Nebraskan
Thursday, January 20,1994
Sports
Nebraska ‘outhustled, outworked in loss
From Start Hepons
The Nebraska basketball team had the chance
to extend its winning streak to 12 games.
The Comhuskers had a chance to go 3-0 in
the conference for the first time since 1975-76.
They had a chance to strengthen their grip on
first place after Kansas State upset top-ranked
Kansas Monday night.
They were knocking on the door of the Top
25.
Not anymore.
The Huskers were upset 86-81 Wednesday
night by a Colorado team that they had beat by
39 points just 11 days earlier.
The Buffaloes came from behind to steal the
victory away from the Huskers at the Coors
Event Center in Boulder, Col.
The loss dropped the Huskers to 12-3 and 2
1 in the conference. Colorado improved to 8-6
and 1-2.
During his post-game radio show on KFAB,
Husker basketball coach Danny Nee said that
the loss was disappointing, but Colorado de
served to win the game.
“It’s really disappointing,” he said. “We
didn’t do a lot of things right.
“But you’ve got to give Colorado credit. It
was very similar to the way Kansas State played
Kansas.”
Nee said Colorado won every aspect of the
game, especially rebounding. The Buffaloes
outrebounded the Huskers 53-28.
All-Big Eight guard Donnie Boyce scored
26 points and hit 5-of-6 free throws in the last
minute to propel the Buffaloes to victory.
But it was Colorado forward Mark Dean who
made the biggest difference.
• Dean had a career-high 30 points and 13
rebounds against the Huskers, including a three
point play to put the Buffs up 75-66 with 1:37 to
play.
“With Donnie Boyce playing at a high level
and Mark Dean having a career game, it meant
victory for them,” Nee said. “I felt it was more
the excellent play of Donnie Boyce and Mark
Dean which decided the game.
“They outworked us and outhustled us to the
ball.”
The Huskers fell behind by as many as 11 in
the first half, but came from behind to take a 37
36 lead going into halftime.
Nee said the Huskers didn’t come out of the
gate ready to play.
“I know how good our basketball team is,”
he said. “We’re only good when we execute,
and early on we were tentative and sluggish.
“We never got into the flow of the game.”
Nebraska may have started the game off
slow, but they came out ready in the second half,
taking a 58-51 lead midway through the half.
But then the scoring drought hit as the Buffs
went on a 13-0 run, taking a 64-58 lead on two
Boyce free throws.
Colorado then increased its lead to 75-66, its
biggest lead of the second half, with 1:37 left.
The Huskers then started fouling to send
Colorado to the free-throw line, where the Buffs
nailed 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch.
With 12 seconds left, Husker guard Jamar
Johnson banked in a three-pointer to make it 84
81. But Colorado’s Pete Hefty hit two free
throws to seal the game.
Nebraska_37. .44 — 81
at Colorado.. .36. .51 — 87 (
Nebraska — Brooks 1 -3 2-2 4, Chubick 4-7 3-512,
Strickland 4-9 4-4 12, Boone 6-12 2-2 17, Piatkowski
7-19 0-0 16, Johnson 3-7 0-0 8, Glock 1-2 0-0 2,
Badgett 3-9 0-0 6, Best 2-4 0-0 4, Totals 31 -72 11 -13
81. Colorado —Golgart 0-2 4-4 4, Dean 12-18 6-8 30,
Allen 4-13 3-3 11, Boyce 6-17 12-16 26, Edmonds 4
9 2-2 10, Jensen 0-1 0-0 0, Hefty 1-3 3-4 5, Frandeen
0-0 0-0 0, Totals 27-63 30-37 86.
3-point goals — Nebraska 8-26 (Brooks 0-1,
Chubick 1-1, Strickland 0-2, Boone 3-7, Piatkowski 2
9, Johnson 2-4, Glock 0-1, Badgett 0-1), Colorado 2
9 (Golgart 0-1, Allen 0-2, Boyce 2-4, Hefty 0-2).
Fouled out—Chubick, Strickland, Boone.
Player’s improvement
surprises conference
By Sam Snyder
Staff Reporter
After the departure of All-Amer
ican center Karen Jennings, Ne
braska sophomore Pyra Aarden was
hoping for more opportunities this
season.
Fortunately Aarden, a sopho
more from Hudson, Wis., has been
able to take advantage of the situa
tion.
Aarden, a 6-foot-4-inch center,"
is averaging 6.3 points and 5.8 re
bounds a game, compared to her 1 -
point and 1.4-rebound averages last
season as a freshman.
Aarden scored a career-high 18
points against the Puerto Rican na
tional team and also had strong
performances against Oklahoma
and Arizona State, scoring 11 and
13 points, respectively.
In the Kansas game last Friday,
Aarden pulled down a career-high
14 rebounds.
Although Jennings is gone,
Aarden said she owed her improve
ment to last year’s Big Eight player
of the year.
“I learned a lot about playing
inside against Karen,” Aarden said.
Coach Angela Beck said she had
noticed Aarden’s improvement this
season.
“She has established some post
moves, improved her touch around
the basket and is handling passes
better,” Beck said.
Beck said Aarden’s improved
play had surprised others around
the conference.
“People didn’t think she could
improve as fast as she did,” Beck
said.
Aarden said her teammates were
starting to rely on her more.
- it
People didn ? think
she could improve
as fast as she did.
— Beck
NU women’s basketball
coach
-ff -
“A lot of it has to do with confi
dence,” Aarden said. “After a good
game, I’m more confident as a play
er, and people have more confi
dence in me.”
Aarden said the team’s slow start
this season had been a disappoint
ment. With so many new faces, the
team hasn’t established chemistry
yet.
