A FRONT ROW VIEW: Notes from Long Island?

by RACHEL CYTRONby RACHEL CYTRONDaily Pennsylvanian Sports Writer The basketball arena is named after former Husker football coach Bob Devaney. But basketball is one of the school's three primary sports, up there with football and spring football. "That's about all there is to do there," says Janet, wife of Nebraska coach Danny Nee. There's so much to do in Lincoln that Janet seemed to take much pleasure in describing the local pastime of license plate decoding. Apparently the Cornhusker state codes each of its counties according to population. Because it's in the second-largest county, all cars from Lincoln have license plates that start with a two. Janet gets great pleasure from being able to tell where any car is from. But to their credit, Cornhusker fans are supportive of their hoops team. Every Big Eight game in their 14,302-seat arena was sold out. As a homecoming from the Big Eight championship, the Huskers were greeted by a four-car police escort six miles from the school, and 5,000 fans came out to welcome the champs home. · SHOWTIME: For the Quakers, the Selection Sunday show was slightly anticlimactic because Penn's matchup was the very first one announced. But it sure beat how Nebraska found out. The Cornhuskers were on a bus on the way home from the Big Eight championships and hoped to stop at a fast food joint and find a TV. But since the Penn-Nebraska contest was quickly announced, the Cornhuskers instead got the word in a parking lot from a little kid who mumbled, "Penn?Uniondale." THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: If you thought playing in New York would be far from home for the Cornhuskers, think again. Nee grew up in Brooklyn and happened to play basketball at Power Memorial High with a fellow by the name of Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). NBA CONNECTION II: Senior guard Jamar Johnson was also a high school teammate of a pro star -- Seattle's Shawn Kemp. Johnson was second behind Kemp in career scoring with 1,456 at the Elkhart, Ind., school. BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW: Sophomore guard Erick Strickland, who averages 10.9 points per game, also averages .263. As in batting average, for the Florida Marlins. This summer he played 59 games for the Class A affiliate and had 36 RBI, four homers and eight stolen bases. BET YOU DIDN'T CARE: Nee has played Penn before, but it was back in 1983 when Craig Littlepage was Quaker coach and Nee was at Ohio U. For the record, the Bobcats beat the Quakers 71-67 at the Palestra?.Nee has the luck of the Irish as his parents are from Ireland and he's 2-0 on St. Patrick's Day. Dunphy is a perfect 0-0 on March 17. IT AIN'T THE IVY LEAGUE: In explaining a stretch of road wins earlier this season, sophomore guard Jaron Boone said home games were too distracting. He elaborated by stating the greatest distractions were classes and girls. WONDER IF THEY CAN GET TICKETS: The Cornhuskers boast some notable alumni: authors Willa Cather and Mari Sandoz, John F. Kennedy's speech writer Ted Sorensen and Nobel prize scientists George Beadle and Donald Crum. No word yet as to if any of them was lucky enough to procure one of 300 tickets allotted to Nebraska. LAND OF LINCOLN: Lincoln is such a budding metropolis that the school's media guide boasts of the attractions of nearby Dallas -- a mere 589 miles from campus. It also touts the "city" is the birthplace of the frisbee. In case you've been so enthralled that you're planning to visit, the guide also states the average price of a movie ticket in Lincoln is $5.50. In 1992, the city was voted the tenth most livable city in the country by Money magazine. Another financial study found at least $30.6 million in direct and indirect economic impact was generated by Nebraska's athletic department in 1991-92. Rachel Cytron is a College senior from Mountain Lakes, N.J., and former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.