Then & Now: Jose Ramos

Then & Now: Jose Ramos

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy Husker Hoops Central)

Jose

Ramos played for Nebraska during the 1990-1991

season, and helped lead the #9 Huskers to a record of

26-8.  

A 6'2"

point guard, Ramos came to Nebraska after playing a

season at the University of Florida, and joined Keith

Moody in backing up Clifford Scales.

Ramos,

who until today hasn't publicly talked about his times

at Nebraska since leaving, is our latest guest in this

Sunday's edition of "Then & Now".

HHC: Thanks for

joining us. It was great to see you last month at the

1990-1991 reunion.

JR:

Yeah, I was quite surprised that I got a phone call from

you and that you found me, but I’m glad you did, because

it was great to get back. I hadn’t heard from these guys

since I left Nebraska. Actually, it was the Big 8

Tournament in Kansas City. So, I was kind of glad I was

found and able to come back!

HHC: You were a three-year starter at

Miami High, and were a first-team All-Florida selection

as a senior (1988) after averaging 20 points and 9

assists per game. For your efforts, you won Gatorade

Player of the Year honors for the Southern region,

and also finished 5th in the voting for Florida's 1988

"Mr. Basketball" award. You ended up at the University

of Florida, but who else recruited you out of high

school?

JR:

As you know, we were very successful in high school. You

had all the coaches there, with everybody from NC State

to Duke, North Carolina to Florida State, and all the

ACC schools. But, I only took one recruiting visit, and

that was to Florida, which was the school I wanted to go

to growing up.

Some

other schools that were interested were Villanova, and

NC State made a big push with Jim Valvano, whom it was

great to meet.  Those were the only guys that came into

the gym and talked with me besides Florida, and I sat

down and contemplated going on a recruiting visit to

more schools. But, it never materialized, and I just

ended up going to Florida.

HHC: So

Nebraska wasn't in the picture at all?

JR: No, not at all. I just knew Nebraska

only because of football, actually.

Ironically, in high school, we went to a Nike

All-American Camp in Princeton, New Jersey, and I met

Beau Reid out there. He was a counselor out there.

(Laughs) Ask him about that and see if he remembers.

He was at

Nike, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to this camp,

but it was just starting to get off when I was in high

school. Your Nike, Adidas, and all these camps that are

showcased now began then.

You had

guys like Alonzo Mourning, Chris Jackson, and Shawn Kemp

there, and boy, was it just incredible. A skinny young

Shawn Kemp. Aw man, he was 6’10” back then, but nothing

more than 200 pounds, if that. But gosh, when I first

got into the gym, he was actually playing already, and

this guy was rebounding the ball, going coast to coast

by himself, and just playing with guys before dunking.

And I was like, “Who the hell is this guy?” Finally, we

all got together and we ended up knowing who he was, but

it was just fun seeing some of these guys.

Alonzo

was another guy where all he did was block shots, and we

didn’t think he’d be so offensive minded when he got in

the league, but he improved a whole lot. It’s funny

because in high school, our team played on the national

level, so we played against everybody that’s either in

the pros now or went to high major Division I.

But yeah,

Beau was a counselor, because they used to bring a lot

of college players to come and work the camp in the

summer with the high school kids.

HHC: Speaking of high school, you went to

the same school as of former Husker fullback Omar Soto.

Did he later play a role in you coming to Lincoln?

JR: Well, he was a football player and a

fullback, and a pretty good football player. But our

football program wasn’t as big as our basketball. But I

knew who he was, and actually when I first came to

Lincoln, he kind of found out that I was coming and went

over there, and that’s where I met Tom Osborne. So, it

was kind of neat to see him there, and basically he was

like the only Latin guy in the college at the time

(Laughs). He was the only guy that spoke Spanish there,

nobody else.

HHC: (Laughs)

Pretty diverse school there at UNL, huh?

JR:

Yeah, I know right (Laughs).

HHC: As a freshman at Florida in 1988-1989 for

Coach Norm Sloan, you started 10 of the first 12 games

before leaving the team for personal reasons. What did

that season teach you?

JR: Well, I didn’t grow up in an athletic

family like a lot of guys that I got to meet later on,

whose father either played college ball or were a coach.

