Sports
Tuesday, January 17,1995
Page 7
Trivia Haying/DN
Three Nebraska players—Jaron Boone, Chester Surles and Melvin Brooks—fight for the ball
with Kansas State’s Mark Young in Nebraska’s win against Kansas State Thursday. The
Huskers will face Missouri-Kansas City Wednesday in a non-conference game.
Huskers striving to
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
With 16 games behind him, Ne
braska basketball coach Danny Nee
has a pretty good idea where his
team stands at the midpoint of the
season.
And Nee said he was neither
pleased nor disappointed.
“Record-wise, we’re very
pleased where we are,” Nee said.
“But I think my team has a lot of
room to improve. I look at the
turnovers, the unforced errors, the
rebounding, and I definitely know
we can shoot better than we are.”
The Comhuskers’ 13-3 record
included a 10-game winning streak
and a 1-1 conference mark. '
At this point last season, the
Huskers were 12-4 and in the
middle of a four-game losing
streak.
However, Nebraska stopped its
skid to finish 20-10 and won the
Big Eight tournament.
Husker guard Tom Wald, who
is averaging 11.8 points a game,
said he expected even greater things
from this year’s squad.
“I’ve been telling everyone that
this team is better (than last year),”
Wald said. “Obviously, losing
(Eric) Piatkowski was a big loss,
but since we don’t have the ulti
mate scorer or rebounder, we have
to depend on each other a little bit
more. Anybody can score on any
given night. We’re not so one
dimensional anymore.”
After losing four seniors—three
See HUSKERS on 8
improve
Husker Schedule Recap
November
San Juan Shootout*
25 Northeast Louisiana* 99 77
26 Virginia Tech* 81 87
27 College of Charleston* 74 72
December
Ameritas Classic**
2 Morehead State** 96 55
3 Idaho State** 98 72
7 Creighton 85 57
10 Michigan State (OT) 96 91
17 Western Illinois 69 62
" 21 Northeastern Illinois 101 60
22 at Northern Iowa (OT) 95 88
29 Delaware State 94 52
31 Appalachian State 108 71
January
4 at Texas 74 102
7 Missouri 74 82
9 at Long Beach State 82 71
12 Kansas State 78 56
Aarden leads Huskers
with height and stats
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Pyra Aarden doesn’t shy away from
being tall.
in tact, Aarden
enjoys her height
advantage.
“My height has
never been a prob
lem for me,” the
Nebraska
women’s basket
ball center said. “I
1 non t see it as a
Aarden big deal.”
Actually, Aarden is a pretty big
deal.
The 6-foot-4-inch Aarden is the
tallest player in Nebraska women’s
basketball history, and she has used
her height to help the Huskers to a 9
7 record.
Aarden leads the Comhuskers in
scoring with 14.7 points per game
and rebounds with 10.9 per game.
However, Aarden would rather
have her team win than amass indi
vidual statistics.
One game that helped Aarden sta
tistically was Nebraska’s 77-68 win
over Bowling Green.
Aarden had career highs with 36
points and 20 rebounds.
Her performance helped the Husk
ers start the season at 8-2, but Ne
braska has struggled, losing five of its
last six.
“We had a real strong first sea
son,” Aarden said, “of course these
losses to start the Big Eight is rather
disappointing.”
Aarden, who has seven double
doubles in points and rebounds this
season, said that Nebraska had a
chance to win against both Kansas
See PYRA on 8
Husker track teams
ready for new season
ByTony_West
Staff Reporter
Nebraska track and field coach
Gary Pepin said his teams should
have a balanced attack going into the
indoor track and field season this
weekend at the Nebraska Open.
“I think we have two good teams,”
he said. “It’s not any one particular
area you can turn to and say, ‘This is
stronger.’”
Pepin said the Huskers’ balanced
attack could be the key to adding
another championship to the trophy
case.
“Our goals again are to win the
Big Eight championship and place in
the top 10 at nationals,” he said.
Last indoor season, both the
Cornhusker men’s and women’s
teams walked away from Oklahoma
City, Okla., with the Big Eight cham
pionship crown. And the women fin
ished fifth at the NCAA Champion
ships last season, while the men placed
24th.
But that shouldn’t put any added
pressure on the two teams, Pepin
said.
“I think it’s more of a fun thing for
them, instead of pressure,” Pepin said.
The Nebraska men have Big Eight
scorers in every event. The women
have won the conference champion
ship every indoor season since 1980.
