Ade Dagunduro said some light, inspirational reading has helped boost his confidence.

A Bible passage or two. Some paragraphs from a golf book. Anything to get Dagunduro thinking.

“I’ve been taking a couple of paragraphs from this book on the psychology of golf players,” Dagunduro said. “The parts that I’ve read are to just visualize yourself having success and let everything take place rather than forcing the issue.”

That’s all great, just so Dagunduro doesn’t stay up all night with an open book.

For Dagunduro, it’s lights out at 9 p.m., when possible.

“I’d go to bed at midnight but not fall asleep until 3 or 4 a.m.,” Dagunduro said, explaining his problems earlier this season with fatigue. “My eyes would be closed but I’d still be conscious.

“Now, I’m trying to go to sleep earlier. If I go to sleep around 9, I’ll be asleep around 11.”

Reading, sleeping and cutting out fast food — a staple of a junior college diet, Dagunduro said —  has helped Nebraska’s first-year junior guard re-energize for a late-season run.

It’s March, and the Nebraska men’s basketball team, which plays today at Oklahoma State, has opportunities to atone for its early Big 12 Conference struggles. Possible first-round Big 12 Tournament byes and postseason scenarios are suddenly entering conversations about Husker hoops.

Part of that is because of late-season emergence by players like Dagunduro.

“My body feels good,” he said.

It certainly looked good Wednesday, when Dagunduro had 13 points and seven rebounds in Nebraska’s 63-45 victory against Oklahoma. It improved the Huskers to 17-9 overall and 6-7 in the Big 12, where they’re in a four-way tie for sixth place, and only one game out of fourth.

Dagunduro’s work on the boards most impressed — and pleased — Nebraska coach Doc Sadler.

“Ade was as aggressive as he’s been in a while,” Sadler said. “That’s what we’ve got to have him do — rebounding.

“Everybody wants to look at points and all those things, but the thing Ade did was give us seven rebounds. Forget the 13 points. That was nice.”

Four of his rebounds were offensive, including a one-handed jam of a Chris Balham miss that drew perhaps the loudest cheers heard at the Devaney Sports Center this season.

“I made a couple of hustle plays early, and those got me in a groove,” Dagunduro said, “and my energy was up the whole game.”

Maintaining a high energy level was a problem for Dagunduro earlier this season, particularly after the team returned from Christmas break. He didn’t score in Nebraska’s Big 12 opener against Kansas and played only 16 minutes the next game at Colorado and scored only two points.

Coaches were concerned enough with Dagunduro’s fatigue they wondered if there was medical problem. Tests came back normal.

The diagnosis?

More sleep, better eating habits.

“They made me do a lot of changing in my lifestyle,” said Dagunduro, who’s logged 23 minutes in each of Nebraska’s last two games, his second-most in Big 12 play to the 31 minutes he played at Kansas State.

Still, Dagunduro had two of three games midway through Big 12 play where he didn’t record a single rebound.

His seven rebounds Wednesday were a Big 12-season high for him. At Texas A&M, he had four rebounds, giving him 11 in two games. He’d combined for eight boards in his previous four games.

“Lately, I’ve been making a more asserted effort to not just box out, but actually attack the basket and get the rebound,” Dagunduro said. “Sometimes when I just box out, I don’t trace the ball, so I don’t end up getting the rebound.”

Briefly

n Cookie Miller remains questionable for today’s game. The freshman point guard suffered a shoulder sprain last Saturday and sat out Wednesday’s game vs. Oklahoma. He did not practice Friday.

Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.