Huskers Earn Individual, Team Honors

A pair of Huskers were honored by the Big 12 Conference on Monday as senior center Aleks Maric was named the league’s player of the week and junior guard Ade Dagunduro was selected as the rookie of the week. The honors marked the first time in school history Nebraska players were selected for the accolades in the same week.

 

Maric picked up his second career nod as player-of-the-week and his third overall honor. He was also selected player of the week on Nov. 20, 2006 and was the league’s rookie of the week on Feb. 28, 2005. He is one of only three Huskers to earn the Big 12 Player-of-the-Week accolade, and he became the third Husker to earn the honor twice. Venson Hamilton also picked up the award twice in his senior season in 1999 (in back-to-back weeks) while Tyronn Lue added two awards as a junior, his last season at Nebraska before making an early entry into the NBA Draft.

 

Maric is the first Husker ever to be named the conference’s player and rookie of the week in his career, and tied Kimani Ffriend for the most individual weekly honors by a Husker with three. Ffriend was the rookie of the three times as a junior in 1999. Dagunduro is the seventh Husker to earn the newcomer-of-the-week honor and first since Marcus Walker was selected in December, 2005. Only two Husker newcomers have earned multiple awards, with Joe McCray being selected twice in 2004-05 and Ffriend.

 

Maric and Dagunduro helped the Huskers to a 2-0 record last week and lifted NU to an 8-2 start to the season with their solid play. The Huskers pounded SavannahState last Tuesday, Dec. 11, earning a 45-point victory for the largest win under second-year coach Doc Sadler. Maric and Dagunduro’s defense helped NU to open a 26-2 lead to begin the game, including holding SSU to one field goal for the first 13 minutes of the game.

 

This past weekend, Maric and Dagunduro helped Nebraska knock off its second ranked non-conference team in two seasons, including NU’s first-ever win over a ranked team outside Lincoln with an 88-79 overtime victory over No. 16 Oregon. It was the highest-ranked non-league opponent Nebraska has defeated since topping No. 15 Michigan State in 1994.

 

Maric averaged a team-high 16.5 points to go along with 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game last week. His top effort came against the Ducks, as he posted his third 20-point game of the season with a team-best 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Maric recorded 17 points after halftime. He shot 63.2 percent (12-of-19) on the week, plus 75.0 percent (9-of-12) from the free throw line. Maric leads Nebraska with 16.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this year.

 

Dagunduro registered 12.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game in the two victories. The junior had 15 points and seven rebounds versus Oregon, helping NU hold the Ducks to 12 points below their season scoring average. He added nine points, four rebounds and four steals earlier in the week.  Dagunduro has scored in double digits in five of his last six outings and is second on the team in scoring this season with 11.8 points per contest.

 

In addition to Maric and Dagunduro’s individual awards, the Nebraska men’s basketball team was selected as the ?Team of the Week’ by ESPN.com national basketball writer Andy Katz, on Monday, Dec. 17. The honor came after Nebraska’s thrilling 88-79 overtime victory over No. 16 Oregon on Saturday at the Qwest Center Omaha. Katz noted the Huskers’ ability to take care of the ball (only seven turnovers) and solid defensive effort (18 Oregon turnovers) as reasons for earning the weekly honor. Voters in the Associated Press poll also took notice, as Nebraska received two votes in Monday’s poll, one of five Big 12 Conference teams either ranked or earning votes this week.