Daily Nebraskan Tueday, January 16,2001 Page 10
Questions
aplenty for
Sanderford
I wish I never woke up last
Saturday.
Fbr one, fellow writer Lincoln
Ameal and I had the pure pleasure
oi driving oni
80 west
through an
western Iowa
at night - an
experience
that normally
reties jusi ■■■■■Haw
below watch- John
ing an N'Sync Gaskins
marathon on
my “things I’m
dying to do in life” list. To make
things worse, we drove through a
blizzard that-almost left us dead or
camping out at Wings’ Thick Stop
near Harlan for the night.
And, believe it or not, the trip
was the high point of the day.
It paled in comparison to the
misery of watching the young
Nebraska women’s basketball
team run around like chickens
with their heads cut off while No. 7
Iowa State put on a basketball
clinic and handing NU its worst
loss in NU history. It was like
watching the shower scene from
Psycho - you just wanted to turn
your head or cover your eyes.
For Head Coach Paul
Sanderford, it was one of his most
trying days in his 19-year head
coaching career. The 89-46 set
back was a true reminder of how
far his team has to go to party with
the cool kids like ISU, Texas Tech
and Texas.
Sanderford is a man who so
badly wants a national-caliber
program like Iowa State. A man
who has been to the Final Four.
Who almost shamelessly pro
motes himself to provoke interest
in his team and pack the Devaney
Center like Cyclone fans pack
Hilton Coliseum.
And a man who has a ton of
work cut out for him if the
Buskers (9-7) are going to make a
fourth straight trip to the NCAA
Tbumament
We'll figure it out in the coming
weeks: is this just a rebuilding team
that will be great next year with
Katie Robinette coming in? Or a
team whose overflowing talent can
be put to good use now? Can
Sanderford pull the same down
the-stretch magic he did with last
yearfc late-blooming team?
You don’t want to panic just
yet ISU is a well-oiled machine
that came out and hit on every
single possible cylinder in the
opening 10 minutes, behind
12,798 fans who smelled blood
from tip-off
But the Huskers also can’t
hide from some glaring problems.
Youth is still their biggest liabil
ity. TWelve of 15 players are fresh
men or sophomores, and it still
shows in their confused, sloppy
offense. Team after team has used
a full-court press that NU’s guards
can’t break. Saturday, the Huskers
couldn’t get or make an open shot
if their life depended on it
The lineup is a mess. The NU
bench is a revolving door.
Sanderford used every player
suited up on Saturday. Depth is
good. Having absolutely zero
rhythm, consistency or chemistry
because of it is suiqde.
Sanderford said Monday that
he’s narrowing NU’s playing rota
tion to 8 or 9 players. Good start.
Rather late, but good.
While he’s changing this, let’s
call some plays for volleyball
transfer Greichaly Cepero. The
last two opposing coaches have
called her the most gifted athlete
they have ever seen. Sure, some of
her passes look like jump serves
(according to Sanderford), but get
her in scoring position, and you’re
golden.
ine good tmng about tms
team is it has the talent and stingy
defense to be dancing in March.
There's no question the future
looks bright
The bad thing is the ISU game
showed the future could be far, far
away and the offense needs a
band-aid
Sanderford - who's coached
15 teams to the NCAA
Tournament teams and three to
the Final Four - might have to do
the coaching of his fife to save this
season from being more than just
an asterisk on his way to making
Nebraska the next Iowa State.
Hey, he gets No. 7 Texas Tech
Wednesday and No. 11 Texas
Saturday, and ISU visits Lincoln
Feb. 3. Three more chances to
party with the cool kids.
Let’s hope they don’t spill the
punch all over themselves like
they did in Ames.
Husker defense key in UT upset
■ Nebraska ended a four-game losing skid
and Texas' seven-game winning stieak by
holding UT to 33 percent field goal shooting.
BY BRIAN CHRtSTOPHERSON
A week's worth of practice proved to be
the right medicine on Saturday afternoon
for the Nebraska basketball team, which
looked like anything but a team that had
lost four straight games.
