Antone Oseka
Huskers need
to put an end
to turnovers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If one
thing is going to kill the Nebraska
basketball team this season, it won’t
be its schedule or a player walkout.
It’ll be turnovers.
At Municipal Auditorium in
Kansas City on Wednesday night,
the Comhuskers nearly killed them
selves against Missouri-Kansas
City. Nebraska won 76-64, improv
ing to 6-1, but the game looked a
lot closer than the score.
At least it did in the first half,
when the Huskers had 15 turnovers
to UMKC’s seven. But NU still led
35-29.
Nebraska didn’t take advantage
of its height and tried to play an up
tempo style. That just led to Ne
braska turnovers and quick Kanga
roo points.
“We won’t be a good team until
we eliminate the turnovers,” Ne
braska Coach Danny Nee said.
That’s not altogether true. Last
year, the National Invitation Tour
nament champion squad tied the
school record for turnovers in a
game, committing 30 in a Jan. 3 win
over Texas.
Hey, they were postseason
champions last year, right? This
year’s team won’t have that luck if
it doesn’t start watching where the
ball is going.
Fortunately, Nebraska turned
things around in the second half
against the Kangaroos. The Husk
crs commited only six turnovers af
ter halftime and used their height
advantage in the post.
Nee said that was Nebraska’s
game plan all along. UMKC’sItll
est player on the floor was 6-foot-7
guard Brad Moulder, but he was
only out mere tor 11 minutes.
Nebraska will have to play smart
basketball like it did in the second
half to even hope to compete with
Big 12 Conference foes like Kan
sas and Iowa State.
Especially on the turnover end
of the game.
“Turnovers are our biggest fac
tor right now,” true freshman guard
Cookie Belcher said. “We need to
cut that down to 10 or less.”
Ten or less is a great goal for this
team, a goal it should shoot for be
fore its next game, Dec. 21 against
17th-ranked Minnesota at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
Nebraska had 27 turnovers in
the first round of the Ameritas Clas
sic last weekend against Coppin
State. The Huskers followed that
performance with 26 turnovers in
the finals against Bowling Green.
That’s 74 turnovers to three
mediocre teams. The Huskers had
better find what they did right in the
second half of Wednesday night’s
victory and capitalize on that for me
rest of me season.
Or they’ll be sorry when they’re
watching me field of 64 from some
where in Lincoln.
Oseka is a senior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
nights news editor.
I Samuel pleases N.M. State officials
Husker coaches say
assistant will be
missed at Nebraska.
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
Tony Samuel was given a chance
Thursday, being named New
Mexico State’s new head football
coach at a news conference in Las
Cruces, N.M.
Nebraska’s outside linebackers
coach, who has no previous experi
ence as a head coach, will take over
a program that finished 1-10 last
season and hasn’t had a winning
season since 1993.
“I think head-coaching expert
ence is sometimes overrated, New
Mexico State Athletic Director A1
Gonzales said at the press confer
ence.
“Every single head coach was an
assistant coach at one time. Some
one had to give them a chance. He
didn’t have the title, but the under
standing I got was he is a major cog
in the mix.”
Samuel, a Comhusker player
from 1975 through 1977, has been
a Nebraska assistant for 11 seasons.
He was an assistant for one season
at Western Michigan and Stanford.
Right now, Samuel said his main
goal is to organize a staff and start
recruiting players.
“The No. 1 thing we need to do
right now is create some unity,”
Samuel said. “Everybody else is in
front of us. There are enough play
ers out there that we will put to
gether a pretty good class this year.”
Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne
said he wished Samuel well in re
viving the NMSU program, which
has had only two winning seasons
in the past 30 years.
“Tony’s just got to be himself,”
Osborne said. “He’s seen enough
football that he’ll have a good idea
of what he wants to do. He’ll do
fine.”
Samuel will stay with the Husk
ers through the Orange Bowl on
Dec. 31, and then take over the
Aggie program on Jan. 2.
New Mexico State University
President J. Michael OrendufF said
one of Samuel’s strengths is his re
lationship with players. During
Samuel’s interview on Dec. 6, he
made a strong impression on the
New Mexico State players, who
considered him to be a players’
coach, Orenduff said.
“I feel he’s going to be a great
coach,” said NU All-American
Grant Wistrom, who was coached
by Samuel, “because he can relate
to the players well. They will be re
ally happy with who they have se
lected.”
Nebraska Defensive Coordina
tor Charlie McBride said Samuel \
will be missed in Lincoln.
“Tony is a common-sense foot
ball coach,” McBride said. “He had
a good understanding of what young
people can and can’t learn. He’s not
what I call a guy who tries to be a
rocket scientist.”
Huskers brace for war
Penn State’s depth
has improved, but
inexperience is a
concern.
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
Nebraska Volleyball Coach Terry
Pettit said the Penn State team playing
in Lincoln this weekend is the best
Lady Lion squad
he has ever seen.
