NU women open
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
Pardon some of the Nebraska
women’s basketball players if they’ve
been a little antsy lately.
The 24th-ranked Huskers have
plenty of reasons why they ate anxious
to start the regular season tonight in the
Time Warner Cable Classic at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
After beating exhibition opponents
from Lithuania and Sweden by an aver
age of 34.5 points, NU will take on
Georgia Southern at 8:05 p.m., follow
ing Southern Illinois’ battle with
Wisconsin. The tournament will
resume Sunday wjth the consolation
game at 12:35 p.m. and the two winners
meeting in the championship game at
3:05 pan.
“I know I’m excited,” NU forward
Charlie Rogers said. “It’s been a long
month. We need a real game for our
mental state.”
Head Coach Paul Sanderford’s
excitement comes in knowing that he
will have his potentially best team at
NU taking the floor tonight Looking to
build off of two consecutive 20-win
seasons, the third-year coach said it’s
time for his talented group of seniors to
take its play to the next level.
The Huskers are ranked in the pre
season AP Top 25 poll for the first time
in school history.
“I’m excited about being in the Top
25,” Sanderford said, ‘"but my goal is to
be in the Top 25 at the end of foe season.
What people remember about your
teams is how you played in March.
“I still remember (last season’s first
round NCAA Tournament 98-92 loss
to) Kentucky, how we were leading at
TO minutes and lost the game. We’re
gettingieady for March. This is by for
the most talented team I’ve had at
Nebraska. We have a lot to prove.”
Sanderford hasn’t been known to be
a coach who takes the start of the season
lightly, either. In his first two years, the
Huskers have come out of the gates
with huge wins.
NU knocked off No. 11 Alabama
74-66 in the second game of
Sanderford’s first season two years ago
and demolished No. 21 Arizona 72-48
in last year’s second game. Both games
were at the Devaney Center.
And Sanderford’s not backing away
from tough early competition this year.
Assuming NU gets past Georgia
Southern today and Wisconsin beats
Southern Illinois, the Huskers’ matchup
with the Badgers - unranked in the AP
poll but rated 24* by two other major
publications-could be intriguing. -
A young Wisconsin team went 18
14 last season and made it to the finals
of the NIT Tournament This year, they
return 1999’s Big Ten Freshman of the
Year, forward Jessie Stomski, and guard
LaTonya Simms - last year’s leading
scorer at 18 points-per-game.
“We want to play the very best
teams we can play and establish our
selves early,” Sanderford said.
“Wisconsin’s a tremendous basketball
team. They’re going to be tough on die
inside boards to match up with.”
That’s because the Badgers added
power with last year’s Parade Magazine
and Naismith Prep Player of the Year,
Nina Smith, to their frontcourt punch.
The 6-foot-4 center from Iowa averaged
28.5 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.3
blocks-per-game as a senior at West
High School and should make an
immediate presence.
- And that only adds to Rogers’
excitement to play Wisconsin. She
might not have felt the same way last
season when as a 6-2 center she and the
Huskers had problems in the frontcourt
with defense and rebounding.
But thanks to the addition of 6-foot
5 junior Illinois transfer Casey
Leonhardt and freshman Omaha
Benson standout Stephanie Jones,
Rogers has moved to forward and feels
a lot more confident in shutting down
Smith.
“We’re as deep in the post as we’ve
ever been,” Rogers said. “Casey’s just a
presence. You can’t guard her. So we
figure we’re just going to wear (Smith)
down a little bit”
Former M7
players will
be honored
VOLLEYBALL from 11
“We like to do this because it’s
very tough to get tickets to match
es in the Coliseum ’cause we’re
basically sold out,” Pettit said.
More than anything though,
Pettit wants Saturday night to be a
thank you to those who laid the
foundation for the program, many
of whom will be in attendance.
“I think it will be fun for the
players,” Pettit said. “They’vejseen
the pictures on the wall/but
they’ve never met them.”
Nebraska setter Lindsay
Wischmeier backs up Pettit’s
excitement toward the game.
“It’s a chance to play in front of
the alumni, and it’s exciting to
know that your playing in front of
people that played at the Olympic
level,” Wischmeier said.
“I grew up watching Nebraska
volleyball and watching those girls
play,” she said.
Conner out for NU
By David Diehl
Staffwriier
Nebraska’s wrestling team, which
had two regulars missing from its start
ing lineup for last week’s dual versus
Lock Haven, has a cupbpard that is
even more bare this weekend for the
Black & Decker Cornell Classic in
Ithaca, N. Y.
Junior 174-pounder Ati Conner
will sit out Saturday’s matches nursing
a stretched ligament in his left knee.
Sophomore Ray Kivi will start in his
place.
Conner will be on the bench with
regular starters Paul Gomez and Justin
Flores. Gomez is out until the begin
ning of the second semester, and Flores
hopes to return from knee surgery in
time for the Missouri dual Dec. 12.
Head Coach Tim Neumann said,
that Conner is physically able to wrestle
Saturday, but he is resting Connerto
save him for the future.
“I would like to take a whole
healthy team to Lehigh on Dec. 4 and
wrestle in that tournament healthy,”
Neumann said. “I would like to wrestle
Missouri with a whole healthy team. To
do that we’re going to have to sacrifice
a little bit.”
True freshman Joe Malia wrestled
at 125 pounds in Gomez’s place last
weekend versus Lock Haven and will
do so again Saturday. Adam Kastl will
wrestle at 141 for Flores.
