Huskers Ready to Hit the Court

Lincoln -- The Nebraska men's basketball team heads to Australia for its summer tour Aug. 7-20 hoping to use the extra playing time as a tool for improvement during the 2004-05 campaign. The Huskers had 10 NCAA-allowed practice dates before leaving for the trip and will play six games during their two-week stay Down Under.

The extra time working together and building team chemistry will be an advantage for the Huskers, who are coming off an exciting 18-13 season in which they reached the postseason for the first time in five years. Nebraska went 2-1 in the 2004 National Invitation Tournament, including victories over Creighton and Niagara before falling by a single point on the road against Hawaii.

The extra time together will allow the Huskers to concentrate on fundamentals and team play more than a typical summer when players are not allowed to workout with the coaches. The unique trip will also provide an educational opportunity unlike any other the Huskers have experienced.

While on the trip Down Under, Nebraska will play six contests, including five against teams from the National Basketball League (NBL), Australia's professional league. The teams Nebraska will face include the Sydney Kings, Wollongong Hawks, Hunter Pirates and Cairns Taipans, along with the Australian Institute for Sport.

Nebraska's only game against non-professionals will come against an AIS squad coached by Marty Clarke. AIS is the same institute that incoming-freshman Aleks Maric attended before enrolling at Burlington (N.J.) Life Center last fall. The AIS squad that included Maric and current Utah sophomore Andrew Bogut claimed the gold medal at the 2003 19-under World Championships. AIS is a national training center for the most talented athletes in the elite senior or elite developmental level, and spans 36 programs in 25 sports.

The Sydney Kings are the two-time defending NBL champions after finishing 2004 with a 26-7 record. The Kings have had the league's most valuable player and rookie of the year each of the past two seasons. Former Oklahoma Sooner Ebi Ere averaged 19.7 points and 5.8 rebounds for Sydney last year, while teammate Matthew Nielsen averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds as the league's MVP. Nielsen is one of three Kings -- along with C.J. Bruton and Jason Smith -- who will be away from the squad as they participate on the Australian Olympic team in Athens, Greece.

The Kings are not the only Husker opponent with Olympic ties, as Wollongong also has a pair -- player Glen Saville and coach Brendan Joyce -- who will be joining the Australian contingent for the 2004 Games. Saville helped the Hawks to a second-place finish in the 2004 NBL standings, where they finished 25-8. Saville led the team in scoring at 16.3 points per game while adding a team-best 9.6 rebounds per contest

Nebraska will face the Cairns Taipans twice in its final four days in Australia. The Taipans finished sixth in the league standings last year with a 16-17 record. Marcus Timmons, a former standout at Southern Illinois, led Cairns with 19.1 points per game while added a team-best 5.4 defensive rebounds. Melvin Thomas, who played collegiately at Texas-Pan American, led the team with 8.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per contest.

The Hunter Pirates struggled last season before finishing last in the 12-team NBL. Geordie Cullen led the squad with 17.1 points per game while hitting 54.5 percent from the floor. The Pirates and Hawks each have four Americans on their roster while the Kings and Taipans have three each

When the Huskers are taking on the professional teams, there will be a few rule differences from basketball in the United States. The key differences include:
--NBL teams regularly play four, 12-minute quarters and have six fouls before disqualification
--A 24-second shot clock is used and teams have eight seconds to advance the ball past midcourt
--The three-point line is further away (20-6 compared to 19-9 in U.S.)
--A trapezoid lane is used
--Jump balls are utilized to start each half and overtime
--There are no substitutions between free throws