Sports
The Big 12 Conference Player
of the Week is Texas sophomore
center Chris Mihm. breaking
Nebraska center Venson
Hamilton's two-week streak.
Mihm averaged 18.5 points and
14 rebounds in wins over
Oklahoma and Massachusetts, and
has powered the Longhorns to first
place in the Big 12 standings at 7-1.
H
For the second consecutive
week, Missouri guard Keyon
Dooling was named the league's
Rookie of the Week. The freshman
averaged 20.5 points in wins over
Kansas State and Baylor, and
earned praise from his head coach,
Norm Stewart.
“Even though freshmen are
more susceptible to ups and downs
than veterans, he seems to be
relaxed,” Stewart said.
“He’s fun to coach, fun to
watch. He’s an exciting player.”
m
Stewart made a mark of his
own Saturday. With the Tigers' win
over Kansas State, he passed
DePaul legend Ray Meyer for sev
enth on the all-time NCAA Div. I
coaches’ winning list with his
725th victory. Stewart is in his 31st
year at Missouri, his 38th overall.
m
At the Big 12 season’s halfway
point, there is no clear-cut favorite
to win the conference.
Texas is in first place, with
three teams tied for second place at
6-2, one game back of the
Longhorns - Missouri, Kansas and
Oklahoma State - each which won
Saturday. Nebraska and Oklahoma
are tied for fifth at 5-3.
■
For the second straight week,
only two teams from the Big 12 are
ranked in the Associated Press Top
25. Oklahoma State jumped two
spots to No. 21, while Kansas
dropped two spots to No. 22.
“I think the reason why so few
teams in this conference are
ranked is because the league is so
competitive,” Oklahoma Head
Coach Kelvin Sampson said.
“Everybody is beating every
body else, and no one is standing
out. To me, that means there are a
lot of good teams in this confer
ence.”
n
If the league’s top six teams,
the Longhorns have the confer
ence's easiest second-half confer
ence schedule. Their remaining
Big 12 opponents are a combined
25-37. Oklahoma State has had it
the toughest at 37-27. Nebraska's
remaining teams are a combined
30-34.
■<.
Though they are in eighth
place at 3-5, the Kansas State
Wildcats’ five league losses have
all come by fewer than 10 points.
The Wildcats’ opponents in that
stretch were a combined 24-8.
Big 12 Notebook was com
piled by sophomore staff writer
John Gaskins.
Coach says NU must stop turnovers
Matt Miller/DN
NICOLE KUBIK AND THE HUSKER WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM will try to break their five-game losing
streak on the road tonight against the Missouri Tigers. NU Coach Paul Sanderford said the Huskers
need to cut down on turnovers to pull out a win.
By Lisa Vonnahme
Staff writer
With a five-game losing streak on the
road staring it in the face, the Nebraska
women's basketball team isn't wasting any
time searching for solutions.
NU Coach Paul Sanderford wants to
see those results tonight at 7 p.m. when
Nebraska (15-6 overall and 4-4 in the Big
12 Conference) faces Big 12 rival
Missouri (9-9 and 2-6) at the Hearnes
Center in Columbia, Mo.
Against the Tigers, Sanderford will be
looking for his answer to NU's road game
woes: more rebounds and fewer turnovers.
Even though the Huskers have forced
24.9 turnovers per game, they have hurt
themselves by committing 20.3 turnovers
per contest. Sanderford would like to see
that number decreased to 12 or 13.
“You can't win a game on the road if
you turn the ball over 20 or 25 times,”
Sanderford said. “And with 10 people get
ting playing time, we should be able to get
extra rebounds.”
In grabbing boards, Sanderford will be
depending on the play of junior Brooke
Schwartz, who averages a team-high 6.9
rebounds per game.
Schwartz is coming off a 20-point,
eight-rebound game against Oklahoma on
Saturday, leading the Huskers to an 85-62
win at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Brooke has been much more focused
in the last two games,” Sanderford said.
“It’s very important for her to be consis
tent, not up and down.”
The Tigers, who were handed an 80-54
loss to No. 16 Iowa State on Saturday, has
been in the same shape as the Huskers this
season with scarce road wins, Sanderford
said. Nebraska dealt Missouri an 83-67
road-game loss Jan. 3.
“We haven’t seen Missouri, even on
tape, since we played them last month,”
Sanderford said.
“We’re just going to have to count on
being prepared.”
While Sanderford admitted NU’s diffi
culty on the road has been frustrating, it
hasn’t been his primary concern.
“It’s tough to win on the road, and the
more you talk about it, the worse it can be,”
Sanderford said.
“My philosophy has always been to
take care of business at home, and steal a
few on the road.”
If the Huskers are able to leave the
Hearnes Center as robbers tonight, they
will have earned their 20th straight victory
over the Tigers - a win that is needed for
confidence in NU’s battle with Iowa State
this weekend, Sanderford said.
“I’m looking forward to playing at
Missouri,” Sanderford said. “We’re ready
to prove we can win on the road.”
Husker Invite provides memories
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
Ask Gary Pepin about his memo
ries of the first 18 Husker Invitationals
he coached in, and he'll admit he does
n’t have many specific ones.
He mentions a few of the mile relay
races, a couple of spectacular runners
here and there.
But what the Nebraska men’s and
women’s track and field coach remem
bers most about the Husker
Invitational, now in its 25th year, was
how small it was when he came to NU
in 1980, and how big it is now.
“The funds and time put into the
meet is so much more today than it
used to be,” Pepin said. “It’s not so
much that I remember individual per
formances, but that I remember the
event and what it is today.”
Pepin said the Invitational, which
has had the name Frank Sevigne
attached to it after the late NU track
coach, should be about the same size as
it was last year, with about 45-50 teams
and more than 1,000 athletes compet
ing. Pepin said teams from as far west
as Washington State and far east as
South Carolina come to participate.
From the Big 12, Nebraska,
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas
and Kansas State will compete. Other
Big 12 teams will be at the Iowa State
Invitational.
“It’s a coast-to-coast deal,” Pepin
said. “We’ve got them from east, west
and somewhere in between. We’d like
to have more at the meet if Iowa State
would move its meet.”
Pepin did say that the size of the
meet does bring some of the best teams
in the country and along with them
some of the best athletes. Pepin calls it
the “the best collection of top-flight
athletes at any Nebraska sporting
a
Its not so much that I remember individual
performances, but that I remember the
event and what it is today”
Gary Pepin
NU track coach
event.”
It wasn’t always like that. Pepin
said that not only did Nebraska have to
compete with the Iowa State Invite, but
a meet in Oklahoma, as well.
Still, the competition is so strong,
Pepin said, that it’s hard for him to pick
great individual moments. He does
recall former NU sprinter and former
Olympian Merlene Ottey, who ran the
100-meter and 200-meter dash at NU
in the early 1980s and was a national
champion.
“I don’t remember her specific
races, although I’m sure she won,”
Pepin said. “I just remember the
crowds that would come to see her, and
how much the crowds loved to watch
her run.
“And she would please them. The
thing about Merlene was she ran to win
the event, but she’d won run to please
the crowd, too. She was just a great
crowd-pleaser.”