I come from a family where my father owned a furniture

business, middle class family, my Mother didn’t work,

and I had two brothers and a sister, and we played a lot

of sports around the house. My brother was very

athletic, and funny story, he played high school

football, and at the time went to Christopher Columbus

(High School). Alonzo Highsmith, who later played for

the Houston Oilers, was one of the running backs, and my

brother went ahead and got nailed by a safety, and never

finished his high school football days (Laughs).

So,

nobody in my family ever played sports, and I think now

that I went through college that its important to have

someone who’s either been through high school, college,

or professional sports, because they can guide you in

the right direction, and I never had that. So when I

went to Florida, it was a great experience, although in

hindsight, I wish I would have taken all my visits, and

probably would have chosen a different school or a

little different path, but I was happy there.

The

players were great, because I either played with them in

high school or in AAU. My year there, I played with

Dwayne Schintzius, the 7’2” player, and Livingston

Chapman, who was freshman of the year, diaper dandy, he

was the whole nine, and then he had a knee injury and

really didn’t get to play anywhere. But, he had a great

college career.

HHC: 1989-1990 found you at Central

Florida Community College, and you averaged 16.2 PPG and

6.4 APG while also leading the team in assists (210) and

steals (101). You played for former Wichita State and

Illinois State coach Gene Smithson. What did he teach

you?

JR: Gene was a guy that also coached a lot

of great players at Wichita State. Antoine Carr, Cliff

Levingston, and Xavier McDaniel. Bottom line, he ran

into a situation at Wichita State, and came down to

central Florida, and he was a guy that as soon as I left

Florida, he was the first one to call me, and he was

starting up a great program and I was very fortunate

that in all the stops I had in college, from four years

to four different colleges, to have such great coaches

like Gene.

I thrived

at Central because it was a small little town, and the

campus was small. I lived right by campus, which was

great, and I concentrated on class and ball all year,

and had a great team with some good players, including

Rivera, and I can’t remember his last name, but he ended

up at UTEP and played point guard for Don Haskins.

While I

was at Central, I came across Coach (Danny) Nee and

Coach (Lynn) Mitchem, because I was all set to go to

Florida State, but then changed my mind.

That’s a

funny story because that team at Florida State was

loaded but needed a point guard. They had Bob Sura, Doug

Edwards, Sam Cassell, and I went over there and visited

Coach Pat Kennedy and Associate Head Coach David

Zimeroth, and they knew me well from high school. I was

all set going there, and then a couple of days before

signing, that’s when Coach Nee and Lynn Mitchem came

down, and I remember getting a phone call from Gene

Smithson telling me they had coaches from Nebraska there

who he’d met at the Final Four.

At the

Final Four, Danny had told him, “Hey, I’m looking for a

point guard,” so they came in to take a shot at me and

try to convince me (to come to Nebraska) within a couple

of days.

Believe

it or not, I did like Danny. He was very personable when

he had to be. He had a good personality, and was a city

guy. He fit in with me, spoke well, had great ideas, was

motivated, and then Lynn Mitchem was his sidekick, and

he did a great job of acting like your buddy and was

“one of the guys” since he was a former player. I

related to him very well, and I remember we all went out

to dinner with my junior college president, Danny, Lynn,

and myself, and he convinced me by saying, “Hey listen,

I’ve got a very good team coming in. We didn’t have a

great year, but I think we have the pieces in the right

place and all I really need is a point guard.”

He

already had (Keith) Moody there, but wasn’t too sold on

him. To make a long story short, I went and visited with

Danny in Lincoln, and he pulled out all the stops.

I walked

into the gym and he’s got a tape playing with 15,000

people screaming, has the introduction, etc. Back then,

when one “pulled out the stops”, you walked into the

arena, and you had your jersey with name and number, and

over the loud speaker, you being introduced. So he was

nice, and I liked the facility, people, and the players

there.

He just

worked me those couple of days. We went out to dinner,

and for some reason, I just fell in love with the place

and the people. And again, the Big Eight Conference was

great, and I told him I was coming, and remember coming

back and getting the call from Coach Zimeroth at Florida

State, who told me, “Hey, I heard your going to

Nebraska?!?” And I said, “Coach, I’m sorry man.” And

anyone who knows me knows that I don‘t play around a

lot, and I was always brutally honest. And I just told

him flat out that I liked the place and coach, and

basically I didn’t want to go ahead and come to Florida

State, and I’m going to go to Nebraska. He says “big

mistake.”