The Cornhuskers gave a sterling
defensive performance to go along with a
deadly assault from their senior leaders to
beat No. 22 Texas 80-67 before 8,640 fans at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The win raised NU’s record to 8-7 over
all and 1-1 in Big 12 play. Texas fell to 12-3
and 2-1 in the conference.
Although it was NU’s first win against a
ranked opponent since a victory over
Kansas two years ago, the win came as no
surprise to Husker players.
"We had five good practices (last)
week, and we knew this was a winable
game,” Nebraska senior center Kimani
Ffriend said. “After coming off the
Missouri loss by two points, we knew we
were better then what we were five games
ago. We knew if we played well, we would
win.”
It was Ffriend and his fellow seniors
who led by example. NU senior forward
Steffon Bradford and guard Cookie
Belcher had 20 and 18 points respectively
Nebraska 80
Texas 67
-1—J
to go along with Ffriend’s 18 points on five
of six shooting.
Nebraska shot a solid 51 percent from
the floor for the game, while the
Longhorns struggled offensively, produc
ing only a mark of 33 percent from the
floor.
UT’s offense was especially stagnant in
the first half, scoring only seven field goals
and a season-equaling low 20 points. The
Longhorns trailed NU by eight at the inter
mission bell.
“I think this is probably our best defen
sive effort against a good basketball team,”
Collier said. “It will take this kind of effort
every night. That is something we haven’t
learned how to do yet, but once you do it
the first time, you can certainly learn how
to do it again.”
Nobody in burnt orange appeared
more frustrated then UT’s Maurice Evans.
The junior forward, who came into the
game averaging 17 points per contest,
scored only three points on one of nine
shooting. Evans was hounded by several
Huskers throughout the game, including
Belcher.
“I was trying to be physical with him,”
Belcher said. "He started out physical with
me, but I wanted to switch that around. We
got him taking off-balance shots. He was
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David Clasen/DN
Cookie Belcher
finishes a lay-up
after stealing
the ball against
Texas Saturday.
Nebraska ended
UT's 6-game win
streak by
defeating the
No. 23
Longhorns BO
67.
Near-perfect floor routines propel NU
■ women's gym team
dug deep in its final rotation to
narrowly defeat Oregon State.
BY KRISTEN WATERS
The Nebraska women’s gym
nastics team squeezed by a visit
ing Oregon State team at the first
home meet of the season on
Sunday.
In front of a home crowd of
1,104, the sixth-ranked Huskers
improved to 2-1 on the season
with a 195.225-194.90 win over
the ^to-ranked Beavers.
"It was a lot of fun performing
in front of a home crowd,” fresh
man Tami Harris said.
NU opened the day strong
with a record-breaking perform
ance on the vault by freshman
Gina Bruce. Bruce scored a 9.90,
which tied NU's freshman record
in the event, and walked away
with her first event title.
Freshman Alecia Ingram tied
with OSU’s Karina Severin for
second with a score of9.875.
On beam, sophomore Julie
Houk also won her first event tide
of the season with a score of 9.95,
tying her career-high score. With
the help of sophomore Jess Wertz
and Ingram’s 9.90 tie for second,
the Huskers extended their lead
against OSU.
But the momentum came to
kn end on the beam exercise,
where three Comhuskers fell, giv
ing the team its lowest score in
the event since 1999 at 47.50. This
left NU trailing the Beavers by a
half point heading into the last
rotation.
“It's the beginning of the sea
son, and we're a young team,”
Ingram said of NU's poor per
NEBRASKA
iN
Scott Me
Nebraska gymnasts and coaches watch senior Amy Ringo compete in the floor exercise Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Ringo set a new personal best in the floor
exercise with a score of 9.95 and helped the Huskers edge Oregon State 195.225-194.90.
formance on the beam. “We just
got nervous, and it had kind of a
snowball effect on the team.”
The Huskers needed to stay
focused in the floor exercise, the
final event of the night, Ingram
said.
“We had a group talk before
the floor event, and we focused
on doing a perfect routine,” she
said.
Led by senior Amy Ringo, that
is nearly what the team got.
Ringo stepped up by tying a
school record with a score of 9.95
to place first in the event. Wertz,
Ingram and Harris tied for third
place with a score of 9.875. The
performances were enough for a
close NU victory.
