That was the headline in a Illinois paper as they reported on the Illinois loss to Nebraska, 80-57. At least that is their opinion of Husker basketball.

Well Husker fans may disagree with that headline. True this hasn’t been a very good first season basketball performance for the Husker men. At least a true Husker fan’s take on that might be, “Well, finally they played the way I have always thought they could play.”

At the beginning it looked like it was a start the same way it has been in many games. With just over 8 minutes left in the first half the Huskers were down 24-16, but then the Big Red kicked into high gear with Bo Spencer nailing two 3 pointers. This set off a 14-0 run before the Illini scored two and the Huskers continued on till half time with a 17-2 run and leading 33-26 at half time.

The second half continued with the red hot Huskers out scoring the guests 19-2 to build a 24 point lead. All total the Huskers outscored Illinois 43-7 during this surge.

Spencer hit 9-11 including 5-7 on three pointers to lead the Huskers with 27 points. Caleb Walker added 13 and Brandon Richardson chipped in 12 as the Huskers shot 55.6% from the floor.

This was a crushing loss for the Illinois as they were really set on finishing a sweep of their last games to enhance their chances of going to the big NCAA tournament. Now things look a little glum as evidenced by the expressions of players as they saw their chances slip away.

After the game, Illinois Coach Bruce Weber had this to say, “They (Nebraska) made every shot. I’ve played in games before where it happens. I’ve had great teams in top leagues get beat like that. I knew Nebraska would come loose and free. (Bo) Spencer, when he gets going, he’s tough to deal with. I told the kids after that I’m still very proud of them. They didn’t quit. They really, really care. There are lots of tears in our locker room.

“The weight of the world – once they made the run, I think the weight of the world kind of caved in on our guys and there was no stopping. Our kids kept fighting and battling and didn’t quit. It’s just one of those days. Now we have five games left, and I’m going to come back and have some spirit like they have all year. If you were at practice yesterday, they practiced like it was the first day of the year. I promise you no one has quit in that locker room.”

Women’s Gymnastics: If you watch a lot of college sports, like I do, you have probably noticed the number of true freshman in starting lineups or having a great deal of playing time in their events.

Nebraska has them too: Meet Jessie DeZiel from Rogers, Minnesota.

The Huskers latest match up was in Jessie’s home state and without a doubt she probably had many family and friends there in Minneapolis to watch her perform. Now that had to be added pressure on this young woman.

She performed. She did everything right. She won her fifth all-around title of the year and I speculate that when the B1G announces the gGymnasts of the week, Jessie might add another medal to her collection. She has won freshman of the week five times already.

The Huskers had to be in top form as the Gophers had geared themselves up to a high performance level While Jessie won three event titles, she wasn’t the only Husker on the floor. Janelle Giblin tied her for the vault title at 9.95. Janelle also tied senior Lora Evenstad for the bars title. They were the last two Huskers to perform and hit back to back 9.90s

Emily Wong and Jamie Schleppenbach each scored career highs in their events Another true freshman, Jennifer Lauer scored a career high in the vault putting up a 9.80.

“That’s a pretty special day,” Head Coach Dan Kendig said after the meet. “You come up here, and think about all the distractions she (Jessie) had, and perform the way she did was amazing. Her and Emily (Wong) both, they were both great tonight.”

 As a team, the Huskers posted a 49.00 or above on all four events for the fourth time this season, including a 49.575 on the vault, which is tied for the sixth highest score in school history.

“We really rocked the house on vault tonight. It was really great, high-quality vault,” Kendig said. “The way we bounced back tonight on beam and floor really showed us a lot about our team.”

Late news from the B1G.

 As suspected Jessie DiZiel won her 6^th consecutive Freshman Gymnast of the Week award. Then on top of that the B1G also awarded her with Co-Gymnast of the Week along with Collen Green, a Junior from Ohio State.

Men’s Gymnastics: Also in Minneapolis, the men had a great night, but it just wasn’t enough for the #8 Huskers to upset the #6 Golden Gophers who finished at 345.600 to 339.400. The Huskers’ team score marked a new season high, and the team put together a season-best mark on floor exercise while tying their season-best on parallel bars.

Another freshman, Grant Perdue, took the lead for the Huskers winning both the floor exercise and the vault. His 14.80 on the vault was a career high while his 14.80 on the vault tied his season best. Sophomore Eric Schryver’s score of 14.60 on horse was good for the event title on horse, his second title in the event in 2012.

OK, with all those event titles, what happened to make the win going to the Gophers? The weak points for the Huskers were on the floor and vault where the Huskers lost a total of 7.5 points to the Gophers. That spelled the difference.

Softball: The Lady Huskers finished 3-3 in their first tournament in Tempe last week and this week they were in Las Cruces for the Troy Cox Classic. This time the competition wasn’t a sharp and they flue back home with 5 wins to go 8-3 after outscoring their opponents 56-10s with only one game going the full seven innings due to the 10 run rule.

Against Colorado State the team scored six runs in the sixth inning to win 10-2. The Edwards twins played a pivotal role in the win. Both twins went 3-for-4 in the victory, with Taylor homering, producing four RBIs and scoring three times and Tatum adding two RBIs of her own. Tatum Edwards (3-1) also earned the win in the circle, allowing a pair of unearned runs on just three hits in 4.0 innings.

Next up was the New Mexico State Aggies. Sophomore Tatum Edwards tied a school record with seven RBIs and hit two of Nebraska’s four home runs, as the 22nd-ranked Huskers handed New Mexico State its first loss of the season, 15-2 on Friday night. Tatum finished 3-for-4 with a pair of homers, three runs scored and seven RBIs. The seven RBIs matched the school record for the most RBIs in a seven-inning game. Her twin sister Taylor finished 2-for-5 with a home run of her own, while junior Brooke Thomason was 2-for-4 with a home run.

Senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann, who was outstanding against a New Mexico State offense that was averaging nearly 11 runs per game heading into the contest. In a complete-game effort, Hagemann (2-2) allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out 14, while walking only two.

A nine-run third inning highlighted a win over Weber State in five innings. Senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann, (2-2) allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out 14, while walking only two. Ashley recorded 10 strikeouts in only 5.0 innings, moving into fifth place on the all-time career strikeout chart at Nebraska.

Offensively, junior Gabby Banda went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Nebraska was out-hit 6-5, but Nebraska drew nine walks and was aided by three Weber State errors. Banda produced the Huskers’ lone multi-hit game, while sophomore Tatum Edwards and Tucson freshman Mattie Fowler each produced two RBIs.

Sophomore right-hander Tatum Edwards fired a one-hit shutout, and the Husker offense scored in every inning of a 9-0, five-inning victory over Stephen F. Austin in the first of two games on Saturday in Las Cruces, N.M.

In Edwards (4-1) one-hitter she did not allow a walk while striking out five. The shutout was the third of Edwards’ career and the first by a Husker pitcher this season.

Offensively, Nebraska pounded out 12 hits and scored a run in all five innings, including a four-run third inning. The Huskers’ No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters – junior Gabby Banda, sophomore Taylor Edwards and senior Ashley Guile had two hits and two RBIs apiece. Junior Brooke Thomason also went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk.

On the strength of a seven-run third inning, the 22nd-ranked Nebraska softball team powered past New Mexico State 10-2 in five innings to win the Troy Cox Classic.

The Huskers finished 5-0 at the tournament, while improving to 8-3 on the season. A pair of three-run homers fueled Nebraska’s fourth run-rule victory of the tournament. Junior Brooke Thomason’s three-run blast gave Nebraska a 6-2 lead in the third inning, before freshman Mattie Fowler’s first career home wrapped up the run-rule victory with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Fowlers finished 3-for-3 with two doubles, the home run and four RBIs.

Senior Madison Drake also recorded a multi-hit game with a 2-for-3 performance. Classmate Ashley Guile finished 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, as her third-inning single gave the Huskers a 3-2 lead, after they trailed early. Guile’s performance extended her hitting streak to nine-game and the Olathe, Kan., native has now driven in a run in 10 straight games.

Baseball: The Nebraska baseball team dropped its opening game of the 2012 season on Friday night to the Gonzaga Bulldogs by a score of 7-4. The Huskers took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning following a two-run sixth inning that was led off by a home run from junior Kash Kalkowski. NU was unable to hold on though, as a three-run eighth inning from the Zags doomed Huskers.

Chad Christensen led NU with a 3-for-3 performance, including a fourth-inning home run with one out that tied the game a 2-2. The junior from Cedar Falls, Iowa, also led the team with two runs. Kalkowski added a first inning single to give him two hits on the night, while Cory Burleson and junior college transfer Rich Sanguinetti also produced RBI’s for the Huskers.

In the second game of this series Big Red saw the first victory of the 2012 season fall through their hands on Saturday night at the Peoria Sports Complex, as the Gonzaga Bulldogs rallied for a 10-8 victory to take game two of the three-game series. The Huskers took a 8-5 lead into the top of the night with Tyler Niederklein on the mound, but the Bulldog bats came alive with five runs to steal the win after committing seven errors in the game.

Nebraska’s offense did its part with eight runs on 12 hits, including two hits each from Michael Pritchard, Kash Kalkowski, Pat Kelly and Bryan Peters. Kalkowski and Peters each knocked in two runs, while junior Kurt Farmer blasted his first home run of the season in the fourth inning to give NU three home runs on the weekend.

The ninth inning was again unkind to the Nebraska baseball team, as the Gonzaga Bulldogs erased a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the ninth to steal victory for the second straight game. After storming back with a five-run ninth inning on Saturday night, sophomore Marco Gonzales blasted a bases-clearing double to right center field that gave Gonzaga its first lead of the game at 5-4 and erased a solid outing from true freshman pitcher Kyle Kubat.

The Huskers didn’t go away without a fight in the bottom of the ninth, as freshman Blake Headley led off with his first hit of the season and Kale Kiser drew a one-out walk to give the Huskers runners at first and second, but reliever Derek Peterson retired Rich Sanguinetti and Austin Darby to end the Husker rally.

Kubat, a native of Waterloo, Neb., held the Zags scoreless on seven hits and notched one strikeout over five innings of work in the no decision. The Creighton Prep product showed veteran-like composure in the fourth, when Gonzaga started the inning with back-to-back singles and eventually had the bases loaded with two outs. Kubat continued to throw strikes on got out of the jam with a 5-3 groundout.

Swimming and Diving: In its first ever B1G Swimming and diving Championship, well we have a lot of growth in store to be competing in this league.

The fourth session saw NU’s Shannon Guy qualify ninth in the 100-yard butterfly in 54.27, a career-best. Guy will compete in the event’s finals during this evening’s fifth session. Guy’s finish is Nebraska’s best preliminary finish thus far at the championships. The time also vaults Guy into the Nebraska record book, as her time is the second-fastest in NU history, just behind Mariah Hutchinson’s time of 54.16 set in 2009.

The Nebraska team finished session six of the Big Ten Championships on Saturday morning. During the session, Ariel Weech and Shannon Guy qualified for Saturday evening’s finals in each of their respective events (100-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly)

All in all the Huskers finished 11^th in this first B1G meet. While not finishing in a higher level it is great to see that lots of Nebraska participants recorded “Best Ever” times in their career. For instance the 1,650-yard freestyle saw Bailey Pons finish 19th overall with a time of 16:34.75, a career-best and good for fifth all-time at NU.

Competition is very tough. Minnesota finished in first with Indiana second and Ohio State third.

Women’s Basketball: Was this a game of the losers? Nebraska came into this game loosing their last three games while Wisconsin had lost 4 straight. The “Connie Clan” had suffered through a three loss string not being able to get the ball through the hopes averaging just over 53 points a game where they had been scoring a lot higher than that. In all games its been at 71.8 and in conference games it was 67.3.

This game was very important as the top four teams draw a bye for the Conference championships and Nebraska is sitting on the bubble as to if they will draw a bye for the first round. A win would help their cause.

The Husker started off fast with a pair of threes by Kaitlyn Burke and Jordan Hooper. Two quick twos by the visitors and then a close game until it was 19-18 Huskers. Then before you knew it, it was half time with the Huskers leading 42-24. Emily Cady and Jordan Hooper lead the charge with a combined 21 points for the half in what was a19 to 4 run and a lead of 42-24.

The second half started. The Huskers built up a lead of 58-34 and then things settled into a pro Minnesota game plan. Slowly the Gophers chipped away at this lead until it was down to 64-56, but there was only 1:09 minutes to play. The Huskers held on for a final 68-59 win to put them at 9-5 in conference and 20-6 for the season.

Outstanding freshman player Emily Cody was injured in the second half, possibly a knee injury. She set out the remainder of the game on the bench with an ice pack. Hopefully she will be able to return for the next games with no difficulty.

Jordon Hooper lead the win with 19 points and 18 rebounds. Before her injury Emily Cady racked up 13 points with Lindsey Moore and Kaitlyn Burke adding 11 each. As usual, Moore added six assists, most to her roommate Hooper.

Tennis: Men’s tennis suffered a disappointing lost to the Drake Bulldogs. With the loss, No. 38 Nebraska drops to 4-3 on the year while the No. 73 Bulldogs improve to 8-1.

The Huskers began the match by losing the doubles point. The point came down to a tie breaker on court No. 2 when Drake’s duo of defeated NU’s team of Andre Stenger and Robert Schulze, 9-8 (7-4). Winning their doubles match was the Huskers’ No. 5 team of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim who downed Drake’s team 8-6.

