Nee, Asbury may be in their last Big 12 Tourney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Big 12 Tournament opens Thursday with two major questions awaiting an answer: Will the league get six teams into the NCAA tournament?<br><br>And will this week mark the end

Wednesday, March 8th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Big 12 Tournament opens Thursday with two major questions awaiting an answer: Will the league get six teams into the NCAA tournament?

And will this week mark the end of Danny Nee's 14-year tenure as head coach at Nebraska and Tom Asbury's six-year run at Kansas State?

The final decisions are beyond their control. But speculation has been rampant that both men, following bitterly disappointing seasons, are on their way out.

"I don't know, quite simply," Asbury said Wednesday. "You're asking the wrong person. I don't make those decisions."

Asbury's Wildcats (9-18) ended the season losing 15 of 17 games and go into Thursday's first round facing No. 24 Kansas as the No.
12 seed. History would not seem to favor Asbury. The Jayhawks have beaten Kansas State 18 straight times and Asbury, at Pepperdine and Kansas State, is 0-19 against Kansas teams.

He said there had been no signals from the administration and that he has no plans to resign.

"We have an evaluation at the end of the year critiquing the past year and what our needs are and what our strengths and weaknesses have been," he said. "That's very consistent with what has gone on previously."

Nee says that despite all the grief he has taken from fans and media this year, he has had no second thoughts that he went into the wrong profession 30 years ago or took the wrong job 14 years ago. In the other afternoon game on Thursday, His eighth-seeded Huskers (11-18) will meet ninth-seed Baylor.

"The 14 years I've had at Nebraska -- I understand I'm under fire now -- but they were great," Nee said. "No, I have no regrets. I'm a coach. I want to be a coach the rest of my life. I could coach on any level and feel very comfortable."

Even if Kansas should make it 19 in a row against the hapless Wildcats, going unbeaten through a fourth straight Big 12 tournament seems a tall order.

For the first time ever, the Jayhawks did not qualify for a first-round bye. They would have to do something nobody else has ever done in the Big 12 tourney and win four games in four days.

"I think that it can be done," said coach Roy Williams. "I like the challenge of trying to do it when everyone says you can't. I think two of the three years that we have won it we haven't
gotten the right amount of recognition for what we've done.

Everyone says you're going to win because the other team has played four days."

No. 6 seed Missouri plays Texas Tech in the final game on Thursday. In the other Thursday evening game, No. 10 seed Texas A&M plays No. 7 seed Colorado.

The Kansas-Kansas State winner will meet No. 17 Oklahoma State on Friday. In the other second-round matches, the Baylor-Nebraska
winner meets No. 7 Iowa State, the regular season champion; The Texas A&M-Colorado winner plays No. 13 Texas and No. 15 Oklahoma goes against the Missouri-Texas Tech victor.

"This year, you've got to go with Iowa State," said Williams. "Marcus Fizer is playing better than anybody. And when you've got
the best player ... "

Fizer, the unanimous choice for Big 12 player of the year, has been particularly unstoppable in his last five games. But Iowa State's lack of depth could hurt the Cyclones, some believe, in a tournament format where they play three games in three days.

The Cyclones also do not expect to get center Paul Shirley back from an injury this week.

"There's something to the fact we aren't very deep," said coach Larry Eustachy. "But how many people is Missouri or Texas playing? There's a few teams in this league that have the luxury of having 10-11 guys."

The Cyclones (26-4) are coming off a tough week in which they had to win two on the road to lock up the title.

"Where we're at a disadvantage is we've put a lot of mental thought in winning the conference," Eustachy said. "You seem to
flatten out at times because you're just spent."