SportsWednesday
Mike Warren/DN
ERIC BROWN, an outfielder for the Creighton Bluejays, dives back to first after Nebraska pitcher Chad Wiles threw to first baseman Dan
Johnson trying to pick Brown off. NO defeated Creighton 9-5 in Omaha.
Huskers clip Creighti n
■ Three-run home run in the
first inning set the Huskers
on their way to victory.
By Mike Warren
Senior Editor
The Nebraska baseball team traveled to
Omaha on Tuesday afternoon and pinned the
wings back on the Creighton Bluejays, winning
9-5.
Creighton (18-3), ranked No. 18 by the
Collegiate Baseball newspaper, fell into a hole
early against NU and didn’t have enough to pull
out of it
A first-inning three-run home run by junior
first baseman Dan Johnson set the pace for the
Comhuskers (16-7).
“It was a fastball in,” Johnson said. “That’s
my pitch to hit.”
Johnson’s home xun sailed over the right-field
fence, and he seemed to know it was gone early.
“In baseball, you really get into zones some
times,” Johnson said, “and right now I feel really
good up there. Keep working ahead in the count,
that’s what allows you to get your pitch.”
Creighton starting pitcher Rob Holmes
would give up two more runs to the Huskers in the
third, and two again in the fifth. Holmes only was
charged with six runs because of errors by the
Creighton defense, one that should have been
caught easily by center fielder Troy Carley. But
six runs would be enough for Nebraska to come
away with the win.
HUSKERS 9
BLUE JAYS5
Nebraska’s starter Scott Fries retired the first
10 Bluejay batters in route to his first win of the
season. Fries went five innings for NU, allowing
just two hits, and two earned runs. Creighton
scored a third run after a Brandt Vlieger fielding
error but Fries was not charged with the run.
Fries was replaced by Chad Wiles who went
one inning and gave up two hits. Brian Rodaway
would come on in the sixth to finish the game
allowing six hits and two runs in three innings of
work.
With Nebraska ahead 7-0, Pitching Coach
Please see BASEBALL on page 18
Nee’s assistants
search for new
coaching slots
By Matthew Hansen
Staff writer
While Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Byrne
searches for a new men’s basketball coach, the
remnants of Danny Nee’s coaching staff continue
to show up at the office every morning.
But there’s no work with Xs and Os, or the off
season conditioning program. Instead, Assistants
Larry Gay, Randy Roth and Cleo Hill spend their
a , 7 time looking for
1 Cl SOy the a new place to
, r work.
chances OJ US Once Byrne
. . , hires a new
staying are real coach, an three
j. ,, are probably out,
Slim. even though
they’ll be given a
Larry Gay chance to inter
UNL assistant basketball coach view with the
new man. Gay,
Roth and Hill aren’t expecting any favors.
“I’d say the chances of us staying are real
slim,” Gay said. “That’s the way the business
works.”
Hill said the new coach likely will bring his
assistants with him. And while all three remained
optimistic about finding a coaching job some
where next season, their current situation left Gay,
who was hired this season to replace the departed
Jimmy Williams, with a sour taste in his mouth.
“It is just strange sitting there and knowing
you don’t really have a job. This is the ugly side of
being a coach, what we are going through right
now,” Gay said.
“When you get basically fired like this, it’s
obviously not an ideal situation. Knowing we tried
to turn this thing around, and we couldn’t, it is a
terrible feeling.”
Part of Gay’s discouragement centered on the
bleak job market. He said that, coming off an 11
19 season, the assistants would be hard-pressed to
find a good job.
Hill said he was searching at the high school
and college levels, as well as overseas. Gay
planned on finding another assistant coaching job,
while Roth wouldn’t elaborate on his prospects.
Please see ASSISTANTS on page 18
--SPORTS OPINION
Count on Byrne to fill
coaching vacancy well
Samuel McKewon
I do not count myself among
Nebraska Athletic Director Bill
Byrne’s most ardent supporters.
But after his termination of
Danny Nee’s contract as men’s
basketball coach, the questions
that surrounded Byrne’s ability to
land a top-notch replacement sur
prised me.
