Lincoln – The return of one of the most electrifying scorers in program history highlights the Legends Weekend festivities for the Husker basketball program on Saturday, Feb. 16. Tyronn Lue will become the newest member of the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame, as he will be inducted at halftime of the Nebraska-Michigan State game, scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.
Lue spent three seasons at Nebraska, leading the Huskers to 59 wins and three postseason appearances, including the 1998 NCAA Tournament, before becoming a first-round draft pick of the Denver Nuggets in 1998.
The Athletic Department will honor Lue, along with special award winners Tom Osborne and Dave Hoppen, with a Hall of Fame Dinner on Friday, Feb. 15, at Lincoln Station, beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets for the dinner are $30 apiece with discounts for group tables, and can be purchased by calling Chris Anderson in the Community Relations Office at (402) 472-7771, or by filling out the order form hereby Monday, Feb. 11
Lue’s name is all over the Husker record book, as he finished his career in the top 10 in 13 categories and still ranks among Nebraska career leaders in 10 categories, including assists (432, fourth), scoring average (15.9, seventh), steals (154, seventh), points scored (1,577, eighth), 3-pointers (145, eighth), free throw percentage (.788, eighth) and starts (96, 10th). Lue is the only player on Nebraska’s top-10 scoring chart who played less than four seasons as a Husker.
As a junior in 1997-98, Lue earned first-team All-Big 12 honors, averaging 21.2 points, 4.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game, as the Huskers went 20-12 and reached the NCAA Tournament. His 678 points that season ranked second on Nebraska’s single-season chart while his 152 assists that season was fifth on NU’s single-season list. He had four of his seven career 30-point efforts in 1997-98, including a career-high 36-point performance against Virginia in the Rainbow Classic.
Following his Husker career, he was the No. 23 overall pick of the Denver Nuggets before he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Lue won two NBA titles with the Lakers, as part of an 11-year playing career. He played for seven teams during his NBA career, appearing in 554 career games and averaging 8.5 points and 3.1 assists per game. Following his retirement after the 2008-09 season, Lue joined the Boston Celtics as the organization’s Director of Player Development in 2009 and was named an assistant coach in 2011.
The Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame was the brainchild of longtime Husker athletic supporter Jerry Solomon, who first approached the University about the project in 1988. Solomon, along with Jack Bock, Dale Herman and Dale Jensen, provided financial support for the Hall of Fame at that time. The Hall is now co-sponsored by the Nebraska Athletic Department and the Rebounders Club.
Lue was selected by the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame Executive Committee, which includes Hall of Famers Rex Ekwall and Dave Hoppen, Rebounders Board Officer Linda Hrdlicka along with Marc Boehm, Chris Anderson, Jayden Olson and Shamus McKnight from the NU Athletic Department.
While Lue is the only player in the 2013 class, the honorees in February will also include retiring Athletic Director Tom Osborne as the Bud Cuca Special Merit Award winner, while Dave Hoppen was chosen as the Whitehead Distinguished Alumni Award.
Tom Osborne will receive the Bud Cuca Special Merit Award. The award is given to someone who helps shape the Husker basketball program from a supporting role and was renamed in 2003 in honor of Bud Cuca, a long-time Husker basketball supporter who passed away in 2002 following a battle with cancer.
Osborne was one of the driving forces for improving Nebraska’s basketball facilities during his tenure as Athletic Director at Nebraska. He led the development and construction of the Hendricks Training Complex, which is considered one of the elite basketball facilities in the country, and worked with the city of Lincoln in the creation of Pinnacle Bank Arena, which will become the home of the Husker basketball program next season. Osborne retired in January of 2012.
Dave Hoppen will be recognized as the 2013 winner of the Whitehead Distinguished Alumni Award, which honors a former player and Hall of Fame member who has been a positive force in the state and local community since his playing days ended. The award was renamed after Bus Whitehead, who passed away in 2010, to recognize his contributions to the Nebraska basketball program. Hoppen, who was inducted into the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996 and is a longtime season ticket holder, has been active in the Omaha metro area as well as in his support of the Husker Basketball and the Rebounders Club.
Huskers to Wear 1976-77 Throwbacks vs. Michigan State
As part of the season-long celebration for the final season at the Devaney Center, the Huskers will also don throwback jerseys for the Michigan State contest. Nebraska will wear jerseys from the 1976-77 season created by adidas which feature red letters with black trim for the numbers and red and black trim along the sides and waistline.
This will be the second straight year adidas has created throwback jerseys for the Huskers, as Nebraska wore throwbacks honoring the 1949-50 team during the 2012 Big Ten Tournament.
Tickets for the Nebraska-Michigan State game on Feb. 16, are on sale by calling 800-8-BIGRED or visiting Huskers.com.