In the singles, the Husker took off quick with wins by Aumueller and Lindheim. “It was very close. Drake’s an under-ranked, well coached team,” Nebraska Assistant Coach Joreg Barthel said after the match. “We had our chances, but I felt that they deserved to win it. We dominated at the top spots in singles, but with a quick match on court No. 3, it’s tough being down 2-0 and having to catch up.”

At the No. 3 spot, Drake’s McKie downed NU’s Stenger, 6-0, 6-0. Then Bulldogs’ Salibasic downed Nebraska’s Schulze, 6-3, 6-4, on court No. 4. “I’m disappointed as a coach,” Nebraska’s head coach Kerry McDermott said after the match. “I feel that if you win in the top two spots in singles it should just go down the line and we fell short of that tonight. We knew it was going to be a 4-3 match, and what happened tonight shouldn’t have happened. The guys just didn’t step up.”

After a disappointing loss on Friday night, the No. 38 Nebraska Cornhuskers bounced back on Sunday afternoon with a big win over the No. 66 Idaho Vandals, 6-1. The win improves the Huskers record to 5-3 on the year.

Nebraska started off the match by winning the doubles point and never looking back.

The Huskers’ No. 5 ranked doubles team of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim were victorious, 8-4, when they defeated Idaho’s duo on court No. 1. The second Nebraska doubles team to win their match was the squad of Stefan Gollner/Eric Sock, who defeated the Vandals’ squad 8-5. In singles play, the Huskers won five of the six matches.

Women’s Tennis: The No. 28 Nebraska women’s tennis team outlasted Washington State to post a 4-3 victory at the Nebraska Tennis Center.

Nebraska’s Madeleine Geibert secured the match for the Huskers with her hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win at the No. 3 position. Geibert’s three-set win allowed NU to improve to 6-1 on the season with its fifth consecutive victory. Washington State slipped to 7-2 on the year.

Nebraska opened the match on the doubles court, where the No. 22 duo of Geibert/Stefanie Weinstein (NU) picked up the first win over the Cougars’ 8-5. Patricia Veresova and Mary Weatherholt (NU) captured the doubles point for NU with an 8-5 win. completed a sweep of the doubles courts with an 8-6 victory at No. 3.

The Huskers and Cougars moved into singles play with Nebraska leading 1-0. No. 118 Weinstein (NU) picked up the first singles win at the No. 4 position with a 6-4, 6-1 win Elizaveta Luzin (WSU) registered Washington State’s first win of the day with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Weinreich.

The Huskers firmed their grip on the lead with Holmberg’s 6-4, 6-3 win , but Washington State picked up its second win with Vasilieva’s but Maddeleine Geibert def. Anjela Kankaras (WSU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

Rifle: Now who would venture to Alaska for a sporting adventure this time of the year.

The Nebraska Women’s Rifle Squad. That’s who.

The Nebraska rifle team shot 4,596 at the NCAA Qualifiers on Saturday, finishing third. The Huskers finished behind Alaska-Fairbanks, who shot 4,672, and Jacksonville State, who scored 4,645. The Nanooks scored 2,325 in smallbore and 2,347 in air rifle. The Gamecocks shot 2,304 in smallbore and 2,341 in air rifle.

In air rifle, the Huskers were led by Janine Dutton’s 589, which tied for the lead overall. Sheena Mahloch and Kelsey Hansen each shot 580, while Sunny Russell and ReAnn Wilson scored 576 and 569, respectively. As a team, Nebraska shot 2,325 in air rifle.

Wrestling: Senior heavyweight Tucker Lane won his 100^th career match as the No. 8 Nebraska wrestling team finished its regular-season dual schedule with a 26-16 victory over the Northern Iowa Panthers on Sunday at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers finished the season with a 15-4 overall record and a 5-4 mark in Big Ten Conference duals. UNI saw its record drop to 8-7.

No. 9 Lane became only the 20^thwrestler in school history to hit the century mark in wins after defeating Blayne Beale (UNI) by decision, 6-1. Lane now owns a 22-5 overall record and finishes the year with a 15-4 dual mark.

Redshirt freshman Skylar Galloway (149) got the Huskers on the board in the first match by taking down Ryan Jauch (UNI), 6-3. After falling behind 1-0 and having the riding time advantage against him, Galloway erupted in the third period with three takedowns to pull away. The win was Galloway’s first on the varsity level and 24th overall this season.

Nebraska blew the lead open with a pair of back-to-back bonus-point victories from No. 7 Robert Kokesh (165) and No. 17 Tyler Koehn (174). Kokesh won his second match of the season by technical fall, defeating Riley Banach (UNI), 20-3, while Koehn pinned Onni Prestidge (UNI) in 2:36 to give the Huskers a 14-3 advantage.

Junior Josh Ihnen notched a win over a top-10 opponent at 184 pounds to extend the Huskers lead. No. 8 Ihnen defeated No. 6 Ryan Loder (UNI), 4-2, for his 21^st victory over the season. After a scoreless first period, Ihnen scored a reversal with 1:02 remaining in the second to pull ahead 2-0. In the third, Loder earned an escape to cut the lead in half, but Ihnen recorded a takedown with 34 seconds left to seal the victory.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Women’s Golf: There was snow on the ground in Lincoln so Golf Coach Robin Kraphl and the team took of for sunny Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Women’s Classic. The reports are the weather was a lot better.

Especially for Senior golfer Madie Shiels who led the team with rounds of 72-76-72 (220) to finish in eighth place in the individual scores. The rest of the young ladies had trouble with double boogies as the team finished in 14^th place.

Playing for the Huskers were Sophomore Steffi Neison (235), Senior Kaylay Knopik (239), Freshman from Arizona Shelby Martinek (242), and Sophomore Katelyn Wright (249) Also playing was Senior Katie Keiser (259) who played as an individual.

The Huskers will take next weekend off from competition before returning to the course for the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz., Feb. 26-27.

Mark your “to do list” to head to Saddlebrooke March 30-31. The Lady Golfers will be playing in the two day tournament at the Mountain View Club. They would just love to see lots of Big Red fans attending and cheering them on.

Wrestling: Down in Stillwater, OK the # 8 Huskers fell behind 18-0 to # 6 Ohio State who they had beaten earlier this season marking the third straight loss the Husker men have had.

Finally true freshman James Green (157) with a 5-3 decision over the 20^th ranked OSU man. This marked the fifth victory over a ranked opponent. Green who is 27-4 on the year is now in a tie for 10^th on the all-time single season victories list for a freshman in school history.

Next up Redshirt frosh and 6^th ranked Rober Kokesh (165) added another win 7-2 upsetting a 7^th ranked wrestler. Tyler Koehn pulled another upset as the 20^th ranked 184 pounder pulled an upset over his 7^th ranked opponent. Tied 1-1 Kokesh pulled a take down with just 25 seconds in the last period for his third victory over a ranked opponent.

No 8 Josh Ihnen (184) closed the gap even more as he won 5-0 but then the string of 4 straight wins ended when Redshirt freshman Spencer Johnson lost 4-2 and Ohio State finished with a close 21-18 win.

Big Ten Athlete of the Week: Accolades keep rolling in for Nebraska athletes.  Senior Luke Pinkelman, shot put, scored his third Big Ten Field Athlete by placing first with an NCAA-qualifying mark of 64-0 ½ push at the Tyson Invitational Meet and remains undefeated for the season.

Senior first baseman Ashley Guile became the first Nebraska softball player to win a Big Ten weekly award when she was named the conference’s player of the week.

Guile was honored following an outstanding performance at the Kajikawa Classic last weekend in Mesa, AZ. In six games at the tournament, Guile went 11-for-20 at the plate to produce a .550 batting average with three doubles, one home run, eight RBIs and eight runs scored. She recorded multi-hit games against No. 8 Arizona, Idaho State and Cal State Northridge and also drew three walks to post a .609 on-base percentage.

Women’s Basketball: The first half was tight with the Husker’s and Minnesota each taking turns for the lead. The Huskers were leading 24 -20 but then the Gophers chipped away and nailed a 3 pointer in the waning seconds to take the lead 27-24 at break time.

The Gophers made a fast start the second half blitzing 13 straight points before Husker’s Kaitlyn Burke could hit a two pointer to make the score 40-26 with. Emily Cady and Jordon Hooper leading the huskers in a comeback that tied the game up at 58 all before the Gophers took last minute control to pull of a 64-58 win.

Hooper lead the team with four 3 pointers and a total of 20 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steels. Lindsey Moore added 12 points and Hailie Sample pitched in 8 to finish the big scoring for Nebraska.

Women’s Bowling: Former Husker Shannon Pluhowski was named the World Women’s Bowler of the Year and was also elected to the World Bowling Writers Hall-of-Fame. Pluhowski is one of just three women to earn both honors in the same year (Honeychurch 1998, Guerrero 2009). Pluhowski joins just four other American’s in the Hall-of-Fame, including another former Nebraska bowler, Diandra Asbaty. 

Earlier this year, Pluhowski became the first bowler to claim four gold medals at the World Women’s Championships. A three-time National Collegiate Bowler of the Year, Pluhowski is one of Nebraska’s most accomplished bowlers. Through her 295 career games with Nebraska, Pluhowski totaled 63,518 pins for a collegiate average of 212.660. It is the highest career-average of any Nebraska bowler.

With so many games, matches and meets going on, I will be going back to two Huddle’s a week. Otherwise they get pretty long. The next one will be out Monday and I will also give you a run down on the Sun City luncheon for Volleyball Coach John Cook. My wife, Arlyss, and I will be going to the gathering on Saturday.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Well it was bad. In basketball both teams had a heck of a time getting the ball through the hopes. Lack of offense. In softball, the same thing in the opening game as the Huskers matched the other two teams with no scoring.

So lets do the comparison:

Men’s Basketball: 15 points for the first half.

Women’s Basketball: 12 points for the first half.

Women’s Softball: No runs through 7 innings and only two hits.

Now I ask you, “Can you believe that?”

Michigan turned a 22-15 half time score into a run-a-way by scoring the next 10 points to go up 32-15 and having the Husker go 4:33 minutes without a score.

Michigan started hot from 3-point range, as consecutive 3-pointers gave the Wolverines an early 9-2 lead. Michigan eventually built an 11-4 lead as Nebraska missed 11 of its first 12 shots from the floor before Brandon Richardson led the Huskers back. The senior guard scored seven straight points for the Huskers, as his 3-point play pulled Nebraska within 13-11. Nebraska eventually trimmed the lead to 16-15 after a Caleb Walker basket, but a 3-pointer started a 6-0 run for the Wolverines to close the half leading 22-15.

Nebraska stayed in the game because of its effort on the defensive end, holding Michigan to 32 percent in the first half. Looking at the final score it was Michigan 62-46.

Bo Spencer paced Nebraska (11-12, 3-9 Big Ten) with 13 points, as Nebraska shot 39 percent, including 22 percent in the first half. Brandon Ubel grabbed nine rebounds for Nebraska, which out-rebounded Michigan, 29-22, but dropped its third straight game.

Over to the women’s team. It wasn’t much different in the first half but the second half spiced things up.

Nebraska produced its worst offensive half of the season going just 4-of-30 from the field, including 1-of-15 from three-point range. The Huskers missed 17 consecutive shots, including 11 straight three-pointers during a 14-minute stretch in the first half.

The score at half time: Michigan made the most of the stretch, turning a 7-4 deficit with 16:40 left into a 32-12 halftime lead, outscoring the Huskers 28-5 the rest of the half.

Nebraska continued to struggle at the start of the second half, falling behind 41-14 with 15:19 left. But behind the play of Lindsey Moore, who finished with a game-high 23 points, the Huskers stormed back to cut the Michigan margin to eight at 58-50 on a Jordan Hooper jumper with 2:02 left.

Hooper finished with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds, but hit just 4-of-19 shots from the field, including just 1-of-8 three-pointers.

The Huskers were out rebounded 48-30 by the Wolverines. Nebraska hit just 17-of-66 shots from the field (25.8 percent) for the game and 9-of-37 three-pointers (24.3 percent). NU was also just 9-of-15 from the free throw line. NU did produce 14 offensive rebounds, compared to 10 for Michigan.

Nebraska attempted 20 more shots than Michigan and two more free throws than the Wolverines, but Michigan made the most of its possessions by hitting 22-of-46 shots (47.8 percent), including 8-of-16 threes. Michigan was also 11-of-13 at the free throw line.

It just wasn’t a Big Red Week in Lincoln.

Bowling: The Nebraska bowling team finished fourth at the Prairie View A&M Invitational held in Arlington, Texas from Feb. 3-5. Nebraska finished the invitational with a 10-3 record, tied record-wise with Vanderbilt, who won the invite. Third-place Arkansas State also finished with a 10-3 overall record. Maryland Eastern Shore finished the event in second-place with a 9-4 overall record and fifth-place Central Missouri finished with a 9-4 record as well.

Coming into Sunday, Nebraska was the second-seed but dropped consecutive matches to Vanderbilt and Arkansas State to finish fourth. NU ended 1-2 in bracket play in Sunday’s final round.

Individually, the Nebraska bowling squad was well represented on the All-Tournament team, including All-Tournament Captain Kayla Johnson. Individually, she earned a 239 average on the tournament. NU’s Kristi Mickelson and Liz Kuhlkin also earned spots on the All-Tournament squad. Mickelson finished sixth individually with a 221 average while Kuhlkin tallied a 217 average of her own for eighth-place.