(Laughs)

And sure, in hindsight, I was successful, and I never

doubt myself in the decisions I make, even if they are

bad, which I’ve made a lot of in my life. But, they go

into the Sweet 16 or almost Final Four with that team,

but they went ahead and picked up a pretty good point

guard named Charlie Ward (Laughs). That chump ended up

being like player of the year and got drafted in the

first round and made millions of dollars.

HHC: So you’re

saying he owes you a cut? (Laughs)

JR:

Yeah right, huh! (Laughs) I should call him and tell him

he owes me a little stipend from that since he may have

been stuck to football?

HHC: (Laughs)

Most definitely! Hey, what was the perception of both

Lincoln, Nebraska, and Nebraska basketball, to a kid

from Miami, Florida?

JR: First of all, I had never heard of the

basketball program until I got there. Football was

always the premiere sport, but I was always the kind of

guy that liked challenges. I liked being different, and

people that know me know that’s the way I am. I always

fight against the current, so I chose Nebraska and

thought I could help.

One thing

that people can knock me for is going to four different

schools, and really, I didn’t have the successful

college career that I think I should have had if I would

have stayed at one institution. But I’ll tell you this,

no matter what school I went to, I always contributed

and was a winner. I was never on a losing team. And I

know people compare and say how can you turn one year of

losing around (1989-1990) and into the best year in

school history (1990-1991)? And I really think it wasn’t

a magical year, but he put the right pieces together,

and when I got there, you had a lot of tough players.

One of

the toughest guys there was Beau Reid, and I can relate

to guys like that, because that’s my upbringing. I’m not

used to losing, and never lost. And, to be quite honest

with you, I got there and they said they’d been 10-18,

and I couldn’t fathom that. My mentality was that I

couldn’t stand that.

I was a

hard-nosed player, and I didn’t take crap from anyone,

no matter who it was, even a friend like Anthony Peeler

(Missouri). I was an old school player who took things

personally, which is not what it’s like now, where you

let a guy stand in and get 40 or 50 points.

Back in

the day, that guy wasn’t going to go off and get that

career high against us. He was going to get fouled hard,

and he was going to know that when he came in there, he

was going to get nailed and take shots if he got hot. He

had something coming, and wasn’t getting it against us.

Anyway,

when I got to Nebraska, I practiced from day one, even

if I couldn’t play off the bat, and guys knew that I

wasn’t a selfish player. I looked to run, played with a

lot of talented and athletic guys, and that’s what I

expected out of the guys. I never judged any of them,

whether it be Rich King or Eric Piatkowski, and instead

just got in there and didn’t take no crap from nobody,

not even the coaches. I was there to work and win, and I

think that rubbed off on a lot of other players who

didn’t have that cockiness or mentality.

That year

though, since I had to sit out the first 12 games, I

played with the white team in practice, with Bruce

Chubick, Eric Piatkowski, Chris Cresswell, and guys like

that. We actually beat the red time the majority of the

time.

Actually,

I felt kind of sorry for Chris Cresswell, because

confidence is such a big part of being a college

athlete, which I know even more after I later was an

assistant coach at Florida International, and I think

Danny kind of sapped Chris’ confidence by telling him

not to dribble, and to only spot up. I’m sorry, but you

just don’t tell guys that kind of crap, so I felt bad

for Cresswell. He was a deadly shooter man, but it

wasn’t utilized, I don’t think, when it could have been.

Meanwhile, Danny never said any negative things to

Piatkowski, but it was obvious, he was a stud. He had no

conscience; he would just go in there, and I don’t know

if he was a freshman that didn’t know much, but he

played carelessly, and just let it go anytime he had an

open shot. He had good confidence, and he would put the

ball in the hole.

HHC: Can you

give us a funny and colorful Danny Nee story or two for

our ongoing collection?

JR: Boy, good old Danny (Laughs). I’ll

tell you something man, and I’ll tell you a story that a

lot of guys wrote about after I left, but never got

right. This is exclusive for you and HHC.

