Sports
Jayhawks
adapt to
so-so year
Coach says KU
can reach goals
By Jay Saunders
Staffwriter
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Something
is going on at the University of
Kansas that current students have
never seen before.
That something is a 13-5 record
for the Kansas men’s basketball team
through 18 games this season.
“It is just different around here,”
KU sophomore Sarah Marty said.
It’s different on Mount Oread
(where the university sits) this season
in a lot of ways.
Last season, the Jayhawks tied a
school record with a 35-4 finish. This
year’s KU team has already lost five
games.
Most Division i teams would love
to. have a 13-5 record this deep into
the season, but senior guard Ryan
Robertson said that doesn’t fly in
Lawrence.
“It is more of a good season for a
typical university,” Robertson said.
“We don’t like to think of Kansas as a
typical university.”
Kansas hasn’t been a typical bas
ketball team for the last few seasons.
KU compiled a 69-6 record in two
years. That includes two Big 12
Conference tournament titles.
For 70 consecutive weeks, the
Jayhawks were ranked in the top 10
in the Associated Press Poll.
N6 current player had lost a game
at heralded Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
That all came to a crashing halt
when Iowa was aware of the “Phog,”
but won anyway. They handed
Kansas their first home loss since
Feb. 20,1994.
“This is a tough environment to
win in,” senior center T. J. Pugh said.
“I never expected to lose a game
here.”
Not only has Kansas lost one
game in Phog Allen Fieldhouse, but
arch-rival Missouri made it two loss
es Sunday.
reople have quickly jumped on
the KU bandwagon, and they are
calling this a “down year.” Kansas
Coach Roy Williams said he doesn’t
want to draw comparisons.
“This group, so far, hasn’t
reached the goals we’ve set,”
Williams said. “Some people will
call it a rebuilding year. I’m con
cerned what this group is doing this
year.”
This year’s team is still playing in
front of capacity crowds at Phog
Allen Fieldhouse, but the students
who attend those games admit things
are not the same.
“I think it is recognized they are
not at their level,” KU junior John
Keller said. “There is probably more
apathy towards the team.”
A loss to Nebraska in Lincoln
tonight could create even more apa
thy among the Jayhawk faithful, and
it could knock Kansas out of the top
25 for the first time since 1991.
Kansas has won nine straight
times against the Comhuskers. Pugh,
a Nebraska native, said this could be
the game that puts the spark back into
the program.
“It’s a significant game,” Pugh
said. “But you don’t know what to
expect. That’s a bit scary, but it’s also
exciting.”
Huskers try to solve fan shortage
Editor’s note: This the third in a
three-part in-depth look at the Nebraska
men s basketball team, both where it has
improved and current problems sur
rounding the team. Today, the focus is on
NU’s attendance problems.
By Adam Klinker
Senior staff writer
Take a ride across the tracks on the
north side of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln campus, and there it
is.
Like a great granite rock of pasty
grayish-white, the Bob Devaney Sports
Center sits, its back slouched to the
world, a curtain hanging in the skyline
as one drives down 16th Street.
Here, away from the hurried com
motion of central City Campus, the sky
seems a little darker, a little quieter and
lonelier against the starched backdrop
of a mid-January sky.
There aren’t many stops to the
Devaney Center. There isn’t any need,
unless it’s the weekend. Then the place
comes alive for a few hours before
sinking back down into silence; look
ing out across the horizon.lt is the for
gotten child of Nebraska athletics
when compared to the gems that are the
NU Coliseum and Memorial Stadium.
And the increasing number of bar
ren seats inside the arena serve as testa
ment to the falling number of visitors
that go there.
Simply, attendance is down at
men’s basketball games at the Devaney
Center. The issue has become a hot
topic for the media as well as for NU
students, who seem to be putting the
greatest strain on attendance figures.
“I don’t know why the student body
isn’t more involved in supporting their
team,” Husker Coach Danny Nee said.
“It perplexes me, but I don’t know. I’m
not 18 years old.”
This year, 454 students hold season
tickets, down from the 1996-97 season
total of 1,641. That season, tickets were
The attendance report
The following is a Daily Nebraskan survey of 315 UNL students concerning
attendance at Nebraska men’s basketball games. The survey was conducted by
several members of the DN staff and does not reflect the attitude of staff members
at UNL or members of the outside community.*
Have you attended a Nebraska Did you attend any games last
game this season? season?
{
i
Or
Yes, 126 40.0%
On average, how many games
do you attend each year?
0 Don’t care, 112 35.6%
0 Dislike basketball, 22 7.0%
0 Dislike Nebraska basketball, 26 8.3%
0 Nebraska does not win enough, 35 11.1%
0 Games are boring, 22 7.0%
0 Tickets are too much, 9 2.9%
0 Can’t find tickets, 1 0.8%
0 Schedule conflicts, 40 12.7%
0 Other, 46 14.6%
# All, 13 4.1%
#10+, 13 4.1%
#5-10,31 9.9%
# Less than five, 64 20.4%
# One*, 194 61.5%
’includes responses of zero
This survey is not scientific.
sold in four packages.
However, in 1997 with tickets sold
in two packages, one for eight games
and the other for nine, sales fell off to
492 student tickets. Just 37 students
took advantage of the eight-game dis
tribution while 204 chose the nine
game package. Only 251 students
opted for both packages.
Athletic ticket office manager John
JonFrank/DN
Anderson said it is baffling to see the
numbers fall while student season tick
ets remain the best value.
A student season ticket package
costs $60, which translates into $3.50
per game, compared to single-game
ticket prices of $7, S9 and $11 per
game.
“I don’t know what it is,” Anderson
said. “There is no better deal than a stu
dent season ticket and for some reason,
the students aren’t taking advantage of
that.”