Softball: The Lady Huskers opened their season in Tempe playing 6 games in four days. In fact they played 4 games in a tough 24 hour time frame. The Huskers came away with 3 wins and 3 losses. Losses were against two ranked teams, #12 Washington 4-0 and #23 Georgia Tech 6-5 and a surprising team Oregon State.

Last year OSU finished last in the PAC 10, as it was known last year. In this tournament they hit the ball out of the park every event averaging just over 10 runs a game. They beat the Huskers 11-3.

Wins were against 8^th ranked Arizona U and their top pitcher 11 to 10, Idaho State 12-4, and Cal State Northridge10-2. In the Arizona game it was sister against sister. Kenzie Fowler UofA, pitched against her younger sister, freshman Mattie Fowler, the third baseman for Nebraska. You can bet the Fowler family, who live in Tucson, were there for all the games of their two girls.

This week end the ladies go to Las Cruces and will play against Colorado State, New Mexico State, Weber State, Stephen F. Austin and New Mexico State.

Gymnastics: The men ventured into Big Ten competition at Iowa to do battle with the Hawkeyes and Minnesota. The # 6 ranked Golden Gophers scored 340, the Huskers 336.500 and Iowa was 334.500.

The Huskers were led by senior Andreas Hofer, who captured the event title on High Bar with a mark of 14.40 while leading the Huskers in two additional events, the Floor Exercise and the Still Rings.. Sophomore Wyatt Baier picked up an event title on vault, finishing in a three-way tie for first with a score of 14.70. Husker Will Eastman finished second to Hofer in the High Bar.

Performing in front of 1,407 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, the No. 8 Nebraska women’s gymnastics team won its 17^th straight Masters Classic title after taking down No. 20 Washington, No. 22 Michigan and Southern Utah on Saturday night. The Huskers improved their overall record to 8-1 on the year and are 2-0 against Big Ten opponents.

The Huskers scored the top three all-around scores of the meet, including true freshman Jessie DeZiel, who won the all-around for the fourth time this season by posting a 39.45. Nebraska also won three of the four event titles, with Janelle Giblin and DeZiel tying for the vault crown, and Lora Evenstad and Giblin finishing in a tie for the bars title. Sophomore Emily Wong won the floor title for the first time this season.

The Huskers got off to a blazing start on the vault, posting six scores above 9.80 en route to a total score of 49.45, which is the second-highest vault score in the Masters Classic history and the highest total this season for the Huskers. Evenstad led the event off with a 9.80 and was followed by a career and season-high 9.90 from Brittany Skinner to get the Huskers rolling. After a 9.875 from Wong, Jessie DeZiel and Giblin both tied their career high with 9.925s. Jamie Schleppenbach scored a 9.825 to round out the first event.

Today it was announced that true freshman Jessie DeZiel continued her impressive streak of Big Ten Freshman of the Week awards on Monday, collecting her record fifth straight honor. DeZiel was honored after her performance in the Huskers’ victory over No. 20 Washington, No. 22 Michigan and Southern Utah at the Masters Classic

Tennis: Saturday night the No 38 men’s team took on Creighton and walked off with a 6-1 win. Then on Sunday the squared off against No. 74 Tennessee State and won a close one 4-3.

Against Creighton, Nebraska won two doubles for one point and then swept 6 of the 7 singles to add another 6 points for their win.

Andre Stenger and Robert Schluze had a great weekend winning both of their doubles matches and also winning their singles on Saturday. However, Sunday neither could win their singles matches.

Against Tennessee the Huskers swept the doubles for one point and then the match tightened up with the Huskers winning two of the first five singles and Tennessee winning three so the match was tied at 3-3.

After loosing the first set 6-7, Eric Sock took charge and won the next two sets 6-2 and 6-4 to give Big Red its 4-3 victory. Sefan Gollner went undefeated for the weekend winning two doubles and two singles matches.

The Lady Huskers also went undefeated in two matches but they did it the hard way, winning twice on Saturday while the guys could rest overnight for their two wins.

First they clipped the 4-2 Air Force Academy Falcons and then tamed the 3-1 Northern Iowa Panthers winning each match 7-0.

Track and Field: Over at Ames Iowa the Huskers competed in the Iowa State Classic.This is a field of many top notch athletes all vying for individual titles, not team titles.

Jessica Furlan and Ashley Miller each picked up a major win. Jessica turned in a 4:44.76 in the mile run to win and Ashley picked up her title with win in the 3000 meter with a time of 9:26.26.

Jillanna Scanlan captured second in the women’s high jump at 5-8 ½ tying her personal best. In the women’s long jump, Kara Mostolle finished third with a personal best leap of 18-9 ¼.

For the men, Jodi-Rae Blackwood, Miles Ukaoma, Dexter McKenzie and Ricco Hall nailed second place in the 400 meter relay and Miles also added a third place finish in the 60 meter hurdles. The time for the relay team was a season-best time of 3:44.93.

Golf: The Women’s team is competing in the Lady Puerto Rico classic at this moment so you will hear from them the next report. Or if you want to you can pick up the scores, team and individual on GolfState.com. Madie Shields led the Huskers in the first round Sunday with an even par 72.

Perdue plays host to the annual event at the Greg Norman-designed River Course at the Rio Mar Beach Resort. The tournament also features Nebraska’s Big Ten counterparts Michigan, Northwestern and Penn State. NU’s former Big 12 foes Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech add to the field along with Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, NC State, SMU, TCU and Kent State.

The men played in the Big Ten Match Play Championship on Friday and Saturday. This is a new event, now in its fourth year and is played in Bradenton, Florida.

In their first match the Huskers upset the Michigan State Spartans going 3 wins and 3 losses. But in the event of a tie, then you add up the number of holes each team won to determine the winner who will advance. Ryan Grassel gave the Husker a big win 6&5 to grab the big number of won holes that paid off in the tie breaker.

Advancing to the quarter finals, the men meet the Boilermakers but it didn’t turn out the same. Purdue bleached the Big Red 5-1. The Huskers’ lone victory in the match was Manuel Lavin who prevailed 1 Up in a shootout.

This loss meant the Huskers would face Illinois who promptly won all six matches as Big Red finished 0-2-1 in their first Big Ten event. The tournament was won by Northwestern with a 3-1-1 win over Minnesota. This was the Wildcats’ third straight Big Ten Match Play title.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

What you should say is they fought, they blocked shots, they forced turnovers, they fired shots from every place. They made assists, they rebounded, they played a defensive style that frustrated some Perdue players causing them to commit intentional fouls.

If you were like many other Husker fans who listened in on the Husker Radio or watched on the B1G2Go , you witnessed probably the greatest game in the history of Husker Women’s Basketball. Three overtimes that kept my wife and I pounding on the table as we listened to the broadcast over the lap top.

While Jordan Hooper and Lindsey Moore combined for 53 of the total 93 for the Huskers, this was a team win if there ever was one. Cady, Laudermill, Burk, Jeffrey. Simon, Sample, Williams, although five of them are freshmen, they all contributed in many ways, especially allowing Coach Yori to keep up a constant rotation of players to give every one some rest time. And it was this rotation resulting in a tight defense that caused the Perdue players to become somewhat frustrated.

The Huskers started quickly building up a 16-6 lead at the 12:21 mark. Perdue started coming on and the half ended Nebraska 34 and Perdue 27 after the Boilers had scored the last 6 points of the half.

Opening the second half the Boilermakers continued by adding 4 more points to close in at 34-31 with the Huskers still ahead. Tear’a Laudermill and Kaitlyn Burke then combined for 5 points to get a 9 point lead while Perdue went with out a score for 5 minutes. The Huskers continued to maintain a 5-7 point lead up to the 6:31 mark when the Boilermakers started to boil again. Then for the next three minutes it was all the home team who finally obtained their first lead of the game at 54-53. They maintained their lead of 59-58 till Emily Cady was fouled with 4 seconds left in the game. She made the first one but missed the second and the game went into overtime, tied 59 all.

Quickly Big Red took the lead and then it was tied at 67 all at the 1:57 mark. A Nebraska foul put Perdue on the line for one shot and they took the lead 68-67. A minute later it was the Huskers down 70-67 with only one minute to play. Moore tried a jumper that missed but Cady was there to recover the rebound and passed out to Jordan Hooper, just beyond the line. Jordan fired, the ball floating high and then zipping through the net to tie the game at 70 all and going into the second overtime.

Now Perdue is in first place in conference standings, 8-1 and this is their home court and the Perdue crowd is very, very loud and supportive of their team. One of their tendencies is to boo the officials whenever a call is made against the Boilers. From what I heard over the broadcast, every Boiler fan was on their feet cheering and yelling for all the overtimes.

Perdue took off like a rocket in the second OT, and before you knew it the Huskers were down 77-72 with 1:23 minutes left to play. Nebraska ball and Hooper fires a 3 pointer, missed. But it’s a team rebound and a time out. Back on the court Moore misses a jumper but Sample rebounds and throws it up. Another miss. Hooper rebounds and puts it in and draws a foul and ads another point to make it 77-75. Perdue scores and then Moore makes a foul shot and now its 79-75 Perdue and 19 seconds left.

Its Big Red’s  ball but only 19 seconds left and down by 4, a two possession situation.

Hooper fires one at the 8 second mark, good. Its now 79-77, down by two. Right away Lindsay Moore commit’s a foul which Perdue sinks making it 80-77. Down the court comes the ball. Six seconds goes by fast but the pass out is to Cady who is outside the circle. A defender’s hand is in her face. It’s a desperation attempt off the wrong foot. Its in the air. Swish and the Huskers tie it 80-80, and we are going into overtime for the third time.

You have got to believe the adrenaline is really flowing for the Red Shirts. Twice, seemingly out of the ball game, but last second scores bring on the record setting 3^rd quarter road game for the Huskers against the conference leading, most challenging team in the Big Ten.

You have got to feel for the Perdue team, twice on the verge of victory only to see it disappear with an awesome shot by the Huskers.

Into the third OT, quickly Moore hit’s a three pointer. But then Perdue hit’s a couple of two pointers to lead 84-83. Freshman Cady, who scored all her points in the second half and overtimes, hit for two to give the lead back 85-84. A three pointer by Moore and then her two free throws gives the Huskers a 90-84 lead and the Connie Clan finishes it with a 93-89 win over the leader of the pack as they close the gap for the conference leadership.

This has got to be recognized as the game of the year for women’ basketball on the B1G network. With this big win the Huskers moved up to 13^th in national rankings of AP. Ohio State is 10^th and Perdue drops to 16^th with Penn State 18^th.

Perdue is currently in 1^st place (9-2) with Nebraska second (8-2). Ohio State is third (7-2) and Penn State 4^th (8-3). Perdue has games against OSU and PSU and both Michigan teams. Tough games, all of them

Ohio State, besides Perdue also has Penn State and Nebraska. Penn State has Perdue and OSU. Nebraska faces both the Michigan teams and Ohio State. No one has an easy schedule over the rest of February. The Big Ten tournaments starts March 1.

While the women are battling for first place, the men are having a tough time sitting in 11^th place, 3-8. Two losses this past week didn’t help at all.

Against Northwestern the Huskers shot 52 per cent from the floor but it wasn’t enough as the Wildcats hit three pointers with boring rapidity, all night long, hitting 10 the first half and adding 4 more the second half. At the finish NW hit 14 out of 31  3 point shots. The final score was 84-74.

Shurna and Crawford were the big guns scoring 49 points for the home team while Bo Spencer led the visiting Huskers with 24 points, 20 of them in the second half. Toney McCray added 16 and Dylan Talley chipped in 13 to give the Huskers three players in the double digit range.

It was a tight game the first ten minutes where the Huskers led 21-19 at the 9:38 mark but then went nearly 5:30 minutes with no score to go behind by 15 at half.

The Huskers got a jump start in the second half pulling up to 42-38 but then the Cats went up 49-41. Again the Huskers came up tight just trailing 54-53 before Northwestern had a 9-0 run and the Big Red could not catch up but still getting close at 75-72 with 1:34 left. 

Coming back home the Huskers played host to the Golden Gophers of Minnesota 17-7 and 5-6 in conference play. Again it was a tight ball game with the score tied at 39 with 12:27 left in the game. Then just like against the Wildcats, the drought set in. For nearly six minutes, the Huskers couldn’t swish the nets and then it was 50-42 Gophers. The remaining minutes saw an even game with both teams scoring 19 points but Minnesota won 69-61.

The Huskers are now 11-11 for the year and 3-8 in the Big Ten and have games left . One of the big differences in this game was the fact the Gopher bench provided 40 points while the starters add the other 29 scores.

After the game Coach Doc Sadler had this to say, “First of all I was very disappointed in our toughness to grind things out today on offense and defense. I didn’t think we had the mindset you have to have in league play to know that it’s going to be a tough ballgame. Things are not going to be easy for you. And when things get tough, that’s when you have to start grinding.”

Nebraska is without their big post man, Jorge Brian Diaz who is out for probably the rest of the season. Said Coach Sadler, “He’s hurting. I would say that it’s going to be a long shot to see him play the rest of the year. His feet are just killing him. He can’t play; he can’t walk. You can’t compete at this level with your feet killing you. They haven’t gotten any better; they’ve gotten worse.”

The Huskers have been plagued with injuries this year. Earlier, the first four league games they were without Diaz and two other starters.

