KSU, ISU surprise conference
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
It may be too soon for Iowa State
and Kansas State to start making
NCAA Tournament reservations.
But the early success of the two
basketball teams in the Big Eight Con
ference race has caught the attention
of the league coaches.
In preseason polls, the Wildcats
were predicted to finish seventh in the
league and the Cyclones were picked
eighth. In this week’s Big Eight
rankings, however, Iowa State is sec
ond in the Big Eight with a 4-1 confer
ence mark and a 15-4 record overall.
Kansas State is third at 13-5 and 4-2.
Kansas leads the Big Eight with a 16
1 and 4-0 record.
“They have been a pleasant sur
prise for the league,” Kansas coach
Roy Williams said. “I’m extremely
impressed with both clubs.”
Iowa State coach Tim Floyd looks
at the Cyclones’ success from a differ
ent perspective.
“We’re pleased with where we are
at,” Floyd said. “But we also realize
we haven’t played Kansas or Nebraska
yet, and we still have to go to Okla
homa and Missouri. There is a lot of
basketball to be played yet.”
Iowa State had to replace 95 per
cent of its scoring from last season’s
23-11 team, which finished fifth in the
league with a 6-8 record and qualified
for the NCAA Tournament. But Floyd
replaced his lineup with seven junior
college transfers, including Dedric
Willoughby and Kelvin Cato.
Willoughby is second in the con
ference in scoring, averaging 20.2
points per game while making 39.8
percent of his shots. He is also ninth in
the conference in 3-point field goal
percentage at 31 percent.
In conference games, Cato is the
Big Eight Standings
Conference Overall
-' E ' "
Wins Losses Wins Losses
Iowa State 4 1 15 4
nHKHS mx^amssx e&m
Nebraska 3 2 15 5
Oklahoma 2 4 10 8
^CdiotadoESflT'1111!" BPS
Oklahoma State 0 4 10 6
league’s third-leading rebounder, av
eraging nine boards per game.
Missouri coach Norm Stewart said
he was impressed with the play of the
two junior college transfers in the Ti
gers’ 73-62 loss on Jan. 21 to the
Cyclones.
“The first time I saw him (Kato) I
was really impressed,” Stewart said.
“Willoughby is a go-to-guy for them,
and Tim Floyd has done a nice job of
defining everybody’s roles with the
junior college transfers they brought
in.”
At Kansas State, Coach Tom
Asbury has had to prepare the Wild
cats differently this season than' he did
a year ago, when they finished 12-15
and 3-11, last place in the conference.
Both senior guard Elliot Hatcher
and senior forward Tyrone Davis have
experience under their belts after last
season’s initiation to the Big Eight.
Hatcher, who was a member of the
Big Eight newcomer team last season,
is averaging 15.8 points per game and
leads the league in steals. Davis leads
the conference in field goal percent
age at 60 percent and is third in the Big
Eight, averaging 8.6 rebounds per
game.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said
for the Huskers to have success against
Kansas State on Wednesday, they must
limit the scoring of Hatcher and Davis.
“The success of Kansas State goes
through Hatcher and Davis,” Nee said.
“They are a very, very good basket
ball team, and in order to beat them
you must contain Hatcher and Davis.”
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uamer
Continued from Page 7
ond on the team, and a team-high
seven rebounds per game.
Before the Big Eight started, Gar
ner was averaging only 10 points and
6.1 rebounds per game. He said he
noticed his performance was not up to
par.
“I just had to make a change be
cause if I didn’t make a change we
could be (winless) in the Big Eight,”
Gamer said. “I know the team needs
me and I need them, too. They’ve
supported me with all the senior lead
ership. I just need to keep making an
improvement.”
During the nonconference season,
he said he was still feeling the effects
of an injury he suffered in one of his
first practices in Lincoln. In a pre
season drill, Gamer fell to the floor
and broke his tailbone.
That was a tough beginning after a
successful 1994-95 season at WNCC.
Last season, playing in Scottsbluff,
Garner was named junior college
player of the year and averaged 19
points and eight rebounds per game
for the Cougars.
Against third-ranked Kansas, Gar
ner said he learned how tough playing
on the inside can be in the Big Eight.
The Jayhawks outrebounded the Husk
“We know that we are
much better than the
team that showed up. ”
BERNARD GARNER
Nebraska forward
ers 42-33, and 20 of the Jayhawks’
rebounds came on the offensive end.
Garner said he learned a lot from
his first game against the Big Eight
conference leader.
“They don’t give up,” he said.
“They keep playing and keep playing
and that’s just Kansas tradition. Ifyou
boxed them out, here came somebody
else.”
Garner said he hoped that lesson
would rub off on the Huskers.
“This is not going to get us down,”
Garner said. “We know that we are
much better than the team that showed
up.”
But Nebraska must make a quick
turnaround. The Huskers travel to 13
5 Kansas State on Wednesday night.
Gamer said winning on the road was
important after losing in the Devaney
Center.
“If we would have won, we would
have been tied for first place in the
inference,” Garner said.
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Cornhusker junior gymnast Kim DeHaan performs on the
balance beam Saturday night against Missouri. DeHaan isone
of three upperclassmen expected to lead Nebraska this season.
Gymnast DeHaan
helps lead Huskers
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Leadership is critical for the Ne
braska women’s gymnastics team
this season.
The Huskers start five freshmen
and three upperclassmen, and that
makes junior Kim DeHaan’s role
invaluable.
DeHaan and another junior,
Shelly Bartlett, have combined with
senior Joy Taylor to handle the lead
ership responsibility this season,
Coach Dan Kendig said.
“I don’t really feel like we have
that one person,” Kendig said. “We
have three upperclassmen that have
been through it that are helping all
the freshmen and doing a great job.
To put all that pressure on one is a
lot to ask.”
Pressure has not affected
DeHaan in her last two seasons at
Nebraska.
The 5-foot-4-inch Sioux Falls,
S.D., native owns.the Husker all
around record, a 39.275 effort
against Iowa State last season.
At the Big Eight Championships
in Columbia, Mo., last season,
DeHaan set the school record in the
floor exercise with a 9.95, and
Kendig said she was capable of
equaling that mark on the uneven
bars this year.
Against Missouri last Saturday,
DeHaan scored a season-high 9.6
in the vault and finished fourth in
the all-around with a 38.025.
“Kim’s just really clean on ev
erything she does,” Kendig said.
“That’s her asset. If she hits, she’s
going to score well because there
aren’t a lot of deductions.”
Although DeHaan was disap
pointed with her 9.2 score in the
floor Saturday night, she said
Nebraska’s 193.425 team score
would boost team confidence.
“It will just continue to build,”
she said. “Now we know that we
can go out and hit our routines, and
so we just need to improve from
there.”
DeHaan, who has competed in
gymnastics since the first grade, is
a three-time All-Big Eight selec
tion and was 1994 Big Eight new
comer of the year.
She said the highlights of her
career at Nebraska had been win
ning back-to-back Big Eight cham
pionships in 1994 and 1995 and
competing in nationals last season
in Athens, Ga.
A biology major, DeHaan has a
4.0 grade point average and has
been named academic all-confer
ence in each of the last two seasons.
DeHaan said the friendships on
this year’s team made competition
more fun.
“It’s just the whole team atmo
sphere in college,” she said. “The
girls here are really great. We all
pull for each other and stick to
gether.”
Kendig said the collective lead
ership of the upperclassmen would
determine the course of the rest of
the season.
“I really think that the nice thing
is that we have three people to
spread it out,” Kendig said. “I think
they’re all three capable of having
their best seasons this year.”
I
