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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1996)
— Mitch Sherman Tb win at home, young Huskers need students Remember the winter of 1994? If you don’t, let me tell you about it. Hundreds of students stood out side the Bob Devaney Sports Cen ter, many arriving as early as 3 p.m., two hours before the doors opened. It happened on Jan. 24 and Jan. 29; and again on Feb. 23, Feb. 26 and March 2. Believe it or not, students stood and waited for Nebraska basketball. And when they got inside, they cheered — loudly. And the Husk ers won. It’s called a homecourt advan tage. Nebraska no longer has a homecourt advantage. “I think we have lost that in the last two years,” Coach Danny Nee said Tuesday. Without that advantage, the Huskers have also lost their NCAA Tournament streak, snapped at four two years ago. Without a homecourt advantage this season, a fragile Husker squad may not quailfy for the postseason. In fact, it may not post a winning record. These young Huskers need all the help they can get. That help is not coming from students. The ticket-sale numbers are pa thetic. Nebraska has sold no more than 522 and as few as 181 student tick ets—which can be purchased for a hefty $3.50—for any one game this season. Those numbers are dramati cally down from the 1,280 student tickets sold last season, 1,665 the year before and 2,300 for the 1993 94 season. Young players nice Larry rio rence, Troy Piatkowski and Cookie Belcher, all of whom are expected to contribute heavily this season, need more than 181 students behind them. “It’s going to be very important since we have such a young team,” point guard Tyronn Lue said. If for no other reason than to watch Lue dribble circles around the competition, students should sup port the Huskers—or at least give them a chance. More often than not last season during its run to the National Invi tation Tournament championship, NU didn’t deserve anyone’s sup port. But this is a different team, Nee said, with a different attitude. It’s a team that wants to win and desper ately needs the kind of support that helped NU dismantle lOth-ranked Kansas, Kansas State and sixth ranked Missouri in a span of one _ week three years ago. Remember that week? It was college basketball like this state haa never seen. It could happen again, but not without the •students. Sherman is a senior news-edi torial major and the Daily Ne braskan sports editor. NU beats down on Tigers Missouri showdown motivates Husker rush end Wistrom. By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter Although Nebraska is playing its second-straight game against a football team with a losing record, there will be no problem motivating NU for Mis souri on Saturday. “It’s an emotional game, and I think our players realize they have a lot riding on it,” Comhusker Coach Tom Osborne said Tuesday. “Every game is pretty critical. It’s not like we’ve just dominated everybody, and it’s been so easy that we’d get complacent. Uppinghouse leads young Husker team By Vince IPAdamo StaffReporter A leader often epitomizes the per sonality of his or her team. This season, the Nebraska soccer team has displayed a selfless attitude, and Kari Uppinghouse’s team-oriented mentality has had a trickle-down effect on the rest of the team. Uppinghouse’s leadership and atti tude have paid off on the statistic sheet this fall. The Comhusker co-captain leads NU and ranks 20th in the nation with a school-record 44 points. Her 17 goals, including six game winners, have left her in contention for national postseason honors. “She leads mostly by example,” Coach John Walker said. “She’s so consistent. She’s tough and willing to do the dirty work.” The young Huskers take notice of Uppinghouse, Walker said. “That’s tremendous,” Walker said. “It’s like, 'This is how hard we’ll do it.’ The younger players say, 'OK, this is how we’ll do it.’” Soccer ^America has honored Uppinghouse on its National team of Please see SOCCER on 11 We have a pretty healthy respect for everybody we play. It seems like everybody comes after us pretty hard.” This week, the Tigers (3-5 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12) are the latest team to give the fifth-ranked Husk ers (7-1 and 5-0) its best shot. Mis souri plays Ne braska Saturday at 1 p.m. at Memo rial Stadium. NU has not underestimated any opponents since its second game of the season, Osborne said. Since that 19-0 loss to Arizona State, a game in which Osborne said his team may have lost its focus, Ne braska has out-scored its six foes by an average score of 52-8. One Husker who won’t have any problem getting ready for MU — a team that has not had a winning sea son in 13 years — is rush end Grant Wistrom. Wistrom, a native of Webb City, Mo., is one of five players from Mis souri on the NU roster. He said he has extra incentive to play well against the Tigers. “I’m sure if we were to lose to Mis souri this week, I would go back and never hear the end of it,” said Wistrom, a returning third team All-American. “Hopefully that won’t happen, so I don’t have to deal with that.” Three years ago, Tiger Coach Larry Smith tried to recruit Wistrom to Mis souri. The day before a scheduled visit between the two, Wistrom called the Missouri coach. “Coach, don’t waste your time,” Smith said he was told by the high school All-American. “I’mnot coming to Missouri.” The 6-foot-5,250 pound junior said he wasn’t impressed with the Missouri program. Smith was entering his first season after Bob Stull resigned follow ing a 3-7-1 year. That was enough to sway Wistrom. He said he has great respect for Smith, the former coach at Southern Califor nia, Arizona and Tulane, but by the time Smith took over the MU program, Wistrom had already chosen Nebraska. “When I was getting recruited, they were pretty dam bad,” Wistrom said, “but I think they are starting to change things around. They are becoming bet ter, and they are winning football games now. And that’s very important for them.” Piatkowski, Belcher gain first starts By David Wilson StaffReporter When the Nebraska basketball team takes the court in its first exhibi tion game Thursday night, a lack of ill allow two players with no host to Pella dows at 7:05 pm. on the n< painted Devaney Sports Center floor. True Cookie and Troy who was academically ineligible last year, will start along with sophomore Tyronn Lue and seniors Mikki Moore and Bernard Gamer. Piatkowski is battling fellow sopho more Larry Florence for the starting position at small forward. Florence will not play Thursday because of a nag ging knee injury, which has limited him in preseason workouts. Sophomore Andy Markowski, the Please see HOOPS on 11 Daniel J. Luedeki/DN KARI UPPINGHOUSE, a junior midfielder on the Nebraska soccer team, ranks 20th in the nation with a school-record 44 points this season. Texas Tbch on course for St. Louis By Vince D*Adamo StaffReporter Ifhistory means anything, the Texas Tech football team—-despite two con ference losses—is still in the driver’s seat to play in the Big 12 champion ship game, Dec. 7 in St. Louis. The Red Raiders (5-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12) lead the log-jammed South Division, and since Coach Spike Dykes took over in Lubbock 10 sea sons ago, Tech has a history of finish ing seasons with a fury. Since 1987, Texas Tech is 13-17 in the first three games of the year. In the last three games of year, the Red Raid ers are 20-6-1, not including bowl games.- - ' “We’ve had very few coaching changes,” said Dykes, whose team will play host to Texas Saturday at 6 p.m. “Mainly, we just stick widi what we’re doing and try to improve on it If you’re not getting any better come November, you’re in bad shape.” Following the southern showdown with Texas, the Raiders will play host to Southwest Louisiana and finisjhithe regular season at Oklahoma? At tfifs point of the season, Dykes said, he is not thinking about St. Louis. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said. “Because if we lose, we’ll be going to our grandma’s house at Christmas.” Texas, which defeated Baylor 28 23 last Saturday, was the overwhelm ing preseason favorite to win the South Division. But the Longhorns, 4-4 and 3-2, have lost to Notre Dame, Virginia, Oklahoma and Colorado. “They’ve lost to great teams,” Dykes said. “They’ve got a lot of blue chip talent on their team and it scares the dickens out of you.” Texas Tech is likely to continue turning to the nation’s leading rusher, junior running back Byron Hanspard. Hanspard has 1,611 yards rushing and averages 201.4 yards per game. Texas Coach John Mackevic said Hanspard is the best runner in the na tion. He likes the rest of the Raider team, too, especially Tech’s defense, which ranks first indie South Division and 24th nationally, allowing 308 yards per game. * M If we lose, we’ll be going to our grandma’s house on Christmas.” Spike Dykes Tfexas Tfech football coach
