Nee could be valuable NU assetPublished Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009
LINCOLN — It was minutes before Danny Nee was going to walk back onto that court. Would they remember?
This used to be his floor. This is where he used to scream back at Norm Stewart, where he had the students mobbing the place in hysteria, where he won like no other coach in Nebraska basketball history had won.
And now he was back and he was about to walk back onto the stage, under the spotlight. Would they cheer? Would it be polite? Golf claps? Would they remember?
Oh, yeah.
They introduced Danny Nee, Nebraska Basketball Hall of Famer. And there was a roar. Then, the old familiar face, with that charcoal hair slicked back, walked slowly out.
Everyone stood and cheered.
"It's just great," he told the crowd, "to come home."
Nee? Home in Nebraska? It had certainly felt that way during what Nee had called an "overwhelming weekend." As he ate at Valentino's, drove by his old house, talked with old friends at a Friday night dinner, it was almost like he had never left, almost like he had never been fired nine years ago this March.
And then came the standing ovation.
"It was very humbling," Nee said. "I almost cried."
This is one of the great things about the cyclical nature of sports. It has a short-term memory. Heroes become goats and can be reborn as heroes again.
And when Nee left, it was not personal. He had been to five NCAA tournaments in 14 years, won more than anyone here, but he had hit a ceiling. People wanted more. So did Athletic Director Bill Byrne.
But time, and the Barry Collier Era, heal wounds.
One of the reasons Nee can walk out to a standing ovation is what happened after he left: not much. When Nee was banished in 2000, it was in the name of a higher standard for Husker Hoops. But the Nee Era is still the standard for a program that, in many ways, has regressed in nine years.
"Would Nebraska fans like to go 10-6 (in the league) again?" Nee asked with that grin.
Nebraska hasn't had a winning conference record since that 10-6 season 10 years ago. It's been 11 years since the last NCAA tourney bid.
"We had solved the puzzle of how to win in the league," Nee said. "I couldn't get over the hump with the other game (NCAA tournament). That Arkansas game (74-65 loss in the 1998 NCAA tourney), we were up but we just couldn't finish."
There's a generation of Nebraska fans who don't remember that Nee-braska used to make the NCAA tournament every year (1991 to '94), students used to rush the floor for big wins (No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 3 Kansas, two weeks apart in 1992), and NU won a Big Eight tournament title (1994) and the vaunted NIT crown in 1996. And, yes, won at Allen Fieldhouse.
"Eddie Sutton never won there," Nee said, again with the grin.
The memories rushed forward at halftime on Saturday. Nee touched on some of the bad ones, too: the walkout by his players in 1996 ("that was frustration, a lack of communication and jealousy by some players about playing time") and the radio show in 1997 where he announced that he was leaving for Rutgers when he never had the job.
"I would do some things differently, yes," Nee said.
Ironically, Nee ended up at Rutgers, where he is director of basketball operations.
Maybe it's time to bring him back to Nebraska, full-time.
The thought occurred as I listened to Nee talk to the TV cameras at halftime, about how Doc Sadler is perfect for this job because he understands the culture and the people, about the arms race in the Big 12, about how you can fill the Devaney Center and win here. Nee did it.
Husker Hoops does not need a new arena to win. But it does need a practice/basketball facility and it needs a serious upgrade in Big 12 talent, in that order.
Here's my suggestion: Hire Nee back as a full-time basketball fundraiser, with the specific charge of getting that facility done.
Can you imagine Sadler and Nee walking into a room of Husker wallets, side by side, flashing their city and country personalities? Nee is interested. Steve Pederson wasn't. But it's time to revisit that.
"Doc is going to do it here," Nee said. "He needs that facility. He needs to get players. If those two big men had become eligible, you'd be looking at a different story this year."
An hour after Nee was honored, NU announced that one of those big guys, Brian Diaz, was now enrolled in school and ready for action.
Coincidence? Was the Nee magic back? On Saturday, it certainly felt like it.