Women’s Softball: The No. 20 Nebraska softball team opens its 2012 season this week, and Huskers.com will spend the week leading up to NU’s first tournament previewing what the Huskers hope will be a memorable year. Read it and become familiar with this talented bunch of ladies.

In a change from the original schedule, first pitch of the new season is now set for 3 p.m. (Central) on Thursday, Feb. 9, against the 12th-ranked Washington Huskies at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz.

The Husker gals have one thought in mind, “Win the Big Ten Title and go to the NCAA tournament. Eight returning starters will help that though materialize especially when you have senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann and sophomore catcher Taylor Edwards. Edwards was a third-team All-American and a finalist for USA Softball Player of the Year last season, while Hagemann was a second-team all-region selection and a first-team all-league pick in a Big 12 Conference that featured five first- or second-team All-America pitchers.

“I really believe we have one of the best batteries in the nation. I expect both players will contend for All-America honors again this season and if that’s the case, then our team will be in a great position to accomplish its goals,” says Rhonda Revelle the 20^th -year head coach.

“We have the utmost confidence in Hoggie and Taylor,” Revelle said, referring to her potential All-America battery. “Ashley really took her game to another level last season, and she experienced tremendous success against some of the best teams in the country. She is a confident pitcher who has continued to dedicate herself to improving her game, and we look for her to be even more successful this season.

“And Taylor, what can you say about her? We expected her to make a tremendous impact as a freshman and she did just that. It’s very difficult for a freshman catcher to come in and continue to produce throughout a long season and for her to not only do that, but to be an All-American and one of the top two or three catchers in the nation was phenomenal. As good as she was last year, we think Taylor has identified some areas of her game where she can improve, and we look for her to have another outstanding season.

Now don’t forget, Thursday through Sunday this week you can see the Huskers play just up the road a speck. Take a look at your schedule we provided you on January 1 Husker Huddle #35 for starting times.

Tennis: At home the Nebraska women’s tennis team picked up a pair of wins in a doubleheader against the Wyoming Cowgirls and Eastern Michigan Eagles on Saturday. NU downed the Cowgirls 6-1 in the morning before sweeping the Eagles 7-0 to finish the day. The Huskers went 6-0 in doubles and added an 11-1 record in singles play.

The morning round against Wyoming was delayed because of a power shortage due to the big snow that hit Lincoln this weekend. (Aren’t we glad to be here in Tucson.)

No. 53 Madeleine Gilbert/Stefanie Weinstein defeated the No. 44 team from Wyoming 8-6 while Patrica Veresova/Mary Weatherholt and Janine Weinreich/Jennifer Holmberg made it a clean doubles sweep with their wins. Turning around to the singles, the Huskers only lost one match to a 6-1 win.

Not showing any exhaustion from the morning matches the same lineups made a perfect sweep of the afternoon matches winning 7-0 against the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

I find it somewhat interesting that Nebraska has so many German girls and men on their two teams. However looking at names from these two schools we just layed, we arent the only one delving into Euro talent: Popovici, Synkova, Parizher, Kovacs, Nemcoa, Gecheva, Toncheva, de’Lisle-Tarr, Bhatia, Rivero.

Turning to the men, the No. 40 Huskers fell to the No. 20 Oklahoma Sooners 6-1 down in Norman. It was a tough Saturday for the No. 40 Nebraska men’s tennis team as they were defeated 6-1. The loss drops the Huskers to 1-2 on the season. Oklahoma improves its record to 3-1.

Nebraska’s headcoach Kerry McDermott called this afternoon’s match, “a tough match against a good Oklahoma team.”

The Huskers started out the match by losing the doubles point, but McDermott thought the team played well. We played well in doubles,” McDermott said. “We were in a situation to win.”

At the No. 1 court in doubles play, Nebraska’s No. 7 ranked duo of Christopher Aumueller/Benedikt Lindheim were defeated by OU’s No. 14 squad in a tiebreaker, 9-8(1). On court No. 2, NU’s No. 44 duo of Robert Schulze/Andre Stenger defeated Oklahoma’s No. 38 duo 8-4.

In singles play, the Huskers were only able to pick up one point. In scoring, the three doubles matches vi for 1 point, with three teams competing. The singles matches provides 1 point on each match. In the singles, the Sooners won 5-1 for their 6-1 win.

Women’s Gymnastics: For the fourth consecutive week, Nebraska gymnast Jessie DeZiel , a true freshman, was honored with the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award, which was announced by the league on Monday. DeZiel’s four consecutive awards mark the longest streak in the award’s history.

DeZiel led the Huskers in their first-place finish against No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 25 Minnesota and Centenary last Friday in Norman, Okla. The Rogers, Minn., native won the all-around for the third time this season after scoring a 39.50 and placed in the top five of all four events. DeZiel placed second on both the vault and floor, scoring a career high 9.925 on the vault and a 9.875 on the floor. DeZiel posted a pair of 9.85s on the bars and beam to finish in fourth and fifth on the individual events, respectively.

At Norman the team captured three individual titles and won two event as a team to finish first scoring 196.750 to Oklahomas 196.475 and No 25 Minnesota’s 194.55.

“I think we were just really, really focused and locked in tonight,” Head Coach Dan Kendig said after the meet. “We had great energy all night long. I really liked the energy and focus we brought tonight. They got after it. They got after it in warm-ups and all the way until we were done.”

The Huskers started on the bars where they scored a 49.225, which tied them with the Sooners for the lead after one rotation. All five Huskers scored above a 9.8, including Lora Evenstad who scored a season-high 9.9 in the Huskers’ final spot in the rotation. Emily Wong led the meet off with a 9.825 and was followed by a 9.85 from DeZiel and a Janelle Giblin, while Brittany Skinner recorded a 9.80.

Nebraska recorded two career-high marks on the balance beam from senior Katelyn Busacker and Wong. Wong captured NU’s first event title of the night with her 9.925, while Busacker tied her career-mark by scoring a 9.825.

Evenstad continued her impressive night in the Huskers next rotation on the floor. The Grand Forks, N.D., native tied a career-high of 9.925 to win her third floor title of the season. True freshman Jennifer Lauer continued to improve during her young career, posting a career high 9.725. DiZiel scored a 9.875.

The Huskers posted their highest score of the evening in their final rotation on the vault. Three Huskers set career marks on the event, including Jamie Schleppenbach who posted a 9.95 to capture the title. DeZiel set her career high with a 9.925, and Wong scored a 9.875 to tie her career mark en route to a 49.275 total.

The No. 9 men’s team journeyed to Stanford to meet against No. 5 Stanford, No. 6 California and Washington. The teams finished in just that order, Stanford, Cal, Nebraska and Washington.

Freshman Grant Perdue led the Huskers on the night, cracking the top three of both floor exercise and vault.senior Andreas Hofer tacked on a fourth-place finish in the all-around competition with a mark of 81.50. Sophomores C.J. Schaaf and Eric Schryver finished fourth and fifth in parallel bars with marks of 14.20 and 14.10, respectively.

NU had a strong night on floor exercise, posting a mark of 57.40, three points higher than their season average. Perdue led the way for the Huskers, assisted by Hofer’s score of 14.50 and freshman Hayden Henrioulle’s 14.10 mark. Sophomore Wyatt Aycock also contributed a score of 14.00 for the Huskers.

The Huskers also had a strong showing on high bar, led by Schryver’s mark of 14.00. Freshman Connor Stillwell added a 13.90 and senior Will Eastman posted a 13.80 to help NU reach its team mark of 55.20 on the event.

Wrestling: It was a tough week for the # 7 Huskers as they took on #2 Penn State at home and then traveled to Minneapolis to try and pin # 4 Minnesota.

First the Nittney Lions built up a fast 20-0 lead before the Huskers could get started. Junior Ridge Kiles had a dramatic win scoring a reversal with eight seconds remaining to win and give the Huskers their first points in front of the home town crowd of 2,673 fans.

It was Senior night, but that didn’t help the two seniors, James Nakashima (197) and Tucker Lane (Hwt) as neither could post a win in their last match in the Coliseum.

At 157 pounds, true freshman James Green nearly won his fifth match over a ranked opponent of the season, but fell in the tiebreaker period to No. 6 Dylan Alton (PSU). Nebraska’s #5 Jake Sueflohn (141) added the other win for the Huskers with the final score PSU 31 Nebraska 6.

The No. 7 Nebraska wrestling team dropped its second consecutive dual falling to the No. 4 Minnesota Gophers, 26-7, in Minneapolis. The Huskers, who dropped four matches by three points or less, fall to 14-3 on the year and 5-3 in the Big Ten Conference. Minnesota improved to 10-3 and 7-1 in the conference.

The Huskers led the dual off with a victory from redshirt freshman # 7 Robert Kokesh (165). James Green (157) moved one match closer to moving into the top 10 for most wins in a season by a freshman in school history with his 11-3 major decision the last match of the night. Green recorded a takedown in each of the first two periods to garner a 4-1 lead entering the final two minutes, where he captured a reversal and two more double-leg takedowns to pull away.

To give you an idea of the strength of these three teams, Penn State has 7 in the ranked class and Minnesota has 8 while the Huskers have 6.

The Huskers return to the mat on Sunday, Feb. 12, when they travel to Stillwater, Okla., to participate in NWCA National Duals. Nebraska’s first round matchup in the duals will be announced in the next week. Teams in NU’s region include Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Wyoming, Boise State and Chattanooga.

Track and Field: It was the 37^th Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational the Devaney Indoor Track and Nebraska was hosting 12 other division 1 teams.

The Husker Invitational is named in honor of former track and field Head Coach Frank Sevigne, who fought a gallant battle against cancer prior to his death on Jan. 29, 1985. Sevigne was posthumously inducted into the United States Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Dec. 4, 2004, in Portland, Ore.

Sevigne brought a wealth of success to Nebraska athletics. He oversaw a total of 11 national champions, 42 All-Americans and 103 individual conference champions. One of his former athletes, sprinter Charlie Greene, added an Olympic gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay at the 1968 games.

 Anne Martin and Jordan Stiens started the weekend off for the Huskers with a second and third-place finish, respectively, in the pentathlon. Mara Griva took home the long jump title on Friday night, recording a season-best jump of 20-3 1/2 (6.18). Chris Phipps finished third in the long jump with a mark of 24-2 1/2 (7.38).

Nate Polacek took second in the men’s pole vault with a mark of 17-2 3/4 (5.25). Victoria Zimmerman came in second in the women’s weight throw with a mark of 61-5 3/4 (18.74).

The 37th running of the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational came to a close on Saturday afternoon at the Devaney Center Indoor Track with one meet record broken and nine event titles earned by the Huskers. Nebraska senior Ashley Miller was named the Most Valuable Female Performer as Wisconsin’s Japheth Cato was named the Most Valuable Male Performer.

Miller has provided highlight after highlight for the Huskers in 2012 and did not let up, taking top honors in the women’s mile special with a personal-best time of 4:39.11. Miller’s performance puts her at fourth among top-10 performers at Nebraska in the mile.

Luke Pinkelman claimed another shot put title on Saturday, taking first with a throw of 62-5 3/4 (19.04). Carlie Pinkelman posted the top finish for the Huskers in the women’s shot put, coming in fourth-place with a personal-best throw of 49-3 1/2 (15.02). Yes they are related, brother and sister from Cozad, NE.

Chris Phipps added another triple jump title to his list of accomplishments this season. Phipps recorded a leap of 51-0 3/4 (15.56) to take the event crown and Patrick Raedler finished second with a personal-best jump of 50-11 (15.52). Anna Weigandt finished second in the women’s triple jump on a leap of 40-8 3/4 (12.41).

Mara Weekes represented the women in the 60 meter dash with a second-place finish and a time of 7.51.Weekes captured top honors in the women’s 200 meters with a time of 24.16. Dexter McKenzie also finished first in the men’s 200 meters, recording a time of 21.59, while Tim Thompson came in second after finishing with a time of 21.63.

Ricco Hall used an impressive performance in the men’s 400 meter dash to take the event title. Hall’s performance was one of the highlights of the afternoon as he came from behind and took first-place with a personal-best mark of 46.93. His time ranks fourth in school history for the indoor 400 meters and puts him seventh nationally in the 400 meters this season. Miles Ukaoma came in third in the event, posting a personal-best time of 47.14,

Ellie Grooters captured top honors in the women’s 600 meters, finishing with a personal-best mark of 1:32.35. Ellen Dougherty took third, notching a personal-best mark of her own of 1:34.75. London Hawk finished second in the men’s 600 meters with a time of 1:20.47, as Mark Hilderbrand took third on a personal-best time of 1:21.22. In the women’s 800 meter special, Jessica Furlan finished third with a personal-best time of 2:09.18.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

We won Three Bball games.

Brandon Richardson, a senior guard form Los Angles lead the team with a career high 25 points to lead the Huskers to a 79-73 win over Iowa for their third B1G ten win for a 3-6 standing

Richardson hit 6-7 from three point range to help the Huskers come back from a double-figure first half deficit. Richardson came up big in the game’s decisive run, scoring six points in a 12-2 Husker spurt to help Nebraska erased a 61-56 deficit and take the lead for good. Richardson’s 3-pointer started the run before Brandon Ubel hit a pair of free throws to pull the Huskers even at 61 with 5:29 left. Moments later, Richardson’s 3-pointer – his sixth of the night – put the Huskers ahead 66-63 before Dylan Talley’s jumper gave Nebraska a 68-63 lead with 3:26 left.

