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Collier most likely next basketball coach
By Matthew Hansen
Staff writer
It looks as if the wait for a new
Nebraska basketball coach is all but
officially over.
Several sources close to the
Nebraska basketball team said
Tuesday that Barry Collier would be
announced as the new Nebraska
coach as early as Wednesday.
Collier toured the Bob Devaney
Sports Center on Tuesday morning,
then met with Husker basketball per
sonnel for lunch at the Hewitt Center.
The meeting, according to a
source near the program, was organ
ized to let Collier meet the people hfe
will be working with.
The prospective coach also met
with Husker team representatives
Cookie Belcher and Cary Cochran
during his stay in Lincoln before
returning to Indianapolis on Tuesday
afternoon.
Larry Florence, who talked
briefly to Collier at the Hewitt Center
on Monday, said he thought the
Butler coach was just tying up some
loose ends before being announced
as the new Nebraska coach.
“It’s done, but not officially
done,” Florence said. “I’m sure they
are just ironing out the last details,
and then they’ll have the press con
ference.”
Some of those details probably
include addressing his current play
ers. Collier reportedly returned to
Butler on Tuesday to meet with his
team, which won a school-record 23
games last season, to tell them he
was leaving.
“I think he will go back home and
talk to his players first,” said Kimani
Ffriend, who said he hadn’t spoken to
Collier as of Tuesday. “Before he
would meet with us, I’d assume that
^ Its done, but not officially done”
he would meet with them.”
Ffriend, like most of his team
mates, knows little about Collier. The
center said that when he did meet
him, he wanted to learn several
things
“Yeah, I’d like to know where he
wants to take this program,” he said.
“I’d be interested in knowing his phi
Larry Florence
NU basketball player
losophy, his plans for the team.
“But,” Ffriend added. “I don’t
think we’ll be meeting with him any
time soon.”
This fact was disputed by
Florence and other sources, who
claimed that a meeting, along with
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DN File Photo
BILL SNYDER and the Wildcats finished strong in the 1999 season with an 11-1 record. However, even with 15 returning starters, the Wildcats
look to replace talented players at skilled positions this spring.
Browns leave big shoes to rill
Football team looks to fill gaps in secondary left by leaving players
By Brian Christopherson
Staff writer
Nebraska football doesn’t rebuild. It
reloads, right?
NU Secondary Coach George Darlington
prays that such a philosophy is correct,
although completely filling the indentation
left from the graduation of All-American
rover Mike Brown and cornerback Ralph
Brown would be a minor miracle.
Cornerback Keyuo Craver finds himself
as the grizzled veteran of this returning
bunch. The junior is the only returning defen
sive back to start all 13 games last season for a
secondary that ranked No. 2 in the country in
‘^ass-efficiency defense, behind only Kansas
State.
“There will not be a letdown,” Craver said.
“When you lose players like Mike and Ralph
and the linebackers we had, other people just
have to step up into those roles.”
The loss of Ralph Brown is eased some
what by the return of former starter Erwin
Swiney.
Swiney started every game as a sopho
more at left cornerback in 1998, but a serious
groin injury forced the junior into a medical
redshirt last season.
“Erwin appears to be fully recovered and
seems to have worked himself back into where
he was naturally before the injury,”
Darlington said.
Craver is excited at the opportunity to
have Swiney back in uniform again. He
served as a backup to Swiney during his fresh
man season in 1998.
“He’s a great player, and I am expecting
big things out of him this year,” Craver said.
While Craver is planted strongly at the No.
1 position on the depth chart at the left comer,
the right-corner starting slot is still up for
grabs this spring - competing are Swiney and
sophomore DeJuan Groce, Darlington said.
“DeJuan is having a really good spring and
has experience from starting on our dime
package last year,” Darlington said,
p- While the battle wages to replace Ralph
Brown, Darlington already is clued into who
will replace Mike Brown at the rover position.