We went

to the Big Eight Tournament in Kansas City, and I don’t

remember exactly what the restaurant was, but we went to

a steak restaurant. I remember Danny saying, “Oh, we’re

going to take the team to a great steakhouse. I want you

to behave, but it’s a great place that you need to go.”

Bottom

line, I get there, and I remember my family flew into

town to see the Big Eight Tournament. I remember I told

them I’m going to go to dinner, and they went over there

and sat separate from the team. But the big steak dinner

that everyone writes about, here’s how it really went.

If you’ve

ever ordered filet minion, it’s very well cut, and nice

and neat. I remember asking if it’s very big, and she

said, “Well, they’re actually 12 small 6 ounces of

tender meat.” And I said, “Wow, I’m hungry, I need two

orders of that.” But before I put those two orders in, I

went over to coach, and told him, “Hey coach, I have my

family here, and I’m going to order an extra entrée”

because that was Danny’s thing, since we had big players

there and guys ate a lot, and sometimes they would get

mad since they were paying for it.

So I told

coach I was going to get two orders of steak, and he was

in a good mood and goes, “Aw yeah, sure, go ahead, not a

problem.” And I said, “If I have to pay extra, my

parents are here, so I will.”

So I sat

down, and when I got there, I got four pieces of meat,

and I ate all four. But low and behold, for some reason,

and this is typical Coach Nee, the next day it was our

breakfast at the hotel, and he never used to address the

team during breakfast. Breakfast you would go, sit down,

and shoot the breeze, but he made it a point, which he

was good at, when he wanted to embarrass you and

belittle you, he sure knew how to press your buttons.

And like I said, I was one of those guys where if you

confronted me, I wouldn’t let you slide. And he goes

ahead before breakfast and says, “I want to address a

situation that really bothered me.” And he hadn’t said

anything to me, and I guess he slept on it and it

bothered him when he woke up. And he says, “You’ve go to

understand how to conduct yourself, and with people and

media around at restaurants, you know how to conduct

yourself like a human being.” And I was like, “Oh no,

let’s see where this crap is leaning to, because I have

a feeling it’s in my direction.”

Throughout the year, we had had lots of arguments. He

would tell me stuff like, “You need to relax in

practice, it seems like you want to beat up some of your

teammates.” And I said, “You’ve got some of these guys

that act like prima donnas here, and I think that’s your

job as a coach to eliminate that. Now I know why you

guys only won 10 games last year, because they always

mope and pout, and you curtail to that, and you’re also

a moper and complainer.”

Because

he did, Dave! When one guy would do something, he would

punish everybody. And instead of him punishing that one

guy, he made the whole team deal with it. So him and me

would both go on the offensive and I would tell him

straight up, “Hey coach, if you wouldn’t baby-sit this

guy and go off on a tantrum, you wouldn’t have this

problem.” So we would have some great exchanges.

But,

getting back to the breakfast story, he goes ahead and

tells me, “For example, Jose, I don’t know what came

acrossed your mind or what were you thinking that you

could order an extra meal at dinner last night. You went

ahead and ate four filet minions, you think that’s

appropriate?”

I got up,

got my bowl of cornflakes, and tipped it up, and told

him, “Hey, typical crap.”

I kicked

the door open at the hotel, and that was the last time I

saw them (my teammates). I got my parents, and they were

dumbfounded. They gave me a ride back to Lincoln. I

remember Danny giving me a call at the dorm when I got

there, and he was one of those guys where if he needed

you, he’d call you and tell you anything he needed to

say to get you back. He told me, “Hey, Jose, I’m sorry.

Hey listen, I know it was wrong for me to tell you that

in front of everyone.” He realized what he said, but I

was already in Lincoln. He said, “When we get back, I’ll

talk to you, and we’ll take it from there, and we’ll try

to do the best we can here.”

When they

came back from the Big Eight Tournament, he pulled me

into the office, and typical him, he told me, “I don’t

think its fair for the team that you come back for the

NCAA game.” And I said, “You gotta be kidding? So,

you’re going to punish me for some crap about steak

dinners at one of the most important times for this team

and program going to the NCAA Tournament, and you don’t

want me to come along?”

