NU’s Dagunduro needs to get going
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By BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
One key junior college transfer on the Nebraska men’s basketball team finally found a bit of a groove Saturday against Baylor.
Shooting guard Steve Harley, who’d gone scoreless in Nebraska’s previous game at Colorado, scored a career-high 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
Now, if coach Doc Sadler could find some answers for Ade Dagunduro.
The 6-foot-5 wing man, who entered Big 12 Conference play averaging 11.4 points, has scored a combined seven points in the Huskers’ three league losses.
“We need Ade to step up,” Sadler said, “and I’m sure Ade wants to step up.”
Dagunduro’s next chance comes Saturday, when Nebraska (11-5, 0-3) plays No. 2 Kansas in Lawrence.
In Nebraska’s Jan. 12 meeting with the Jayhawks in Lincoln, Dagunduro didn’t score on 0-of-6 shooting in a 79-58 loss.
What can Sadler do to get Dagunduro back on track?
“I don’t know,” Sadler said. “Just push buttons until the right one’s pushed.
“We’ve just got to try to get him off to a (good) start. That’s what I tried to do against Baylor by running those two early plays for him.”
Dagunduro played only 18 minutes and had only one foul in the 72-70 loss to Baylor. He played only 16 minutes with three fouls in a 55-51 loss to Colorado, and wasn’t on the court late in the game when Richard Roby scored an easy layup.
“He got tired,” Sadler said. “He was in right before that.”
Dagunduro’s in-game fatigue, Sadler said, is a problem that’s emerged since the holiday break, when players got out of a regular class and practice routine.
“I think more, with Ade, it’s just his sleeping and eating habits,” Sadler said. “It’s just getting him back on a pattern. He’ll be fine.”
Make your free throws!
Nebraska is a 67.6 percent free throw-shooting team. In Big 12 games, that percentage is 63.3.
“Excluding Kansas, if we’re over 70 percent from the free-throw line,” Sadler said, “we have a chance to win every game. I firmly believe that.”
Like football coaches whose teams experience a case of fumbleitis, basketball coaches, Sadler included, don’t like to dwell on free throw-shooting woes.
“I don’t think you talk about it at all,” Sadler said.
Nebraska’s free-throw practice routine includes each player making 100 free throws after practice.
But not every practice.
“Today,” Sadler said earlier this week, “we didn’t shoot any.”
Sadler said his approach for practicing free throws hasn’t changed, and likely won’t.
“I don’t do anything different than my first year at UTEP when we led the nation in free-throw shooting,” he said.
Bye, bye
In only the second full week of the Big 12 Conference season, Nebraska has already spent its bye week.
Based on Nebraska’ 0-3 start, and heartbreaking loss to Baylor, was it good or bad for the Huskers to have another week before their next game?
“This time of year, you need to be playing,” Sadler said, “but at the same time, you need to have a week off. It’s just that it’s so early in the (conference) season.
“From here on out, as I told the team, this season’s going to be over with before we can blink our eyes. It’s going to be over. And it’s going to be April. It’s going to be sunny outside.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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