Of the things Byrne can do
very well as an athletic director,
one of them is plucking coaches.
Since his tenure began in 1992,
consider the coaches who have
joined the Comhusker staff in vai
ious sports:
Softball: Rhonda Revelle
(1993)
Women’s Gym: Dan Kendig
(1994)
Soccer John Walker (1995)
Women’s basketball: Paul
3 Sanderford (1997)
Baseball: Dave Van Horn
(1998)
Football: Frank Solich (1998)
Rifle: Karen Anthony (1998)
Volleyball: John Cook (2000)
It’s a eclectic mix. A few were
handpicked, like Solich and Cook,
I a few more came from promi
nence, like Sanderford, and a few
more came from relative obscuri
ty, like Van Horn. Byrne sealed
deals with all of them.
And all of them have been suc
cessful in their own way. Cook
hasn’t started yet, but he’s got a
proven track record. Van Horn and
Kendig have revived previously
dormant programs.
Anthony has the rifle team in
the nation’s top five. Revelle has
NU’s sights set on the College
World Series every season. And
though the Husker women haven’t
taken die nation by storm quite
- yet, Sanderford at least has them
thinking NCAA Tournament
every year. Solich was masterful
last season in keeping the Huskers
together and winning.
Please see BYRNE on page 19
Ffriend has groin injury;
will decide on surgery
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
Nebraska basketball center Kimani
Ffriend revealed on Monday he had
been playing with a groin injury most
of the season - one in which he was an
All-Big 12 newcomer and led NU in
scoring in conference games at 13.4
points per game.
Cornhusker Team Trainer Mike
Gooding confirmed the groin injury
but would not comment on the severity
at this point.
“It’s something that I really can’t
talk about because of the situation with
the coaches and such right now,”
Gooding said.
But Gooding said Ffriend had the
injury for much of his first season as a
Husker.
“I was not 100 percent during the
season,” Ffriend said. “If I was 100
percent you can imagine how much
improvement and how much better I
could have been. But I can’t worry
about that right now, I just have to deal
with it”
Ffriend said he could play through
die pain and rest helped die injury. But
surgery remains a possibility. He said
he would talk to doctors and trainers to
see “what my options are.”
“If I had the surgery I might end up
^ lam pretty sure that I am going to stay,
but I just want to see who the new coach is.”
Kimani Ffriend
UNL center
like Cookie Belcher, and I am not plan
ning to be in that situation and sit out a
year,” Ffiriend said. “There is like a six
month period for recuperation, and the
whole summer would just be down the
drain.”
The Jamaican said rehabilitation
could take up to eight months, and he
wouldn’t be able to develop his game.
Ffiiend said he will decide within a
week whether or not to have the
surgery after meeting with doctors and
Gooding. The trainer said he will meet
with Ffiiend on Thursday but did not
clarify die subject of the meeting.
But the injury wasn’t die only thing
weighing on the All-Big 12 center.
The 6-foot-11-inch senior-to-be
said he didn’t know if he could handle
another coaching change. Ffiiend just
was getting comfortable with former
coach Danny Nee before he was fired
on March 13.
So Ffiiend said he would insist on
speaking with his new coach before he
would agree to stay at Nebraska next
season. Ffriend said his friends and
family all have advised him to stay at
NU.
“I am pretty sure that I am going to
stay, but I just want to see who the new
coach is,” Ffriend said. “Nebraska is a
great place and why not stay - every
body on the Big 12 first team is leav
ing.”
Ffriend has a history of bad rela
tionships with coaches, he said. He left
Gulf Coast Community College in
Florida after 24 games last year
because of a personality conflict with
his coach.
“That has been a strain on me, and
I don’t want to go through another sea
son like that,” Ffriend said. “One of my
biggest problems is trusting people.”
If Ffriend left, he could have the
surgery and transfer to another
Division I school, because he would
have to sit out anyway, or transfer to
Division H school or lower. He also
could enter NBA draft on June 28 if he
enters before the May 14 deadline.