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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1996)
Sports Weekend Friday, February 16, 1996 Page 7 Beau Finley Nee shouldn’t get fired for society’s woes The winds of change have been blowin’ — and so has the Husker basketball team. The Comhumpers have been racked with disciplinary actions, dissension, self doubt, defeats, double dribbling and dissentary. Um, wait — forget that last one. Suffice to say that Cornhuggcr basketball is at its lowest point in some time. To compound matters, follow ing the Comhookers’ fifth straight defeat at the hands of the Iowa State Cylons (Battiestar Galactica — cool), the call for the head of Coach Danny Nee was more prominent then ever. On the Sunday alter the game, I went to Taco Beil with former ASUN president and sun-tanning expert, Andy Massey. Massey was in office during Nee’s hiring and personally endorsed it. I asked Massey what prevented Nebraska from firing this Coach Nee? “Dude, don’t you know? He makes $53 million a year. We’d have to pay him that for 26 years if we canned him,” Massey explained. I was a bit skeptical. I decided to check things out with Athletic Director Bill “rug” Byrnes. I figured he’d let me see the contract, and things would get straightened out. I walked into Byrnes’s office and asked his secretary for a meet ing with the big shooter. She re fused me because I didn’t have an appointment. I then quite comprehensively ex plained to this impudent hag that I paid her salary and, in fact, funded this entire friggin’ athletic depart ment through my tuition payments, parking fines and hot dog purchases. She then slapped me pretty hard with some sort of meat sandwich. When I got up off the floor, she was standing over me with her dukes up, singing, “I am woman, hear me roar.” Needless to say, I took off. I’ve learned not to screw with Helen Reddy fans. Well, for now Danny has a job. Maybe that’s O.K. You see, I no longer blame Coach Knee for the problems that have befallen the Cornbumpers. I blame society. And my mother. Husker Bobber Update: Ne braska swimming and diving coach Cal Bentz allegedly reported that he would lift the ban ofno freshmen in the deep end of the pool. On a more negative note, how ever, Bentz did suspend diver Kevin Gregory for doing cannonballs and splashing him during practice. Al legedly, Bentz said he would allow Gregory back on the team if he taught Bentz how to twirl his whistle in that real cool way that lifeguards do. * Finley Is a third-year law student and a Daily Nebraskan sports columnist. Huskers to meet match with OSU By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter The two most problem-plagued basketball teams in the Big Eight will meet Saturday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Nebraska, 15-9 overall and in sixth place in the conference with a 3-6 record, plays host to Oklahoma State, the last-place team in the Big Eight. The Cowboys bring a 12-9 and 2-7 record into Saturday’s 8:05 p.m. game. The Cornhuskcrs have lost five straight games for the first time since 1990. The Nebraska players asked their coaches to call off practice Monday. On Tuesday, the team began practice more than an hour late after meeting with Athletic Director Bill Byrne con cerning differences between the play ers and Coach Danny Nee. Nebraska was 15-4 just three weeks ago. Earlier this week, Nee said his team was close to returning to that level despite its 15-point loss last Sat urday to Iowa State. “I really feel this team has the char acter to recover,” Nee said. “I can just tell by the body language of people that the worst is over.” The Cowboys have lost five of their past seven games. Like the Huskers, Oklahoma State started the season well. The Cowboys were 8-1 before losing to Tulsa, start ing a streak in which they dropped eight of their next 12 games. They are coming off a 62-59 loss to Missouri on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla. In that game, Okla homa State made 12-of-34 free throws. They were 4 of 19 from the line in the second half. For the season, the Cow boys are shooting 57.7 percent from the line. In the Huskers’ 66-57 win on Jan. 20 in Stillwater, Nebraska committed 25 turnovers and scored only five field goals in the second half, but still man aged to pick up its first win in Stillwater since 1987. Nebraska swept the series that season, but finished fifth in the Big Eight and went to the National Invitation Tournament. Nee said turnovers would be a key Basketball Startersjjj « Nebraska 15-9,3-8 lit. Wt. Ofass FPS FF« G Tyronn Lue 6-0 165 Fr. 8.5 3.0 G faron Boone 6-6 195 Sr. 15.4 2.7 F