■V.
NU’s Florence
top casualty
in rough year
Samuel McKewon
Larry Florence half-hugged his
way through Senior Day introduc
tions Saturday before Nebraska’s
69-64 win over Colorado.
Florence has never been partic
ularly showy, even in times of joy.
Once, he made a half-court shot to
beat the halftime buzzer against
Oklahoma and responded by simply
running off die court.
So Saturday, it was impossible
to tell how much a proper exit
meant to Florence. A proper exit is
what he got, scoring 23 points and
playing some of his best basketball
of die season in the second half, all
while breaking a six-game losing
streak. It was a momentary pause in
an otherwise miserable season.
Very little went right for the
Phenix City, Ala., native this year,
largely because nothing went
according to plan.
Cookie Belcher, whose injury _
has been unfairly blamed for all
problems this season, wasn’t there,
as he had been in three previous
seasons, to play beside Florence.
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might have been, didn’t get along.
Florence saw the team going south
before it ever played a game this
year, during preseason workouts.
“Guys were getting in fights,
doing crazy stuff,” Florence said.
“We had all this talent, and they
were doing that.”
Belcher could only do so much
from the bench, which left Florence
with the role he never, ever wanted:
the leader.
It’s not a job he was bom to do.
What Florence was bom with is the
world’s greatest poker face. And
one of the world’s softest voices.
Leaders are not usually molded out
of such qualities.
“Naw,” said Florence when
asked if he liked a leadership role.
“I’m more of the laid-back kind of
guy, let my play do the talking.”
Which would be fine if NU had
a strong court leader, or if the team
chemistry had been there. The
Huskers had neither - no Tyronn
Lue or Cookie Belcher to exhort the
team, not even a Venson Hamilton,
who borrowed the “Come On!”
mantra from former assistant
Jimmy Williams. v
Florence, without a lot of the
players he played with here, got iso
lated from the team. He lives alone.
He does his pre-game rituals alone.
He has seen vejy few positives
through the season.
One day before the CU game,
Florence offered up an eerie
response when asked what positives
he found in a 11-16 campaign:
“That I’m living,” Florence
said. “That I’m playing, you know.
I’m glad I got another chance to
play.”
Florence will probably get three
more shots in his college career,
four tops. This Nebraska team is not
making a serious run in the Big 12
Tournament, save lightning striking
half the other teams while they
practice at Kemper Arena in Kansas
City, Mo.
Please see FEjORENCE on 14 |
_ Heather Glenboski/DN
COOKIE BELCHER is sitting out the 2000 season with a wrist injury. Meanwhile, Nebraska suffers through a losing season.
Belcher waits for his 2001 Odyssey
NUseniorfinds it’s lonely - and quiet - on injury list
By MatthewHansen
Staff writer
Nebraska’s best player is in street
clothes, clapping along with the rest
of the observers. A season-high
Devaney Center crowd is in atten
dance to watch the Comhuskers battle
the Kansas Jayhawks, and to hope the
home team can pull off an upset.
Cookie Belcher will have little
part in the outcome. He will not lead
the fast break tonight. He won’t
crouch into the defensive stance that
has helped make him a two-time
member of the All-Big 12 Defensive
Team: body low, palms up, legs tense,
ready at any instant to spring on a la?y
pass or slow dribble and turn it into a
lay-up.
Instead, he slaps Larry Florence
on the back. He gives Kimani Ffriend
a high-five.
And then Nebraska’s best player
finds his customary seat near the end
of the bench, and watches.
***
Five months ago, as the Huskers’
season began, Coach Danny Nee did
n’t expect Belcher to see much bench
time in his senior season.
At the press conference to kick off
the year, Nee said Belcher’s injured
wrist wasn’t yet 100 percent, but he
would be ready to lead the inexperi
enced NU team through the non-con
ference and Big 12 schedules.
Nee was sure of his senior guard’s
return. Belcher wasn’t.
“I don’t know, man, I don’t know,”
Belcher said at the Big 12’s media
day, shaking his head at a question
about his wrist. “It’s just a day-to-day
thing.”
