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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1994)
Daily Nebraskan Tuesday, January 18,1994 Sports -HSR, Jay Calderon/DN Nebraska’s Melvin Brooks scored a career-high 12 points against Missouri-Kansas City on Saturday. Sky is the limit Brooks’ extra work eases transition to NU By Jeff Griesch Senior Editor _ At 6 feet 8 inches and 235 pounds, Melvin Brooks looks like an enforcer on the basketball court. While Brooks’ size may appear intimidating at first, his calm eyes, quiet voice and easy smile quickly reveal his laid-back demeanor. Brooks’ relaxed attitude con trasts sharply with Nebraska coach Danny Nee’s fiery personality, but Nee said he didn’t mind. In fact, he likes it. “He has that nice North Caroli na easiness about him that comple ments my hypemess,” Nee said. “The one thing that I like about Melvin Brooks the most is his con sistency. He’s not moody. He’s not up and down. He is very mature.” Brooks, a junior forward from Elizabeth City, N.C., is in his first year at Nebraska after averaging 15.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game last year at Chowan (N.C.) Junior College. After coming off the bench in Nebraska’s first 13 games, Brooks leaped into the starting lineup, scor ing a career-high 12 points and pulling down five rebounds against the University of Missouri-Kansas City Saturday. Nebraska coach Danny Nee said Brooks’ smooth transition to Ne braska basketball resulted from his extra effort this summer. Upon arrival, Nee said, Brooks got a job, went to summer school and got in a summer league with sophomore Jason Glock, senior Bruce Chubick and other players. “He got to know our players and he got to know me better — to get himself adjusted,” Nee said. Brooks said getting used to Nee as a coach was easy because of his experience with his junior college coach, Bob Burke. “Y’all think Coach Nee is a ‘bitch’ coach, but the last coach I had was at least three or four times worse than Coach Nee,” Brooks said. “I’m just used to it now and when a coach gets in your face, it means they are getting on you be cause you are doing wrong. They know you can do better. For me, that’s a pickup and I know that I have to do better,” Brooks has averaged 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in his first 14 games as a Husker, but he said he expected more from himself. “I ’ m really comfortable with the system right now, and for me, the sky is the limit,” Brooks said. “We’re pretty good, but we still haven’t gelled together and played like a machine yet. “Once we get like that I feel like big things are going to happen for Big 8 coaches annoyed by new NCAA rules By Mitch Sherman Staff Reporter_ Putting it mildly, Kansas basket ball coach Roy Williams was upset Monday about the legislation passed at the NCAA Convention in San An tonio last week. In addition to limiting the number ofbasketball scholarships to 13, which nearly prompted a boycott of last weekend ’ s games by the B1 ac k Coacli es Association, the NCAA passed a regulation that restricts off-campus meetings between potential recruits and coaches. The NCAA also cut on campus recruiting visits from 15 to 12. “We took our normal blood bath,” Williams said during the Big Eight coaches’ teleconference. “(The coach es) have no voice. It’s very frustrat ing. We got killed again. Basketball does so much for the schools, and they do this to the coaches and athletes. “They keep wanting us to turn the other cheek. We have turned the cheek so many times, we don’t have any cheeks left.” Williams, whose Jayhawks took over the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press poll this week and arc tied for first with UCLA in the USA Today/ CNN Coaches’ Poll, said he was as sured by convention leaders that the basketball programs would not be left out in the dark. But, he said, those remarks proved to be wrong. “We shouldn’t have trusted the statements that were made to us be fore the convention this year,” Will iams said. “They led us to believe that, at least, we were going to get the 14th scholarship back. Nothing hap pened.” Also expressing displeasure over the convention was Iowa State coach Johnny Orr because of the new Prop osition 48 requirements that raise en try standards for athletes. Beane guides Wildcats past No. 1 Kansas From Staff Reports_ Anthony Beane did it again. The senior point guard net ted his 10th game-winning