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"Tj| "T| ^Jk X "T Idesday, January 25,2000
A L4-V^^ Vl'W' y Editor: Samuel McKewon
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Huskers hope to test IIT
■ Kimani Ffriend and Steffon Bradford
look to stack up against Texas’ Chris
Mihm and GabeMuoneke Tuesday.
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
On paper, the ffontcdurt matchups in tonight’s 8
o’clock game between Nebraska and No. 17 Texas
look to be even.
But Husker Coach Danny Nee was quick to point
out one discrepancy that the statistics do not show.
“Chris Mihm and Gabe Muoneke against Kimani
(Ffriend) and Steffon (Bradford) look real great,” Nee
said. “Except they both have four years of experience
and my guys are into their about 16th game. I think in
about the middle of the game that will show up.”
Nee described the Longhorn post players as two of
/ / j the best combinations
** ...i am in the country with
. . Mihm and Muoneke
going to give averaging a combined
, j 31.8 points and 16.4
a gOOCl SnOW rebounds per game.
. —. In comparison,
against t^nYlS Ffriend and Bradford
7 „ are averaging 25 and
A/inm. 17.4 respectively.
Ffriend, coming off
Kimani Ffriend his second straight Big
NU center ^ Rookie of the Week
selection, said he will
have to have a big game
tor JN U to win in Austin, lexas.
“I am very confident that I am going to give a good
show against Chris Mihm,” said Ffriend, who has tend
ed to play better against tougher foes.
Ffriend said with NU’s 2-3 record in the Big 12, it
needed the victory over Texas to be a force in the con
ference. ’
The deciding factor in the game might be UT’s.
bench, which includes solid contributors in Chris
Owens and Darren Kelly. Owens and Kelly are averag
ing 10.2 and 9.2 points, respectively. NU will look to
combat the two with the solid bench play of Cary
Cochran and Louis Truscott.
Cochran has shot 3-pointers at 54 percent in his last
six games and played what Nee described as “his best
game ever at NU” with eight points and eight assists
vs. Baylor.
While Cochran has shined in Big 12 play, other
Huskers have struggled.
Point guard Danny Walker has struggled shooting,
while forward Larry Florence continues to be stuck in
a slump that has haunted him throughout the confer
ence season.
Walker, who was recruited by Texas last season
while at Compton (Calif.) Community College, said he
feels it is time for he and Florence to break out.
“Everything is coming together offensively,”
Walker said. “Larry is in his funk, but he hit some shots
last game, and I think he is going to come out of it.”
Nee realizes that if his team is going to reach .500
in conference play and match its longest winning
streak of the season with a victory over Texas, it wifi
have to play better than in earlier showings on the road.
Please see TEXAS on 15
Photo Courtesy of Texas Sports Information
CHRIS MIHM will present a stiff task for the NU frontcourt as the Huskeis face No. 16 Texas tonight
in Austin. NU Is looking to extend Hs winning streak to three games In Big 12 Conference play.
—SPORTS OPINION—
— FOOTBALL—
Huskers’
training
begins
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
After a 12-1 campaign in 1999,
many Nebraska football fans are
already itching to get the season
underway.
And so are
the players, 22
days after a 31
21 win over
Tennessee in
the Fiesta Bowl.
There is no
rest for the
weary as the
Epley Cornhusker
football team is
back at work.
Nebraska started winter condi
tioning on Monday. For the next six
weeks, the team will take the first
steps to improve on its No. 3 nation
al finish last season.
Boyd Epley, Nebraska’s director
of athletic performance, said this is
one of the few times of the year that
the athletes get bigger, stronger and
faster.
“This is the time of the year to
make physical improvements,”
Epley said. “Spring is an evaluation
period, and the fall is not a time for us
to have development. So winter and
summer are the two key periods for
us to improve the athletes.
“The goal really hasn’t changed.
We’re trying to improve lean body
mass - put a bigger engine in the
same size of car.”
To ensure maximum physical
development of each player, the
players are divided into four comers,
or groups, with other players who
play similar positions and have the
same goals.
Once cordoned off into appropri
ate groups, the equipment and train
ing is specialized to that group’s
needs. Supervisors are assigned to
monitor each specialized group.
Though the programs are the
same at the beginning for die entire
group, they are eventually tailored to
each player, Epley said.
“We start out by trying to write a
program for the group, but it ends up
being modified,” he said. “Just
Please see FOOTBALL on 15
Injury puts aside promising season for NU’s Jones
Samuel McKewon
Stephanie Jones allowed herself
about 10 minutes to feel the unfairness
of the world bearing down on her
and the pain bearing down on her left
knee, the victim of an anterior cruciate
ligament tear.
Then, the Nebraska forward let it
go.
It was just as well; her freshman
season for the Comhuskers, which
had started out with so much promise,
had come to an abrupt end in a Dec.
12 game against Creighton.
‘Ten minutes was all I gave myself
to feel bad because things happen for
a reason,” Jones said. “It’s not going to
kill me, even though I think it’s going
to sometimes.
“Bad things happen to everybody.”
And sooner or later, injuries catch
up with nearly every athlete. For 13
years, Jones had escaped any major
harm to her body - nothing that ever
kept her out of the three sports she ‘
played year-round.
“I had mono once in freshman
year of high school,” Jones said.
“That’s about it.”
Karma bit back in a big way earli
er this season.
It couldn’t have come at a more
inopportune time for Jones. On repu
tation alone, there was no bigger
freshman signing than hers in NU
hoops’ history - men’s or women’s.
Jones turned down NCAA runner-up
Duke and current No. 1 Connecticut
to come to Lincoln.
The 6-foot-2 native of Omaha was
starting to feel comfortable in the flow
of the college game, averaging 5.0
points and 4.0 rebounds a contest. She
was, and continues to be, the only
freshman who had started a game for
NU this season.
Jones’ tallied high marks became a
key part of Nebraska’s trapping
defense. She had a good shot at Big 12
Freshman of the Year.
And then came the injury, after
Jones had played only 54 seconds of
NU’s 77-69 win over the Bluejays.
Because the injury came in the
seventh game of the season, Jones is
in jeopardy of losing her entire year of
eligibility. NU needs to play 31 games
for Jones to get it back for sure.
The Comhuskers are scheduled
for 27. That means Nebraska has to
make a strong run in the Big 12 or
NCAA Tournament for Jones to feel
safe- if not, her chances of getting
the year stand at 50-50.
“It was just the whole thing,”
Jones said. “I was in the seventh
game, I was just getting my starting
position - all these things that Coach
(Paul Sanderford) had talked up about
me -1 had them. And now they’re
gone.”
So instead of practicing with the
team, Jones rehabilitates her knee. An
ankle injury in her left foot was taken
care of along with the knee surgery, so
die just got out of her cast last
Thursday. Before then, Jones hopped
around oh one foot and shot baskets.
Her rehab schedule requires her to
be a morning person - she works on
her knee from 7-8 a.m. Monday,
Wednesday and Friday, then heads off
to class.
In one of her range-of-motion
exercises, Jones lies on a padded table,
stares up at a ceiling and moves her
leg up, down, up, down. As a spectator
sport, it ranks only slightly above
watching grass grow.
And doing it isn’t much fun,
either.
“It’s frustrating because I’ve never
had to deal with this,” Jones said. “I’ve
never had anyone tell me I couldn’t
play or that I wasn’t able to. Thirteen
years out of your life is sports, you
play three sports in high school, every
Please see JONES on 15
