SportsThursday
Go West:
California
toumey
calls NU
BY JOHN GASKINS
For 25 years, the Nebraska
volleyball program has battled
to prove that the championship
volleyball radar extends beyond
the sport’s roots on the West
Coast
The Huskers did it in 1995
and last December by winning
national titles. Only NU and two
other schools in the 20-year his
tory of the NCAA Tournament -
Texas in 1988 and Penn State in
1999 - have come from outside
California and Hawaii to claim
the title.
In 2001, the defending
champs might get three chances
to invade the Golden State and
maintain their swagger.
The ultimate trip, NU hopes,
will be to San Diego for the Final
Four at the end of the season. To
start the season, Nebraska will
play powerhouses in California
two weeks in a row.
The Hu&kers recently
accepted an invitation to play in
the State Farm Women’s
Volleyball Classic in Stockton,
Calif., on Friday, Aug. 24 and
Saturday, Aug. 25. Other teams
invited were 2000 NCAA runner
up Wisconsin and No. 3 Hawaii -
the two teams NU beat in the
Final Four. The four-team field
and pairings won't be
announced for several weeks.
uoing oui 10 ^amornia
where there is such a craze for
volleyball will be good for us,"
junior-to-be All-American out
side hitter Laura Pilakowski said.
“We^on’t really think about
where we’re from a lot, but it’ll be
good to show them that there’s
other people besides
Californians that can play,” she
said.
It will be the Huskers’
record-setting fourth appear
ance in the seven-year history of
the premier event. NU hosted
the tournament in 1995 and
1999. The 2001 host team will be
Pacific, a two-time national
champion.
NU Coach John Cook, who
went 34-0 in his first year and
beat the likes of three-time
NCAA champ Hawaii and three
time champ UCLA, said playing
two extra quality matches to
start the season can only help
the Huskers’ mettle against top
teams come NCAA tournament
time.
Pilakowski agreed.
“We’ve looked at our sched
ule, and its going to be really
tough this year,” Pilakowski said.
“It's really good for us to start out
that way. We always start out
with great competition, and that
just helps in the long run and in
the tournament at the end.”
The very next week, the
Huskers hit the coast again to
play three-time champ Long
Beach State and UC-Santa
Barbara - the school that gave
NU its last loss in the Sweet 16
round of the 1999 NCAA tourna
ment
As a result of such schedul
ing, NU called off its match with
four-time champ Stanford-who
won back-to-back titles in 1996
and '97 - to spare taking yet
another California trip.
But that doesn't mean the
rest of the schedule won’t be
tough. NU will open its home
season Sept. 7-9 by hosting
Please see SLATE on 9
Huskers get revenge on Mizzou
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
There was just too much
Jamaican for the Missouri basket
ball team to account for on
Wednesday night.
Nebraska senior center
Kimani Ffriend led a rebounding
assault against the Tigers (12-6,3
2), and the
Comhuskers (9
9, 2-3) used its
board domi
nance to over
come a second half deficit and
beat MU 85-79 before 10,471 fans
at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
NU owned the interior,
matching Missouri’s 24 total team
rebounds with 24 rebounds on
the offensive end alone. The
Huskers collected 44 total for the
game, with 16 of those rebounds
belonging to Ffriend.
Nebraska senior forward
Steffon Bradford also got in the
act, claiming 13 points, with a
share of those coming on offen
sive putbacks.
“That’s the way it ought to be,”
Nebraska Coach Barry Collier
said.
Ffriend was inclined to agree
with his coach.
“I need to hustle like this every
night... I have to have that consis
tency,” said Ffriend, who led the
Husker attack with 20 points with
10 of 13 foul shooting. “I know that
if I play to my potential, nobody is
Nebraska 85
Missouri 79
Derek Lippincott/DN
NU forward Steffon Bradford reaches for an offensive rebound on Wednesday night against Missouri. Bradford scored 13 points
and grabbed seven rebounds in the Huskers'85-79 win.
going to stop me.”
The Huskers needed the
inside game to counter the hot
shooting of Missouri, who hit 51
percent from the floor for the
game.
The Tigers seemed poised to
take over die game, bolstering a
36-32 halftime lead into a 55-44
advantage with 12:21 remaining,
led by junior guard Clarence
Gilbert’s 25 points and sopho
more forward Kareem Rush’s 21
points.
“Honestly, I thought we were
in a lot of trouble,” Nebraska sen
ior guard Cookie Belcher said
about the 11 point deficit
Less than five minutes later,
the despair was gone and the
home floor was rocking when a
Ffriend dunk and added free
PleaseseeWINon9
Gilbert's
game can't
help Tigers
BY JOSHUA CAMENZ1ND
Energy is something
Missouri guard Clarence Gilbert
just doesn’t lack.
But even Gilbert was
drained after his Tigers lost to
Nebraska 85-79 on Wednesday
night.
The junior, when he doesn’t
channel that energy into his
game, has been known to put it
to use in his trash-talking and
fun-gunning style. Gilbert’s
mouth and in-your-face
approach usually drives his
game. But he said very few
words on the court Wednesday.
And even less off of it after
wards.
"This one hurts,” was all
Gilbert could muster after a
one-on-one meeting outside
the locker room with MU Coach
Quin Snyder after the game.
Snyder said Gilbert took this
loss hard, but was clearly not
Please see GILBERT on 9
Burke to send
another to NU
BY DAVID DIEHL
By looking at Barry Collier’s latest grab in the
recruiting game, it looks as if he’s not only staying in
state, but he’s focusing on the same school
Jason Dourisseau, a 6-foot-4,170-pound guard
from Omaha Burke High School, verbally committed
to Collier's 2002-03 recruiting class Monday night. He
is the second recruit from the Bulldogs to give an oral
commitment to the Huskers.
Dourisseau’s teammate, 6-foot-9,240-pound
center Roy Enright, committed to NU this past April
in what is believed to be the earliest commitment
Nebraska has ever received from a basketball recruit
The pair has helped lead Burke to a 9-3 record in the
Metro Conference.
“I didn’t think I had anything to wait for,”
Dourisseau said about his choice to commit to a
school during his junior season. "Nebraska is where I
wanted to be.”
Dourisseau, who has started as a sophomore and
a junior, is averaging 16.3 points and eight rebounds
a game for Burke. Dourisseau said Iowa State and
Creighton were other schools that have showed
interest in his talent
He said he was especially pleased with the aca
demic support system Nebraska had for its athletes.
Plus the coaches and the people within the program
made it attractive, too.
“I just thought itwould be the best fit for me as far
as the atmosphere,” he said.
As the second player from Burke to accept an
offer from NU, Dourisseau said Enright played a big
role in his commitment
"When I told him they offered me on Saturday, he
told me I should commit” Dourisseau said. “I would
like to play with Roy a little longer, too.”
Dourisseau has played at all five positions on the
floor for Burke Coach Gary Graner, but he said his
spot would be at the point guard, shooting guard or
maybe even some small forward for NU.
Dourisseau admitted that he is going to work on
his size, as his current 170-pound frame is under
sized for Division I guards. He does have another year
and a half to work on it
“We talked about starting a weight program this
summer,” Dourisseau said.
While Collier is actively pursuing high-school
underclassmen, he has also signed four players for
next season. Corey Simms, a shooting guard from St.
Louis, Mo., Brennan Clemons, a point guard from
Olney (HL) Junior College, Dan Heimos, a center from
Waterloo, HI, and Lincoln Southeast shooting guard
Jake Mulheisen make up Collier’s current 2001-2002
recruiting class.
Collier has two scholarships open over the next
two years. He loses five seniors this year in Kimani
Ffriend, Steffon Bradford, Cookie Belcher, Rodney
Fields and Craig Wortmann.
Losing string at Buffs nits 16
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The curse at Colorado continues.
Nebraska (9-10,1-5) was unable to put
anything together in the second half when
they were within striking distance of No. 25
Colorado (14-3, 5-1), and the Buffaloes
eventually pulled away for an 87-69 victory.
The loss was the 16th straight for NU at
the Coors Events Center. It ajso extended
the Cornhuskers’ losing
skid to four straight. The
string is the longest losing
streak in Paul Sanderford’s
four years at Nebraska.
History wasn’t on NU’s side going into
die contest, as the last time it defeated CU
was in 1985 with a final score of85-60.
But times looked like they had a possi
Colorado 87
Nebraska 69
bility of changing in the second half. With
Nebraska only down by three points with
14:18 remaining, it seemed as though the
Buffaloes were in for trouble.
However, in the blink of an eye, the rea
sonable three-point deficit turned into nine.
The Huskers were never able to recover
as the deficit just kept getting bigger and
bigger.
CU’s depth helped them out in the sec
ond half of play. Hie Buffs were led by junior
Jenny Rouher, who came off the bench to
score 20 points.
During the first half of play, Nebraska
relied on senior center Casey Leonhardt,
who was six for seven from the field and
made all four of her free-throw attempts to
score 16 points. With the effort, Nebraska
only trailed by five at halftime, having no
other players score more than six points.
Megan Cody/DN
Wrestling battles weight cutting reputation
BY DAVID DIEHL
The sport of wrestling at
the high school and college
levels has been saddled with
uneasy images of wrestlers
unhealthily testing their bod
ies' limits, trying to eschew
every ounce of unnecessary
weight in order to perform at
apeak.
It is an image the NCAA
and its wrestling teams are
trying to escape because it’s
harmful and, with the advent
of new rules, incorrect
The idea behind weight
cutting was for wrestlers to be
the biggest within the con
straints of their respective
weight classes, but at the
same time to have the leanest
body possible and perform at
the body’s highest level of effi
ciency.
Therefore, any extra bag
gage just gets thrown off the
train. Today, however, the
trains aren’t dropping as
much baggage as they used
to.
Through education, new
rules and three tragic deaths,
the practice that put the sport
of wrestling in a bad light is
not a factor in college or high
school wrestling today.
Nebraska Coach Mark
Manning realizes the way
wrestling is perceived
because of weight cutting in
the past, but it shouldn't be so
now, he said.
“There really is no such
thing as weight cutting any
more in wrestling,” Manning
said. “It’s because of the
rules.”
But the rules have done
little to smash the miscon
ceptions of wrestlers.
Outside of the immediate
sphere of wrestling, little is
known about the sport that
demands so much physically
out of its competitors. When
this ignorance combines
with perceptions of dropping
weight, the result has been a
black eye for the sport for
years.
Misconceptions of
wrestlers not eating for long
periods of time and under
taking rigorous workouts fly
around in the minds of those
not familiar with wrestling,
Manning said. But for any
body to maintain such prac
tices isn’t possible, he said.
“They can’t do that," said
Manning, who has been
Please see WEIGHT on 9
"The weight
management issue
had been a black
eye for the sport
for a long time. We
knew though that
we wouldn’t be
able to change the
culture just by
rules. It would
need rules and
education. ”
Mike Moyer
Director of the National
Wrestling Coaches’
Association