The Huskers (11-9, 3-6 Big Ten) had an answer for every Iowa rally down the stretch, as the Hawkeyes cut the lead to two points three times, only to see Nebraska get either a big basket or a pair of free throws to keep Iowa at bay.

Iowa trailed 73-71, only to see Richardson slice the Hawkeye defense for a layup to make it a four-point game. The Hawkeyes pulled to within 75-73 with 1:07 left, but Toney McCray sealed the win with a pair of free throws to seal the win. Nebraska went 13-of-16 from the foul line in the second half.

“With six freshman on the floor, they play like Seniors.,” the words from women’s basketball Coach Connie Yori.

Jordan Hooper, a 6-2 sophomore forward from Alliance, Neb., hit 7-of-14 shots from the field, including 3-of-6 three-pointers, while connecting on 5-of-6 free throws.

She was the only Husker to have a solid shooting night, as Nebraska shot a season-low 32.1 percent (18-56) from the field, including a season-low 20 percent (6-30) from three-point range. NU also hit just 18-of-30 free throws and was outrebounded, 41-40 by the Hawkeyes.

The Hawkeye’s were scheduled to be one of the top three team in pre season posting. This gives the Huskers two wins over the their next door neighbors.

Hooper was the only Husker to have a solid shooting night, as Nebraska shot a season-low 32.1 percent (18-56) from the field, including a season-low 20 percent (6-30) from three-point range. NU also hit just 18-of-30 free throws and was outrebounded, 41-40 by the Hawkeyes.

“We won the game,”  Coach Connie Yori said. “We didn’t shoot well. We didn’t hit a lot of shots. We didn’t hit many free throws, and tonight we also got out rebounded, but we still won the game. We really got after it on defense and took away their driving lanes and didn’t give them a lot of open looks. We also forced some turnovers. I think it says a lot for a team as young as us, to not let our struggles on offense carry over to our defense. That’s why we won the game.”

To think that we will have the majority of this team for the next two to three years is exciting. There are six freshman who have added so much to the wins of this team.

Junior point guard Lindsey Moore joined Hooper as the only Huskers in double figures with 15 points, while adding five rebounds, three assists and four steals, but Moore hit just 5-of-13 shots and went just 1-of-8 from three-point range.

Freshman forward Emily Cady provided strong contributions with nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. The 6-2 native of Seward, Neb., also played a key role in Iowa center Morgan Johnson fouling out of the game. Johnson, who scored 21 points and had 12 rebounds against NU in Iowa City, committed all five of her fouls in the second half, playing just six minutes after halftime. Johnson finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

Nebraska’s Emily Cady captured the first Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Week award in Husker women’s basketball history when she earned the conference honor on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The 6-2 forward from Seward, Neb., produced the best week of her Husker career by averaging 18.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game against Ohio State and Minnesota. Cady erupted for a career-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field at No. 10 Ohio State on Thursday, before adding 13 points, seven rebounds and a career-high three three-pointers in Nebraska’s win over Minnesota on Sunday.

For the season, Cady has increased her season averages to 9.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while starting all 19 games for the 16-3 Huskers. Cady also leads No. 19 Nebraska in blocked shots (15), is tied for second on the team in steals (25) and ranks third on the team in assists (29). She has been at her best in Big Ten Conference play, averaging 13.9 points and 6.1 rebounds through seven league contests, while hitting 9-of-21 three-pointers (.429). To put Cady’s conference numbers in perspective, 2011 Big 12 All-Freshman selection Jordan Hooper averaged 13.6 points and 6.4 rebounds in 16 conference games a year ago.

Starting the second half of the conference season the Connie Clan went to the home grounds of the Illini. This team had just knocked off Michigan State 71-62 after suffering most of their losses by one or two possessions. They were not a team to be underestimated and especially looking for a win on the road.

When the games are not on BTN, I clue into the Huskers.com broadcast. Just after half time, with the Huskers leading 40-22 I switched over to the Australian Tennis Championship between Novak and Jokavitch. But in spite of my absence and coaching from the sidelines the ladies did alright winning 67-47.

Shooting percentages were low but second chance rebounds were very effective. Lindsey Moore lead the Huskers with 20 points, 3 assists and 3 steels. True frosh Emily Cady contributed 17 points with 8 for 8 from the line. Jordon Hooper had a little off night connecting but still came up with 12 pints but a career high 16 rebounds.

Like Coach Yori stated earlier, the frosh coming off the bench, Williams, Jeffry, Laudermill and Woodberry added another sterling performance with 27 points,6 rebounds and 2 steels.

In conference standings, we are in a good position.. Front leading Purdue was defeated Sunday by Michigan State to drop to 8-1. Also OSU dropped one to Minnesota to stand at 8-2 along with the Cornhuskers at 8-2. Coming up this week is a very big match for Nebraska.

Nebraska returns to Big Ten road action on Thursday, when the Huskers take on conference-leading Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. Tip-off between the Huskers and the No. 13 Boilermakers is set for 6 p.m. (central) with live radio coverage on the Husker Sports Network, including free live audio on Huskers.com. So pals line up your own watch site, invite friends in and listen to this major game. This game will be at 5:00 PM our time. Don’t try and call me ‘cause I will be watching the game with the phone turned off.

Now other areas of Nebraska athletics were fully engaged.

Gymnastics: The No. 9 Nebraska men’s gymnastics team posted a team score of 332.600 to finish third at the Stanford Open on Saturday night. No. 6 Stanford finished in first (348.400), while No. 5 California took second place (339.000) and Washington finished in fourth (251.200).

Freshman Grant Perdue led the Huskers on the night, cracking the top three of both floor exercise and vault. Perdue posted a 14.80 on floor exercise before adding a 14.70 on vault. (Did you catch that? Another Frosh.)

Additionally, senior Andreas Hofer tacked on a fourth-place finish in the all-around competition with a mark of 81.50. Sophomores C.J. Schaaf and Eric Schryver finished fourth and fifth in parallel bars with marks of 14.20 and 14.10, respectively.

Wrestling: The No. 7 Nebraska wrestling team put together a dominant performance on Sunday afternoon by shutting out the Wisconsin Badgers, 36-0, for its fifth Big Ten dual win of the season. The Huskers recorded their second shutout of the year by winning all ten bouts, including five in bonus-point fashion at UW Field House.

Nebraska improved to 14-1 on the season and 5-1 in the Big Ten Conference, while Wisconsin dropped to 5-8 and 0-6 in conference matches. The Huskers’ 36-point margin of victory is the largest over a Big Ten opponent in school history, and the win also marks the first time a Husker squad has recorded two shutouts in a season since 2004 when NU shutout Findlay and Wyoming in back-to-back duals.

Senior James Nakashima (197) won a thrilling match to open the dual by taking down Jackson Hein (UW) in the second tiebreaker, 7-5. After an escape by Hein in the second tiebreaker to take a 5-4 lead, Nakashima was able to record a takedown to reclaim the lead at 6-5. The Dwight, Ill., native then earned an escape point to extend his lead to two points and secure the victory.

Nakashima has now won four straight Big Ten duals and has wrestled in overtime four times in his last five matches, going 3-1 in those duals.

No. 9 Tucker Lane (Hwt) won his 20^th match of the season by taking down Cole Tobin (UW) by decision, 5-0. Lane is now only two victories away from recording his 100^thcareer win as a Husker.

Tennis: The No. 39 Nebraska women’s tennis team was narrowly edged by No. 12 Northwestern in the regional final of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Sunday. The Huskersr (1-1) won the doubles point but fell just short in singles, falling by a score of 4-3 against the Wildcats (3-0).

The Huskers began the afternoon with another dominating doubles win by Mary Weatherholt and Patricia Versova. The pair topped Veronica Corning and Belinda Niu (NW) by a score of 8-2 in No. 2 doubles.

Northwestern pushed back, capturing a victory on the No. 3 doubles court. The doubles point came down to the No. 1 position, where No. 53 Madeleine Geibert and Stefanie Weinstein (NU) took the big upset win over No. 6 Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton (NW), 9-7. The win marks the highest ranked opponent Geibert and Weinstein have defeated during their time at NU.

The No. 39 Nebraska men’s tennis team was defeated in its first match of the season at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Sunday by the No. 34 Virginia Tech Hokies, 4-3. The match was tied at three and came down to singles play on court No. 5 when Virginia Tech’s Corrado D. Tocci downed Nebraska’s Eric Sock, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), to win the Hokies’ their fourth point and clinch the match.

The loss drops the Huskers to 0-1 on the season. The Hokies improve to 1-0.

The Huskers started the match off winning the doubles point when they won the first two doubles matches. On court No. 2, NU’s No. 44 ranked team of Robert Schulze and Andre Stenger defeated Virginia Tech’s Lucas Oliviera and Hunter Koontz, 9-7.

Nebraska’s second doubles victory came on court No. 3 when the duo of Stefan Gollner and Sock downed Virginia Tech’s Patrick Daciek and Marko Lovrinovic, 8-1.

In singles play on court No. 1 Virginia Tech’s No. 50 Luka Somen got the better of NU’s No. 41 Christopher Aumueller, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. On court No. 2 the Huskers’ No. 78 Benedikt Lindheim downed the Hokies’ No. 71 Oliviera in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2.

Softball: The Nebraska softball team earned a preseason top-25 ranking in both major polls ranking in a tie for 20th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and coming in at No. 21 in the NFCA/USA Today poll.

Nebraska finds itself in the preseason polls for the first time since 2007. The Huskers are coming off a 41-14 record and a No. 21 final ranking in both polls last season. Nebraska returns eight starters from that group, including six players who have earned an all-conference award in their Husker careers, the highest total to begin a season in school history.

Nebraska was one of two Big Ten Conference teams to appear in the poll, as Michigan earned a No. 15 ranking in the NFCA poll and tied for 16th in the ESPN.com poll. Ohio State and Northwestern also received votes in the ESPN poll, with the Buckeyes receiving the second-highest vote total of any team outside the top 25.

In addition to Northwestern and Ohio State, several other Husker opponents earned preseason recognition. Nebraska is scheduled to play a total of 10 teams ranked in the ESPN.com poll and two other teams receiving votes. In the NFCA poll, the Huskers are scheduled to face nine ranked teams and two teams receiving votes.

Baseball: The Nebraska baseball team is starting with a clean slate in 2012 as the Darin Erstad era begins at Haymarket Park. Along with a new coaching staff and a roster that includes 12 new players, the Huskers will enter their first season of Big Ten baseball after 15 successful seasons in the Big 12 Conference that included three regular-season titles and four tournament crowns.

“It is a great honor to be the head coach of the Nebraska baseball program,” Erstad said. “My family and I believe strongly in what the University stands for, and I am excited to have this opportunity to help influence kids’ lives in a positive way and help them turn into young men. I am committed to helping them grow as people.”

Both the softball team and the basketball team will be playing in Arizona in February. Check the last Husker Huddle for the dates and lets give the Nebraska Huskers a big welcome by being there.

Swimming and Diving: Five seniors were honored on Saturday afternoon as the Nebraska swimming and diving team finished its regular season on a high note by defeating the Iowa State Cyclones, 200-100. It was the final dual at the Devaney Natatorium for Nebraska’s Bobbi Balogh, Mailene Leslie, D’Arcy Schmidt, Riley Seidel and Caroline Shea.

The Cyclones won the first event of the afternoon in the 200-yard medley relay with the NU team of Rebekah Land, Shannon Guy, Hayley Martin and Ariel Weech coming in second for NU. Bailey Pons, Morgan Flannigan and Mailene Leslie then got the Huskers started in their winning ways by sweeping the next event, the 1,000-yard freestyle. Pons shattered her previous season-best time (10:19.68) in the event by nearly seven seconds. It was the first of two straight swept events for the Huskers as Martin, Shea and Kelly Dunn followed up in the 200-yard freestyle in the third event of the dual.

Ellan Dufour gave the Huskers a third win in the 100-yard backstroke (57.75). Dufour set a season-best time in the race, eliminating her previous best against Kansas at 58.24.

 NU’s Natalie Morris and Katie Davis earned back-to-back finishes in the 200-yard butterfly before Ariel Weech and Kelly Dunn added second and third place finishes in the seventh event of the day, the 50-yard freestyle.

Payton Michaud closed out the regular season on a high note, sweeping both the 1-meter (290.02) and 3-meter diving (308.67) events. It was a a season-best for Michaud in the 3-meter, besting her previous score of 306.05 set at the Iowa Invitational. Alyson Ramsey added a season-best 303.07 score in the 3-meter for a second-place finish in the event. Kaitlan Walker also tallied third-place finishes in both diving events.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

It seems like every team was in action this past week. No one was left out: men and women’s basketball, field and track, wrestling, men and women’s gymnastics, swimming and diving, bowling, and rifle. So lets get started with our run down.

 Wrestling: Two matches and winners in each one. First on the B1G road at Indiana the Huskers journeyed to Indiana where Junior Josh Ihnen recorded the quickest pin of his career and his first pin of the season to rally the No. 7 Nebraska wrestling team to a 23-17 victory over the Indiana Hoosiers. The Huskers, who fell in a 14-3 hole after four matches, improved their overall record to 11-1 and 2-1 in Big Ten duals. Indiana drops to 6-5 on the year and 0-5 in the conference.

Ihnen played a crucial part in the Huskers’ victory by picking up key bonus-points at 184 pounds with his 44-second pin over Luke Sheridan (IU). Ihnen wasted no time getting on the offensive, taking Sheridan straight to his back on his first shot attempt. The Sheldon, Iowa, native improved his record to 16-2 on the season and 11-1 in conference duals.

