Then & Now: Kelly Lively

Then & Now: Kelly Lively

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy NU Media Relations)

Kelly

Lively played at Nebraska from 1989-1991, and was a key

member of the 1990-1991 team that won a school record 26

games.

The 7’0” 215 pound Lively served as

Rich King’s backup while at Nebraska, and was recently

back in Lincoln last weekend as part of the 1990-1991

Team Reunion, including the

HHC exclusive meet and greet at P.O. Pears.

Lively is our latest guest in this Sunday’s edition of

“Then & Now”.

HHC: Thanks for

joining us. Did you have fun last weekend?

KL: Oh yeah. I loved being down on the

floor at the Devaney Center and seeing a real big

turnout. Just seeing all the fans in full gear was great

again. The fact that we lost was the absolute low point

of last weekend, but the high point was being down there

at halftime.

HHC: Agreed on that

game, it was depressing. Anyway, you played high school

basketball at Torrington High School, where you were

named the Wyoming Gatorade Player of the Year in your

senior season (1987) after averaging 16.0 PPG, 10.6 RPG,

and leading your team to a 23-0 record and state

championship. What was it like being a part of that, and

did it help prepare you well for the Big 8?

KL: High school was a

good time, but did it prepare me for the Big 8 at all?

Absolutely not.

That year in 1987, the Big 8 was at

its all-time high. I think Kansas and Oklahoma played

for the final, and competition in Wyoming was nowhere

near the caliber that I was about to see that next year

at Nebraska.

I think that in 1988, I ended up

touring around on a Big 8 team, going to places like

Czechoslovakia with future NBA players like Doug Smith,

and representatives from Kansas and Oklahoma.

HHC: What made you choose to come play

basketball at Nebraska, and who else recruited you hard?

KL: I was actually recruited by Creighton.

They were one of the five trips that I took. I looked at

schools in Colorado and Oklahoma as well. Not Oklahoma

or Oklahoma State, but Tulsa, who was one of the first

schools interested in me.

What made me come to Nebraska? I

think it was close enough to home for friends and family

to be able to see me play, but not too close where your

parents are there every weekend type of thing. Also, in

order to play beyond college, I was going to have to put

on a lot of strength and weight, and I thought if anyone

could do that, it’d be Nebraska.

Plus, the strength and reputation

of the Big 8 was a big draw as well, as was the quality

of academic program. It was all a great package.

HHC: What was the perception of Nebraska

basketball to an out of state high school kid back then,

and what did you know about the Huskers?

KL: (Laughs) I knew very little about

Nebraska basketball. But Torrington is right on the

border of Wyoming and Nebraska, so there’s such an

influence where you either love them or hated them. It

was kind of like back in the days you were either rock

and roll or country, there was no in-between, it was

kind of the same thing.

I knew that the state of Nebraska

supported the university tremendously. I had

opportunities to go to the coast in big cities and cause

lots of trouble. (Laughs) But I got in the least amount

of trouble during my visit to Nebraska as anywhere, so I

thought it was the one. I hung out with Beau (Reid) and

Bill (Jackman), and thought, “this is where I need to

be, because going to school in Los Angeles would get you

in all kinds of trouble.”

HHC: Talk about your relationship with

Danny Nee, both at the start of your career and at the

end?

KL: Well, let’s say

that Danny and I are probably complete opposites. You

take somebody who grew up in Brooklyn, and someone who

grew up in Cowboy country. And I’m much more laid back

and easy going, relaxed, and Danny was just the

opposite.

On a person-to-person basis, we

didn’t have a lot in common or get along extremely well.

But I have uttermost respect for the guy, and thought he

did a great job administering and running a great

program.

And I’d do it again - I was

thinking about that last weekend. It didn’t turn out

nearly what I thought it was going to be in a lot of

different ways, but I think I’d do it again. It was a

good experience, real good education, and a great group

of guys.

HHC: You sat out in 1987-1988 to gain

strength and endurance, and as you mentioned earlier,

traveled with the Big 8 All-Star team to England and

Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1988. What was that

experience like?

KL: Sitting out was good exposure and

allowed me to mature and ease into things. And then,

having the opportunity to go on that trip and play on

that team was a once in a lifetime opportunity,

especially for a freshman when you’re playing with guys

with a lot more experience who have had good success as

starters for teams that were playing in the national

championship. You’ve got guys on your team wearing the

championship ring on their finger, and it’s a real good

experience to learn from them and spend a couple of

weeks practicing and traveling around.

