Sports
I
Sam McKewon
Recruiting
tapes sheer
fun to watch
So we shuffle into the film room,
David Wilson, Adam Klinker, I and all
the other reporters, to behold one of
the perks of being a sportswriter.
It’s after the Frank Solich press
conference concerning the 22 recruits
the Nebraska football team signed on
Wednesday. (It’s the regular old song
and dance: NU got plenty of good
players, lots of linemen, they’re very
big).
But the film room, that's the perk.
We get to see tape of these 22 players,
sort of a sneak peek of the future
starters at Nebraska. And these tapes
are a little bit of everything. And, when
you get right down to it, damn funny.
There was Solich, laser pointer in
one hand, remote in the other, guiding
us reporters through the good and the
bad of each player. Mostly good.
And the tapes were mostly bad. A
couple of them, you couldn’t discern
who was who. A white arrow was
needed, especially with linemen.
“See, some of these things are
from ground level,” Solich said. “So
you can’t see a whole lot.”
The worst tape was the one of
Patrick Kobongo of Montreal. It
looked like a video game, all fuzzy and
done with a digital camera. Another
bad tape was the one of Tim Green,
which made the field at Westside High
School in Omaha look pink.
Beyond that, the tapes show a
cross-section of every type of football
field in America. The recruits from
Hawaii play at the Aloha Bowl in
Honolulu. And then there's quarter
back recruit Jammal Lord's field in
Bayonne, N.J.
It was two separate fields, actually.
One had a wall directly -1 mean inch
es - behind the end zone. Hence, the
end zone went uphill. Not a couple of
inches. About 4 or 5 feet. It was sur
rounded by apartment buildings.
The other was Bayonne’s home
field, or so I think. As Lord galloped
into the end zone, there were road bar
ricades just off the field of play. About
10 of them. You know, like the kind
you’d see on the highway.
“I don't know why there’s barri
cades there,” Solich said as he
rewound the tape to see them again.
John Dawson’s tape had a super
slow-motion feel to it, as though I was
watchmg a John Woo movie or some
thing. Solich informed us his father
made it. It came along with music and
“a whole lot of other stuff.”
But, seriously, there was some
good playing on those tapes, too. Josh
Davis and Robin Miller? Amazing.
Solich compared Miller to Mike
Rozier and one could see a little of
that. Davis is about as fast as they
come.
And the best perk of all is seeing
those players in action. If anything,
your knowledge, and your sense of
humor, goes up a little bit for one day.
Sam McKewon is a junior news
editorial and political science major
and a Daily Nebraskan senior editor.
NU holds off Buffs in close win
Hamilton
dominates
inside game
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
BOULDER, Colo. - With three
minutes and 44 seconds left to go, the
Colorado mascot, Chip, made a chok
ing gesture toward the NU men’s bas
ketball team’s bench. And choke the
Huskers nearly did.
But NU held off a late-surging CU
57-52 in front of 5,075 fans at the
Coors Events Conference Center.
Nebraska improved its record to
14-8 overall and 6-3 in the Big 12
Conference, while Colorado dipped to
11-11 and 2-7.
“Road wins are road wins,” NU
Coach Danny Nee said. “It was ugly,
rough and a hard
played game.
Colorado really
fought back in the
second half.”
Colorado
Coach Ricardo
Patton tipped his
hat to the
Huskers, saying
y they executed
both offensively
and defensively.
“I do believe the better basketball
team won tonight,” Patton said. “We
were playing catch-up all night long.”
Nebraska, led by senior center
Venson Hamilton’s 14 points on 7-7
shooting and NU’s 56.5 percent over
all shooting for the half, jumped out to
a 29-18 lead at halftime. Colorado hit
6 of 33 shots in the first half, good -
Nebraska 57
Colorado 52
well, actually bad - for 18 percent.
In the second half, NU went up by
15 at 43-28 with 14:08 left to play on a
Cary Cochran 3-pointer. CU answered
with a 12-1 run to cut the lead to 44
40, sparked by CU s Kenny Price, who
had 16 points overall.
Aided by NU’s poor shooting in
the second half, CU held the Huskers
to three baskets in the first 12:29 of the
second half. In the end, however, free
throws sealed the victory.
Nee said at one point he thought
that missed free throws might haunt
the team. NU was 16-24 in the second
half at the line, but only 18-30 overall.
“We were really concerned about
missed free throws,” Nee said. “But
down the stretch we made the ones we
had to make.”
The Buffs got the lead down to
three at 55-52 with 1:43 to play, but got
no closer as Chad Johnson and Andy
Markowski hit free throws to ice the
Husker win.
Hamilton led all scorers with 22
points and 11 rebounds. It was his 11th
double-double this season and eighth
in nine games. He had three blocked
shots. Hamilton controlled CU’s short
er inside players.
“I got the ball in the low post and
was able to turn and shoot over them,”
Hamilton said.
Nee said Hamilton intimidated
Colorado with his defensive play.
“Because of his height and his
long arms, he was able to change a lot
of shots,” Nee said. “He was a very
positive contributor on the defensive
end tonight.”
The Huskers now move on to play
Missouri at 3 p.m. Saturday at the
Devaney Sports Center.
Gomez, NU gear up for Oklahoma dual
Ryan Soderlin/DN
UNL FRESHMAN JOE HENSON, a 149-pounder, tries to escape from a takedown attempt by an ISU wrestler last Sunday. He and the other UNL wrestlers will
be putting it on the mat when they grapple with Oklahoma today.
ByLisaVonnahme
Staff writer
Paul Gomez considers the No. 6 Nebraska
wrestling team to be a secret.
“Nobody really knows about us,” said Gomez, the
sixth-ranked, 125-pounder for the NU grapplers.
“Teams don’t know who we are until they wrestle us.”
While Gomez believes the Cornhuskers are
unknown to the wrestling world this season, he might
also say the same about himself.
Gomez, a junior from Castroville, Calif., has
found himself without competition during the last
three weeks as he has wrestled just once since the
National Duals on Jan. 16.
Since then, the Huskers have competed in five
duals, four of which Gomez won by forfeit.
“I really want to get on the mat,” Gomez said. “It’s
been so long since I’ve wrestled against someone
who’s pretty good.”
«
I really want to get on the mat. Its been so long since I’ve
wrestled against someone who’s pretty good.”
Paul Gomez
NU wrestler
Today, Gomez will get his chance to wrestle some
one who is “pretty good” when Nebraska (14-5 over
all and 1-3 in the Big 12 Conference) takes on confer
ence rival No. 4 Oklahoma (12-3-1 and 0-1-1) in
Norman, Okla., at 7:30 p.m.
In a key match of the dual, Gomez (15-2 overall
and 12-2 in dual competition) will return to competi
tion against OU’s fourth-ranked Shane Valdez for a
match that Gomez has been waiting for.
“It doesn’t matter that I haven’t wrestled for a few
weeks, and now I have the No. 4 guy,” Gomez said.
“I’ve been training hard, and I just want to get out there
and wrestle.”
Gomez admitted that rankings and records aren’t
something he thinks about too often. He used his
match earlier this season with No. 3 Jeremy Hunter of
Penn State as an example of why he doesn’t focus on
rankings.
“I got off to a 4-1 lead, and all of the sudden it just
hit me,” Gomez said. “I started thinking, ‘This is the
Please see GOMEZ on 10