And he

told me straight out that he didn’t, but he wanted me to

think about this and use it as a learning experience for

next year. So, that’s how that ended, that situation

right there.

HHC: So that’s

what went down, huh? Thanks for sharing that, it seems

no one really did have the full story. Back to Danny

though, describe him as a coach.

JR:

Well, he was a Jekyll and Hyde kind of guy. Great

recruiter, who knew what it took to get guys to the

program, and sold it well. I think recruiting, no matter

where you are at, is the source, and I’ve been around a

lot of great coaches, but a lot of these guys get a lot

of exaggerated credit, because once you start winning,

you create a legend. Danny did a great job at Nebraska,

and they hold him as the winningest coach there, but if

you follow his career, he hasn’t been too successful

anywhere else, because it goes with recruiting. He had

guys like Lynn Mitchem who played a huge part in

recruiting, and that’s a big part of it. It just takes

the right kind of group of guys, and recruiting kids

that are winners.

Like I

said earlier, I was an assistant coach later at Florida

International, and would recruit winners; it’s

contagious.

HHC: Prior to the 1990-1991 season, there

were plenty of doubters about Nebraska, since the

Huskers finished just 10-18 in 1989-1990. Did you have

any idea of how good you guys would be before the season

started?

JR: Well, put it this way. I would do

interviews before that year, and tell people we’d win

and be good, and they’d be like, “Whatsup with this guy,

he is crazy. Doesn’t he know they aren’t good?” But it

was just that mentality of not taking it from anyone,

and the team had it.

So yes, I

thought we’d be good, because like I said, it was

contagious, and we had winners.

HHC: From

talking to a lot of players on the 1990-1991 team, they

say the game at #19 Wisconsin-Green Bay on January 2^nd,

1991, was the time when you all knew it was for real. In

that game, you hit several key free throws in the last

couple of minutes to seal the win. What do you remember

about that game?

JR: Oh man, those were the kind of

environments I always thrived in, and I think our team

was coming along and winning a lot of games. Players

were feeling good about each other, and I know a lot of

guys talk about it, but we got along so good off the

court, it was funny.

We would

go to the Hewitt Center as a team and eat before

practice. Or, we’d go in early just to shoot the breeze,

and like I said, I think that parlays into winning, and

when we went to Green Bay, that was one of the craziest

atmospheres that I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a lot.

That crazy, college, Duke atmosphere type of thing,

that’s how it was there.

They were

selling beer in the stands, and those kids were lit, I

mean, LIT. There wasn’t a quiet moment that whole game,

and what I remember, besides hitting free throws, was

everyone’s emotion. Everyone was beaming,

confrontational. We’re talking the Coach, the

Assistants, everyone.

The

officials were screwing us majorly, but they (the

coaches) were fighting and contesting every call, and

players weren’t backing down. I think the Green Bay

coach, Dick Bennett, had a son who was a senior at that

time who played for him and was a great guard.

But,

those were the kind of games that I loved being in. I’ve

always been one of the guys to step up in big games, and

I hit a lot of free throws, we broke a lot of press that

game, because they were pressing us all over the place.

And I remember when I was hitting a couple of key free

throws, on the back side of me, I have Carl Hayes and

he’s over on the side by the student section, and he’s

flipping them off, and these people were going berserk.

And I’m hitting these free throws, and was already tense

as it was, and we ended up winning.

So toward

the end, the score wasn’t too indicative because of free

throws (70-63 Nebraska win), but I also remember when

the buzzer sounded, these fans were LIVID. They were

throwing beer, everything, we had to run out of there,

and I think Coach Nee had to get a police escort,

because he was beaming with a grin from ear to ear.

When you

win games like that, it builds character, and that’s why

you win a lot of games, because guys are used to those

kinds of battles. Nothing fazes guys when they are in

that kind of situation.

HHC: What other games and moments stick

out with you about that 1990-1991 season?

JR:

Beating Kansas at home. I think that was a Final Four

team, and we went ahead and beat them at home. And oh,

another thing I remember is that we should have beaten

those guys at Allen Fieldhouse. I remember it was a damn

tight game, jam packed, and I go ahead and rip off a

fast break and go in there, and I don’t remember who the

guy was, but I made the lay-up, and the guy tried to

take a charge, and he wasn’t there. And the referee down

at the bottom, underneath the basket, called a blocking

foul against the Kansas guy. And I went ahead and made

the lay-up, which would have been a three-point turn

around, and I think we would have been up by 2 or 3.

