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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2000)
SportsWednesday Kansas By John Gaskins Staff writer LAWRENCE, Kan. - She’s not quite Joe Namath, but Nicole Kubik wasn’t afraid to make a major prediction before the Nebraska women’s basketball team faced No. 21 Kansas Tuesday. “I told fee team before the game, T guarantee we are going to win tonight,”’ Kubik said. “In the practices leading up to this game, I was just feel ing it It was time for us to beat Kansas at Kansas.” Thankfully, for her own sake, Kubik was right. With one of their most complete team efforts of die season, the Comhuskers pulled off an 81 -69 upset ending a whole lot of frustration for a team facing a 0-2 start in the Big 12 Conference slate. With the win, NU broke several bad habits, including a two-game losing streak, a 12-game winless drought at KU and Coach Paul Sanderford’s winless record against ranked teams on the road. And possibly, at least for a game, it ended questions concerning the Huskers’ capability to be the upper-tier Big 12 power they were expected to be before a shaky 6-6 start. “We’re like a volcano ready to explode,” said guard Melody Peterson, a transfer from Stanford who sparked Nebraska with 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists. “Through all our losses, the tension just kept building up and building up. We finally got over die hump tonight.” NU, 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the conference, also got over its rebounding problems against a Kansas team that was averaging nine boards more than its opponent this season. After getting pounded on the glass in a 72-68 loss to Texas Saturday, Nebraska responded by ' outrebounding the Jayhawks 48-33 Tuesday, including a 21.-11 edge in offensive rebounds. ; The result pleased Sanderford. “After Texas, we made a commitment to do a better job on rebounding,” he said. “Your shooting can just be gone on some nights, but if you can rebound and guard, you’ll win the game.” Not that NU’s shooting hurt it either. The Huskers had their best night of the season from both the free throw line (28-32,88 percent) and 3 point line (7-16,44 percent). Five players, led by Kubik’s 17 points, scored in double figures. One of those players was Peterson, who helped Nebraska break away from a 34-32 lead at halftime and provided a key stretch of plays that put away the Jayhawks (10-4, 1-1) for good in front of a crowd of 1,750 at Phog Allen HUSKERS 81 “ JAYHAWKS69 Fieldhouse. When KU All-American forward Lynn Pride broke out of her shell with five points in a 30-sec and span to cut the Huskers’ lead to 60-53 with 8:13 to go, Peterson hit a 3-pointer, then stole the inbounds pass, which led to Kubik hitting a pair of free throws for a 65-53 lead. It was a team effort that helped put Nebraska in the right frame of mind for its test against No. 8 [owa State Saturday in Ames, Iowa, Kubik said. “Team-wise, it was the best game of the year,” Kubik said. “I don’t have a lot of time here any more, and there’s no time left to not be confident. We’ll go to the Iowa State game like we came into the Kansas game. — MEN’S BASKETBALL — Hot ISU to test NU in V Big 12 home opener By Jason Merrihew Staff writer There is no relief in sight for the Nebraska men’s basketball team. NU will encounter a very hot Iowa State team. ISU is riding into Lincoln on a ten-game winning streak. The last time the Cyclones, 13-2 overall, 1-0 in the Big 12 Conference, lost was Nov. 28 to top-ranked Cincinnati. Tonight’s game, at 7:05 in the Bob Devaney Sports Center, will be the first road game for Iowa State since Nov. 19. ISU has tied the school record of 10 straight wins this season in the com fort of Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. Missouri was the latest victim of the Cyclones, losing 85-81 to ISU. “Iowa State is coming in here with a 13-2 record. They are a very good team,” NU guard Cary Cochran said. The Cyclones have shown significant improvement from last year’s squad. “Their big improvement from last year to this year is their outside shooting,” NU Head Coach Danny Nee said. ISU’s perimeter attack is led by senior Michael Nurse, junior Jamaal Tinsley and junior Kantrail Horton. “Tinsley is a quick penetrator,” Cochran said. “He can penetrate to the lane and hit Marcus Fizer or kick it out to Horton.” Iowa State’s marquee player is the junior Fizer. “He is very explosive,” Nee said. “I don’t I mink you will see many players coming into Devaney this year better than Marcus Fizer.” Unlike tonight’s foe, the HuskerS find themselves licking their wounds after Kansas State thrashed them Saturday night in Manhattan, 97-79. Tli a 1 acc marine tVi a Cochran fourth straight year NU has lost the conference opener. In order for Nebraska to snap Iowa State’s winning streak, coach Danny Nee feels his team needs to play better defensively. “Our perimeter defense is very soft,” Nee said. “We’re having a difficult time putting pres sure on the ball. That is why so many guards are lighting us up.” Tonight’s game will feature the last two Big 12 rookies of the week. Tinsley, a junior college transfer from Mount San Jacinto Community College in California, was named this week’s Big 12 rookie of the week. Nebraska center Kimani Friend was last week’s Big 12 rookie of the week. — SPORTS OPINION — KSU’s Morrison just another in-state player that got away flfiannew nsnson Last Saturday night in Manhattan, Kan., a guard named Galen Morrison exploded for. 27 points while leading his team to victory in die season’s first conference game. Morrison is a Nebraska guy, an All-Stater from Omaha Central. His college uniform, however, is purple, not red. Morrison is K-State’s exciting new point guard. He’s also just another in a long line of Nebraska prepsters that Danny Nee let get away. Maybe painting Morrison as an escapee is the wrong imagery (although, with the 2000 Nebrasketball Trainwreck barreling down the tracks, maybe it isn’t). Morrison and others like him didn’t spurn Nee in favor of greener pastures. They were not recruited to play for the Huskers. At all. Quick, name the Husker scholarship players who hail fiomthe Big Red State. Having some trouble? That’s because there are none. All right, there is one, but former walk-on Ross Bucicendahl of Battle Creek has a scholarship right now because the roster is so dun. Obviously, then, there are reasons for this. Nee has point ed time and time again to a lack of high school talent in the state. He is partially correct. Nebraska is not a recruiting hotbed by any stretch of the imagination. But to say that die state does not produce basket ball players capable of playing and excelling at the Division I level is simply untrue. Hie proof is in the names. Guys like Alton Mason, Shawn Redhage, Morrison, Will. Perkins and Mike Preston weren’t blue-c^ip prospects, but they are all solid starters for major colleges, and great finds for the coaches who got them. Rpdhage (12 points per game) and Mason (six) both start for NGAA Tournament hopeful Arizona State, while Perkins (eight points, seven Please see HANS&N on 15 ERIK COOK, AN All-American senior diver, finished seventh at the All-American Diving Invitational on the three-meter springboard last Thursday, his first competition since recov ering from a back injury. Back injuries don’t stop Cook from top showing Dir f f / Steffi writer <r Erik Cook knows a little bit about getting himself outof die doldrums and turning bleak ness into success. Cook, an All-American senior diver for Nebraska, was downandout only a few weeks ago. His days weren’t being spent working on perfecting bis dives. Instead, Cook spent the first part of his season in the South Stadium working with a specialist to fix another ail ment in his back. For die second time in three years he was sidelined. This time it was a strained muscle. Two , years agoifwas afsernia that forced him into a “ I watched myselj jail farther and farther behind...” Erik Cook Nebraska diver redshirt season and back operations. “I watched myself fall farther and farther behind die other guys, and I knew that when I got back I was going to work even harder to catch up,” Cook said. Please see COOK on 14
