North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 74, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 2004 Page: 14 of 18
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RANGERS OUTFIELDER GREER HAS SUCCESSFUL SURGERY
Thursday - February 12, 2004 - Page 10
"The annals of the blood, sweat and tears that drive the
athletics department of the University of North Texas."
ARLINGTON (AP) — Texas Rangers outfielder
Rusty Greer had another operation on his left elbow
Wednesday, this time to remove scar tissue from
around a nerve.
Dr. John Conway performed the surgery to allow
Greer to have more feeling in his arm, seven months
after a ligament transplant in the elbow. The Rangers
said the surgery was successful.
Greer, a .305 career hitter in 1,027 games, has not
played for the Rangers since the middle of the 2002
season. He's not expected back before 2005 - and he
may not play again.
Greer, 35, is scheduled to have another operation in
April to remove scar tissue from his shoulder.
His $21.8 million, three-year contract with the Rang-
ers calls for a $7.4 million salary this season.
The SPORTS section
is published Tuesday
through Friday.
SPORTS editor
Jeff Andrews
can be reached
at (940) 565-3574
or on the Web at
nt_sports@yahoo.com
Medlock leads Lady Eagles
Gabriel D. Brooks
Staff Writer
After leading the University
of Arkansas-Fort Smith Lady
Lions to a 26-2 record a year
ago at the junior college level,
NT junior guard Jill Medlock
has set her sights on the Sun
Belt Conference.
Medlock, who is a rehabili-
tation studies major, but said
she plans to attend law school,
is currently second on the team
in scoring with 11.3 points per
game, and also
pulls down 4.9
rebounds and
dishes out 2.3
assists a contest.
Her 32.3 minutes
per game is tops
among the Lady
Eagles.
What Med-
lock has gained
a reputation
for, though, is
her superb free
throw shooting.
She is lead-
ing the Sun Belt
Conference with a 91.9 percent
mark from the charity stripe,
having missed only five free
throws the entire season in
62 attempts. As a sophomore
at UA-Fort Smith, Medlock
was 86-of-101 on free throws,
so the success from the line
is nothing new to her. "I do
the same routine every time,"
Medlock said. "I just kind of
step up there and concentrate.
As long as you get up there
and do your routine and prac-
tice them, then you should be
able to make them."
Medlock's success at the
JUCO level prepared her for
competition at the NCAA Di-
"As long as you
get up there and
do your routine
and practice
them, then you
should be able
to make [free
throws]."
- Jill Medlock
Junior guard
vision-T level. "It's really about
the same," Medlock said. "I
think a lot of people underes-
timate junior college, but my
junior college was ranked no.
3 in the country all year, and
this year they're ranked no. 1.
I played on a great team in a
great conference. The athletes
are pretty much the same."
Medlock led the Lady Lions
with an average of 14.6 points
per game in addition to shoot-
ing 49 percent from the field.
She also got it done defensive-
ly with an aver-
age of 2.6 steals a
game.
Free throw
shooting is not
the only area
of the game in
which Medlock
flourishes. Going
into Thursday's
game at Middle
Tennessee State,
Medlock is sixth
on NT's single-
season three-
point record
list, having con-
nected on 46 treys. The num-
ber is also good for sixth on
the career three-point list. She
is shooting 37.4 percent from
downtown, which is third
best in the conference. With
seven games remaining, six of
which are in Denton, Medlock
could break the record of 60
held by Ashley Norris set dur-
ing the 1995-96 season. Med-
lock said shooting the three is
definitely her favorite thing to
do on the court. "To me that's
the easiest part of the game,"
Medlock said. "A lot of people
can't get it down. That's one
advantage, too, I think these
days. A lot fewer people shoot
threes. A lot more people are
into driving, so I think that's
one of the advantages that I
have."
Medlock wasbogged down
in a slump for a while; she
said it was something she is
not accustomed to. But over
the past two games, she has
returned to form. Medlock
hit five threes in a three-point
loss at Louisiana-Lafayette
en route to leading the team
with 15 points. She then hit
2-of-4 threes on her way to a
12-point performance in the
Lady Eagles' 54-52 victory
over New Mexico State.
"It's kind of weird because
I've never really been in a
slump during the season,"
Medlock said. "I haven't re-
ally done anything different.
I got sick last week and I was
just laying in my bed think-
ing about stuff a lot. Every
shot I took I wasn't feeling
comfortable. Now I'm just
shooting it."
Senior forward Kim Blan-
ton said Medlock has helped
the team not only with her
shooting, but with her role
as the safety on the defen-
sive end of the court, some-
thing Blanton said NT hasn't
had before. "She gets back
every time on defense,"
Blanton said. "When we get
beat [down the court], she's
always the one back. She's
really helped out a lot."
Blanton added that Med-
lock's sense of humor shows
often. "She's pretty funny,"
Blanton said. "You never
know what's going to come
out of her mouth. She's a
very spontaneous person."
