Sports
Mitch Sherman
Student spirit
needed behind
Husker hoops
Danny Nee knows the impor
tance of student support to the Ne
braska basketball team.
Over the past two years, the
Comhusker coach has become per
sonally involved in an attempt to
liven up the atmosphere among the
1,200 eourtside bleacher seats at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
“I have always personally felt
that the students are very valuable,”
Nee said. “They are like a sixth
man. The students shape the atmo
sphere of the arena. I think they are
worth six to eight points a game and
always get you a couple of calls.”
Nee has been the host of pre
game pep rallies such as “Dinner
with Danny,” in which free shirts,
pop and hot dogs were given to
UNL students who showed up as
early as 2 1/2 hours before Husker
home games.
At times, the students’ support
has sparked Nebraska wins. Every
Big Eight team has fallen at the
Devaney Center in the past three
years.
Last season, a young, immature
Husker team without a true leader
slipped, losing five of seven con
ference games at home and failing
to qualify for the NCAA Tourna
ment for the first time since 1990.
Student tickets, which cost only
$3.50 a game, have been on sale for
three weeks. Only 984 applications
have been returned to the Husker
ticket office. In 1994, students pur
chased 1,700 tickets. The year be
fore, they bought 2,300.
It’s not too late to correct the
mistake. Although originally sched
uled for only one week of sales,
tickets remain available.
“We probably have not done
enough marketing of the team this
year,” Nee said. “I should be out
there trying to sel 1 tickets right now.
I think some of the students don’t
realize we are going to have a pretty
good team this year.”
Saturday night, Husker fans will
see a glimpse of Nebraska basket
ball at the annual Midnight Blues,
which signifies the beginning of
practice.
They’ll like what they see. This
is a different season, a different
team.
It’s a team with a leader and a
strong supporting cast. Erick
Strickland is dedicated, focused and
determined to drive Nebraska to
new heights, also known as success
in the NCAA Tournament. Sixnew
comers, two of whom have the po
tential to start from day one, give
this team needed depth.
Go to the Devaney Center on
Saturday night, and you’ll see
Tyronn Lue, a true freshman with
Jacque Vaughn-like quickness and
court vision, lead Nebraska’s of
fense.
You’ll see Jaron Boone, who
without the burden ofhandling point
guard, can concentrate on his de
fense and shooting.
You’ll see Terrance Badgett,
who without the burden of being
See SHERMAN on 8
Big 8 teams storming the polls
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
After falling to No. 14 Oklahoma
on Saturday, Iowa State has four games
remaining against ranked conference
teams.
And all four opponents are in the
top 10.
The Big Eight Conference is at its
best this year, Iowa State coach Dan
McCamey said Monday.
After Kansas upset No. 4 Colorado
40-24 and Kansas State recorded its
third consecutive shutout in a 30-0
win over Missouri, the top 10 is loaded
with Big Eight teams.
In the Associated Press poll, Ne
braska, which did not play, remained
No. 2. Kansas State (5-0) moved from
No. 13 to No. 8. Colorado dropped to
ninth, while Kansas jumped 14 spots
to No. 10. Oklahoma, after a victory
overlowa State, moved from 14 th to
13th.
McCamey, who already has led
Iowa State to two more victories than
all of last season, said he entered the
conference when it was at its best.
“This is an exciting experience for
the Big Eight,” McCarney said in the
Big Eight coaches’ teleconference
Monday. “People said I was suicidal
when I took this job. After seeing what
the Big Eight has done, I think we
could use some top draft picks to play
for us in some of these next games. It’s
going to be tough.”
It is the first time in history that five
Big Eight teams have been rated in the
top 13 of the AP, and also the first time
five have been rated in the top 12 of
the USA Today/CNN coaches’ poll. It
marks the second time that four Big
Eight schools have been rated in the
top 10, with the last time coming Oct.
4, 1976.
It should be no surprise that it is
also the first time both Kansas and
Kansas State have been rated in the
top 10.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
credited the longevity of the coaches
at the two Kansas schools for their
success.
“You have two very fine coaching
Uppinghouse making
impact as new Husker
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Two years ago Kari Uppinghouse
was working her way toward being
one of the top scorers on the George
Mason soccer team.
Uppinghouse’s play that season
helped the Patriots finish the season as
runner-up for the national champion
ship, and Uppinghouse was named
first-team All-Colonial Athletic Con
ference. But that wasn’t enough for
her.
“1 was bored, and I didn’t like it
that much,” Uppinghouse said. “Many
students commuted to school and then
would go home on the weekend. Plus,
1 was far away from my family.”
So Uppinghouse left George Ma
son to return home to Littleton, Colo.,
and help coach her former high school
and club teams.
Nebraska soccer coach John
Walker said he was recruiting two
players from Uppinghouse’s club
team, Lakewood Fury,when the Fury’s
head coach, Tom Stone, told Walker
about Uppinghouse’s willingness to
play soccer again.
