■
NU gets ‘needed’ win over Bluejavs
Florence notches
career evening
in 76-60 victory
By Darren Ivy
Staff writer
With 4.7 seconds remaining, Chad
Johnson at the foul line and Nebraska
leading Creighton 74-60, Comhusker
Assistant
Nebraska 76 coach jim
Creighton 60 leaned over
and shook
hands with fellow assistants Cleo Hill
and Randy Roth. All three grinned.
The relief showed on the faces of
the coaches and Nebraska players as
they walked off the Bob Devaney
Sports Center court after a 76-60 win
against their in-state rival.
“We needed this game bad,” said
Cookie Belcher, who scored 15 points,
dished out six assists and grabbed five
rebounds.
In his post-game conference, peo
ple in the room could see the relief on
n_1 TV -KT 1 n
'wuacu uanny incc ^ lacc.
“I’m just proud of my basketball
team,” were the first words out of
Nee’s mouth. “They played hard. I
thought it all started with Larry
Florence - the way he guarded
(Rodney) Buford.”
Buford, who scored 29 points
against NU in last year’s 84-73 Bluejay
win, was held to 10 points, nine below
his average. In last year’s game,
Buford had 20 points by halftime.
“I tried to keep him from getting
off to a good start,” said Florence, who
guarded Buford much of the game. “I
tried to make sure I went with him
everywhere he went and not let him get
any easy looks.”
Florence did just that.
He also stepped it up at the other
end of the court, scoring a career-high
21 points on 8-for-13 shooting.
“I really believe Larry’s offense
feeds off his defense,” Nee said. “He
got his confidence up. He started get
ting out after Buford. Then a couple
things happen. He gets a basket in tran
N CAA void gives
gymnasts focus
By Darren Ivy
Staff writer
Walking into the Mabel Lee Hall
women’s gymnastics room, a casual
observer might not notice any differ
ences from last year.
All of the women from last year’s
team are back. Dan Kendig is still the
coach, and the facilities haven’t
changed.
But junior gymnast Amie Dillman
sees things in a completely different
way.
ships for the first time since the 1993
94 season is the main one, Dillman
said. A new assistant coach and new
personalities on the team are other
reasons.
Senior Jess Swift said she has
realized that missing the NCAA
Championship by one place last year
happened for a reason.
“It was a wake-up call for us,” said
Swift, who will be limited because of
a stress fracture in her foot. “You can’t
assume things are going to happen. In
the beginning of the season, we had a
meeting anu uiscussea wnai nap
pened last year. Then, we set ow goals
for this year. We can’t dwell on the
past.”
Coach Kendig is not dwelling on
the past. He is looking forward to
working with the deepest team in his
14 years as head coach.
“It’s hard not to be excited,”
Kendig said. “We didn’t lose anyone,
and in some way, we feel we’ve added
five new girls.”
Returning for NU is Brink, the
lone individual qualifier for the
NCAA Championships last year,
seniors Misty Oxford, Courtney
Brown, Laurie McLaughlin and
Swift, junior Nicole Wilkinson and
sophomore Amy Ringo.
Please see GYM on 11
ready at this time of the year than any
other team I’ve been on,” said
Dillman, who sat out last year after
dislocating both of her knee caps two
years ago at the NCAA regional meet.
“Everyone is striving for the same
goal. You feed off one another. You see
other people doing routines and feel
pressure to do it also. With the talent
we have, it’s going to be hard to get in
the lineup.”
Said junior Heather Brink: “We
usually don’t start throwing routines
until December. The coaches think we
can go all the way and are pushing us
harder.”
The new attitude has come about
for several reasons, Dillman said. Not
qualifying for the NCAA Champion
Scott McClurg/DN
NEBRASKA FORWARD Andy Markowski struggles for the ball against
Creighton’s Ben Walker on Wednesday evening at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
sition, and then his level goes right up.”
Florence was the benefactor of
many easy transition baskets, set up by
NU’s 10 steals. The Huskers (6-3) gave
the Bluejays (6-1) some of their own
Please see FLORENCE on 11
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Senior staff writer
As an 8-year-old, Jim Koziol
watched and admired the world of
Division I men’s gymnastics. As an
1 8-year-old
freshman on the
Nebraska men’s
gymnastics
team, he lived
and breathed it.
Now 22,
Koziol is ready
to succeed in
conquering it.
Allen The Corn
huskers are cur
rently preparing for the 1999 season,
and Koziol, a senior, is anticipating
the new year more than any other
since he arrived at Nebraska in 1995.
Ti,n xtt t ---_j 1 nn o a n
i ii vy vw vupiuni uiiu i y y u rvu
American (for still rings) has
dreamed of leading the Huskers to a
national championship for the past
five seasons.
And after three straight years of
Nebraska failing to advance past
regional qualifying tournaments,
Koziol’s patience is wearing thin.
The NCAA Championships will take
place in Lincoln this year on April
22-24, and Koziol expects the
Huskers to be there.
