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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1992)
Sports Mistakes devastate CU, McCartney says By John Adkisson Senior Editor No last-second miracles or even a fifth down could have saved Colorado and coach Bill McCartney on Satur day. For the first time in four years, McCartney’s Buffaloes losta game to a Big Eight opponent—a convincing 52-7 Halloween day blowout at the hands of No. 8 Nebraska at Memorial Stadium. And after the game, McCartney offered no excuses. “Obviously, it’s a real decisive defeat,” McCartney said. “But I’m not in a state of shock. 1 watched the whole thing happen.” The whole thing must have seemed like an eternity to McCartney, whose team had won three consecutive Big Eight titles. He watched Colorado freshman quarterback Koy Detmer throw two first-half interceptions and fumble once, resulting in 17 Comhusker points and a 24-7 Nebraska lead at the half. “Mistakes killed and they multi plied,” McCartney said. “Guys gel frustrated and they do things to com pound the problem. It’s really frus trating and disappointing to fall be hind like that.” Buffalo senior linebacker Greg Bickcrt said the severity of the half time deficit surprised most of the Colorado players. “Some of the guys got down,” Bickcrt said. “I know no one’s been in that position since they’ve been here. What do you do when you’re in that - it It hurts the program to - lose like this. I don’t know if it sets our program back, but it’s really a kick in the side. Biekert Colorado linebacker -ff " position?” Colorado didn’t do much. After Dctmcr threw his third inter ception of the game midway through the third quarter, McCartney replaced him with sophomore Kordcll Stewart. On Stewart’s first drive, he ran for no gain, was sacked for nine yards and threw an incomplete pass. “When I came in, those (Nebraska) guys were coming up the field fast,” Stewart said. “If I tried to scramble, they were there. I could understand what Koy was going through.” The list oflhc Buffaloes’ second half possessions read like this: Punt, interception, punt, punt, punt, fumble, fumble. By the time the fourth quartet had come, Nebraska had taken a 31 -7 lead and pul the game away. “They thoroughly beat us in all phases of the game,” McCartney said. “They dominated us.” The final statistics reflected the domination. Colorado managed only six yards rushing and turned the ball over six times while Nebraska didn’t. But the biggest statistic of the day, McCartney said, was time of posses sion. The ground-oriented Nebraska offense kepi the ball for nearly 43 minutes and gradually wore down the Buffalo defense. “You get beat badly because you’re not controlling the clock at all,” McCartney said. “A team that strong with those kinds of players is going to make a lot of hay in a situation like that.” The pain of the loss — Colorado’s first to Nebraska since 1988 — may take some time to heal, Bicker! said. “Now that we’ve been the Big Eightchampions.ithurlsthc program to lose like this,” Bickcrt said. “I don’t know if it sets our program back, but it’s really a kick in the side.” Stewart agreed. “Thai’s how Halloween is, I guess,” Stewart said. “But I don’t want to have any more like this one.” Huskers practice for future foes in Tiger match By Jeff Singer Senior Reporter Nebraska used the M issouri vol leyball learn as guinea pigs Satur day night. The Comhuskcrs pounded the Tigers in a tuncup for five straight upcoming matches against ranked teams with a 15-1, 15-13, 15-10 win at the NU Coliseum. After defeating the Tigers by 14 points in their first game, the Comhuskcrs experimented with offenses that Coach Terry Pettit said would be used against Colo rado, Texas Tech and Texas in the week ahead. “If our goal had been to beat Missouri bad, we would’ve set the ball to the left side,” Pettit said. “We were running a lot of right side even though we didn’t need to — we did things that weren’t exactly used to beat M issouri, but to help us against other teams.” Huskcr middle blocker Stephanie Thaler agreed with Pettit. “The first game was a blowout,” said Thaler, who had nine kills in 17 attacks for a .235 hitting per centage. “We started working on things for the ncxicouplc of'weeks.” Nebraska seller Nikki Strieker, who had 31 assists in the match, said it was lough letting the Tigers come back in games two and three while trying to run different of fenses. “It’s kind of frustrating when you know you can beat a team w i th your own thing, but you have to work on other things,” Slicker said. After pounding Missouri in game one, the Huskers were challenged in the next two games. Nebraska had loeome back from a deficit of 8-4 in game two and squandered an eight-point lead in game three as the Tigers closed the gap to 9-6 be lore Nebraska scored the five-point win and the match sweep. The sweep helped the Huskers tic a school record from 1976 as Nebraska won its 34th game in a row. Missouri volleyball coach Craig Sherman said the Tigers’ lack of size helped the Huskers lie the record. “To play with Nebraska with our size, we’ve got to run a quick offcnso,”said Sherman, whose start ing lineup averaged 5-foot-9, three inches shorter than the Huskers. “We weren’t real sharp tonight.” Missouri middle blocker Yvette Buhlig, who