Trevor Parks
Rutgers’shaft
latest part of
Nee’s misfortune
Danny Nee has done it again.
Nee has done something to add
fuel to the fire about the feelings
toward Nil’s basketball coach of 11
seasons.
After going on his radio show
Tuesday night and saying he was
interested in the vacancy at
Rutgers, people were ready to drive
the U-Haul to the Nee residence
and help the coach pack his things.
On Wednesday, Nee, who was
considered the front runner by the
Scarlet Knights alumni, tell on the
top of the chart. In stepped Rider’s
Kevin Bannon, a 39-year-old high
intensity coach who has lived in
New Jersey his entire life.
Later that night, after getting
endorsements from Kentucky
Coach Rick Pitino and former
Princeton boss Pete Carril, Bannon
was offered the job and he took it.
Nee stays, and Nebraska basket
ball continues on its current path
into the unknown with Nee as the
captain of the Titanic.
The criticism of his interview
will be loud by his fans and his
doubters. People in Nebraska are
not happy that he wanted to jump
ship when things are starting to
sink.
But give Nee a little credit.
Rutgers called on him and he
obliged its request. The prospect of
him becoming the Scarlet Knights’
coach looked good, and maybe he
got a little antsy.
So his energy is now back in
Lincoln, where it has been for one
fifth of his 51 years on this planet.
In six days, Nee will try to sign
the future of Nebraska basketball.
The Huskers have added one recruit
in the last year, Brant Harriman, a
6-foot-10 center from Mason City,
Iowa. They are supposed to sign
Rodney Williams, a 6-3 guard from
Houston, next week.
But that’s only two. They will
replace experienced players like
Mikki Moore and Bernard Gamer.
Without any more signatures, Nee
will have nine scholarship players
—barring the departure of anyone
else—to use, just like this season.
Nebraska lost valuable recruit
ing this week, but that happens in
college basketball.
Contrary to popular belief, Nee
is a good coach who wants his team
to do well. He tries hard, but things
haven’t gone his way lately. Like
last season, the year before last and
Wednesday.
Nee needs to get a break in the
next six days to make things easy
at NU next season.
If not, I hear Rider is looking
for a new basketball coach.
Parks is a graduate student
and the Daily Nebraskan sports
editor.
Matt Miller/DN
COURTNEY BROWN competes on the floor exercise at the Big 12 Conference championships. Brown and NU
compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Saturday night.
t-—
Huskers hope to erase failure
After missing the
NCAAs last year, NU
looks to rebound.
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Francis Allen is used to being
No. 1, but heading into the NCAA
West Regional in Albuquerque,
N.M., Allen’s
content with
being third.
After
scoring above
230 in each of
their past four
meets, the
Cornhuskers
vaulted to the
No. 3 spot in
the national
rankings behind defending na
tional champion Ohio State and
1996 NCAA runner-up California.
NU will take that ranking to
University Arena Saturday night at
7 with hopes of finishing as one of
the top three teams and earning
Nebraska’s 18th trip to the NCAA
team finals April 17-19 in Iowa
City, Iowa.
Allen said Nebraska hopes to
use the momentum from a four
meet homestand in which the
Huskers defeated second-ranked
Cal, fourth-ranked Oklahoma, No.
5 Iowa, sixth-ranked Penn State
and No. 7 Minnesota.
u
I think we’re in the best possible position
we could be in. We’re pretty much in
control of our own destiny.”
Francis Alien
NU men’s gymnastics coach
“I think we’re in the best pos
sible position we could be in,”
Allen said. “We’re pretty much in
control of our destiny.”
The regional will be a rematch
of last weekend’s Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation Championships
with Cal and Oklahoma.
Cal leads the nation in sewing
in the high bar, the parallel bars
and the still rings and ranks sec
ond on the pommel horse and the
flow exercise.
The Golden Bears are averag
ing a 231.817 team score, just
ahead of Nebraska’s 230.567 and
Oklahoma, which averages
230.323.
Allen said NU isn’t as con
cerned with winning the meet as it
is with finishing in the top three
and advancing to the champion
ships.
The Huskers fell shwt of quali
fying in last season’s regiwial, end
ing a 17-year run of making the
team championships.
“We feel like we have to get
through this storm and then come
back here and get ready for the
National Championship,” Allen
said.
The key to the meet, Allen said,
will be hitting routines. The Husk
ers hit 85 percent of their routines
at the MPSF Championships, but
that percentage needs to improve,
he said.
TVo vital parts of the Husker
attack will be senior still rings, spe
cialist Ted Harris and sophomore
Marshall Nelson.
Harris, who won the still rings
at the MPSF-Champianships with
a season-high 9.85, said the Husk
ers had been waiting to redeem
themselves from last year’s failure
to make the team championships.
Nelson, ranked in the Top 12
in each of his five events, will look
to improve upon his performance
at the MPSF individual finals. The
Greeley, Colo., native won the par
allel bars and die high bar and fin
ished second mi the pommel horse.
Huskers try to make
NCAA Championships
for third straight year.
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Adding more shine to the sparkle
of the highest-scoring season in school
history could be quite a task for the
Nebraska
women’s gym
nastics team. But
it’s a polishing-up
job the
Comhuskers are
ready to tackle.
Saturday
night at 7, the
eighth-ranked
Comhuskers
compete in the
NCAA Midwest Regional in Salt Lake
City at the Huntsman Center.
The winner of the regional auto
matically advances to the NCAA
Championships April 17-19 in
Gainesville, Fla. Winners of the five
regionals earn automatic bids while
the next seven highest scores from
around the country also advance.
NU Coach Dan Kendig said the
Huskers will have their work cut out
for them against No. 2 Utah and sev
enth-ranked Arizona State.
“I think we have a chance to win
it, I really do,” Kendig said. “I think
that if we go out there and do our jobs
that we can come out on top.”
Nebraska has notched the top three
team scores in school history this sea
son, all over the 196-point mark.
Please see REGIONAL on 13
Buskers
take two
from Jays
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Staff Reporter
With 28 consecutive road games
behind it, the Nebraska softball team
was more than happy to be in Lincoln
for a doubleheader Thursday night
against Creighton.
And with 10-1 and 4-2 victories
over the Bluejays (18-22), the
Comhuskers (15-15) proved that
there’s no place like home.
“I realized how nice it was to be at
home once we were playing,” NU
Coach Rhonda Revetle said. “It’s so
familiar, and familiarity breeds com
fort, which allowed us to relax.”
The Huskers relied heavily on the
comforts of home in the bottom of the
fifth inning of the second game. Hail
ing 2-1 with two runners on base,
catcher Jenny Smith—who was 5 for
5 on the nighf— blasted a line drive
to right field, sending Jennifer Lizama
home with the tying run.
CU pitcher Mindy Farnsworth (2
1) walked Christie McCoy, bringing
up first baseman Rachel Dunham with
the bases loaded. A wild pitch by
Farnsworth allowed both Kelly
Pinkepank and Smith to cross the
plate, giving NU a 4-2 ldadt Neither
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Please see SWEEP on 13