Walker said he was interested
enough in the possibility that he at
tended one of the Fury’s practices
where Uppinghouse worked out with
the team. Walker then asked her to
consider Nebraska.
“When I visited Nebraska, I liked
the school, and the facilities here were
incredible,” Uppinghouse said. “I re
al ly liked the way athletes were treated
here.”
So this year Uppinghouse is trying
to help the second-year Nebraska team
make the NCAA Tournament.
Uppinghouse has made an imme
diate impact with the young Husker
squad. She leads the team in shots on
goal with 30 attempts and is the third
leading scorer on the team with five
goals.
Walker said although Nebraska
didn’t get the two players — now
playing at Maryland and Duke — he
originally looked at in Littleton, Ne
braska got the best player in
Uppinghouse.
Pederson bringing talent to Husker tradition
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor '
Steve Pederson knows all about long-term goals.
In addition to overseeing the daily affairs of the
Comhusker football program, Pederson, the asso
ciate athletic director for football operations, spear
Pederson
heads the Nebraska recruiting
drive from his office on the sec
ond floor of the South Stadium.
The formerrecruitingcoordi
nator at Ohio State and Tennes
see, in the second year of his
second stint in Lincoln, said
Nebraska’s national title last
season truly would begin to pay
off near the end of the decade.
“We probably made a lot of
headway with a lot of 11-, 12-,
13 year-old kids when we won
the national championship,” Pederson said Mon
day at the Extra-Point Luncheon.
“When you walk through airports now, you see
a lot more kids with red hats on. Maybe that sounds
goofy to you, but that’s what we like to see.”
Apparently, Pederson’s focus on the future has
rubbed off on the rest of the coaching staff, includ
ing Coach Tom Osborne.
“The night that Tom called me and said Ahman
Green just committed tome on the phone,” Pederson
said, “I swear he was more excited than he was in
the locker room after the Orange Bowl game.”
The Nebraska program, owners of the nation’s
longest winning streak at 18 games, Pederson said,
is beginning to command more respect around the
country.
“I got tired of walking into sporting good stores
in major cities where they didn’t have a Nebraska
hat,” he said. “We want guys in Nebraska hats.
Those things make a difference to them early on in
their careers as to what they are going to do.
“If that theory holds true, then deep down what
they have is an abiding desire to go to Nebraska.
And then ifyou actually start to recruit them in their
junior or senior year, then all you have to do is bring
that to the surface and you can sign them.”
Pederson, who was the Nebraska recruiting co
ordinator from 1982 to 1986, left football for two
years before taking a similar position at Ohio State
in 1988. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 and
returned to Nebraska in April 1994.
Although Nebraska has been more successful
over the past decade than both Ohio State and
Tennessee, Pederson said it was much more diffi
cult to recruit in Lincoln than in any other place he
had worked.
“It’s not because of the program or the tradition
or any of those kind of things,” he said. “But at Ohio
State, our coaches would leave and come back that
night, and sleep in their own beds after they saw a
recruit that nigjht.”
The majority of the players recruited by Ohio
State, he said, are from Ohio or surrounding states.
At Nebraska, almost all of 950 high school players
the Huskers contact by mail each year hail from
outside Nebraska.
“(At Ohio State) when we had games,” he said,
“we might have 50 of the top players in the country
come in, because the furthest they had to drive was
2 1/2 hours. Our coaches just plain have to work
harder. Anybody will tell you that as you go out
further and further, the percentage chances of sign
ing a guy diminish.
“TTiank heavens that we have got such a great
tradition. Thank heavens that we have got Tom
Osborne, and we can sell the fact that we’ve got
those things going for us.”
Pederson said Husker coaches took advantage
of Nebraska’s off-week Saturday to fly around the
nation and evaluate high school athletes. To this
point, only one player, running back DeAngelo
Evans from Wichita, Kan., has verbally committed
to sign with Nebraska in February.
Even though commitments aren’t pouring in at
Nebraska as fast as they are at many other schools,
Pederson said the Husker coaches were doing just
fine this year.
“Things are off to a good start,” Pederson said.
“Our coaches feel pretty good about the early
conversations they have had with prospects. Right
now, we are in a heavy, intense, evaluation stage.”
Big 8 Standings
Team Conference All Games-1
—ana ¥. igiiiQ -..' 5-0 1.00^
Kansas 1-0 1.000 5-0 1.000
Colorado 1-1 0.500 5-1 0.833
Iowa St. .0-1 0.000 2-3 0.400
Oklahoma St. 0-1 0.000 1-4 0.250
staffs there, and they’ve been there a
while,” Osborne said. “The history of
those schools is three years and out
with the coaches. When you roll coach
ing staffs 1 ike that, you lose a whole lot
of recruiting.”
The No. 8 ranking is the highest
ranking ever for the Wildcats in die
See RANKINGS on 8
Tanna Kinnaman/DN
Nebraska’s Kari Uppinghouse leads the Huskers in shot
attempts in her first year on the team.