tarns vie for quality seeds
Nebraska point guard Tyronn
Lue was named the Big 12 player of
the week for his career-best tying
effort of 30 points against Iowa State
on Saturday. Lue, who scored 15
points in the Comhuskers’ loss at
Baylor, is the first NU player to be
named the Big 12 player of the week.
Oklahoma’s Tim Heskatt was
named the league’s rookie of the
week after averaging 11 points in
two Sooner victories last week.
Heskatt, a freshman from Lexing
ton, S.C., started the first two games
of his career last week.
■I
The Nebraska men’s basketball
team is now 14-0 this season in
games attended by former Daily
Nebraskan reporter Todd
Walkenhorst. Walkenhorst, host of
KRNU’s “Monday Sports Mad
ness” and video assistant for the NU
volleyball team, has traveled to
road games at Missouri-Kansas
City, Northern Iowa and Iowa State.
When the senior broadcasting
major isn’t present, NU is 1-12,
winning only against Old Domin
ion Dec. 30 in Puerto Rico.
■
Kansas clinched the first-ever
Big 12 Conference men’s basketball
regular season title with Saturday’s
78-58 win over rival Kansas State.
The Jayhawks, who captured the last
two Big Eight Conference titles, re
mained at the top of The Associated
Press Top 25 poll.
After losing twice last week,
Iowa State fell from seventh to 13th
and Colorado is the only other
ranked Big 12 school at 19th.
■
As of this weekend, more than
6,000 tickets remained for the
NCAA Tournament first and second
round games March 14 and 16 at
Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas is the host institution for the
site so the top-ranked Jayhawks will
not play in Kansas City during the
NCAA Tournament.
■
The Big 12 women’s basketball
title remains wide open as the sea
son comes to a close this week. Some
key games feature Nebraska (18-6
overall and 8-6 in the Big 12) at No.
11 Kansas (21-4 and 12-2) and Colo
rado at No. 12 Texas (19-5 and 10
3) on Wednesday.
Saturday’s matchups have Texas
traveling to Texas A&M and Iowa
State at Colorado.
■
Colorado’s Reagan Scott was
named Big 12 women’s basketball
player of the week. In two games,
Scott averaged 19 points, 7 re
bounds and 3.5 blocks for the Buf
faloes. Baylor freshman guard
Mandy Hayworth was named the
league’s rookie of the week.
Hayworth averaged 18 points and
three rebounds in two games.
Big 12 Notebook was com
piled by staff reporter Pete
Marhoefer.
Only one tournament
spot has been clinched
entering final week.
By Vince D’Adamo
Staff Reporter
With the Big 12 Conference men’s
basketball regular season winding
down, teams are making a final push
this week to position themselves in the
league tournament.
The first-ever Big 12 Tournament
starts March 6 in Kansas City, Mo., but
this week could be crucial to how
teams perform next week.
The top two seeds for the tourna
ment are the division winners. Top
ranked Kansas (28-1 overall and 14-1
in the conference)
has clinched the
Big 12’s regular
season title and
will be the
tournament’s No.
1 seed from the
North Division.
Texas (15-9
and 9-5) narrowly
leads the South
Division by one
game over Texas
Tech (16-8 and 8
6) and Oklahoma (16-9 and 8-7). Texas
blew a chance to extend its lead after
losing 72-70 at Texas Tech on Satur
day.
Following the top two seeds, the
remaining teams will be seeded No. 3
through No. 12 based on their confer
ence record. Teams seeded third and
fourth receive first-round byes. North
Division representatives Colorado (19
7 and 10-4) and Iowa State (18-6 and
9-5) have the inside track to earn first
round byes entering the season’s final
week.
Teams seeded fifth through 12th
face a task similar to that of climbing
Mount Everest in winning the touma
Please see SEEDS on 8
Tournament Time
If the Big 12 Conference
men's basketball tournament
started today, the pairings
would look like this:
(5) Texas Tech vs. (12) Kansas St
(6) Oklahoma vs. (11) Texas A&M
(7) Nebraska vs. (10) Missouri
(8) Oklahoma St. vs. (9) Baylor
* Kansas, Texas, Iowa St. and Colorado
receive first-round byes.
KU plays either Oklahoma St or Baylor
UT plays either Nebraska or Missouri
ISU plays either Oklahoma or Texas A&M
CU plays either Texas Tech or Kansas St.
* Kansas is the only team to have
clinched its position
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Matt Miller/DN
SHEILA McPHERSON fights for a loose ball against Iowa State’s Jayme Olson. McPherson scored a career
best 12 points in Sunday’s game.
