Painting Piatkowski?s Portrait a Salute to His Hustle

Nebraska Athletics Inaugural HOF Inductee Class

In All-Devaney Team Voting, ‘Pike’ Led the Way

Pike Experiences Magical Hall-of-Fame Moment

Randy York N-Sider

Official Blog of the Huskers

On Tuesday night, halfway between the Huskers’ domination against Minnesota, Nebraska basketball fans saw a unique halftime show take center stage at Pinnacle Bank Arena. In a grand total of seven minutes, David Garibaldi, a performance painter from Sacramento, Calif., began and finished a distinctive portrait of Nebraska basketball icon Eric Piatkowski (pictured above far right with Marc Boehm).

The intermission became a bit of a spectacle and a fitting source of proof to honor Eric Todd Piatkowski, a.k.a. as “Pike” to some and “The Polish Rifle” to others dazzled by the hustling Rapid City, S.D., shooting guard/small forward.

Tuesday night was a dynamic demonstration of speed painting, but what better way to celebrate a fast-moving force than a quick-painting artist? Pike always seemed to be sprinting while leading the Huskers to four NCAA Tournament appearances and 85 wins. His leadership helped Nebraska earn a program record No. 3 seed in the 1994 NCAA Big Dance after the Huskers won their first and only Big Eight Tournament title.

Boehm, Nebraska's executive associate athletic director, wanted to portray Pike's speed and hustle and found a painter who makes Bob Ross look slow painting a mountain retreat or a bubbling stream on his legendary “Joy of Painting” Educational Television series.

Pike’s Accomplishments Reflect His Inaugural Induction

Yes, Husker fans showed their appreciation for the way Nebraska honored its first basketball inductee into the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame.Piatkowski spent 14 years in the NBA – nine with the Los Angeles Clippers, one with the Houston Rockets, two with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Phoenix Suns. Pike always played with hurry in his step. In 789 NBA games, he scored 5,919 points while making .839 percent of his 1,152 free throws, .464 percent of his 2,543 two-point attempts and .399 percent of his 2,168 three-point attempts. Any Big Red basketball fan would consider Pike's NBA career stats worthy of inspection.

One of three Huskers with retired jerseys, Pike's No. 52 hangs in PBA’s rafters with two equally iconic Husker basketball legends – Dave Hoppen’s No. 42 and Stu Lantz’s No. 22. Pike's 1,934 career points rank second all-time behind Hoppen’s 2,167. The No. 15 overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, Pike was the second-highest draft pick in Nebraska history, and his 14-year NBA career is the longest of any player in Husker basketball history.

Internationally, Pike won Gold Medals at the World University Games and the U.S. Olympic Festival while playing at Nebraska. He is the only Husker to win a Gold Medal at either tournament and was one of only two Huskers to compete in either event. In 1995, the finance major earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska.

Eric Piatkowski is a worthy Hall-of-Fame honoree and was kind enough to share his thoughts and opinions with the N-Sider. Please join our conversation:

Pike on his family:

“My wife, Kristin (pictured above), and I live in Elkhorn. Our daughter Paige is 17 and a senior in high school. Our son Jace is a freshman in high school, and our youngest daughter Paisley is in 3rd grade. Our household is non-stop. To be honest with you, it’s super, super busy the entire year, except for in the fall. However it worked out for our kids, they don’t do fall sports. The summers are crazy wild with just tons and tons of basketball and tennis and golf and all the different things that we’re doing then and during the winter. My son’s club basketball team played about 80 games last year. I coached his team from 3rd grade all the way through 8th grade. It’s something that I really miss because we had a lot of the exact same kids, and you got to know the families really well. We would travel throughout the Midwest. We went to Sioux Falls and Kansas City a lot. When we could get them, we enjoyed playing teams from Texas, Minneapolis and Chicago. There was some awfully good competition there.”

On his coaching skills:

“You know what, I am a good coach now, but I’ll tell you this – you can’t just step in and do it. It was crazy when I started with the 3rd graders. It’s funny to go back and watch some tape of them and realize how little I knew. You learn a lot. It’s fun to go ahead and get out there and see the growth. I think that’s what I get the most enjoyment out of. You see them play against a team that beats them by 25 in a tournament, and as the season goes on, as your kids grow, as you’re teaching them and developing their skills, they know why it’s important to play against better competition. At the end of the season, they play that same team in the tournament and you beat them. It brings tears to my eyes. My wife says: ‘You’re kind of emotional,’ but it’s just pure joy to see how teams come so far. I enjoy coaching and I’ve gotten better at it. Next year, I’m going back to square one. I’m starting with my 8-year-old for a girls’ 3rd-grade team. I’m going from boys that were a very high level up until 9th grade to 3rd-grade girls. I love all of it, but it’ll test everything (he says with a laugh).”

