Huskers begin Big 12 play
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We want to show people we are a better
team than people think we are.”
Kerhjt McDermott
NU men’s tennis coach
By Jay Saunders
Staff Reporter
Before last weekend’s match
against Drake, Nebraska Men’s Ten
nis Coach Kerry McDermott stressed
■ the Comhuskers’
performance in re
gional matches.
rNow inai
NU pulled a 5-2
upset over the
Bulldogs,
McDermott’s
stance hasn’t
changed.
McDenMtt “This
gives us a big psychological boost,”
McDermott said. “But for us it is a
week-to-week thing. We are just try
ing to put our thoughts on what a
match means either in the region or
conferencewise.”
The win against Drake accom
plished two things for the Huskers.
First, upsetting the Bulldogs —
ranked fifth in the Midwest region —
put Nebraska — ranked ninth — in a
position to move up in the regional
rankings. The victory also pushes the
Huskers’ record to 5-5, marking the
first time a Nebraska team has been
at .500 in three years. NU has now
won three straight matches with wins
over the Bulldogs, Temple and Weber
State.
Despite accomplishing two of their
early season goals, McDermott said
NU is hardly satisfied.
“We want to show people we are a
better team than people think we are,”
he said. “They feel they need to prove
we are better. It just comes down to
winning.”
If the Huskers want to go above the
.500 mark, they need to turn their fo
cus to the start of the Big 12 Confer
ence season.
Nebraska plays host to Baylor —
which NU defeated 5-2 last year —
on Sunday in a 2 p.m. match at the
Cather-Pound varsity tennis courts.
After meeting the Bears (6-5 over
all and 0-1 in the Big 12) on Sunday,
eight of NU’s last 10 meets are against
conference teams.
McDermott said Baylor is in a
similar situation to the Huskers.
“They are kind of the new kids on
the block,” McDermott said. “They are
trying to come in and show people they
have a good team.”
McDermott said if Nebraska is to
beat the Bears, it will have to improve
on some of the things it did wrong in
the Drake match. Against the Bull
dogs, Nebraska lost all three doubles
matches, relying on the singles play
ers to win the meet.
“We will have to play better
doubles,” McDermott said. “Baylor is
much improved. If we play well,
things should go our way.”
KU run starts in Memphis
From Staff Reports
The road to winning its first na
tional title since 1988 starts today
for the Kansas basketball team.
The Jayhawks (32-1) are the top
seed in the Southeast region and
play Jackson State (14-15) today at
11:25 a.m. at the Pyramid in Mem
phis, Tenn., in the first round of
the NCAA Tournament.
Two other Big 12 Conference
schools open tournament play to
day.
Iowa State (20-8), the fifth seed
in the Midwest region, plays Illi
nois State (24-5) about 30 minutes
after the conclusion of the Cincin
nati-Butler game, which tips off at
11:30 a.m. at The Palace in Auburn
Hills, Mich.
Ninth-seed Colorado (21-9)
faces eighth-seed Indiana (22-10)
about 30 minutes following the
conclusion of the North Carolina
Fairfield game, which starts at 6:40
p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Other first-round games today
include California and Princeton
meeting at 11:15 a.m. at Winstom
Salem. Following the conclusion of
that game, Villanova plays No. 13
seed Long Island.
In the Southeast region, Purdue
meets Rhode Island after the the
conclusion of the KU game. Mary
land plays College of Charleston,
and Arizona meets South Alabama
in the night session.
At Auburn Hills, Xavier, Ohio,
plays Vanderbilt at 6:40 pjn. with
that game followed by UCLA
against Charleston Southern.
In the west, Boston College
plays Valparaiso and St. Joseph’s
meets Pacific in the afternoon ses
sion at the Huntsman Center in Salt
Lake City. Top-seeded Kentucky
plays Montana and Iowa meets Vir
ginia in the night session.
Eleventh-seed Oklahoma be
gins the tournament Friday with a
game against sixth-seed Stanford
at the Me Kale Center in Tucson,
Ariz. And lOth-seed Texas plays
seventh-seed Wisconsin Friday at
11:15 a.m. at the Pittsburgh Civic
Arena in Pittsburgh.
