Injuries Curb Prep Phenom’s College Career

Michelle Hasheider, who scored 2,660 points as a high school player in Okawville, Ill., was supposed to be Colorado’s next standout player.

But injuries have set back the career of the player who was supposed to be the school’s best player since Shelley Sheetz, the All-America point guard who helped Colorado to a 106-21 record and three Big Eight Conference championships.

First Hasheider had surgery to correct a muscle problem in her left leg at the end of her senior season in high school. That summer, she sprained her left wrist while practicing for the Olympic Festival, missed that competition and wore a cast the rest of her vacation.

Then she had surgery for a muscle problem in her right leg on Oct. 11, 1995, just before starting her freshman season at Colorado, which beat Stanford among others to sign Hasheider.

Hasheider played her entire freshman season in pain yet still appeared in all but two games, averaging 4.9 points and 1.8 assists as the Buffaloes went 26-9. She had another operation on her left leg this past October, played in seven games and is now sidelined by shin splints.

“The first operation she had healed pretty quickly,” Colorado coach Ceal Barry said. “This one didn’t heal. She played her first three games and then it started acting up again. We probably pushed her to get her on the court against Montana and San Francisco (in midDecember) and she started going downhill.”

Barry said Hasheider, who had averaged 10 points in the first three games, is improving now but no date has been set for her return.

“Everybody is concerned that as soon as she gets back in activity, the swelling and soreness will come back,” said Barry, whose team was 8-5 heading into a Saturday game at Iowa State. “I don’t see her playing the rest of this month. When we get in February, it may be too late for us.”

Table for one

Alabama coach Rick Moody has taken to eating alone on game days. And with good reason.

Moody skipped the team meal prior to a Dec. 18 game with Akron at a tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., because he wanted to scout the Crimson Tide’s likely opponent in the next round, Penn State. Alabama beat Akron 89-44.

The next day, Moody missed the meal before the Penn State game to scout another potential opponent, North Carolina, and Alabama rolled past then-No. 9 Penn State 68-47.

Thinking he might be on to something, Moody missed the pregame meal again and the Tide beat North Carolina 88-74.

Moody hasn’t attended a pregame meal since, and fifth-ranked Alabama is 10-0 in that span, including a 68-64 victory at No. 4 Georgia on Wednesday night. That left Alabama 4-0 in the Southeastern Conference, its best league start ever.

No place like dome

The Big Ten basketball tournament is moving downtown.

Held at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis the last two years, the tournament this year will be played at the RCA Dome in downtown Indy. The dome will be modified to seat between 11,000 and 11,500 for the event.

Last year, more than 22,500 fans attended the five sessions at Hinkle, formerly the site of the Indiana state high school championships and featured prominently in the movie “Hoosiers.”

The tournament, which determines the league’s representative to the NCAA Tournament, will be played Feb. 28 through March 3.

Never down

Don’t try telling Kentucky coach Bernadette Mattox that this is an off year at Tennessee.

Tennessee had just lost three of its previous four games, all on the road to Top 25 teams, when it faced Kentucky in Knoxville, and Kentucky had recently upset Western Kentucky. Final score: Tennessee 84, Kentucky 61.

“People asked me if it was good to play Tennessee when they are down, but Tennessee is never down,” Mattox said.

Tennessee went into the weekend with six losses - two more than the Vols suffered all last season en route to the national championship. But in 1985-86, Tennessee lost 10 games - and still made it to the Final Four.

And even if it truly is a down year for coach Pat Summitt, it’s not expected to last long. She has lined up a dynamite recruiting class for next season.

“The scary thing is how good Tennessee is going to be next year and the paybacks,” said Arkansas coach Gary Blair, whose team beat Tennessee 77-75 on Dec. 29. “I might be the one that blows an ACL when we go back to Knoxville. I might redshirt that game.”