On if he ever envisions coaching at a higher level:

“I absolutely want to be involved with basketball at some point in time. I played 14 years in the NBA, and my family obviously moved to every single city I was in. You sacrifice a lot. In the NBA, you play on Christmas and miss a lot of Thanksgivings. I missed birthdays and a lot of stuff when you’re doing that and traveling across the country. That was fine and I enjoyed it, but right now, I’ve just kind of dedicated myself to being around and raising a family and being 100-percent involved with every single thing and never missing any activity. It’s been a lot of fun, but when things slow down, especially in the next few years when I only have one in the house, I don’t know at what degree I would want. If it’s working for an NBA team, it might not be coaching, It could be scouting or working in the front office. College basketball is also very intriguing. I do want to do that, but I’m just not quite ready yet.”

On being the first men’s basketball player inducted into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame:

“Well, first and foremost, when you think about it, that’s other people’s opinions, as far as people putting you No. 1 on the list and into a hall of fame. At some point in time, I say ‘yeah I’m kind of a has-been right now.’ I’ve been retired for five years now, and people forget quickly. The younger generation, kids that are going to high school with my kids and stuff, they have no idea who I am, which is fine. For this honor to come along at this point in time and still to be remembered as obviously the top guy right now, it brought tears to my eyes when Shawn Eichorst (pictured below presenting Pike a fan award) called me to tell me. I remember it was spring break and I got goosebumps, kind of similar to when Steve Pederson called and said they were retiring my jersey at the University of Nebraska. Dave Hoppen and Stu Lantz were the only names hanging in the rafters at that time. I think when you’re young and you’re playing, it’s like ‘oh yeah, oh yeah,’ and you’re on to your next goal. You’re constantly thinking about the next thing. But now, to look back on these types of things, it’s something really cool for my kids, because they were so young when I was playing. Now they got to experience the Hall of Fame induction. It was a fun and special thing last March to see my daughter play in the state tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena. I have a picture of her doing the jump ball, and my jersey is hanging up in the ceiling behind her. I mean, that’s just the coolest picture ever. It’s a heck of a lot easier being out on the court than sitting in the stands watching your kids. I know everybody says that, but when my kids are playing in a 7th-grade or 8th-grade basketball tournament, in a weekend, we have five games. I wake up at 4 in the morning and I have goosebumps, I’m staring at the ceiling, and I’m ready. That’s the time I miss the Husker football game, and I couldn’t care less because it’s on and I’m thinking we have a tournament this week.”

On Nebraska Basketball Coach Tim Miles:

“Well, I’ve gotten to know Tim a little bit over the past couple of years. I just like his passion. I love how passionate he is about every single thing that he’s doing. I like that he embraces the social media. I like that he does a lot of stuff that the young kids really like to do. We have all the facilities. We have all the stuff in place right now. You just find it hard to believe that he’s not going to be the guy to do the “first” things in Nebraska basketball. You think he’s going to be the first guy to win an NCAA Tournament game and the first guy to get them to the NCAA Sweet 16. I love the guys that he’s bringing in right now. It seems to me like the guy can really recruit. We don’t have any size right now and that’s really tough. Really good big tall guys right now are still going to the Dukes and the North Carolinas and some of those schools. Tim’s going to eventually pluck one of those guys. The guys that he has surrounding him and the guys that he’s brought in this year, I think he’s going to have a lot of success. We’re still young and in the Big Ten, which is tough night in and night out. In fact, it’s super, super tough. Last year didn’t surprise me. When they shocked everybody the year they went to the NCAA Tournament, they got hot. When momentum gets going and you get on a roll, and teams didn’t know what to expect, that happens. But there’s no surprise now. They know what to expect when they come to Pinnacle Bank Arena. Last year, they got everybody’s best shot. They had to go ahead and swallow their pride. A couple of the guys left the program and Tim said he was fine with that. He wants guys that want to be here and are going to work as hard as he wants them to work. As you look through the program and the guys here right now, I think the guys understand that now.”  

On why Nebraska is unique:

“I was raised in western Nebraska in Scottsbluff and went to high school three years in Rapid City. People in South Dakota are very similar to Nebraska. My wife grew up in Norfolk in northeast Nebraska. Her family lived their entire lives in Norfolk, and what separates Nebraska is the people. You run into Nebraska people all over the country everywhere you go. I’d be playing games everywhere and people would come to the games in their Nebraska gear. They’d be yelling and screaming and you look at them, and you don’t know who they are. Obviously they’re from Nebraska and they act like they’re your best friends, so you go over and you talk to them. Nebraska people couldn’t be any nicer. The have values and are proud they were raised here. You go on a golf trip and get to the gate leaving Nebraska or you get to the gate coming into Nebraska, and you realize everybody’s wearing Nebraska gear. You might see that if somebody’s going to Alabama or maybe Ohio State, but there’s something special about the pride people take in being from here.”

