Things haven't always been bright and shiny at the University of Nebraska for Mike Anderson.

Long before he would enjoy the Huskers' unprecedented run of success, Anderson had to deal with an uneasiness brought on by the questionable direction he felt the Husker baseball program was  headed under John Sanders.

Anderson came to NU from Northern Colorado in the fall of 1994, and while the Huskers featured two players who would be first-round picks in the 1995 major-league draft, they failed to make an NCAA regional.

The next season, Nebraska failed to make the Big Eight Conference Tournament. And in 1997, the first year of the Big 12, it finished next-to-last.

Less than two months before the start of the 1998 season, Sanders was fired by athletic director Bill Byrne. While being left in charge of the program on an interim basis, Anderson did his best to keep things from completely unraveling. At the same time, he didn't rule out putting a "For Sale" sign in the yard.

He chose not to, because, deep down, Mike Anderson has this belief that things will always work out.

"It's great to have that, especially when things aren't going good," said Anderson's sidekick, Nebraska associate head coach Rob Childress. "When you've got a leader that's that way, it's easy to put yesterday's tough loss behind you and move on to the next day's practice or the next game."

Anderson, who turned 40 Wednesday, developed a quick rapport with Dave Van Horn and Childress after they came to NU from Northwestern (La.) State. Although he had only a one-year agreement to be on that staff,  Anderson clicked so well with the new coaches that Van Horn knew almost instantly he had a keeper.

An outfielder at Northern Colorado, Anderson was an eighth-round draft pick who spent four years in the California Angels' minor-league system. He was put in charge of the outfielders and was the hitting instructor. In each of his last four years as an assistant, the Huskers led the Big 12 in batting average.

When Van Horn opted to leave for Arkansas after Nebraska's second straight trip to the College World Series, Byrne moved fast to promote the assistants, and ended up choosing Anderson to be the head coach mainly on a gut feeling.

The Team Anderson formula has helped bring the Huskers two Big 12 regular-season championships, a league tournament crown and now a shot at the school's third CWS appearance.

"I do things a little different than he does, and maybe that's a good thing," Childress said of the man known as ‘Coach A' to his players. "He does things a little different than I do, and maybe that's a good thing, too. I think he's a great person. He's a great leader and a great friend. I enjoy being around him every day. He makes me feel better about myself."

That's the Coach A way, as you'll see in this question-and-answer session with the Huskers' head coach:

How has your mentality played itself out this season, as far as the way you've gone about coaching these guys?

"We've tried to create confidence in them all year. You've heard me at the beginning of the year — construction or destruction. We're not less hard on them. It's not like we said OK, let's make a decision to say let's be softer on these kids. We said let's be disciplined in our work habits, but let's also build them up.

"I think you can be greedy. I think our staff wanted to be greedy — that we could be great to these kids, and we could work them hard, and they'd appreciate that."

So it's flattering if someone says your style is that of a cheerleader?

"To me, a relationship is important…. Once they figure out that we care about them as people, and then we push them, then they're going to give more effort."

Have you been more positive, just in general, in the way you've dealt with the team this year?

"Maybe more so with (the media). I'd find it hard-pressed if you asked anybody else to find somebody that says I'm more positive, because in my mind I'm a pretty positive, energetic person."

How does the makeup of this team affect how you coach them? You have a mix of guys who know you inside and out and some who are still trying to figure you out.

"That's OK. (Senior outfielder) Daniel Bruce is probably a perfect example of that. The core group of outfielders that I've had have always been the closest, because I work with them offensively and defensively. Daniel's a kid that recognized and saw as a freshman how hard I was on him.

"But he's also recognized that by the time he's a senior that relationship's changed. Johnny Dorn, all of our freshman, I think you have to be tough on them, because you want them to develop those disciplines. But what you want is you want them to develop those disciplines for themselves, not because I'm telling them to.

"So Daniel's a young man that I was very tough on as a freshman. It's not even remotely the same relationship now because of that, because he's earned my respect. And he's earned, instead of getting chewed out for something, at times, that conversation. Whereas, those freshmen, sometimes they need to have that thumb on them at all times."

What about the way you've dealt with criticism this year? Is there a thick-skin element that you have to have as a head coach that has helped you this year? This club is 54-13, but it seems like throughout the course of the season there were always points where somebody thought you should be doing something differently with some part of your team.

"I don't know if that's me, I think that's baseball. If we talked about the Cubs right now, whoever, baseball is just second guessing. That's OK. I am what I am. No more. No less. If somebody pats you on the back, that doesn't mean that much. And when somebody criticizes you, it doesn't mean that much, either."

Why do you think you and your staff work so well together? Some staffs produce results, but with separate agendas. What makes you guys a good team?

Are you asking that because we're winning this year? I say it that way because I think we've worked together great for three years. To me, it's a great staff. (Graduate manager) Johnny (Cole) is not considered a coach, but I think we have a lot of positive people around here.

"To give you an example of what I'm talking about — Brooks Wells. This is a freshman manager that I wanted to be a part of our team for a reason —because of his energy, because of his positiveness. That's what our staff is. That's the type of people that I want to associate with. It was no accident that Brooks Wells is part of this team."

What do you really gain by working with an 18-year-old kid?

