Nebraskan SPORTS
Thursday, March IS, 1f>3 KJJL V/lVl WJ
Huskers
leave no
doubters
with win
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
Nebraska erased any doubts
about whether it should be a NCAA
tournament team with an 81-58
first-round women’s basketball vic
tory over San Diego Wednesday.
“We wanted to make a state
ment that we wanted to be in this a
while longer,” Comhusker coach
Angela Beck said. “We wanted to
show the selection committee that
we were a good pick.”
Playing in their first-ever home
NCAA tournament game at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, Nebraska
j umped out to a 19-5 lead in the first
7:11 of the game, gradually in
creased the lead and headed into
halftime up 46-21.
San Diego coach Kathy Marpe
said her team didn’t put its best foot
forward.
in eoraska maae us look tne way
we looked,” Marpe said. “I don’t
honestly think with the way they
shot in the first half that anything
we would have done would have
mattered.” Nebraska’s Nafeesah
Brown scored 16 points in the first
half, including 10 straight during a
five-minute span. Brown also
grabbed eight first-half rebounds.
“We came out so intense,” Beck
said. “We really banged the boards;
that was one of our goals.”
Nebraska outrebounded San Di
ego 27-14 in the first half and 51-32
for the game.
In the second half, the Huskers
turned away any chance of a San
Diego comeback and kept the run
ning game going.
“Our post players were beating
their post players down the court
and that was getting usa lot of good
See NCAA on 14
Travis Heying/DN *
Nebraska’s Karen Jennings drives past San Diego’s Jill Shaver in Wednesday’s first
round NCAA Tournament game. The Cornhuskers advanced with an 81-58 win.
Brown saves best for Huskers NCAA win
Player scores
career-high 26
By Beau Finley
Staff Report*
In addition to sending a message
to future Nebraska opponents,
Nafeesah Brown showed Wednes
day that she has good timing.
Brown, a junior, scored a ca
reer-high 26 points, grabbed 13
rebounds and snagged six steals to
propel the Comhusker women’s
basketball team to its first-ever
NCAA tournament victory as Ne
braska defeated San Diego 81 -58 at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
After leading all players in three
different categories, Brown said
she was moit pleased that her ef
fort could help the Huskers win.
“I am just glad I was able to
contribute tonight," Brown said.
Nebraska coach Angela Beck
said Brown’s words were an indi
cation of the way she played.
“Nafeesah usually isn’t so mod
est," Beck said. “She’s usually
pretty hard on herself after a game ’
Brown did do more than just
contribute. Her 16 first-half points,
including a string of 10 straight,
helped lift Nebraska to a46-21 lead
at intermission.
But it was Brown’s rebounding
that most impressed San Diego
coach Kathy Marpe.
“(Brown) wasawesome,” Marpe
said. “She is unstoppable on the
offensive boards and that was a big
key.”
Torero center Chris Enger
agreed with her coach.
“She was flying in from every
where,” Enger said.
Brown said her success wouldn’t
have been possible without some
help.
“Basically, I get on like that
because of my teammates,” Brown
said. “My teammates make me suc
cessful.”
That success included being the
Huskers’ second-leading scorer
behind All-American Karen
Jennings this season, as well as
being an honorable mention selec
tion for the All-Big Eight team.
Brown said remaining loose on
the court is the key to continuing
See BROWN on 14
Piatkowski
says team
should be
aggressive
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
It’s out with the old and in with the
new for Eric Piatkowski and the Ne
braska men’s basketball team.
Out is Kansas State and the Husk
ers’ first-round loss in the Big Eight
Tournament. In is the NCAA Tourna
ment and the New Mexico State
Aggies, who Nebraska will play Fri
day at Syracuse, N.Y., in the first
round.
“We laid down like a bunch of
dogs in the Big Eight Tournament,”
Piatkowski said. “We need to get up
for the (NCAA) game and play in
tense for 40 minutes instead of for 10
minute spurts.”
Although New Mexico State is
quick and loaded with good athletes,
Piatkowski said the Comhuskers
needed to focus on themselves rather
than worry about the Aggies.
The key, he said, would be to play
aggressive and intense basketball.
“We have to make sure we’re fired
up and play aggressively, not tenta
tively,” he said. “We need to know it
could be our only shot at it.”
Piatkowski, who will be playing in
his third NCAA Tournament, said he
had offered some advice to the younger
players.
me most important tning
Piatkowski said his experience had
taught him was to keep a grip on the
situation.