 On his career highlights in the NCAA and the NBA:

“In college, it hurt really, really bad that we never won in the NCAA Tournament, especially when we qualified four years in a row. The process of getting there and just everything it takes to have success is not easy. I spent my summers in Lincoln when it was hot and humid, yet guys would hold each other accountable and have to be there every single day. We had fun and competed hard. The memories of winning the Big Eight Tournament our senior year is still vivid with many little tiny things. We won the tournament but never won other than the Big Eight Championship. We didn’t win some games we wanted to win, but I have such a good taste in my mouth and such a positive feeling about my time at Nebraska and the people that I played with there, and the coaches we had. There were guys that were graduate assistants that continued in basketball and I would see them in different venues around the country. It was the relationships that we built because I wasn’t the ‘one-and-done’ type of player. I redshirted my first year, I stayed for four years, so I was in Lincoln for five years, and it wasn’t easy for me. I did what I think more people should look at, so they can develop into the player that they really want to be. I believe in putting the time and effort in… spending way more time in the gym and spending way more time in the summer in the weight room. You can make yourself bigger and stronger and get good grades, then execute all the little tiny things that make a difference. So many guys who have great success at the pro level are the guys that have had success in college. They’ve done everything the exact right way and built upon that to get to the pro level and then they do the exact same tasks in the NBA or the NFL or whatever or wherever they go.”

On the culture of Nebraska Athletics:

“One thing stuck out, and I think a lot of schools are probably doing it right now. When I first came there, nobody really had an academic support system like the University of Nebraska has under Dennis Leblanc, who’s still in charge of academic programs. Dennis and Keith Zimmer brought the student-athletes in and gave all of us the resources to have success in all the areas of life that count. They have to stay on some more than others, but what they’ve done is so important. We had the best and still have the best training table, study halls and weight-lifting facilities. It blows my mind that I can come back after 20 or 25 years and walk into a Husker game and see Keith Zimmer, Dennis Leblanc and Chris Anderson and realize they’re all still here. They haven’t moved on because they love what they do. They’re so sincere. They give you a big hug and shake your hand. They’re so genuinely eager and truly happy to see you because they’re excited about your success. I think they’re ahead of their time. A lot of people have probably tried to copy what Nebraska did over all these years, but it’s a longtime commitment and you can’t do it without the foundation they’ve built together.”

On how Nebraska will attract prominent recruits:

“Well, I just think that winning solves everything. I think that Tim and his staff are doing all the right things right now, and that’s going to lead to winning. Young kids sit at home and they watch TV. They watch the games and see who’s successful. When you go to the NCAA Tournament as a Cinderella and make it to the Sweet 16 or something, it’s much, much easier to get those guys that we desperately want. It’s just like football. When Nebraska was winning national championships, they had the best players in the country coming in, and when that falls off a little bit, it’s a little harder to get those guys. What I like is Nebraska putting so much effort into every single sport. That new soccer venue is amazing. So is the tennis complex. We all know baseball’s in great shape. We’re taking it up to a much higher level in basketball and wrestling. They’re upgrading everything to keep up with all the other teams in the Big Ten. The word’s out there. Guys will know, and they will come back and they will tell the younger guys how special Nebraska really is. The guys from Chicago came back in the summertime. They know what’s here. Ed Morrow is from Simeon High School in Chicago. Glynn Watson (Jr.) played at St. Joseph in (Chicago suburb) Westchester. Once you recruit some of those young studs, you’re on a bigger path. That’s when word-of-mouth becomes the most important thing. If you hear from somebody that you respect and you trust, and they’re saying positive things about the overall experience in one of the best venues in college basketball, better people are going to keep coming to Nebraska.”

On the best advice he’s ever given:

“It’s not deep, but I say it to my kids. I always say, ‘Do what’s right.’ I think there was an NFL player or coach who said that same thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is to do. Even my 8-year-old knows what it is. The players that play for Coach Riley and Coach Miles know what the right things to do are. If you cut corners and you know you’re not doing what’s right, it’s going to hurt you. In academics and in sports and in everything you do in life, whether it’s your job, no matter what it is, you know what the right thing is to do, and you know what you should be doing to have success. I try to follow that rule no matter what. I tell my kids sometimes, ‘I know you don’t want to do this, but there’s a lot of things in life you’re going to have to do that you don’t want to do, and the best thing to do is just do them right away. Get them done, knock them out, and do them the right way. In the end, you’ll feel really good about yourself.”

Editor's note: Click the link in the photo at the top of this N-Sider to see performance painter David Garibaldi work his magic for Piatkowski and Husker basketball fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

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