Belcher, who originally injured
his right wrist in high school, re
injured it dining the 1998-99 season.
The junior from Mexico, Mo.,
delayed surgery until after the season,
gritting through the pain.
According to Lori Ingrum*
Belcher’s mother, the thinking was
that the off-season surgery performed
at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minn., on May 5 wouldn’t prevent
him from playing his junior season.
Then, the wrist would heal before his
senior year.
It didn’t work out that way.
Ingrum said she knew things
weren’t going according to plan when
her son came home for the summer.
“I wasn’t worried at first, but
when I saw him after he got out of
school, I started to doubt that he
would be able to play,” she said. “He
couldn’t do anything with it, couldn’t
shoot. 1 started to think that maybe he
should sit out a year.”
***
Nebraska’s best player practices
with the scout team. From the
moment the players start to scrim
mage, though, it is clear he is still
Nebraska’s best player. The 6-foot-4
inch, 205-pound guard harasses
Husker guards Rodney Fields and
Cary Cochran into a handful of
turnovers. He drives with force past
would-be defenders and finds open
teammates inside.
Made up of fout players who see
the floor only in blowouts and
Belcher, the scout team seems to be
beating the starting five. Nee screams
at the first team. The slightest of grins
comes across Belcher’s face as he
watches the scene. It is gone as quick
ly as it has come.
Larry Florence, who wasn’t sup
posed to be the lone Husker senior,
said days later: “Anybody can see it
with Cookie at practice. He’s just
awesome at times. No one can stop
him.”
***
Please see BELCHER on 14
Big 12 squads jockey for position in final week
By Jason Merrihew
Staff Writer
The regular season is winding
down. Now is the time for teams to
try on their blue suede shoes and
dance.
Like many other conference tour
naments, the Big 12 tournament
offers one last chance for the under
achievers to get into the NCAA
Tournament or for teams already
assured a spot to strengthen the seed
ing, and better their chances for the
final boogie.
“Once you get to the conference
tournament, it’s a whole new season,”
Kansas State Coach Tom Asbury
said.
- Although the brackets for the
tournament, which will be held at
Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.,
on March 9-12, aren’t yet made, it
seems Iowa State will be the first
seed.
The Cyclones, currently ranked
10th in the AP poll, ait alone at the top
of the conference with a 12-2 record
in league play. ISU propelled itself
upward last week with two victories
over conference and top-25 foes,
Texas and Oklahoma State.
With two remaining games (at
Texas Tech and at Baylor), one victo
ry will assure Iowa State die share of
the regular season crown and the No.
1 seed in the tournament.
The second through sixth seeds
are still up for grabs. Texas,
Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Kansas
and Missouri are battling for position.
Texas and Oklahoma State are
tied for second with all-3 confer
ence record. UT played at home vs.
23rd-ranked Kansas on Monday and
rounds out its season against confer
ence doormat, Kansas State.
Oklahoma State must rebound
from its recent tough loss to Iowa
State by playing a tough Colorado
team in Stillwater. The Cowboys fin
ish the season against 21st-ranked
Oklahoma.
Oklahoma, 10-4 in Big 12 play,
travels to Texas A&M before it goes
to Stillwater, Colo. OU’s schedule
puts it in better shape than Kansas’s
schedule does. The Jayhawks travel to
Texas, then finish against the very
tough Missouri team in Lawrence.
Colorado is the only team to
cement its seeding. With the recent
loss to Nebraska, CU is unable to
catch up with Missouri, and it will
have to settle for the seventh seed.
The Buffaloes will play the 10th seed
in the first round of the conference
tournament.
Nebraska, Baylor, Texas A&M,
Texas Tech and Kansas State find
themselves at the bottom of die bar
rel.
“I don't think there is any bad
team in the conference,” Nebraska
Coach Danny Nee said. “All of these
teams have positive assets.”
The Cornhuskers, with a 4-10
record, need a win either at Missouri
or at Texas A&M to lock up the eighth
seed.
