Ins And Outs with Justin Hesser Bill Byrne Gives Fans Reason To Cheer By Justin Hesser June 27, 2002 Although the University of Nebraska’s athletic competition for the year has concluded, Athletic Director Bill Byrne gave Husker fans something to cheer about. In a matter of 11 days he replaced two head coaches in the baseball and women’s basketball programs. Eleven days! Pretty impressive, most athletic teams don’t even have two competitions within 11 days. First, Byrne unraveled all the hype around head baseball coach Dave Van Horn’s departure to his alma mater, the University of Arkansas. After a week of rumors and speculations surrounding the episode, Byrne answered all the questions on Friday when he introduced new head baseball coach Mike Anderson and associate head baseball coach Rob Childress. Although some wanted to see a national search, which could have produced some big name coaches like Wichita State’s coach Gene Stephenson, the national career leader in coaching victories and winning percentage, Bryne wanted to keep the Huskers winning momentum going. Not to say that bringing in a big name coach would have been bad for the program, it’s just that it would most likely have produced changes in the programs routine. Look at what Van Horn did in Arkansas; he dismissed two assistant coaches and will likely change the program to his liking. Bryne didn’t want that to happen at Nebraska. He wanted to keep the same driving force within the program. Second, he found a fitting coach for the troubled women’s basketball program. The program had back-to-back losing seasons, recently lost three top players, and saw head coach Paul Sanderford step down due to health reasons. Byrne quickly started a national search, and ultimately found the best coach only 50 miles away at Creighton University. For much of last week, Mickie DeMoss, Tennessee’s associate head coach appeared to be the leading candidate, but on Thursday withdrew her name from consideration. With that news, Creighton’s Connie Yori emerged as the leading candidate and visited the Nebraska campus on Friday. Then on Monday morning Byrne introduced Yori as the new head coach. Once again Byrne kept what he called, “the hard work and the Midwestern values” within the program. He might even get two of the three players that left to come back too. Yori said she plans to talk with Katie Robinette and K.C. Cowgill about their future plans. So, Byrne may not have hit a winning home run or made the winning three-pointer, but he put some good coaches in a position to make Nebraska teams do just that. Just remember Byrne when a player that has been coached by Mike Anderson or Connie Yori hits that winning home run or makes that winning three-pointer in the seasons to come. Previous "Ins And Outs": 06-20-02: Ins And Outs Post Feedback