Lincoln – Coach Bo Pelini and Nebraska football student-athletes discussed this Saturday’s Senior Day showdown against Minnesota at Memorial Stadium with media members Monday.
Kickoff between the No. 21 Huskers (8-2, 4-2 Big Ten) and the Gophers (7-3, 4-2 Big Ten) is set for 11 a.m., with live national television coverage provided by ESPN.
The Huskers and Gophers are still in the hunt for the Big Ten West Division title, but both teams will be looking to regroup following losses over the weekend. Nebraska will try to bounce back from a 59-24 setback at No. 22 Wisconsin, while Minnesota will attempt to recover from a 31-24 loss to a top-10 Ohio State squad.
The Big Red should have plenty of motivation on Saturday. Not only will the Huskers be looking to avenge last year’s road loss at Minnesota, they also have the chance to send a group of 13 active seniors out with a victory in their final home games at Memorial Stadium.
Nebraska also has a chance to complete a perfect home season in the 340th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium. A win would also give the Big Red their seventh consecutive nine-win season under Coach Bo Pelini.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska coach Bo Pelini says he has nothing to apologize for and that his program has not hit a ceiling in his seventh year on the job.
Pelini defended his program Monday in the wake of Saturday’s 59-24 loss at Wisconsin. The Badgers’ Melvin Gordon set an FBS single-game record with 408 yards rushing.
Pelini says the Cornhuskers have been consistent and that a lot of other programs “would have died to have won the amount of football games we’ve won.”
Pelini is 66-26 at Nebraska but hasn’t lost fewer than four games in a season. Pelini said he came to Nebraska to win championships and that he still thinks he can get it done. The Huskers dropped from No. 11 to No. 21 after Saturday’s loss.
Lincoln – The Nebraska Athletic Department announced Monday that the Huskers men’s basketball game against Tennessee-Martin on Friday, Nov. 28, will tipoff at 7 p.m. The start time had been listed as TBA on the schedule and game tickets until the football game kickoff time at Iowa that day had been determined. The Nebraska-UT Martin game will be carried online by ESPN3 and broadcast on the Husker Sports Network.
The No. 21 Huskers are 1-0 on the season and host Central Arkansas Tuesday night at 7 p.m. A limited number of tickets for the game are now available by visiting Huskers.com or calling 800-8-BIGRED.
Lincoln – Nebraska basketball standout Terran Petteway was tabbed for the Wooden Award Men’s Preseason Top 50 Monday afternoon.
Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the sport’s most prestigious honor.
Petteway earned a spot on the list after an outstanding sophomore season where he averaged 18.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. The 6-foot-6 wing led the Big Ten in scoring – becoming the first Husker in more than six decades to lead the conference in scoring for a season – and had a pair of 30-point games on the season, including a career-high 35 points against Minnesota. He was his best against the Huskers’ toughest foes, averaging 20.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in 12 games against top-50 competition to help the Huskers reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.
Petteway opened the season with a game-high 25 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots in Nebraska’s 80-61 win over Northern Kentucky on Sunday.
A preseason All-American by several publications, Petteway is one of seven Big Ten players on the Wooden Award Men’s Preseason Top 50.
The Wooden Award National Advisory Board will select 25 players for the midseason list in early January. The leading candidates will be further pared to 20 in early February. Fifteen top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA will be placed on the ballot and submitted to voters prior to the NCAA Tournament. Voting will take into account play during the opening rounds of the tournament. The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskers return to action Tuesday night, as they host Central Arkansas at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m. with a limited number of tickets are still available by visiting Huskers.com or calling 800-8-BIGRED.
2014-15 John R. Wooden Award® Presented by Wendy’s® Preseason Top 50
Kentucky remains No. 1 in the first Associated Press regular-season men’s basketball poll released Monday.
The Wildcats kept the top spot despite struggling for a half against Buffalo, earning 49 first-place votes from the 64-member national media panel. Arizona was at No. 2 and earned four first-place votes, with No. 3 Wisconsin receiving seven and No. 4 Duke four. Arizona edged the Badgers by 16 total points.
The poll was relatively unchanged from the preseason after every team but one went undefeated during the opening weekend.
No. 7 Louisville and No. 8 Florida swapped spots in the only change in the top 10. Kansas was fifth, North Carolina sixth, with Virginia and Texas closing out the top 10.
Harvard, tied for No. 25, dropped out after losing to Holy Cross.