But I

remember Roy Williams going LIVID, LIVID, on the

sideline. And he got so livid that the official at half

court came running all the way down to the bottom and

overruled that call, and they called that a charge

against me. That was one of the biggest travesties I’ve

ever been associated with in a college game. We should

have beaten Kansas at Kansas that year. It was bush

league all the way.

Besides

that game, I just got a real big thrill with guys on the

team that went through that losing season the year

before. I remember another game when we beat the hell

out of #13 Oklahoma at Oklahoma (111-99). I think we had

like 7 to 10 players in double figures that night.

That was

just the great part of that year, that all the guys who

had lost the year before got to redeem themselves and

win. We beat them all; Missouri, Kansas State, Kansas,

all the top teams, and I got such an enjoyment of seeing

both the coaches and teammates going by and making it a

point to shake Billy Tubbs’ hand, or Norm Stewart’s

(Laughs).

Stormin’

Norman, he was cocky man!

HHC: (Laughs) From talking to some of your

other teammates and past Danny Nee players, the

assistant coaches are always credited with a lot of the

success. Talk a little bit about Lynn Mitchem, Gary

Bargen, and Jeff Smith?

JR: Well, Bargen was another guy who was

instrumental there and didn’t get enough credit since

him and Danny didn’t get along too well. He was very

creative and behind a lot of the “X’s and O’s” in that

program. But being a former college coach myself, I

understand what a lot of coaches do these days. For

example, Leonard Hamilton (Florida State). He’s not a

great “X’s and O’s” guy, and he knows that. But what he

is good at is being a phenomenal recruiter.

So

Mitchem was the main recruiter, or Nee’s right hand man,

and Bargen was the “X’s and O’s”.

Coach

Smith was a young coach, so he was more of a stat keeper

and not involved quite as much in the recruiting or “X’s

and O’s”, but he found a way to keep guys happy by

getting guys 17 or 18 minutes a game.

That’s

how we kept that group of talented guys happy, was by

getting everyone in there.

HHC: Do you have any regrets about coming

to Nebraska, or about how things ended?

JR: I’ll tell you this Dave. In hindsight,

I’m an adult now, but I was a kid back then, and I made

a lot of mistakes. My college career, like I said, and

if I could have stayed in one place, I could have had a

great career. But those weren’t the cards that were

dealt to me, and I don’t blame anyone for the decisions

I’ve made and what I wanted to do or how I handled

situations.

With

Lincoln, I have absolutely no regrets. Well, the only

regret was that I wish I would have stayed for my senior

year, and I think we had a lot of good things going. The

only thing I have to say about that is that there are

only three guys who know that occurred and why I had to

leave. One is deceased, (Athletic Director at the time)

Bob Devaney, and then there’s Coach Nee, and myself. And

I’ll leave it at that, but in hindsight, I really think

that if I could have been on the team with the NCAA

Tournament, we would have won, because I remember

watching it, and our guard play wasn’t great.

And I

remember that when guys weren’t playing well that year,

we had enough guys, and especially guards, where we

could get the hot hand in. And I think Coach Nee failed

to see the big picture.

I think

if we would have had a whole team going into the NCAA

Tournament, we would have advanced for sure, because we

had a good enough team to advance. One and out was a

travesty, and I think you really, really had a very

strong team coming back my senior year.

You would

have had (Tony) Farmer back, myself, Piatkowski, Chubick,

and you would have had enough to ride the momentum. And

like I always tell guys, you never know, in hindsight,

Coach Nee could probably still be coaching there. But

that’s in the past, and like I said, everywhere I’ve

been, I’ve always looked at the positives, and that’s

one of the reasons I came back to the reunion.

I loved

the group of guys, and I have no hard feelings with

anybody. Not Coach Nee, none of the coaching staff, and

no players. I had a great time there, and I think I got

a little beat up by the media when I left, and a lot of

negative things were written that weren’t that accurate,

but that’s media, and that’s how they sell papers.