Ihnen’s win gave the Huskers a 20-14 lead and then Senior James Nakashima (197) put the dual out of reach for IU with his overtime victory over Joe Fagiano (IU), 4-3. After being tied through the first tiebreaker and second sudden-victory period, Nakashima nearly held Fagiano in the down position for the first 30 second period, but gave up the escape with one second left. Nakashima was able to escape in the last 30 second period and was awarded the victory because of the 19 seconds of riding time he had accumulated throughout the match.

Behind a streak of six consecutive victories that included three major decisions, the No. 7 Nebraska wrestling team cruised past the Purdue Boilermakers, 24-9. The Huskers improved their overall record to 12-1 on the year and have a 3-1 record in Big Ten Conference matches, while Purdue dropped to 7-8 with a 2-4 mark in the conference. 

For the second consecutive dual, freshmen James Green (157) and Robert Kokesh (165) recorded back-to-back major decisions to boost the Huskers. No. 9 Green used an array of takedowns to win his team-leading ninth major decision over Tommy Churchard (PU), 16-7. Green now owns a 23-3 record on the season and is 4-0 in Big Ten Conference dual matches. The true freshman now only sits four victories away from cracking the top 10 season victories chart for freshmen at Nebraska.

Seventh-ranked Kokesh was a force in the top position, amassing seven points in nearfalls to pull away from Kyle Mosier (PU), 11-1. Kokesh joined Green as the only two varsity starters to reach the 20-win mark, and is now 12-1 in duals.

The only conference loss for Nebraska was to #2 ranked Iowa.

Gymnastics: The B1G top-ranked Nebraska women’s gymnastics team captured all five event titles and improved its record to 2-0 on the season after defeating the Iowa State Cyclones, 195.775-193.925, in Ames, Iowa.

Along with winning all five event titles, the Husker gymnasts placed the top two scores on every event except the floor exercise, while also placing the top three all-arounders in Lora Evenstad (39.450), Jessie DeZiel (39.40) and Emily Wong (39.225), who competed as an all-arounder for the first time in her career.

Head coach Dan Kendig said he was happy the Huskers came out of Ames with a victory, but is looking forward to this week of practice as the Huskers look to improve on their routines.

“I say the biggest thing to take away from this meet is we came out of it just as healthy was we came into it,” Kendig said. “I think we could have competed a little bit better, been a little tougher. We have to stay more focused on handstands and those kinds of things. On a meet like this, we’ll make some adjustments and get to work. I’m excited for practice this week.”

Nebraska jumped out of the gate on the bars, scoring their second-highest event score of the night at 49.10. Janelle Giblin took home her second consecutive bars title with a score of 9.90. Evenstad finished in second with a 9.875, while DeZiel recorded a 9.80.

Following the uneven bars, the Huskers competed in the vault where they would have two true freshmen in the lineup in Jessie DeZiel and Jennifer Lauer, who was seeing her first action as a Husker. Lauer finished fifth in the vault with a 9.80, while DeZiel tied Wong for the event title, both scoring 9.875. Jamie Schleppenbach and Evenstad each scored a 9.85 to tie for 3^rd-place.

True freshman Jessie DeZiel was named the Big Ten’s Gymnast of the Week and Freshman of the Week for her performance in Nebraska’s season-opening match against the Denver Pioneers. The awards, which were released last Monday, come after the Huskers defeated No. 20 Denver in record fashion, 197.375 – 195.225.

DeZiel becomes the first Nebraska gymnast to earn an individual conference honor after capturing the all-around title with a score of 39.575, which is the highest debut in school history. DeZiel scored at least a 9.875 on all four events, including a 9.925 to win the floor exercise title.

The No. 10 Nebraska men’s gymnastics team upended No. 9 Air Force 336.55-331.75 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday. The victory came just one week after the Falcons edged the Huskers at the Rocky Mountain Open. The win moves NU to 3-2 on the season, while Air Force drops to 3-2 overall.

Nebraska captured five event titles on the day, led by senior all-arounder Andreas Hofer. Hofer posted a total score of 82.20, including a 14.75 on vault and a 14.00 on still rings. NU was also powered by strong performances from several freshmen. Gabriel Jolley exploded for a 14.85 on vault, the highest mark by any athlete on the day and the best vault mark for the Huskers so far this season. Freshman Grant Perdue added his first event title with a 14.15 on vault, while sophomore Eric Schryver picked up the pommel horse event title with a mark of 14.70. Senior David Jacobs snagged NU’s final event title on the day, posting a 14.45 on high bar.

Senior Lora Evenstad and freshman Jessie DeZiel both earned weekly Big Ten honors for their performances in NU’s road victory over Iowa State last Friday. Evenstad earned Co-Big Ten Gymnast of the Week, while DeZiel was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second straight time, as the conference announced the weekly awards Monday afternoon.

Bowling: The Nebraska bowling team finished third at its lone home event of the year in the third-annual Big Red Invitational. The Huskers finished just behind Central Missouri and tournament champion Arkansas State. Nebraska averaged nearly ten pins more per game than fourth-place finishing Sam Houston State. NU’s Kristina Mickelson earned a spot on the Big Red Invitational’s All-Tournament Team with her individual average of 222 pins per game in Friday’s singles competition.

Rifle: Memphis defeated the Huskers, 4,624 – 4,600. Janine Dutton led the way in the air rifle portion of the match with a 589. She finished with 543 in smallbore. Kelsey Hansen had the second-best air rifle score among the team, shooting 583. She led the team in smallbore with 574.

Sheena Mahloch turned in the third-best Husker air rifle score against Memphis, scoring a 581, while Sunny Russell and Katelyn Woltersdorf each added 576s. Woltersdorf added a 570 in smallbore and Russell had a 563. Joyce Kim shot 564 in smallbore.

Swimming and Diving: The Nebraska swimming and diving team dropped its second dual of the season on Saturday against the Illinois Fighting Illini at the Devaney Natatorium. NU fell to the Illini, 148-152, in a dual that went down to the last event. Nebraska drops to 2-2 on the season and 1-4 all-time against new conference foe Illinois.

 The Illini started the day hot, winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1:45.70 over the Husker squad of Ellan Dufour, Shannon Guy, Natalie Morris and Ariel Weech (1:47.16). NU’s Bailey Pons, Morgan Flannigan and Mailene Leslie got things started for the Huskers by sweeping the second event of the morning, the 1,000-yard freestyle.

In the final and deciding event of the afternoon, the Nebraska team of Martin, Kelly Dunn, Pons and Weech won the 400-yard freestyle relay, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Illini squad from finishing second and third, ensuring the dual for the Illini.

Track and Field: The Nebraska track and field team swept the meet titles at the Adidas Classic for the fourth straight year on at the Devaney Center Indoor Track. The Husker women dominated the field with 203 points, while Houston finished second with 117 points. The men’s race was a bit tighter, but the Huskers held off Iowa 175-133. The afternoon was highlighted by a record-breaking performance by Ashley Miller and a NCAA automatic-qualifying performance by Luke Pinkelman.

 Miller etched her name into the Husker record books in the 3,000 meters with a personal-best time of 9:21.59 in the event, placing her second all-time among top 3,000 meter performers at Nebraska. Jessica Furlan came in third, with a personal-best mark of 9:29.20, giving her the fourth-best time in 3,000 meter history at Nebraska. Martina Barinova finished fourth, recording a mark of 9:51.67.

 Pinkelman provided a show for Husker fans as well, with a NCAA-qualifying performance and a season-best throw of 63-7 1/2 (19.39) in the shot put to take top honors. Tyler Hitchler finished second with a personal-best throw of 60-10 (18.54), while finishing third with a personal-best mark of 59-11 1/4 (18.27).

Nebraska seniors Ashley Miller and Luke Pinkelman were honored by the Big Ten Conference on Monday after being selected as the Big Ten Female Track and Male Field Athletes-of-the-Week. The accolade marks the first Big Ten Indoor Track and Field weekly award for both Miller and Pinkelman.
Basketball: It was No. 20 Nebraska, the visitors, against No. 10 Ohio State on their home court. It was the Connie Clan with a starting line up of 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore and 2 Freshman. It was OSU with 1 Senior, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore and 1 Freshman. It was the 4-1 Huskers against the 4-1 Buckeyes. It was one tough game.

The game featured four of the top six scorers in the Big Ten: Ohio State’s Hill (first at 21.4 points per game) and Prahalis (fourth at 18.3), along with Nebraska’s Hooper (third at 19.8) and Moore (sixth at 16.6). It was a real tough game.

Ohio State shot 59% the first half to take a 41-36 lead at half time. They started slow in the second half only scoring 2 points in the first 3 minutes. But from then on the Lady Buckeyes took control to build up a 51-39 lead. After that their lead never got below 8 points with the final score 82-68.

Nebraska shot just 35.1 percent (13-37) from the field in the first half, and hit all five of its free throws. The Huskers out rebounded Ohio State, 22-14, including 14-4 on the offensive glass, but the Buckeyes won the first-half turnover battle, 8-6, and outscored NU 10-4 on the turnovers to account for the difference in the halftime score.

Emily Cady scored a career-high 24 points for the Huskers and Jordan Hooper added 19 points and matched a career best with 14 rebounds and Lindsey Moore contributed 13 points for the Cornhuskers (15-3, 4-2), who lost their second in a row. They were beaten at home by Penn State 93-73.

Returning home the Lady Huskers took on Minnesota. Jordan Hooper notched her 10th 20-point scoring performance of the season with 23 points to lead three Huskers in double figures, as the No. 20 Nebraska women’s basketball rolled to a 64-49 win over Minnesota at the Devaney Center.

Freshman forward Emily Cady added 13 points, including a career-best three three-pointers, while pitching in seven rebounds. Fellow freshman forward Hailie Sample contributed a career-high 10 points to go along with seven rebounds for the Huskers. Hooper, a 6-2 sophomore forward, knocked down four three-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds for NU, while matching her career high with two first-half assists.

The Gophers closed Nebraska’s lead to 27-23 with 4:45 left in the half. Then Hooper scored the last seven of 12 straight points for NU to push the Huskers’ lead to 34-23 with just over a minute left in the half. Lindsey Moore, who finished with five points and eight assists while playing a season-low 21 minutes, then hit Tear’a Laudermill for a layup with 17 seconds left. Nebraska ended the half on a 9-0 run and took a 36-23 margin to the locker room at the half.

The Huskers continued the surge to open the second half, scoring 11 straight points in just over five minutes to extend their margin to 47-23. Cady, Sample and the rest of the Nebraska freshmen did the damage during the start of the second half, scoring all 11 of NU’s points during that 20 point run over two halves.

It wasn’t the same for the men’s basketball. Ohio State’s William Buford’s 15 points led three Buckeyes in double figures, as sixth-ranked Ohio State topped Nebraska, 79-45, in front of a season-high crowd of 12,214 at the Devaney Center Saturday night.

The Buckeyes (17-3, 5-2 Big Ten) used an 10-0 run midway through the first half to take control and never looked back, stifling the momentum after Nebraska’s quick start. A 3-pointer began a run of 13 straight points for the Buckeyes, as Nebraska went over seven minutes without a point to falling behind 18-8.

Brandon Richardson then ended the scoring drought as his layup started a 6-2 spurt for the Big Red, as Nebraska pulled within 20-14 on a Bo Spencer jumper with 7:37 left in the half. The Huskers fell behind by 10 before a Dylan Talley 3-pointer and Caleb Walker free throw made it 24-18, but the Buckeyes closed the half on a 12-2 spurt to take a 36-20 lead into the locker room as Evan Ravenel’s basket beat the first half horn.

The second half wasn’t any better as Brandon Ubel and Bo Spencer led Nebraska with eight points apiece as Nebraska shot a season-low 29.5 percent from the floor and committed a season-high 27 turnovers that led to 22 Buckeye points.

Where do we go from here? In three games the Huskers have scored 50 or under points, and only two games 51-60 points. All of them loosers. The 34-point margin of defeat is Nebraska’s largest since the Devaney Center opened in the 1976-77 season. The previous was a 30-point loss to Kansas on Feb 1, 2003.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Both of our teams got beat this weekend. The men fell to Wisconsin 50-45 while the women ended their 9 game win streak by loosing to Penn State 93-73. Both games were kind of weird so lets take a look at each.

In a college game with low scoring, 50-45, You really have to wonder if it is all defense or just bad playing. Wisconsin racked up 6 points before the Husker’s Brandon Ubel hit a layup at the 18:05 mark. Then he added a jumper for 2 more points to make it 6-4 at 17:23. From that time until 12:13 the Huskers force 5 turnovers and neither team could make a basket with a number of lay-ups missed by both.

So after 5 minutes and 10 seconds of no scoring Husker Caleb Walker hit a jumper to tie the game at 6 all. From that point on both teams went on a scoring rampage ending with the Badgers ahead 24-21. Wow what a rampage! And yes it was good defense for both teams.

The second half was about the same with Wisconsin scoring 26 and the Huskers getting 24. The Badgers lead throughout the whole game with the score only tied once at 6 all.

Midway through the second half the Huskers feel behind36-25 but Bo Spencer, Tony McCray and Dylan Talley rallied with 8 unanswered points to make it 36-33. How ever that is the closest the Huskers could come as Wisconsin controlled the ball for lengths of time the rest of the game.

On the free throw line, the Huskers could only get 2 points while the home team racked up 18 points on the line. I told you it was kind of a weird game.