shot of his career when he made a running jumper in the lane to help the Kansas State Wildcats upset top-ranked Kansas 68-64 in Lawrence, Kan., Monday night. After Beane hit the scoop shot in the lane with 10 seconds left, Jayhawk forward Patrick Richey missed a 15-footer on Kansas’ end. Beane, a 5-10,170-pounder, then sealed the win by making two free throws with two sec onds left. Nebraska coach Danny Nee did not want to comment on the overall results of the convention and was not yet aware of the final outcomes on several issues. He said he was pleased that the two sides may soon be back negotiating about the 14th scholarship but did not necessarily agree with the decision of the BCA to involve the United States Judicial Department in the issue. “I think it’s good that we’re back at the table negotiating,” Nee said. “But personally, I think the government is too involved with our lives, and we certainly don’t need them involved with college athletics. I think that we should not get the federal government involved even if there is a problem.” Roundup CONFERENCE Conference Games W L Pet. All Games W L Pet. ties u its Nebraska 92,UMKC71 Oklahoma 93, Iowa State 90 Oklahoma State 71, Kansas State 61 Missouri 80, Colorado 72 Kansas State 68, Kansas 64 (Monday) ESPN heats up cold lives of die-hard basketball fans Whoa, it’s cold outside. It’s so cold that when you run outside at 9:30 a.m., your still show er-wet hair freezes into cold, steel like strands that stick to your head and crunch in your fingers. It’s so cold that your nose hairs freeze the second you walk outside, and the air is so cold it feels as if you’re inhaling ice cream through steel wool. It’s so cold, when you wake up in the morning, you’re convinced that if you walk to class, you are going to freeze into a solid block of ice 1 ike the caveman in that old episode of Scooby Doo. I t’s so cold, you have to be a school psycho to go to class during the day and a complete moron if you even consider leaving your home at night. But despite all the negatives that come with cold weather, one saving grace, one reason for going on, one reason for fighting the cold to get back home inspires all sports fans: Big Monday. Big East, Big Ten, Big Eight—put simply,big-time—basketball brought directly into homes through the mira cle of television technology. You gotta love it baby! Basketball fans don’t have to get off that warm, comfy couch and make the death-defying journey to some cold gym to watch great roundball action. Fans can just wrap up in a warm blanket with 12 of their closest cold friends and vegetate while being mes merized by bchind-thc-back passes, dipsy-doodunkaroos and the nonstop Jeff Griesch screaming of Dick Vitale. Those ESPN guys arc geniuses. The only thing missing from Mon day night’s big tube-time excitement this week was the Big Red. But don’t fret, Husker basketball fans, you only have to wait one more week to sec the Big Red on Big Mon day. Next week, the Huskers will play host to Missouri in ESPN’s second game of Big Monday at the Bob Dcvaney Sports Center. Nebraska has been warming up Bob’s House and heating up the hearts of a few Husker fans by playing red hot basketball. In case your ears are still ringing from all the noise the football team made in the Orange Bowl and you haven’t heard, the Husker hoopsters arc on fire. For all the football fans that think basketball is played at Nebraska just to kill time between football seasons, think again. The basketball team has lost its “mc-not-wc” attitude of a year ago and are playing the best basketball Nebraska has seen since the magical season of 1990-91. Like the football team, the Husker basketball team is winning with de fense. They are also taking care of the ball, running consistently and have threatened with the deep bomb. They have won 11 straight games and will try to outdo the football team by beating Colorado on Wednesday to push the streak to a 12-pack at the Coors Events Center in Boulder. Jcvon Crudup and the other Tigers will then have the task of trying to end the Huskers’ streak at 12. Crudup hasn’t had a problem put ting away 12-packs in the past, but Nebraska’s 12 will be too much for Crudup to throw down. Find a way to brave the cold be cause the Big Red will get a big win over the big cats on Monday. Can it get any bigger than that? Griesch it a Junior newt-editorial major, the Daily Nebraskan assistant sports editor and a columnist.