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Nov. 16, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
Record
Pts
Prv
1. Kentucky (49)
2-0
1,574
1
2. Arizona (4)
2-0
1,491
2
3. Wisconsin (7)
2-0
1,475
3
4. Duke (4)
2-0
1,422
4
5. Kansas
1-0
1,306
5
6. North Carolina
2-0
1,254
6
7. Louisville
1-0
1,130
8
8. Florida
1-0
1,127
7
9. Virginia
2-0
1,065
9
10. Texas
2-0
1,061
10
11. Wichita St.
1-0
1,002
11
12. Villanova
1-0
858
12
13. Gonzaga
1-0
841
13
14. Iowa St.
1-0
746
14
15. VCU
1-0
654
15
16. San Diego St.
1-0
564
16
17. UConn
1-0
525
17
18. Oklahoma
1-0
466
19
19. Michigan St.
1-0
443
18
20. Ohio St.
1-0
361
20
21. Nebraska
1-0
298
21
22. SMU
1-0
290
22
23. Syracuse
2-0
190
23
24. Michigan
1-0
177
24
25. Utah
1-0
118
25
Others receiving votes: Stanford 63, Colorado 52, Iowa 48, UCLA 41, Kansas St. 29, Arkansas 23, Memphis 11, Minnesota 11, Notre Dame 10, Pittsburgh 10, Louisiana Tech 9, Dayton 7, Florida St. 6, NC State 6, Oklahoma St. 6, Cincinnati 5, George Washington 5, LSU 5, Illinois 3, Maryland 3, BYU 2, Baylor 2, UTEP 2, Georgetown 1, N. Iowa 1, Stephen F. Austin 1.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Rachel Theriot scored 18 points and Tear’a Laudermill added 12 as No. 16 Nebraska defeated Alcorn State 83-49 on Sunday night, going unbeaten on the season-opening weekend.
The Huskers (2-0) took control about 5 minutes into the game when Theriot hit a jumper on an assist from Laudermill for a 14-11 lead, then Laudermill followed with a 3-pointer and Nebraska was off — building leads into the double digits.
Nebraska led by 20 at the half despite 13 first-half turnovers. They settled down after halftime and outrebounded the Braves (0-2) 47-29. Ten Huskers scored in the game, four in double figures as Brandi Jeffery added 11 and Anya Kalenta 10.
Olivia Brown paced Alcorn State with 21 points. Jazmin Strane added 11 points and five rebounds.
LINCOLN – The 11th-ranked Nebraska volleyball team won its sixth straight match with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-14, 18-25, 25-18) victory over Maryland on Sunday afternoon at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The Huskers improved to 18-7 overall and 12-4 in the Big Ten, finishing a stretch of four straight home matches unbeaten. Maryland dropped to 9-18 overall and 2-14 in the Big Ten in its first trip to Lincoln as a Big Ten opponent. While the Huskers extended their win streak to six, the Terrapins saw their losing streak reach six.
Kelsey Fien led the Huskers with a career-high 18 kills, her fourth straight match with double-digit kills. Kadie Rolfzen had 15 kills and 10 digs while hitting .355. Amber Rolfzen had six kills and five blocks, and Cecilia Hall had five kills and seven blocks. Meghan Haggerty added five kills and five blocks. Justine Wong-Orantes had a team-high 15 digs, while Sydney Townsend matched her career high with 11. Mary Pollmiller had 42 assists with seven digs, three kills and three blocks.
Emily Fraik had 13 kills to lead Maryland, while Ashleigh Crutcher had 12.
Nebraska outhit the Terrapins .277 to .187. The Huskers have now held six straight Big Ten foes under .200 hitting for the first time since 2011. The Huskers also outblocked the Terrapins 12-8 and outdug them 53-39. The Huskers had five aces with Townsend registering three and Ethridge two.
Nebraska took an 8-4 lead in the first set courtesy of an Amber Rolfzen kill, Townsend ace and a Haggerty kill. The Huskers then built a 15-7 lead by the media timeout with the second Amber Rolfzen/Hall block of the set and Fien’s fourth kill. An Ethridge ace made it 23-13, and the Huskers won 25-17 after Maryland fought off four set points. Fien had seven kills in the set to lead the Huskers to .387 hitting. Maryland hit .188.
With set two tied 6-6, Nebraska rattled off an 8-1 run to take control. NU scored three straight on a bad set by Maryland, kill by Pollmiller and Townsend’s second ace of the day to go up 9-6. After Maryland cut it to 9-7, the Huskers went ahead 14-7 with five more points. Fien and Kadie Rolfzen each had kills, and Haggerty combined for blocks with Pollmiller and Fien to give the Huskers a seven-point edge. The Huskers pulled away down the stretch to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-14 victory. NU hit .273 in the frame while holding the Terrapins to .000.
The Huskers started slow out of the gate in set three, falling behind 4-1. NU pulled within 7-5 on kills by Haggerty and Fien, but the Terrapins went up 13-5 with a 6-0 run, which Fien ended with back-to-back kills to trim the deficit to 13-7. But Maryland continued to fend off the Huskers and extended the lead to 17-8 with three kills in a row from Fraik. Trailing 19-11, the Huskers got kills by Kadie Rolfzen and Pollmiller around Townsend’s third ace to get within 19-14. But the next three points went to Maryland, and the Terrapins came away with the 25-18 win. NU hit just .062 in the third set, while Maryland had a .423 attacking percentage.