Most basketball fans look at the
NCAA Tournament and know that it
is the highlight of college basketball,
Piatkowski said. But the way to win is
to avoid getting caught up in all the
hype that accompanies die tourna
ment, he said.
“The most important thing is to
stress that the time is here, and for
(everyone) to realize that they are
involved in it.”
Piatkowski said it was also impor
tant to keep from getting intimidated
by the competition.
The Huskers, he said, were deeper
and taller and probably had a re
bounding advantage over the Aggies.
Both teams like a fast-paced game,
he said, which was beneficial for the
Huskers.
“I prefer a faster game,” he said.
“We’ 11 try to get the score in the 85-90
range.”
The Aggies’ strength is in their
athletic and quick players, he said.
Perhaps New Mexico State’s big
gest strength, Piatkowski said, was
point guard Sam Coleman, who led
the Aggies in sewing and assists this
season. Coleman’s nine assists per
game also is leading the nation.
UNL seniors deprived of victory celebration
To: Whomever it concerns in the
UNL administration department in
regards to a possible tuition refund.
From: Jeff Singer, Daily Nebras
kan senior sports reporter, on behalf
of the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s senior class.
RE: The possibility of never hav
ing been part of a postseason Ne
braska victory in a major Comhusker
sport.
UNL’s 1989-90 Undergraduate
Bulletin, with which the majority of
seniors started their days in Lincoln,
says the university “ensures a level of
program quality consistent with the
expectations and needs of the people
of Nebraska.”
I take one of these expectations to
mean at least one football bowl vic
tory and/ora NCAA Tournament win
By the men’s basketball team.
Well, the gridiron Huskers have
lost all four bowl games during our
years at UNL, and the hoopsters have
had early exits from the NCAA tour
ney in the last couple of seasons.
This has led to the statewide saying
“Those Huskers can’t win the big
one.”
It would seem that since we can get
some of our student fees back in form
of a Fund A refund from student orga
nizations, a Fund D for disappoint
ment refund should be established as
well. It would be a type of grievance
Gy, so we can get some of our money
ck for continuing postseason losses.
r But Fund D can be discarded with
one simple occurrence: a win by the
men’s basketball team in Syracuse,
N.Y., Friday night.
So will Nebraska, which has a 0-3
career record in the NCAA tourney,
be able to get the monkey off its back
Jeff
Singer
■_I
and give UNL’s seniors one final
chance of glory before hitting the real
world?
The Huskers should beat New
Mexico State by at least 10 points, but
no matter which Nebraska athletic
team is playing, the theory “to expect
the unexpected” always seems to come
into play for the scarlet and cream. *
The “big game” disappointments
started off for the seniors in the 1990
Fiesta Bowl, when what seemed to be
an evenly matched contest between
the Huskers and Florida State ended
up in a 41 • 17 pounding by the ‘ Noles.
Open the floodgates.
The next year, Nebraska was ex
pected to beat Georgia Tech in the
1991 Florida Citrus Bowl, but the
Huskers got stung 45-21 by the Yel
low Jackets.
Three months later, the basketball
Huskers were making their presence
known as a new Big Eight power by
having their best season in school
history. So, of course, Nebraska ended
up losing 89-84 to heavy underdog
Xavier, Ohio, in the first round of the
NCAA tourney.
Could the Huskers break their bowl
woes against No. 1 Miami the next
season in the 1992 Orange Bowl? A
22-0 shutout answered that question.
The hoopsters were once again
favored in the NCAA Tournament,
and we thought surely they would
defeat Connecticut to end Nebraska’s
postseason blues—Huskies 86, Husk
ers 65.
OK, after sitting in front of my TV
for three years on New Year’s Day
with my champagne ready to open
after Nebraska coach Tom Osborne is
thrust into the air by his players, I
thought 1993 was my time to uncork
the bottle. The result from the Orange
Bowl was Florida State 27, Nebraska
14—and the champagne is still chill
ing.
Now, the basketball team gets to
end the grief and hardships of all of.
the UNL seniors with a win against
the Aggies in blustery western New
York.
Final optimistic score: Huskers 85,
New Mexico State 75.
Otherwise, the champagne will be
frozen and the seniors’ feelings will
be even colder.
Singer is a senior news-editorial and po
litical science major and a Dally Nebraskan
sports senior reporter.