In an unscientific Daily Nebraskan
survey of 315 NU students, 112 stu
dents, or 35.6 percent, cited that they
do not care about the exploits of the
Husker basketball team.
The next leading cause for lack of
attendance was schedule conflicts with
games, followed by the fact that NU
doesn’t win enough.
“It’s a shame,” NU Athletic
Director Bill Byrne said of the decline
in student attendance. “It takes away
from the contest and the fun - our
games are fun.”
Byrne said students may lose then
advantage in floor seating to non-stu
dents who want good seats and are
willing to pay more for them. But find
ing those people may also mean closed
avenues, because the aggregate atten
dance figures are also down.
Since the 1992-93 season, when
NU went 14-2 at home and set a single
season attendance record with an aver
age of 13,357 fans per game, atten
dance has decreased, while the Husker
home-win percentage has remained
steady at 81.8 percent over the last
seven seasons.
Last season, the Huskers hit a low
in attendance. Despite a 13-2 home
record, just 9,431 fans showed up per
game. It was the first time attendance
had fallen below the 10,000-mark
since the 1985-86 season, the year
before Nee arrived at NU.
The conference attendance average
of 10,883 was the lowest since the
1976-77 season.
Thus far, the 1998-99 season is on
pace to become the new low. Home
attendance is averaging just 7,744 fans
per game and has broken the 10,000
mark only once, with 10,851 against
in-state rival Creighton on Dec. 9.
“Heck,” Byrne said. “We won a Big
Please see ATTENDANCE on 8
Cochran finds role in Husker offense
u
I used to sit on the bench: Id look up, Id see
Coach Nee, Id look down, Id look up again -
I wouldn’t know when I was going in.”
Cary Cochran
NU guard
By Adam Klinker
Senior staff writer
During the Nebraska men’s bas
ketball practice Monday at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, a day Cary
Cochran received off as a result of a
goose egg over his
right eye, the
guard passed his
time shooting free
throws.
He didn’t put
much time into
them, just drib
bled a few times,
smoothly straight
ened his body and
flicked his wrist -
Cochran swish. He did it
again, same rou
tine - swish. And another. And anoth
er.
One by one, the cameras pressed
in; still, he did not miss. Reporters
gathered - Cochran didn’t bat an eye
(not that he could after taking an
elbow to the forehead against
Colorado on Saturday). He continued
shooting. Ten in a row, 11 ... 12 ... 13.
Ball after ball flowed freely
through the net as if being placed sys
tematically, methodically but gently,
by a machine.
The cameras turned away. The
redshirt freshman missed. Nobody
noticed. The ball boy tossed the ball
back to him. Cochran examined it as if
it had betrayed him; he spun it in his
hands and dribbled it quickly a few
times.
The electric eye of the cameras
came back, and Cochran gave a little
smile. The machine again revved up.
Granted, Monday practices aren’t
exactly a pressure-laden, 64-63 game
with 2.8 seconds left and no timeouts.
But with a sudden media crush
upon him, curious as to his role in the
Cornhuskers’ four-game winning
streak, Cochran seemed to thrive on
the tension.
“I don’t really feel any pressure at
all,” Cochran said. “I just want to play.
I want to win.”
And right in the flurry of interest
that has descended upon the young
Husker 3-point wizard, NU’s four
game winning streak and the upcom
ing game with Kansas Wednesday at
7:05 p.m., Cochran is just settling into
his role as the Huskers’ sparkplug off
the bench.
Earlier in the year, Cochran was
used sparingly, less and less until at
Missouri on Jan. 2. He didn’t play at
all in NU’s 80-57 loss to the Tigers.
“I doubted myself a lot,” Cochran"
said of the early games in the season.
“Deep down, I knew I could do it, but
until I actually did, I never knew for
sure. I didn’t have an answer to my
question.”
Following the loss and the subse
quent Husker demise against Texas,
Cochran said he grew even more
despondent, but he kept the faith with
his NU teammates and Coach Danny
Nee.
“You have to earn that playing
time,” Nee said. “Cary got beaten out
in the preseason, but then he came on
strong in December, and when he got
his minutes he really capitalized and
has done well.”
And ever since, Cochran’s
epiphany has gradually been revealed
- to himself and to the rest of the
Husker entourage.
Following the UT game, he is
averaging 10 points per game over the
winning streak and is shooting 10-17
(.588) from the 3-point arc.
Cochran isn’t shy about his num
bers (“My 3-point percentage? I will
be above 50 for my career”), but he
also gives the credit to his teammates;
he said they look to him for the big
shots.
Nee said he feels it, too.
“Cary has stepped up,” Nee said.
“Anytime he scores from the perime
ter, it seems that his shots have just
lifted us. He’s hit the open shot to give
us a few extra points off the bench and
that’s been the difference between
mediocrity and winning.”
And the difference for Cochran
has been more minutes and a concrete
understanding of what his role off the
bench will be.
“The way I’m coming off the
bench now is a lot better than it was
earlier,” Cochran said. “I used to sit on
the bench: I’d look up, I’d see Coach
Nee, I’d look down, I’d look up again -
I wouldn’t know when I was going in.”
These days, there’s not much
question about that. Cochran said by
the 16-minute mark, he’s almost
assured of being in the game - and
that’s just fine by NU senior center
Venson Hamilton.
“I like him in there,” Hamilton
said. “He opens it up a lot for me
under there because they have to
respect him.”
Now, with Kansas coming to
town, Cochran said he’ll see just how
much respect has come due.
“This is one of the reasons I
signed,” Cochran said. “So I could
play Kansas, so I could play Missouri,
so I could play Texas. I’m not going to
backdown.”