— BIG 12 NOTEBOOK —
Think, the ACC is a basketball
powerhouse, or maybe the Pac-10?
Try the Big 12 conference this
year. With Iowa State moving into the
coaches poll at No. 23 last week and
staying in there at No. 24 this week, the
Big 12 has five teams in top 25 -die
first time in conference history that
has happened.
Joining Iowa State is No. 13 Texas,
No. 14 Oklahoma State, No. 15
Kansas and Oklahoma, in at a tie for
17*.
But even with five teams ranked,
many Big 12 coaches still aren’t happy,
pointing to a hot Missouri squad that
they say should be ranked also.
■
In regards to Mizzou, the Tigers
have won five in a row including
recent blowouts of Kansas and Texas
A&M, in which they had an average
margin of victory of 26.5 points. They
should only get better now that
Kareem Rush is back from a nine
game NCAA suspension. Rush
returned vs. A&M to tie a career-high
sixteen points.
But Missouri has a big roadblock
ahead of its winning ways. The Tigers
play at Colorado on Wednesday and
Missouri hasn’t won in Boulder since
1994.
Looking for a ticket to the Big 12
conference tournament? It might not
be so easy: League officials are saying
that the tournament games, which take
place in Kansas City on March 12-15,
have been sold out for the second time
ever. However, they are saying that
only conference tickets have been sold
out, and that a few tickets may remain
through individual retailers.
" L
Texas Junior Chris Mihm is the
Big 12 conference player of the week.
The junior forward averaged 21 points
a game and 11 boards. He tied his sea
son high of 28 points, and his career
high of 17 boards in Texas’ win over
Colorado.
Kansas freshman Nick Collison
got the rookie of the week honors,
averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds
while shooting a shade under 67 per
cent from the floor.
■
Nebraska guard Matt Davison just
might be a little more than a novelty act
for the 10-10 Huskers. Best known as a
wide receiver who made the most
immaculate catch in football history,
Davison also made his first start for the
men’s basketball team vs. Kansas
State.
The junior walk-on scored two
points and had an assist and a steal
while playing stellar defense. Not to
mention he helped get Coach Danny
Nee win No. 253, which tied Nee with
Joe Cipriano for the most in school
history.
Big 12 Notebook is compiled by
staff writer TVevor Johnson.
Ratings
strong
for Bowl
■ The game garnered a
43.2 rating, 19th best in
Super Bowl history.
NEW YORK (AP) - Small mar
kets don’t hurt Super Bowl ratings -
especially when the game comes
down to the final play.
St Louis’ stirring 23-16 victory
over Tennessee on Sunday night
drew a 43.2 rating and a 62 share on
ABC, up 7 percent from last year.
That makes it the 19th-highest rated
among the 34 Super Bowls.
Last year’s game, Denver’s 34
19 win over Atlanta, received a 40.2
rating and 61 share, the lowest rat
ing since the 1990 game registered a
39.0 rating.
ABC estimated 130,745,000
people watched the game, making it
the fifth most-watched telecast in
U.S. history, trailing four other
Super Bowls. Last year’s game,
broadcast by Fox, was watched by
127.5 million.
The No. 1 program was the 1996
Super Bowl between Dallas and
Pittsburgh, watched by 138.5 mil
lion.
With two small markets, ABC
said last week it hoped for a 42.0 rat
ing, but die close games caused rat
ings to grow throughout the night.
When the game began at 5:26
p.m. CST, it had a 39.0 rating and 61
share, which grew to 41.4/64 from
5:30-6 p.m., 42.7/64 from 7-7:30
p.m. and 43.5/64 from 6:30-7 p.m.
The halftime show got a
40.8/48, and the second half began
with a 43.9/62 from 7:30-8 p.m.
That was followed by a 44.2/62 and
a 46.9/65 for the final half hour,
which included Kurt Warner’s 73
yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce
and Mike Jones’ tackle of Kevin
Dyson at the 1-yard line as time ran
out
1 he rating for the final half hour
was up 21 percent from the 38.9 for
the final half hour last year.
In St. Louis, die game produced
a 55.6 rating and 78 share, and in
Nashville, Tenn., it drew a 50.3/67.