In the all-around competi
tion, Ingram placed second with
a score of 38.825 behind OSU's
Annie Campbell who scored
39.075. Harris finished second on
the team and fourth in the all
around with a score of38.450.
The Huskers continue to
compete without sophomores
A.J Lamb and Bree Dority
O’Callaghan because of injuries. '
Both may compete in NU’s next
competition, a matchup with the
defending Big 12 champion Iowa
State Cyclones in Ames, Iowa, on
Friday
“Our only weak point right
now is beam,” Ingram said. "And
if we improve that, we should do
pretty well this weekend.”
ISU clobbers NU Women
BY LINCOLN ARNEAL
AMES, Iowa — Nebraska Coach Paul Sanderford
was looking for all the help he could get during an 89
46 loss, the worst in school history, to No. 7 Iowa State.
All 14 players saw action in the first half, and
when that didn’t seem to work, he looked to other
areas of the bench.
“I was looking for anybody who had some fire,”
Sanderford said. “I tried to put in (Assistant Coach)
Michelle Clark twice because she rebounds pretty
good."
The lone bright spot for NU -a 6-2 lead over the
Cyclones (13-1,4-0 in the Big 12) - came on three
pointers from Greichaly Cepero and Shannon
Howell.
After that, things quickly got ugly. The Cyclones
went on a 30-3 run, including 21 unanswered points.
ISU held NU without a point for six minutes and
without a field goal for 11 minutes.
“We just went into the tank and couldn’t dig our
selves out,” sophomore guard Margaret Richards
said.
No matter what NU did, it could not stop Iowa
State, which couldn’t do anything wrong.
“In the first 12 to 14 minutes, they executed as
well today offensively as any team that I have ever
coached against,” Sanderford said.
Iowa State 89
Nebraska 46
The three pointer buried NU and took them out
of the game. The Cyclones were seven for eight from
behind the arc in the first half and 11 of 16 overall.
During ISU’s big first-half run, each of ISU’s starters
hit a three.
While the Cyclones were dismantling the Husker
defense with jumpers, the Nebraska offense man
aged a mere 18 points in the first half, turning the ball
over 14 times and shooting just 20 percent from the
field in the half.
The Huskers did not have a player score double
digits as Steph Jones and Casey Leonhardt led NU
with 9 points apiece.
Angie Welle led Iowa State with 22 points.
There were a number of problems for NU
throughout the game, but Sanderford said he was
disappointed that no one took charge on the court.
"No one stepped up for us today,” he said. “The
leadership wasn’t there.”
Nebraska will now have to bounce back quickly
as the Huskers will face No. 9 Texas Tech at home on
Wednesday.
“We can’t forget about this loss," Leonhardt said.
"We need to learn from our mistakes and get better.”
Athletic comerback
says NU's the place
BY SEAN CALLAHAN
The theme for the 2001
Nebraska football recruiting class
has been speed and athleticism.
With the addition of
Corsicana, Texas, standout
Danielle Manning, the
Comhuskers are continuing that
trend of recruiting versatile play
ers that can be used anywhere on
the field.
Manning, a5-foot-ll, 186
pound comerback with a 40-yard
dash time of 4.4 seconds, now
gives the Huskers 15 verbal com
mitments in their class of2001.
Of the 15 commitments, nine
of the players fit the “athlete
mold,” meaning they can be used
at more then one position.
According to Manning, who is
ranked the 16th-best cornerback
in the nation by Rivalsl00.com, it
was almost a no brainier for him
to come to Nebraska after his offi
cial visit this weekend.
“When it was all said and
done, Nebraska was just right,”
Manning said.
Manning’s commitment to
the Huskers undoubtedly sur
prised Texas A&M coaches and
fans. It was just Oct. 26 when
Manning gave his commitment to
the Aggies.
Going into this weekend,
Manning said he still considered
himself a commitment to the
Aggies but wanted to check out
NU with his own eyes.
“Just talking to thte players and
listening to them tell me how it is
there gave me a good idea what to
expect,” Manning said. “They are
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