"Positive energy every day. Somebody that looks at opportunities instead of any negatives. And when you're around people like that, sometimes a loss isn't as important. There's a loss, we've got a young man who's coming in and he's positive the next day.

"You need that — all the time…. I don't care if it's an 18-year-old. I'm talking about (baseball office secretary) Renee (Brinkmann), (trainer) Josh Cohen — everybody. I don't function well when people look at things as the bucket half empty. The bucket, it's full."

So do you function better, too, when the attention's not just on you? You're pretty quick to point to the contributions of others.

"Well, shouldn't it be that way? I'll say it this way. I don't like the attention now that we're winning. It shouldn't be. The attention should be all on these guys. I've said this from my press conference when I took this job that if we lose it should be about me, and if we win it should be about the kids. So I don't like it right now. It shouldn't be. I'm almost embarrassed."

Does that attitude come from the values you learned growing up or something you witnessed elsewhere?

"It's just the way it should be. It should be about the kids. I wish we'd talk about the past (College) World Series teams, and unfortunately, it's just the way it is. Dave (Van Horn) is a good friend, I always say that. But I wish we'd talk about Shane Komine and Will Bolt and John Cole. I wish we'd talk about the kids that got us there. Instead, we talk about the coaches. I think it's a disservice to our kids."

This positive style of yours — is that an example of how you've grown and matured as a head coach? Did you recognize the importance of that like you do now two years ago?

"That's a good question. I'll tell you this, I think I recognized that as an assistant coach. I'd say it's more recognized. I needed to lead that charge. As an assistant, I knew that I needed to be positive all the time. That was part of my job."

But in 2003, did you realize you were going to have to be the one that implemented that in everyone?

"Yes. And I needed to surround myself around positive people that way — all the time."

What's made you so loyal to this program? You've been through some difficult times and even though you might have felt you had a good job, it wouldn't have been that tough to move on.

"You know what? That's the way I am. That's my mom and my dad, happily married, the way that they are. I grew up, found a girl I like, got married when I was 23 and wanted to start a family. I don't think I function well as being out there with everything, you know what I mean?

"Bouncing around, doing this. I don't think I would've functioned well being a junior college coach that bounced around for four or five, six years. I always make this comment about Nebraska to recruits: Once you find a girl you want to marry, don't you want to ask her? Or do you tell her you're going to look around for a little while?

"If a kid wants to come here, he should want to come here. This is a place that's incredible, because it's Nebraska. And to me, the values of Nebraska people, the values of our university, fit what I do. I want to implement those things, because (of) the loyalty, the tradition, integrity, ethics — the things that a guy like Tom Osborne stood for and created. That's what I believe in."

Did you know these things about Nebraska right away?

"The tradition of this university, yes."

When did you know it could be a special place for baseball?

"The first year I was here — without a doubt."

Is this team reaching super regionals an important milestone for the program, considering it's the first time in three years?

"No, because if we're in it next year then we're going to be saying it's another important milestone. You know what? This is this team, this time, this place. I think we get too caught up in looking at what happened in the past and what's going to happen in the future and everything else. Let's take this for what it is and enjoy it, try and get to the next step, and when next year comes and everybody says we're going to be a sixth-place team, then take that for what it's worth."

So when people wonder if you guys have come out of the shadows of the teams that made it to the CWS, or if you, as a coach, have come out of the shadows of Van Horn . . . what?

"Not an issue. The issue has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with this team, this moment, this time. Not an issue."

So how fun is this team to coach?

"It's awesome. I don't enjoy sitting here talking to (the media). I'd rather get out there (on the field) and be with them. The difference between this year's team and last is this year's team cares about each other as a team. They're a team.

"You've got the second pick overall in the draft (Alex Gordon) — and I can tell you this wholeheartedly, I feel it, I know it in the deepest part of my heart — all he thinks about is winning as a team."

Doesn't that attitude come from the top?

"I think so. I could have a pro image and say we're trying to develop pro players. I think I could do that and be completely different."

How does that team-first attitude fit in when you go recruiting? You can't win without players who don't have talent.

"If you look at our roster, the reason we have Midwest kids is because Midwest kids have Midwest values. Midwest values come from parents. When a parent says you've gotta get this done, then a kid says you bet I'll get it done. Why? Because they value their parents, and we want kids like that, Midwest-type kids in our program, because when I say you've gotta go get it done, you don't look at me cross-eyed and say I'm not going to listen to coach.

"They've been brought up in an environment with their families, that their dad and mom said ‘do it' and they did it. So when they come here, it's not foreign to them. When you've got 21 kids from California that don't have the family backgrounds, that don't have the structure and the things — and I'm not saying they're bad kids, don't get me wrong — but Midwest kids understand the values that we're trying to create. Nine times out of 10.

"Please don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to say a recruit has to have a mom and a dad. There's a place in this program for every type of a kid, but to me, that's why we recruit Midwest kids. That kid's going to develop better in this program, because of the values that we have and the values that Nebraska has. When you go to a kid like Curtis Ledbetter and say, ‘Listen, you've got Matt Hopper in front of you, you're probably going to have to sit down and redshirt.' And he looks at you and says, ‘OK, I understand,' instead of ‘Aw, I'm gonna transfer.'"

Are there any other differences you see in this team from last year, other than things on the field?

"They've got a lot of heart. That's just a big part of this team. They want to win. They want to win."