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.
