"uskers hunt down Bears in NGAA tourney
^ Look for us to
come out excited
tomorrow. No.l,
it’s Kansas, No. 2,
it’s tournament
time.”
Amanda Went
junior guard
By John Gaskins
Staff Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The
NCAA-caliber team that Nebraska
women’s basketball players hoped
they would be when they started this
season finally came out on Tuesday.
The Cornhuskers, scrapping their
sub-par 16-11 regular season for a
brand new one, stormed through
round one of the Big 12 tournament by
embarrassing Baylor 82-61 before a
Municipal Auditorium crowd of
3,770.
Their reward will be round three in
their 1999-2000 slugfest with Kansas,
which had a first-round bye
Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. NU has won
the first two games.
“We didn’t have the regular season
we wanted,” said junior guard Amanda
Went. “This is our time to prove to
everybody that we can play and
deserve to be in the (NCAA
Tournament).
“The emotions were a big key for
us. We’re playing every possession
like it’s our last. Look for us to come
out excited tomorrow. No.l, it’s
Kansas, No. 2, it’s tournament time.”
With most of KU watching in the
stands, NU poured on a first-half
assault. The Huskers hoped they sent a
message to the Jayhawks and especial
ly to the NCAA tournament selection
committee.
Nebraska outscored BU (7-20) 28
3 in a 10-minute, 24-second stretch
that ended the H^-seeded Bears sea
son in a flash. The Huskers used sti
fling full-court pressure to force 12
turnovers - ten on NU steals - and 1
10 shooting over that span.
Within that period was a 17-0 run,
NU’s longest of the season. Baylor
failed to score a point on 15 consecu
tive possessions.
Freshman Shahidrah Robert’s
three-pointer gave NU its biggest lead
at 39-11 with 5:21 remaining. The
HUSKERS 82
BEARS61
Huskers led at halftime 49-25.
“I thought our kids came out ready
to play,” Nebraska Coach Paul
Sanderford said. “I thought that the
first 14 or 15 minutes we executed
well, did what we want to do.”
Said retiring Baylor Coach Sonja
Hogg, who coached the last game of
her career, a career that included the
national championship at Louisiana
Tech in 1981: “I thought we did a nice
Please see WOMEN on 15
DN File Photo
Danny Nee may be near the end of his 14-year career at Nebraska. His NU team needs to win the Big 12 Tournament for a NCAA tourney berth.
NU career fall of sweet and sow
20-win seasons no problem
during 14 years as coach
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
, In a career that might be mea
sured by its valleys more than its
peaks, Nebraska Basketball Coach
Danny Nee has compiled an impres
sive resume by most coaching stan
dards.
Nee, in his 14th season at the
helm of the Comhuskers, currently
has 254 wins, the most in history at
NU, previously held by Joe Cipriano
at 253 and passed by Nee on Senior
Day against Colorado this season.
“We did something that no one
else has done in 100 years before,”
Nee said Tuesday. “It is a success
story. To become the winningest
coach or the top of anything in any
profession and have that longevity
is very hard to do.”
Nee’s 14-year tenure ranks him
behind only 22 coaches on the
active NCAA list this season. No
coaches currently in the Big 12 have
had a longer stint.
“The thing was to make your
notch,” Nee said. ‘To prove to your
self that you Can coach on this level.
You start keeping things in a better
perspective.
“It is never going to be a game, a
player, a play or a referee. You start
seeing die bigger picture.”
The New York native described
his success like “actors getting an
Oscar.”
And yet most signs point to Nee
being let go at the end of this season.
Nebraska has struggled to an 11-18
overall record, its worst record since
the 1989-90 season.
One of Nee’s Big 12 rivals,
Texas Coach Rick Barnes, defended
him on Monday.
Please see CAREER on 14
For Nee, the player walkout
can’t fade away soon enough
By Matthew Hansen and
Samuel McKewon
Staff writers
On Feb. 13,1996, when they were
supposed to be practicing, nine mem
bers of the Nebraska basketball team
instead met with Athletic Director
Bill Byrne to voice their concerns
about Coach Danny Nee.
Five years later, with Nee’s tenure
as Husker coach seemingly in jeop
ardy, die story of the walkout contin
ues to appear in sports stories chroni
cling Nee’s problems at NU.
And while it is undeniable that the
event has been exhaustively recount
ed by the Nebraska press, a full
account of the episode still hasn’t
appeared.
Until now. What follows is a look
at die walkout, the reasoning behind
it, and its consequences through the
eyes of Nee and a player on die 1995
96 team who was part of the walkout.
The Buildup
At the time, Leif Nelson was a
redshirt freshman for the Huskers,
backing up Mikki Moore on the 1995
96 squad. He wasn’t playing much,
and he wasn’t happy about it.
Reached at his parents’ home in
Riverside, Calif., Tuesday, Nelson
said in an interview he was one of the
nine athletes who met with Byrne that
Tuesday.
Nelson said two players, Tyronn
Lue and Bernard Garner, went to
practice as scheduled.
Ttoo other players, Moore and for
ward Chester Surles, were “unac
counted for,” Nelson said.
NU’s record at the time: 15-8.
Only five games earlier, on Jan.
24, the team’s record stood at 15-3 and
Please see WALKOUT on 14