European ball was much more

aggressive back then, as far as compared to collegiate

ball in the United States. Inside play was more

aggressive, and I think all of that was a good

preparation for what kind of ball we’d be playing in the

Big 8.

HHC: 1988-1989 saw your team go 17-16 and

into the 2^nd round of the NIT. What sticks

out about that season?

KL: To be honest, I’m drawing a blank

there. I don’t remember the NIT much, but I do remember

playing at home in front of big crowds and getting a lot

of home support from the crowd.

HHC: 1989-1990 was a season of injury and

disappointment, as your team finished 10-18 and 7^th

in the Big 8. How tough was that season to swallow?

KL: I think it was a

real gut check type of year. It was a year that pushed

enough people to the edge to think, “What are we going

to do?” Most of those people were sophomores at the

time, and their careers were half over, and it was

really a gut check type of thing. We all made the

commitment that we were sticking together and were going

to make it work by working harder in the off-season to

turn that program around.

HHC: Prior to

1990-1991, did you honestly have any idea that the team

would become near as good as it did?

KL: I think that’s probably the sweetest

aspect of the whole thing. From spending time last

weekend reminiscing, I forgot the fact that some of the

coaches and press had picked us 8^th in the

Big 8, and we end up 9^th in the country.

We talked about stories like

winning at Oklahoma that year. We weren’t supposed to do

that, let alone by 28 or 30 points, and that was

probably one of the highlights of the year. Just walking

out of Norman saying, “We weren’t supposed to do this.”

We were absolutely playing the best

we could at that time.

HHC: The 1990-1991 team went 26-8 and

finished in the Top 10 of some polls. What made that

team so successful?

KL: We spent a lot of time talking about

this very question last weekend. And it’s really tough

to point out any one particular thing. I think it takes

a team awhile to gel, and people to find their roles.

And I think we played our best when individuals weren’t

concerned about stats and individual play. And I think

we started playing more as a team, and I think over two

years, we kind of settled into our roles, and got more

comfortable with them.

Whether it was off the bench or

starting, or being a shooter or rebounder, we kind of

let some of that individualism go.

I will say that I think the big

games where we had the big TV coverage, why did we lose?

Well, I think people had the tendency to look at those

individual stats again, and I think that hurt us. That’s

just my guess, and nobody can put a finger on it, but

it’s probably more that we played at our best level when

everybody was playing as a team.

HHC: How tough was it

losing in that first round game to Xavier, especially

after you were a three seed?

KL: Aw man. (Pauses)

I’ve spent the last fifteen years not talking about that

(Laughs). You can just tell the emotion in peoples face

when that topic comes up. Usually, when I’m in a

conversation with somebody, like on an airplane, and

that question comes up, that’s usually a time I get up

and walk away (Laughs).

Obviously, some people took it (the

loss) harder than others, but it was something that was

a hard way to end the season.

HHC: Do you think it

was just Xavier playing over their heads that night?

KL: I think it was

all the hype of the NCAA tournament, and the TV

coverage, and the Metrodome. We were on the court with

Duke, who eventually won it, and rubbing elbows with

Shaquille O’Neill during warm-ups. And I think people

got immersed in it all and kind of lost the team focus.

HHC: Time for happy thoughts. What are

your favorite memories of Lincoln, both on and off the

court?

KL: I had a chance this past weekend to

remember a lot of good memories. On the court, there are

a lot of last second shots and real gut check efforts to

make things happen that other people have talked about.

Off the court, making a lot of good

friends. I’ve moved around a little bit since Lincoln,

and the quality of people you meet in Lincoln are great.

They are real friendly and down to earth people, and we

had a good time there.

HHC: And before we

get to today, can you tell us a classic and colorful

Danny Nee story or two so we can add it to our ongoing

collection?

KL: (Laughs) I’ve read through some of

those Danny Nee stories on your site, and like I said, I

have the utmost respect for him, so I don’t really have

anything incredibly funny to explain.

I was going to find out if he was

left handed or right handed, because that’s one thing I

do remember. He used to write with one hand, but when he

shifted the marker to the other hand, you better learn

to how duck (Laughs).

HHC: (Laughs)

KL: He was a great

coach, and we had a lot of good success. We were

opposites, but the results at the end of the year spoke

for themselves.