The Millard South graduate has
seen his team come too close too
many times. Koziol is ready for his
14-year involvement with the gym
Buford fails to duplicate ’97 game;
CITs pressure defense ‘ineffective’
By David Wilson
Senior staff writer
It was about a half hour following
Creighton’s first loss of the season
when senior Rodney Buford left the
locker room and inconspicuously
tried to sneak past the reporters wait
ing to talk to him.
But the Bluejays’ leading scorer
was caught. He sighed and leaned his
6-foot-5, 195-pound frame against
the wall.
“They didn’t take me out of my
game,” Buford explained. “I just had
a bad night, I guess.”
Buford, who scored 29 points in
an 84-73 contest against NU last sea
son, made just three of nine shots
from the floor Wednesday - all 3
pointers. The rest of the Bluejay
squad couldn’t make up for Buford’s
effort in a 76-60 loss.
“Rodney didn’t play good,”
fcfc
This is a
disappointing loss.
We didn’t play as
hard as we re
capable of. We didn’t
have the fire.”
Rodney Buford
Creighton forward
stuck in neutral half the time, and
they were in high gear.”
After playing most of the first
half with a pressing defense,
Creighton dabbled with some half
court defense in the second period -
but neither seemed to work.
The Huskers, who improved to 6
3, shot 62.5 percent from the floor in
^icigiuun ^uacn i^ana /\iuiiaii saiu.
“Defensively, he had a lot of break
downs, and on offense, he stood
around.”
With the loss, the Bluejays fell to
6-1 on the season and 0-12 in the Bob
Devaney Sports Center. Creighton
hasn’t won a game in Lincoln since
the 1931-32 season.
CU led 35-32 at halftime, but lost
the lead for good when Comhusker
guard Cookie Belcher hit a free throw
with 17 minutes, 30 seconds left in
the contest. Nebraska outscored the
Bluejays 44-25 in the second half.
“Our defensive effort in the sec
ond half just wasn’t very good,”
Altman said. “We, defensively,
couldn't get a stop.
“They just came to play, and they
outplayed us. We looked like we were
the second halt to linish at 5U percent
for the game.
“They broke our press,” Altman
said. “We tried the half-court a little
bit, but that didn’t work either. Our
press was just ineffective.”
Creighton came within five
points with 5:32 left in the game
before Nebraska exploded on a 15-4
run to finish the game.
Buford, who had averaged 19.3
points and 7.2 rebounds per game this
season, was 0 for 2 from the floor in
the final five minutes.
“This is a disappointing loss,”
Buford said. “We didn’t play as hard
as we’re capable of. We didn’t have
the fire. We knew this was going to be
a big game.”
Koziol leads veteran Huskers
nasties world to come full circle.
“We were very disappointed last
year,” Koziol said. “We were ranked
No. 1 for most of the year, and we
should have taken care of things.
“Nebraska has hosted the
NCAAs four times, and I was here
for every one of them. All I thought
about when I was younger was how I
wanted to be here and win the nation
al title. It’s a tradition for a lot of us.
We don’t want to fail again.”
Advancing to the championships
may prove difficult without senior
Marshal Nelson, a three-time All
American and 1998 Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation gymnast of
the year. Nelson tore his anterior cru
ciate ligament during practice last
month and could miss the entire sea
son after undergoing reconstructive
surgery three weeks ago.
But Koziol thinks the Huskers,
who are ranked fourth in the National
_• _x* _ _i__
Senior National team, Jeff Kelly and
Dustin Jakub will also contribute.
NU Coach Francis Allen said the
Huskers should definitely find them
selves in the championship mix.
“I don’t think there is a team
capable of running away with the
national title this season,” Allen said.
“I think there are five or six teams
which can win a national title this
season, and we are right up there with
them.”
Koziol agreed.
“We’ve got three of the top all
arounders in the country,” Koziol
said. “We just need to come around
as a team and have everyone improve
a little bit.”
As for his part, Koziol wants to
make his improvement in the all
around, an area in which he showed a
lot of potential during his freshman
season. But a partially torn bicep
muscle and back problems slowed
him in 1996.
pic
season poll, may still have the right
mix to win their NCAA record-tying
ninth national title. Nebraska returns
four gymnasts who qualified individ
ually for the 1998 NCAA champi
onships, including Koziol, horizontal
bar qualifier Blake Bukacek and all
arounders Jason Hardabura and
Derek Leiter.
Junior Manuel Galarza, who
transferred to Nebraska from
Syracuse last fall, will provide depth
on the still rings and the parallel bars,
while freshmen Martin Fournier, a
two-year member of the Canadian
Koziol underwent surgery to
repair the shoulder and had to red
shirt in 1997. The shoulder bothered
him as a junior. And although the
pain still lingers, Koziol has vowed to
overcome the nagging injury in 1999
- and anything that gets in his path.
“I feel like my body can only han
dle one more year,” Koziol said.
“Then hopefully I’ll find a way to put
my competitive drive into something
else.
“This is my last chance to bring
something to this team. Hopefully,
I’ll step up and do that.”