McPherson steps into spotlight
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Staff Reporter
Finally, after two years of
standing in her teammates’ shad
ows, Sheila McPherson shifted
into the spotlight.
McPherson, a senior guard on
the Nebraska women’s basketball
team, was honored along with two
other seniors before the
Comhuskers’ final home game of
the season against Iowa State on
Sunday.
She also earned a spot in the
starting lineup with the absence of
guard LaToya Doage. Doage
missed Sunday’s game after hav
ing surgery to repair a tom lateral
miniscus in her right knee, which
she injured against Baylor last
Wednesday. Doage is expected to
be out 10 to 20 days, NU Coach
Angela Beck said.
When the lights came back on
after player introductions in front
of 7,012 fans at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center, McPherson made
sure she didn’t fall back into the
shadows.
The 5-foot-5 guard from India
napolis opened the game with her
first 3-point field goal in 11 games
and went on to drill 3-of-6 from 3
point range and 3-of-3 from the
free-throw line on the way to scor
ing a career-best 12 points.
“I’d been thinking about this
game for a month,” McPherson
said. “I was prepared. It was a dream
come true and it felt so good to con
tribute in front of a huge crowd.”
At times during the first half of
NU’s 57-55 loss, McPherson was
the team’s biggest contributor.
Given the green light by Beck to
shoot, McPherson out-scored the
entire Cyclone team 9-8 during the
first 12 minutes of the game.
“Usually, when I go into the
game,” McPherson said, “Coach
tells me to pass it off. But I had more
confidence because she gave me the
freedom. I knew she wasn’t going
to take me out if I missed a shot.”
McPherson, averaging just 4.8
minutes per game in Big 12 Con
ference play, was On the court for
23 minutes — 17 of which came
in the first half.
She took advantage of the op
portunity to establish career-highs
in assists (2) and rebounds (4)
while tying her career-best marks
in field goals and free throws made
and attempted.
Although she played six of her
minutes in the second half, just
playing at all was a personal vie
66
It was a dream
come true ”
Sheila McPherson
NU women’s basketball player
tory for McPherson. Doing well
against Iowa State made her per
formance all the more sweet.
The Huskers’ Jan. 30 victory
over the Cyclones in Ames, Iowa,
came on the anniversary of her sis
ter Shannon’s death. McPherson
did not play against ISU that night.
With family and friends in town
to see her play in her final home
game as a Husker, McPherson was
once again reminded of her sister.
“I tried to picture what Shannon
would have said to me if she were
here,” McPherson said. “She had so
much confidence in me, and I know
she would have been proud.”
Before Sunday’s game,
McPherson had not played in three
of NU’s seven previous contests and
did not score in the four others.
“It’s not frustrating because I
know there’s more out there for me
after basketball,” she said.
Huskers
ready for
Jayhawks
By David Wilson
Staff Reporter
In February, 40 degrees is warm
enough for a baseball game.
Nebraska Baseball Coach John
Safiders said he is
confident the Ne
braska baseball
team will take the
field in Lawrence,
Kan., today at 3
p.m. to face Kan
sas in the first
ever Big 12 con
ference game.
h e
Comhuskers (5-2) Sanders
send senior right
hander Jonas
Armenta to the mound at Hoglund
Maupin Stadium in an attempt to snap
a two-game losing streak.
NU broke even in four games in
the Rawlings Spring Training Tourna
ment last weekend in Phoenix. The
losses, Sanders said, were caused by a
lack of run support.
“Three of the four games were
beautifully pitched,” Sanders said.
“But just one of those four was sup
ported with runs. Offensively, we’re
not hitting on all eight cylinders. We’re
just not scoring runs.”
Senior starting pitchers Peter
Lythgoe, Steve Fish and Pat Driscoll
each had successful starts in the tour
nament, Sanders said. Driscoll, who
started in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to
Creighton, was the only one of the
three to not earn a win.
“The big, big, big problem was we
left 15 people on base,” Sanders said.
“That’s not good.”
Nebraska also struck out 12 times
against the Bluejays.
But when NU did get the run sup
port, its pitching didn’t follow suit. In
Saturday’s 16-7 loss to Northern Iowa
— the tournament champion — the
Husker pitchers were rocked, Sanders
said.
“It was kind of a staff bang
around,” Sanders said.
The Husker lineup, Sanders said,
has been solidified by All-American
candidate Todd Sears and newcomers
Kevin Harrington, Andy Sawyers and
Michael Knust. But the rest of the team
has been struggling at the plate — in
cluding leadoff hitter Francis Collins.
Please see .SANDERS on 8 , „