And I

think Lee Barfknecht went ahead and off of the stories

he wrote about me, got promoted to the World-Herald

(Laughs). Make sure you write that, because I want him

to see it.

HHC: Prior to coming back for the team

reunion, had you ever been back to Lincoln, or ever

thought you would be?

JR: No. I do have some good friends that I

still talk to back there, Larry and Carol Fuerst. I

still stay in touch with them to this day, but like I

said, in retrospect, I had a great time at Lincoln, and

I wouldn’t change that for nothing.

Besides

winning all those games, who would have known it’d be

the winningest team in school history?

But going

back, and going to Lincoln, then to P.O. Pears for your

get together, then the Rail, and places like that which

are still around, it was a nice nostalgia to go back and

see everyone.

And like

I said, it’s great when you can bring people back,

because that’s what brings excitement in the program,

when you bring former players back, not too mention it

helps with recruiting.

I got

into coaching myself after playing professionally

following college. And its funny, I seem to run into

people from Nebraska everywhere. Played lots in South

America, and I remember running into Bill Jackman, who

played at Nebraska (1985-1987). I played against him and

we beat him, and I didn’t see him after that, but he got

there.

And then,

when I was working at FIU, there was a guy that was

recently a “Then & Now,” Larry Cox (1974-1976), who was

a professor. He loved coming to the games, and speaking

of recruiting, I just remembered something.

Like I

told you about relationships, I played in Puerto Rico,

and played on a team where one of the assistant coaches

had a son who was at the time 8 or 10 years old. This

kid was phenomenal with the basketball, great dribbler,

could shoot, etc. Well, low and behold, after I finish

playing and get to FIU, I go back to Puerto Rico and

recruit, and I run into Carlos Arroyo, who I know, and

his father tells me, “Hey, you won’t believe who has

been playing well and who is doing well.”

And I

went back and he’s playing, and he’s averaging like 30

points a game. He’s got Florida State on him, all these

ACC schools, and I thought, “Wait a second, is this the

little Carlos that used to tag along with me everywhere

and who I used to buy stuff for?” So, I came back, and

he told me he was a senior. And boy, sure enough, we got

him over to visit the family and he loved FIU because it

was close to home, and since I knew his father, he came

to FIU.

He has a

great career at FIU, and he didn’t get drafted, but he

played professionally in Puerto Rico, and he ended up

signing at Utah and becoming the successor to John

Stockton, and he’s played with the Pistons, and is now

with the Magic. So great story, as far as recruiting,

and you never know who you are going to run into or why

you shouldn’t break off ties.

One thing

I do have to say about basketball and college is that

it’s a business, and it’s a dirty business. And that’s

one of the reasons why I left it. You really have to

also have a big ego to be a coach, and really have to be

very selfish, because you give an awful lot to be a

college coach.

I mean,

family goes down the drain. I know a lot of guys who

have been divorced, and kids end up suffering. So when I

left FIU, I said to myself, “I can’t.” My next job was

going to be going to LSU with John Brady, who was at

Stanford and had an assistant coach by the name of

Kermit Davis whom I know, and I was going to go and

work, and then I sat down with my nine year old

daughter, and for me to upend her from all of her

friends, and she does modeling here and is very

beautiful, plus my wife’s been an elementary school

teacher for thirteen years, and I couldn’t see moving

them to Louisiana and tearing them apart just to chase

MY dreams.

I’m

sorry, I’ve been around, and I think that was enough. I

played professionally for six years, and got basketball

out of my system.

That was

the biggest and best decision I ever made basketball

wise.

HHC: Did you ever see Nebraska play since

then or follow the program at all?

JR: Yeah, I’ve always followed them. I’m a

sports guy. Not only do I follow Nebraska, but I have a

long history with basketball, so I’ve got a lot of

coaches and players that I follow. Anthony Grant is a

Miami High Graduate, and one of my coaches in high

school, and now he’s coaching at Florida as the

Associate Head Coach. It’s all connections in this

business.

But

speaking of Nebraska, I think you have a good coach in

Barry Collier that does things the right way. I think

recruiting has to step up a little bit and he needs to

get some players.

