Nebraska hires UTEP's Sadler

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08/08/2006 -

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -Doc Sadler was introduced as Nebraska's new men's basketball coach Tuesday, a week after Barry Collier resigned to become Butler's athletic director.

The 46-year-old Sadler, who spent the past two seasons at Texas-El Paso, takes over a program that hasn't won a conference championship since sharing the Big Seven title in 1949-50 and is winless in six NCAA tournament appearances. The Cornhuskers haven't been to the tournament since 1998.

``The state of Nebraska deserves us to be in the NCAA tournament, and we want it to happen not next year, not two years from now. We want it to happen now,'' Sadler said.

In six years under Collier, the Huskers were 89-91, never finished higher than sixth in the Big 12 and made two NIT appearances.

Sadler went 48-18 at UTEP, making the NCAA tournament in his first season with the Miners. Last season UTEP was 21-10 and lost to Michigan in the first round of the NIT.

``I was told that if you could ever get the opportunity to coach at the University of Nebraska, you better do everything you can,'' Sadler said. ``I had a great job. I don't know if people realize that. UTEP is a great basketball job. Great fans, everything. Great tradition. But this is Nebraska, man.''

Sadler signed a six-year contract that, not including incentives, pays him $700,000 annually, athletic director Steve Pederson said. Sadler's contract at UTEP paid him a base salary of $300,000 a year.

Pederson and associate athletic director Marc Boehm met with Sadler in Los Angeles last week and again in Denver over the weekend before offering the job.

``He's got a great recruiting reputation, but what everybody said is that he's just a grinder,'' Pederson said. ``You get in there and you work and you work and you work. If everybody else goes to bed at midnight, you go to bed at 2 a.m. You can see that so clearly with him.''

Senior point guard Charles Richardson Jr. said the six returning players who are on campus have embraced Sadler's promise to play an up-tempo style.

``When I heard that, a light went on in my head,'' Richardson said. ``First thing I thought was that I've got to get in shape because I have to be prepared to play 40 minutes and run up and down 94 feet.''

Sadler's task at Nebraska was made more difficult with Monday's announcement that the team's best player, center Aleks Maric, was leaving the program. Maric averaged 10.9 points and 8.1 rebounds as a sophomore. He said he would transfer or play professionally in Europe.

Sadler said he would try to contact Maric and ask whether he would reconsider.

Sadler joined UTEP as an assistant coach in 2003-04, helping Billy Gillespie engineer an NCAA record-tying turnaround by going from six wins the previous year to 24 and UTEP's first NCAA tournament berth since 1992.

Sadler was promoted to when Gillespie left for Texas A&M.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.

The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.

MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.

A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.

Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.

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