Whars
Happening
A guide to entertainment in Lincoln
JHM26-July2
Concerts
Thursday
Toasted Ponies (Nebraska Union, 12 p.m.-1 p.m.)
Punkinhead (Zoo Bar, 9 p.m.)
Friday
Rosie Ledet and
the Zydeco Playboys (Zoo Bar, 9 p.m.)
Ampage, Rebels Without Applause
and Cadmium (Knickerbockers, 10 p.rn
aaiuruay
Sherman Robertson (Zoo Bar, 9 p.m.)
Colony, For Against (Knickerbockers, 10 p.rffif
Sunday
Rascal Basket, Push On Junior (Duffy’s, 9:30 p.m.)
Monday
The Gourds (Zoo Bar, 9 p.m.)
Tuesday
Open Stage (Zoo Bar, 9 p.m.)
Wednesday
Videos
[Tuesdays are new release
days for videos)
“Beverly Hills Ninja”
“The Crucible”
“Dangerous Ground”
“Fierce Creatures”
“Jackie Chan’s First Strike”
[For Friday release)
“Swingers”
“Hercules”
“Face/Off”
[For Wednesday release)
“Men in Black”
“Out to Sea”
“Wild America”
[Returning Movies]
“Fathers Day”
Music
(Tuesdays are new release
days for record companies)
Bone Thugs ‘n’ Harmony
“The Art of War”
Radiohead
“OK Computer”
Prodigy
“Fat of the Land”
Blues Traveler
“Straight on ‘til Morning”
Echo and the Bunnymen
“Evergreen”
various artists
“Men in Black Soundtrack”
(Ht the Mary Mounts
Ross Film Theater)
“The Whole Wide World”
[Thursday-Sunday]
Lane Hickenbottom/DN
PAUL SANDERFORD, who was named last week as the new head coach for NU’s women’s basketball team, spent 14
years as head coach at Western Kentucky University. While at WKU, Sanderford led his team to the NCAA
Tournament for 12 of the last 13 years.
Sanderford sets sights on championship
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Paul Sanderford does not expect
to win a national championship next
season with the Nebraska women’s
basketball team.
But the possibility of winning a
championship in the future is what
convinced Sanderford to leave
Western Kentucky University, where
he had built a program that had gone
to 12 of the last 13 NCAA
Tournaments and three Final Fours in
his 14-year career at Bowling Green,
Ky.
1 really truly want to win a
national championship,” Sanderford
said from the NU women’s basketball
office on Friday. It was his first day on
the job after being announced as the
new Cornhusker head coach on
Thursday.
“I’ve been close to it before, prob
ably as close as you can come without
winning it,” Sanderford said.
“Nebraska affords the opportunity to
win a championship. We probably
can’t win that national championship
next year but I’m going to make sure
we do it right here.”
It’s that desire to win the national
championship that convinced
Sanderford to take a closer look at the
Nebraska job when NU Athletic
Director Bill Byrne called Sanderford
to talk about the position.
Sanderford originally wasn’t
interested in the position, he said, but
Byrne’s comments made him start
thinking about leaving WKU.
“It really got to me when Bill
called and said, ‘It is my job to pro
vide our head coach with every means
to compete for a national champi
onship,”’ Sanderford said. “Playing in
the Big 12 was also a selling point.
We could go 10-8 in the conference
and still make the NCAA
Tournament. Last year we went 23-8
and I didn’t know if we were going to
get in the tournament.”
Although Western Kentucky’s
facilities are comparable to
Nebraska’s, the budgets of the two
schools don’t compare. The NU
women’s basketball budget will be
more than $1 million this year.
lNeorasKa also nas support stall
such as academic counselors, a nutri
tionist and a psychologist in place.
“A lot of the puzzle is in place at
Nebraska,” Sanderford said. “When I
visited here, everything I asked about
they had answers for.”
Sanderford said he also needed
the challenge of coaching at a new
position and felt like his program at
Western Kentucky was being taken
for granted. He said Nebraska would
probably be his last coaching job.
Sanderford’s hiring has also
raised the ire of some Nebraska state
senators, many who felt Nebraska
should have replaced Angela Beck
with another female coach. Beck
resigned on April 22 to take a position
with the San Jose Lasers of the ABL.
The senators also have com
plained that Beck wasn’t offered the
same salary Sanderford will receive
at Nebraska. Beck’s base salary last
season was $84,000. Sanderford will
have a base of $120,000, the same
salary as men’s basketball coach
Danny Nee.
“I’ve been involved in that type of
situation before,” Sanderford said of
the senators’ complaints. “I have no
problems with that.”
Sanderford also will have a four
year rollover package, which he
specifically asked for because he had
one at Western Kentucky.
i ne iNeDrasKa women s DasKetoaii
position has become an endowed
chair for the 1997-98 fiscal year.
Sanderford would not discuss his
total financial package although it has
been estimated to be around $250,000
a year. He will have a radio and televi
sion show, both of which Beck did not
have.
Sanderford spent his first day on
the job talking to the current
Nebraska players and trying to get in
contact with the Huskers recruits. He
said he hoped to hire an assistant
coach within the week.
Sanderford also said he started
looking at ways to better promote
women’s basketball at Nebraska.
“We have to get the state of
Nebraska to embrace this team,”
Sanderford said. “We have to develop
some kind of identity in this city and
on this campus. I don’t see the same
respect for women’s basketball as vol
leyball gets; it’s not at the same leve.”