is considered a front runner with Thaler for Big Eight Player of the Year honors, said the * Tigers weren’t quick enough to play with Nebraska. “They were saying to hit it over our setter (5-foot-6 Cindy Atlcbcrry)—we’ vc got to make up for that with our speed and we didn’tdo that tonight,” Buhlig said. The fifth-ranked Huskers im proved their record to 15-2 and 9-0 in conference play, while Missouri dropped to 15-9 and 4-6. The Tigers lost before their big f;csl crowd of the season, as 3,192 ans filed into the Coliseum. Missouri’s average attendance for all matches this year has been 157 people. _ mm — Travis Heying/DN Nebraska middle blocker Stephanie Thater hits over Missouri’s Yvette Buhlig in a match at the NU Coliseum Saturday night. Freshman hitter shines during first season By Tim Pearson Staff Reporter __ On Saturday, there was fresh man quarterback Tommie Frazier against Colorado. There was the highly touted re cruiting class of Danny Nee’s on display at the Cornhusker basket ball team’s first practice of the season. And then there was freshman Billie Winsctl’s performance against Missouri. On a weekend in which high profile Nebraska freshmen were shining, Winsett remained a quiet contributor for the Nebraska vol lcyball learn. Winsctl started two of the three games in the Huskers’ 15-1,15*13, 15-10 victory over Missouri, and she has played in every match this season. Assistant coach Cathy Noth said she looked for W insctl “to come in and make a difference.” Against the Tigers, Winsctl, an 18-year-old, 5-foot-l 1 outside hit ter from Boonvillc, Ind., did just that, recording two service aces and four digs. “Her strength is in her ball-han dling. She was very consistent in her play tonight,” Noth said. “We were pleased with her defense.” Despite Noth’s praise, Winsctl said she only played “average” againsl Missouri. “I usually remember ihc things I need to work on,” she said. “This sometimes overshadows the good things.” Noth said Winsett has improved, increasing her level of play as the season goes on. Winsett has played inallbutonc conference match for the Huskers this season. “Her improvement comes in practice,” Noth said. “When ev erybody else is gone, she’ll still be in the gym practicing.” Even though this is her first year at Nebraska, Winsett hasn’t been surprised with her success so far this season. “ Ai the beginning of the season, coach (Terry Pctlii) said to not worry about how old you arc,” she said. “I’m really happy that I’m playing.” Noth said she hadn't been sur prised by Winscu’s success. “When we recruited Billie, we knew she was going to be a player thatcould help us in ball-handling,” she said. Noth said Winsetl was begin ning to feel more comfortable on the court as the season progressed. “The more she plays, the more she’s going to get comfortable out there.” ~ ( Comhuskers hoop it up at practice By Jeff Singer Senior Reporter College basketball practiced offi cially began Sunday, and the Ne braska men’s basketball team didn’t waste any time getting started. The Cornhuskcrs kicked off the 1992-93 season with their own ver sion of Midnight Madness, called “Haunted Huskcr Hoops” at 12:01 a.m. Sunday at the Bob Dcvancy Sports Center. The evening included the unveil ing of the Nebraska squad, which has been picked as high as 11th in the nation in preseason rankings. The Huskcrs played two 15-minute scrimmagcsand had a slam-dunk con test in between the games. For the two scrimmages, the teams were divided by returning players and newcomers. The starters from the black team that comprised members of last year’s 19-10 Huskcr team included Jamar Johnson, Jason Glock, Eric Piatkowski, Bruce Chubick and Der rick Chandler. The white team was highlighted by a 1992 recruiting class that many con sider to be the best in school history. The freshman class of Andre Woolridgc, Erick Strickland and Jaron Boone practiced for the first time as Huskcrs, while redshirt Terrance Badgctt and transfer Tom Best also played for the first time at Nebraska. The returners edged out the new comers in both games. In the first scrimmage, the black team won 25 23 and they again beat their younger counterparts 35-32 in the second game. Jonnson, a junior Irom Elkhari, Ind., led the returners in scoring with 23 points in the two games. Woolridgc, an Omaha native, led the newcomers with 12 points in front of 5,714 fans at the Dcvancy Center. Chandler, the only senior on this year’s Husker team, said Nebraska’s initial practice went well despite many of the Huskers not being in mid-sea son form. “It went pretty good, and it gave our fans a chance to witness our bas ketball team,”Chandler said. “Coach is really going to stress conditioning, because a lot of people were sucking wind.” Nebraska coach Danny Nee said even though many of the Huskers weren’t in lop form, he was satisfied with his team’s performance in its first practice. “We have a five-month season, so you can’t maintain that lop level all . year; this is where we should be at this time of the year,” Nee said. The festivities Sunday morning capped a successful day of Nebraska sports, following the Husker football team’s 52-7 win over Colorado on SaturdayrTMCC said. “The Huskers had a great win this altcrnoon, and we had a great start to the basketball season,” Nee said.