Junior college transfer Ati
Conner adjusts to Huskers
■ Coach Neumann says
there’s a chasm between
wrestling divisions.
By David Diehl
Staff writer
A wrestler like Ati Conner is rare,
a one in 10,000 discovery, NU Coach
Tim Neumann said, like finding a
Picasso among a collection of kinder
garten water-color paintings.
Conner was a diamond waiting to
be plucked from the rough of the
California junior college wrestling
system when Neumann discovered
him at the state’s junior college tour
nament. Neumann has since brought
Conner halfway across the country
and now Conner is paying dividends.
“He was a huge find for us,”
Neumann said.
The 174-pound junior was dis
mantling opponents at Moorpark
(Calif.) Community College, a col
lege that certainly doesn’t have the
credentials of NU.
But after high school, Conner
said he wasn’t sure he wanted to wres
tle. He said his grades would have pre
vented him from going to a Division I
school anyway. It was his mother, he
said, who encouraged him to wrestle.
And now he is showing the
Division-I world that he is on the
brink of becoming a serious force
here, too.
“Every match was a tech fall,”
said Conner, who lost only once in his
two years in junior college, “I only
had one tough match and that was in
semi-finals of the state tournament.”
Conner, currently ranked 19th,
broke into the national rankings on
Dec. 20, when he was rated 16®. He
has compiled a 21-7 record, including
a sparkling 5-1 record at the National
Duals, where he notched a pin and a
technical fall.
Wherever he’s been, Conner said
he’s always had the confidence to be
successful.
•• It’s a different mindset. A year ago I
always knew I was going to win, and I
know I should still have that feeling
here.”
Ati Conner
NU wrestler
“It doesn’t matter what level
you’re at,” Conner said, “you should
always think that you should win.”
The new pressures of D-l
wrestling are an adaptation Conner
has to learn. He’s not always the top
seed, and he comes across the occa
sional loss, something he’s not accus
tomed to.
“It’s a different mindset,” Conner
said. “A year ago I always knew I was
going to win, and I know I should still
have that feeling here.”
It is that little uncertainty that is
holding Conner back, Neumann said.
“He wrestles in different levels,”
Neumann said. “When he’s at his best
level, he’s as good as (Oklahoma’s No.
1) Byron Tucker. Sometimes he does
n’t wrestle at that level, and he’s not
even in the ballpark.”
Conner gave NU wrestling fans a
taste of what he can do in the three
open meets he competed in this sea
son. He placed third at the Billy
Sheridan Invitational on Dec. 4 and at
the Great Plains Open on Jan. 2. He
was even runner-up at the Reno chal
lenge.
Despite this, Conner said he
knows he won’t be at his best until he
shakes the mental part of the game
that has slowed him down.
Thinking too much becomes his
enemy when he faces a ranked oppo
nent. That translates into poor perfor
mances, and it shows in the statistics.
Conner is only 2-4 vs. ranked foes this
year, including two losses to the top
ranked Tucker by a combined 25-4.
“You see rankings and you’re like
‘Dang, am I supposed to win this?”’
Conner said. “That’s the thing I got to
get over. I’m supposed to win every
match.
“I still think rankings mean noth
ing,” Conner said. “But in a way when
I see them it kind of affects how I
attack the other person. I’ve noticed
that I get a little more cautious and
don’t use my offense as much.”
The chasm that separates the lev
els of Division I and junior college
wrestling is to blame for that,
Neumann said.
“Ati has come from a different
world in wrestling,” he said, “where in
California the junior college was a lit
tle higher than good high school
wrestling.”
The focus that is needed in
Conner’s mental preparation wouldn’t
hurt in the physical aspect of his abili
ty either.
Neumann said Conner is the most
athletic person he’s had in his 15 years
at Nebraska. He may even be too ath
letic.
“He has such a large repertoire of
things that he can do,” Neumann said.
“Technically and athletically if he
could just limit himself and spend all
his time working on two or three
things, he’d be a little more solid when
he wrestles a guy like Byron Tucker.”
If Conner uses the same work
ethic at NU that he did in JUCO, he
said it won’t be a problem improving.
“I knew in junior college no one
was working harder than I was,”
Conner said. “I still try to keep my
work ethic the same. So I’m just going
to keep working harder than everyone
else.”
Colorado game may
get team on track
COLORADO from page 16
Sanderford said. “But it’s a different
game. We have to work hard on the
game plan and do the little things.
“Last year we beat them by 40
points at home and then lost by 17
up there.”
In the January game between
the schools, Nebraska used staunch
defense to prevail, which included
seven steals by NU’s Nicole Kubik.
Already NU’s all-time theft leader
with 372 steals, Kubik is currently
ranked 20th for career steals in
NCAA history.
Mandy Nightingale scored 15
points in the first game to lead
Colorado, but she also committed a
team-high 1 l-of-26 turnovers.
Sanderford said rebounding,
defenses and turnovers would all be
key in the game that was important
for NU to win.
“They’re all must-win games,”
he said. “I think calling this game a
‘must win’ is a little strong. But it’s
a game we need to win.”
Peterson finds her solace
in Husker women’s hoops
PETERSON from page 16
Team in the Olympics,” Peterson
said. “I think it was hard for her to
go from that to coaching 17-year
olds. Her level of experience was so
much different. It wasn’t something
I liked.
“Our personalities were on
opposite ends of the spectrum. She
always acted like it was ‘my way or
the highway.’ I don’t think she liked
me, because I wasn’t someone she
could just break down and turn into
the little robot she turned most of
her players into. I’m a pretty strong
person.”
Peterson decided to transfer, but
stayed in Stanford for a year to earn
her degrees. Her dream of playing
college basketball never died, and
she found her savior in Nebraska, of
all places.
Sanderford saw in Peterson the
perfect fit to his up-tempo style of
play.
At times throughout Peterson’s
short stint at NU, Sanderford has
seen why VanDerveer may have not
cared for the guard’s style and atti
tude. Her quick instincts sometimes
lead to risky ball-handling and
inevitable turnovers. The coach has
at times called the player a “pain in
the butt.”
Which brings up the question:
how could Peterson, who couldn’t
put up with VanDerveer’s demands
- stand Sanderford, who is famous
for his demanding and sometimes
grueling style of in-your-face
coaching and shouting?
Simple. Sanderford, although a
native Kentuckian, possesses the
same down-home and “nice peo
ple” qualities that has made
Peterson fall in love with Nebraska.
No, dreams aren’t always what
they are cracked up to be. but in
Peterson’s case harsh reality led to
more fulfilling results.
“It’s been awesome,” Peterson
said.
“It’s been five times better than I
thought it would be. I’m not just
playing basketball. At Stanford, it
felt like that’s all they focused on.
“I feel like Paul cares about
each of us as a person first, and for
the first time, I feel like I’m learn
ing about basketball. I’ve never had
to do that because I got through
with rpy athleticism in high school
... then at Stanford you were just
expected to know everything. Paul
has taken me through my ABCs.”
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