-1
Turnovers key in UW loss
HUSKIES from page 9
continued the comeback with a slam
of his own.
“Two or three times in a row we
turned it over to them, and they got a
dunk and got the crowd into it,” said
forward Mark Sanford, a 6-9 junior
from Dallas, who led the Huskies with
20 points but only scored six in the
second half.
“It then became a total Nebraska
effort after that and that’s what put us
away,” Sanford said. “They got a little
more game. They just came out and
played aggressive ball in the second
half and got it done.”
Washington took its last lead of the
game when MacCulloch put back an
offensive miss with 5:44 left. But less
than 30 seconds later Moore tipped in
his own miss to give the Huskers a
lead they would not let go.
UW had a couple of chances at the
end, trailing just 61-60 with 2:23 re
maining before NU senior Bernard
Garner made a 3-pointer. Bender
called that 3 a back breaker.
Twice in the last two and a half
minutes, Washington missed the front
end of one-and-one opportunities, and
with 10 seconds left, sophomore
Donald Watts missed a 3-pointer that
66
Turnovers killed us.
We played well
enough to win, but
turnovers negated
that.”
Bob Bender
UW basketball coach
would have sent the game into over
time.
After the loss, Bender thought
Nebraska looked very strong at mak
ing a run to win its second straight
NIT championship.
“With Lue they’ve got a guy who
will create and control things,” Bender
saidL “They are big, so they can in
timidate inside with blocking shots
and they can score. Then they rebound
the basketball.
“They’ve got the weapons to be
real effective and they also know and
have the confidence to get the job done
with this tournament and win it.”
NU sneaks by Huskies
NIT from page 9
the game away at the free-throw line.
“I think it was a quality win,” Nee
said. “I was pleased with our effort,
and the crowd was nice and loud and
enthusiastic.”
Lue received treatment for his
sprained ankle after the game and said
he’s confident he won’t miss any game
time. “I was in a lot of pain at first,”
he said, “but once I got in here, it was
OK.”
In his 36 minutes on the court, Lue
scored 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting,
and with 12 minutes to play he sug
gested to Nee a defensive shift that
threw the Huskies out of whack. Trail
ing 53-48, NU used an 8-0 run sparked
by an agressive trapping defense and
took its first lead since late in the first
half.
“We were down,” Lue said, “and
it was time to get a little spark, a little
intensity.”
Washington, which lost in the first
round of the NIT for the second
straight year to finish 17-11, regained
a 57-56 lead on a MacCulloch layup,
but a bucket by Moore with 5:12 left
gave NU the lead for good. Hie Husk
ers then out-sewed Washington 74—
using a Gamer 3-pointer to go up 65
61 — befwe Lue went down.
In the first half, Nebraska led 26
18 at the 6-minute mark before Wash
ington erased the deficit with a 14-2
run. Hie Huskies led 36-33 at the half,
but committed 13 of their 22 turnovers
in the second half, when Nebraska
turned up the defensive pressure. .
Hamilton, who scored 13 points
and grabbed 10 rebounds, teamed with
Moore to control the UW big men.
MacCulloch and 7-1 sophomore
Patrick Femerling combined for 21
points and 11 rebounds in 48 minutes.
Sanford led all players with 20
points and 13 rebounds, and Gamer,
Belcher and Moore sewed nine points
apiece.
“We just needed some postseason
experience,” Belcher said. “It’s a big
win for us because we’ve got a young
team with a lot of players coming back
next year.”
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WOMEN'S MEN'S TENNIS/V M/W GYMNASTICS/V
Softball/V vs. Baylor . vs. Penn State
at Oklahoma State Cather-pound Courts, 2:00 pm Devaney Sports Center
6:00 PM WOMEN'S SOFTBALL/V 2:00 PM
MEN'S BASEBALL/V AT OKLAHOMA STATE, 6:00 PM ** i MEN'S BASEBALL/V
Vs.'Missouri Men's Baseball/V ■" ‘ ‘vs. Missouri
BELTZER Field, 7:00 PM • VS. MISSOURI ' ■■ BELTER FIELD, 1:00 PM
BELTZER Field, 2:00 PM
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