Senior Joe Walker should step into that
role, bringing some big game experience to
the position.
“Joe has been a starting rover,” Darlington
said. “He started there two years ago when
Clint Finley was hurt and did a nice job.”
Junior Dion Booker and Finley are both
listed as No. 1 on the depth charts for the free
safety position right now.
Neither player is new to the starting role,
with Finley having started the first eight
games at free safety last season, backing up
Booker in the final five contests.
Booker’s emergence in the starting spot
has allowed Secondary Coach Darlington the
flexibility of playing Finley at the rover posi
tion also.
Building depth beyond those players has
been a concern to Darlington this spring,
mostly because of injuries.
“I think we’re progressing well this spring
in replacing Mike and Ralph, and we could
have some depth if we get everyone healthy,”
Darlington said.
” We had the senior
leadership last year
on defense, and the .
offense has it this year
on the line.”
George Darlington
secondary coach
However, the dark cloud hovering over
this spring has been the domination displayed
by the offense over the defense so far.
“Holding some of the players we have held
out has been a big factor to that,” Darlington
said. “And the offense is just better than they
were last year at this point.”
Craver doesn’t see it as a concern, either.
“That’s just part of football,” he said. “We
had the senior leadership last year on defense,
and the offense has it this year on the line.
Once players get situated, we’ll be good.”
The secondary should be tested perhaps
even more than usual, with traditional running
schools like Texas Tech and Missouri hyping a
more pass-oriented offense this season.
“It has usually been a strong point of this
team to have very good success against pass
ing teams,” Darlington said. “We see teams
going to more of the modem football. We just
have to keep putting the athletes out there
against them.”
Track star
discovered
niche late
\
\
■ Now the top javelin-thrower in
the Big 12, Cassi Morelock found
her sport relatively late.
By Jamie Suhr
Staff writer
Cassi Morelock didn’t thrown a javelin until
after she graduated high school.
Now, Morelock is an All-American javelin
thrower for the Nebraska track and field team
and the top thrower in the Big 12 Conference.
Her talent went undiscovered until she
stepped onto the field at a post-high school pen
tathlon, where Morelock shocked coaches by
stepping up and throwing the javelin 128 feet.
“I practiced for like an hour,” Morelock
said. “I didn’t realize how far I threw until
someone told me I broke the record.”
However, Morelock already had accepted a
basketball scholarship to Central Arizona
Community College, where she played point
guard alongside NU basketball player Monique
Whitfield.
After her two years of eligibility expired at
CACC, Morelock had won a championship in
both track and field and basketball, and letters
began to pour in but not for the sport Morelock
expected.
“I would get letter after letter and I’d be
excited,” Morelock said. “But they were all for
track.”
One of the first college coaches to visit her
was Mark Kostek, NU javelin and multi-events
coach. Morelock said he left shocked.
“He looked at me like I was some kind of
freak,” Morelock said. “He said, ‘How long
have you been throwing?”’
Success would come quickly for Morelock
at NU. She took home first place at the Big 12
Outdoor Conference Championships last year.
Things took a turn for the worse a few weeks
later. Morelock hurt her back while warming up
'at the NCAA Outdoor National
Championships. Morelock had been battling a
shoulder injury all season. '
Despite the injury, she still managed to fin
ish No. 8 in the country.
“I tried my hardest, but every time I threw, it
felt like I was getting hit with a sledge hammer
in my back,” Morelock said.
After nursing the injury, Morelock compet
ed in the United States Track and Field
Championships, finishing second with a throw
of 1.75-1 and gaining a spot in the World
University Games. That same year, she compet
ed for the United States in the Pan-American
Games.
Morelock said she’s only 70 percent healthy
and believed it was her rigorous training that
caused her back to go out.
“I’m a workhorse,” Morelock said. “It’s my
fault I’m injured. If I’m told to squat 200
pounds, I’ll move it to 220.”
Morelock is paying for that now. She must
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