Baylor-Nebraska Women's Hoops Notes
2/22/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2001
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THE TEAMS...
After a two week absence, the Lady Bears moved back into the top 25, checking in at #24. It is the fourth time the Baylor squad has been ranked this season, their highest being #20. The Lady Bears, 18-7 overall and 7-7 in Big 12 play, come into Saturday's game after suffering a loss (86-76) at the hands of #8 Oklahoma in Norman. The Lady Bears are 11-2 overall and 5-2 in conference play in the Ferrell Center, their only losses coming at the hands of Oklahoma (87-90) and Texas Tech (56-67). Baylor is 7-5 on the road, 2-5 on the road in Big 12 games.
Baylor is led by three players scoring in double figures. Sheila Lambert, a junior guard, leads the team with 23.0 a game, while right behind her is junior forward Danielle Crockrom's 21.7. Senior post Monica Arnold checks in at 10.4 a contest. Crockrom leads the Big 12 Conference in rebounding with 12.0 a game.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are 12-15 on the season and 4-10 in Big 12 play. They are on a two-game winning streak after defeating Kansas State (77-69) on the road and Kansas (49-46) in Lincoln. One Husker manages double-digit scoring although five others average 6.0 or more points a game. Senior 6-5 center Casey Leonhardt leads the Huskers in both scoring and rebounding with 13.7 points and 7.1 rebounds a game.
THE COACHES...
Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her first year as a head coach after 15 years as an assistant at Louisiana Tech, has guided the Lady Bears to a 18-7 record. A tremendous improvement over Baylor's 7-20 record of last season.
The Huskers' Paul Sanderford is in his 4th season at Nebraska and 19th season overall as a head coach. He possesses a career record of 439-170 and is 66-45 at Nebraska. The Huskers have gone to the NCAA Tournament all four years of Sanderford's tenure.
These two coaches are familiar with each other. Sanderford was head coach at Western Kentucky while Mulkey-Robertson was an assistant at Louisiana Tech, both members of the Sun Belt Conference. During that time, Louisiana Tech won 11 games while Western Kentucky won seven.
SERIES RECORD...
Nebraska leads the series 3-2, all five games coming since the inception of the Big 12 Conference. The Huskers have won the last two. The Lady Bears' lone victory over Nebraska in Lincoln came on Feb. 10, 1999 (59-53) snapping the Huskers' 27-game home court winning streak.
LAST YEAR...
The two squads met twice last season, once in Waco and once in the Big 12 Tournament. The Huskers won both matchups 82-71 in Waco and82-61 in Kansas City. In Waco, Danielle Crockrom led all scorers and rebounders with 22 points and nine rebounds. Four Huskers scored in double figures in that game but none are on this season's roster. In the second game, NU's Casey Leonhardt tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds while Amanda Went added 12 points. Monica Arnold is Baylor's only returnee to score over 10 points, she tallied 15 points and pulled down a team-leading seven rebounds.
RANKINGS THIS SEASON...
After a two week absence, the Lady Bears rank among the nation's top 25 again, checking in at #24. It marks the fourth time this season Baylor has been ranked.
Since the beginning of NCAA competition in women's basketball (1981-82), Baylor had never been ranked in the top 25, but had received votes during the 1997-98 campaign and at the beginning of the 1998-99 season.
So far this season they have been ranked four times: Jan. 8 - No. 23 AP Jan. 15 - Tie for #25 AP Jan. 29 - No. 20 AP/#22 Coaches Feb. 19 - No. 24 AP
LAMBERT ON ELITE LIST...
Guard Sheila Lambert has been seleted as one of 10 finalists for the Nancy Lieberman-Cline Step Up Award. The award, honors the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. The finalists were selected by the AP Sportswriters from across the country...Joining Lambert are: Sue Bird (Connecticut), Stacey Dales (Oklahoma), Niele Ivey (Notre Dame), Kara Lawson (Tennessee), Brandi McCain (Florida), Kelly Miller (Georgia), Tasha Pointer (Rutgers), Georgia Schweitzer (Duke) and Jackie Stiles (Southwest Missouri State).
BIGGEST TURNAROUNDS...
In researching the women's NCAA Division I programs with big turnarounds from last season to this, Baylor ranks #2. The Lady Bears posted a 7-20 record last season, but under first-year head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson are 18-7 so far this season. Programs (as of Feb. 21) with big turnarounds include:
South Carolina State-5-23 (.179)/16-7 (.696) = +.525
Baylor - 7-20 (.259)/18-7 (.720) = +.461
Montana State - 6-21 (.222)/16-8 (.667) = +.445
Washington - 8-22 (.267)/16-7 (.696) = +.429
Stetson - 10-18 (.357)/18-5 (.782) = +.425
Houston - 7-21 (.250)/18-9 (.667) = +.417
Colorado - 10-19 (.345)/19-6 (.760)= +.415
San Jose State - 3-24 (.111)/12-13 (.480) = +.369
Army - 9-19 (.321)/17-9 (.654) = +.333
Toledo - 14-15 (.483)/20-5 (.800) = +.317
ONLY BAYLOR...
In NCAA Division I statistics posted Feb. 19, Baylor is the only school to have two players among the nation's leaders in scoring. In fact, you have to go down to #27 before you get a duplicate. Baylor's junior guard Sheila Lambert ranks #4 nationally while junior forward Danielle Crockrom ranks #9.