“We have a lot of good
areas and good events,
... so we just don’t rely
on one event. ”
■.
GARY PEPIN
Nebraska track and field coach
This season, Nebraska will have
to repeat the conference sweep with
out the efforts of several members
from last year’s team.
But the Nebraska men do have
junior Robert Thomas back. Thomas
had talked about transferring to an
other school.
Pepin said the return of the 1993
NCAA All-American triple- and long
jumper was a big boost.
“He’s one of the best long-and
triple-jumpers in the world,” Pepin
said. “But (having Thomas back) will
be a bigger inpact when he starts
scoring in events.”
Pepin said one athlete or one event
would not be the determining factor
for the outcome of the season.
“We have a lot of good areas and
good events,... so we just don’t rely
on one event,” he said.
Rodent boy re-thinks slams against the Hornhonkers
And I thought football was
about a bunch of well-fed guys in
tights chasing after some
autographed bag of air.
Boy, was I wrong.
Just last Friday I went to a law
school function with my pet gerbil,
confidant and now personal
physician — Mookie.
As we sat at the bar partaking in
our favorite cocktail, Wild Turkey
with a splash of Listerine, we were
verbally accosted by some law
student who obviously had some
sort of chemical imbalance in her
pupils. This made her look kind of
like a ferret with eye shadow.
Anyway, this law dork comes up
to me and says, “Hey, rodent boy, I
bet ya feel like a chump now since
you spent all last semester making
fun of the Huskers?”
Sensing the need for a witty
lawyer-esque retort, I jumped to
my feet, put my hand on this
dorkess’ shoulder and said, “Baby,
I always feel like a chump.”
I then proceeded to slam the
remainder of my drink. However,
in my haste, I forgot about the hunl
of Guava the bartender put in the
glass for garnish and choked on it.
Luckily Mook knew the
Heimlich maneuver, but this whole
episode made me reflect (not in the
incandescent sense. I mean I was
pondering).
I thought to myself, “Am I
feeling guilty about my jabs at the
national champion Homhonkers?”
“Do I think I’ve wronged the
gridiron greats with my insensitive
slants?”
“Will this rash ever go away?”
Well, I let the last of these
introspective inquiries go, but I just
couldn’t shake the first two.
Days and days went by, and the
thoughts of my potential guilt
rained on me like a spitting contest
Hey, this is the plague of being
one of those men who are the
sensitive type.
That’s when Mookie sat me
down and made me realize the
reason behind my belittlement of
Beau Finley
the Compumpers. The reason was
my own inadequacy.
Not from an anatomical stand
point ... I’m talking from an
actualization standpoint. Inad
equacy has taken over my thoughts
like a Newt Gingrich.
My negativity flowed from the
fact that I knew I could never be as
great as the Comhummers.
Let’s face the facts:
I’ll never be the neurosurgeon or
have as cool a haircut as Rob
Zatechka.
I’ll never be the man Tom Sieler
is — from the ankles down.
And finally, I’ll never be able to
bump-and-run a receiver the way
Barron Miles does. And it’s
probably a good thing; just think of
all the palimony I’d be facing.
I’m just joking. I tell you, my
vast readership, I’ve got a friggin’
illness.
While on the subject of Barron
Miles, Colorado’s Chris Hudson
won this year’s Jim Thorpe award,
honoring the best defensive back in
the country. However, Barron
Miles was not a finalist, even
though he had more interceptions,
more blocked kicks and more
tackles than Hudson. In Spanish
terms, this is what’s known as “el
screwjobbo.”
Hudson is better than Miles at
one thing — getting burned by
Nebraska’s Eric Alford.
In sum, this Husker national
championship has been hugely
meaningful to me.
Ya see, you, as fans, may have
derived some long-awaited vicari
ous fulfillment from the capture of
this mythical national champion
ship, but I’ve gotten much more.
I’ve gleaned a piece of crucial
insight about who I am.
I know now that I’m not as great
as the fine athletes playing for the
HuckFinnsters and that’s ... OK.
The national championship is
not just about being No. 1. It’s
about the realization of all of our
hope^ It’s about the actualization
ofdreams. It’s about the strong
mindedness and a oneness of
purpose. It’s about believing in
something unconditionally.
Basically, being champions allows
us to find out about the stuff we are
all made of.
Um, and maybe not. Maybe it’s
just about that 50 bucks that I won
off my uncle Freddie.
Finley b a second-year law student and a
Daily Nebraskan sports columnist
