Sports
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Huskers hoping to put bite on Huskies
By Nick Hytrek
Senior Editor
Although the Nebraska men’s
basketball team has never played
Connecticut, the Huskies should look
familiar, Comhusker coach Danny
Nee said.
“They’re a great transition team,”
Nee said. “They’re a lot like Okla
homa as far as that goes.”
The two teams open NCAA Tour
nament play tonight at Cincinnati’s
Riverfront Coliseum. The game will
begin 30 m inutes after the Ohio State
Mississippi Valley State game, which
starts at 7:35 p.m. The game will be
televised live by CBS.
Nee said the 19-9 Huskies would
give his 19-9 Huskers all they can
handle.
“I think we have to play really
good,” Nee said. “I won’t say our
best, but it has to be pretty good.”
Nee said he found few weaknesses
in Connecticut’s team.
“They’re really a quality, athletic
team,” he said. “They’re big. They’re
strong. They play aggressive defense.
“They’re just a good solid basket
ball team.”
Nee said Connecticut’s defense
concerned him.
“The No. 1 key is that we have to
handle their pressure and their press
and not turn the ball over. Two, we
have to be back on defense and allow
- 44
We had two days off, so
we’re fresh. Last year at
this time we came back
and we were very physi
cally and mentally tired,
so we’re rested. We feel
good about that.
Nee
NU men’s basketball coach
--
them only one shot and just play a
high level of defense.
“But the thing that bothers me
most is their experience. They’ve got
some veterans who have been around.”
The most notable of those veterans
are guard Chris Smith and forward
Scott Burrell.
Smith is a senior All-Big East
Conference selection this season and
leads Connecticut in scoring, averag
ing 21 .6 points a game. Burrell earned
second-team All-Big East honors this
season. The 6-foot-7 junior averages
16.5 points per contest.
Those two form the backbone of i
team that has plenty of NCAA Tour
nament experience, Nee said. Tfu
Huskies reached the final eight twc
years ago and made it to the “Swee
16” last season.
Connecticut, however, will be
without the services of Rod Sellers,
the Huskies’ third-leading scorer.
Sellers is serving a one-game sus
pension for Fighting in an NCAA
Tournament game last season.
What Connecticut possesses in
NCAA Tournament experience, the
Huskers lack, Nee said.
Only three players on this season’s
team — Carl Hayes, Dapreis Owens
and Eric Piatkowski — saw action m
last year’s first-round NCAA loss to
Xavier. Chris Cresswell and Bruce
■ Chubick didn’t play in the game.
“There’s only four or five of them
that were there so we’re hoping to get
the example from Carl and Dapreis
and Chris, our seniors,” Nee said.
Last Friday, the Huskers were elimi
nated by Oklahoma in the First round
oftheBigEightTournament, 107-85.
Last season Nebraska advanced to
the championship game where it lost
to Missouri.
But this season’s early exit from
the Big Eight Tournament should help
Nebraska, Nee said.
“We had two days off, so we’re
fresh,” Nee said. “Last year at this
time we came back and we were very
physically and mentally tired, so we’re
rested.
“We feel good about that.”
I TL' _*1__1__a_
i ms X/asuii uiv uud^id v/iiiv/i uk/
: tournament as a lower seed. Nebraska
is the No. 8 seed in the Southeast
I Regional; Connecticut is No. 9. Last
season Nebraska was the No. 3 seed
in the Midwest Regional.
Nee said the seeding has nothing
to do with Nebraska’s chances to
advance in the tournament this year.
- “We’re so new to this that it’s just
1 a number to us,” he said. “When the
ball goes up, those numbers really go
i out the window.”
Notes:
• Nebraska is 0-3 in games that
have been played in Cincinnati. The
Huskers lost 64-46 to Cincinnati dur
ing the 1948-49 season, lost to the
eventual national champion Bearcats
again in 1960-61, this time 75-60,
and lost to Xavier, 58-57, in the sec
ond round of the 1984 National Invi
tation Tournament.
• This will be Nebraska’s third
SeeUCONN on 14
NU vs. Connecticut Thurs., 9 p.m. Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati
.^ P_
|" F 44 Bruce Chubick 6-7 Sr. 7.2 5.6
F 21 Carl Hayes 6-9 So. 12.0 5.6
C 34 Derrick Chandler 6-10 Jr. 12.2 8.1
G 12 Jamar Johnson 5*11 So. 11.$ 3.6
G 52 Eric Piatkowski 6-6 So. 14.7 6.4
PPG RPG
j F 24 Scott Burrell 6-7 Jr. 16.5 6.0
F 21 Toralno Walker 6*7 Jr. 6.8 7.5
C 42 Donyell Marshall 6-9 Fr. 10.8 5.6
Q 13 Chris Smith 6-3 Sr. 21.6 3.3
G 34 Brian Fair 6-3 Fr. 6.5 2.5
OrUn CKAllil/\/nkl
William Lauer/DN
Nebraska’s Dapreis Owens attempts a dunk in last week’s
game against Oklahoma in the Big Eight tourney. Nebraska
will play Connecticut in the NCAA tournament tonight.
NU’s ‘Fall Guy’ looking for NCAA title
Nebraska’s Corey Olson pins a wrestler from Northern Iowa last month at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center. Olson is one of the top contenders in the country to win the 177-pound
individual championship this weekend in Oklahoma City.
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
Corey Olson is a man with a gift.
Even is he doesn’t know what
exactly it is.
Olson, 22, Nebraska’s top wrestler
at the 177-pound weight class, is ranked
fifth in the country and has a 27-6
record. Of those 27 wins, 16 have
come by pins.
That feat has earned him the nick
name “Fall Guy” among his coaches
and teammates.
Olson, a junior from Rochester,
Minn., has had little trouble pinning
his opponents since he started wres
tling when he was 7.
But he can’t put his finger on why.
“My whole life, it’s been like that,”
he said. “In high school, our team
wasn’t real good, so our coach de
pended on me for pins and a lot of
points. I guess it just carried over to
Nebraska.”
During his prep career at Hayfield
High School, Olson posted a record
of 122-8, including a 68-0 run his last
two seasons and three consecutive
state titles.
Of those 122 wins, 109 were pins.
“(Nebraska coach) Tim (Neumann)
and I were trying to figure that out the
other day,” Olson said. “I’m not re
ally sure why I’ve been able to do that
so well in the pin category. I just don’t
know.”
See OLSON on 14
Wrestling team
full of surprises,
NU coach says
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
So far, it’s been a surprising
season for Tim Neumann and
his Nebraska wrestling team.
The Comhusker coach is
hoping the surprises continue
this weekend at the NCAA
Wrestling Championships in
Oklahoma City.
Nebraska, ranked eighth by
the final Amateur Wrestling
News dual ratings, enters the
meet with a 13-4 dual record.
The Huskers arc picked to fin
ish 11th in the tournament by
the magazine.
Nebraska qualified eight of
its 10 starters for the NCAA
meet.
The tournament will begin
today at 11 a.m. at the Myriad
with the preliminary matches.
The quarterfinals and semifi
nals will be Friday, while the
consolation finals and champi
onship matches will be Satur
day.
Nebraska’s dual record this
season surprised even Neumann,
since more than half of his 10
starters were either freshmen or
junior college transfers.
See NEUMANN on 14
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