But let

me tell you something, he’s done a good job of

recruiting, like with Joe McCray. You know, great

player, but obviously, after his first year, he got a

big head and let everything else distract him, and that

happens. What the fans should understand is Coach

Collier’s situation. You have guys like that that are

great recruits and have a great year, and then the

following year, they have to get booted off the team.

And the flip side of that is just like North Carolina,

when you have guys that are lottery picks from one year

to the other and they leave the program, and you can’t

blame the coach for that.

You bring

the best possible players in, and a lot of times, they

either get booted off or leave early.

That’s

the business, and that’s the monster, and if you are a

true fan, you have to understand that’s how this

business works. It’s not only about wins and losses.

Another

thing fans have to realize at Nebraska is that it’s not

a hot bed of talent. It’s not like living in New York

where you find great players everywhere. These guys have

to work extra hard to sell Nebraska over there, just

like they had to do with me.

But I

think Coach Collier is a great coach, and if they give

him the time, he’ll get the job done. For him to be

around all the negativity and for him to turn around and

win the games at the stretch there and get to the NIT, I

think that’s great, because there are a lot of teams who

had a more successful year than he did and didn’t make

the NIT or anything.

HHC: Very true. We know you played

professionally in Puerto Rico for six years, and did a

few years as an assistant at Florida International. But,

what are you up to today?

JR: Well, after I decided to turn down LSU

and get out of coaching, it’s ironic, because my older

brother is a lieutenant in the fire department in Miami.

He told me to come in, and what I did was apply there,

but my hard head and personality pushed me to fight up

stream, so I also applied at the police department. And

he said, “You don’t want to do that. You’re dealing with

a headache and confrontational people.” And I look at

all these negative things and for me, that just goes

along the line of my personality and my whole career as

both a player and person. I’ve always swum upstream, and

never gone along with the current or flow of the people.

Nobody

likes cops here in Miami, but that’s my job now, a

police officer, after they called first before the fire

department did.

I think

anyone’s career chooses you; I don’t think you choose

it. And that’s the one that chose me, and it goes hand

in hand with my personality. I deal with people on the

street. But with my experiences and travels, I think

it’s given me a round about way of dealing with people.

I can deal with high and stressful, or very calm.

So I’m

doing that, and I’ve been married ten years to my high

school sweet heart. We have a nine year old, beautiful

daughter, who is going to give me grey hairs as she gets

older since she’s into modeling and dancing.

I can’t

complain, man. My college career to my personal life is

really night and day, but like I said, I would never,

ever, take anything back or regret anything that I’ve

done in my career as a player. I stand up and fight for

what I think is right, and I’ve always been the type to

fight for the weaker guy.

HHC: Are you cool with taking some e-mails

from our readers if we set you up an e-mail account at

[email protected] and tell you how to

check it?

JR:

Definitely, I would love to.

HHC: Great!

Hey, thanks a lot for taking the time to join us.

Anything else you'd like to add or say?

JR: Yes. I want to add that I really want

people in Nebraska to understand my situation there, and

I wish it could have lasted longer. I dealt with

different personalities there, but to tell you the

truth, and like I said before, the only three guys who

know what really occurred, even besides my teammates,

who don’t know, are Devaney, Nee, and myself. And, I’m

not going to open up old wounds for guys and create

problems for anyone, but I want people to know that it

was a great year, and I’m happy to be associated with

Nebraska, and my college experience, I wouldn’t trade it

for anything in the world.

And

another thing, people like yourself that are trying to

stay up to date with former players and bring back

tradition are special, because not a lot of people take

their time in doing things because everyone is always

looking for self achievement and trying to do their own

thing. So what you are doing with this website is great,

and I also love checking back on the site and just read

a “Then & Now” with Coach Mitchem.

So, I

think what you guys are doing is developing not only a

source of communication for former players, but like I

told Coach Collier, down here I know a lot of people

they can tap into. And recruiting is networking, and

what you’re doing is facilitating everyone to

communicate and to stay in touch.

You keep

up the good work man, and I appreciate you guys, you are

a class act. Stay positive; don’t let big stories and

great things and tales and everyone else’s ideas

influence you in the decisions you make.

Go with

what’s in your heart man, and stay positive; this

business makes it to easy to be negative.<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">