The women’s basketball team has been off to a roaring action in the B1G winning their first four games and most of these were done the hard way, coming from behind.

With frosh leading the way, the Huskers enjoyed a 24-13 lead early in the game but then PSU came on to make it 30-27 but the Huskers closed the first half with a 44-38 lead.

During this stretch true freshman, Emily Cady, Brandi Jeffery, Tear’a Laudermill and Hailie Sample, played a major role in leading the Huskers. This dynamic bunch scored 20 of the first 24 points. But then PSU came on to make it 30-27. The Huskers closed the first half with a 44-38 lead.

The “Cori Clan” has developed a tradition of coming from behind but Sunday was not the case. Leading 44-38 at the break, the Huskers found an adjudicating Nittney group that said, “You beat us on our court, now it is our turn to beat you on ours. It was all PSU from that point on as they outscored the Huskers 55 to 29.

Junior Lindsey Moore lead UNL with 18 points while Emily Cady and Jordon Hooper each added 13. Penn States starting five all reached double figures.

Since both games were played on Sunday, we might come to the conclusion that Sunday is a bad day to play basketball.

In their first competition after the winter break the Husker’s bowling team was in action at the Mid-Winter Classic in Jonesboro Arkansas. Nebraska finished fourth in this 16 team tournament which was won by Vanderbilt.

Individually, NU’s Kayla Johnson finished twelfth on the tournament with an average of 203.20 through five games. Valerie Calberry finished twenty-second individually after games of 232, 176, 192, 188 and 190.

Ranked No. 6 in the nation the Women’s gymnastic team started their season with 197.375 – 195.225 win over 20^th Denver University. Finishing fourth in last years NCAA tournament the Huskers were dominate in all areas with a 49.30 on all four events en route to chattering the previous opening-meet record set in 2004 and is the 10^th highest score in school history.

“Wow!” Coach Dan Kendig said. “Tonight, we competed extremely well as a team and we had a lot of momentum early. It’s a long season and we made some mistakes, but it was a great start for us. On Wednesday, I didn’t know who we would have in the lineup because of bumps and bruises, but yesterday’s practice was better, and I was proud of how we came out tonight. We got a great start on vault and it just carried through.”

The Huskers swept all four event titles and also took the top four places in the all-around. Freshman Jessie DeZiel won the all-around in impressive fashion with a score of 39.575, the highest debut in school history. DeZiel scored at least a 9.875 on all four events, including a 9.925 to win the floor exercise title.

“She warmed up just OK, but when the flag went up, she was all business,” Kendig said of DeZiel. “She is that talented, and I am hoping she can stay that way.”

Janelle Giblin finished second in the all-around with a career-high mark of 39.50, taking event titles on vault (9.925) and uneven bars (9.90), while Emily Wong took the balance beam crown with a 9.925, giving Nebraska a clean sweep of the night. Wong tied Lora Evenstad for third in the all-around with a final mark of 34.475.

The Nebraska swimming and diving team fell to 2-1 on the season after dropping a close dual against Kansas in Lawrence. The Jayhawks and the Huskers both won eight events on the day, but the Huskers fell just short on points in the dual. The Huskers fall to 11-23 all-time against the Jayhawks.

Nebraska started off strong, with the team of Ellan Dufour, Shannon Guy, Natalie Morris and Ariel Weech winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1:47.24. Kansas’ Rebecca Swank won the 1,650-yard freestyle immediately after to earn nine points for the Jayhawks. NU’s Bailey Pons finished second in the event at 17:11.13. Mailene Leslie and Riley Seidel rounded out the event for NU, earning two and one points, respectively.

Hayley Martin won her first event of the day in the 200-yard freestyle. At 1:51.43, Martin finished 1.36 ahead of Kansas’ Shannon Garlie to take the third event of the afternoon. Kaitlan Walker won the first diving event of the afternoon for the Huskers in the 1-meter dive. Her score of 285.29 was good enough to best teammate Payton Michaud, who finished second in the event with a score of 269.25. Michaud won the second diving event of the afternoon in the 3-meter dive with her score of 277.35. Alyson Ramsey and Kaitlan Walker of NU finished second and third, respectively, at 274.35 and 268.12.

The No. 9 Nebraska men’s gymnastics team opened their 2012 campaign with a third-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday. Sophomore Eric Schryver tied for the parallel bar event title to lead the Huskers.

NU’s team score of 333.300 trailed No. 1 Oklahoma (343.700), who captured their 13^th-straight Rocky Mountain Open title. No. 11 Air Force placed second (333.300), while NU finished ahead of Arizona State (314.100) and Washington (248.100). Several athletes from the U.S. Olympic-Training Center competed as well, but their scores did not count for finishes.

“For the first meet of the year, we did well,” Head Coach Chuck Chmelka said. “We were sharp, we were clean and we hit really well. Overall, I’m happy on how they did on the first five events.”

Eric Schryver had a strong night on parallel bars, tying OU’s Chris Stehl for the event title with a 14.500. Schryver also contributed a 14.200 on pommel horse, good for second place overall.

Junior Wyatt Baier also had a strong performance on vault for a second place with a score of 14.800. For the second consecutive year, Baier’s vault score was the highest of any Husker performance at the Rocky Mountain Open.

Freshmen Grant Perdue, Gabriel Jolley and Hayden Henrioulle made their collegiate debuts on Saturday night. Perdue had a solid evening for the Big Red, seeing action in both floor and vault while notching NU’s second-highest vault score (14.400).

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Basketball: Well it hasn’t been easy for the men so far, 0-4 after their loss to Illinois on Saturday. If you look at all the stats it appears that the Huskers have a problem in scoring with in the paint zone. Meaning inside the 3 point margin.   Doc Sadler has been fielding a team that is short three starters.  Against Illinois 6’-11” Jorge Brian Diaz, who makes a big difference in rebounding and scoring and 6‘5“ Dylan Talley were back in the line up. This should make a difference in the remainder of the season.

Earlier they lost to the #2 Ohio Buckeyes and only scoring 40 points. That is the second game where they couldn’t crack the 40 point mark in B1G play. The other was against Wisconsin when they lost 64-40. Against Michigan State they tallied 55-68 in a loss and then 40-71 against Ohio State

Against Illinois they really had a chance but went town 54-59.

Looking at the scoring stats, Nebraska is scoring most of their points from out side the paint line, while opponents are scoring inside that area. In four conference games the Huskers have 72 inside the paint points while the opponents have 120. Penetration is lacking in our offense. Watching the games so far, there is slow passing from one side to the other which allows opponents to set up a defense.

On the other hand, opponents pass quickly and look for that person in the paint zone or a driving player breaking for the bucket. That is Big Ten Style of play and Nebraska better adjust.

I am hoping we can win at least 5 games in this our first basketball season.

On the other hand, read the article about Coach Connie Yori being so happy to be coaching in the Big Ten League. What? You haven’t read it. Well my gosh what kind of an all sports Husker fan are you. (Grin)

The “Connie Clan”, what I have named them, is a group of young ladies, inexperienced in major college basketball who have taken it upon themselves to say they will match the records set by the 09-10 team where they were ranked 1 or 2 during the season and Connie would wind up being the NCAA Coach of the Year.

The question is, will she be considered again this year?

Our gals took on the Nittany Lions and walked of with a 71-63 win. OK, what’s so great about that? Well PSU was rated #16 while the Huskers were #19 and this was on the home court of the Lions.

Jordan Hooper, a native Alliance sophomore, scored 19 of her 31 points in the second half while adding her sixth double-double of the season with 12 rebounds to lead the Huskers back from a nine-point second-half deficit against the Lady Lions. This is Jordan’s third Player of the Week award and gives UNL 4 awards as Junior Lindsey Moore also grabbed this honor in November.

Jordan and Lindsey are more than team mates. They are very good friends and  room mates and Lindsey has played a big hand in helping Jordan develop this year into a leading player in the Big Ten. For more about these two stars, read Randy Yorks two articles.

Iowa was also picked as one of the top B1G teams, and the “Clan” took them on at Iowa City. It was very similar to the Penn State game. Fall behind, catch up, go ahead and then repeat it.

Junior Lindsey Moore basically took the leadership role in the second half, scorings 16 of her total 22 points. Team mate and best friend, Jordan Hooper was doubled timed throughout the game but still managed 17 points with some critical ones in the last couple of minutes.

This team is loaded with young dynamic players and one thing the Huskers do is rotate players and wear down the opposition. It wasn’t just that as there were some very key plays made in the drive that saw GBR outscore Iowa 24-10 in the last part of the second half.

Junior Meghin Williams came in off the bench and hit big shots when the Huskers trailed 56-51. First was a three pointer and then two free throws to tie the game at 56 all. She finished with 7 points and 6 important rebounds.

Two true frosh, Brandy Jeffery and Emily Cody from Seward consistently made big plays. In the final five minutes Brandy forced a tie up as Iowa was setting up their play and the ball returned to Nebraska. Then she nailed a three from the corner to give the Huskers a 70-62 lead with 3:14 left.

Cady has developed into a high production player. Again her strong play produced her fourth double-figure scoring performance in the last seven games with 14 points and four rebounds. Cady went 2-for-2 from three-point range, including a huge three to put NU up 65-62 with 4:43 left.

This was their eighth straight win to go 14-1 for the season and 3-0 in conference play. The performance of Moore was probably her best one of the year, not just the 22 points but also seven rebounds, nine assits and three steels.

Wrestling: The University of Iowa has always been labeled as the elite of the college ranks. After all they have won 23 NCAA championships. But this year there might be a strong challenge for the Hawkeyes in the form of the Red Clad Huskers.

Opening the B1G venture the Huskers took on the Ohio State Buckeyes, ranked #6 in the nation. Nebraska was only ranked # 12.

Behind a trio of bonus-point victories, the Nebraska wrestling team upset Ohio State Buckeyes, 18-16, on Friday night in its Big Ten opener. The Huskers won their school-record 10^th straight dual to open the season, while giving the Buckeyes their first loss on the year to drop their record to 7-1.

Wrestling in front of 1,451 fans at the NU Coliseum, NU beat its first top 10 opponent since defeating No. 6 Missouri on Jan. 21, 2009. Nebraska got three key bonus-point wins on the night, including one from true freshman Jake Sueflohn (141), who upset No. 6 Hunter Stieber by major decision, 10-2. After an early takedown by Stieber, No. 7

Sueflohn responded with 10 unanswered points, including a 3-point nearfall with 58 seconds left to put the Buckeye away. Sueflohn has now defeated five ranked opponents this season and owns an overall record of 16-3.

Senior Tucker Lane (Hwt) got the Huskers started with his dominating win over No. 17 Peter Capone to open the match. Lane gained a 3-1 advantage going into the third period and was able to keep Capone in the bottom position for final two minutes of action.

The B1G is a powerful wrestling conference with 6 teams in the top 8 and Nebraska, after defeating OSU, just might make it to the 10^th spot.

Other Sports:

It wont be long before softball and baseball will be starting out. In February our two teams will see a lot of action in Arizona.

For the Lady Huskers, three Nebraska softball players have earned individual preseason honors from CollegeSportsMadness.com, which kicked off its 2012 softball season coverage last week.

Sophomore catcher Taylor Edwards was chosen as a third-team preseason All-American and a first-team preseason All-Big Ten selection. Her twin sister Tatum Edwards also earned a spot on the preseason All-Big Ten first team, while senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann was tabbed the Big Ten Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

Overall, Nebraska’s roster features six returning all-conference performers including Ashley Guile, Nikki Haget and Brooke Thomason, the highest total to begin a season in school history. The Huskers also add three talented newcomers, including a pair of first-team high school All-Americans Jordan Bettiol and Mattie Fowler and Courtney Breault, transfer from Arkansas who was a two-year starter for the Razorbacks and earned SEC All-Freshman team honors in 2010.

Baseball fans are anxious to welcome the new Head Coach, Darin Erstad, a former two sport Husker. Coach Erstad has landed five junior college players and one high school senior have signed their National-Letters-of-Intent to play baseball at Nebraska. The class is Erstad’s first as a head coach and includes three players with ties to the state of Nebraska, as well as one each from Montana, Texas and North Dakota.

“We are very excited about the class we have assembled,” Erstad said. “Every student-athlete will excel not only on the field but in the classroom as well. Each of them bring a blue collar mentality which is the backbone of Nebraska Baseball. We expect every student-athlete to come in and contribute right away.”

January 13 marks the beginning of women’s gymnastics and the Nebraska women’s gymnastics team will begin the 2012 season as the preseason favorite in the Big Ten Conference after being voted on by the conference coaches. The Huskers, who will begin the season ranked at No. 6 in the country, return six gymnasts who have earned All-America honors in their careers.

Michigan was picked second in the poll, while Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois round out the top five.

The Huskers finished fourth at last year’s NCAA Championships, which tied for the highest finish in school history. The Huskers will look to make an immediate impact in their first year as members of the Big Ten Conference after winning the Big 12 last season. Nebraska will be led by senior Lora Evenstad and junior Janelle Giblin. Evenstad is a two-time first-team All-American while Giblin is a three time honoree and earned first team accolades on the vault in 2011.

The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten Men’s Gymnastics Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Illinois topped the list of seven schools after winning their third consecutive conference championship in 2011, with Michigan and Penn State rounding out the top three.