In Houston, the Titans’ home
when the team was the Oilers, the
game got a 47.0 rating and 67 share.
, In Los Angeles, the former home of
the Rams, it got a 38.7/64.
In New York, the game got a
39.6 rating and 54 share.
The rating is the percentage of
television households watching a
telecast, and each point represents
1,008,000 homes. The share is the
percentage tuned in among those
televisions on at the time.
Kansas State struggles
in month of January
KSU from page 16
during a trip to the thin air of
Boulder, Colo. The Buffaloes beat K
State, 78-70.
The Wildcats then returned home
only to find another loss. The
Cowboys of Oklahoma State tamed
the Cats with a 71-56 score.
This past weekend, Kansas State
blew a three-point halftime lead.
Nebraska took revenge on K-State,
winning 81-72.
“Our problems are very fixable,”
Kansas State Coach Tom Asbury
said. “We’re going to get a little help;
sometime.”
But no relief is in sight for the
struggling Wildcats. The strength
and depth of the conference will
place a difficult task in front of KSU.
Iowa State, Colorado, Oklahoma,
Kansas and Missouri are in the near
future.
“We have to look at the positives
and negatives and move on,” Asbury
said.
Kansas State will try to turn the
season around Wednesday against
Iowa State.
• \ ;
Small town holds
onto old stage gym
■ Hay Springs offers a dif
ferent way of watching the
game, like a movie.
HAY SPRINGS. Neb. (AP) - A
bit of high school sports history con
tinues at Hay Springs High School.
The school is one of the last in the
state with a basketball court that dou
bles as a stage.
The gym was built with the main
classroom building about 1940,
according to Hay Springs School
Superintendent Gayla Fredrickson.
“There may be another gym like
this in the eastern part of the state, but
I’m not sure if it’s still being used,”
she said.
Hay Springs is a city of about 790
people in northwest Nebraska.
Crawford, also in the northwest,
played its. indoor sports in a similar
stage-court style gym until comple
tion of a new gymnasium in 1996.
The stage-style gym was state-of
the-art at the time it was built, com
bining a stage and orchestra pit with
an athletic facility.
“It’s like sitting in a movie the
ater,” said Hay Springs Girl’s
Basketball Coach Gene “Mo” Hanks.
The gymnasium’s court, which is
small compared to modem facilities,
was bigger than the old “crackerbox”
style gyms of the 1920s and 1930s.
Gyms in many small towns had
baskets at various heights, depending
on ceiling height, and some even had
pillars in the middle of the court.
Players often dressed in furnace
rooms.
A team with three tall players
could stretch fingertip-to-fingertip
and defend the width of a floor.
The Hay Springs gym is smaller
than today’s standard court. The 3
point arc intersects the sideline
boundary, and the center jump circle
is closer to the top of each free-throw
circle.
“You can’t shoot a 3-pointer from
the corner here,” said Hanks, who
came to Hay Springs three years ago
after coaching in Crawford and
Oelrichs, S.D.
Fredrickson said the Hay Springs
gym seating area has been modified
to accommodate a concession stand
and a platform for the school’s pep
band. Seating capacity, though, still
is about 400.
“We’re always crowded to over
flowing for graduation,” she said.
Principal Aaron Carr said the the
ater-style seating gives spectators a
unique viewing experience for sport
ing events.
“There’s an interesting dynamic
for spectators since they’re all sitting
together on the same side of the
court,” he said. ‘There’s more sports
manship since they can’t yell back
and forth at each other.”
“A lot of people prefer having
folding seats with backs to sit on
instead of narrow bleacher seats,”
Fredrickson said.
The pep band has a small plat
form to provide music. The orchestra
pit is occupied by the scorer’s table
and cheerleaders.
Players have the first row of seats
on either side of the auditorium.
Players check in, then hop up a short
flight of stairs to reach the court.
The orchestra pit makes some
players hesitant about chasing a loose
ball out of bounds.
“I think every Hay Springs player
has slid off the stage at one time or
another,” said Janet Dorshorst, whose
sons Joe and Nate played for the
Hawks.
_
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