A kill by Fien and two blocks by Amber Rolfzen and Hall helped put the Huskers up 5-1 early in the fourth. But Maryland cut it to 9-8 with a 6-1 run to force a Husker timeout. Out of the break, Fien and Hall recorded kills, and an ace by Ethridge to put the Huskers up 12-8. The Terrapins closed the gap to 13-12, however, before consecutive kills by Amber Rolfzen made it 15-12 Nebraska. Another Amber Rolfzen kill put NU up 17-13. After Maryland got within 17-15, a Terrapin service error and three consecutive kills from Kadie Rolfzen made it 21-15 Huskers. The Huskers closed out the 25-18 win by hitting .435 in the fourth set with just three attacking errors.
Nebraska will visit Indiana for a 6 p.m. (CT) match on Wednesday on BTN Plus.
Lincoln, Neb.– Senior James Green (157) picked up his 100th career victory as No. 7 Nebraska cruised to a 42-3 triumph over Big Ten newcomer Maryland at the NU Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
Four Huskers won by fall against the Terrapins, including sophomore Tim Lambert (125), who earned his pin in 5:52 against Josh Polacek in the opening match of the dual. Lambert, the No. 14-ranked wrestler by InterMat, improves to 3-2 on the season.
No. 16 Austin Wilson (165) and No. 2 Robert Kokesh (174) earned pins in back-to-back bouts to give NU a 29-3 advantage after seven matches. Wilson pinned Maryland’s Tyler Manion in 2:46, while Kokesh pinned Josh Snook in 4:34. Heavyweight Collin Jensen earned a fall in 1:37 against Ryan Kail to close out the dual.
Green, a senior from Willingboro, N.J., won by major decision in the fifth match of the day as he defeated Lou Mascola by a 16-3 margin. Green earned four takedowns and added five near fall points before a riding time point in his victory. The three-time All-American is 6-0 this season, with all of his wins coming in bonus-point fashion.
Sophomores Justin Arthur (149) and Aaron Studebaker (184) also notched major decisions against the Terrapins. Arthur defeated Shane Arechiga, 17-5, while Studebaker took down Tony Gardner, 11-3. Arthur, a 2014 NCAA qualifier from Clarion, is 6-1 on the season. Studebaker improves to 9-3 during the 2014-15 campaign.
No. 15 Anthony Abidin continued his unbeaten streak to start the season as he won a 4-2 decision over Shyheim Brown at 141 pounds. At 197 pounds, Micah Barnes topped the Terrapins’ Rob Fitzgerald in the penultimate match of the dual by an 8-2 margin.
Sophomore Eric Montoya (133) suffered his first loss of the season, falling by a 4-2 decision to No. 11 Geoffrey Alexander in the second match of the dual. Montoya is 4-1 on the season.
The Huskers hit the road next weekend for a pair of matches. On Saturday, NU battles Duke in Durham, N.C., at noon (CT) before taking on NC State at 6 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C. The Huskers’ five remaining home duals will all be held at the Devaney Center.
Results 125:#14 Tim Lambert (NEB) by pin over Josh Polacek (MD), 5:52 (NEB 6, MD 0) 133:#11 Geoffrey Alexander (MD) by dec. over Eric Montoya (NEB), 4-2 (NEB 6, MD 3) 141:#15 Anthony Abidin (NEB) by dec. over Shyheim Brown (MD), 4-2 (NEB 9, MD 3) 149:Justin Arthur (NEB) by major dec. over Shane Arechiga (MD), 17-5 (NEB 13, MD 3) 157:#2 James Green (NEB) by major dec. over Lou Mascola (MD), 16-3 (NEB 17, MD 3) 165:#16 Austin Wilson (NEB) by pin over Tyler Manion (MD), 2:46 (NEB 23, MD 3) 174:#2 Robert Kokesh (NEB) by pin over Josh Snook (MD), 4:34 (NEB 29, MD 3) 184:Aaron Studebaker (NEB) by major dec. over Tony Gardner (MD), 11-3 (NEB 33, MD 3) 197:Micah Barnes (NEB) by dec. over Rob Fitzgerald (MD), 8-2 (NEB 36, MD 3) HWT:#18 Collin Jensen (NEB) by pin over Ryan Kail (MD), 1:37 (NEB 42, MD 3)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Terran Petteway scored 25 points, making six 3-pointers, and 21st-ranked Nebraska opened with an 80-61 victory over Northern Kentucky on Sunday.
Shavon Shields had 11 of his 18 points in the second half and made all 10 of his free throws. David Rivers added 12 points.
Freshman Tayler Persons led the Norse with 13 points. Anthony Monaco, averaging 2.5 points in 51 career games, matched his career high with 12, all on 3-pointers.
The Atlantic Sun’s Northern Kentucky (0-2) lost its opener 62-31 at third-ranked Wisconsin on Friday and was outscored by a combined 50 points by the Big Ten opponents.
Nebraska, ranked for the first time since January 1995, returned all but one contributor from the team that went on a surge the second half of last season to finish fourth in the Big Ten and make the NCAA tournament.
Lincoln – Coach Bo Pelini and Nebraska football student-athletes discussed this Saturday’s Senior Day showdown against Minnesota at Memorial Stadium with media members Monday.