HHC: After 1990-1991, you still had one

remaining year of eligibility, and transferred to the

University of Denver. Talk about that.

KL: Well, I had that

year left, and was one credit shy of graduation from

Nebraska, and went to the University of Denver. It was a

town I’d always wanted to live in, and it had a very

reputable MBA program, which I finished in a year. And,

I got a chance to play again for the Denver Pioneers. We

had another 26-win season there, just like in 1990-1991,

and we were one game away from the Final 4 in Division 2

basketball.

And this last weekend, I made a

comment to the guys after I found out that I’m still

holding records for shot blocks and stuff at DU. And I

was recognized as the MVP of the season, and it was a

good opportunity to get a lot of playing time. But I

made a comment that it was a tribute to the talent of

that 1990-1991 team, and amazing that you could take the

least important player from that (1990-1991) team, and

he was an MVP at a Division 2 program. That was a

testament to that team at Nebraska, as any of those guys

could have been starting, if not MVP’s somewhere else.

HHC: Like JF Hoffman,

who we hope to interview in the near future! Hey, update

us on what Kelly Lively been up to since 1992, and what

is he doing today?

KL: Well, kind of a funny story about

1992. When I was working out at DU, I happened to be at

the right place at the right time. The Nuggets were also

working out there (at DU), and I got a chance to hang

out with some of the coaches and players. And what

Denver did that year, was they let a lot of their big

men go because they’d drafted Dikembe Mutumbo. And they

had absolutely no big men in their camp because of his

holdout.

So, I got this call and got invited

to their camp, and it was a really fun opportunity to

work out in the Nuggets camp. I was telling Eric (Piatkowski)

that his NBA career lasted 12 years, and mine lasted 12

days (Laughs). But yeah, Dikembe was holding out for

more money and was missing camp, and was catching a lot

of flack from the fans and press. But I’ll tell you

what, the day he came back, he sure proved a couple of

things. He proved to his critics that he was going to be

a future NBA All-Star, first off. And, he proved that I

had no business playing in the NBA; he wiped the floor

with me.

Since then, I got married in 1994

to a girl that I dated in Nebraska, and she went to

Nebraska Wesleyan, Michelle. I have a great marriage of

over ten years with her. And I think about 1997 or so,

we moved to New Orleans for a year. At the time, I did

not want to go and leave the Midwest, but after spending

a year there, I didn’t want to leave. It was a real

different experience and a real fun one to be down

there.

And then probably around 1998, we

moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started working

there, and have been here about ten years. I am

currently an IT Manager for an International Company

that’s based in Chicago. I help administer the network

and applications for their operations in the western

United States.

Oh, and I’ve got to mention my two

daughters, or I’ll catch a lot of hell for that

(Laughs). Megan is 4, and Ashlyn is 2. They’re future

Cornhusker volleyball players I believe, because my wife

played volleyball in college, and I play on a club

volleyball team here. I realize I can play volleyball a

lot longer than I play basketball, so we do a little

touring around playing in some volleyball tournaments

here and there.

HHC: Do you still

ball?

KL: I do still play

some basketball in the city league.

That’s another funny story about

Danny. Last year, Duquesne was in town for a

Christmas/New Years Tournament here in Albuquerque,

hosted by the New Mexico Lobos. And I was listening on

the radio to the pregame, and I thought to myself that I

should stop by and see him. And then I thought, “man,

that’s a big step down from the heydays at Nebraska”

So I wait a couple of seconds,

realize the negative thoughts I’m thinking, and realize

that I myself was going to play city league ball, so I

had no room to talk (Laughs).

HHC: Have you talked

to Danny since 1991?

KL: No. I ended up not going to see him

that night either since I had that game. I play with a

bunch of guys from work, and if nobody gets hurt, it’s a

good night.

HHC: (Laughs) Nice. Hey, are you cool with

taking some reader e-mails if we set you up an account

at

[email protected] ?

KL: Sure, that’d be

great.

HHC: Awesome. Thanks a lot for joining us.

Anything you’d like to add?

KL: Well, I Just want to thank you guys at

Husker Hoops Central for putting on the party at P.O.

Pears last weekend. I think everybody got his or her

money’s worth. I know P.O. Pears probably had a good bar

tab going (Laughs).

But yeah, we had a good opportunity

to swap some stories and talk to both some fans and you

guys with the site, and it was a great time.<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">