Sports

Professor, ratings guru help Mavericks owner

Professor Wayne Winston attended a Dallas Mavericks game during a trip to Dallas last spring break and bumped into a former student. It turned out the student was Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban. Cuban casually approached Winston. The owner told his former professor that if he had any ideas to make the Mavericks better, Winston should let Cuban know.

Wildcats whimper into Bloomington

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody was blunt, honest and somewhere between despair and hope at this year's Big Ten media day in Chicago. After four years as head coach at Princeton, where he guided the Tigers to the postseason every year, Carmody took the head coaching job with one of the worst teams in the Big Ten. And he knew it.

Volleyball: Junior goes up against the best

Laurie Gardner said she felt a little intimidated. Playing alongside 13 All-Americans will do that. So will the prospect of earning a spot on the USA Women's National A-2 team, a summer squad composed of college volleyball players who have remaining eligibility.

Swimming for the home crowd

The talk last week wasn't about turns and technique for the women's swimming team, which is preparing for this weekend's Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. Days before the biggest meet of the year, the women were thinking about which music would echo through Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center before each event.

Sports Commentary: All-Star lineup disappoints

Saturday night at the NBA All-Star Game was disappointing. And that's putting it mildly. Usually a fun night, with lots of excitement, Saturday was a dud. The crowd was about as a excited as if it was going to the dentist's office. The players and participants of the events were better, but not much.

Women\'s Basketball: Hoosier center named Big Ten Player of Week

Junior center Jill Chapman could get used to this. For the third time this season, the Big Ten Conference has selected Chapman as its women's basketball Big Ten Player of the Week. The latest honor, announced Monday, will be shared with Iowa guard Lindsey Meder.

Sports Commentary: Notre Dame win streak not luck

Don't call it the luck of the Irish. Notre Dame's seven-game Big East win streak has been anything but that. With their 69-66 win in West Virginia Sunday, the Irish upped their overall record to 16-5 and moved their conference mark to 8-2.

Hoosiers bounce No. 20 Badgers

Leaders of the pack

It's safe to say IU would have lost to Michigan if junior forward Kirk Haston or freshman forward Jared Jeffries didn't play like an all-star. Interim head coach Mike Davis did. "If we don't have Kirk Haston and Jared Jeffries tonight, we're in serious trouble," Davis said. Haston and Jeffries combined for 56 of IU's 72 points. Michigan scored 59. For the second consecutive game, Haston topped his previous career high, scoring 30 points and adding eight rebounds. After the game, Davis compared him to former IU guard A.J. Guyton, last year's Big Ten Player of the Year.

Seniors say goodbye to IU crowd

Seniors Gabe Cook, Kevin Stanley and Mike Dixon received a warm send-off as an audience of about 150 gathered Sunday at the University Gym to celebrate Senior Day for the wrestling squad. The convincing victory against Northwestern represented the last time the Hoosier trio would wrestle in front of its home crowd. "I'm going to miss the fans; it's a great crowd here," Cook said. "Indiana's a great place to wrestle."

Wrestling falls to Michigan, beats Northwestern

Friday, the wrestling team faced its fourth consecutive top-10-ranked conference opponent. Sunday, they faced the only unranked conference team. The dual results were true to the rankings. The No. 23 Hoosiers dropped their fourth consecutive conference dual to No. 5 Michigan Friday night 24-14. Sunday, the team ended the losing skid with a 38-6 thrashing of struggling Northwestern. The weekend split leaves the Hoosiers 14-5 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten.

Tennis loses for first time this season

The women's tennis team made its second road trip of the season this weekend. Perhaps the road is the place to be for the Hoosiers. IU won 6-1 at Marquette Feb. 4, then followed that up with a win at Maryland Friday before falling to No. 3 Duke Saturday. IU (6-1) handed the Terrapins their first loss of the season behind standout singles play. IU won all six singles matches, but lost the doubles tally in the 6-1 triumph, marking the first time in two years IU has lost the doubles point but come back to dominate singles and win the match.

Drama seals victory

With two matches remaining Saturday, the men's tennis team found its undefeated record in jeopardy. The solution: seniors Milan Rakvica and Ian Arons. Carrying a 3-2 match advantage, the No. 24 Hoosiers needed only one victory to clinch the win against visiting Kansas and move to 4-0 on the season.

Haston, Jeffries lead Hoosiers to 13-point win

Considering this season is a transition period for the men's basketball team, things could be much worse for the IU basketball program. It could be Michigan's situation. Two of the Wolverines' starting guards were benched in the first half for violating team rules, a key reserve guard didn't even make the trip because he also violated team rules, and Michigan turned the ball over 16 times in the first half -- not to mention IU handed the Wolverines their fourth consecutive loss Sunday, defeating them 72-59 before a crowd of 16,859 in Assembly Hall.

Women prepare for championships

There's a different pace at the Counsilman and Billingsley Aquatic Center this time of the year. The women's swimming team has moved into the final phase of its training for the season, a more relaxed series of practices know as the "taper."

Water polo splits four games at invite

The water polo team began its season by splitting its four games at the Princeton Invitational this weekend. The Hoosiers shut out Santa Cruz 13-0 Friday, then posted a 13-4 win against Villanova Saturday. Senior Kristin Carpenter, junior Kate McCollum and sophomores Jamie Marley and Kristen Stanford each scored two goals against the Wildcats.

IU on track for championships

The men's track team placed third this weekend at the Penn State Collegiate meet with 86.83 points, behind conference rivals Penn State (134 points) and Ohio State (120). At least one Hoosier captured a personal best in every event except the triple jump, despite an injury-plagued roster.

Team breaks 2 records

Two IU records were broken and an athlete automatically qualified for the indoor NCAA championships as the women's track and field team won the United States Track Coaches Association Collegiate Invitational with 102.33 points against 11 teams this weekend in University Park, Pa.

3-game weekend split for hockey team

The hockey team's three-game weekend with Minnesota and Illinois ended with mixed results. In their final contests before the conference championship series, the Hoosiers defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers 6-4 at the Frank Southern Center, then were swept Friday and Saturday at Illinois.

Junior comes back after year on bench

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It's been a long time coming for junior forward Erin McGinnis. After sitting out a year, and being on the bench for most of this one, McGinnis was in the spot she envisioned nearly two years ago when she transferred to IU from Auburn -- with the ball in her hands and the game on the line.