren’t falling for the Huskers early. Nebraska went score less for the first three minutes of die game, breaking the ice with a Clif ford Scales jumper. After that, Nebraska only trailed once, at 3-2. The Huskers spurted away from a 12-12 tie with an 11-3 run led by three Piatkowski bombs. Carl Hayes scored the final 10 Husker points of the half to give Nebraska a 36-27 lead. Missouri made a run midway through the second half, closing the Husker lead to49-46 with just over 10 minutes remaining. But Piatkowski responded with a three-pointer. “I remember when he hit it, I thought, ‘That might be the ball game,”’ said Beau Reid, who had 18 points for the Huskers. A few seconds later, Piatkowski hit another three-pointer. Nebraska eventually led by as many as 18 late in the second half. Doug Smith’s 20 points led the Tigers, who fell to 4-2 in the Big Eight and 12-6 overall. The loss was the Tigers’ first to Nebraska in eight games. Melvin Booker with 19 points, Jamal Coleman with 16 and Jeff Warren with 13 also scored in double figures for Missouri Missouri guard Anthony Peeler missed the game because of a knee injury suffered in practice Monday. Peeler, who averages more than 20 points per game, wanned up prior to the game but couldn’t play. Nee said the loss of Peeler was a definite blow to the Tigers. Clifford Scales scored 8 points and became the 14th Nebraska player to score 1,000 career points. Missouri . 27 48 — 75 At Nebraska ... 36 53 — 89 Missouri—Coleman 5-13 5-6 16, War ren 5-7 3-6 13, D Smith 9-19 2-4 20, Booker 6-107-919, Frazier0-60-00, R.Smith 0-1 0 2 0, Horton 0-0 0-0 0, Frost 2-5 1 -4 7. Totals 27-61 18 31 75 Nebraska—Farmer 2-5 4-4 8, Hayes 9 18 1-4 19, King 0-3 1-2 1, Reid 5-9 5-7 18, Scales 4-9 0-0 8, Piatkowski 8-11 0-0 22, Ramos 1-3 0-0 3, Moody 2-3 4-4 8, Chubick 1-1 0-2 2. Totals 32-62 15-23 89 3-point goals—Missouri 3 7 (Frost 2-5, Coleman 1-1, R.Smith 0-1), Nebraska 10-20 (Piatkowski 6-9, Reid 3-6, Ramos 1-3, Farmer 0-1, Scales 0-1). Rebounds—Mis souri 40 (Coleman 11), Nebraska 36 (Hayes. King 7) Assists—Missouri 16 (Booker 6), Nebraska 26 (Reid 6) Turn overs—Missouri 23 (three with 4), Ne braska 17 (Reid 4). Total fouls (dq>—Mis souri 19 (D Smith), Nebraska 25 (King) Technical foul—D Smith A—14,584 NCAA limits bother swim coaches By Vicki Burge ftMrw_ Nebraska diving coach Jim Hocking has more to worry about than ragged routines or low de grees of difficulty brought on by NCAA-mandated practice limita tions. Hocking is worried that the changes implemented at the NCAA Convention earlier this month might be bad for his divers’ health. In-season practice for all sports has been limited to 20 hours a week, which Hocking said will not affect his athletes. Practice now is usually around 18 hours a week. But supervised off-season prac tice has been reduced to eight hours a week, which is Hocking’s con cern. “If the divers can’t come in during the summer and practice, they come in with much lower skills than they need by Nov. 1, actually making competition dangerous,’’ Hocking said. Regular summer practice won’t run over the off-season limit, he said, but the team will have prob lems getting one-on-one coaching in the spotting belt, a safety device for diving practice. “During the summer, when divers are learning new dives, we take them out to the spotting belt,” Hocking said. “The problem is, the swing is out by the pavilion, so I have to leave the other divers with someone else on deck.” He said he would like to relo cate the spotting bell to the Bob Devaney Sports Center pool deck so divers could be watched closely to prevent any injuries. That and scholarship reductions are the main effects on the Ne braska swimming and diving pro grams. Like the Comhusker coaches m most sports, Hocking, men’s swimming coach Cal Bentz and women’s swimming coach Ray Huppert expressed opposition to the changes. Huppert said he feels bad for high school athletes working for those scholarships that now might be gone. And practice reductions won’t necessarily help education, he said. “(The administrators) think that the number of athletes that gradu ate goes dowrvbecausc of athletics. The second thing is that their grade point averages suffer,” Huppert said. “The fact is, in my 17 years here, I have only had two swimmers not receive their degree.” Bentz said each sport has indi vidual characteristics that have something to do with graduation rates. “A collegiate football player is different than a collegiate swim mer,” Bentz said. “A swimmer has a very slight chance to continue his swimming career, but a football player has a much greater chance to continue playing football with no other professional career.” Bentz and Huppert agreed that academic problems exist in some sports, but they said the blanket changes were inappropriate. “The fact is not all sports are broken,” Bentz said. “No one says ‘You can’t be in the library more than two hours a day! ’ No one says that to students. It’s just offensive to take away their rights.” I Women take Tigers From Staff Reports COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Nebraska women’s basketball team outscored Missouri 48-39 in the second half to down the Tigers 76-67 in front of 405 fans at the Hearnes Center Wednes day night. The Comhuskers used a 16-3 run early in the second half to turn a 28 28 halftime tie into the final score. It was Coach Angela Beck’s first win in Columbia, and only the second at Missouri in Nebraska history. “It was a very exciting victory for us tonight,” Beck said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we played solid and did what we had to do to get the win.” Beck said she was pleased with the play of her bench, which contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Karen Jennings led the Huskers with 29 points and 10 re bounds. Kristi Dahn equaled hct sea son high with 12 points, and five Nebraska players scored in double figures. The Huskers upped their record to 14-6 overall and 5-2 in the Big Eight. That is the most wins for Nebraska since 1988-89, when the Huskers went 14-14. Missouri, last in the Big Eight, fell to 7-13 and 0-7. Led by Lisa Sandbothe’s 20 points and 12 rebounds, Missouri shot 34 percent from the field against the Husker defense. Nebraska hit 48 per cent. Nebraska’s next game is Sunday at 3 p.m. against Oklahoma State. The Huskers, who beat the Cowboys 67-64 earlier this season, travel to Stillwater for the rematch. Nebraska. 28 48 — 76 At Missouri.28 39 — 67 Nebraska—Hesch 5-90-0 10. Jennings 9- 15 11-13 29, Hubert 1-3 0-0 2. Dahn 6-11 0-0 12, Yedsena 4-9 3-4 11, Halsne 4-8 2-2 10, K Yancey 0-0 0-0 0, R Taylor 0-5 0-1 0 Offringa 0-0 0-0 0, Russell 1-20-22, Ander son 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-62 16 22 76. Missouri—Fields 3-14 6-7 12, Lambert 0-60-00, Prim us 3-10 3-4 9, C . Yancey 3-14 2-3 8, St Williams 7-16 3-5 18, Sandbothe 10- 15 0-0 20, Linneman 0-2 0-0 0. Sa Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-76 14-19 67. 3-point goals—Nebraska 0-1 (Yedsena 0-1), Missouri 1-3 (St Williams 1 2, C Yancey 0-1). Rebounds—Nebraska 43 (Jennings 10), Missoun 48 (Sandbothe 12) Assists—Nebraska 11 (Dahn 4), Mis souri 12 (Primus, C. Yancey 3). Turnovers—Nebraska 21 (Jennings 6), Missouri 20 (Fields 6). Total fouls (da)—^ Nebraska 24 (Hubert), Missouri 20 (Linne man). A—405.