- Malia’s first collegiate match found
him wrestling Lock Haven’s 15th
ranked Trap McCormack. Malia lost a
major decision 20-IQ, but he felt he
wrestled better than the store indicated.
Neumann said Malia grew up a lot
during the match.
“He wrestled the first four and a
half minutes as a freshman and the last
two and a half as a junior,” Neumann
said. -»
Malia said he was nervous
wrestling for the first time at the
Division I level, but those nerves may
be calmer this weekend.
“I don’t think they’ll be there as
much because we’re not at hoftie,”
, Malia said. “It’s a tournament, so I’ll be
able to wrestle more than one match. I
think I just had to get that first one out
of the way.”
With the situation NU is in,
Neumann said, the team is putting more
emphasis on what it gets out of the tour
nament and less at where it comes out.
“Stuff we’ve been concentrating on
all week - if that stuff happens, then
we’ll be fine,” Neumann said.
A&M aeja vu:tiusker women prep to play Aggies
A&M from 11
few bruises coming from Wilson in
the goal box.
“When she says it’s her goal box,
it’s her goal box,” Eddleman said.
“I’ve gotten injured quite a few times
in her goal box, so I believe it.”
Nebraska counters with the sec
ond highest scoring offense in the
country, averaging 4.6 goals per game.
NU has scored 106 goals this season
and has four players on the roster with
more than 10 goals.
The winner of the Nebraska and
A&M game will meet the winner of
the Notre Dame and Stanford match.
But Walker said NU’s focus was
on the game Sunday.
“We’re just happy to be playing,
and the other 15 teams would say the
same thing.”
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Joshua Camenzind
Give the Huskers
time to p
College basketball is a funny
sport. ' •"
The game is unique in that,
unlike'football, teams can play poor
ly early on and lose games without
the loss affecting their hopes of hav
ing a winning season.
Three of last year’s Final Four
teams have already lost a game.
Connecticut got beat by Iowa; Ohio
State was stunned by Notre Dame
and Duke lost twice in the Coaches
vs. Cancer Classic.
But that doesn’t mean immedi
ate disaster for them. The NCAA is
set up to allow losses early and
reward teams for improvement by
March.
This applies to the Nebraska
basketball team in eyery possible
way. Chi Wednesday night, NU
dropped its first exhibitioiigame in
the last 11 years to a team from
Russia that had only previously
beaten known-powerhouse Montana
State.
: Many around die program will
begin to throw up the white flag,
much like some of the fans at the
Devaney Center did as they watched
the turnovers build and the frustra
tion mount on the player’s faces.
une ran yened to starting center
Kimani Ffriend, “And you are sup
posed to be going to the Final
Four?” after a string of bad decisions
that marred an unbearable First half.
Fftiend said in the Daily Nebraskan
Wintet Sports Preview that the
Hiiskers Were a Final Four team.
But Nebraska is young. They
started one returning player from
last year - Cary Cochran. Freshman
Kenny Booker started in place of
senior Larry Florence, and Rodney
Fields made his second-straight start
in place of the injured Cookie
Belcher.
Belcher could be seen during
time-outs outside the huddle
explaining to various players what
they were doing wrong and how to
do it right. He could be doing the
same thing on the court, but his
wrist won’t allow it for now. His
absence has forced players like
Fields and Booker into a “leam-as
you-go” situation.
NU was without its starting
point guard for a half, and it showed.
The guard play was horrendous at
times, and the team did not seem in
sync for more than two minutes at a
time.
All this for a team that is trying
to learn a new offense, several
defenses and a press that will be
instrumental in NU’s running game
philosophy.
Patience is the key word around
Husker hoops, because it will take
time to get the ball rolling. Those
who paid attention noticed that the
second half against Russia looked
different. Danny Walker’s biology
professor let him out of his grasp,
and the transfer from Compton
(Calif.) Community College pro
ceeded to calm NU down and slowly
bring them back.
That alone says all you need to
know about the importance of lead
ership. Nebraska looked asleep in
the first half. No Belcher and
Florence on the floor meant there
was nobody there to wake the team
up.
Two players that seem to be
playing well together despite their
differences are Ffriend and power
forward Steffen Bradford. Both
averaged double-doubles throughout
the preseason, and both experienced
rough times- But like the rest of the
team, they are playing together for
the first time after coming to NU
from opposite ends of the country.
Ffriend hails from Jamaica, and
Bradford went to Compton C.C. in
California. • ■> '
/\uer uie game, ^oacn uanny
Nee said he was pleased with the
play of his two starting big men.
“You can’t ask them to do more
than that,” Nee said after the two
combined for 45 points and 32 -
rebounds. “Those two guys can’t do
more than that. You know who
played and didn't play. The other "
guys just have to start getting bet- ‘
ter.”
The Huskers will only get better
by gaining experience and playing
together. Bradford sees it developing
much like his days at junior college.
“It reminds me of back when I
was in Compton,” Bradford said.
“Start off* slow in the beginning,
then once the season starts it will
kick in.”
Bradford said the time is now for
other members to pick it up.
“It’s like, welcome to the big
leagues,” Bradford said. “This is the
way it is going to be. You know you
win some and lose some, and I
would rattier lose it now than when
it counts.”
With four days left until NU
does play its first real game, urgency
is not an issue. The Huskers must
take their time and learn how to play
together while finding ways to win
like they did in their first exhibition
win.
Joshua Camenzind is a sopho
more news-editorial major and a
Daily Nebraskan staff writer.
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