According to
Wisconsin
Coach John
Cook, Penn
State enters
today’s 5 p.m.
East Regional
semifinal match
playing as well
as any team in
the country.
So what does PSU Coach Russ
Rose think of those comments about
his 30-2 team?
“I think those people are just blow
ing smoke right now,” Rose said. “I
don’t believe that. Everybody wants to
say nice things, the politically correct
things right now. They are not telling
their teams that.”
With all the publicly positive talk
surrounding his team, Rose doesn’t
know how Penn State will react tonight
against the Badgers, a team PSU has
defeated twice this season and 14 times
in school history.
Since sweeping Georgia Tech in the
second round of the NCAA Tourna
ment last Sunday, the Penn State play
ers have had final exams and did not
practice this week. Half of the team did
not arrive in Lincoln until late Thurs
day afternoon.
Rose said his team struggled in its
win over the Yellow Jackets. The Li
ons won 15-7, 15-10, 15-13, but al
lowed Georgia Tech to creep back from
a 14-6 deficit in the second game. In
the third game, Georgia Tech went on
a 10-2 run before the Lions held on for
the win.
In addition, an end-of-the-regular
season funk has puzzled Rose.
Penn State’s final four regular-sea
son matches went four games and six
of its final seven lasted four games.
“We were not playing our best vol
leyball down the stretch of the Big
Ten,” Rose said.
On paper, Penn State—which tied
Michigan State for the Big Ten crown
— is an exceptionally talented but
young team. The starting rotation fea
tures three freshman and sophomore
Mait Miller/DN
TERRI ZEMAITIS (left) and Angie Kammer will lead Penn State into
today’s 5 p.m. regional semifinal match against Big Tfen rival Wisconsin
at the NU Coliseum.
Christy Cochran, who had little expe
rience prior to this season.
Freshmen Lauren Cacciamani,
Bonnie Bremner and Carrie Schonveld
have grown up in a hurry this year —
especially Bremner, the Lions’ setter.
Bremner has started every match this
season, averaged 13 assists per game
and 2.4 digs per game. She also aver
ages 1.5 kills per game, a high mark
for a setter, and finished second in the
Big Ten with a .396 hitting percentage.
Cacciamani, a 6-foot-2 middle
blocker from Paramus, N.J., is one of
PSU’s tallest players and averages 3.3
kills and 1.6 blocks per game.
Schonveld, a 6-foot outside hitter, has
started eight straight matches and av
erages 2.5 kills and 2.3 digs per game.
The Lady Lions lead the country in
blocking, averaging 3.9 per game,
while averaging 17.1 digs per game,
tops in the Big Ten. Although those
numbers are eye-popping, Rose said,
his team is not as good defensively as
it has been in the past. .
“We’ve got four players starting
their first go around in the big leagues,”
Rose said. “If we play our best, then
we’ll feel good about how we prayed.”
Nebraska and Penn State have had
some classic regional matches in the
last two years. NU lost a four-game
heart-breaker to the Lions in 1994,
denying an unbeaten NU team a trip to
the Final Four. Last year in regional
Please see ROSE on 14
rettit expects a major
challenge tonight from
Louisville.
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
Volleyball has changed.
In years past the Nebraska volley
ball team rolled through the early
rounds of the
NCAA Tourna
ment, often un
challenged until
the finals of a re
gional tourna
ment.
However, to
night at the NU
Coliseum the
fourth-ranked
Cornhuskers Pettit
(28-3) cannot look past Louisville in
the East Regional semifinals. If they
do, the Big 12 champions won’t need
to worry about playing on Saturday
night.
Nebraska will face the 26-4 Cardi
nals 45 minutes after the conclusion of
the 5 p.m. match between No. 3 Penn
State (30-2) and No. 17 Wisconsin (25
7). The winners will meet Saturday at
7:30 p.m. for a chance to advance to
the Final Four, Dec. 19 through 21 in
Cleveland.
“Volleyball has arrived,” Nebraska
Coach Terry Pettit said. “The semifi
nal pairings in this year’s regionals are
the strongest since I’ve been coaching.
Not just in this region, but in every re
gion.”
But Pettit said he isn’t concerned
that the defending national champions
will look past No. 22 Louisville.
“We never have,” Pettit said.
“When we tell the players that they are
playing a good team and they have to
play their best volleyball, I think they
believe us.”
It’s not difficult to convince NU that
the Cardinals—who are playing in the
tournament for the seventh year—are
a worthy opponent.
Louisville, which is fielding its tall
est team in school history—eight play
ers stand 6-foot-1 or taller—has won
21 of its last 23 matches.
The Cardinals are led by 6-foot-2
outside hitter Marina Sinichenko, a
freshman from Moscow who is aver
aging a team-leading 3.8 kills per .
game. Senior outside hitter Beth
Kuhnell is averaging 3.6 kills per game
and leading the team in digs with 3.1
per game.
Please see PETTIT on 14