See MEDLOCK, Page 2
Men prepare for Blue Raiders
Jake Floyd
Staff Writer
Athletics director Rick Vil-
larreal has announced that
he will share some big news
with the fans in attendance
at the NT men's basketball
game at halftime tonight.
However, the Mean Green
(10-11, 5-4) plan on mak-
ing the big news an after
thought with their perfor-
mance against Middle Ten-
nessee (12-9, 4-4) at 7 p.m. at
the Super Pit.
"There are five or six teams
tied for second place in the
conference right now and
we feel we are the best of all
of them," said senior guard
Leonard Hopkins. "We are
coming off a two-game road
losing streak so it is impor-
tant that we get all of our
home games. We feel com-
fortable playing here and our
fans will be behind us, so we
should win this one."
The biggest concern of
Hopkins and his teammates
will be slowing down the
one-two punch of Middle
Tennessee's guards.
The Blue Raiders boast
two of the conference's best
guards in Mike Dean and,
arguably the player with
the best name in the confer-
ence, Tommy Gunn - sor-
ry, Shawnson. Gunn leads
MTSU with 17 points per
game, but Dean has averaged
18.4 points per game in confer-
ence play.
"They have a couple of
the top scorers in the confer-
ence in those guys, so we just
have to shut down the wing,"
Hopkins said. "We can prob-
ably beat them inside with
our big men, but
we have to make
sure we shut
down the wing."
In the last five
games, NT was
surrendered
an average of a
30.4 points per
game to the op-
posing team's
starting guards.
Having the con-
ference's lead-
ing shot blocker
in Shawnson
Johnson in the
middle will result in teams
having to score from the
outside, but Hopkins knows
NT has to do a better job.
"We need our big men to do
a better job of picking them up
and slowing them down when
they come off screens and we
will be alright," he said.
The Mean Green needs to
slow Gunn and Dean tonight
and get a win on its home
court before it heads back out
on the road for four of its last
"There are five
or six teams tied
for second
place in the
conference right
now and we feel
we are the best
of all of them."
-Leonard Hopkins
Senior Guard
five games. NT is currently
in a five-way tie for the No. 2
seed in the Sun Belt Confer-
ence Tournament, but it is also
possibly two losses away from
being one of the three teams
that does not even make it to
Bowling Green, Kent, for the
post season spectacle.
The Mean Green faces West-
ern Kentucky,
Denver, New Or-
leans and South
Alabama, teams
with a combined
18-18 conference
record, on the
road. Therefore,
tonight's contest
and a Feb. 23
home date with
conference-lead-
er Louisiana-La-
fayette will be
huge.
If the past is
any indication,
NT should have a tough go
at it with the Blue Raiders.
MTSU leads the all-time se-
ries 2-1, but the good news is
the Mean Green won the only
meeting at the Super Pit by
22 points in 2002.
Middle Tennessee won the
most recent game by 21 points
but the games high scorers
were NT's Chris Davis and
MTSU's William Pippen, two
players that will not be on the
court tonight.
Swim team to play in conference championships
Whitney Zondor
Daily Reporter
The Mean Green swimming
and diving team faces its most
formidable foe today: the num-
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UNT Union • Prairie & Avenue A • 940-384-6500
UNT Av. A. • 101 Avenue A-940-384-0118
Downtown • 101 South Locust • 940-382-5421
South • 1001 South I-35 East • 940-384-0368
North • 906 West University Drive • 940-384-0208
o Bank Texas,
ber-one ranked Western Ken-
tucky Lady Toppers.
Western Kentucky has won
the conference championship
four years in a row.
The championship, hosted by
Arkansas-Little Rock and Loui-
siana-Monroe, begins at 11 a.m.
today and lasts through Satur-
day at the Donaghey Aquatic
Center in Little Rock, Ark.
Despite the low ranking, the
team has improved this season.
Head coach Mona Nyheim-Ca-
nales led the team to five school
records in her second season to
become the winningest coach
in NT history. Nine athletes
graced the winner's stand in at
least one competition.
Junior Bethany Pipes, who
earned 15 event champion-
ships this season - a Mean
Green best - enters the 200-
yard freestyle ranked eighth
based on season-best times.
With a season's best time of
1:55:90, she faces tough com-
petition from the University of
Denver's Michaela Amereller,
who holds the top ranking in
the event with a 1:52:36.
Pipes won Sun Belt Swim-
mer of the Week honors twice
this season, for the weeks of
Nov. 13 and Jan. 20.
Freshman Jamie Hosner, the
only other ranked NT swim-
mer before the championship,
currently holds the 10th spot in
the 1,650-yard freestyle event
with 18:21:65.
Freshman Lindsey Therrian,
Sun Belt Diver of the Week for
Nov. 13, is the Mean Green's
top-ranked diver entering the
competition. Earning 148.65
points on Oct. 25 in the 1-me-
ter, Therrian is 30 points behind
her closest competitor at 10th.
See SWIMMING, Page 2
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 74, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 2004, newspaper, February 12, 2004; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145102/m1/14/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.