Erick Strickland 6-3 210 Sr. 14.8 4.5 F Bernard Garner 6-7 225 Jr. 10.9 6.3 C Mikki Moore 6-11 205 Jr. 8.0 5.2 Oklahoma State 12-9,2-7 G Adrian Peterson 6-4 190 Fr. 11.7 2.7 G Andre Owens 5-11 180 Sr. 7.2 3.5 F Chianti Roberts 6-6 222 Jr. 11.7 5.1 F Jason Skaer 6-7 215 So. 8.5 5.8 F Jerome Lambert 6-8 215 Sr. 12.3 6.4 to the game Saturday. “(Oklahoma State coach) Eddie Sutton is going to bring a team in here that is very strong, that’s very aggres sive, and they are going to cause a lot of turnovers,” Nee said. “If we cut that down to 10 to 15, our chances of win ning drastically improves.” NOTE: — Because of the state wrestling tournament, gates at the Devaney Cen ter will not open until 7 p.m. Scott Bruhn/DN Cornhusker sophomore guard Anna DeForge launches a shot between Colorado’s Jen Terry and Raegan Scott during overtime of Wednesday night’s83-75 Nebraska win. Nebraska will play host to Missouri on Sunday. Huskers motivated after win By Mike Kluck Senior Reporter Kale Galligan knows the Nebraska women’s basketball team probably won’t play with the same emotion Sun day against Missouri as it did on Wednesday night. But Galligan also knows the Comhuskcrs will have the proper dedi cation in their 2 p.m. game with the Tigers on Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. On Wednesday, the Huskersplayed an emotional game, defeating confer ence rival Colorado 83-75 in double overtime to improve their record to 16-8 overall and 6-6 in the Big Eight. Galligan, a senior from Cedar Rap ids, Iowa, said the Tigers, who are 13 9 and 4-6, would present the Huskers with a challenge. “Missouri is a very scary team be cause you never know what they’re going to do except play basketball hard,” Galligan said. “We’ll take dif ferent strategies to play as hard as we did Wednesday night and have the same emotion.” See TIGERS on 8 Husker gymnasts hope to improve Christie, Koziol to lead NU men By Gregg Madsen Staff Reporter After starting the season with two meets on the road, the Nebraska men ’ s gymnastics team will play host to New Mexico in the Comhuskers’ first home meet of the season. The fourth-ranked Comhuskers will face the No. 2 Lobos at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Nebraska coach Francis Allen said he was excited about having two home grown gymnasts, senior Jason Christie and sophomore Jim Koziol, leading this year’s team. The key to success this year, Allen said, will be how the young talent on the team blends with the veterans. “Ifwe can get them to gel together,” ! Allen said, “we can beat New Mexico j at home, and that will be a good start for us.” Christie, a graduate of Lincoln High, and Koziol, from Millard South, arc two of five Nebraskans on this year’s Husker team. Christie and Koziol tied for the all around title last week in the Huskers’ 223.175-222.25 victory over Okla homa. Koziol’s 55.85 mark was a ca reer best, and Christie’s was a season high. Allen said the Huskers’ matchup with New Mexico’s senior all-around star, Blaz Puljic, would be exciting. Lincoln Southeast graduate Tim Gergen also will compete for the Lo bos. Another Nebraskan on this year’s Husker team is junior Ryan McEwen, a Lincoln Christian graduate. Allen said McEwen had a tremendous per See MEN on 8 Women to face 2 ranked teams By Gregg Madsen Staff Reporter Improvement has become the norm for the eighth-ranked Nebraska women’s gymnastics team this season. Since posting a season-low 189.450 score against No. 2 Alabama on Jan. 19, the Cornhuskers have improved every week, winning at Oklahoma on Feb. 4 and at home over Missouri and Boise State. Last week’s season-high 194.250 point effort against Boise State tied the third-best team score in school his tory. Tonight at 7, Nebraska has a chance to improve again. The 6-2 Huskers will face No. 11 Utah State, No. 16 Cal-Berkeley and prescason No. 10 Arizona State in the Southwest Cup Quadrangular at the University Activity Center in Tempe, Ariz. Nebraska coach Dan Kendig said the meet would provide his team with good experience away from home af ter last week’s record-setting perfor mance at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers scored season high marks in vault (48.650) and floor exercise (49.050) against Boise State. Six Nebraska gymnasts had per sonal bests against the Broncos, but Kendig said he was con fident the team would improve when additional re quirements were added to routines. “We’re hoping to do the same thing, really,” Kendig said. “If we arc able to keep taking care of our requirements, then we’ll continue to improve.” Senior Joy Taylor, juniors Shelly Bartlett and Kim DeHaan, and fresh See WOMEN on 8