In addition, a pair of Nebraska all-arounders were selected to the 2012 Gymnasts to Watch list. Senior Andreas Hofer and sophomore Wyatt Aycock were listed among the 14 conference gymnasts. Hofer has competed in the individual all-around finals at the NCAA Championships two times and finished in a tie for 11^th at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Aycock will be looking to improve on his freshman campaign in which he posted a school record mark of 88.60 in all-around competition against Iowa and Minnesota.

Nebraska men’s tennis starts out with national rankings. As a team, the men open the season ranked No. 40 in the country. The Huskers finished the 2010-11 season ranked No. 44 with a record of 15-13 as they lost to Miami (Fla.) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskers have two players ranked in singles. Christopher Aumueller is ranked No. 41. He finished last season with a singles record of 14-11. The second Husker ranked is Benedikt Lindheim, who’s ranked No. 78. Lindheim finished last season with a record of 15-10. The two will compete in the top two spots in the Huskers lineup this spring.

Nebraska has two teams ranked in doubles. The Huskers’ duo of Aumueller and Lindheim begin the season ranked No. 7. Andre Stenger and Robert Schulze are ranked No. 44.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

But it will be eight months before we really have a handle on the 2012 Huskers. Between now and then there will be lots of Husker Fans sitting around the wood stove and leaning back n their chairs giving their thoughts of the past season and all the “would of, could of and should of.” Hey that’s the right of Husker fans. Its just to bad the coaching staff doesn’t pay more attention to our knowledgeable uttering’s. Or maybe it’s a good thing they don’t.

Lets just hope that somewhere along the line we will come up with a Lavonte David. Lets just hope we can come up with a team that doesn’t shoot itself in the foot with penalties. Lets hope we can come up with a team that plays the full four quarters. Lets hope we can teach our receivers that the key to their play is to catch the ball and tuck it away. Lets hope we can beef up the OL and DL to meet the standards of our new conference.

It really was a mystifying season. At the beginning lots of remarks and predictions had Nebraska playing in the first B1G Championship game. I guess we all overlooked Wisconsin and Michigan and worse of all was our underestimate of Northwestern.

Every Husker fan was sitting on their hands shaking their heads after the first half against OSU. The second half the team came to life and the fans responded by standing up cheering them on to their first B1G and a record setting comeback. The fever carried on against the Spartans and then that weekend full of tension at Happy Valley and the Nittney Lions.

It was a season of ups and downs but I do believe all fans, especially this one, are very happy to be in the Big Ten and are looking forward to all the events and the opportunities of frequently seeing our teams on the Big Ten Network

Lets now take a look at what’s coming down the road over the next few months.

Basketball is off and running now with our two teams stepping into league play. The men are off to a tough schedule right away playing ranked teams Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State in their first three games.

By the way I am watching the OSU game on BTN as I wrte this. It doesn’t look good as the Huskers are down 19-9 at the 9:00 mark. One problem right now is that we are short three good players due to injuries.

On the other side of the tent, the women’s team has taken a big step forward with a very young team by moving into national rankings at the 19^th slot following their victory over Penn State last week.

I have renamed this bunch that Coach Connie Yori has put together, “Connie’s Clan”. If you followed the girls this summer when they made their trip to the Scandinavian countries you know that a great bonding took place between all the team members and staff. It’s not just a team, it’s a family. They are a feisty, hard playing, defensive conscious team that will fit right in with the teams of the conference. The team will be returning to league play January 5^th against Indiana and will also be on the BTN.

January is a busy month for Husker fans and hopefully you will be checking the schedule on Huskers.com and the BTN to find out when and where our teams will be on TV. There will be wrestling, gymnastics, swimming and diving and track and field in addition to basketball.

On Husker Huddle #35 you got a list of all the Arizona appearances of softball and baseball teams, track and field and both men’s and women’s golf. Lots of these are all loaded into the short February month and extend into March. Don’t forget the Lady Husker golfers will be back here the end of March for the 14^th Mountain View Invitational at SaddleBrooke. They would love to see you in the gallery.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Holiday Season even though we lost the game to Carolina. My wife and I treated ourselves to a Christmas gift: a set of recliner chairs and ottomans. Now we set up the TV tables next to them, covered with popcorn and a, ah, refreshment, and sit back and watch our Huskers on the Big Ten Network.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert.

The Husker Men got their introduction to B1G basketball in not to good a fashion. It was bad enough that the Badgers introduced UNL to B1G football pounding them 48-17, but then they had to turn around and wrap up a 64-40 win over the Huskers in their first B1G basketball game.

At the Devaney Center, two days after Christmas, the Huskers took an early 10-5 lead as they scored the first seven points of the game. But then Wisconsin took charge with a 19-2 run to take a 24-12 lead.

It just didn’t get any better the second half as the 11^th ranked Cheese Heads shut down the Huskers to just 12 points as Wisconsin closed out the game with a 24 point win.

Toney McCray scored a team-high 16 points, hitting 6-15 but was the only Husker in double figures. Brandon Ubel also totaled eight points and nine rebounds in the losing effort.

Just like in football the schedule is a little vicious as an introduction. But what the heck. Get the tough games out of the way early.

Next up, the Spartans came to town. Michigan State, ranked No. 16 found the Huskers putting up a strong battle the first half. MSU scored the first point but then the Huskers took the lead and never let the guests catch up taking a 30-29 lead at the half.

Huskers Toney McCray and Bo Spencer combined for 29 points, but Spartan Keith Appling scored eight of his 14 points in a late second-half run, as No. 16 Michigan State pulled out a 68-55 win. It wasn’t an easy win as the Huskers kept fighting back. Trailing by 15, the Big Red came storming back to trail only 53-50 and the fans were on their feet. That would be the closest Nebraska would get as costly mistakes gave State five points to go ahead in the late two minutes.

“I couldn’t be prouder of my team“ Coach Doc Sadler commented after the game. “I thought we played as hard as you can play, and I think we did it for forty minutes. We made some mental mistakes that I don’t know if it is from fatigue or what. I told our team in the locker room, I wasn’t for sure that our team competed for forty minutes against Wisconsin. I thought we got down and frustrated. Tonight, I think for forty minutes, our guys played as hard as they can play and we just can’t make the mistakes that we made against good teams.”

Big Ten territory is also a hot bed of high school basketball. Every team is loaded with players from Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. With fifteen players on the squad 10 or 11 of them are from these states. The exceptions are Penn State and Minnesota.

Nebraska has no players from that area and it will probably be very tough cracking into that rich field of high school players. But lets go get our share Coach Sadler.

If you like basketball, tune into the Husker games on BTN and also watch other team games. It’s a power style, hard driving, tough defensive type of play in the Big Ten.

The Husker Ladies also kicked off their B1G opening game by taking on the 16^th ranked Nittney Lions on their home court.

As a former announcer used to say, “Man, woman and child…” that Connie’s Clan is a feisty bunch of players who never give up.

In the first five minutes PSU took an eleven point lead. I picked up the game late in the first half on the Husker audio program and marked down scoring. At that point the GBR team trailed 30-31 and then they started to roll and took a 35-31 lead but Penn State came right back to tie it at 38 all at half time.

The second half was a humdinger as the two teams kept changing leads with Penn State up 47-46 and then for the next five minutes the Huskers couldn’t find the bucket at all as they fell behind 56-48.

From that point on it was all Big Red as our gals poured in 23 points to Penn’s 7 to upset the Nittney Lions 71-63.

Sophomore Jordan Hooper had her third 30+ performance in the last four games tallying 31 points and 12 rebounds. Junior point guard Lindsey Moore, who finished with 16 points, four rebounds and four assists, then scored four straight to give NU a 66-63 lead before Hooper sealed the win.

The No. 14 Nebraska wrestling team matched its best start in school history after sweeping two matches at the ASU Duals in Tempe, Ariz. The Huskers improved to 9-0 on the season by beating Boise State, 34-3, in their first dual, before shutting out host Arizona State, 42-0, in the last dual of the day. The losses dropped Boise State to 0-2 and Arizona State to 4-3 on the season.

Nebraska won 19 of the possible 20 matches between the two duals, while recording a total of 11 bonus-point victories, including seven major decisions and three pins. The win against Arizona State was Nebraska’s first shutout since 2008 when they beat Augustana (S.D.), 50-0, while the 42 points was the most allowed by Sun Devil team in school history.

Senior Tucker Lane (Hwt) had one of the most impressive days of any Husker, defeating two nationally ranked opponents in No. 10 J.T. Felix (BSU) and No. 11 Levi Cooper (ASU). Lane cruised past Felix in his first match, 6-2, before taking down Cooper in overtime, 2-1, for his second victory over the Sun Devil wrestler this season. After swapping escape points in the second and third periods and a scoreless sudden-death period, No. 10 Lane was able to escape in the tiebreaker and held Cooper in the down position for 30 seconds to capture the victory.

True freshmen Jake Sueflohn (141) and James Green (157) continued their impressive first seasons by recording four bonus-point decisions between the two. No. 11 Sueflohn kicked off his day with a major decision victory over No. 16 John Strait (BSU), and pinned Nathan Hoffer (ASU) in 5:29 for his 15^th win of the year. No. 13 Green did much of the same by beating No. 15 George Ivanov (BSU), 12-1, and Victor DeJesus, 16-5, for his second major decision of the day.

NU 34, BSU 3

Full Results
197- James Nakashima (NU) by major dec. over Derek Toney (BSU), 10-2 (NU 4, BSU 0)
Hwt- #10 Tucker Lane (NU) by dec. over #19 J.T. Felix (BSU), 6-2 (NU 7, BSU 0)
125- Isaac Romero (BSU) by dec. over Shawn Nagel (NU), 5-1 (NU 7, BSU 3)
133- #17 Ridge Kiley (NU) by dec. over Shawn Jones (BSU), 6-2 (NU 10, BSU 3)
141- #11 Jake Sueflohn (NU) by major dec. over #16 John Strait (BSU), 14-3 (NU 14, BSU 3)
149- Brandon Wilbourn (NU) by dec. over Steve Hernandez (BSU), 7-4 (NU 17, BSU 3)
157- #13 James Green (NU) by major dec. over #15 George Ivanov (BSU), 12-1 (NU 21, BSU 3)
165- #5 Robert Kokesh (NU) by major dec. over Michael Cuthbertson (BSU), 9-1 (NU 25, BSU 3)
174- Tyler Koehn (NU) by dec. over Scott Bacon (BSU), 11-5 (NU 28, BSU 3)
184- #9 Josh Ihnen (NU) by medical forfeit over #12 Jake Swartz (BSU) (NU 34, BSU 3)

NU 42, ASU 0

Full Results
197- James Nakashima (NU) by dec. over Tommy Burriel, (ASU), 5-3 (NU 3, ASU 0)
Hwt- #10 Tucker Lane (NU) by dec. (TB1) over #11 Levi Cooper (ASU), 2-1 (NU 6, ASU 0)
125- Shawn Nagel (NU) by pin over Dalton Miller (ASU), 1:26 (NU 12, ASU 0)
133- #17 Ridge Kiley (NU) by dec. over Shane McGough (ASU), 6-1 (NU 15, ASU 0)
141- #11 Jake Sueflohn (NU) by pin over Nathan Hoffer (ASU), 5:29 (NU 21, ASU 0)
149- Brandon Wilbourn (NU) by major dec. over Kyle McIntosh (ASU), 14-3 (NU 25, ASU 0)
157- #13 James Green (NU) by major dec. over Victor DeJesus (ASU), 16-5 (NU 29, ASU)
165- #5 Robert Kokesh (NU) by pin over Derek Felton (ASU), 2:16 (NU 35, ASU 0)
174- Caleb Kolb (NU) by major dec. over Jacob Graham (ASU), 18-6 (NU 39, ASU 0)
184- #9 Josh Ihnen (NU) by dec. over Kevin Radford (ASU), 10-3 (NU 42, ASU 0)

The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team will begin the 2012 season as the preseason favorite in the Big Ten Conference after being voted on by the conference coaches. The Huskers, who will begin the season ranked at No. 6 in the country, return six gymnasts who have earned All-America honors in their careers.

Michigan was picked second in the poll, while Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois round out the top five.

The Huskers finished fourth at last year’s NCAA Championships, which tied for the highest finish in school history. The Huskers will look to make an immediate impact in their first year as members of the Big Ten Conference after winning the Big 12 last season. Nebraska will be led by senior Lora Evenstad and junior Janelle Giblin. Evenstad is a two-time first-team All-American (V, 2010; FX, 2011), while Giblin is a three time honoree and earned first team accolades on the vault in 2011.

The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten Men’s Gymnastics Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Illinois topped the list of seven schools after winning their third consecutive conference championship in 2011, with Michigan and Penn State rounding out the top three.

In addition, a pair of Nebraska all-arounders were selected to the 2012 Gymnasts to Watch list. Senior Andreas Hofer and sophomore Wyatt Aycock were listed among the 14 conference gymnasts. Hofer has competed in the individual all-around finals at the NCAA Championships two times and finished in a tie for 11^th at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Aycock will be looking to improve on his freshman campaign in which he posted a school record mark of 88.60 in all-around competition against Iowa and Minnesota.

Are you wishing to see the Huskers in action, especially here in Arizona. Thanks to SOAZ member Susan Johansen who made up this listing. Copy it and keep it in your “To Do” list.

　
Hope everybody had a Merry Christmas and their fill of football the last few weeks and lets see how many show up to watch the Huskers take on South Carolina on Monday. See you at the watch sites. Game time is 11:00 AM.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert