SportsThursday
NU season
doomed
from start
KANSAS
CITY, Mo. -
Oh. I can just
hear the
groaning out
there.
Groaning
John
Gaskins
aouui a
Nebraska
women’s bas
ketball team
that had a ter
rible, horrible, no good, very bad
12-18 season.
And there's plenty of groan
ing about Coach Paul
Sanderford, a man who has won
over 400 games and has more
jewelry7 to show for it than Mr. T. A
man who's hot-headed, quick
tongued sideshow maybe no
longer entertaining to fans.
"What’s wrong with Paul
Sanderford? I thought he said
he’d bring us a national caliber
program in five years? Why is he
so hard on his kids? Why is he
such an egomaniac? Is he on the
hot seat? Is he overrated?”
Believe me. I’ve heard them.
Typical Nebraska fans. The foot
ball perfection virus seems to
infect every sport now. When NU
doesn’t win and win big, the stars
get misaligned, and the ground
breaks beneath us.
It’s as if a losing season is
blasphemy, sacrilege. W&s
watching the Huskers play about
as worthless as watching a
Steven Segal movie? Oh yes,
especially one that co-stars
DMX. Is that a reason to march
into Sanderford’s office, tar and
feathers in hand? Absolutely not.
Are there some things to
question about his perform
ance? Sure, to say the least, and
he’s been the first to admit that.
The man wasn’t given a very
good deck of cards this year. His
top three scorers from last year
were gone, including All-Big 12
guard Nicole Kubik, who down
the stretch would single-hand
edly remove the revolver that was
lodged down the Husker s throat
just in time to make NU’s third
straight NCAA appearance.
This year the trigger was des
tined to be pulled from the start.
It was pure suicide.
Working with 11 freshmen
and sophomores with little col
lege experience and all kinds of
game, Sanderford opted to run a
motion offense with very little
structure. He and the players
raved before the season on how
this free-flowing offense would
allow the super athletes on the
floor to do what they wanted to.
What this allowed was for a
bunch of up-and-comers to try
to be Kubik when they had no
business to. They all fought for
playing time. They had to prove
themselves. Besides trying to
feed stalwart Casey Leonhardt
the ball three-fourths of the time,
which resulted in missed chip
shots or disaster after Leonhardt
would get in foul trouble, the
young Huskers controlled the
basketball with the composure
of, well, freshmen.
t-ree nowingf i\o. Disastrous'
Yes.
NU committed the most
turnovers in the Big 12 and four
times, four, went over the 30
turnover mark. Hardly ever were
there any adjustments to correct
that; they just kept hitting the
wall.
Hardly ever did it seem like
the players were on the same
page. Hardly ever was there evi
dence of togetherness... which
was somewhat attributed to the
fact that the NU bench was a
revolving door. Sanderford,
although he said mid-season he
would do it, never instituted a
rigid eight-player rotation.
Without a go-to player or a com
bination of playmakers, that
spelled disaster.
In other words, it never
looked like a team was taking the
court. Just five green players in
red jerseys.
Sanderford also acknowl
edged his strategy of taking on
the eighth toughest schedule in
the nation was not the best confi
dence booster for his spring
chickens. They had already been
beaten up by the time they got to
the Big 12 where the bruises only
got darker and deeper.
That leads us to the final
point of what went wrong in
2001. Nebraska stumbled into a
bad year to be an inexperienced
team in the Big 12. At one point,
they played seven ranked teams
Please see GASKINS on 9
Huskers must win without Ffriend
BY JOSHUA CAMENZIND
When Nebraska faces
Kansas State in its first round
game of the Big 12 tourna
ment, the Cornhuskers could
be without the No. 1 reason
they swept the Wildcats during
the regular season.
Center Kimani Ffriend,
who played major offensive
and defensive roles in
Nebraska’s two wins over K
State, will most likely be rele
gated to the bench in tonight’s
6 p.m. contest with a sprained
MCL, suffered in practice last
Friday.
The senior blocked three
shots in the closing seconds of
NU’s 63-61 win in Manhattan
and poured in a double-dou
ble in the Cornhuskers’ 82-56
thumping in Lincoln.
Ffriend and Nebraska
Coach Barry Collier wouldn’t
rule out a possible return to
action this weekend for the Big
12 All-Defensive team selec
tion, but both said it would be
in a limited capacity.
"I really w'ant him out there
if he can go,” Collier said. “I
don’t know if a single minute
would warrant playing him,
but certainly, not the 30 min
utes we've been playing him. If
he’s strong enough, maybe 10
minutes a half.”
Ffriend was injured during
Friday’s practice at Iowa
State’s Hilton Coliseum when
teammate Kevin Augustine fell
into his knee, causing Ffriend
to miss the 86-73 loss to 1SU.
Ffriend was fitted for a
brace on Monday, which he
said would take some getting
used to if he were able to play
against KSU or in the case of a
Nebraska win, against Kansas
on Friday.
‘‘If we could make it to
Friday or Saturday, that raises
the possibility even higher,”
Ffriend said. "I could be pretty
effective aside from getting
used to the brace. I don’t think
the quickness will be there.”
It was Ffriend’s quickness
that allowed him to block
seven shots against K-State in
their first meeting and score
17 points and collect 11
rebounds in NU's home-drub
bing of the Wildcats. But
Nebraska has shown lately it
has players capable of step
ping up in Ffriend’s absence.
Example No. 1 is senior
guard Cookie Belcher, whose
play in the last three games
has been that of an all-league
performer. Belcher averaged
23 points against Kansas,
Texas A&M and Iowa State,
while showing he could knock
down the outside shot, hitting
13 threes in the games.
But while Belcher looks to
pick up the slack from the out
side, Steffon Bradford and
Brian Conklin need to man the
post with extra awareness.
“It's my job to help more
than I had to do with Kimani,"
Bradford said. “With Conklin,
he doesn’t have that size, so it
is my job to help him and then
get back to my man.”
Bradford collected 11
boards in the two teams’ first
meeting but hadn't been much
of a factor offensively.
Conklin, on the other
hand, played a major role in
the win in Lincoln with 11
Please seeFFRIENDon9
DN File Photo
Nebraska will
most likely be
without shot
blocker Kimani
Ffriend for its
Big 12 tourna
ment game vs.
Kansas State at
6 p.m.
in Kansas City,
Mo. The senior
from Kingston,
Jamaica, is high
ly questionable
with a sprained
MCL.
Nate Wagner/DN
Nebraska wrestler Ati Conner has battled back from numerous injuries his junior year to qualify for the NCAA
championships. A senior from Goleta, Calif., Conner placed third at the Big 12 championships last week.
Conner now
complete
BY DAVID DIEHL
As his coach would say, Nebraska wrestler Ati
Conner has finally kicked the door in.
When Conner, a 174-pounder, captured third
place at the Big 12 championships last weekend in
Stillwater, Okla., he capped a rather remarkable turn
around from previous performances against confer
ence competition and qualified for his first NCAA
championship.
Conner, a senior from Goleta, Calif., was one of
six Comhuskers to qualify for the NCAA tournament,
March 15-17 in Iowa City, Iowa.
While it will be Conner’s
first NCAA bid, Husker All
Americans Brad Vering,
Bryan Snyder and Todd
Beckerman will be making
return trips with Vering vying
for his second consecutive
national title. Freshman 125
pounder Jason Powell will
also be making his first NCAA
trip.
Seeded fifth and ranked
No. 12 nationally for Big 12s,
Conner stormed his way
through the consolation
bracket on his way to a third
place finish. In doing so, he
defeated two higher-ranked
wrestlers and avenged his opening-round loss to
nearly pin Missouri’s John Kopniski, then ranked
10th, in the consolation finals, winning convincingly,
9-4.
Nebraska Coach Mark Manning said afterward
Conner could earn All-America status (top eight)
with the caliber of wTestling he showed last week.
“That’s the way we wanted him to wrestle,"
Manning said. “He wrestled real loose."
It was a stark contrast to Conner’s previous per
formances in the Big 12 Conference. Last season,
plagued by injured right and left shoulders, a twisted
knee and constant battles with flu and cold bugs,
Conner’s wrestling still screamed of his potential
with a 26-10 record and a ranking that you could feel
begging to be higher than its debut at No. 16.
“It seemed
more of a
burden to
wrestle than
something
to do for
fun. ”
Ati Conner
NU wrestler
Please see WRESTLER on 9
Womens Big 12 has become dogfight
■ Baylor, Oklahoma and Iowa State, along
with the traditional powers, make the Big 12
one of the nation's best leagues.
BY JOHN GASKINS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Last year, Nebraska
women’s basketball Coach Paul Sanderford
was asked to explain how in the world
Kansas State could come within three points
of being just the third team in 62 tries to beat
Iowa State at home and also upset it the next
month.
After all, KSU was the Big 12’s eighth
place team that finished with a 6-10 record.
Iowa State was an Elite Eight qualifier.
Sanderford, almost always a man of a
thousand colorful words, shrugged his
shoulders and gave a thorough, two-word
explanation.
"Big 12," he said.
I his is one mind-boggling conference.
How does a team like Baylor go from 7-20,
losing 15 league games by an average of 20
points in 2000, to 20-7 and a No. 24 ranking in
the latest AP poll? How do Colorado. Kansas
and Nebraska dominate the Big Eight for 15
years then watch endangered species Baylor,
Oklahoma and Iowa State eat them alive?
How does Kansas upset 12-4 Iowa State
one night and turnaround three nights later
and fall to 4-12 Nebraska?
Pure Darwinism. Every game.
“This league is so tough on your mind
and body as a player,” Nebraska guard
Amanda Went said. “You have to bring your
hard hat every night, and you’d better not be
afraid of anything. Anybody can beat any
body. We have to beat each other up in prac
tice every day and hit the weight room with a
vengeance because if we don't, were going to
get beat.”
More mind boggling is what is going on
this week at the Big 12 tournament in Kansas
City’s Municipal Auditorium.
Six teams are ranked in one of two major
polls, eight have been ranked at least once
and all 12 have received votes at one time.
This explains why NU, which managed to
beat just two teams in the league, is still
ranked No. 77 in power rankings despite a
12-18 record. All eight teams above the
Huskers are in the top 51.
“What I think makes the Big 12 so tough
is there are no patsies, no gimmies,”
Oklahoma Coach Sherri Coale said. “Every
game is a struggle. Some of those other
leagues you’ve got five or slx teams that you
really hook up with and then you have five or
six teams where you just win by 40 points
and play your subs. That doesn’t happen in
i
our league."
Such is the sign that the Southeastern
Conference, which houses dynasty program
Tennessee and two other top 10 teams (No. 4
Georgia, No. 10 Vanderbilt) may not be reign
ing queen conference of women's basketball,
th^vpnwritten title it has held for a large por
tion of the sport’s history.
“I remember playing Georgia in the
NCAAs one year, and their coach told me
that their playing in the SEC would help
them against a Big 12 team such as us," said
18tll-year Colorado Coach Ceal Barry, whose
team won four Big Eight titles and finished
second in the first year of the Big 12 before
finishing eighth, eighth and lO1*1 from 1998
2000.
“That's when I knew this league was
good.”
The reason for the Big 12 boom is simple:
exceptional coaches, both young and veter
an, who recruit exceptional players.
When it started in 1996-1997, the league
already had its staples:
■ Texas Tech, which won three straight
Big 12 titles from 1998-2000 and the NCAA
championship in 1993. Coach Marsha Sharp
has won over 450 games in just 19 seasons.
■ Texas, which won 10 Southwestern
Please see WOMEN on 9
Madness:
It's just
starting
BY BRIAN CHR1ST0PHERS0N
Now the real fun begins.
March Madness.
Lose, cry and go home.
That’s the harsh reality that
faces seven of the teams in this
year’s Big 12 Conference tourna
ment. For teams like Missouri
and Nebraska, survival is based
on winning. For teams like
Kansas and Iowa State, this
weekend is about improving
seeding and tuning up for the
big dance.
It's 11 games of basketball,
Thursday through Sunday.
Beautiful. Here’s a quick guide, a
little background if you will, to
this year’s Big 12 tournament
teams.
Iowa State (25-4,13-3)
The Cyclones are towering
over the conference right now.
ISU w’on the Big 12 regular sea
son crowm this year for the sec
ond straight time. The boys from
Ames, Iowa, also hold the title as
last year’s tournament champi
ons. The Cyclones are maybe
playing in the same rec league as
Delta Upsilon if it isn’t for senior
guard Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley
makes the ship go, although
sometimes he can get a little too
cool for the gym. But expect the
best player in the conference to
show' up when the lights come
on in Kansas City, Mo. And with
a tourney championship, ISU
could claim that all-important
No. 1 seed in the Midwest
region.
Kansas i^-o, i^-4j
The Jayhawks are a little
grumpy. KU isn’t used to playing
second fiddle to anyone in this
conference when it comes to
basketball. KU has won three of
the first four Big 12 tourney
titles, and might be the favorite
this year with the return of soph
omore center Drew Gooden to
the lineup. KU whipped
Missouri 75-59 on Sunday with
Gooden back at full speed and
will carry the home court advan
tage that Kemper Arena often
provides them. Also factor in
that ISU has beaten Kansas
twice this year. A third time
would be a difficult task, even
for Tinsley.
Oklahoma (23-6,12-4)
Oklahoma wins ugly. “We go
out there, roll up our sleeves and
go to work,” Oklahoma Coach
Kelvin Sampson said of his blue
collar team. The Sooners
seemed to be dead when junior
guard J.R. Raymond was sus
pended indefinitely from the
team. But sophomore guard
Hollis Price has picked up the
slack to close the season. He
averaged 18.5 points per game
last week en route to Big 12 play
er of the week honors. OU could
face a tough first game against
Missouri though on Friday. If the
Tigers win on Thursday, they
will be hungry for a win with
Please see GUIDE on 9