But after several close losses,
Aarden said, the team had even
more incentive to work hard the rest
of the season. Nebraska, 9-8 overall
and 1 -3 in the Big Eight, faces Col
orado Friday and Missouri Sunday.
“We’ve got a lot of talent on our
team and only two of our players
are seniors,” she said.
Aarden said the Huskers’ 78-58
win over Kansas State last Sunday
could have been the spark the team
needed to finish the season strong
and return to the NCAA tourna
ment.
NOTE:
• Nebraska forward Nafeesah
Brown was named the Big Eight’s
player of the week. Brown, a se
nior from Chicago, averaged 21
points and 10 rebounds in the Husk
ers’ two games last weekend.
Brown scored 22 points and
pulled down 12 rebounds in Ne
braska’s 78-57 loss to Kansas Fri
day. She also scored 20 points and
grabbed eight rebounds in Nebras
ka’s 78-58 win over Kansas State.
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska’s Pyra Aarden, a 6-foot-4-inch sophomore
center, drives around Kansas’ Angela Aycock for a
layup during the Jayhawks’ win Friday.
Swimming teams
face Iowa State
in meet Saturday
By Tony West
Staff Reporter
Twelve seniors — five men and
seven women — will have their last
chance to impress the home crowd
when the Corn
husker men’s and
women’s swim
ming teams face
Iowa State Satur
day.
“It will be spe
cial because it’s the
seniors’ last home
meet,” Nebraska
1 ^_icoacn uai oentz
Bentz said of the 1:30p.m.
meet at the Bob Devaney Sports Cen
ter.
Nebraska’s men enter the meet
ranked No. 22 in the recent College
Swimming Coaches Association Top
25 poll with a 2-3 dual record, while
the women, 3-1 in dual meets this
season, are No. 21 in the nation. The
Iowa State men’s swimming team is
No. 25, and the Cyclone women are
unranked.
Bentz said his teams were mainly
working toward reaching their final
goals of doing well in the Big Eight
and NCAA championships in March.
“Our season is kind of building to
get to the championships,” Bentz said.
“We just do the training that has to be
done to reach our final goal.”
And Bentz said he thought his teams
had completed the necessary work at
this point in the season.
We’ve done the conditioning, and
now it’s the time to start polishing
those skills,” Bentz said. “We have to
start sharpening up on our races.”
The Cyclones should provide
enough competition to help the Husk
ers strengthen those skills, he said.
“They have been very competitive
in the past few years,” Bentz said.
“And we’re going into this meet with
a great deal of respect for them.”
NCAA excitement parity drown out talks oj a boycott
College basketball provided the
best argument on Tuesday against any
proposed boycott by coaches or play
ers.
First, a devilish Tom Kleinschmidt
and the DePaul Blue Demons rallied
to upset No. 6 Massachusetts, 78-76.
Then, Florida upset No. 7 Kentucky in
the game’s closing seconds. Purdue
topped it off by handing No. 8 Indiana
an 83-76 loss in overtime.
And to think Tuesday was just a
hangover for the nation’s top team this
week. On Monday, new-No. 1 Kansas
was upset 68-64 by lowly Kansas State
after Anthony Beane nit a running
jumper with 10 seconds left in the
game.
Try boycotting that kind of action.
Paity is simply too strong this sea
son to make it a rarity.
Consider:
• In 47 games involving ranked
teams last week, a rated team lost 14
times. Seven of those losses were to
unranked teams. Of the seven other
losses, the higher-ranked team was
beaten five times.
• There is no flat-out No. 1 team in
the land. The top spot in the nation has
changed hands four times already.
North Carolina started with it. Ar
kansas held it for a few weeks. The Tar
Heels snatched it back. Kansas then
grabbed it around the neck, only to
choke it away Monday night by losing
in Lawrence.
• Kansas, despite its loss to the
Wildcats, will still probably win the
Big Eight. But the Jayhawks are not
the clear-cut top team in the confer
ence. Oklahoma State, Missouri, Okla
homa, or yes, even Nebraska — de
spite its loss to Colorado Wednesday
Todd
Cooper
night — could easily steal the Big
Eight title from the inexperienced
Jayhawks.
Nebraska clirfibed to the top of the
conference with a win over the Cy
clones, who have uncharacteristically
blown games at home, and a win over
the Buffablows, who just plain blow.
But they blew it Wednesday night.
With their loss to Colorado, the
Huskers gave up the road advantage
they had gained by beating Iowa State
in Ames. And Nebraska’s schedule in
January has changed from being
“kind”—as Husker coach Danny Nee
had phrased it — to being just a bit
cruel.
Nebraska, which beat Colorado by
a ridiculous margin in its first matchup
(39 points) was outrebounded by an
equally ridiculous margin — 53 to 28
— Wednesday night.
The 86-81 loss proved that unless
the university finds some way to fit
Apollo 9 in the Devaney Sports Cen
ter, Nebraska won’t be flying high in
February against the Big Eight’s sky
scrapers — Greg Ostertag of Kansas
and Big Country of Oklahoma State.
Still, if Nebraska can rebound —
literally, rebounds — and wins six or
seven of its remaining games, the
Huskers could be near the top of the
Big Eight by the end of the season.
The remaining, inevitable upsets
should spell one of the wildest confer
ence finishes in a while. But that ex
citement will come only if the coaches
keep their protests — no matter how
noble they are — off the court.
As it showed on Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday, college basketball’s
upsets and action will make a state
ment of their own: The sport shouldn’t
be tinkered with — not by protesting
coaches or players, and especially not
by the NCAA.
If they want to take a stand, coach
es should either do it at the NCAA
convention or in court.
Players are working too hard and
too long to let an irrelevant issue inter
fere with their play on the court.
And the results of their toils are too
good to boycott.
Cooper is a senior news-editorial major
and the Daily Nebraskan sports editor.