Danny Nee knew early it wasn’t Nebraska’s night.
How early?
“When we came to Lawrence yesterday,” Nee, NU’s head coach, quipped after Kansas humbled the Huskers, 70-48, Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
But if Nee had any doubt, that might have disappeared when 1.) he was called for a technical foul barely three minutes into the game, or 2.) KU’s Jeff Gueldner came crashing through the NU bench for a loose ball moment later, right next to Nee.
Certainly, the Huskers knew they were doomed when they went nearly seven minutes without scoring while KU built a 20-4 lead.
Not so, said Nebraska guard Jeff Rekeweg. He said the Huskers thought they could rally “right until it got down to eight minutes, or five minutes. I don’t like to ever think it’s over.
“We’ve been down quite a bit and come back,” Rekeweg added, “so it may not affect us as much as other teams. Kansas just didn’t let us come back.”
Not like last month in Lincoln, Neb., when KU blew a 16-point lead and lost 70-68.
“On the road,” Rekeweg said, “it’s a little tougher to do that.”
Nee couldn’t disagree there.
“The road has been a low point,” the coach said.
The Huskers are 5-9 on the road, where they’ve lost three in a row. They’ve also dropped five straight games overall, dipping their record to 3-6 in the Big Eight and 12-13 overall.
But Nebraska placed blame for its latest loss squarely on the shoulders of KU’s Danny Manning, who totaled 21 points and eight rebounds.
“You can’t stop him,” said NU forward Pete Manning, who also scored 21 points. “You can only try to slow him down. Their players get the ball to him well.”
“Everyone focused to be aware of where he was,” Nee said. “Something good’s going to happen when the ball’s in his hands. I think Danny’s the best. He just raises the rest of the team with him.”
“I guess you can say they danced with who brought them to the dance,” said NU’s Beau Reid. “Danny Manning. He’s the best player in the nation.”
You remember Reid. He’s the freshman who sank the game-winning baseline jumper against Kansas in Lincoln.
The KU student section certainly remembered Reid. Part of the crowd was calling his name tauntingly throughout the game. And you better believe Reid heard it.
“The first second I walked out on the floor, I heard them yelling at me,” Reid said. “I recognized them in warmups, and that egged them on more.”
Reid said his biggest mistake was to acknowledge the chants.
“I just looked at them and smiled, and that’s all it takes,” he said. “Once they see that, it just intensifies it. But I’ll be ready for them the next time we play here.”
Reid, however, questioned whether the Huskers were indeed ready on Tuesday.
“We weren’t ready to play,” he stated. “They jumped out to a big lead, and it’s too hard to come back from a deficit like that.”
“Playing in Allen Fieldhouse is a major factor,” Nee said. “I thought in the second half, we really played hard. We just didn’t do enough things right.
“Obviously the best team won,” Nee added. “We’re just trying to keep a positive attitude. I didn’t yell at them. I never yell at them. I only yell at officials.”
